Nothing
similar at first sight ah? But look at
it like this: divide the covers with four
vertical strips, each one separating one
Beatle and in U2’s case each one separating
a section of the castle (as shown below).
The arm positions of each Beatle correlate
with the column positions of each of the
four castle sections: 1 with 1, 2 with
2, 3 with 3, and 4 with 4, producing a
relation of no, two, one, one.
Graphic 8: No, Two, Two, One
Help
The
Unforgettable Fire
1
George
with no arms raised
Section
1-no columns
2
John
with two arms raised
Section
2-two columns
3
Paul
with one arm raised
Section
3-one Column
4
Ringo
with one arm raised
Section
4-one Columns
Did
you see it? Let’s move on. Bellow you can
see three frames taken from the documentary “The
Unforgettable Fire Collection” which illustrates
the making of that album. Maybe to arouse
the muses, Bono is writing a big HELP in
his notebook. Within our framework it is
intriguing to see how the spirit of “Help” penetrated “The
Unforgettable Fire”.
Graphic 9: Help in Bono’s Notebook
And
the connection between these two albums
goes deeper having to do with the Atomic
Bomb and all that its creation implies.
In 1992, U2 joined Greenpeace in the known
assault on The Sellafield Nuclear Plant,
to denounce radioactive contamination and
plans for the construction of a new nuclear
facility. To ask for “HELP” concerning
this matter they emulated The Beatles HELP
cover. This strengthens
the connection between these two albums
because of the fact that “The Unforgettable
Fire” is strongly linked with the nuclear
theme: “The Unforgettable Fire” was the
title of a drawings exhibition by survivors
of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings.
After attending it U2 was greatly affected
and decided to use that title to name the
new album.
Graphic 10: Help stunt in Sellafield (Three to One)
When
comparing these two pictures we see a trait
that appears in the artwork of The Beatles
and U2, throughout their careers.
THREE out of the four band members have
a common characteristic, and the remaining
ONE member, the opposite:
- 3 with hat: 1 without
hat (Paul, Bono)
- 3 with neck closed : 1 with
neck open (Ringo, Bono)
- 3 with sun-glasses : 1 without
sunglasses (Larry)-U2 only
- 3 with same boots: 1 with
different boots (John, Bono).
This Three-to-One (3:1) proportion has found expression
in The Beatles and U2’s artwork in many occasions all
of which for practical reasons won’t be shown here.
What concerns us the most at this point is that this
Three-to-One (3:1) proportion could be interpreted
as a representation of wholeness in the sense that
wholeness is comprised of three parts that
unite with each other and together become complete.
One of the symbols that best serves to describe the
Three-to-One (3:1) proportion is The Egyptian
Cross: It has three lines
(2 horizontal lines, 1 vertical line) that converge
in the same point and on top of them a circle. One
of the possible interpretations of this cross is that
it symbolizes the process by which two opposite forces
(represented by line 1 and line 2) are reconciled by
a third one (line 3) that makes all of them WHOLE [ellipse] and by doing that, produces something NEW.
Graphic 11: Egyptian Cross (Three to One)
In the Egyptian Cross, as depicted above,
The Beatles would be Line 1,
U2 would be Line 2, and a third factor, Line 3, needs
to enter for the process to be completed. The appearance
of the Three-to-One (3:1) proportion in the artwork
of both bands is a manifestation
of this process in action. And It seems that many of
the times these manifestations are unconscious, as
the following event may suggest: From Bill Flanagan’s
book “U2 at The End of The World” we learn that during
the boarding of the boats that took U2 and the Greenpeace
crew to the Sellafield shore, one of the Greenpeace
activists suddenly noticed that Bono didn’t have the
required anti-radiation boots to avoid contamination
and strongly advised him to go change his shoes. He
replied that he was fine, that he would not get his
feet wet, but at her insistence a crewmember went to
search for the protective boots. No pair was found
because all the boots were in use. Luckily
upon landing ashore Bono was carried to the sand.
This is remarkable because even though the HELP stunt
was deliberately staged by U2, a twist of fate assured
that the Three-to-One (3:1) proportion concerning the
type of boot was also fulfilled, because as you can
see in the Help cover picture, John also had a different
pair of shoes than the rest of the Fab Four.
Graphic 12: Three-to-One Proportion of Boots (Three to One)
