Where The Streets Have No Name / The U2 Thread

[Scott]

The Unforgetable Fire tour is, to this day, still one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

I've fallen off the U2 bandwagon over the past 10 years or so, but the first 5 or 6 albums were excellent.

[Kevin Davis]

The single version, for its unabashed pop production. It's also the one most closely associated to my childhood memories-- that song was a big radio hit in Colombia when I was 11 or so. The original version is kind of a mess, from what I remember.

I'm fairly sure this was the song that violently turned me off U2, at least initially.

Wait--did Stip try to sing this to you in a Cookie Monster voice too?

[Heathen]

that song would totally piss me off if I wasn't already a fan. But I am, so I like it

most stip post etc.

[Bob Loblaw]

people actually like pop? awesome, because i do, too. i like u2 enough, but certainly don't love them. growing up in the late 80s/early 90s i'd obviously heard a lot of u2, but at 12-14 years old none of their output i was familiar with really made me think they were worthy of the praise they were getting. then "numb" and its weirly awesome video came out and i found myself enjoying the direction their sound was going, though i got burnt out on zooropa and the seemingly unending hype surrounding it (which in retrospect seems more a residual effect of the success of achtung baby).

pop finally made me like u2. on its release, "discotheque" became my favorite u2 song. it might still be my favorite u2 song. the album's only misstep in my opinion was "staring at the sun", which sounded the most like standard u2, and even that one isn't terrible by any means. the closing trio of "...velvet dress/please/wake up dead man" is haunting, fascinating, and engaging music. on the other hand, tracks like "mofo" and "miami" are abrasive and determined to challenge you, making them more rewarding with subsequent listens. pop is a great record, in my view.

after pop's release, the popular opinion was that the album was a disaster, and even the band started making excuses for its lack of success. as they begun work on their next record, word was that the new album would be a "return to form" for u2. all that you can't leave behind came out and everyone loved how u2 was u2 once again. u2 came to town and i went to the show, but pop was completely absent from the setlist (and all but absent from the whole tour). so from my perspective, the band completely disowned pop and took the safe route out. all of this made all that you can't leave behind and its relative success a colossal disappointment to me, and i've never really gone back. i listened to ...atomic bomb a couple times, and haven't bothered with anything else since.

so, pop4lyfe, yo.

I want to have a master threader make a quilt out of this post so I can wrap myself inside it and stay warm during the long, cold, winter nights to come.

[VinylGuy]

I liked the last album..it was pretty cool, they quit that idea of them rocking and went for something else, it might be flawed, and that first single was awful, but songs like Breathe put a smile in my face.

[Kevin Davis]

So Lament--tell me what you know about U2 B-Sides. I have the disc that came with the first greatest hits. What else is out there?

[Lament]

Not counting the stuff on the 1980-1990 Bonus Disc, there were my personal favorites over the years (including soundtracks/compilations/etc.). Some of these I haven't listened to in maybe a decade, so it's possible they haven't held up well, but who knows...

I'm Not Your Baby (with Sinead O'Connor)(The End of Violence Soundtrack)*
Night & Day (Red Hot + Blue)**
Lady With the Spinning Head (UVI) (One)
North & South of the River (Staring at the Sun)
Slow Dancing (Stay (Faraway, So Close))
Holy Joe (Garage Mix) (Discotheque)
Salome (Even Better Than The Real Thing)
Alex Descends Into Hell For a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1 (The Fly)
Happiness is a Warm Gun (The Gun Mix) (Last Night on Earth)
Can't Help Falling in Love With You (Bono) (Honeymoon in Vegas Soundtrack)
Can't Help Falling in Love With You (Triple Peaks Remix) (Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses)
Stateless (The Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack)
Silver & Gold (Bono/Keith Richards version) (Sun City: Artists United Against Apartheid)
Jesus Christ (Folkways - A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie)
Touch (11 O'Clock Tick Tock)
Be There (outtake - War)

If you don't know them, A Celebration & Another Day are their "forgotten" a-sides and are worth checking out as well. Same thing with 11 O'Clock Tick Tock if you only know the live version. The single version is

If you're interested, I can mail you a mix of this stuff. Or if someone wants to tell me how I can try to upload it all somewhere that anyone can access it, I'd be more than willing to do this.

