Analysis : Images in U2 : "If music be the food of love, play on!" *

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Fall 1988 saw the release of the album, book and film "Rattle & Hum." To celebrate this 15th anniversary, Interference.com is featuring a series of articles. Below is Hippy's "Images in U2".

by Kimberly "hippy" Egolf

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2003.10

At first glance, "Love Rescue Me" and "When Love Comes to Town" don't have much in common. Musically, the songs are very different but their placement next to each other on the album Rattle and Hum made me wonder if perhaps there was something I was missing. As I've already seen in my previous analyses of U2's albums, every song is carefully placed and many times analyzing the order of songs can yield numerous clues to the interpretation of an album. So I decided to spend this column exploring the relationship between these two songs, assuming that their placement next to each other was not an accident but a deliberate clue to understanding ?Rattle and Hum.?

The first thing I noticed was the use of the word "love" in both song titles, but I'll talk about that a little bit later. It then occurred to me that both songs were collaborations with American musical legends: "Love Rescue Me" was co-written by Bob Dylan, who also provides backing vocals, and "When Love Comes to Town" was a duet with B.B. King.

One of the most notable things about the songs is their completely different musical styles. "Love Rescue Me" starts out softly, with a plaintive harmonica wailing over top of a soft bass line and drum track. Then Bono enters with a soft, slow vocal as plaintive as the harmonica. The song gradually builds, adding voices, instruments, and musical intensity, until it bursts. We think the song is over, but it isn't. Bono softly sings one more verse and then his vocal fades out as the bass, drum and faint guitar take over until the end, eventually fading away to nothing.

Then we're shocked back into life by the opening cymbal crash of "When Love Comes to Town" (I don't know about you all, but I never fail to be startled by that). This song has no slow, soft part, it is exuberant and rhythm heavy with B.B. King's scratchy, weathered voice and guitar figures prominently in the song in contrast to Bono's still young voice.

Despite these differences in the music, the lyrics are remarkably similar. These are two of the most transparently faith-filled songs in U2's catalogue, one might even consider them gospel songs in the "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" tradition. Love, as usual in U2 songs, can be read in many ways. Perhaps the most obvious, the one I'm assuming for this column, is the love of God.

In "Love Rescue Me" Bono and Dylan call out for the love of God to rescue them from their prisons, created by their own hands. The next verse is very telling for both performers:

Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love rescue me


Both Bono and Dylan deal with the many things they've done, good and bad, in their respective lives. They speak of those lost people who look to popular figures for salvation. But this burden becomes too much for the singers, they are tired of the people who look to them for salvation, asking the singers to "reveal/ The very thoughts they [the people] would conceal." People ask the singers to be transparent, while concealing themselves.

Seeking effacement and anonymity, the singers point out that they stand "without a name in the palace of [their] shame," reminding the people that everyone is equal before God and that just because they are famous, doesn't mean that the singers receive special preference. But since they have bared and humbled themselves before God, calling out for love to rescue them from the sin in which they find no consolation, they find that "the future is here at last" and love has, indeed, rescued them.

"When Love Comes to Town" is a joyous celebration of this repentance and salvation. The first thing to note about the song is that the verses, which recount things that the singer is repenting of, are entirely in the past tense:

I was a sailor, I was lost at sea
...
I used to make love under the red sunset
...
I was there when they crucified my lord
...


Everything happens "before love [comes] to town." An interesting point to note in this song is that music is the force which drives the change in the singer. In "Love Rescue Me" the singer laments those people who try to find salvation in their idols. In "When Love Comes to Town" the singer finds salvation in the music he hears rather than in the singer who sings it. This is an important difference for the band. They went on from ?Rattle and Hum? to their (in)famous Zoo TV tour in which they explored this difference between singer and song and made fun of those people who put their faith in rock stars.

If you look at the "When Love Comes to Town" lyrics printed in the booklet for ?Rattle and Hum? you'll find a verse that didn't make it into the recorded song. This verse contains the following lines, which, I believe, are extremely important:

When I looked up I saw the Devil looking down
But my Lord He played guitar the day love came to town


Here, music is the method that the "Lord" uses to change hearts. This is important for the singer, who obviously believes that Love equals music and that music is the road to ultimate salvation. So where "Love Rescue Me" warns against putting too much faith in singers, "When Love Comes to Town" counsels putting all your faith in "the music."

The two songs answer each other. Where one is a slow prayer for salvation and a changed heart, the other is a joyful hymn to a change that has already occurred. Once again, the band has carefully crafted an album in which they raise questions and then provide the answers they have found for themselves. But remember, "Don't find yourself in someone else," the only place to look is the music.

"If music be the food of love, play on!"
- Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act I, scene I.
 
hippy, once again, a fantastic analysis!

