Myself and Thomas Ehren (my son) 1987.
So, here's the promised post:
U2's Where the Streets Have No Name, released 1987 on the Joshua Tree Album.
I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.
I wanna feel sunlight on my face.
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace.
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name x 3
We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do.
The city's a flood, and our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust.
I'll show you a place
High on the desert plain
Where the streets have no name x 3
We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).
One of the great things about this song is the build up at the beginning. The swell of music sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it, and when I've heard it live - ecstasy. I have also played this song 'live' in my home town of Canberra, in a covers band called: Howard Hughes is Alive and Well; so called because our drummer's name was Howard Hughes! I used to play Bass guitar and it was one of those songs you could put a lot of energy into the playing of it without losing the rhythm.
When the Joshua Tree album was released I was 21 years old, married and about to become a father! Yikes! There where a couple of songs from this album that hit the mark for me and the other stand out was Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, it was a song I used to sing to my new born son when I was nursing him. But it is 'Streets' that still sends those shivers up my spine, in part a nostalgia nod to those times but also the song's yearning quality measured a similar quality in my own heart/mind/spirit.
It wouldn't be too long before the marriage failed and I was shunted into a life of distance parenting, at first from the easy distance of the same suburb but in a few years to come from another city a couple of hours drive away ... different streets, a change of scene, building a new life ... tearing another down. The music swells in resonance of a memory captured.
That's the irony of it I suppose, the well worn plan of family and building a future for that thing didn't come with a map nor compass, and although making big 'adult' decisions, we were all still kids at heart trying to find our way. I was also in the final stages of my god bothering phase and took the responsibility for all this stuff earnestly and seriously. But, for my part, I had no tools to deal with the difficulties that came my way and I made the harrowing decision, after counselling and consultation, to leave the home and end a relationship that was becoming destructive and having a negative impact on my son. It's a sign to me how quickly Tom settled after the separation but it was a huge price to pay and one that my son and I are still paying for.
I wanna take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name ...
The bummer for my blog at the moment is that I haven't figured out how to add audio but I'll leave it up to you to search out this track for it's aural pleasures.
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