Running to Stand Still
Encyclopedia
"Running to Stand Still" is a song by rock
band U2
, and it is the fifth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree
. A slow ballad based on piano and guitar, it describes a heroin-addicted couple living in Dublin's Ballymun 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-producer
Daniel Lanois
during a recording session for the album.
The group explored American music
for The Joshua Tree, and as such, "Running to Stand Still" demonstrates folk rock
and acoustic 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. Since the song's release, the phrase "running to stand still" has become more widely used.
" (and to some extent "Wire") had been from their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire
. Bassist Adam Clayton
has referred to the song as "Bad Part II". Thin Lizzy
frontman Phil Lynott
's decline and death from addiction also resonated with Clayton at the time.
U2 has written relatively few songs directly related to their growing up in Dublin, often giving higher priority to works about The Troubles
in Northern Ireland
or to international concerns. When they have written about Dublin, allusions to it have often been disguised. But "Running to Stand Still" was one of those with specific Dublin connections:
This lyric was a reference to the Ballymun flats
, a group of seven local authority, high-rise residential tower blocks built in the Ballymun
neighborhood of Dublin during the 1960s. Paul Hewson (later known as U2's lead vocalist Bono
) had grown up on Cedarwood Road in the adjacent Glasnevin
neighborhood, in a house across fields behind the towers, near his friends and future artists Fionán Hanvey
(later known as Gavin Friday) and Derek Rowan
(later known as Guggi). Bono had played in the towers' foundations as they were being built, then traveled in their elevators for the novel experience. 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. The place began to stink of urine and vomit, and glue sniffers and used needles were common sights, as were appearances of the Garda Síochána
. Guggi later lived in the towers during years that he was struggling personally with drugs. It was through his exposure to people without hope in the flats that Bono began to develop his social consciousness
.
Bono may have used Ballymun as the inspiration (without any explicit lyrical references to it) for the 1980 U2 song "Shadows and Tall Trees", and later likened living in the area to some of the scenes portrayed in the 1992 Mike Newell
film Into the West
. 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 you don't put people living on top of each other, we built them here."
and taking enormous risks for a big payday. 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. The resulting lyric does not describe any of this explicitly, but instead limns the emotional atmosphere that the couple live in. In doing so, the song is not judgmental and shows sympathy for the woman. A character monologue from Wim Wenders
' 1984 film Paris, Texas
, was also a significant influence on Bono's writing of the song.
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 at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios
. Guitarist The Edge
began playing some chords
during a session for another song. Producer Daniel Lanois
joined in on guitar, and the rest of the group followed. This initial improvised version incorporated all the elements of the final song structure, and the sound and feel of the group playing in a room together without overdubs contributed to the track's effectiveness. Lou Reed
's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Elton John
's "Candle in the Wind
", both of which had served as end snippets for "Bad" on the Unforgettable Fire Tour
, were loose inspirations. The influence of Reed's works can be felt throughout the song, as can Van Morrison
to an extent.
that represented an idiomatic stretch for the group. Although producer Brian Eno
was known for introducing European textural music into U2's sound, he also had a strong fondness for folk and gospel music. Indeed, writers have seen echoes of Bruce Springsteen
's stark acoustic 1982 album Nebraska
in the song's sound.
"Running to Stand Still" is a soft, piano-based ballad
played in a key
of D major
at a tempo
of 92 beats per minute. The song follows a traditional verse-chorus form
. In the introduction and conclusion is a mournful slide acoustic guitar
in Eno and Lanois' production that Rolling Stone
called both grim and dreamy. Most of the piano part alternates between the D
and G
chords, an example of The Edge's longtime practice of composing around two-chord progressions. Accompanying the piano for much of the song is Lanois' soft playing of a so-called electric "scrape guitar", which he contributed to add texture
. Soft, echoing drums from Larry Mullen, Jr., enter after the second chorus. A harmonica
part from Bono takes the song to its faded conclusion. Bono's vocal range
in the song runs from A3 to D6
.
In the song, the woman's addiction and misdirected desire for transcendence 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. This compositional technique relies upon delayed gratification and is heard in a few other popular songs, such as The Cure
's "Just Like Heaven
" and George Michael
's "One More Try
".
