| "Running to Stand Still" | |
|---|---|
| Song byU2 | |
| from the albumThe Joshua Tree | |
| Released | 9 March 1987 |
| Recorded | 1986 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 4:18 |
| Label | Island |
| Composer | U2 |
| Lyricist | Bono |
| Producers | |
"Running to Stand Still" is a song byrock bandU2, and it is the fifth track from their 1987 album,The Joshua Tree. A slowballad based on piano and guitar, it describes aheroin-addicted couple living inDublin'sBallymun flats; the towers have since become associated with the song. Though a lot of time was dedicated to the lyrics, the music was improvised with co-producerDaniel Lanois during a recording session for the album.
The group exploredAmerican music forThe Joshua Tree, and as such, "Running to Stand Still" demonstratesfolk rock andacoustic blues influences. The song was praised by critics, many of them calling it one of the record's best tracks. It has since been included in the regular set lists of four U2 concert tours, in two different arrangements and with several possible thematic interpretations.
"Running to Stand Still" was written by U2 in the context of theheroin addiction epidemic in Dublin of the 1980s, much like "Bad" (and to some extent "Wire") had been from their 1984 albumThe Unforgettable Fire.[1][2] BassistAdam Clayton has referred to the song as "Bad Part II".[3]Thin Lizzy frontmanPhil Lynott's decline and death from addiction also resonated with Clayton at the time.[3]
Until their 2014 albumSongs of Innocence, U2 had written relatively few songs directly related to their growing up in Dublin, often giving higher priority to works aboutThe Troubles inNorthern Ireland or to international concerns.[2][4] When they have written about Dublin, allusions to it have often been disguised.[5] But "Running to Stand Still" was one of those with specific Dublin connections:
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out
This lyric was a reference to theBallymun flats, a group of seven local authority, high-rise residentialtower blocks built in theBallymun neighborhood of Dublin during the 1960s.[2] Paul Hewson (later known as U2's lead vocalistBono) had grown up on Cedarwood Road in the adjacentGlasnevin neighborhood,[6] in a house across fields behind the towers, near his friends and future artistsFionán Hanvey (later known as Gavin Friday) andDerek Rowan (later known as Guggi).[3][7][8] Bono had played in the towers' foundations as they were being built, then traveled in their elevators for the novel experience.[3] Over time, poor maintenance, lack of facilities for children, transient tenancies, and other factors caused social conditions and communal ties to break down in the flats.[3][8][9] The place began to stink of urine and vomit, and glue sniffers and used needles were common sights, as were appearances of theGarda Síochána.[3][10] Guggi later lived in the towers during years that he was struggling personally with drugs.[3] It was through his exposure to people without hope in the flats that Bono began to develop hissocial consciousness.[4]
Bono may have used Ballymun as the inspiration (without any explicit lyrical references to it) for the 1980 U2 song "Shadows and Tall Trees",[4][5] and later likened living in the area to some of the scenes portrayed in the 1992Mike Newell filmInto the West.[7] Driving by there in 1987, Bono said, "See the seven tall buildings there? They're 'the seven towers.' They have the highest suicide rate in Ireland. After they discovered everywhere else in the world that youdon't put people living on top of each other, webuilt them here."[11]
The song's title phrase originated from Bono asking his brother how his struggling business was going, and the brother responding, "It's like running to stand still."[3] Bono had not heard the phrase before, and he thought it expressed what heroin addiction and the effects of the drug on the body were like;[3] a writer later described the title as a "perfect distillation of the dynamic of feeding on addiction."[12] Bono had heard a real story about a pair of heroin addicts, a man and a woman, who lived in the Ballymun towers.[3][13] Out of money and unable to pay the rent due to their habit, the man became aheroin smuggler, operating between Dublin andAmsterdam and taking enormous risks for a big payday.[3][13] Bono felt the man was decent at heart but was constrained by his squalid living conditions, as well as poor choices, and Bono wanted to illustrate how these poor conditions affected their lives.[3][13] The resulting lyric does not describe any of this explicitly, but insteadlimns the emotional atmosphere that the couple live in. In doing so, the song is not judgmental and shows sympathy for the woman.[14] A character monologue fromWim Wenders' 1984 filmParis, Texas, was also a significant influence on Bono's writing of the song.[15]