*This is actually probably one of my top five favorite U2 songs
**Among U2 fans, this is generally considered to be the birth of Achtung Baby-era U2

[Kevin Davis]

I would love something like that, Lament--the only B-sides of theirs I really know are the ones on that bonus disc, and a couple odd ones from recent years. What do you think of that "Medium Rare and Unreleased" set from a few years ago? I always meant to check it out.

[Lament]

The Medium, Rare & Remastered thing was just ok. I remember thinking way too much of it was stuff that was already out there. Looking at the tracklist now, there were really only six "new" songs, and Xanax & Wine was really just a different take on Fast Cars (the bonus track on HTDAAB, and actually one of the songs from that era worth owning if you don't). They were all ok, but none of them were egregious omissions from the albums they were recorded for. The rest of it is pretty much just bonus material from the remastered sets, and a few straight up alternate recordings of HTDAAB tracks.

I know you mentioned really disliking Beautiful Day earlier. Have you ever heard this?



It was one of the b-sides to Beautiful Day. Because they do all of their composing in the studio (and for the most part as a band), there's a lot of fully realized songs that share huge chunks of DNA with others, since they kinda take every possible direction to the extreme and then decide which one they prefer. I always wished Beautiful Day were more similar to this one.

But yeah, PM me and we can figure out if it's easier for me to just burn you some CDs and mail them, or if you can help me figure out how to get them to you through a file-sharing program or something. I can include as much or as little material as you'd like.

[Kevin Davis]

I have heard that, actually. I have an EP called "7" that I bought as a--where else--Target exclusive maybe a year or two after "All That You Can't Leave Behind" came out, and it contains that, "Summer Rain," "Big Girls Are Best," and a few alternate takes of the album tracks. A good track for sure. That said, I don't dislike "Beautiful Day" at all now, that was just my 16 year-old self's kneejerk reaction when it hit radio back in 2000. I do have "Fast Cars," as well as "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," and something called "Winter" which looks to be from the "No Line" era.

Thanks for your generous offer, I will shoot you a PM.

[Jorge]

I think "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is an awful song. But I also think "Electrical Storm" is probably the best song from that era.

[Lament]

Electrical Storm is fantastic. That song restored a lot of my faith in their abilities at a time when I felt like they were fading very fast.

[Kevin Davis]

I love "Electrical Storm" too, though I only know the William Orbit version. I wouldn't call "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" awful but I would agree it's not really anything special.

I think "City of Blinding Lights" is probably my favorite song from the last three albums.

[Strat]

So do we hate Bono for a deteriorating voice or no?

So Joshua Tree and what else to begin with? I always enjoyed all you cant leave behind...

[Kevin Davis]

Bono's voice was in pretty fine shape on their last album.

I personally am not a huge "Joshua Tree" fan, I would take the cues from this thread and start with the '90's stuff.

[Lament]

Strat, you asked about stripped back U2 stuff, right? Any opinion on these two tracks...

This one is actually Bono, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood...


And this is from a Woody Guthrie tribute record...



Is this kind of what you were thinking?

[LetMeSleep]

U2 were the second band I saw live. I saw them in 89 with BB King. It was a pretty great show. I didn't like much of Achtung Baby at first and it took a very insistent girlfriend to play it constantly to change my mind.

[stip]

So do we hate Bono for a deteriorating voice or no?

So Joshua Tree and what else to begin with? I always enjoyed all you cant leave behind...

Joshua tree and Achtung. There will be plenty of songs you'll recognize that you will likely appreciate more in context, and these are both incredibly deep albums. If you like all you can't leave behind you'll love Joshua tree.

[PHATJ]

So do we hate Bono for a deteriorating voice or no?

So Joshua Tree and what else to begin with? I always enjoyed all you cant leave behind...

If you are into music DVD/Blueray, get the Zoo TV and Pop Mart shows. They are both phenomenal. About 15 years ago, a close friend of mine who was a huge fan played the Zoo TV vhs cassette for me and it was the beginning of my love for U2. Before that I had a very little to no interest in the band, but that changed everything. Pop Mart is an amazing spectacle and a great show too.

[Rangi Guy]

I was the same. Had absolutely no interest in UK then saw the Zoo TV concert - immediately bought Achtung Baby and was hooked. Gave up listening to them after Pop though...They seemed to stop being interesting.