Running to Stand Still
"Running to Stand Still" | |
---|---|
Song by U2 | |
from the album The Joshua Tree | |
Released | 9 March 1987 |
Recorded | 1986 |
Genre | |
Length | 4:18 |
Label | Island |
Composer(s) | U2 |
Lyricist(s) | Bono |
Producer(s) |
"Running to Stand Still" is a song by
The group explored
Background
"Running to Stand Still" was written by U2 in the context of the
Until their 2014 album Songs of Innocence, U2 had written relatively few songs directly related to their growing up in Dublin, often giving higher priority to works about The Troubles in Northern Ireland or to international concerns.[2][4] When they have written about Dublin, allusions to it have often been disguised.[5] But "Running to Stand Still" was one of those with specific Dublin connections:
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out
This lyric was a reference to the
Bono may have used Ballymun as the inspiration (without any explicit lyrical references to it) for the 1980 U2 song "Shadows and Tall Trees",[4][5] and later likened living in the area to some of the scenes portrayed in the 1992 Mike Newell film Into the West.[7] Driving by there in 1987, Bono said, "See the seven tall buildings there? They're 'the seven towers.' They have the highest suicide rate in Ireland. After they discovered everywhere else in the world that you don't put people living on top of each other, we built them here."[11]
Writing and recording
The song's title phrase originated from Bono asking his brother how his struggling business was going, and the brother responding, "It's like running to stand still."
Although the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were worked on a great deal, the musical composition was essentially improvised by the band during the recording process.[16] Guitarist the Edge began playing some piano chords during a session for another song. Producer Daniel Lanois joined in on guitar, and the rest of the group followed.[3] This initial improvised version incorporated all the elements of the final song structure,[3] and the sound and feel of the group playing in a room together without overdubs contributed to the track's effectiveness.[17] Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", both of which had served as end snippets for "Bad" on the Unforgettable Fire Tour, were loose inspirations.[16] The influence of Reed's works can be felt throughout the song, as can Van Morrison to an extent.[14][18] Indeed, in a published tribute following Reed's 2013 death, Bono offered "Running to Stand Still" as "red-handed proof" of the influence that Reed and the Velvet Underground had had upon U2.[19]
The Edge overdubbed the song's slide acoustic guitar, which was "amplified through a blaster", while working on guitar compositions in a lounge next to the main studio of Windmill Lane Studios. Lanois walked into the room and, impressed by the sound of the Edge's playing, wanted to record it on the spot rather than in the studio. Lanois brought the Edge headphones and plugged his guitar directly into the microphone input of the mixing console to record it. The producer said: "The blaster was amplifying his slide guitar in a lovely way. He had honed in on this sound and sort of altered the EQs and controls so that it was pleasant to him".[20]
Composition and interpretation
Much of The Joshua Tree showed the band's fascination with American culture, politics, and musical forms,
"Running to Stand Still" is a soft, piano-based
In the song, the woman's addiction and misdirected desire for transcendence
In the liner notes to the 20th anniversary reissue of The Joshua Tree, writer Bill Flanagan stated, "'Running to Stand Still' is for anyone who feels trapped in an impossible circumstance by overwhelming responsibility."[31] Uncut magazine writer Andrew Mueller noted that the theme was effective in depicting "the drug as another bogus escape, another fraudulent promise that there's ever any evading the truth."[12]
Reception
"Running to Stand Still" earned critical praise upon The Joshua Tree's release, which itself received very favourable reviews and went on to become the group's best-selling album. Rolling Stone wrote, "After the first few times through [it], you notice the remarkable music... It sounds like a lovely, peaceful reverie – except that this is a junkie's reverie, and when that realization hits home, the gentle acoustic lullaby acquires a corrosive power."[1] In Time magazine's 1987 cover story on the band, Jay Cocks wrote that "A U2 tune like 'Running to Stand Still', with a trancelike melody that slips over the transom of consciousness, insinuates itself into your dreams."[18] The Uncut magazine Ultimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best.[12] The 1991 Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".[32]
"Running to Stand Still" became a Dublin anthem of sorts, immortalizing the Ballymun towers.[8][9][14][16] It has been considered by pop music writer Brent Mann as one of the more powerful songs written about drug addiction, joining the likes of Jefferson Airplane's 1967 "White Rabbit", Neil Young's 1972 "The Needle and the Damage Done", Martika's 1989 "Toy Soldiers", and Third Eye Blind's 1997 "Semi-Charmed Life".[33]
Irish music writer
Live performances
Throughout its live history, "Running to Stand Still" has nearly always followed "
During the Zoo TV Tour, the song's performance was significantly altered. In these shows, the Edge played guitar on his Fender Stratocaster with the band on the main stage, while Bono sang the song on the B-stage with a headset microphone. Bono mimed the actions of a heroin addict, rolling up his sleeves and then pretending to spike his arm during the final lyric, after which he would sing "Hallelujah" over and over while reaching up into a pillar of white light.[29] Writer Robyn Brothers sees the addition of the "Hallelujah" coda as indicating that while organized religion may act in the role of a sedative, a notion akin to other Zoo TV themes, the role of personal faith may still have a "desiring, affirming, and 'deterritorializing' force."[29] At the culmination of the "Bullet the Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still" sequence, red and yellow smoke flares ignited at either end of the stage (an idea of U2's security chief, who was a U.S. Vietnam veteran),[36] as the coda segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". This arrangement and performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included in the 1994 concert film Zoo TV: Live from Sydney.
