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One of the most controversial albums by U2, Rattle & Hum was released in October 1988. A significant album in the history of the Dublin group, it represents a concrete and definitive break from U2's new wave period.
“Rattle & Hum”, along with “The Joshua Tree”, represents that journey towards the roots of the truest and most intense rock, country, and blues. The album, now of age, marks the end of classic rock, a turning point that will later be sanctioned with “Achtung Baby”.
“Helter Skelter” is a cover of the Beatles, lowered by a tone, beautiful, recorded during the tour that followed the release of The Joshua Tree. Certainly set up, it loses its intensity and aggression compared to the original by the Beatles. "Desire" is the lead single from Rattle & Hum, effervescent even though it's not original. The gospel version of “I still haven’t found…” is simply brilliant, making it unsurpassable. Jimi Hendrix is celebrated at the beginning of Bullet the blue sky, which is simply adult rock done right,
as tough in music as it is deep and visionary in lyrics. The cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is one of those many things that U2 could have easily saved themselves from. The record concludes with the typical U2 ballad, “All I want is you”, with romantic and passionate lyrics. Other standout tracks are “When love comes to town” featuring B.B. King, and "Angel of Harlem" which evokes the splendor and myths of jazz, John Coltrane, and Miles.
All in all, Rattle & Hum immediately configures itself as a good anthology of songs,
and asserts itself as rock, with some penetration into blues and country.
These are great live and studio tracks that unfold in this journey from Dublin across New York, to New Orleans and the Joshua Tree at the border between Nevada and California.
All in all, one of those albums that's essential to own.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Van Diemen's Land (03:05)
Hold me now, oh hold me now
Till this hour has gone around
And I gone, on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's land.
It's a bitter pill I swallow here
To be rent from one so dear.
We fought for justice and not for gain
But the magistrate sent me away.
Now kings will rule and the poor will toil
And tear their hands as they tear the soil
But a day will come in this dawning age
When an honest man sees an honest wage.
Hold me now, oh hold me now
Till this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's Land.
03 Desire (02:59)
Yeah
Lover, I'm on the street
Gonna go where the bright lights
And the big city meet
With a red guitar...on fire
Desire
She's a candle burning in my room
Yeah I'm like the needle, needle and spoon
Over the counter with a shotgun
Pretty soon everybody got one
And the fever when I'm beside her
Desire, desire...
And the fever...getting higher
Desire, desire...burning, burning
She's the dollars
She's my protection
Yeah she's a promise
In the year of election
Oh sister, I can't let you go
Like a preacher stealing hearts
At a traveling show
For love or money money money
money money money money money
money money money
And the fever, getting higher
Desire, desire, desire, desire
Desire, desire
04 Hawkmoon 269 (06:23)
Like a desert needs rain
Like a town needs a name
I need your love
Like a drifter needs a room
Hawkmoon
I need your love
I need your love
Like a rhythm unbroken
Like drums in the night
Like sweet soul music
Like sunlight
I need your love
Like coming home
And you don't know where you've been
Like black coffee
Like nicotine
I need your love (I need your love)
I need your love (I need your love)
I need your love (I need your love)
When the night has no end
And the day yet to begin
As the room spins around
I need your love
I need your love
Like a Phoenix rising needs a holy tree
Like the sweet revenge of a bitter enemy
I need your love
Like the hot needs the sun
Like honey on her tongue
Like the muzzle of a gun
Like oxygen
I need your love (I need your love)
I need your love (I need your love)
I need your love (I need your love)
When the night has no end
And the day yet to begin
As the room spins around
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
Like thunder needs rain
Like a preacher needs pain
Like tongues of flame
Like a sheet stained
I need your love
I need your love
Like a needle in a vein
Like someone to blame
Like a thought unchained
Like a runaway train
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
I need your love
Like faith needs a doubt
Like a freeway out
I need your love
Like powder needs a spark
Like lies need the dark
I need your love
In the heart of the heat of the love
In the heart of the heat of the love...
10 Angel of Harlem (03:49)
It was a cold and wet December day
When we touched the ground at JFK
Snow was melting on the ground
On BLS I heard the sound
Of an angel
New York, like a Christmas tree
Tonight this city belongs to me
Angel
Soul love...this love won't let me go
So long...angel of Harlem
Birdland on fifty-three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and a love supreme
Miles, and she's got to be an angel
Lady Day got diamond eyes
She sees the truth behind the lies
Angel
Soul love...this love won't let me go
So long...angel of Harlem
Angel of Harlem
She says it's heart...heart and soul...
Yeah yeah...(yeah)
Yeah yeah...(right now)
Blue light on the avenue
God knows they got to you
An empty glass, the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded you lost your way
Through the side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in Devil's shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
Yeah yeah...angel of Harlem
Angel...angel of Harlem...
13 Heartland (05:03)
See the sun rise over her skin
Don't change it
See the sun rise over her skin
Dawn changes everything
Everything
And the delta sun
Burns bright and violet
Mississippi and the cotton wool heat
Sixty-six a highway speaks
Of deserts dry
Of cool green valleys
Gold and silver veins
Of the shining cities
In this heartland
In this heartland soil
In this heartland
Heaven knows this is a heartland
Heartland...heartland
See the sun rise over her skin
She feels like water in my hand
Freeway like a river cuts through this land
Into the side of love
Like a burning spear
And the poison rain
Brings a flood of fear
Through the ghost-ranch hills
Death valley waters
In the towers of steel
Belief goes on and on
In this heartland
In this heartland soil
In this heartland
Heaven knows this is a heartland
Heartland...heaven knows this is a heartland
Heartland...heartland
Heartland...heaven's day here in the heartland
Heart...
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Other reviews
By senior86
"From here I fell in love with them, their music, their CREDIBILITY, their energy, their atmospheres, and their mysticism."
"It feels like being there with them, whether it be arenas, studios, streets, bridges, or the Mississippi... we’re there laughing, crying, and becoming emotional."
By Alevox
Bono is in amazing form and is driven by a voice that allows him to do whatever he wants and enchant the audience with thrilling performances.
With 'All I Want is You', U2 bid farewell to a part of themselves, to welcome, a few years later, a total upheaval of their musical and scenic conception.
By Rax
The cowardice of not presenting a true follow-up to Joshua Tree, diluting it in a 'fake live', the greed to ride the market demand, the pretentiousness of posing as expert disseminators of the American musical tradition about which, in reality, they knew almost nothing.
During the Zoo Tour, Bono candidly admitted: 'Making ‘Rattle and Hum’ was a screw-up.' True words.
By Ocean
This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We’re stealing it back...
I don’t believe rock and roll can really change the world.
