August 29th

That song came up on the radio as I was driving home a couple of days ago. I recognized the band right away — for more than a decade starting in the mid-80s and the whole of the 90s, U2 was the best and the biggest band in the world (until Bono became an insufferable twat). I couldn’t remember the title of the song, but I knew that it had to be from “Rattle and Hum”. After I got home I started searching for it on YouTube and yeah — this is a closing track from that album. After a couple of seconds of watching this video, I had to stop. My mind was flooded with so many memories. The song is amazing in its own right — especially the outro guitar work by The Edge, but it is all about this video. I suddenly remembered the late 80s, early 90s (the album was released in 1988), before the widespread internet and music on demand, when I saw the video once on TV, and then I searched for it for a long time to be able to see it again. I found a guy at school who had it recorded on a VCR videocassette, he let me copy it to mine, and I think I watched it non-stop for a couple of months.

It was the first music video I remember that actually told the story and not just some simple, stupid story. It was in black and white, the theme of longing and rejection was well-known to me as a teenager, and the end was quite ambiguous. The cinematography of it all is beautiful, every second and every frame is just right and shows just exactly what needs to be shown at that moment. I think it was the first time I realized that a music video can be a work of art.

And then I forgot about this song, this video, and this album for a long while. Yesterday was the first time I listened to “Rattle and Hum” in 30 years. And the album is rather pedestrian — except for this song and “Angel of Harlem”. But what is important to me is the fact that my mind remembered this video and recognized what it was and how important it was after the first couple of seconds of watching. I wonder how many more memories like that I still have in me?