Functioning as both the soundtrack to the group's disastrous feature-film documentary and as a tentative follow-up to their career-making blockbuster, Rattle and Hum is all over the place. The live cuts lack the revelatory power of Under a Blood Red Sky and are undercut by heavy-handed performances and Bono's embarrassing stage patter; prefacing a leaden cover of "Helter Skelter" with "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, and now we're stealing it back" is bad enough, but it pales next to Bono's exhortation "OK, Edge, play the lues!" on the worthy, decidedly unbluesy "Silver and Gold." Both comments reveal more than they intend -- throughout the album, U2 sound paralyzed by their new status as "ock's most important band." They react by attempting to boost their classic ock credibility. They embrace American oots rock, something they ignored before. Occasionally, these experiments work: "Desire" has an intoxicating Bo Diddley beat, "Angel of Harlem" is a punchy, sunny Stax-soul tribute, "When Loves Come to Town" is an endearingly awkward lues duet with B.B. King, and the Dylan collaboration "Love Rescue Me" is an overlooked minor bluesy gem. However, these get swallowed up in the bluster of the live tracks, the misguided gospel interpretation of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the shameful answer to John Lennon's searing confession "God," "God, Pt. 2." A couple of affecting laments -- the cascading "All I Want Is You" and "Heartland," which sounds like a Joshua Tree outtake -- do slip out underneath the posturing, but Rattle and Hum is by far the least-focused record U2 ever made, and it's little wonder that they retreated for three years after its release to rethink their whole approach.
Those few words give me hope. Tremendous hope. As some of you may know, I like music/rhythm games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc.), except for Dance Dance Revolution in which I played the other day at the movie theater and got my ass handed to me. But that stuff isn't even music... it's like Japanese bubblegum acid trippin techno. Blah. Anyway, I bought The Beatles Rock Band when it was released ...
More >
JACKSONVILLE - Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a...
More >
In March of this year music giant Live Nation signed U2, promising them $25 million in stock from the company. U2, who hasn't toured since '06, decided to sell their share of stock in Live Nation yesterday. To say the least it was for way less than anyone ever intended it to be.Live Nation, when inking the deal was confident that the 1.6 million shares agreed to U2 would garner some $25 million...
More >
...I know a lot of people don't cotton to U2's frontman's offstage antics but I'm listening to this funny ass segment on LA-based news show "Weekend America" about Pavel Sfera, this Romanian dude in Chicago who's a dead ringer for Mr. Hewson...the segment is quite a laugh...whether you're kickin' back, gettin' your green oat soda drink on or not, "*check it here*":http://weekendamerica.public...
More >
lord knows i love to vilify Bono. i don't know where it started, or even why. perhaps i'm just following a trend - naming Bono the anti-christ was definitely an internet staple there for awhile. (some of those macros out there made me nearly pee my pants with laughter.) most of U2's music i've never had a problem with; i've just never loved any of it. it's never connected with me in any so...
More >
So i've been listening to U2 again lately. Around the time I joined the youth group in church, junior high-ish, Rattle and Hum was out and my preacher's son was a big U2 fan. Growing up listening to mostly country, save the occasional ABBA 8-track in my dad's car, the Eagles... who were really country-ish for a long while, and the ever present King of Rock and Roll Elvis, i had never heard o...
More >
Originally posted on October 1st, 2006Technically, this is a song from U2's "Rattle and Hum", but I didn't discover it until I bought this greatest hits package. I have always been lukewarm about U2. They are incredibly hit and miss with me, but I liked enough of the songs that they put on this disc to go ahead and just buy it.I thought that maybe I would warm up the band a little more if I expose
More >
there is an image on our internal website right now of some coal plant somewhere that we own. who knows. but it looks like this:but when i see it, all i can think about is the opening sequence of my favorite song of all time:That's just NUTS!on a side note, if i may, this is the exact moment when i fell madly in love this U2:Pride - Rattle and Hum within the first few notes of this performance ...
More >
Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Rattle and Hum")
