Like most people, I imagine, I am very well versed in the well known songs of U2. How could I not be? During the 80s they were ubiquitous. U2 and R.E.M. (possibly the subject of a later listening post) came out at the same time, have lasted the same amount of time and had roughly the same number of hits.
The difference is that, while Stipe and Co. soldiered on after a key member left (after saying that they wouldn’t ever do such a thing) U2 has been comprised of the same 4 Irish lads since 1980.
1980! If Rock and Roll began in 1955, which is the accepted norm, then u2 has been around for more than HALF of the history of Rock.
What really surprised me as I began to research this retrospective is just how young they all are. Three of the members were born in 1961 and the other is even younger. I was born in 1965 which makes Bono and the gang close to being contemporaries.
The thing is, I have never heard the entire albums. I own them, in various forms, but after the big hit songs it just all sounds the same to me, so I would turn the record, CD, mp3, off.
Who among us doesn’t own “The Joshua Tree”? And who has really listened beyond the first four tracks? (U2 notoriously front loads their albums with the hit singles starting off with a bang but giving us little reason to keep listening sometimes)
So, an end shall be put to that for me. I have begun the great U2 retrospective of 2008. And here’s what I think:
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire – 1984 (buy it)
Eno and Lanois. They are responsible. It’s because of them that this album is the shit.
The first 4 tracks cut like glass before it settles into a more ponderous experimentation. Instead of just being angry men waving a flag of freedom or christianity, they have chosen America, racism and hate as their tapestry and weave greatness through the fabric.
Eno and the gang recognize the true secret weapon and it’s not chk-chk-chk Edge guitars. It’s not Bono’s messianic posing. It’s Larry Mullen’s drums. This album pounds like a freight train. And Mullen elevates everybody else.
One can even forgive the lesser tracks for the genius that is the elegiac “Bad”.
U2 played Bad at the Concert for Life and, besides Queen’s performace, it was easily the highlight of the day. They were about to become megastars and write one of the most powerful and enduring albums of the decade but had they just given us The Unforgettable Fire, Dyenu. It would have been enough.
Grade A
A Side: Bad
BlindSide: Wire
Downside: Elvis Presley and America