Although the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were worked on a great deal, the musical composition was essentially improvised by the band during the recording process.[16] Guitaristthe Edge began playing some pianochords during a session for another song. ProducerDaniel Lanois joined in on guitar, and the rest of the group followed.[3] This initial improvised version incorporated all the elements of the final song structure,[3] and the sound and feel of the group playing in a room together withoutoverdubs contributed to the track's effectiveness.[17]Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" andElton John's "Candle in the Wind", both of which had served as end snippets for "Bad" onthe Unforgettable Fire Tour, were loose inspirations.[16] The influence of Reed's works can be felt throughout the song, as canVan Morrison to an extent.[14][18] Indeed, in a published tribute following Reed's 2013 death, Bono offered "Running to Stand Still" as "red-handed proof" of the influence that Reed andthe Velvet Underground had had upon U2.[19]
The Edge overdubbed the song'sslide acoustic guitar, which was "amplified through a blaster", while working on guitar compositions in a lounge next to the main studio ofWindmill Lane Studios. Lanois walked into the room and, impressed by the sound of the Edge's playing, wanted to record it on the spot rather than in the studio. Lanois brought the Edge headphones and plugged his guitar directly into the microphone input of themixing console to record it. The producer said: "The blaster was amplifying his slide guitar in a lovely way. He had honed in on this sound and sort of altered theEQs and controls so that it was pleasant to him".[20]
Much ofThe Joshua Tree showed the band's fascination with American culture, politics, and musical forms,[21] and while the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were Irish-based, the musical arrangement for it began with touches ofacoustic blues andcountry blues that represented an idiomatic stretch for the group.[1][22] Although producerBrian Eno was known for introducing European textural music into U2's sound, he also had a strong fondness for folk and gospel music.[13] Indeed, writers have seen echoes ofBruce Springsteen's stark acoustic 1982 albumNebraska in the song's sound.[1][14]
"Running to Stand Still" is a soft, piano-basedballad played in akey ofD major at atempo of 92 beats per minute.[23] The song follows a traditionalverse-chorus form. In the introduction and conclusion is a mournful slide acoustic guitar in Eno and Lanois' production[24] thatRolling Stone called both grim and dreamy.[11] Most of the piano part alternates between theD andG chords,[23] an example of the Edge's longtime practice of composing around two-chord progressions.[25] The part gives the song an elegiac feel.[26] Accompanying the piano for much of the song is Lanois' soft playing of a so-called electric "scrape guitar", which he contributed to addtexture.[27] Soft, echoing drums fromLarry Mullen Jr., enter after the second chorus.[14] Aharmonica part from Bono[28] takes the song to its faded conclusion.[1] Bono'svocal range in the song runs fromA3 to D6.[23]
In the song, the woman's addiction and misdirected desire for transcendence[29] are reflected in lines such as "She runs through the streets / With her eyes painted red" and "She will suffer the needle chill". Bono's lyrics evoke helplessness and frustration in the lines "You've got to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice". The title phrase is not used until the last line of the song.[28] This compositional technique relies upondelayed gratification and is heard in a few other popular songs, such asthe Cure's "Just Like Heaven" andGeorge Michael's "One More Try".[30]
