" Mothers of the Disappeared " is a song by the Irish rock band U2. This is the eleventh and final song on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree . The song was inspired by the experiences of lead singer Bono in Nicaragua and El Salvador in July 1986, following U2's participation in the Conspiracy of Hope concert for a charity concert for Amnesty International. He learned about Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of women whose children "disappear by force" in the hands of the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships. While in Central America, he met with members of COMADRES, a similar organization whose children were kidnapped by the government in El Salvador. Bono sympathizes with Madras and COMADRES and wants to pay homage to their cause.
The song was written on Spanish guitar, and the melody was lifted from a piece of Bono composed in Ethiopia in 1985 to help teach children the basic form of cleanliness. The lyrics contained an implicit critique of the Reagan Administration, which supported two South American regimes who seized power during the coup and who provided financial support to the military regime in El Salvador. The thematic has been interpreted as a check for failure and contradiction in US foreign policy. The drum beats provided by Larry Mullen Jr. processed through an effect unit that gives him quality like a drone, which Adam Clayton described as "evocative darkness of a sinister squad".
"Mothers of the Disappeared" is well received by critics, who variously describe it as "powerful", "moving honor", and contain "stunning beauty and sadness". The song was played seven times in the 1987 Joshua Tree Tour, and several recordings were considered for the final sequence of the 1988 Rattle and Hum film. It was revived for four concerts at the 1998 PopMart Tour in South America, and for two of them, Madres joined the band on stage for the show, one of which was broadcast on television in Chile. Bono used the opportunity to ask former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet to reveal to Madres the locations of their children's bodies. The song is played three times further on the U2 360Ã, ° Tour; one show dedicated to Fehmi Tosun, a Kurdish ethnic who forcibly disappeared in Turkey in 1995. Bono re-recorded a cappella song in 1998 for the album Ã,¡Ni Un Paso Atras! (English: Not One Step Back! ).
Video Mothers of the Disappeared
Inspiration, writing and recording
The recording sessions for The Joshua Tree began in January 1986 at Danesmoate House in Dublin and continued throughout the year. U2 briefly interrupted these sessions in June to join the A Amnesty International Conspiracy Concert. After the first concert in San Francisco, vocalist Bono met Renà ©  © Castro, a Chilean mural artist. Castro has been tortured and detained in a concentration camp for two years by Chile's dictatorial government for his work criticizing the Pinochet-led regime that seized power in 1973 during the coup. Castro showed Bono a fresco in the Mission District depicting the ongoing situation in Chile and Argentina. He also learned about Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of women whose children were forcibly eliminated by the Argentine government. Madres children were students who opposed the government during the Dirty War, and the coup that brought Jorge Rafael Videla in power. The Madres joined together to campaign information about the location of their children's bodies and the circumstances of their deaths, believing they had been kidnapped, tortured, and killed.
Inspired by the mural, Bono took an extended pause from recording into July, traveling to Nicaragua and El Salvador with his wife, Alison Hewson, to see firsthand the suffering of farmers who were plagued by political conflict and US military intervention. While there, they work with the Central American Mission Partners (CAMP), a human rights and economic development organization. In El Salvador they met with members of Comità © de Madres Monsignor Romero (KOMADRES: Ms. Monsignor Romero's Committee), a women's organization whose children were forcibly disappeared by the Salvadoran government during the Civil War as they opposed the In military regime of power. At one point during the trip, Bono, Alison, and CAMP members were shot by government troops on their way to send aid to a group of farmers. The shot was a warning and, according to author John Luerssen, the incident made Bono realize that "they do not care about their distractions and they can kill them if they feel compelled."
In 2006, Bono recounted another experience he had experienced in El Salvador, where he saw a body thrown from the van into the street. He commented, "People will just disappear If you are part of the opposition, you may find an SUV with dark windows parked outside your house.... If that does not stop you, sometimes they will come and take you and kill you, there will be no trial. "Bono understood the cause of Madres and COMADRES and wanted to pay tribute to him. His experience in Central America inspired the lyrics of "Mothers of the Disappeared" and other songs from The Joshua Tree , "Bullet the Blue Sky".