U2 songs often have multiple interpretations, and "Running to Stand Still" has ones beyond its immediate context. On the website SongMeanings.net, there are several posts from readers who never realized the song is about drug addiction and heard it instead in contexts ranging from personal challenge to religious salvation. A staffer for the fan website atU2.com found the song to be a very meaningful inspiration towards personal discovery. In the liner notes to the 20th anniversary reissue of The Joshua Tree, writer Bill Flanagan stated, "'Running to Stand Still' is for anyone who feels trapped in an impossible circumstance by overwhelming responsibility." 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."
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." The Uncut
magazine Ultimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best. The 1991 Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".
"Running to Stand Still" became a Dublin anthem of sorts, immortalizing the Ballymun towers. It has been considered by pop music writer Brent Mann as one of the more powerful songs written about drug addiction, joining the likes of Jefferson Airplane
's 1967 "White Rabbit
", Neil Young
's 1972 "The Needle and the Damage Done
", Martika
's 1989 "Toy Soldiers
", and Third Eye Blind
's 1997 "Semi-Charmed Life
".
Irish music writer Niall Stokes
considers "Running to Stand Still" to be one of the most important songs on The 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 with Achtung Baby
and the Zoo TV Tour
. Rolling Stone
s 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
" – which placed The 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. This latter sentiment was echoed by the Irish Independent
.
", matching the order they appear on the album. It was first played live on the Joshua Tree Tour
, with The Edge playing keyboards and Bono playing guitar, usually acoustic. During the 27 May 1987 show at Rome
's Stadio 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. 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 album Live from Paris, released in 2007. On the Lovetown Tour
, during one Dublin show that was broadcast worldwide, the song segued into a verse of Ewan MacColl
's classic ode to industrial bleakness, "Dirty Old Town
"; this show was released in 2004 as Live from the Point Depot
.
During the Zoo TV Tour, the song's performance was significantly altered. In these shows, The Edge played guitar on his Fender Stratocaster
with the band on the main stage, while Bono sang the song on the B-stage with a headset microphone. Bono mimed the actions of a heroin addict, rolling up his sleeves and then spiking his arm during the final lyric, after which he would sing "Hallelujah" over and over while reaching up into a pillar of white light. 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." At the culmination of the "Bullet to Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still" sequence, red and yellow smoke flares came out from either end of the stage (an idea of U2's security chief, who was a U.S. Vietnam veteran
), 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 film Zoo TV: Live from Sydney
.
"Running to Stand Still" was not played on the PopMart Tour
or Elevation Tour
, but it returned to U2 concerts on the 2005 Vertigo 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 verses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
being read; 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 leader Aung San Suu Kyi
's birthday, "Running to Stand Still" included snippets of "Walk On", a song originally written for her. 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. 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 the ONE Campaign
, an assessment agreed to by an eFestivals
review. In contrast, USA Today
s veteran rock writer Edna Gundersen
found the song's performance still established a "devastating" mood and the New York Daily News
said that the group "thinned 'Running To Stand Still' to give it a new mourning". Two other U.S. reviewers remarked that the song was lesser known to audiences, with Variety
saying its inclusion helped the band connect with the past while avoiding cliché. One tour performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included on the Vertigo 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 the U2 360° Tour
, with The Vancouver Sun
bemoaning the absence of this "stone-cold classic of the U2 canon".
's 1871 children's novel Through the Looking-Glass
. Since the album and song's release, use of the phrase seems to have increased. Between 1851 and 1986, the phrase occurred four times in The New York Times
; from 1987 to 2009, the phrase has occurred ten times (not counting mentions of the song itself). The phrase occurs many more times in Google News
archive searches from 1987 on (excluding those to the song itself) than from 1986 and before. The phrase has been used in connection with drug addiction and closely related issues a number of times, including in academic papers and in New York
magazine's description of the heroin-centric 1993 Irvine Welsh
novel Trainspotting
.
Future music video director Dave Meyers
wrote a movie script to the song while a film student at Loyola Marymount University
. The 2004 first-season episode "Running to Stand Still" of the U.S. television series Desperate Housewives
was named after the song. It featured the Lynette Scavo
character resorting to taking her children's ADD medication in order to cope with the overwhelming demands of her domestic life. A fifth-season episode
of the U.S. television series One Tree Hill
, itself named after a U2 song, was called "Running to Stand Still".