In the liner notes to the 20th anniversary reissue ofThe Joshua Tree, writer Bill Flanagan stated, "'Running to Stand Still' is for anyone who feels trapped in an impossible circumstance by overwhelming responsibility."[31]Uncut magazine writer Andrew Mueller noted that the theme was effective in depicting "the drug as another bogus escape, another fraudulent promise that there's ever any evading the truth."[12]
"Running to Stand Still" earned critical praise uponThe Joshua Tree's release, which itself received very favourable reviews and went on to become the group's best-selling album.Rolling Stone wrote, "After the first few times through [it], you notice the remarkable music... It sounds like a lovely, peaceful reverie – except that this is a junkie's reverie, and when that realization hits home, the gentle acoustic lullaby acquires a corrosive power."[1] InTime magazine's 1987 cover story on the band,Jay Cocks wrote that "A U2 tune like 'Running to Stand Still', with a trancelike melody that slips over the transom of consciousness, insinuates itself into your dreams."[18] TheUncut magazineUltimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best.[12] The 1991Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".[32]
"Running to Stand Still" became a Dublin anthem of sorts, immortalizing the Ballymun towers.[8][9][14][16] It has been considered by pop music writer Brent Mann as one of the more powerful songs written about drug addiction, joining the likes ofJefferson Airplane's 1967 "White Rabbit",Neil Young's 1972 "The Needle and the Damage Done",Martika's 1989 "Toy Soldiers", andThird Eye Blind's 1997 "Semi-Charmed Life".[33]
Irish music writerNiall Stokes considers "Running to Stand Still" to be one of the most important songs onThe Joshua Tree, not only on its own merits as a "mature and compelling... haunting, challenging piece of pop poetry", but also because its moral ambiguity and lack of condemnation of its characters presaged the chaotic direction the band would take a few years later withAchtung Baby and theZoo TV Tour.[16]Rolling Stone's 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" – which placedThe Joshua Tree at 26th – said that while the album is remembered for the Edge's trademark guitar sounds and the group's spiritual quests, "Running to Stand Still" remains one of its most moving songs.[34] This latter sentiment was echoed by theIrish Independent.[6]
Throughout its live history, "Running to Stand Still" has nearly always followed "Bullet the Blue Sky", matching the order in which they appear on the album. It was first played live on theJoshua Tree Tour, with the Edge playing keyboards and Bono playing guitar, usually acoustic. During the 27 May 1987 show atRome'sStadio Flaminio – the opener of that tour's second leg, and the first in Europe – 35,000 people sang along to the song's "Ha la la la de day" refrain, bringing a side-of-stage Brian Eno to tears.[35] One performance of the song was captured on the 1988 filmed documentary of the tour,Rattle and Hum, but was not included on the accompanying album. A different tour performance was included on both the DVD and albumLive from Paris, released in 2007. On theLovetown Tour, during one Dublin show that was broadcast worldwide, the song segued into a verse ofEwan MacColl's classic ode to industrial bleakness, "Dirty Old Town"; this show was released in 2004 asLive from the Point Depot.
During the Zoo TV Tour, the song's performance was significantly altered. In these shows, the Edge played guitar on hisFender Stratocaster with the band on the main stage, while Bono sang the song on theB-stage with a headset microphone. Bono mimed the actions of a heroin addict, rolling up his sleeves and then pretending to spike his arm during the final lyric, after which he would sing "Hallelujah" over and over while reaching up into a pillar of white light.[29] Writer Robyn Brothers sees the addition of the "Hallelujah" coda as indicating that while organized religion may act in the role of a sedative, a notion akin to other Zoo TV themes, the role of personal faith may still have a "desiring, affirming, and 'deterritorializing' force."[29] At the culmination of the "Bullet the Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still" sequence, red and yellow smoke flares ignited at either end of the stage (an idea of U2's security chief, who was a U.S.Vietnam veteran),[36] as the coda segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". This arrangement and performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included in the 1994 concert filmZoo TV: Live from Sydney.
