Line #64 Music/RattleAndHum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rattleandhum.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''Mississippi and the cotton wool heat,\
3	Sixty-six, a highway speaks'']]
4
5	->''Don't believe in excess\
6	Success is to give\
7	Don't believe in riches\
8	But you should see where I live\
9	I… I believe in love''
10	-->-- '''"God Part II"'''
11
12	''Rattle and Hum'' is the sixth studio album by Irish rock band Music/{{U2}}. It was released through Creator/IslandRecords on 10 October 1988.
13
14	It acts 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.
15
16
17	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 peaking at #3 in the United States.
18
19	It would be followed by Music/AchtungBaby in 1991.
20
21	!!Track listing:
22	#"Helter Skelter" (live from Denver) (3:07)
23	#"Van Diemen's Land" (3:06)
24	#"Desire" (2:58)
25	#"Hawkmoon 269" (6:22)
26	#"All Along The Watchtower" - (live from San Francisco) (4:24)
27	#"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - (live from New York) (5:53)
28	#"Freedom For My People" (0:38)
29	#"Silver And Gold" - (live from Denver) (5:50)
30	#"Pride (In The Name Of Love)" - (live from Denver) (4:27)
31	#"Angel of Harlem" (3:49)
32	#"Love Rescue Me" (6:24)
33	#"When Love Comes To Town" (4:14)
34	#"Heartland" (5:02)
35	#"God Part II" (3:15)
36	#"[[Music/JimiHendrix The Star-Spangled Banner]]" (0:43)
37	#"Bullet The Blue Sky" - (live from Tempe) (5:37)
38	#"All I Want Is You" (6:30)
39
40	!!When Tropes Come To Town:
41
42	* AlbumTitleDrop: The album's title comes from "Bullet the Blue Sky": "In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum."
43	* TheAlcoholic: "Angel of Harlem" is a tribute to Music/BillieHoliday that refers to her untimely demise from alcoholism and other drug abuse:
44	-->Blue light on the avenue
45	-->God knows they got to you
46	-->An empty glass, the lady sings
47	-->Eyes swollen like a bee sting
48	* AnswerSong: "God Part II", a sequel to Music/JohnLennon's [[Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand "God"]]. Like Lennon's song, U2's lists off various things that Bono disagrees with; unlike Lennon's song, Bono, a Catholic, chooses to direct his ire towards the devil and "his book" rather than God, the Bible, and UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}.
49	* AsTheGoodBookSays: "Love Rescue Me" includes a slightly shortened version of the famous line from Psalm 23: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow (of death), I will fear no evil." The song subverts the next lines of the psalm though: "I have cursed thy rod and staff/They no longer comfort me."
50	** "When Love Comes to Town" summarizes the events of the Crucifixion in the third verse.
51	* BerserkButton: Clearly the Enniskillen bombing pressed Bono's.
52	* BoDiddleyBeat: In "Desire." The Edge borrowed it from Music/TheStooges' "1969."
53	* BoleroEffect: "Hawkmoon 269" doesn't have a proper verse-chorus structure, it just builds and builds.
54	* CoverVersion: The first (and so far only) U2 studio album to include these, both of them recorded live: "Helter Skelter" by Music/TheBeatles, and "All Along the Watchtower" by Music/BobDylan. The first is introduced with Bono cracking, "This is a song UsefulNotes/CharlesManson stole from The Beatles. We're stealin' it back."
55	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Some portions of the film were in black and white; a still from one such sequence is on the album cover.
56	* EpicRocking: "Hawkmoon 269" goes on for nearly six and a half minutes, as does "Love Rescue Me," though the latter could hardly be called ''rocking.'' "All I Want Is You" is a normal-length song with an epic instrumental coda.
57	* 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/TheRollingStonesBand 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.)
58	* GodIsLoveSong: Bono's habit of using "love" as a code word for "God" is in full force here, notably "Love Rescue Me," "God Part II"[[note]]which despite its name never mentions God, but its refrain is "I believe in love" [[/note]] and "When Love Comes to Town." The last one blows its own cover in the third verse though, by explicitly describing the Crucifixion.
59	* GospelChoirsAreJustBetter: While "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was already gospelish, for the New York performance an actual gospel choir, the New Voices of Freedom, sang backup.
60	* GreedyTelevangelist: Referenced in the coda for the live version of "Bullet the Blue Sky":
61	-->''Her lover's turning off, turning on the television, and I can't tell the difference between ABC News, Hill Street Blues and a preacher on The Old Time Gospel Hour stealing money from the sick and the old. Well, the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister.''
62	* HeelRealization: The narrators of both "Love Rescue Me" and "When Love Comes to Town" realize that they're jerks in need of redemption (which they do receive).
