U2 Album: “Under a Blood Red Sky”

Live Aid may have turned U2 into the biggest band on the planet, but the first step to conquer the world had been taken some time ago through the release of this live mini-LP.

This is the recording that sold U2 to the masses. U2 had released 3 good albums but, at that stage, they were essentially a live band. Their studio recordings sounded raw and very live, so it's no wonder that a real live album would make these albums forgettable. Specially if this album concentrates the cream (and only the cream) of those first 3 albums, plus a non-album single and a cult b-side. C'mon, did anybody notice the Sunday Bloody Sunday original version, the one with the violin? Not really. But everybody remembers "This song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday. Ra-ta-ta-ta..." That was the version that got played in every party, every disco, every home.

There is not a single track here that is not better than its studio version. Bono is now Bono Vox, an idol and leader of crowds and causes. And Edge emerges as the modern guitar hero for the 80's. As opposed to the hair-metal gods whose aim was to pack as many notes per second as possible, Edge approach was more of a sonic experience, a mix of punk and psychedelia through very loud amps. And even the Heavy Metal crowd loved him.

If you are not a die-hard fan, this is the first essential U2 album to buy.

This deluxe edition cuts off a few seconds of Electric Co. when Bono starts singing "Send in the Clowns", which is a shame. And adding a couple more tracks to the original 8-song, wouldn't have been a bad idea. But it's still a superb edition of one of the few indispensable live albums in any record collection.

I've been eagerly awaiting a deluxe reissue of this album for years. THis is the best of U2 live really. Joshua Tree (recorded later) is still their peak, but as a live act, this has U2 as their most exciting, back when their political idealologies were blossoming, but just before Bono took his "I'm the greatest politician in the world and I'm also a fabulously cocky rock star" that he's been hell bent on the past 20 years....I love U2 (well not their last 2 releases so much that are a bit too bland for me, but their history: War, Joshua Tree, Under a Blood Red Sky, Zooropa, Achtung Baby, and many other great songs in the other albums.....even Pop has 4-5 absolute classics and for all its missteps had all the experimentation excitement, even though it sounds more dated than Boy today....

Under a Blood Red Sky though is just fabulous, the live cd, and the footage I've seeon over the years on TV.....

I was ready to buy this deluxe edition right away (I still probably will) but am VERY DISAPPOINTED to see that the full DVD concert is not on CD. The CD is just a remastered version of the old, short cd that's been on the market for years. THE enclosed DVD will be great and will cause me to buy this likely in the next 2 months when I get around to it, but while I'm excited/eager to own the DVD in my music DVD collection, I'll probably only watch it once or twice a year....but I do have much more time to listen to the CD, and unfortunately it's the same CD I've owned for years with just remastered sound. Now don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the remastered sound on this classic live record, but I've always wanted more U2 live from this era, and it seems that they are selling fans short by not putting allt he music on the DVD on the accompanying CD....

A real shame.

Overall:

GREAT MUSIC, great live record. U2 Live at their absolute peak. THe songwriting got better later, but they were never better performers than they were at this stage. Just a lot of fun, what live albums should be, but the CD is and always has been a bit too short really to make a list of the ten best live albums ever made (which is a shame because the songs on here are classic and if it was extended it definately could rank in that category).

The parts of the live dvd I've seen in the past are phenomenal. This was a real moment for U2 and for the 80's rock scene (I'm a child of the 80's and a high schooler of the 90's and this album and it's live shots have been played on TV quite a bit over the years and it's spellbounding).....I've seen U2 live in the early 2000's and have watched Rattle and Hum and Own the Zoo TV Live in Australia DVD, and I can say still that Under a Blood Red Sky is them at their most exciting that I've seen....

The negatives: why not put all the music that's on the DVD on the CD? The CD has always been very short, which has always brought this great live album down to reality. This was the opportunity, and this album has been one of those "I really really really can't wait until they expand it" albums for years. This was a real lost opportunity.

