Scattered Thoughts: In Your Face
Recommended listen: Podcast with U2 manager Paul McGuinness discussing the Joshua Tree reissue and lots of other things on Phantom radio (Dublin).
One of the more interesting aspects of that conversation is when they discuss Rattle and Hum and the “in your face” marketing of it that turned some people off. McGuinness points out that the movie may have been appreciated more if an audience had been allowed to find it, rather than have it mass-marketed to them.
I think that’s a romantic notion about music, too, and one that U2 did not follow at all with the last album, but is sort of following with the (in comparison) low-key Joshua Tree reissue marketing.
I realize that the marketing plans for a new album and a reissue are on two very different levels. And that being “in your face” is sort of what Bono specializes in. Still, I’ll be interested to see how they market the next album. (The molten one.)
First they’ve got that little movie to promote …
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Silvrlvr said,
December 10, 2007 @ 10:29 am
Paul McG is absolutely spot on when he says only U2 fans went to see R&H and everyone else ignored it. I only saw it for the first time when it showed up on iTunes, and I thought it was incredibly dull. U2 certainly learned from it, since the concert videos since then were much livelier.
Brian said,
December 10, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
How times have changed…. I first saw R&H in Dayton Ohio on release weekend almost 20 years ago. On a 40-foot high screen that was so wide, it curved at the sides to preserve the image aspect. Such an immersive experience was hardly “dull”; in fact, it kicked ass! (But then again, I’m an “old” man of 41 who just wants the director to stick with a shot for more than half a second dammit!
Of course, there were about 50 of us in a theater that seated like 1200. (Anybody familiar with Cinema 1 at the Dayton Mall can feel free to correct my numbers, if they’re wildly off-base.) So PaulM is certainly correct - fans saw it a handful of times each, but nobody else did at all.
caravox said,
December 11, 2007 @ 6:25 am
Oh I think the concert footage is brilliant in that film - it’s the documentary part where they left a lot on the cutting room floor - the bootleg outtakes have some pretty funny parts, my favorite of which is Bono chasing squirrels at Graceland … maybe someday a different documentary will be made with some of that extra footage.
Ruth said,
December 15, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
People like to pan R&H, but it’s what made me a fan of U2. I had heard Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire, but thought they were just OK. It was only after the theater run that I rented the video, and I thought the music sequences were amazingly powerful, considering they were on my TV. I was moved to tears by Sunday Bloody Sunday and Running to Stand Still. I bought the video and watched it nearly every day for several months. I still kick myself that I was living in New York 1986-1989, and I was oblivious to U2 until then, after the concerts, etc. were past.
To me, then as now, the music is what it’s all about–not theatrics. (Another “oldie” at 44)