Almost 25 years ago, on November 4, 1988, exactly one month after my 16th birthday, I piled a bunch of my friends into my GMC Jimmy and drove to the movie theater to see the premiere of Rattle and Hum. People were dancing in the aisles. It was almost like being at a concert, not that I knew what a concert was actually like. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to go to concerts in high school, so I missed The Joshua Tree tour. Rattle and Hum the movie was my Joshua Tree tour. As if seeing U2 perform in concert wasn’t exciting enough, Rattle and Hum also showed me U2 recording in Sun Studio and touring Elvis Presley’s Graceland. Talk about my worlds colliding.

I loved Rattle and Hum the album almost as much as The Joshua Tree. To me it was just an extension of it, sort of a Joshua Tree part 2. My favorites off of Rattle and Hum were and still are Heartland, Love Rescue Me, Angel of Harlem, and b-sides Hallelujah Here She Comes and A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel. I have never heard Heartland performed live, but I asked Bono about it once on the ZooTv tour. He agreed it was a great song, but skirted the question of ever playing it live. I was lucky enough to hear Love Rescue Me, or at least part of it, last summer at the 360 show in Salt Lake City in honor of Bob Dylan’s birthday.

I don’t think I can truly express how special Rattle and Hum is to me, and how crucial it was in growing my love for U2 – in my musical journey.

This blog post is part of my A to Z April Challenge about ‘My U2′ – what I love about U2 from A to Z. Thanks for stopping by. I am also blogging the A to Z Challenge on my other blog Deena’s Days about ‘My Music’ – music I love from A to Z.