Thrifty Tunes 01.03.09: U2

Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 01.03.2009

Before they became the biggest band in the world, U2 spent several years in the early eighties experimenting with their sound. By enlisting producer extrodnaire Brian Eno, the rapscalians from Dublin looked to add some new elements to their music. This week's Thrifty Tunes looks back at a band standing on the crossroads, and wonders if they chose wisely. Also, because everybody else is doing it, my picks for the Top 10 albums of 2008.

The Unforgettable Fire - U2

U2 now is an entirely different band than the band which released Boy , October and War . In the early eighties, they were a college-rock band, which meant that if you were in college, they were cool, but if you were younger, as I was, they meant next to nothing. A few brave souls professed a love for the band, but those souls were musically suspect. It wasn't music made for 12-17 year olds and it wasn't until The Joshua Tree , in 1987, when it was okay to like U2, at least in my high school.

I first heard the single, "Where The Streets Have No Name", back in 1987 on MTV, I decided the band was worth checking out. I made sure to go alone, however, and not let any of my friends know I was going to the record store to buy a U2 album. (My friends, with only one exception, hated U2. It was 'too serious' and 'not heavy enough' for us. Our garage band, by way of comparison, tried to play covers of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden songs. We weren't 'sissies'. We wanted to rock and rock hard. You couldn't really do an ear-shredding solo to any U2 songs.) However, the lone record store in town didn't have a copy of The Joshua Tree , but Miller, the slighty-stoned and slightly unwashed owner of the store, suggested I try out The Unforgettable Fire instead. It was only seven bucks, which meant I was also able to buy Crazy Nights by Kiss . I made sure to put the Kiss tape on top, just in case I saw anyone in the store I knew from school.

When I got home, I put the U2 tape in my tape deck and listened. And I hated it. The only passable song was "Pride (In The Name of Love)", which sounded the most like "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You" which were playing all over the radio and the television at the time. The rest of the album sounded weak, wimpy and absolutely boring. (My garage band's motto was: Never Be Boring. Boring, to us, meant acoustic guitars, whining voices and writing about your feelings. Our few original songs had titles like "Satan's Crucifixion" and "Bringin' Hell With Me.") I couldn't relate to any of this U2 stuff, and the tape found its way to the bottom of a forgotten desk drawer. I eventually did get my copy of The Joshua Tree , liked it a little more and have followed the band, more or less, ever since. I never went back to The Unforgettable Fire . I heard a few of the songs in concert and on some of their compilations, but just never got over my initial, 17 year old impression that the album had nothing to offer me.

When I found the record again, at a neighbor's yard sale, I purchased it, along with his entire collection of Black N' Blue and Tesla records. (Again, I made sure U2 was at the bottom of the stack.) "A Sort of Homecoming" opens the record and I didn't mind it so much. I don't think it will ever be considered a U2 classic, but 25 years later, it sounds fresh and comfortable with lots of music out now. (Especially Coldplay . Has any other band ever so obviously ripped off another band and made a mint in the process? The Edge, in particular, ought to get royalties on every Coldplay song ever recorded.)

"Pride (In The Name of Love)" comes next, and it's easily one of my favorite U2 songs of all time. For a long time, I didn't know the song was about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In hindsight, a lot of this record deals with issues with the band more fully visits on The Joshua Tree . The band was obsessed with American ideals and the first hints of that shine through on songs such as this and the later "Elvis Presley and America."

The highlight for me, of the entire record, is the title track. While I've heard "Pride" a million times now, "The Unforgettable Fire" sounds new to my ears and unlike everything else on the album. I would suspect Brian Eno, who later went on to work with U2 on several more records, had a strong hand in the making of the song. Eno enriches the song with lots of ambience and orchestration, which eventually show up on future U2 and Eno collaborations but was pretty groundbreaking at the time. It feels like the band is taking a chance and also trusting itself enough to be up to the task.

Side two opens with "4th of July", yet another musical sketch of America as seen through the eyes and ears of the band. These sketches eventually led to the fuller songs on The Joshua Tree and in many ways, this album serves as a warm up, or an appetizer for the main course. "4th of July" is also one of the few U2 songs free of words. The band, sans Bono, does a fine job of evoking feeling and mood with only a title and a soundscape.

The highlight of the second side is "Bad", which has become a staple of their live shows and one of the many songs which make it obvious that the band is not just another pop band. The band deals with weighty issues, this time heroin addiction, and offers no solutions, just a moving picture of someone caught in the nightmare of drug dependency. Side two ends with "MLK", a more obvious, but no less moving, tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. In some ways, it seems almost blasphemous for an Irish band, of all bands, to spend so much time on an American icon like King. It's not the sort of subject matter American bands of the time seemed all that interested in pursuing, and U2 do it so well, so convincingly, it doesn't feel like an appropriation of material at all.

It took me more than two decades to listen to this album again, and I think I found it again at just about the right time. I'm old enough to appreciate it now, but at the time of its release, it was so far beyond anything else I had heard, I had no way to access it. While the music U2 makes now is much easier to digest, no matter the listener's age, the band's first four albums should come with an age requirement. If you listen to them too young, they aren't going to mean much, and it may sour you on some great music you'll later appreciate a great deal.

Complete Track Listing: 1984 release on Island Records

Side One:
1. A Sort of Homecoming
2. Pride (In The Name of Love)
3. Wire
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. Promenade

Side Two:
1. 4th of July
2. Bad
3. Indian Summer Sky
4. Elvis Presley and America
5. MLK

Pickett Stars: Four out of Five

Next Week: Hero by Judas Priest

Since every once else is doing it, here's my Top 10 list of 2008. I'll have more to say about most of these later, in an upcoming feature at 411.
10. Beck - Modern Guilt: Overlooked by most, but one of Beck's best.
9. The Black Hollies - Casting Shadows : Noveau-garage band music at its peak.
8. Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song : The best country album of the year.
7. She & Him - Volume 1 : I only hope there's a Volume 2.
6. Duffy - Rockferry : Maybe the drugs only affect dark-haired British Motown revivalists.
5. Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple : Another overlooked gem.
4. REM - Accelerate : REM returns with a great album.
3. Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball : No, I'm not done preaching to you people about them yet.
2. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular : Also my vote for most fun album of the year.
1. The Black Keys - Attack & Release : My favorite and most played album of the year.