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. 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; the link between the towers and the song was mentioned in some tourist books about Dublin. Former towers residents were not always happy with the song. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoir The 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. 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. She thus wrote, "regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there was certainly more than one way out." 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." 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."
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. A Bono remark that it was dangerous to walk in Ballymun at night found a good deal of publicity. A fansite listing U2-related Dublin area sights in 2004 mentioned Ballymun's connection to the song, cautioning, "do not go here on foot – this is a bad area". 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.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, and it is the fifth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua...
. A slow ballad based on piano and guitar, it describes a heroin-addicted couple living in Dublin's Ballymun flats
Ballymun Flats
The Ballymun Flats refers to a number of flats - and often the tower block complex - in Ballymun, Dublin which is currently undergoing demolition.-History:...
; 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-producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
during a recording session for the album.
The group explored American music
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
for The Joshua Tree, and as such, "Running to Stand Still" demonstrates folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and acoustic 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. Since the song's release, the phrase "running to stand still" has become more widely used.
Background
"Running to Stand Still" was written by U2 in the context of the heroin addiction epidemic in Dublin of the 1980s, much like "BadBad (U2 song)
"Bad" is a song by rock band U2 and the seventh track from their 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A song about heroin addiction, it is considered a fan favourite, and is one of U2's most frequently performed songs in concert....
" (and to some extent "Wire") had been from their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire
The Unforgettable Fire
U2 feared that following the overt rock of their 1983 War album and War Tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band". The success of the 1983 Under a Blood Red Sky live album and the Live at Red Rocks video, however, had given them artistic—and for the...
. Bassist Adam Clayton
Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965...
has referred to the song as "Bad Part II". Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
frontman Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott
Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....
's decline and death from addiction also resonated with Clayton at the time.
U2 has written relatively few songs directly related to their growing up in Dublin, often giving higher priority to works about The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
or to international concerns. When they have written about Dublin, allusions to it have often been disguised. But "Running to Stand Still" was one of those with specific Dublin connections:
This lyric was a reference to the Ballymun flats
Ballymun Flats
The Ballymun Flats refers to a number of flats - and often the tower block complex - in Ballymun, Dublin which is currently undergoing demolition.-History:...
, a group of seven local authority, high-rise residential tower blocks built in the Ballymun
Ballymun
Ballymun is an area on Dublin's Northside close to Dublin Airport, Ireland. It is infamous for the Ballymun flats, which became a symbol of poverty, drugs, alienation from the state and social problems in Ireland from the 1970s...
neighborhood of Dublin during the 1960s. Paul Hewson (later known as U2's lead vocalist Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
) had grown up on Cedarwood Road in the adjacent Glasnevin
Glasnevin
Glasnevin is a largely residential neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland.-Geography:A mainly residential neighbourhood, it is located on the Northside of the city of Dublin . It was originally established on the northern bank of the River Tolka...
neighborhood, in a house across fields behind the towers, near his friends and future artists Fionán Hanvey
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
(later known as Gavin Friday) and Derek Rowan
Guggi
Guggi is an avant-garde Irish artist, once a member of the goth/post-punk band The Virgin Prunes alongside his close friend Gavin Friday. Guggi grew up with and remains best friends with U2's Bono. In 1984 he left the Virgin Prunes to pursue his passion for art...
(later known as Guggi). Bono had played in the towers' foundations as they were being built, then traveled in their elevators for the novel experience. 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. The place began to stink of urine and vomit, and glue sniffers and used needles were common sights, as were appearances of the Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
. Guggi later lived in the towers during years that he was struggling personally with drugs. It was through his exposure to people without hope in the flats that Bono began to develop his social consciousness
Social consciousness
Social consciousness is consciousness shared within a society. It can also be defined as social awareness; to be aware of the problems that different societies and communities face on a day-to-day basis; to be conscious of the difficulties and hardships of society.- Theory :Many studies have been...
.
