spanisheyes
Forum Moderator, The Goal Is Soul
Streets: The greatest live U2 song ever?
Angela Pancella
A few notes on an organ, one layering atop another in a slow crescendo. Then
a guitar pattern, not a particularly complex one to learn, and a martial
drumbeat. The lyrics include an opening couplet derided by the author as
"high school poetry." Recording the song proved so problematic and
time-consuming, one of the producers tried to stage an accident to erase the
track. As a single it barely cracked the U.S. top 20.
But when U2 kickstart "Where the Streets Have No Name" in concert, the crowd
goes into hysterics. They go into hysterics for Streets every night in every
city. It is unique in the U2 canon -- a song performed at every concert
since 1987 (excepting promotional gigs just before the Elevation tour) which
no one seems to have grown tired of -- least of all the band members
themselves.
Surely if a band plays the same song every night at every concert in
fourteen years of touring, someone gets sick of it. The band does, or the
diehard fans do -- as some fans who've gone to many, many shows are sick of
hearing "Pride," and some can do without "With or Without You." It's not the
least bit normal for a song to remain vital and exciting for that long. At
the very least, it will suffer an occasional off-night. I'm not saying there
has never been an off-night for Streets, but if there has been, I have yet
to hear of it. And I say this having contact with some of the most fanatical
U2 fans out there, the ones who paradoxically can find the most to
criticize.
Is Streets U2's greatest song live? The question was posed on some online
mailing lists, and the response was an overwhelming "It could be..." --
especially if reliability is the main criteria.
"I've been saying all along that 'Bad' is the best," one fan reported. "I go
to another place every time I hear it live, but occasionally it is off. But
'Streets' is unfailingly dynamite every time." And it certainly gets the
best crowd reaction. Chrissy from Vienna saw the Elevation Tour in Vienna
and London: "EVERYONE, really EVERYONE woke up and jumped, danced, sang
along...." Susan also saw Elevation in London: "My friend said 'look
around!' and I did and every single person in the house was [standing] arms
raised clapping over their heads in perfect unison. I could almost swear I
could see the words word perfect on everybody's lips, too." Chris noted that
in Anaheim in 1992, the last night of ZooTV in the US, "we looked back when
the lights came on after the orange glow; the loge level above us was
moving. Not just moving, it ebbed at least 4 feet in rhythm with Larry!"
For many fans whose first contact with U2 was The Joshua Tree and the tour
that accompanied it, Streets may invoke nostalgia akin to a first date. It
is, after all, the first song on the album that introduced many to U2, and
on that tour it was the song to which the band hit the stage. Beth summed it
up this way: "The first U2 song I ever heard live, 5/87, after waiting what
seemed SOOOO long to see U2, out of the darkness - that music, that sound,
hope & life & joy. I'm told my friend on my left was shaking me 'cuz he
thought I'd drifted into a coma (open mouth, tears running down my
face)...14 years later, I can still close my eyes and feel the same way."
She went on to say other songs mean more to her but there is no other song
"that quite hits that same note, that awe."
Another factor to Streets' appeal frequently mentioned was the "message" of
the song, as it is communicated both in the lyrics and in the staging. Bono
introduced the song this way in Los Angeles in 1987: "This is the story of
four guys who were going nowhere so we decided to go there together." But
the lyrics don't stop with just the four guys. "Streets to me is not about
U2," Chris said. "It's about us and U2 and the emotion that we can pour into
the song. Even Bono has said, 'I go there with you!'" And the point is
emphasized with effects -- a brilliant flash of light that illuminates every
face in the audience, for instance. During the Popmart tour, the huge screen
showed superimposed images of the band and the crowd, effectively making the
audience the star attraction.
But "Where The Streets Have No Name" would not provoke the reaction it gets
if the band wasn't into it as well. Mauricio, who belongs to a U2 cover band
(and, incidentally, does not consider Streets U2's best song live, giving
his vote instead to "Mysterious Ways") provided some insight into the song
from a musician's perspective: "I can tell you that PLAYING WTSHNN gives us
goose-bumps...Feeling the song climaxing over every verse is REALLY intense,
playing it live makes us wonder how U2 must feel on a good night." Adam has
made interesting comments about how the song started and what it has become.
