During the Joshua Tree tour, in mid-November 1987, Bono and Bob Dylan met in Los Angeles together they wrote a song called "Prisoner of Love" which later became "Love Rescue Me". The punchy lead single, " Desire", sports a Bo Diddley beat. The bass-heavy " God Part II" is an introduction to the Achtung Baby sound, and is a sequel of sorts to John Lennon's " God", his stark denunciation of everyone from Elvis Presley to Jesus Christ. " Angel of Harlem" is a vivacious, horn-filled tribute to Billie Holiday. Aside from the covers, a couple of songs were written for other artists. The album contains a live version of Bob Dylan's " All Along the Watchtower", which can be seen as a dual tribute to Dylan and to Jimi Hendrix, who popularized the song with his own blistering rendition.
He also contradicted Bono's assertion about Shepard, saying that Hawkmoon is a place in Rapid City, South Dakota, in the midwestern United States. This was thought to be a joke for years until it was recently confirmed by The Edge in U2 by U2, who said that they spent three weeks mixing the song. Bono also said that the band mixed the song 269 times. īono said "Hawkmoon 269" was in part as a tribute to writer Sam Shepard, who had released a book entitled Hawk Moon. Bono opens "Helter Skelter" with this statement: "this song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles.we're stealing it back". Its inclusion on the album was intended by the band to reflect the confusion of The Joshua Tree Tour and their new-found superstar status.
The album opens with a live cover of The Beatles' " Helter Skelter".
#Bullet the blue sky rattle and hum movie#
The title, Rattle and Hum, is taken from a lyric from " Bullet the Blue Sky", the fourth track on The Joshua Tree the image used for the album cover and movie poster, depicting Bono shining a spotlight on Edge as he plays, is from the live performance of "Bullet the Blue Sky" recorded in the film and album. It was produced by Jimmy Iovine and also released in 1988. The album is a mix of live material and new studio recordings that furthers the band's experimentation with American music styles and recognises many of their musical influences. It incorporates live footage with studio outtakes and band interviews. It was produced by Michael Hamlyn and directed by Phil Joanou. After going over budget, the film was bought by Paramount Pictures and released in theaters in 1988, before arriving on video in 1989. The movie is a rockumentary, which was initially financed by the band and intended to be screened in a small number of cinemas as an independent film. At the suggestions of concert promoter, Barry Fey, the band instead booked the Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona. With production problems and estimated costs of $1.2 million the band cancelled the plans for December concerts in South America. Following the success of Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, which had been filmed in Denver four years earlier, the band hoped that "lightning might strike twice".
It was later decided that the Chicago venue wasn't suitable, and instead U2 used the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver to film. The movie was originally titled "U2 In The Americas" and the band planned to film in Chicago and Buenos Aires later in the year. Joanou met the band again in Dublin to discuss the plans and again in France in September before the band chose him as director. Joanou suggested they hire Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, or George Miller to direct the film. While in Hartford during the 1987 The Joshua Tree Tour, U2 met film director Phil Joanou who made an unsolicited pitch to the band to make a feature-length documentary about the tour. U2 manager Paul McGuinness, explaining his original motivation to make a movie. I had always admired Colonel Parker and Brian Epstein for realising that music could capture the imagination of the whole world." "I was very keen on the idea of going wide at a time like that, just seeing how big this thing could get. 7.2 Additional musicians (field recordings and tapes).8.2 Additional musicians (field recordings and tapes).