Bono may have used Ballymun as the inspiration (without any explicit lyrical references to it) for the 1980 U2 song "Shadows and Tall Trees", and later likened living in the area to some of the scenes portrayed in the 1992 Mike Newell
Mike Newell (director)
Michael Cormac "Mike" Newell is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for television. After the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, Newell became the third most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind Christopher Nolan...
film Into the West
Into the West (film)
Into the West is a 1992 Irish fantasy film about Irish Travellers, directed by Mike Newell and written by Jim Sheridan.The film has received several awards for Best Film, Best European Film, and Outstanding Family Foreign Film.-Synopsis:...
. 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 you don't put people living on top of each other, we built them here."
Writing and recording
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." 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; a writer later described the title as a "perfect distillation of the dynamic of feeding on addiction." Bono had heard a real story about a pair of heroin addicts, a man and a woman, who lived in the Ballymun towers. Out of money and unable to pay the rent due to their habit, the man became a heroin smuggler, operating between Dublin and AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and taking enormous risks for a big payday. 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. The resulting lyric does not describe any of this explicitly, but instead limns the emotional atmosphere that the couple live in. In doing so, the song is not judgmental and shows sympathy for the woman. A character monologue from Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
' 1984 film Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas (film)
Paris, Texas is a 1984 drama film directed by Wim Wenders. The screenplay is by L.M. Kit Carson and playwright Sam Shepard, and the distinctive musical score was composed by Ry Cooder. The cinematography is by Robby Müller....
, was also a significant influence on Bono's writing of the song.
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 at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios
Windmill Lane Studios
Windmill Lane Studios, also known as the "U2 studio", is a three-storey music recording studio located in Dublin, Ireland. It is located on Windmill Lane, a small street just south of City Quay and the River Liffey and a little north of Pearse Station. It was opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson who...
. Guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
began playing some chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
during a session for another song. Producer Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
joined in on guitar, and the rest of the group followed. This initial improvised version incorporated all the elements of the final song structure, and the sound and feel of the group playing in a room together without overdubs contributed to the track's effectiveness. Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's "Candle in the Wind
Candle in the Wind
"Candle in the Wind" is a song with music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It was originally written in 1973, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier....
", both of which had served as end snippets for "Bad" on the Unforgettable Fire Tour
Unforgettable Fire Tour
The Unforgettable Fire Tour by Irish rock band U2 took place in 1984 and 1985 in support of band's album The Unforgettable Fire. Beginning in August 1984 with the band's first tour to Australia and New Zealand, the tour spanned four further legs which included 43 concerts in Europe and 50 in North...
, were loose inspirations. The influence of Reed's works can be felt throughout the song, as can Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
to an extent.
Composition and interpretation
Much of The Joshua Tree showed the band's fascination with American culture, politics, and musical forms, and while the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were Irish-based, the musical arrangement for it began with touches of acoustic blues and country bluesCountry blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
that represented an idiomatic stretch for the group. Although producer Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
was known for introducing European textural music into U2's sound, he also had a strong fondness for folk and gospel music. Indeed, writers have seen echoes of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's stark acoustic 1982 album Nebraska
Nebraska (album)
-Themes:The album begins with "Nebraska", a first-person narrative based on the true story of 19-year-old spree killer Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, and ends with "Reason to Believe", a complex narrative that renders its title phrase into contemptuous sarcasm...
in the song's sound.
"Running to Stand Still" is a soft, piano-based ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
played in a key
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
of D major
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
at a tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of 92 beats per minute. The song follows a traditional verse-chorus form
Verse-chorus form
Verse-chorus form is a musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock since the 1960s. In contrast to AABA form, which is focused on the verse , in verse-chorus form the chorus is highlighted...
. In the introduction and conclusion is a mournful slide acoustic guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
in Eno and Lanois' production that Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
called both grim and dreamy. Most of the piano part alternates between the D
D (musical note)
D is a musical note a whole tone above C, and is known as Re within the solfege system.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of middle D is approximately 293.665 Hz. See pitch for a discussion of historical variations in...
and G
G (musical note)
Sol, So, or G is the fifth note of the solfège starting on C. As such it is the dominant, a perfect fifth above C.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of Middle G note is approximately 391.995 Hz...
chords, an example of The Edge's longtime practice of composing around two-chord progressions. Accompanying the piano for much of the song is Lanois' soft playing of a so-called electric "scrape guitar", which he contributed to add texture
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
. Soft, echoing drums from Larry Mullen, Jr., enter after the second chorus. A harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
part from Bono takes the song to its faded conclusion. Bono's vocal range
Vocal range
Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...
in the song runs from A3 to D6
Scientific pitch notation
Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the notes of the standard Western chromatic scale by combining a letter-name, accidentals, and a number identifying the pitch's octave...