63	* {{Homage}}: "God Part II" is Bono's homage to Music/JohnLennon's "God," imitating its ListSong format with a catalog of things the singer doesn't believe in. Bono adapts it to suit his own beliefs and disbeliefs, however (not surprisingly, he doesn't deny believing in God like Lennon did).
64	* HypocrisyNod: In "God Part II": "I don't believe in riches/But you should see where I live."
65	* LetsDuet: U2 teamed with B.B. King on "When Love Comes to Town." Also Bob Dylan co-wrote and sang backing vocals on "Love Rescue Me," but you can barely hear him.
66	* ListSong: "God Part II," like its predecessor, is a list of things the singer doesn't believe in. "Hawkmoon 269" is a list of similes for love or needing love.
67	-->Like a rhythm unbroken
68	-->Like drums in the night
69	-->Like sweet soul music
70	-->Like sunlight
71	-->I need your love
72	* LocationSong:
73	** "Heartland," inspired by a visit to New Orleans, describes the Mississippi delta region.
74	** "Van Diemen's Land" refers to the 19th-century British penal colony of that name, now the Australian state of Tasmania. More specifically, it was about a man who led an unsuccessful Irish uprising and was sentenced to the penal colony.
75	* MinisculeRocking: A 38-second clip of street musicians performing "Freedom For My People" leads into a live version of "Silver and Gold."
76	* NeverMyFault: Despite the fact that "When Love Comes to Town" is an "Amazing Grace"-style tale of a redeemed sinner, at the end of the chorus he still seems to be evading responsibility: "Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down/But I did what I did before love came to town."
77	* NonAppearingTitle: "Hawkmoon 269" and "God Part II."
78	* OneWordTitle: "Desire" and "Heartland."
79	* ThePowerOfLove: Since love is identified with God in "Love Rescue Me" and "When Love Comes to Town," it has the power to change lives and save souls.
80	* ThePowerOfRock: God also seems to work through music in "When Love Comes to Town":
81	-->I ran into a juke joint when I heard a guitar scream
82	-->The notes were turning blue, I was dazing in a dream
83	-->As the music played I saw my life turn around
84	-->That was the day before love came to town
85	** A verse that was performed live but cut from the album also includes the line, "But my lord he played guitar the day love came to town."
86	* ProtestSong: "Silver and Gold" was already a protest song, as it was written for the anti-apartheid album ''Sun City'', but Bono really goes {{Anvilicious}} in this version by adding a mid-song rant against western leaders who aren't supporting sanctions. "Freedom For My People," by street musicians Satan and Adam, is a song that calls for -- well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin guess]].
87	* RunawayGroom: The narrator of "When Love Comes To Town":
88	-->Used to make love under a red sunset
89	-->I was making promises I was soon to forget
90	-->She was pale as the lace of her wedding gown
91	-->But I left her standing before love came to town
92	* {{Sampling}}: A clipping of Music/JimiHendrix playing "The Star Spangled Banner" is used in the intro to "Bullet the Blue Sky."
93	* SentencedToDownUnder: "Van Diemen's Land" is in the voice of 19th-century Irish rebel John Boyle O'Reilly, as he's about to be deported to an Australian penal colony.
94	* ShoutOut: "Angel of Harlem," an ode to Billie Holiday, also nods to Music/JohnColtrane and Music/MilesDavis.
95	** "God Part II" is in a sense one long shout-out to Music/JohnLennon, but also quotes Music/BruceCockburn in passing: "I heard a singer on the radio late last night/Said he's gonna kick the darkness till it bleeds daylight."
96	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: The Edge sings "Van Diemen's Land," as he wrote the lyrics himself.
97	* TakeThat: The album starts off with one as Bono introduces "Helter Skelter": "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back."
98	** "God Part II" includes one to infamous John Lennon biographer Albert Goldman:
99	-->I don't believe in Goldman
100	-->His type like a curse
101	-->Instant karma's gonna get him
102	-->If I don't get him first
103	** In his live performance of "Bullet the Blue Sky," Bono adds a peculiar coda:
104	-->So I'm back in my hotel room with John Coltrane and ''Music/ALoveSupreme'', and in the next room I hear a woman scream out. Her lover's turning off, turning on the television, and I can't tell the difference between ABC News, ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' and a preacher on ''The Old Time Gospel Hour'' stealing money from the sick and the old. Well, the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister.
105	* 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." [[note]] It is worth noting, however, that Bono was ''not'' the first person to coin the phrase. That honor goes to songwriter Harlan Howard, who coined the phrase to describe country music. [[/note]] (Appropriately, the song does have only three chords.)

Context Music / RattleAndHum