Where The Streets Have No Name / The U2 Thread

[Lament]

Boy is one of my favorite albums of all-time. I never get tired of it.

[dimejinky99]

Youthful exuberance of boy up to the European decadence and the Las Vegas trash of achtung baby.

Some ride these boys have been on.


Have you all read U2 by U2?
It's a great book

[Lament]

Yeah, U2 by U2 was a really pleasant surprise. I expected it to be white-washed and terrible, but it was really about as much as you could reasonably hope for from a book of that nature. I was as obsessed with U2 as anyone on the planet from 1995-1998, and read everything available about them in that period (I probably had an entire shelf of just books about U2 at one point), so it was really great to sit down with something that legitimately contained as much brand new information and as many brand new stories as that book did.

[dimejinky99]

And it really looked great. You felt you were getting something worthwhile. All the stories and information backed up by great art and photos

[Lament]

Absolutely, especially the Acthung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop chapters. The pictures and artwork really exploded off the page and captured the aura of the era you were reading about perfectly. The first time I worked my way through it, I found myself listening to each album at the end of its chapter because the book would put me so deep in the mindframe for it.

[dimejinky99]

I only ever found myself staring at pictures of Larry.
Handsome bastard.

[Lament]

Ageless son of a bitch too.

[dimejinky99]

If have to disagree. It's caught up with him badly.
Bono was out in glens the day before the Christmas busk in Dublin and played the new album. It's finished. Apparently. God knows when they'll really finish it.

[Lament]

If it did catch up to him, it took forever. He was still looking absurdly young well into his mid-40s.

[dimejinky99]

He's not really a great drummer though. I mean he fits U2 and they don't really have space or room for a spectacular drummer really. No song I can think of anyways. But he really is meat and two veg basic.

[Lament]

I think he has some excellent work on Achtung Baby, especially on Mysterious Ways. On their own neither he nor Adam* are world-beaters, but there's a lot of synergy between the two of them and they provide the perfect template for Bono and the Edge to branch out from.

*Adam gets shit on a lot, but for a guy who isn't trying to show off, he's got a startling number of killer, recognizable basslines.

[Kaius]

I'm through The Unforgettable Fire and so far Boy/War>October>UF

Just started The Joshua Tree. One thing is for certain: they know how to do opening tracks.

[Lament]

Yes. But it's bad. Easily the worst album. But all of the albums are essential to the journey. Plus R&H still has Hawkmoon 269, All I Want Is You, and God Part II.

But then again, for me UF > Boy > October > War, so you may feel differently about everything in the catalog.

[Kaius]

I felt like it was a dumb question and deleted it. Looks like you caught me. I already decided to give it a go, but thanks for the clarity. My reasoning was it looked almost like a 'Live on 2 Legs' effort with some B-sides tossed in, but whatevs.

And my rankings are based off of only a few listens, so they could very well change with more gravity. Boyx3, Octoberx1, Warx2, UFx1 ... probably too early to honestly rank them.

[Kaius]

I really just like reading anything you have to say regarding tunes, Lament.

[Kaius]

...is what I'm trying to say

[Lament]

Aww, thanks Kaius. That means a lot to me.



The originals on it are definitely more than b-sides. They're very much a departure from the Joshua Tree sessions. The live stuff is pretty dull though, and a lot of the originals are too. But it helps put into context what an amazing departure and reinvention Achtung Baby.

[Kevin Davis]

I think the live versions of "Pride," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "Bullet the Blue Sky" are great. The covers are terrible, though, and the interludes are dumb. I think it's a pretty good album overall.

[Peeps]

as good as the album is it cannot touch achtung baby. fact!

[Bob Loblaw]

The new song is just lame, I'm sad to say. Still, like someone else said, I'm curious about the new album, but not very hopeful. I'll still try to catch them on tour because no one does live like U2.

Regarding Larry, here's a good story on his strongest suit:

"I was working with Larry Mullen, Jr., on one of the U2 albums," Eno [Producer Brian Eno] told me. " 'All That You Don't Leave Behind,' or whatever it's called." Mullen was playing drums over a recording of the band and a click track - a computer-generated beat that was meant to keep all the overdubbed parts in synch. In this case, however, Mullen thought that the click track was slightly off: it was a fraction of a beat behind the rest of the band. "I said, 'No, that can't be so, Larry,' " Eno recalled. " 'We've all worked to that track, so it must be right.' But he said, 'Sorry, I just can't play to it.' "

Eno eventually adjusted the click to Mullen's satisfaction, but he was just humoring him. It was only later, after the drummer had left, that Eno checked the original track again and realized that Mullen was right: the click was off by six milliseconds. "The thing is," Eno told me, "when we were adjusting it I once had it two milliseconds to the wrong side of the beat, and he said, 'No, you've got to come back a bit.' Which I think is absolutely staggering."