"Running to Stand Still" was not played on the
Legacy
Future music video director
By mid-2000s, the Ballymun towers were in the process of being torn down, and the Ballymun area was the target of a €1.8 billion regeneration scheme intended to create a self-sustaining community of 30,000 people that would be more successful than the original 1960s plan.[8][50][51] Despite their failure as housing, the towers had left a long cultural legacy, of which "Running to Stand Still" was the first and perhaps best-known exemplar;[52] the link between the towers and the song was mentioned in some tourist books about Dublin.[51] Former towers residents were not always happy with the song. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoir The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun detailed her raising there in the 1970s and 1980s, readily acknowledged the problems there and also wanted to get out at the time.[10] But she later came to realize that there had been much that was good at the towers – in terms of a collective wit among residents and a helping sense of community – which had been ignored by the media.[10][53] She thus wrote, "regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there was certainly more than one way out."[10] In a newspaper interview, Connolly suggested that the song might have had a deleterious effect: "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture an unemployed person, living alone in a flat in Ballymun, listening to that song and agreeing with what their hero was saying."[54] She further noted that some websites erroneously state that Bono grew up in Ballymun itself, and said, "Perhaps it gave him a sort of street-cred to associate himself with the estate he could see from his bedroom window in nice, safe, respectable Cedarwood Road in Glasnevin."[54]
The Ballymun area was still so associated with "Running to Stand Still" and the drug problem of the time, that local backers of the regeneration went to pains to point out the recent progress.[50] A Bono remark that it was dangerous to walk in Ballymun at night found a good deal of publicity.[54] A fansite listing U2-related Dublin area sights in 2004 mentioned Ballymun's connection to the song, cautioning, "do not go here on foot – this is a bad area".[55] U2's official website noted that the area was much changed now; Bono himself said "he's very proud to come from the Ballymun area"; the fansite subsequently modified its listing and said an on-foot visit to Ballymun was warranted.[50][55]
See also
- List of covers of U2 songs - Running to Stand Still
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f Pond, Steve (9 April 1987). "Review: The Joshua Tree". Rolling Stone. No. 497. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ a b c Rafter (2001), pp. 222–223
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o McCormick 2006, p. 182
- ^ a b c Turner, Steve (20 April 1991). "Rock Holidays: The Irishness on the Inside of Bono and U2". The Independent. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b Cogan (2008), p. 90
- ^ a b Lowry, Chris (4 August 1998). "Dublin: The rock star homes tour". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b Flanagan (1995), pp. 151, 257
- ^ a b c d "Dubliner's Dublin – Ballymun". The Dubliner. 13 May 2008. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b "Sun sets on Ballymun towers". Ireland On-Line. 9 July 2004. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b c d Connolly (2006), p. 2
- ^ a b DeCurtis, Anthony (7 May 1987). "Truths and Consequences". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b c Mueller, Andrew (April 2009). "The Joshua Tree". Uncut. p. 59.
- ^ a b c d Graham, Bill; Stokes, Niall (May 1987). "U2 Gives Themselves Away". Musician. pp. 80–88.
- ^ a b c d e Graham (2004), p. 33
- ^ Flanagan (1995), p. 352
- ^ a b c d Stokes (2005), p. 70
- ^ Hutchinson (2003), p. 76
- ^ a b Cocks, Jay (27 April 1987). "Band on the Run". Time. Archived from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ Bono (6 November 2013). "Bono Remembers Lou Reed's 'Perfect Noise'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
- ^ Prendergast, Mark (September 1987). "The Magic of Daniel Lanois (Part II)". Sound on Sound. Vol. 2, no. 11. pp. 42–46.