"Running to Stand Still" was not played on thePopMart Tour orElevation Tour, but it returned to U2 concerts on the 2005Vertigo Tour, with the original combination of the Edge on keyboards and Bono on guitar. During most of its performance on the Vertigo Tour, it once again followed "Bullet the Blue Sky" and culminated with a video clip of several articles of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights being read.[37] (After July 2005, it was replaced in that role and in the set list by "Miss Sarajevo".) During the 19 June 2005 show on Burmese democracy leaderAung San Suu Kyi's birthday, "Running to Stand Still" included snippets of "Walk On", a song originally written for her.[38] Author Steve Stockman felt that in this tour's uses, "Running to Stand Still" was one of the band's songs from the 1980s that had lost its original meaning and was no longer about drug-dealing in the Ballymun towers.[39] Rather, it was now being used to develop the show's theme that a belief in faith and in human potential could overcome the bleakest and most desperate situations; in this, it fit within the Vertigo Tour's emphasis on coexistence and theONE Campaign.[39] This assessment agreed to by aneFestivals review,[40] and author John Jobling has called the new interpretation an "anti-persecution paean" that was used to remove the sting of "Bullet the Blue Sky" being used to criticize American behavior during theIraq War.[41] In contrast,USA Today's veteran rock writerEdna Gundersen found the song's performance still established a "devastating" mood[42] and theNew York Daily News said that the group "thinned 'Running To Stand Still' to give it a new mourning".[43] Two other U.S. reviewers remarked that the song was lesser known to audiences, withVariety saying its inclusion helped the band connect with the past while avoiding cliché.[44][45] One tour performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included on theVertigo 2005: Live from Chicago DVD, during which Bono dedicated the Hallelujah coda to members of the American and British militaries fighting overseas. The song was not performed during theU2 360° Tour, withThe Vancouver Sun bemoaning the absence of this "stone-cold classic of the U2 canon".[46]
Future music video directorDave Meyers wrote a movie script to the song while a film student atLoyola Marymount University.[47] The 2004 first-season episode "Running to Stand Still" of the U.S. television seriesDesperate Housewives was named after the song. It featured theLynette Scavo character resorting to taking her children'sADD medication in order to cope with the overwhelming demands of her domestic life.[48] Afifth-season episode of the U.S. television seriesOne Tree Hill, itself named after a U2 song, was called "Running to Stand Still".[49]
By mid-2000s, the Ballymun towers were in the process of being torn down, and the Ballymun area was the target of a €1.8 billion regeneration scheme intended to create a self-sustaining community of 30,000 people that would be more successful than the original 1960s plan.[8][50][51] Despite their failure as housing, the towers had left a long cultural legacy, of which "Running to Stand Still" was the first and perhaps best-known exemplar;[52] the link between the towers and the song was mentioned in some tourist books about Dublin.[51] Former towers residents were not always happy with the song. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoirThe Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun detailed her raising there in the 1970s and 1980s, readily acknowledged the problems there and also wanted to get out at the time.[10] But she later came to realize that there had been much that was good at the towers – in terms of a collective wit among residents and a helping sense of community – which had been ignored by the media.[10][53] She thus wrote, "regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there wascertainly more than one way out."[10] In a newspaper interview, Connolly suggested that the song might have had a deleterious effect: "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture an unemployed person, living alone in a flat in Ballymun, listening to that song and agreeing with what their hero was saying."[54] She further noted that some websites erroneously state that Bono grew up in Ballymun itself, and said, "Perhaps it gave him a sort of street-cred to associate himself with the estate he could see from his bedroom window in nice, safe, respectable Cedarwood Road in Glasnevin."[54]
The Ballymun area was still so associated with "Running to Stand Still" and the drug problem of the time, that local backers of the regeneration went to pains to point out the recent progress.[50] A Bono remark that it was dangerous to walk in Ballymun at night found a good deal of publicity.[54] A fansite listing U2-related Dublin area sights in 2004 mentioned Ballymun's connection to the song, cautioning, "donot go here on foot – this is a bad area".[55] U2's official website noted that the area was much changed now; Bono himself said "he's very proud to come from the Ballymun area"; the fansite subsequently modified its listing and said an on-foot visit to Ballymun was warranted.[50][55]
Footnotes
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