"Mothers of the Disappeared" was created and mixed in the newly purchased Edge house guitarist, Melbeach, which U2 used as a recording studio. Bono wrote the song on his mother-in-law's Spanish guitar; The melody comes from a song written by Bono in Ethiopia in 1985 to teach children about basic hygiene methods. Drums played by Larry Mullen Jr., sampled and repeated from another song by producer Brian Eno and then slowed and treated with "reverb canyon load". Edge added the guitar parts using the Bond Electraglide guitar, which was abused to produce the sounds he liked. Producer Daniel Lanois is the main mixer of the song. Bono, likening the studio itself to the instrument, describes the Lanois mix as "performance".
At the end of the lyric sheet for the song on liner notes from The Joshua Tree , U2 lists addresses for several Amnesty International branches, and the results of the song are donated to the organization. In 1998, Bono re-recorded a cappella song in English and Spanish for the album Ã,¡Ni Un Paso Atras! (English: Not One Step Back! ), along with William Butler Yeats poem reading "The Mother of God". The album was made by Madres to commemorate the loss of their children. Tracks are also recorded for the 1999 film 20 AÃÆ' Â ± os... 20 Poems... 20 Artists ( 20 Years... 20 Poems... 20 Artists ).
Maps Mothers of the Disappeared
Composition and theme
"Mothers of the Disappeared" lasts for 5:14 (5 minutes, 14 seconds). It is played at the same time in key A. The song begins with the sound of rain hitting the roof, which fades in over the first fourteen seconds alongside the bass and drum loops processed by Mullen which echoes in the background. Thirty-two seconds into the song, Mullen's drum comes in, playing sporadic beats every four to five seconds. At the fifty second mark, the drums play a more regular beat, and the Edge guitar, accompanied by the Eno synthesizer, comes in. The first verse begins at 1:28, and introduces the chord progression of A 5 -E 5 -F ? mDA 5 , which is played in the verses. At 2:41 the Eno keyboard enters, and the song begins to follow D-D 5 -A 5 chords, while Bono starts falsetto vocals. Then the second verse begins at 3: 1. The lyrics ends at 3:37, and the song returns to the D-D chord 5 -A 5 . The harmony gradually grew in volume to 4:33, at which time the song entered a coda; the keyboard came to finish and the guitar returned playing A note before fading for the next eight seconds alongside the bass. Synthesizers, drums, and drum loops conclude the song, fading slowly for the last thirty-one seconds.
Eno uses the piano as a percussion instrument and mixes the result with a drum loop through the PCM70 effect unit to create a sound called Adam Clayton as "frightening and alien and frightening". Lanois states that the Mullen beat processing, which produces a hum-like sound, becomes the backbone and personality of the song. Clayton described it as "evocating the darkness of the scary death squad". Colm O'Hare of Hot Press felt it was a "sonic element key" because it "aroused the abstract taste of evil and fear".
In December 1986, Bono declared that he had a love-hate relationship with America, and this affected his work on the album. Speaking of his encounter with COMADRES in El Salvador and his influence on the song, he said, "There is no question in my mind about the Reagan Administration's involvement in supporting this cruel regime, I doubt whether the American people even" I know this. It's not my position to give a talk to them or tell them where they are or even open their eyes in a very visual way, but it affects me and it affects the words I write and the music we make. "In 2007, Clayton noted "We saw this America through a European lens, at the time Britain was under Margaret Thatcher who violated miners.... So we sing from the same hymn sheets as Clash but with us focusing on the spotlight of injustice inside and outside America. "He said" 'Mothers of the Disappeared' is not just a reflection on what has happened under military rule in Chile but also in the US that has supported the government, "and described Bono's vocals as" prehistoric ", saying" it is connected with something very primitive. "
Greg Garrett, an English professor at Baylor University, saw the song as an attempt to "[respond] a growing interest in doing justice - and called to pay attention to America's failure in that regard", noting that the regime in South America has been supported by the United States because of their anti-communist position, although their tactics contradict the democratic values ​​that "the American claim to champions around the world". Lisa Hand of the Sunday Independent recorded American influence on the track, remarking, "it does not restrict itself to music, but also extends to some lyrics, but far from being a tribute to the twinkling banner, words highlight the political unfairness and ambiguity that exists in the 'Mothers of the Lost' and 'Bullet the Blue Sky' of the United States, both look hard at American involvement in South America ". Richard Harrington of The Washington Post describes the song as "a simple lament about the extraordinary beauty and sadness begging to realize that ideological battles about the right and the left obscure the more important issues of right and wrong." Author David Kootnikoff describes it as "an old American Dream [portrait]".
