25 Years Later: My remix of U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love) Revisited

Hang on. This is going to be one heck of a story, beating all my previous "Stories from the War" about my brief foray into the music business.

When U2 released "Pride (In the Name of Love) in 1984 and it became the group's biggest mainstream hit to date, I had mixed feelings as the music director of my college radio station at Georgetown University, WGTB.

I loved the song's sense of urgency and its driving beat. But I wondered how many white suburban kids eagerly snapping up copies of Unforgettable Fire (the album that featured the song) really knew whom Bono was singing about: someone who has always been one of my personal heroes. Remember: This was back before Martin Luther King Day was a national holiday.

So I locked myself in the studio of my college radio station with that record and another LP I had recently acquired that featured audio snippets from 1968 – including coverage of Martin Luther King's assassination on April 4, the subject of the song. Using two turntables and an old-fashioned cart machine, I assembled a crude mix that incorporated King footage, "Pride" and the album's other King-themed track, "MLK "and dubbed it onto an audio tape.

Fast forward to a few months later, I was backstage at U2's concert at Constitution Hall – to interview Mike Scott of the Waterboys, the opening act. Then Bono came into the room.

I must have bee too proud of my work because to this day, I can't believe how brazen I was. I walked right up to him and had him listen to the remix on my Walkman.

He loved it. I mean, he really loved it.

Getting really excited, he had me play it for each one of the other band members and band manager Paul McGuiness, who asked if he could have my tape. It happened to be my only copy, but of course I gave it to him.

The next morning I heard from the college radio guy at Island Records that the tape was all that the Bono talked about during a conference call with the label. They discussed putting it out as a special 12".

Needless to say, that never happened and I never saw the tape again. Nor did I hear anything more from McGuiness or U2.

A few months later, I did another mix at the radio station. Unfortunately, the timing isn't as perfect and some of the audio clips should be louder – but you get a sense of what I was able put together. All the clips double the impact and make the song an amazingly emotional experience, Bono's historical inaccuracies and all. I dubbed it onto a TDK D-90 cassette tape and took it with me when I graduated.

A few years ago, I dug the cassette out and did an mp3 rip. Not perfect, but now at least I had something that would survive longer than that lower quality cassette.

Here it is:

"Pride (InThe Name of Love") (1984 remix)

Still, the inferior quality of the second remix bugged me. Plus, as I listened to it more, I thought there could have been more audio clips from Martin Luther King himself. If I could go back in time, I'd redo it – which of course was a big old fantasy, much like that wide receiver who drops what could have been the winning pass in a championship game.

Then technology opened the door for me. The advent of a simple software program like GarageBand meant that I didn't need turntables any more. In fact, I could be more precise than I was back in my college days. Plus I had acquired some vinyl-ripping hardware. I started scouring used record shops, looking for that record.

The only problem was: I had no idea what it was called, other than it had to with 1968 and was put out by some Chicago news radio station. My odds of finding that record were pretty slim, I realized. In one last ditch attempt, I even contacted my old radio station – although they had transitioned out of LPs a long time ago.

Was I completely out of luck?

Nope. Ever hear of sites called Google and eBay?

That's right. By some blind luck on the same day, I was able to pinpoint the name of the record with a few random terms plugged into Google: "Chicago," "1968," "record" or something like that. The record was called "1968: The Impossible Year" and was put out by WBBM in Chicago in conjunction with a local savings bank. Here's what it looks like and you can even still buy it on eBay, if you're interested.

So now I had it: What was I going to do with it?

Well, things repeatedly got in the way – as life always does. But a few weeks ago I was inspired: Wouldn't this January be the perfect time to put something together to honor how far we have come since April 4, 1968. More than 40 years ago, this nation mourned the death of its first transformational African-American leader. On Jan. 20, the day after Martin Luther King Day, possibly the nation's next transformational African-American leader will take the oath of office for the Presidency – something few civil right leaders, including King himself quite likely, would have thought could have happened so quickly after all that 60s bloodshed.

Here is my new remix. I've done some research about who is talking and when. I knew right away that the music dedication was from Duke Ellington, who was performing at Carnegie Hall that night. The announcement of King's death was done before that concert by its promoter Robert Mosley. You can read an excellent firsthand account from one of the concert's participants here. Excerpts from two King speeches were used: The famous "I Have A Dream" speech and the chillingly prophetic "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" speech in which King eerily talks about his mortality the night before his death. I increased the volume of the audio clips and sprinkled them throughout the song.

"Pride (In The Name of Love)" (2009 remix)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on which mix works better for you. Although I really like the new version, it wouldn't surprise me if some people preferred the original mix.

It's true that whites now know who Martin Luther King is. Given the band's increasing social activism, the majority of U2 fans are also quite familiar with the true subject of the song. On Sunday, January 18, two days before the inauguration, U2 performed "Pride (In the Name of Love)" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. "On this spot, 46 years ago, Martin Luther King had a dream," Bono told the large crowd, gathered for a pre-inaugural concert that also featured Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Shakira. "On Tuesday, that dream cones true."

Keeping with the spirit of what motivated me, I created a slideshow "video" of the song and posted it on YouTube. You can see it here. Be sure to watch it until the end.

Soundtrack Sunday: "Across the Universe" (2007) and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1978)

For this week's Soundtrack Sunday, we're going to shake it up a little bit.

Hey, it's my blog. I can do what I want. And if I want to focus on two films – and two soundtracks – that's what I will do.

So what if one was one of the most staggering failures of the 1970s? And so what if the other has been hailed by The New York Times, among other publications, as one of the best films of 2007?

