A Glimpse of The Unforgettable Fire (1984) by U2
Lighting the blue touchpaper as U2 push the edges.
With The Unforgettable Fire, the real U2 arrived. Their first three albums - Boy, October, and War - made an impact but U2 were finding their feet. After Fire, The Joshua Tree would sell by the truckload. Fire was required first to light the blue touchpaper.
Click the cover, above, to listen to The Unforgettable Fire on the streaming service of your choice.
Fire played with the sound of a rock band. The safer route would have been a continuation of stadium rock. They still had the songs - ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’ would have been comfortable alongside ‘I Will Follow’, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ or ‘New Year’s Day’ from the earlier albums. But the band had a different plan. When word of their new direction reached Island Records (how would a more conservative label have reacted?) - an ambient, improvised, direction complete with Enosification1 - label head Chris Blackwell commented to colleague Nick Stewart: "You better sort your band out because they're going in a very odd direction."
Steve Lillywhite produced the first three albums; a fine producer who did the rock band version of U2 justice, but their next move required a different approach. Enter Brian Eno and his then-engineer, later equally noted producer, Daniel Lanois. A studio was set up at Slane Castle in Ireland, and - Eno being Eno, not certain he wanted to be involved with a rock band, but pushing against an open door with his trademark experimental approach - a new direction was plotted. U2, bring your guitar/bass/drums/vocals and I’ll augment them with a Fairlight CMI synthesiser, an EBow slide guitar for The Edge, and more. Bono improvised some vocals, perhaps most obviously on ‘Elvis Presley and America’.
As with any other band that stands out from the herd, it’s the way they play their instruments that makes the difference.
When The Edge plays guitar, who else could it be? According to Guitar Player he uses "atmospherics, subtlety, minimalism, and clever signal processing"2. His use of harmonics "emulates the concept of bell ringing" and "embod[ies] a spiritual dimension", according to Henrik Marstal3. His playing can be a long way from power chords.
Larry Mullen Jr learned to drum in marching bands but not to be a rock drummer. (Do rock musicians learn how to play? The geniuses, the distinctive players, those who play from the heart, stand out because they have an innate ability to go their own way)4. As The Who had Keith Moon being the best Keith Moon-type drummer in the world, U2 have Larry Mullen being the best Larry Mullen-type drummer. As a personality, though, he’s the anti-Moon: “My job in the band is to play drums, to get up on stage and hold the band together. That's what I do. At the end of the day that's all that's important. Everything else is irrelevant.”5 Yet - listen to his playing on Fire. He’s doing more than hold the band together - his drumming, and in places the absence of his drumming - contributes to the atmospheric sound.
Human personality underlies our approaches to making music. Technique matters, of course, but so does attitude. Imagine Keith Moon drumming for U2 - how different would they sound? Imagine Larry Mullen Jnr. in The Who - would it work?
Adam Clayton is a melodic bass player, working harmoniously with Mullen’s drums to drive the sound forward and keep the band tight. He brings influences from Motown and reggae, contributing to U2’s vibe as a rock band but not as we know it. Melodic bass - see also John Entwistle in The Who. U2 sound nothing like The Who. There are many different ways to be a rock band.
And then there’s Bono. Improvising on this album, able to be a powerful rock singer as well as a subtle one, with the range of expression to adapt to different songs, spanning octaves and pushing himself, even in the risky environment of live performance (watch the video of ‘Bad’ below). U2, though, are one of those bands people love to hate, and Bono carries much of the responsibility for that. Why? There’s nothing wrong with his vocals unless his style happens to be one you don’t click with. Did the backlash begin with Bono’s section of the Band Aid single, intended to be ironic (the line was not written by Bono: “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you”; an over-wrought delivery didn’t help). Apple pumping the U2 album Songs of Innocence to every account with no opportunity to decline didn’t go down well, but the dirt seemed to stick to Bono/U2 more than it did to Apple.
All that was in the future. Returning to the time of Fire, a time before marketing and charity-related controversy, before the backlash that always comes with ubiquitousness, before trying too hard to stay relevant. That’s not to say they shied away from politics: Two songs focus on Dr. Martin Luther King: ‘Pride’ and ‘MLK’. If ‘Pride’ combines powerful rock with the ultimate question: “What more in the name of love?”, ‘MLK’ showed the band stretching out in their new style, allowing themselves the time and space to let the light in and haunt our dreams.
The song ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ justifies, if any were needed, the appointment of Eno as producer. A string arrangement pushes the song into deeper waters than the band had swum previously, and the way everything combines brings the atmosphere and soul to U2 they’d previously been looking for.
If you’ve neglected U2 in recent years, if you know The Joshua Tree inside out and backwards even if only by osmosis, revisit The Unforgettable Fire.
What’s your opinion of ‘The Unforgettable Fire’? Why do people have a love/hate relationship with U2? Direct message as a paid subscriber, or leave a comment.
U2 play ‘Bad’ at Live Aid
The Edge makes an interminable period of vamping until ready sound interesting as Bono attempts to extract a dancing partner from the front row.
RECOMMENDED READING
U2 Every Album, Every Song by Eoghan Lyng
See you again at the end of the week with the album-length playlist, Gems #034, and then to mark the announcement of Steve Winwood’s first tour for five years, a Glimse of Arc of a Diver, early next week.
Enjoy the music,
Ian
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As his contribution to ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ by Genesis is credited.
DeMasi, Vinnie (September 2017). "Shaking the Tree: Exploring the Edge's Sonic Innovations on the 30th Anniversary of U2's The Joshua Tree". Guitar Player. Vol. 51, no. 9. pp. 62–64.
Marstal, Henrik (2018). "'Edge, Ring Those Bells': The Guitar and Its Spiritual Soundscapes in Early U2". In Calhoun, Scott (ed.). U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350032569.
Although Bert Weedon’s ‘Play in a Day’ got many going in the ‘60s. YouTube lessons now, at least for the first three chords.
Flanagan, Bill (1995). U2 at the End of the World. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 978-0-385-31154-0., p.15
There must be some U2 energy in the air. I am working on a piece right now about a song from the album War (won’t spoil the reveal) and a couple of other music writers have written about the band recently. I really appreciate your deep dive into the Unforgettable Fire. It has actually lit a fire under me to finish the piece I’m working on. So thanks for that!
Great Glimpse. I've always been a pre-Joshua Tree U2 fan, largely because with the previous albums they were 'my' (and a friend's) band that no one else liked until ... well, they became ubiquitous. There are certainly some great tracks on Tree and beyond, but I never felt the music the way I had before. Love Fire because of the Eno/Lanois collaboration, too - especially as it's their first time with the band. The potential was everywhere - and peaked with 'Bad', I'd say. One of the best tracks.