- ^ Jones, Chris (6 December 2007). "U2 The Joshua Tree Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ Rockwell, John (29 March 1987). "U2 Makes a Bid for 'Great Band' Status". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ^ a b c "Running to Stand Still – U2". Musicnotes.com. Retrieved 4 November 2009. See piano part and leadsheet, some of which are available in preview mode.
- Allmusic. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
- ^ Bosso, Joe (September 2005). "The Edge: Memory Man". Guitar World. Archived from the original on 2009-11-03.
- ^ Jobling (2014), p. 162
- ^ King, Philip, and Nuala O'Connor (directors) (1998). Classic Albums: U2 The Joshua Tree (Television documentary). Eagle Rock Entertainment.
- ^ a b U2 (1987). The Joshua Tree (Media notes). Island Records.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Brothers (1999), p. 260
- ^ Edwards (2006), p. 137
- ^ Meagher, John (24 November 2007). "Bono's desert blooms again". Irish Independent.
- ^ Robbins (1991), p. 708
- ^ Mann (2005), p. 98
- ISBN 978-7-09-893419-6. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
- ^ McCormick 2006, p. 190.
- ^ Flanagan (1995), pp. 290, 444
- ^ Baltin, Steve (29 March 2005). "Live Review: U2 Go Old School in Cali". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 22, 2008.
- ^ "U2 Setlist: June 19, 2005 at London, England". U2tours.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
- ^ a b Stockman (2005), pp. 238–239
- ^ Williams, Scott (30 June 2005). "Cardiff (29/6/05) review". eFestivals.
- ^ Jobling (2014), p. 305
- ^ Gundersen, Edna (30 March 2005). "U2's Vertigo tour is a whirl of rock 'n' roll passion". USA Today.
- ^ Farber, Jim (16 May 2005). "U2 Good? U Bet!". New York Daily News.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Pareles, Jon (19 May 2005). "With U2, the Ideals Fly Along With Lights and Chords". The New York Times.
- ^ Gallo, Phil (3 April 2005). "U2 (Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim; 20,000 seats; $165 top)". Variety.
- The Vancouver Sun.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Sohal, Kulwant (April 2002). "Everything A-List Video Directors Can't Live Without". Vibe.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Wilson (2006), p. 132
- The CW.
- ^ a b c "I See Seven Towers..." U2.com. 9 July 2004. Archived from the original on 22 July 2004.
- ^ a b Davenport (2008), pp. 52–53
- ^ "A towering cultural legacy". Sunday Tribune. 17 May 2009.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun by Lynn Connolly". Read Ireland Book Reviews (358). 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-12-18.
- ^ a b c Ekin, Des (17 September 2006). "How the Mun was my total tower of strength". Sunday World.
- ^ a b "U2's Dublin". U2exit.com. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
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- Cogan, Višnja (2008). U2: An Irish Phenomenon. New York: Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1-933648-71-2.
- Connolly, Lynn (2006). The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun (paperback). Dublin: .
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- Drake, Durant (1922). America Faces the Future. New York: The Macmillan Company.
- Edwards, Gavin (2006). Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?: Music's Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed. New York: Three River's Press. ISBN 0-307-34603-X.
- ISBN 0-385-31154-0.
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- Hutchinson, John (2003). "Luminous Times: U2 Wrestle with Their Moment of Glory". In Bordowitz, Hank (ed.). The U2 Reader: A Quarter Century of Commentary, Criticism, and Reviews. Milwaukee: ISBN 0-634-03832-X.
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- Rafter, Kevin (2001). "'Outside is America': The Lyrics of U2". In Dawe, Gerald; Mulreany, Michael (eds.). The Ogham Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Ireland. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. ISBN 1-902448-59-6.
- Robbins, Ira A. (1991). The Trouser Press Record Guide. New York: ISBN 0-02-036361-3.
- Stockman, Steve (2005). Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 (Revised ed.). Orlando: Relevant Media Group. ISBN 0-9760357-5-8.
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- ISBN 0-00-719668-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - Wilson, Leah, ed. (2006). Welcome to Wisteria Lane: On America's Favorite Desperate Housewives. Dallas: ISBN 1-932100-79-2.
External links