In the "Making of the Joshua Tree" special, he explained how Edge had
written its intro in 6/8 and then formulated a guitar part that would allow
the song to switch to 4/4 when the drums and bass kicked in. "I have to say
at the time I didn't appreciate probably the hours of thought that had gone
into such an idea; it just seemed like a way of f-ing the band up...We would
spend interminable hours figuring out chord changes to get the two bits to
join up -- which is why it drove Brian [Eno] mad."
Since the song had such inauspicious beginnings, it's interesting that in a
Time Out interview this year, Streets was one of the songs Adam particularly
mentioned when asked if he could imagine still being in the band 20 years
from now: "...if the question is whether we could still be playing 'Where
the Streets Have No Name' or 'I Will Follow' when we're 60, then yes, if
we're still committed as a band, which we probably would be."
Mike, a British fan, saw firsthand how the crowd's love for the song feeds
into the band's performance. Writing about the second Manchester show, he
said, "There is one moment I will never forget which made this song, and the
night, for me. I had my eyes glued on Edge for the duration of the song and
towards the end he was really getting into it as he looked over the heart
and the rest of the crowd. I swear I could see the tears forming in his eyes
as he felt the unbridled and unalloyed love and joy hitting him in waves
from the crowd. He closed his eyes, body swaying lightly, and his mouth
slightly agape. His statement was one of pure elation and witnessing this
made me cry."
Not everyone who wrote in is so moved by Streets -- Greg, for instance,
responded by saying the dramatic buildup didn't do much for him, and when
the lights blaze he thinks, "Why are they going nuts just cuz someone
flipped a light switch?" But he also said "I look around the arena when they
turn the lights on and decide it needs to be in the setlist." On the other
side of the scale was Dave, who wrote to say "I have seen 400 shows by
various artists and Streets rises above every other song I have ever heard
live."
Chris
Angela Pancella
A few notes on an organ, one layering atop another in a slow crescendo. Then
a guitar pattern, not a particularly complex one to learn, and a martial
drumbeat. The lyrics include an opening couplet derided by the author as
"high school poetry." Recording the song proved so problematic and
time-consuming, one of the producers tried to stage an accident to erase the
track. As a single it barely cracked the U.S. top 20.
But when U2 kickstart "Where the Streets Have No Name" in concert, the crowd
goes into hysterics. They go into hysterics for Streets every night in every
city. It is unique in the U2 canon -- a song performed at every concert
since 1987 (excepting promotional gigs just before the Elevation tour) which
no one seems to have grown tired of -- least of all the band members
themselves.
Surely if a band plays the same song every night at every concert in
fourteen years of touring, someone gets sick of it. The band does, or the
diehard fans do -- as some fans who've gone to many, many shows are sick of
hearing "Pride," and some can do without "With or Without You." It's not the
least bit normal for a song to remain vital and exciting for that long. At
the very least, it will suffer an occasional off-night. I'm not saying there
has never been an off-night for Streets, but if there has been, I have yet
to hear of it. And I say this having contact with some of the most fanatical
U2 fans out there, the ones who paradoxically can find the most to
criticize.
Is Streets U2's greatest song live? The question was posed on some online
mailing lists, and the response was an overwhelming "It could be..." --
especially if reliability is the main criteria.
"I've been saying all along that 'Bad' is the best," one fan reported. "I go
to another place every time I hear it live, but occasionally it is off. But
'Streets' is unfailingly dynamite every time." And it certainly gets the
best crowd reaction. Chrissy from Vienna saw the Elevation Tour in Vienna
and London: "EVERYONE, really EVERYONE woke up and jumped, danced, sang
along...." Susan also saw Elevation in London: "My friend said 'look
around!' and I did and every single person in the house was [standing] arms
raised clapping over their heads in perfect unison. I could almost swear I
could see the words word perfect on everybody's lips, too." Chris noted that
in Anaheim in 1992, the last night of ZooTV in the US, "we looked back when
the lights came on after the orange glow; the loge level above us was
moving. Not just moving, it ebbed at least 4 feet in rhythm with Larry!"
