Where the Streets Have No Name
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| The Joshua Tree Album Listing | ||
|---|---|---|
| (beginning of album) | "Where the Streets Have No Name" (Track 1) | "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (Track 2) |
| The Best of 1980-1990 Album Listing | ||
| "Bad" (Track 6) | "Where the Streets Have No Name" (Track 7) | "I Will Follow" (Track 8) |
"Where the Streets Have No Name" is the opening song on Irish band U2's 1987 The Joshua Tree album and has become one of the band's most popular songs. The song is in part famous for its introduction.
The song
Recording Streets
According to the account given by the band and producers in the Making of the Joshua Tree DVD, [link], "Where the Streets Have No Name" had a particularly difficult birth: it was almost rejected by the band, and nearly did not survive until the album's release.Prior to the recording of The Joshua Tree, The Edge came up with the famous guitar and organ introduction. On presenting the idea to the band, bassist Adam Clayton admits that he "perhaps did not fully appreciate the hours of work that had gone into this idea," feeling in particular that the 6/8 time signature of the introduction seemed less like an inspired idea, and really "just seemed like a good way to mess the band up."
Even having accepted the song, the process of mating the intro together with other parts needed to create a song became protracted and difficult. After literally weeks and weeks of working on the song, co-producer Brian Eno had finally had enough. The commonly-told version of what transpired next is that, while the band was out of the room, he ordered his assistant to destroy the master tape of the song. The assistant refused, and the song eventually fell into place. Eno, however, contests this version of the story. In Eno's account, the problem was not that Eno had given up on Streets, but that Eno had concluded that the version of the song they had on tape, and which the band and crew were spending hours, days, and literally weeks attempting to patch up, was beyond salvation. "I felt sure we would get there," Eno recalls: "I just felt we would get there faster if we started again." He thus decided to stage an "accident" which would force the band to start afresh, rather than trying to fix a version that could not be saved. In the end, as per the traditional telling of the story, the "accident" was thwarted, preserving the version now known to the world.
Clayton now repents, saying that if anything, the song's difficult birth makes it even more of a pleasure to perform now.
Meaning
The song is a dual metaphor: it speaks of Africa, and it speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven.First, the song is about Africa. A few years before the recording of the Joshua Tree, Bono and his wife, Ali, went to Africa to witness the devastation. Africa has had a special place in Bono's heart ever since, as can be seen by his constant campaigning for helping Africa. There is clearly imagery from this African trip in "Where the Streets Have No Name". This is evidenced by the fact that they were "beaten and blown by the wind, and trampled in dust". In this meaning, "when I go there, I go there with you, it's all I can do" is perhaps addressed to Ali.
The second central meaning is of heaven. Spirituality comes through in many of U2's songs, and "Streets" is no different. In the first verse of the song Bono states "I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside." He longs to leave his earthly body. When he states "when I go there, I go there with you, it's all I can do," he is talking to God or Jesus, as well as to his wife. In longing for heaven he states, "I want to feel sunlight on my face, I see the dust clouds disappear without a trace. I want to take shelter from the poison rain where the streets have no name." On the Live in Boston DVD, Bono introduces the song from the more spiritual perspective, intoning to the audience, "we're going to give back to God for the blessings he poured out at the time of the salvation," referencing verses found in Psalm 119.
Bono himself also reported that the song was inspired by the social situation in Belfast; in a 1987 interview to Propaganda, the official U2 magazine, Bono stated:
- "'Where the Streets Have No Name' is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch — I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down. An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they're making — literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name..."
Live performance
The song is performed at virtually every U2 show. There are slight variations in the live presentation to the recorded version; the final verse is played differently, and Clayton plays a particularly striking melodic bassline in the chorus, reminiscent of the style of Peter Hook, along the outline of a guitar part on the record.The emotional organ/guitar intro, along with the song's vivid imagery, have combined to make "Streets" the most exciting and most-loved live song among the U2 faithful. Although the song was released almost 20 years ago, it is still played at every U2 concert, and was even performed during the Super Bowl in early 2002. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the playing of this song created one of the most emotional moments in Super Bowl history. As the band performed this song, the names of the people killed in the attacks rolled up a screen in the background. The song ended with Bono opening up his jacket, which was lined with the American Flag.
Covers
Pet Shop Boys covered the song to a danceable sequencer beat, combined it with Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You, and released it as a single in 1991. It subsequently appeared on their rereleased Behaviour/Further Listening 1990-1991 album in 2001.
Vanessa Carlton recorded a cover version of the song for her second album Harmonium (2004).
Rooftop Performance
The song was first played on the rooftop of a Los Angeles liquor store March 27, 1987 in an ad hoc concert. The music video was filmed with footage from this event, including the police shutting the surprise concert down due to traffic concerns. The stunt was viewed as an homage to The Beatles when they played their own rooftop show on the roof of Apple Records.
Track Listing
- "Where the Streets Have No Name" (Single Version) (4:46)
- "Silver and Gold" (4:40)
- "The Sweetest Thing" (3:03)
- "Race Against Time" (4:03)
Chart positions
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | "Where the Streets Have No Name" | UK Singles Chart | #4 |
| 1987 | "Where the Streets Have No Name" | US Billboard Hot 100 | #13 |
| 1987 | "Where the Streets Have No Name" | US Mainstream Rock Tracks | #11 |
| 1987 | "Where the Streets Have No Name" | Canada | #14 |
External links
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