.
In the song, the woman's addiction and misdirected desire for transcendence 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. This compositional technique relies upon delayed gratification and is heard in a few other popular songs, such as The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
's "Just Like Heaven
Just like Heaven (song)
"Just Like Heaven" is a song by the British alternative rock band The Cure. The group wrote most of the song during recording sessions in southern France in 1987. The lyrics were written by the band's frontman Robert Smith, who drew inspiration from a past trip to the sea shore with his future wife...
" and George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
's "One More Try
One More Try (George Michael song)
"One More Try" is a U.S. number-one hit song written and performed by George Michael and released by Epic Records in 1988 as the fourth single from Faith.-History:...
".
U2 songs often have multiple interpretations, and "Running to Stand Still" has ones beyond its immediate context. On the website SongMeanings.net, there are several posts from readers who never realized the song is about drug addiction and heard it instead in contexts ranging from personal challenge to religious salvation. A staffer for the fan website atU2.com found the song to be a very meaningful inspiration towards personal discovery. In the liner notes to the 20th anniversary reissue of The Joshua Tree, writer Bill Flanagan stated, "'Running to Stand Still' is for anyone who feels trapped in an impossible circumstance by overwhelming responsibility." Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
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."
Reception
"Running to Stand Still" earned critical praise upon The Joshua Trees 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." In TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's 1987 cover story on the band, Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks is a film critic and motion picture screenwriter.He is a graduate of Kenyon College. He was a critic for Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines, before moving into film writing....
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." The Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
magazine Ultimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best. The 1991 Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".
"Running to Stand Still" became a Dublin anthem of sorts, immortalizing the Ballymun towers. It has been considered by pop music writer Brent Mann as one of the more powerful songs written about drug addiction, joining the likes of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
's 1967 "White Rabbit
White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100...
", Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's 1972 "The Needle and the Damage Done
The Needle and the Damage Done
"The Needle and the Damage Done" is a song by Neil Young that describes the descent into heroin addiction of musicians he knew. It was written about the heroin use of his Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, and previews the theme of "Tonight's the Night", a song that addresses the heroin overdose...
", Martika
Martika
Martika is an American pop singer-songwriter and actress. As a singer she released two internationally successful albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s, selling over four million copies worldwide.-Early life and career:Martika entered mainstream show business in an uncredited role as one of the...
's 1989 "Toy Soldiers
Toy Soldiers (song)
"Toy Soldiers" is a song by Martika appearing on her eponymous debut album in 1989 as a ballad. The single was a number-one hit in the United States. It was sampled by Eminem in his 2004 single, "Like Toy Soldiers"...
", and Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind is an American alternative rock band formed in the early 1990s in San Francisco. The songwriting duo of Kevin Cadogan and Stephan Jenkins signed the band's first major label recording contract with Elektra records in 1996 resulting in two multi platinum albums. The band's lineup...
's 1997 "Semi-Charmed Life
Semi-Charmed Life
"Semi-Charmed Life" is Third Eye Blind's first single off their self-titled debut album, released in 1997. It was a major hit of the 1990s, reaching number four in the U.S., number one on the Modern Rock Tracks and the Top 40 in the UK. Furthermore, it has had a pervasive cultural impact, being...
".
Irish music writer Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes is the award-winning editor of the long-running fortnightly Ireland music and political magazine Hot Press based in Dublin. He has edited the magazine since 1977. He has been a longstanding champion of Irish music, most famously U2 in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s...
considers "Running to Stand Still" to be one of the most important songs on The 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 with Achtung Baby
Achtung Baby
Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 19 November 1991 on Island Records. Stung by the criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate alternative...
and the Zoo TV Tour
Zoo TV Tour
The Zoo TV Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Staged in support of their 1991 album Achtung Baby, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1992 through 1993...
. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
" – which placed The 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. This latter sentiment was echoed by the Irish Independent
Irish Independent
The Irish Independent is Ireland's largest-selling daily newspaper that is published in both compact and broadsheet formats. It is the flagship publication of Independent News & Media.-History:...
.
Live performances
Throughout its live history, "Running to Stand Still" has nearly always followed "Bullet the Blue SkyBullet the Blue Sky
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is the fourth track from U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. The song is one of the band's most overtly politically toned songs, with live performances often being heavily critical of political conflicts and violence....
", matching the order they appear on the album. It was first played live on the Joshua Tree Tour
Joshua Tree Tour
The Joshua Tree Tour was a concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, which took place during 1987, in support of their album The Joshua Tree. The tour was depicted by the video and live album Live from Paris.-Itinerary:...
, with The Edge playing keyboards and Bono playing guitar, usually acoustic. During the 27 May 1987 show at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
's Stadio Flaminio
Stadio Flaminio
The Stadio Flaminio is a stadium in Rome. It lies along the Via Flaminia, three kilometres northwest of the city centre, 300 metres away from the Parco di Villa Glori....
– 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. One performance of the song was captured on the 1988 filmed documentary of the tour, Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
, but was not included on the accompanying album. A different tour performance was included on both the DVD and album Live from Paris, released in 2007. On the Lovetown Tour
Lovetown Tour
The Lovetown Tour was a concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, which took place in late 1989 and early 1990.-Itinerary:It was limited in scope, but did try to reach places that their 1987 Joshua Tree Tour had missed, all the while avoiding the United States entirely.The tour's opening night was on...
, during one Dublin show that was broadcast worldwide, the song segued into a verse of Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
's classic ode to industrial bleakness, "Dirty Old Town
Dirty Old Town
"Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was made popular by The Dubliners and has been recorded by many others since.-History:...
"; this show was released in 2004 as Live from the Point Depot
Live from the Point Depot
Love: Live from the Point Depot is a digital live album by U2 released through the iTunes Music Store on November 23, 2004 as part of the digital box set, "The Complete U2." The show was recorded during U2's Lovetown Tour on New Year's Eve 1989 at the Point Depot in Dublin...
.
During the Zoo TV Tour, the song's performance was significantly altered. In these shows, The Edge played guitar on his Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
with the band on the main stage, while Bono sang the song on the B-stage with a headset microphone. Bono mimed the actions of a heroin addict, rolling up his sleeves and then spiking his arm during the final lyric, after which he would sing "Hallelujah" over and over while reaching up into a pillar of white light. 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." At the culmination of the "Bullet to Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still" sequence, red and yellow smoke flares came out from either end of the stage (an idea of U2's security chief, who was a U.S. Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
), as the coda segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name
Where the Streets Have No Name
"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and...
". This arrangement and performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included in the 1994 concert film Zoo TV: Live from Sydney
Zoo TV: Live From Sydney
Zoo TV: Live from Sydney is a concert video release by rock band U2 from the "Zoomerang" leg of their Zoo TV Tour. Recorded on Saturday, November 27, 1993 at Sydney Football Stadium on the band's featured stop in Sydney, Australia, it was released in May 1994 on VHS and Laserdisc, and re-released...
.
"Running to Stand Still" was not played on the PopMart Tour
Popmart Tour
The PopMart Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 1997 album, Pop, the tour's concerts were performed in stadiums and parks from 1997 through 1998...
or Elevation Tour
Elevation Tour
The Elevation Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, the tour visited arenas in 2001. After the band's previous two extravagant stadium tours, Zoo TV and PopMart, the Elevation Tour returned the...
, but it returned to U2 concerts on the 2005 Vertigo Tour
Vertigo Tour
The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in...
, 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 verses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
being read; after July 2005, it was replaced in that role and in the set list by "Miss Sarajevo
Miss Sarajevo
"Miss Sarajevo" is the only single from the 1995 album Original Soundtracks 1 by U2 and Brian Eno, under the pseudonym Passengers. Luciano Pavarotti makes a guest vocal appearance, singing the opera solo. It also appears on U2's compilation, The Best of 1990-2000, and was covered by George Michael...
