This video was shot at Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado during U2’s tour supporting War. When they were a young group and before Bono’s messianic tendencies got the better of him, U2 were a rocking band who were responsible for some of the best songs of the 80s. Sunday Bloody Sunday was one of their signature songs and this video captures them at their best.
The song is meant to be a condemnation of the atrocities committed by both sides during The Troubles.
Enjoy!
Back in the day and before they became synonymous with failed product promotions, U2 was actually a pretty cool band. In this video for When Love Comes To Town, they team up with the great BB King. The performance was recorded for the 1987 documentary film, Rattle and Hum, and the video features scenes and outtakes from that film. The video won the MTV Movie Award for Best Music Video From A Film.
Today, it’s easy to see some warning signs of U2’s high self-regard while watching a documentary like Rattle and Hum. Even back then, Bono was of the opinion that he was the lead singer of the most important band in the history of the world and he wasn’t going to let you forget it. But this was Joshua Tree-era U2 and they were so good that no one cared that Bono could be self-important. He had earned the right. It’s a shame that the band will forever be associated with the Songs of Innocence fiasco because back in the day, they rocked.
As for this song, it was a success for both U2 and BB King. Even after U2 stopped regularly performing it, When Love Comes To Town remained a part of BB King’s setlist.
Enjoy!
Gloria was the second single to be released off of U2’s second album, October. It was one of their lowest-charting early singles but the music video for the song was also the first U2 music video to receive heavy airplay on MTV. Given U2’s later reputation, its interesting to see how straight-forward and unpretentious their early videos could be.
This video was filmed in October 1981 on a barge in Grand Canal Dock in Dublin near Windmill Lane. Director Meiert Avis has worked with just about everyone. If your band was popular, Meiert Avis probably directed at least one video for you.
Enjoy!
Today it can be easy to forget just how popular and respected U2 was in the late 1980s and throughout the 90s. Even though, from the start, Bono drew a lot of derision for his messianic posturing, there’s no denying that early U2 rocked. Even a song like Red Hill Mining Town, which was probably the weakest song on Joshua Tree, holds up over thirty years later.
The song was inspired by an actual UK miner’s strike and lyrically, it’s a good example of how U2’s good intentions were sometimes obscured by a heavy-handed approach. (Bono later said that, when he heard the song, he realized that he sounded like a rich man singing about someone else’s unemployment.) The video, though, captures the feeling of despair that the song was going for. This video is memorable for being directed by Neil Jordan, who has since gone on to become one of Ireland’s most important filmmakers.
Enjoy!
Since I’ve already shared the videos that were made for Annie Lennox’s and David Byrne’s contributions to the Red, Hot + Blue compilation album, it seems appropriate to share the best known cover and video to come out of that project. With Night and Day, U2 not only provide their own spin on Cole Porter’s best-known song but they also introduced the sound that would define them throughout the 90s. This was the first song of U2’s post-Joshua Tree era.
The video was directed by the German director, Wim Wenders. U2 would subsequently provide songs for Wenders’s Until The End Of The World and Far Away So Close. Bono would also produce and provide the story for The Million Dollar Hotel, one of Wenders’s less regarded films.
Enjoy!
This video is from back in the day and I mean way back in the day. Believe it or not, there was a time when U2 was a pretty rocking band. It may be hard to believe it now that the band is often used as a punchline and Bono is better known for his messianic tendencies than his abilities as a singer but in the 80s and, for much of the 90s, U2 was one of the best and, dare I say it, most interesting bands around.
If you doubt me, watch this performance clip which also served as the video for their song Bad. Regardless of how people feel about them in the aftermath of the Songs of Innocence debacle, there was a time when U2 rocked.
Enjoy!
This video was shot at Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado during U2’s tour supporting War. (The album, not the concept.) U2’s reputation has never really recovered from the Songs of Innocence fiasco but when they were a young group and before Bono’s messianic tendencies got the better of him, they were a rocking band who were responsible for some of the best songs of the 80s. Sunday Bloody Sunday was one of their signature songs and this video captures them at their best. And, even if modern-day Bono does sometimes seem to be too impressed with himself, no one can deny that he’s done a lot of good in the world.
The song is meant to be a condemnation of the atrocities committed by both sides during The Troubles.
Enjoy!
Today, it’s easy to make fun of the world’s most self-important band, U2. It’s not that their music has really gotten bad or that Bono doesn’t do commendable work when he’s not touring. It’s just that most people still associate them primarily with the debacle surrounding the release of Songs of Innocence. Forcing a lukewarm album on people who may not even be fans of the band is never a good look.
But, in the band’s early days and before they got so openly pretentious, U2 was one of the top groups around. The Joshua Tree still stands as one of the best musical accomplishments of the previous century and With Or Without You is one of the signature songs from that album.
As is always the case with U2, it helps if you don’t know what the song was actually about. I’ve always assumed that this was meant to be a sad love song but then I did some research and I discovered that it was just Bono singing about his conflict about whether he wanted to be a touring musician or a family man. Bono can’t live without or without … himself.
It’s better not to think about that and to just bring your own interpretation to the lyrics and the song. The video is simple but it captures the feel of the song.
Enjoy!
“The object was to close down the streets. If there’s one thing people in LA hate, it’s streets closing down, and we’ve always felt bands should shake things up. We achieved it because the police stopped us filming. Were we worried about being arrested? Not at the time…”
— Adam Clayton on the video for Where The Streets Have No Name
How close did the members of U2 come to getting arrested for performing on the rooftop of a liquor store in the middle of downtown Los Angeles? It depends on who you ask.
The video’s director, Meiert Avis, claimed that everything in the video is a hundred percent authentic and that the events show in the video happen in “almost real time.” When the police showed up, U2 was in the process of giving a live concert in downtown Los Angeles. Before being shut down by the police, the band performed an 8-song set. (Of course, four of those songs were performances of Where The Streets Have No Name.) The video’s producer, Michael Hamlyn, came close to being arrested while he was arguing with the police after they ordered the band to descend from the roof.
However, U2’s then-manager, Paul McGuinness, said in 2007 interview that the video deliberately exaggerated the extent of the band’s conflict with the police. According to McGuinness, the band was actually hoping that the police would give them some free publicity by forcefully shutting down the performance. Instead, the police apparently kept giving the band extensions so that they could finish up the video. In this telling, Bono claiming that the police were shutting them down was less about what was actually happening and more just Bono being Bono.
Whatever the truth may be, enjoy!
Filmed over the course of one night on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, the music video for I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For accomplished two things. First, it showcased the members of U2 at their most approachable and likable. Secondly, it did wonders to improve the image of Las Vegas as a city. Instead of focusing on people gambling away their life savings, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For portrayed Vegas as a friendly and diverse city where, if you go out on the right night, you might even run into one of the biggest bands in the world. According to civic leader Pat Christensen in a 2002 interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, “”The whole perception of Vegas changed with that video. Now all the big names come here, some of them five, six times a year.”
As usual, in this video, the focus is on Bono and the Edge. Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton are both present but it would be easy to mistake them for being a part of the crowd that gathers to watch The Edge play his guitar. Perhaps that is why, at the end of the video, Adam appears to just wander away from the shoot and get in a waiting taxi cab.
Through the Shattered Lens 