5 September 1987
A bicycle needs two pedals, but The Edge only needs one. His intro to ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ may sound like some complex muso yoke at first, but it’s just six notes played over and over; listen for yourself and you can pick them out. That shimmering effect is thanks to a delay pedal, and possibly a bit of studio reverb. Listening closely to U2’s singles from The Joshua Tree is a demystifying experience.
So, ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ is another product of U2’s move to US soft rock power ballads. Lyrically, just like ‘With Or Without You’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, Bono gurns out blustery, melodramatic Jim Steinman-esque phrases that mean nothing so can be made to mean anything. Musically, Adam again plods away on one-note bass chords, and we’ve noted Edge’s pedalling of basic guitar jangles above. U2 really are tedious.
And the tedium continues. The video (below) is well-known now; a copy of The Beatles’ rooftop performance, where U2 just wanna play for the common people of downtown Los Angeles but get shut down by the cops and The Man. Except, as Paul McGuinness is said to have told Dublin indie rock radio station Phantom FM, of which he was a financial backer, in a 2007 interview, that in fact the LAPD kept allowing them to continue playing: a lot of the ‘confrontation’ in the video between police and crew was exaggerated. Just like using a delay pedal, you can dress anything up for effect.
