TITLE: "Where The Streets Have No Name" (Live)
ARTIST: U2
ALBUM: Christmas at The Point Depot
RELEASE DATE: 1989
I'm still on a bit of a U2-kick since that long drive on Monday, so I thought I'd highlight a couple of other tracks from the band. Incidentally, I didn't mean to suggest that I only liked the band's early period. The band has managed to produce music of quality and distinction with each album and in each successive incarnation (be they in rampant Ameriphilia mode or in a wince-inducing dad-at-the-disco faux-groovin' fervor). In any case, with the recent release of the 20th Anniversary edition of The Joshua Tree, herewith two tracks from that album recorded live.
The first is a rousing rendition of "Where The Streets Have No Name" culled from a bootleg called Christmas at the Point Depot. Recorded in Dublin on December 26, 1989, this version of the track finds Bono rapturously quoting Samuel Beckett in the intro and gettin' all grandiose (as he was certainly wont to do at the time). I can't even remember where I tracked it down, but it's a mighty fine performance.
TITLE: "Bullet The Blue Sky" (Live)
ARTIST: U2
ALBUM: Stay (Faraway So Close) e.p.
RELEASE DATE: 1993
Next up is a visceral rendition of "Bullet The Blue Sky." I always felt that the original studio recording of this track sounded so out of place on The Joshua Tree, an album otherwise steeped in poignant introspection. In the live context, this track really blossomed into a veritable exorcism. Circa the ZooTV tour, the band injected a heady dose of very metal noise pollution into the fray, turning the song into a clangy, apocalyptic wardance that better matched Bono's lyrics. This particular recording was in `93 and can be found on the cd single of "Stay (Faraway So Close)" single from the Zooropa album. Bono's still insisting on the revival tent theatrics, but it's the Edge's contributions here that really light this song up as the guitarist channels his inner Hendrix. Again, it makes the original studio recording sound rather tame. Enjoy.
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