I bought the Rattle and Hum album when it came out in 1988. This song became one of my favorites on the album. It wasn’t a hit or even a single but the song stood out and Bono’s voice cut through with the lyrics.
The song was written by Bono and Bob Dylan. This album made me a fan of U2. I started to get into their earlier music after this. The band had changed their sound with this album. They released a fantastic single Angel of Harlem and that immediately made me a fan.
On their Joshua Tree tour when Bono woke up with the song in his head. He thought for sure it was a Dylan song that he was remembering. He drove out to Dylan’s place and asked if it belonged to him. Dylan told him wasn’t, and he helped Bono finish the song. Dylan had two writer credits on Rattle And Hum because U2 also covered All Along The Watchtower.
The song was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis Tennessee in 1987. Bob Dylan sings backup vocals on this track. There is one morbid fact about this song. Bono was staying with the Edge in a Beverly Hills mansion where he started the song. That mansion would be where the Menendez brothers would later kill their parents.
Bono: “Part of the rock star disease is stewing in your own juices. All writers think their feelings are important but a great writer realizes that though his feelings may be important, they’re not all important enough to share. ‘The palace of your shame’ describes how people build their lives into a monument of self-pity. Irish people love the melancholy. It’s that bitter sweetness that we do better than anyone else. I always reckon it’s the rain.”
“Love Rescue Me”
Love rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don’t let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love rescue me
Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love rescue me
And the sun in the sky
Makes a shadow of you and I
Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea
I’m here without a name
In the palace of my shame
Said, love rescue me
In the cold mirror of a glass
I see my reflection pass
See the dark shades of what I used to be
See the purple of her eyes
The scarlet of my lies
Love rescue me
Yea, though I walk
In the valley of shadow
Yea, I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me
Sha la la…sha la la la
Sha la la la…ha la la…
Sha la la la…sha la la la
Sha la la la…sha la la
Sha la la la…sha la la la
Sha la la…
I said love, love rescue me
I said love
Climb up the mountains, said love
I said love, oh my love
On the hill of the son
I’m on the eve of a storm
And my word you must believe in
Oh, I said love, rescue me
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah…
Yeah I’m here without a name
In the palace of my shame
I said love rescue me
I’ve conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love rescue me
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This does sound like a Dylan song, from the very first sounds. I can listen to this one to the end. U2 songs typically sound good to me for the first verse or so, then I’m bored. If I have a favorite U2 album, it is this one. Maybe it’s because it was recorded at Sun, but whatever the reason, I like the vibe of the songs more than their others.
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It’s my favorite album as well by them…they changed their sound on this one.
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PS Not related to this song, but I’ve been trying to find a song I remember from the early 1970s, and can’t find it anywhere. I can hear the opening line in my head as clear as if it were yesterday, but I don’t remember the name of the song or the group. It started with “In order to form a more perfect union”, aka the opening line of the US Constitution. Then I think it turned into a social comment song from there. I can’t believe it doesn’t come up in a browser search or Youtube search. Maybe it has or will come up in your song research sometime.
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Could it possibly be this song? The Preamble from School House Rock?
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No, that’s not it. The song began with “In order to form…”
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Ok…I’ll continue…I found a few but not from the early seventies…I love hunting for songs!
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Good luck. My searches keep coming up with a newer one too, and that one’s not even close. I’ve never had a past song elude me like this. I thought all of them were on the web by now. We may be the ones to bring back a truly long forgotten gem. 😀
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I’m going to try! The early seventies is the reason I thought it could have been the School House Rock…I do like that one also!
I’m determined to find it…was it a female or male singing it or do you remember?
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I think it was a 70s group, and more than one voice singing that opening line in unison, but I could be wrong about it not being a solo. I think the group was rock, not Motown, but I’m not 100% sure on that either.
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Ok…I’ll keep checking. That should be enough to go on.
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One would think,… If anyone can find it, I say you will. I’m stymied.
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I’ll try and I will post at your site if I can find it or here in this thread.
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Cool! I’ll keep trying to remember more about it. It was played on the radio, so I don’t think it’s an obscure deep track. But it could have been a one-hit wonder.
