U2 - October (1981)

Note: the CD I listened to was not one of the 2001 or 2008 reissues.

In an earlier post, I wrote "U2 has always been about sound rather than songs" and while I probably lifted that comment directly from some critic, the sentiment certainly rings true on this release. I prefer earlier U2 albums to anything post-Joshua Tree and while this one suffers a bit from the dreaded sophomore slump and a bit of bad luck, I like to spin it every now and then.

I'm not much for lyrics, but Bono's notebook with early lyric drafts for this album turned up missing after a March 1981 show at a Portland bar. So Bono had to quickly scramble to write new lyrics for the album which explains the lyrics, which lean heavily on familiar Christian imagery, yet somehow aren't as preachy as the stuff Bono would ultimately write. That kindasorta explains why we get a song titled Rejoice and then an entirely different song (Scarlet) where the only lyric is "rejoice."

Yes, there were Bibles dotted around the room during the recording. There was a fair amount of that. But I was so busy trying to pull teeth - trying to make an album - that it sort of washed over me. It was completely chaotic and mad in the studio and, obviously, Bono's lyrics being lost contributed to the atmosphere.

-producer Steve Lillywhite

But back to the music. To my ears, October is a U2 album where the band plays as a band, with each member having equal value. In later releases, I feel the rhythm section is undervalued, but not here. This makes the arrangements better in my opinion and, in this particular case, creates an emphasis on the rhythmic aspects of the music and yes, sound rather than songs.

Press of the time:

• Trouser Press: "this is a damned good record"
• Musician: "Deliriously melodic, rhythmically insistent"
• Billboard: "This much anticipated second album continues in the vein established by the first."
• Record World: "expands its textural and dynamic boundaries"
• Robert Christgau (B-): "As they push past twenty their ambitions are showing, and suddenly the hope-addicts whiff both commerce and pretension."
• Record Mirror (★★★): "This is U2 in purgatory."

"The Green Tornado"?? And Larry doesn't even rate a surname?

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #104
• Billboard Rock: #28
• CashBox: #102
• Rolling Stone: #25

In The Village Voice's annual 'Pazz & Jop' critic's list, this album placed at #39 for 1981.

Tracks: From what was side one (tracks 1-5), my top picks are Gloria, I Fall Down, and Rejoice. Track 6, Tomorrow, is beautiful but far too heart-wrenching for me to even go into and then they pair it with the somber title track. I want to skip both to spare my emotions, but I can never bring myself to do so. Of the remaining tracks, I prefer Stranger In A Strange Land and the aforementioned Scarlet.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Around the time this album was released in 1981, I was wrapping up my second season of high school marching band. We performed at every football game, but the team went 6-4 that fall and missed out on a playoff berth, ending our early morning marching rehearsals the first week of November. Incidentally, I didn't have much else happening on Friday nights at the time, so it didn't matter to me that my weekends were suddenly free.

The marching band's show theme that year was a based on the Six Flags over Texas (the actual historical flags, not the theme park chain). So we played a Spanish song, a French song, Deep In The Heart Of Texas, etc., representing all six countries ending with an arrangement of Neil Diamond's "America." During that last song, we dressed up the tallest guy in the band in an Uncle Sam outfit and marched him out waving an America flag so the crowd would feel obligated to stand and applaud - a tried and true marching band method for receiving a standing ovation. The history of Texas as told through the six flags was a creative idea for a show, but you sure as hell couldn't do it in this day and age as we played the traditional song Dixie during the CSA portion of the show. Not only that, we formed a huge rebel flag on the field while playing that damn song

The adults involved should have known better. In my own defense, I was just a 15 year old kid doing what he was told, like any average student playing the game of school. In terms of social awareness, it was a very different time - which, admittedly, isn't the best excuse - but 40 years on, it's certainly embarrassing but hardly surprising: as of this writing, my hometown still has a confederate monument on the courthouse square. Shameful. However, a politically incorrect marching drill has absolutely nothing to do with this U2 album other than coincidental timing and the fact that the boys of U2 would never stand for such nonsense, so never mind. As you were.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Wide Awake In America (1985)
Live: Under A Blood Red Sky (1983)