Last week, I was fairly critical of U2’s video for their cover of “Night and Day,” and I commented that it was obvious that U2 was a band in flux at the time that video was being made. Well, with this week’s offering, U2’s video for “The Fly,” all of that uncertainty is out the […]
Read MoreU2 VidWorks – Night and Day
Today we are talking about the promotional video for U2’s cover of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.” This video is interesting for several reasons, the first of which is that it was the first song to incorporate some electronic elements, and therefore to break with the more traditional rock music that U2 had been doing […]
Read MoreU2 VidWorks – All I Want Is You
This week, we are discussing “All I Want Is You,” U2’s final video of the 1980s, as well as their last collaboration with Meiert Avis, the man who directed their very first music video. I have complained in the past that few of Avis’ videos for the band were about anything. Well, this one is […]
Read MoreU2 Vidworks – When Love Comes to Town
Today marks a little bit of a first for the Vidworks series, as this is the first time that I am writing about a song that has multiple very different videos. In the past, we have talked about variations on the same video, such as with “With or Without You,” where the second, less well-known […]
Read MoreU2 Vidworks – Angel of Harlem
I sometimes tend to think of the promo video for “Angel of Harlem” as a slightly inferior sibling to the video for “Desire.” This is because the two videos have a very similar style and vibe, and it is obvious when viewing them that they were directed by the same individual, Richard Lowenstein. It’s not […]
Read MoreU2 VidWorks: Desire
There is something special about the video for U2’s song “Desire.” I have long considered it to be the beginning of an era for the band, a time when they paid more attention to music videos than they had before. That’s not to say that it was the band’s first music video with any worth […]
Read MoreU2 VidWorks: One Tree Hill
Some songs in U2’s catalog just sound better live. Songs like “Bad” and “Until the End of the World” have a quality when performed on-stage that, as good as the studio recordings are, just can’t be matched. I am starting to think that “One Tree Hill” belongs on this list as well. As evidence, I […]
Read MoreU2 VidWorks: Red Hill Mining Town
Today, we are taking a look at the much-maligned promo video for U2’s “Red Hill Mining Town.” For those of you who don’t know the story, this video was filmed in 1987 before the Joshua Tree album had been released, when “Red Hill Mining Town” was still being considered as the lead single from the […]
Read MoreU2 Vidworks: Spanish Eyes
Every week, before I actually write my article, I listen to or watch the piece of art that I am writing about that week, even if it is something that I have seen hundreds of times. As I was watching the video for Spanish Eyes right before beginning this article, it occurred to me that […]
Read MoreU2 Vidworks: In God’s Country
I have mixed feelings about the video for “In God’s Country.” I’m not even sure that we should be counting it as a promotional video because it was only ever released as part of an MTV documentary titled “Outside it’s America,” which was filmed and shown in 1987. The video for “In God’s Country” is […]
Read More