For many fans whose first contact with U2 was The Joshua Tree and the tour
that accompanied it, Streets may invoke nostalgia akin to a first date. It
is, after all, the first song on the album that introduced many to U2, and
on that tour it was the song to which the band hit the stage. Beth summed it
up this way: "The first U2 song I ever heard live, 5/87, after waiting what
seemed SOOOO long to see U2, out of the darkness - that music, that sound,
hope & life & joy. I'm told my friend on my left was shaking me 'cuz he
thought I'd drifted into a coma (open mouth, tears running down my
face)...14 years later, I can still close my eyes and feel the same way."
She went on to say other songs mean more to her but there is no other song
"that quite hits that same note, that awe."
Another factor to Streets' appeal frequently mentioned was the "message" of
the song, as it is communicated both in the lyrics and in the staging. Bono
introduced the song this way in Los Angeles in 1987: "This is the story of
four guys who were going nowhere so we decided to go there together." But
the lyrics don't stop with just the four guys. "Streets to me is not about
U2," Chris said. "It's about us and U2 and the emotion that we can pour into
the song. Even Bono has said, 'I go there with you!'" And the point is
emphasized with effects -- a brilliant flash of light that illuminates every
face in the audience, for instance. During the Popmart tour, the huge screen
showed superimposed images of the band and the crowd, effectively making the
audience the star attraction.
But "Where The Streets Have No Name" would not provoke the reaction it gets
if the band wasn't into it as well. Mauricio, who belongs to a U2 cover band
(and, incidentally, does not consider Streets U2's best song live, giving
his vote instead to "Mysterious Ways") provided some insight into the song
from a musician's perspective: "I can tell you that PLAYING WTSHNN gives us
goose-bumps...Feeling the song climaxing over every verse is REALLY intense,
playing it live makes us wonder how U2 must feel on a good night." Adam has
made interesting comments about how the song started and what it has become.
In the "Making of the Joshua Tree" special, he explained how Edge had
written its intro in 6/8 and then formulated a guitar part that would allow
the song to switch to 4/4 when the drums and bass kicked in. "I have to say
at the time I didn't appreciate probably the hours of thought that had gone
into such an idea; it just seemed like a way of f-ing the band up...We would
spend interminable hours figuring out chord changes to get the two bits to
join up -- which is why it drove Brian [Eno] mad."
Since the song had such inauspicious beginnings, it's interesting that in a
Time Out interview this year, Streets was one of the songs Adam particularly
mentioned when asked if he could imagine still being in the band 20 years
from now: "...if the question is whether we could still be playing 'Where
the Streets Have No Name' or 'I Will Follow' when we're 60, then yes, if
we're still committed as a band, which we probably would be."
Mike, a British fan, saw firsthand how the crowd's love for the song feeds
into the band's performance. Writing about the second Manchester show, he
said, "There is one moment I will never forget which made this song, and the
night, for me. I had my eyes glued on Edge for the duration of the song and
towards the end he was really getting into it as he looked over the heart
and the rest of the crowd. I swear I could see the tears forming in his eyes
as he felt the unbridled and unalloyed love and joy hitting him in waves
from the crowd. He closed his eyes, body swaying lightly, and his mouth
slightly agape. His statement was one of pure elation and witnessing this
made me cry."
Not everyone who wrote in is so moved by Streets -- Greg, for instance,
responded by saying the dramatic buildup didn't do much for him, and when
the lights blaze he thinks, "Why are they going nuts just cuz someone
flipped a light switch?" But he also said "I look around the arena when they
turn the lights on and decide it needs to be in the setlist." On the other
side of the scale was Dave, who wrote to say "I have seen 400 shows by
various artists and Streets rises above every other song I have ever heard
live."
Chris