I particularly found this part interesting:

"Both Bono and Dylan deal with the many things they've done, good and bad, in their respective lives. They speak of those lost people who look to popular figures for salvation. But this burden becomes too much for the singers, they are tired of the people who look to them for salvation, asking the singers to "reveal/ The very thoughts they [the people] would conceal." People ask the singers to be transparent, while concealing themselves.

Seeking effacement and anonymity, the singers point out that they stand "without a name in the palace of [their] shame," reminding the people that everyone is equal before God and that just because they are famous, doesn't mean that the singers receive special preference. But since they have bared and humbled themselves before God, calling out for love to rescue them from the sin in which they find no consolation, they find that "the future is here at last" and love has, indeed, rescued them."

I never considered that before. That makes a heck of a lot of sense.

And I love the connection you made between love rescuing them on this song, and how "When Love Comes To Town" is celebrating the fact that they've been rescued, and the past tense lines in that song are proving that their "sins" of sorts are in the past now.

Very well done. :up:.

*Goes off to listen to Rattle & Hum*

Angela
 
What do you think Bono means when he sings, "I have cursed thy rod and staff, they no longer comfort me, Love rescue me."?
 
cnelson said:
What do you think Bono means when he sings, "I have cursed thy rod and staff, they no longer comfort me, Love rescue me."?

Whew... this could get complicated ;)

The first thing to note is that this entire verse is basically ripped right from Psalm 23 of the Christian Bible:

Verse from "Love Rescue Me":

Yea, though I walk
In the valley of shadow
Yea, I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me


Psalm 23 (verse 4):

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Of course, there is a notable difference between the two. In Psalm 23, the singer is comforted by the "rod and staff" of the Lord; in "Love Rescue Me" the singer is not comforted by this same rod and staff.

I believe that this verse fits with the doubtful attitude of the rest of the song. The singer is recounting his journey through unbelief, including his rejection of the "rod and staff" of the Lord.

This rejection could also go deeper: since the rod and staff are used by shepards to tend and protect their flocks, perhaps this verse is about the singer's rejection of that protection which no longer comforts him. He is not content to sit and be taken care of.

Of course, ultimately he rejects these rejections, returning to the love of the Lord.

What do you think about it?
 
Works for me ^^^^.

hippy said:
Thank you very much, Angela! And I'm glad you went to listen to the album... I always hope that this column encourages people to do that: go back to the album itself and have a listen, but with new ears :)

You're welcome. And your essays have done just that for me. Gives me something new to think about (I just love how you bring up certain interpretations that most people would never have thought of before) and perhaps increases my love of a particular song as a result. :D.

Angela
 
y'know I hate to be a party pooper but 'if music be the food of love, play on' doesn't really have much to do with music but emphasises the pomposity of Orsino's character in Twelfth Night.

other than that, fabulous article. I haven't listened to either of the two songs in question in ages and I probably should! :)
 
yertle-the-turtle said:
y'know I hate to be a party pooper but 'if music be the food of love, play on' doesn't really have much to do with music but emphasises the pomposity of Orsino's character in Twelfth Night.

No party pooping allowed! :tongue:

Besides, it's an epigraph... meaning that it's supposed to be taken out of context and applied to the topic of the essay.

other than that, fabulous article. I haven't listened to either of the two songs in question in ages and I probably should! :)

Thank you very much :)
 
hippy said:


Whew... this could get complicated ;)

The first thing to note is that this entire verse is basically ripped right from Psalm 23 of the Christian Bible:

Verse from "Love Rescue Me":

Yea, though I walk
In the valley of shadow
Yea, I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me


Psalm 23 (verse 4):

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Of course, there is a notable difference between the two. In Psalm 23, the singer is comforted by the "rod and staff" of the Lord; in "Love Rescue Me" the singer is not comforted by this same rod and staff.

I believe that this verse fits with the doubtful attitude of the rest of the song. The singer is recounting his journey through unbelief, including his rejection of the "rod and staff" of the Lord.

This rejection could also go deeper: since the rod and staff are used by shepards to tend and protect their flocks, perhaps this verse is about the singer's rejection of that protection which no longer comforts him. He is not content to sit and be taken care of.

Of course, ultimately he rejects these rejections, returning to the love of the Lord.

What do you think about it?


I'm not sure. I know the lyric is "I have..." but how do you get that the singer has returned to God and his comfort and leading? I guess it's tough to say, it could go either way. Either he is trying to go his own way or he has returned to God.
 
cnelson said:



I'm not sure. I know the lyric is "I have..." but how do you get that the singer has returned to God and his comfort and leading? I guess it's tough to say, it could go either way. Either he is trying to go his own way or he has returned to God.


U2 songs are ALWAYS open to numerous interpretations, so we can both be right!

I get that the singer has returned to God from the last stanza of the song:

I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love rescue me


I tend to interpret this stanza as the singer returning to God, because he's already tried his own way: "My own hands imprison me."
 
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