History Music / RattleAndHum

[[caption-width-right:350: ''Used to make love under a red sunset,\\
I was making promises I was soon to forget'']]

#Helter Skelter (live from Denver) (3:07)
#Van Diemen's Land (3:06)
#Desire (2:58)
#Hawkmoon 269 (6:22)
#All Along The Watchtower - (live from San Francisco) (4:24)
#I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - (live from New York) (5:53)
#Freedom For My People (0:38)
#Silver And Gold - (live from Denver) (5:50)
#Pride (In The Name Of Love) - (live from Denver) (4:27)
#Angel of Harlem (3:49)
#Love Rescue Me (6:24)
#When Love Comes To Town (4:14)
#Heartland (5:02)
#God Part II (3:15)
#[[Music/JimiHendrix The Star-Spangled Banner]] (0:43)
#Bullet The Blue Sky - (live from Tempe) (5:37)
#All I Want Is You (6:30)

#Helter Skelter (live from Denver)
#Van Diemen's Land
#Desire
#Hawkmoon 269
#All Along The Watchtower - (live from San Francisco)
#I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - (live from New York)
#Freedom For My People
#Silver And Gold - (live from Denver)
#Pride (In The Name Of Love) - (live from Denver)
#Angel of Harlem
#Love Rescue Me
#When Love Comes To Town
#Heartland
#God Part II
#The Star-Spangled Banner
#Bullet The Blue Sky - (live from Tempe)
#All I Want Is You

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: This album's version of "All Along the Watchtower" is the TropeNamer because of a verse Bono threw in: "All I got is a red guitar/Three chords, and the truth." (Appropriately, the song does have only three chords.)

* BrokenMessiah: "Love Rescue Me," as Bono put it, is "about a man people keep turning to as a saviour but his own life is getting messed up and he could use a bit of salvation himself."

* AnswerSong: "God Part II", a sequel to Music/JohnLennon's [[Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand "God"]].

''Rattle and Hum'' is the sixth studio album by Irish pop band Music/{{U2}}. It was released through Creator/IslandRecords on 10 October 1988.

* EvolvingMusic: This was the third version of "Silver and Gold" to be released, and each sounded quite different from the last. Originally Bono wrote it himself and recorded it with [[Music/TheRollingStones Keith Richards and Ron Wood]], with a couple of acoustic guitars and no drummer. U2 recorded its own version as a B-side to "Where the Streets Have No Name," but the live version considerably ramps up the energy level, with a blistering new guitar solo from The Edge. (This also explains Bono's somewhat baffling command to Edge to "play the blues" even though it doesn't sound very bluesy -- the first recording definitely did.)

[[GoneHorriblyWrong It backfired spectacularly]].

While the album was a commercial success, going quintuple-Platinum in the United States and quadruple-Platinum in the United Kingdom on worldwide sales of 14 million copies, critics and audiences alike responded to it with mockery. The consensus was that U2, by attempting to put out an album and documentary of this sort so early in their careers relative to the product's weight, were brashly attempting to put themselves among the ranks of the very legends they were paying tribute to; one ''Magazine/RollingStone'' reviewer called ''Rattle and Hum'' "misguided and bombastic."

The poor reception of the album blindsided the band, who came to realize that they were starting to stagnate artistically, leading them to step away from their traditional sound in favor of hard-edged AlternativeDance starting with [[Music/AchtungBaby their next album.]] That said, this album would have [[NeverLiveItDown a lasting effect]] on the band's reputation; even today, ''Rattle and Hum'' is considered proof of the band's image among non-fans as vapid and egotistical.

The album spawned four singles: "Desire," "Angel of Harlem," "When Love Comes to Town," and "All I Want Is You." While all four were Top 10 hits in the United Kingdom--with "Desire" being their first UK #1--only the first two were hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Desire" only peeking at #3 in the United States.