Overall, the music's great. The DVD will be a must have, but it's not a 5 star collection, because they jipped us on the cd portion, and that's the portion I personally would listen to the most.

Finally on DVD, one of the great rock shows ever!

I wasn't at the well-known Concert at Red Rocks, where U2 played on June 5, 1983, which was, coincidentally, my 23rd birthday.

I was at the show about a week later, in Dallas, where U2 played to an UNsold-out 1200 seat theater, located inside -- get this -- a bowling alley. (Dallas had a really small "underground" rock scene then, and I saw REM, The Pretenders, and even Talking Heads at this unlikely venue. "The Bronco Bowl" was small and intimate and had great sound). The Irish Rockers had never been to Dallas, and had never even had any commercial radio-play there. If you were a North Texan who didn't have MTV, and a lot of people didn't, it was very likely that you'd still never have heard of U2 at all. Not me, though! Having recently been in college in Rochester, NY, I was very aware of U2, and a very big fan by this point. I had all three of their LPs, including the newly released "War". I would have seen them play at Rochester Institute of Technology in '82 if it hadn't been for a huge exam I had to study for the next day.

So here was my first chance to see them live, on The War Tour, with 800 other hard-core believers.

Let me say they did not disappoint. In fact, Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam proceeded to perform the greatest rock concert I have ever seen, before or since. And I have seen everybody (including U2 in later years)! The kids ripped my head clean off! The energy was incredible. The sound, the songs, the stage itself, were all ablaze. Bono went as far to the back of the stage as he could get, and ran, full speed ahead, taking a leaping header into the crowd. That's right! Head first, arms out, like diving in to a pool, landing on the shoulders of astonished fans. I kept blinking my eyes, wondering if I had actually just seen it, or had hallucinated the dive. (On the Red Rocks video, by contrast, he carefully falls backwards in to the crowd). Bono had not yet achieved the God-like and masterful showmanship he would very soon have. At this point, he was flying high on his own energy, like a kid with a brand new rocket-ship. He was always right on the edge of control, at times literally staggering and swaggering, like he was drunk with his power. (By the time I saw them again in 1985, in a 20,000 seat arena, he had learned to channel and control that spirit like a Shaman). In Dallas in `83, it was already clear that Bono was an incredible performer and would-be Superstar.

Speaking of The Edge, his guitar-playing, all shimmery and drony and dreamy, was a total rock revelation for me, myself a young guitarist. I soon went out and bought an analog delay effect like the one he used.

The girl I took with me was one of those people who had never even heard of U2 before that night. On the way out of the show, she thanked me profusely for introducing her to the astonishing Irish Band. Haven't seen her since that night, but, I'll bet all these years later, she's still telling people, "I saw U2 before they were famous!"

So, why do I post this review of "Under a Blood Red Sky", being that I was not at Red Rocks? Well, it's very fortunate for the world of rock music, and U2 fans, that it was filmed. Back in '83, I was really excited when I heard the film was coming out, and that indeed it was shot within days of the show I saw. It captures U2 on the rise to stardom, and why they deservedly became among the greatest bands in history. Of course I bought the 12" record and the VHS video as soon as they came out.

Is Red Rocks as good as the Dallas show I saw? No. It's actually tamer by comparison. (Too bad they didn't film THAT one!). But will Red Rocks mesmerize you? Will it blow your mind?

Might it be the best rock show you've ever seen?

Oh yeah....

I always loved Under a Blood Red Sky and when this was released with a DVD I had to get it. I have seen U2 a few times and enjoy all their music, but this was a special time for the band in their earlier days as they started to grow.

Many of the most important/famous songs from up to that point are included, GLoria, I Will Follow, Sunday Bloody Sunday. One of my favorites is Seconds.

As others have mentioned the DVD was shot in a certain way so that there seems to be strange effects going on. I wish it was also filmed in another way so that there would be a "clean" looking version just to see what it would look like, but it does not take away from a powerful performance by the band.

Well I am a huge U2 fan so anything they put out there I am buying and I love this!