Live show
U2 debuted "Mothers of the Disappeared" on April 14, 1987 in San Diego, California, on the first leg of the Joshua Tree Tour, where he closed the concert at the end of "40". It was done three more times on foot; twice to open the encore and once to conclude the main set. U2 revived the song seven months later on the third leg, playing it in an encore in three of the last four concerts on the tour.
The last two shows were held in Tempe, Arizona on 19 and 20 December 1987 and filmed for the 1988 Rattle and Hum film. U2 sings the "el pueblo vencerÃÆ'¡" chorus, which means "people will overcome" in Spanish, at the end of the song. Bono notes that Madres uses phrases for motivation. The Edge said "we are very close to the Spanish-speaking part of the world, we feel that maybe the people at the concert might hear the lyrics." Bono added that they have closed every concert since 1983 with the song "40", and therefore they are looking to replace him with "Mothers of the Disappeared" since then. He explained, "If the Arizona guys sing this, and if it goes into the movie and into the notes, wherever we go by way over the next few years, it will be taken again." This will be an interesting experiment... ". The tape was considered for the closing sequence of the film, but the band finally decided not to include it. "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was used as the last live song, and "All I Want Is You" was chosen to be played through credit.
After seven shows on the Joshua Tree Tour, U2 did not perform "Mothers of the Disseareared" until 1998, on the fourth leg of the PopMart Tour. It was played in three concerts in Argentina and once in Chile, concluding all four performances. Bono sings "el pueblo vencerÃÆ'¡" at the end of each performance. The first appearance was on February 5, 1998 in Buenos Aires, where it was performed with Madres who accompanied them on stage. The song was played by only Bono and Edge and set against footage from Madres on the video screen. At the end of the song, the band members confront Madres and clap, an act in which the rest of the audience joins. Part of the show was later included in the Classical Album documentary film: The Joshua Tree .
Ticket fees are too high for many fans in South America, so the band broadcast a Feb 11th concert in Chile live on television. Knowing that many people in the country will be watching, they play "Mothers of the Disappeared" in place of "Wake Up Dead Man". The stadium where the concert was held has been used as a prison camp by the Pinochet regime after the coup. Once again it was done only by Bono and Edge against footage of Madres, and they invited the women to join them on stage for the second time. The Madres picked up photos of their children and talked about them briefly during the show, an act that received a varied reception from the audience. Bono appealed to Pinochet, asking him to "tell these women where the bones of their children."
"Mothers of the Disappeared" was performed again on the fourth leg of the Vertigo Tour, on 26 February 2006 in Santiago and 2 March in Buenos Aires. Although it was trained by a full band, it was played only by Bono and Edge in a setting similar to that of the PopMart Tour. The Edge performed the song in charango given Chilean President Ricardo Lagos to Bono that day. It was played in three concerts in the third leg of the U2 360Ã, ° Tour in place of "MLK". One show in Istanbul, Turkey dedicated to Fehmi Tosun, an ethnic Kurd kidnapped in October 1995 and then disappeared. The kidnapping was witnessed by his wife and daughter; no information about his departure has ever been released.
For the first time in 30 years, the full band arrangement of "Mothers of the Disappeared" returns to the U2 live set for Joshua Tree Tour 2017, where the group plays The Joshua Tree sequentially in its entirety for every show. Eddie Vedder and Mumford & amp; The boys accompany U2 ​​on stage in a song performance during the May 14, 2017 show in Seattle.