Separated by 29 years in terms of time, and a few million more in terms of quality, we will talk today about two films built entirely around Beatles songs – with nary a John, George, Paul and Ringo in sight.

And yes, we will compare and contrast. Which means we will focus on why one film failed so abominably and the other stands as one of the most visually audacious films of recent years (Do I sound like a film critic yet?)

Yet they do share some things in common – beyond the nine songs that are featured in both films.

Each, in its own way, was a product of its time. As in the marketing forces in play.

For Sgt. Pepper…, this was Robert Stigwood's attempt to hit another one out of the ballpark, less than a year after Saturday Night Fever returned the movie musical to the forefront. In fact, less than a month earlier, Stigwood's Grease became a box-office bonanza.

But this movie was just all wrong. In a sense, Stigwood was trying to recreate the magic of his own Tommy (1975) with Lennon and McCartney subbing for Pete Townshend; and Peter Frampton stepping in for Roger Daltrey. Rock stars. Rock music. A story that didn't make too much sense. What could go wrong?

A lot. Because though it's camp value is treasured by some, this movie is mess. Frampton and the Bee Gees just can't act. Steve Martin may never live down the fact that he made his movie debut as "wacky" Dr. Maxwell Edison. George Burns, who plays the mayor of Peppertown, had to supply narration because everyone was afraid no one would understand either Frampton or the Gibbs brothers because of their non-American accents. You listen to almost every song and you want to turn on the mute button because it destroys how much you liked it. (Unfortunately as a middle schooler who had not yet experienced the wonders of the 1967-69 Beatles, it represented my first exposure to several of these classic songs. Damn you, Hollywood!)

Everything is completely laughable.

Except for the fact that there were two cool songs in the movie: "Come Together" by Aerosmith (which, during the band's drugged out phase, played the film's villains, the Future Villains Band) and "Got to Get You Into My Life" by Earth Wind & Fire.

I'm posting the YouTube clips so you can get a small sense of how bad the movie is. But also appreciate the rays of light these bands let in during this awful mess.




I'm also posting the mp3 of the "Got To Get You Into My Life" which McCartney wrote for the Revolver album as a semi-Motown song. It's nice to see Earth Wind & Fire's Maurice White (a professed Beatle fan) do a little role reversal and perhaps even improve upon a song written by a rock artist.

Play "Got to Get You Into My Life" by Earth Wind & Fire



Luckily, "Come Together" allows us to segue into Across The Universe because it appears in both movies. And, in my mind, it is the biggest highlight of a film filled by lots of highlights. Because out of nowhere, one of the greatest interpreters of Beatles songs, Joe Cocker, begins serenading one of the film's main characters. And not only that, he plays three roles in the course of the song, which develops slowly into a full-blown production number full of the "accidental" urban choreography that has become one of Taymor's trademarks.

Play "Come Together" by Joe Cocker

Like "Sgt Pepper," this is another project that is a product of its time. The critical and commercial success of film musicals such as Chicago, Dreamgirls and Moulin Rouge have prompted studios to OK audacious projects such as this one. It has also given semi-free reins to innovative spirits such as Taymor, who made her first big splash by directing The Lion King on Broadway and went on to helm Frida (2002).

Thanks to Taymor, this film is never boring. And she makes plenty of unexpected choices along the way that keeps the film hopping. For example, "I Want You So Bad" is sung by an animated Uncle Sam getting a new army recruit. Or "Strawberry Fields Forever" gets performed as the movie's protagonist, Jude, pins the fruit onto canvas as a kind of performance art. I also like how she successfully mixes early Beatles songs – "Hold Me Tight," "If I Fell," to name a couple – with later ones.

The script about a bunch of young adults experiencing all the highs and lows of America during the 60s also seems to work in ways that Sgt. Pepper … doesn't. But then again, that's not entirely unexpected given that Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais wrote another great rock film: The Commitments (1991)

I also thought the cameos were surprisingly effective – chief among them a semi-disguised Bono, as the Ken Kesey stand-in Dr. Robert, who sings a rather credible "I Am The Walrus" at an acid-tinged psychedelic party.

Here's the clip:



Not everything works in the movie. I am not convinced that the closeted lesbian, Prudence (yes, almost all the characters are named after Beatles songs), was necessary to the plot. And the water ballet scenes are a little too precious.

But I heartily recommend that you rent or buy it when it comes out on DVD next month. You won't be disappointed.

Or bored.

Since this was a post about two movies, I thought I'd end it with a fun little table I devised comparing both movies.

Movie	Across The Universe	SPLHCB
Number of songs	32	28
Number of albums represented	9	6
Most represented album	White Album (7 songs)	Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road (12 each)
Number of pre-1967 songs	7	2
Number of songs from Revolver	0	1
Most surprising musical cameos	Bono as Dr. Robert, Joe Cocker as Bum/Pimp/Hippie	Aerosmith as FVB, Alice Cooper as the Sun King
Cameos by comedians	Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite	George Burns as Mr. Kite
Well-known actors	Dylan Baker, Salma Hayek	Donald Pleasance, Steve Martin
Best Performance	"Come Together" by Joe Cocker	"Got to Get You Into My Life" by Earth Wind and Fire
Director	Julie Taymor	Michael Schultz
Resumé	"Frida," "Titus" and Broadway's "Lion King"	"Car Wash," "Disorderlies" and "Krush Groove"
Credibility claims	Both surviving Beatles reportedly liked the movie	Billy Preston performed "Get Back"; George Martin produced the soundtrack