". During the 19 June 2005 show on Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
's birthday, "Running to Stand Still" included snippets of "Walk On", a song originally written for her. 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. 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 the ONE Campaign
ONE Campaign
The ONE Campaign is an international, nonpartisan, non-profit organization which aims to increase government funding for and effectiveness of international aid programs....
, an assessment agreed to by an eFestivals
EFestivals
eFestivals is a website listing music festivals; hosting information on line-ups, interviews, photographs and live reviews.- History :The website was launched in 1998 as "The Original Glastonbury Website", and was adopted by Glastonbury Festival as the official website for the 1999 event...
review. In contrast, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
s veteran rock writer Edna Gundersen
Edna Gundersen
Edna Gundersen is an American journalist who is a longtime music writer and critic for USA Today.Gundersen grew up in El Paso, Texas. She attained a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and then wrote features and entertainment news for the El Paso Times from 1977 to 1987...
found the song's performance still established a "devastating" mood and the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
said that the group "thinned 'Running To Stand Still' to give it a new mourning". Two other U.S. reviewers remarked that the song was lesser known to audiences, with Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
saying its inclusion helped the band connect with the past while avoiding cliché. One tour performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included on the Vertigo 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 the U2 360° Tour
U2 360° Tour
The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It was named for a stage configuration that allowed the audience to almost completely surround the stage...
, with The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...
bemoaning the absence of this "stone-cold classic of the U2 canon".
Legacy
The use of the phrase "running to stand still" dates to at least to the 1920s and 1930s. It comes from the image presented in Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's 1871 children's novel Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
. Since the album and song's release, use of the phrase seems to have increased. Between 1851 and 1986, the phrase occurred four times in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
; from 1987 to 2009, the phrase has occurred ten times (not counting mentions of the song itself). The phrase occurs many more times in Google News
Google News
Google News is a free news aggregator provided by Google Inc, selecting recent items from thousands of publications by an automatic aggregation algorithm....
archive searches from 1987 on (excluding those to the song itself) than from 1986 and before. The phrase has been used in connection with drug addiction and closely related issues a number of times, including in academic papers and in New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine's description of the heroin-centric 1993 Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
novel Trainspotting
Trainspotting (novel)
Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is written in the form of short chapters narrated in the first person by various residents of Leith, Edinburgh, who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are...
.
Future music video director Dave Meyers
Dave Meyers (director)
David "Dave" Meyers is an American music video director.-Career:Meyers has directed over 200 music videos including: P!nk's "There You Go", "Most Girls", "You Make Me Sick", "Get The Party Started", "Don't Let Me Get Me", "Feel Good Time", "Stupid Girls", "U + Ur Hand", "So What", "Please Don't...
wrote a movie script to the song while a film student at Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
. The 2004 first-season episode "Running to Stand Still" of the U.S. television series Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
was named after the song. It featured the Lynette Scavo
Lynette Scavo
Lynette Scavo is a fictional character on the series Desperate Housewives. The character is playedby actress Felicity Huffman, who won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the role in 2005, and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series...
character resorting to taking her children's ADD medication in order to cope with the overwhelming demands of her domestic life. A fifth-season episode
One Tree Hill (season 5)
Season five of One Tree Hill, an American television series, began on January 8, 2008. This is the second season to air on the CW television network. Season five regular cast members include Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Sophia Bush, Paul Johansson, Lee...
of the U.S. television series One Tree Hill
One Tree Hill (TV series)
One Tree Hill is an American television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003, on The WB Television Network. After its third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW Television Network, and, since September 27, 2006, the network has been the official broadcaster...
, itself named after a U2 song, was called "Running to Stand Still".
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. 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; the link between the towers and the song was mentioned in some tourist books about Dublin. Former towers residents were not always happy with the song. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoir The 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. 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. She thus wrote, "regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there was certainly more than one way out." 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." 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."
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. A Bono remark that it was dangerous to walk in Ballymun at night found a good deal of publicity. A fansite listing U2-related Dublin area sights in 2004 mentioned Ballymun's connection to the song, cautioning, "do not go here on foot – this is a bad area". 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.
See also
- List of covers of U2 songs - Running to Stand Still