* SmallNameBigEgo: YMMV on this one, but it was a very common criticism of the documentary, especially from [[CreatorBacklash the band themselves]], who were embarrassed by how self-aggrandizing they came off, from the audacious claim that they were stealing back "Helter Skelter" from Charles Manson at the beginning to associating themselves with legendary [=R&B=] musicians so early in their careers to Bono's monologues about social justice, especially a rather notorious shot of Martin Luther King Jr.'s superimposed over his. It didn't help that the cinematography framed Bono like a deity when on stage. There's a reason their next several projects were considerably more introspective.

''Rattle and Hum'' is the seventh studio album by Irish pop band Music/{{U2}}. It was released through Creator/IslandRecords on 10 October 1988.

* LocationSong: "Heartland," inspired by a visit to New Orleans, describes the Mississippi delta region.

'''Rattle and Hum''' is the seventh studio album by Irish pop band Music/{{U2}}. It was released through Creator/IslandRecords on 10 October 1988.

[[GoneHorriblyWrong It backfired spectacularly.]]

While the album was a commercial success, critics and audiences alike responded to it with mockery, believing that U2, by attempting to put out an album and documentary of this sort so early in their careers relative to the product's weight, were brashly attempting to put themselves among the ranks of the very legends they were paying tribute to; one ''Magazine/RollingStone'' reviewer called ''Rattle and Hum'' "misguided and bombastic." The poor reception of the album blindsided the band, who came to realize that they were starting to stagnate artistically, leading them to step away from their traditional sound in favor of hard-edged AlternativeDance starting with [[Music/AchtungBaby their next album.]] That said, this album would have [[NeverLiveItDown a lasting effect]] on the band's reputation; even today, ''Rattle and Hum'' is considered proof of the band's image among non-fans as vapid and egotistical.

The album spawned the singles "Desire," "When Love Comes to Town," "Angel of Harlem" and "All I Want Is You."

The sixth studio album by {{Music/U2}}, released in 1988 as the soundtrack to the documentary film of the same name, which followed the band around is it toured America. A double album, ''Rattle and Hum'' is a mixture of live performances and newly recorded songs, continuing the blues and country sounds of ''Music/TheJoshuaTree''. It's also U2's most fannish album, at least until ''Songs Of Innocence'', as it includes tributes to and collaborations with such musical heroes as Music/BBKing, Music/BobDylan, Music/JohnLennon, and Music/BillieHoliday.

While the album was a commercial success, critics and audiences alike responded to it with mockery, believing that U2, by attempting to put out an album and documentary of this sort so early in their careers relative to the product's weight, were brashly attempting to put themselves among the ranks of the very legends they were paying tribute to; one ''Magazine/RollingStone'' reviewer called ''Rattle and Hum'' "misguided and bombastic." The poor reception of the album blindsided the band, who came to realize that they were starting to stagnate artistically, leading them to step away from their traditional sound in favor of hard-edged AlternativeDance starting with [[Music/AchtungBaby their next album.]] That said, this album would have a lasting effect on the band's reputation; even today, ''Rattle and Hum'' is considered proof of the band's image among non-fans as vapid and egotistical.

While the album was a commercial success, critics and audiences alike responded to it with mockery, believing that U2, by attempting to put out an album and documentary of this sort so early in their careers relative to the product's weight, were brashly attempting to put themselves among the ranks of the very legends they were paying tribute to; one ''Magazine/RollingStone'' reviewer called ''Rattle and Hum'' "misguided and bombastic." The poor reception of the album blindsided the band, and came to realize that they were starting to stagnate artistically, leading them to step away from their traditional sound in favor of hard-edged AlternativeDance, starting with [[Music/AchtungBaby their next album.]] That said, this album would have a lasting effect on the band's reputation; even today, ''Rattle and Hum'' is considered proof of the band's image among non-fans as vapid and egotistical.

* TheAlcoholic: "Angel of Harlem" is a tribute to Music/BillieHoliday that refers to her untimely demise from drug and alcohol abuse: