Notes on Rock's Hottest Ticket

Considered by many to be the primere bootleg recording of U2's Joshua Tree tour, Rock's Hottest Ticket (RHT) captures a great band at a high point in its career. In my opinion, the Rattle and Hum video is just as good, if not better (after all, you get to see U2 as well as hear them).

There are many bootlegs with the same title as this one. The cover art is usually different, but I'm not sure if the contents vary. As far as bootlegs go, RHT is extremely high quality. Crowd noise creeps in a bit when the audience thinks it's on stage and begins to sing along, but other than that, the sound quality is superb. There are only one or two bootlegs that sound better (a few of the Zooropa shows, for example). The discs themselves are great looking picture discs with an image of the front cover on disc 1, and the back cover on disc 2. The back cover is a great shot of Edge playing guitar with Bono next to him singing. Here's a rather large (450K) JPEG image of both the front and back cover.

But wait, there's more! RHT even comes with a booklet in the CD case! Many of U2's albums don't even include one! It contains some great pictures of the band on stage, along with a short essay (in both English and Italian). Here it is, with most of the typos and incorrect translations from Italian fixed:

Dubbed by "Rolling Stone" magazine as "the band of the 80's" and "Rock's Hottest Ticket" by "Time" magazine, U2 entered domineeringly among the world of rock stars. Their album "The Joshua Tree" topped Billboard's album chart for 11 weeks, with two number 1 singles ("With Or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For") and another top 15 ("Where The Streets Have No Name").

As for the 18-month world tour, U2 sold tickets faster than Springsteen did on his record-setting "Born in the USA" tour of 1984/85. This incredible success cannot be explained only by a reached maturity of the band and by the mythical fame of their live concerts. In reality, we can say that everything started with U2's performance at LIVE-AID in 1985. During that show, U2 showcased "Bad", a song dealing with the horrors of drug addiction. In front of millions of television watchers worldwide, Bono lept into the huge audience, plucked two girls out of the crowd, and embraced each one in a poignant symbol of affection for the crowd. It was that moment which gave rock audiences a strong impression that U2 had become a "band of the people".

This show in Chicago opens like many of their concerts with "Where the Streets Have no Name", and it slides flowently and emotionally along the lines followed by "The Joshua Tree", touching most of the popular tunes of their career: "I Will Follow", "MLK", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", a striking "Bad", "Pride", "Gloria", and the already classic finale with "40". Of note is the rare performance of "Springhill Mining Disaster" by Peggy Seeger and "Mothers of the Disappeared".

siracusa@mindspring.com