The Greatest Rock Song Of The Last Twenty Years…
…is (and there really is no close second) the spellbinding “Where The Streets Have No Name”, from U2′s Joshua Tree
The recorded version is, of course, the opener for the wondrous album that follows, and it sends an immediate message that is lived up to: this will be a great album. In concert, the song is cathartic – there is no other word. It is truly almost overpowering. If you doubt me (though I’ve got 5 shows over twenty years that I’m drawing on), you can go to the visual evidence – I’ll mention just three out of at least six ‘official’ filmed versions. There is the heart-down-your-throat moment in Rattle And Hum when the black-and-white footage turns to color, and we see Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, as the camera zooms over the top of the stands and captures the crowd of 80,000 in a moment of sheer ecstasy that is as apparent on film as it must have been in person.
There is the raucous bedlam that greets the song at Slane Castle, Ireland, in the underrated U2 Go Home as the lads give it a spirited run-through for the home team. And there is the prayer for Africa that the Vertigo tour
I’ve blogged before on my own personal favorite, on the Elevation Tour, here in my own hometown of Austin, where the intro was accompanied by Bono’s mantra, “How can I give back to God for the blessings He’s given to me?” at least five times – you can laugh if you want, but I tell you as surely as night follows day that there was electricity in the air…it was palpable.
Overwrought praise for a rock song? Maybe…but we’re not just talking any rock song, or any rock band, and as U2 stands today atop the summit of wealth and fame, I just wanted to take a few minutes to recall that great track twenty years ago that stands as their shining moment. There are better songs lyrically (“One”,”Kite”), songs with a greater impact culturally (“Pride (In the Name of Love)”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”), and songs that rock harder (“Until The End Of The World”, “The Fly”), but none are as instantly recognizable, distinctive, and utterly impossible to forget or get tired of as the one I’m honoring here.
And, for all the guitar solos mistakenly labelled with this particular overused adjective, the Edge in “New Year’s Day” delivers the one true guitar solo that really is searing.
Within the realm of rock guitar, only a few have come close, and certainly none have surpassed the pure lyrical focused intensity that Edge poured into those sixteen bars.
Oh, yeah, New Year’s Day – haunting song, great solo, one of the big ones, no doubt…
Now what can I say other than, “Yeah, what he said.” It’s probably the quintessential U2 song: soaring, searching and ultimately optimistic that things can get better if we work at it. It was the ultimate goosebumps moment of the show I attended last October.
Comrades,
Hmmm… well, in the interest of full disclosure, the only U2 song I know is “New Year’s Day”. I really haven’t listened to anything much that they have done, except when they peformed at the Superbowl a couple years back. Going back twenty years covers a LOT of ground, though, and many many fine artists.
My tastes tend toward Marylin Manson, and I believe his HOLYWOOD album has a number of excellent tracks. To my mind, his cover of “Tainted Love” (though not on that album) is better than the original.
Anyway, that’s my take on it.
Respects,
Gwedd
I still remember when I heard my first U2 song, during my second year in college – the opening chords from the Edge to “I will follow.” I was completely blown away by the sound, and of course immediately went down to the local record store and bought the album.
I saw their first performance here in Chicago, back in ’81, at the Park West on the North Side. Man, they were really just a bunch of young guys back then, trying to make it in the music business (Bono was sporting that huge mullet) – such are the memories of youth.
No disagreement here Mark. Seeing the boys perform this one in Houston was undoubtedly the high point of a night filled with high points.
By the way Mark it’s Slane Castle.
Oops – I’ll make that correction…thanks!