Reception
"Mothers of the Disappeared" was well received by critics. Steve Morse from The Boston Globe calls the song "strong" and describes the background vocals as gentle and picky. Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times described it as a "hymn to human rights". Adrian Thrills of NME calls it "a simple and sad wail of amazing beauty and sadness." Nicholas Jennings from Maclean felt that it was The Joshua Tree ' s "most topical song". Music journalist Andrew Mueller feels that the track is a "hopeful end". In Rolling Stone, Steve Pond says "'Mothers of the Disappeared' is built around pictures of lonely loss, but the background is soothing and restoring - great music of sorrow but also of compassion, acceptance and quiet." Lennox Samuels of The Dallas Morning News stated that there was "an indescribable sadness in Bono's vocals and the image where 'Night hangs like a prisoner/stretched over black and blue'", calling it a "moving tribute" to people around the world who have lost loved ones for war and conflict. He adds, "The tremendous hat about the song is that despite its intrinsic pain, it still cleans horribly, even in the midst of decay and excesses and horror, Bono can find hope and forgiveness." In 2006, Bono described it as a "beautiful ending to the album", saying, "The song means a lot to me because there are songs on the album, it's there for me," and noted that it's a song "I'm so proud with today. "
Barbara Jaeger of The Bergen Record likens "Mothers of the Disseareared" to "New Year's Day" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)", stating that the band uses all three to "arouse political awareness and to urging social commitment. "Thirteen years later, Ryan Jones, in his review of the 2000 U2 album All That You Can not Leave Behind for the same publication, said the song" Peace on Earth "contains an echo of" Mothers of the Disappeared "In his instrumental lyrics and tone In reviewing 2009 group album No Line on the Horizon, Mueller said the closure of" Cedars of Lebanon "" maintains a traditionally counter-intuitive group of optimists to end their album with a sad comedown, "likened it to" Mothers of the Disappeared. "McLeese believes that the song is rooted in" the folklike purity of traditional Irish music. "According to Luerssen the song" famous "in America Central and South, and often "played as an act of defiance" by the Madres. Art for Amnesty quotes the song, and its effect in spreading the human rights message Amnesty International, as one of the reasons why U2 was awarded the organization's Conscience Prize Ambassador in 2005.
Reflecting on the applause given to Madres during the PopMart concert in Buenos Aires, U2 magazine Propaganda called the result "about the most touching thing I have ever seen on the rock stage.It is one of those ideas that really, but a clear empathy from the audience towards these women made it an unforgettable moment. "Following the televised concert in Chile, Bono said" it is amazing and confusing to find that on most of our 'tours' of some of the best events are in political hotspots like Santiago, Sarajevo, Tel Aviv... wherever music means more than entertainment ". He added, "to be able to talk to General Pinochet from the television stage directly in Chile and say, 'Give back the dead to the living.Please, General Pinochet, tell these women where the bones of their sons and daughters are. ' It was an incredible moment... of course in my life and U2. "When asked whether the negative reaction from some audiences has been disappointing the band Bono said it did not, stating" it's proof to me that rock 'n' roll fans are not lemming.... If they do not agree with you, they will tell you - but that does not mean they are not fans.... I am flattered that we are not just playing for the people who agree with us. "U2's appearance is then credited with inspired protests in the Chilean Parliament against Pinochet, who is in the process of becoming a lifelong Senator after releasing his position as head of the armed forces. The opposition party brings Madres, who once again holds a picture of their missing children and asks for information about their body location.
"Mothers of the Disappeared" has been covered several times. Vitamin String Quartet put it on their 2004 tribute album The String Quartet Tribute to U2's The Joshua Tree . Paddy Casey recorded a version for the tsunami aid album Even Better Than Real Things Vol. 3 in 2005.
Credits and personnel
See also
- "They're Dancing" - a song by Sting that treats the same subject
References
Foot Records
Bibliography
External links
- Lyrics on U2.com
- Lyrics of this song in MetroLyrics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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