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This is a great soundtrack and I’m not big on soundtracks. Like yourself I bought this right when the movie dropped. When the movie opened here in town my girlfriend at the time wanted to go opening night. I said no way as it would be packed so I said lets go either the second or third night and I think it was the third night and there were 15 people in the theatre to see Rattle And Hum on the big screen!
I was like Oh oh …this movie is in trouble lol and the movie is good but U2 should have just done a straight to VhS release of the movie.
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Yea rock movies usually only do well on the midnight movie circuit…I didn’t get to see it then. Angel of Harlem was what opened them up to me.
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I enjoyed the background story that you told with this song, Max.
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Thanks Jim…it is interesting. This is one of the first posts I ever made but it was barely a paragraph and only one person saw it who is gone now….so I spruced it up and added a lot to it.
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Nice job.
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I’m sure I must have noticed the Bob Dylan credit before but I’d forgotten it. Quite a good song; it was rare for them to turn out one which wasn’t back in the ’80s. Like you & I have discussed before, I don’t like the album as much as you…I find it good but uneven…but it was a cool idea, mixing live tracks & new ones and it was good they always kept moving or evolving musically
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This is one of those songs that, like a lot of the Band ones (there’s a Dylan tie-in too!) sounds like it is an old standard.
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It does…it’s very basic and I mean that in a good way.
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Eactly.
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Dang it- proof reading crashes and burns, in one word! ‘Exactly.’
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I do the same thing!
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Like the song and the album.
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Great song. Dylan’s co-writing credit completely escaped me. I did watch the movie in Germany at the time with my then-bandmate and longtime music buddy and really liked it. From what I recall, the theatre wasn’t empty but wasn’t sold out either. I was a relatively small theatre in Cologne to begin with.
U2 first got on my radar screen with “Pride”, which made me borrow “The Unforgettable Fire” and tape it on music cassette. I was taping music on MCs like a maniac at the time. I think my favorite U2 album remains “The Joshua Tree”, though I do like “Rattle and Hum” as well.
While I know U2 music spanning their entire career, it’s mostly songs rather than entire albums.
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You know why this album stood out to me? It’s because when you listen to their earlier albums….The Edge always had that delay going. I like delay and I think he is great but it was in everything they did…but suddenly…Angel of Harlem and the other songs were played straight…it caught my attention right away.
I saw the movie after it was released on vhs I believe.
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I hear you about The Edge’s distinct guitar sound, especially on U2’s earlier albums. “Angel of Harlem” with its horns is definitely different, as are tunes like “Desire”, “Van Diemen’s Land” and “When Love Comes to Town”! It all results in more sonic variety. BTW, I also like U2’s covers of “Helter Skelter” and “All Along the Watchtower”.
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Exactly… I was burned out on that sound he had and evidently he was also.
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I saw the album on DVD but way later than hearing the album. My favorite thing about it is how Bono introduces Helter Skelter. That will go down in R&R history for me. I also love the movie’s “When Love Comes to Town” with Guest Mr. BB King. Didn’t Bonnie Raitt do a cover of Angel of Harlem? I thought she was a guest on this album also but when I looked at wiki no dice. MOST cool that Bono looked to Dylan and he’s on the studio album. Definitely a gospel feel to the song, and yes, us Irish know how to suffer more than just about anyone. Excellent Bono quote, Max. Lovely post for a gloomy Sunday afternoon 🙂
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No that was Angel of Montgomery that Raitt did. A truly great song that John Prine wrote.
Thanks Lisa!
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You’re welcome. Ah!
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No idea Dylan was connected to this tune, or even to Bono and U2. They are as far apart as oil and water. Love U2, and think that one day Dylan may reach a form of sainthood, possibly a statue in the Village. To me, the ultimate Dylan album is Nashville Skyline. Great stuff Max.
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Ha! I was just listening to this album last weekend (only got through Side 1 – I found this at a thrift shop on cassette). So after seeing this entry I made sure to listen to Love Rescue Me today. A pretty great album as a whole.
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Thanks for reading…yea I like the album a lot.
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