“20” – U2 TRACKS POLL (voting closes midday, Thursday 4 August)

what

xp

I think I rated Unforgettable Fire tracks too low on my ballot. I prefer Ironic Bono to Earnest Bono, but instrumentally, tUF is the band's high-water mark

The aspect of U2's work you're describing is one of my favorite things about them, and is well-represented on my ballot (lots of tracks from The Unforgettable Fire, e.g.). I'm also partial to their early 1990s work. I'm not sure how those two aspects are connected; I need to think more about that.

I'm with you there. I think the connection lies in the immersive qualities of both of those periods. Both are less alert, less sober, less chest-thumpingly self-actualizing versions of the band. The atmospheric stuff is blissed out, hazy, delicate, stately; the best stuff on Achtung Baby is maximalistic, layered, thick, intoxicating, humid. The key to the band's success in my mind is tempering Bono... He has an objectively fantastic voice that easily lends itself to becoming just too much, and in both of these versions of the band he's perfectly balanced with the rush and feel of the rest of the band.

I don't know if I said so upthread, but I adore the title track of "The Unforgettable Fire" despite the crap lyrics: those shifting synth textures. The 12" mix should have been a schlockier Trevor Horn-esque disco track.

That sounds right to me. I don't favor anthemic U2 anymore, though I can remember its appeal. "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", the whole of Under A Blood Red Sky, those are good songs! But Bono is too self-aware, too keen a historian of rock, to ~really feel it~ every time, & I think this is the band's secret weapon over its more resolutely strident peers (yes, even Echo). This is why they were able to pull off their big switch at the turn of the 1990s.

xp to Clarke

yes! "The Unforgettable Fire" is high on my ballot.

certainly fascinated by 70s Bowie / 90s U2 connections but I also suspect that it may be a bit played up by the 'crashed car' title echo -- and the two crashed car songs don't even sound similar. but certainly U2's title must be a nod to Bowie's

also Bowie did a 70s 'stay', not sure on what LP

maybe arguable that general Eno textures provide a link.

thinking about 'zoo station' a great deal over the last couple of months, playing many different versions - after actually going there

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5183/5779818835_b33cd0a8a6.jpg

i ended up going pretty light on the early albums -- nothing from the first two, 1 from War and 2 from The Unforgettable Fire

- 'versions' ie: LP version on vinyl, and otherwise live ones on old tapes, and youtube

still compelled by this song, still feel it represents heart of the Achtung turn, as it was meant to

but also struck by how un-experimental all this really is, by Enoish standards: if this was really like LOW, then 'zoo station' itself would go on for 12-15 minutes, hypnotizing you - instead it's compact, 4 minutes and out and on to 45 'real thing' - sense of this being really a streamlined rock LP

maybe that's obvious.

other thing about it:

'zoo station' is example of a category of KEY / ICONIC ALBUM TRACKS that are not 45s but still have a special status

maybe this applies to lots of bands, but re U2 I think the list stretches to

October
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bad
Bullet the Blue Sky
Until The End of the World

I think that's it, actually, can't really see any more from the last 20 years.

'Sunday Bloody Sunday' is a real contender for my least favourite U2 song, now I think about it, esp all the live versions I've endured on tape, video etc - I wish they'd retired it as it seemed might happen after Rattle & Hum film.

'until the end of the world' is another song I now find I can be endlessly interested in - again the slight paradox of a track with such a big live history that was never a 45. I think the Edge likes playing the guitar parts inc solo: he does it all on one of the deleted scenes on the dvd IT MIGHT GET LOUD.

"Until the End of the World" may be one of my very favorite U2 songs, absolutely. The live versions of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" really do kill it, don't they? It gets painful to see Bono in that state. I've never liked "Bullet the Blue Sky"... "Ultraviolet" has always slayed me.

All your other true statements notwithstanding, 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' was definitely a single. Well, here in Europe it was.

xp

i don't think i can justify sending in a ballot for this when i forgot to vote in the prince poll but i kinda want to anyway

do it! no research or anything. just pull the first 20 songs you can think of (that you like) from the air around you and make an email out of it.

'Sunday Bloody Sunday' is a real contender for my least favourite U2 song, now I think about it, esp all the live versions I've endured on tape, video etc - I wish they'd retired it as it seemed might happen after Rattle & Hum film.

when i saw them a few weeks ago and they were doing the "how long must we sing this song" part, i turned to my wife and said "it's been, what, 29 years and counting?"

so far my ballot is like two unforgettable fire tracks up front, the pre-uf hits minus sbs, a couple josh tree songs, one tune from achtung, and nothing since then.

i kinda want to stick the mary j. blige "one" at the top just for shits and giggles.

negative points tune is gonna be harder to figure than the whole positive list.

What do tickets to see U2 cost these days?

Well, having seen the band too many times, beginning in 87, I recently got refunds for four tickets a few weeks ago - thanks to the show's postponement, Ticketmaster let us do this the week before the show, literally a year and a half after we bought them! Total cost: $278 for four GA tix. I'm glad to have the cash back, since I've more or less had my fill of U2. BTW, the band's live peak to me came after 9/11 - I saw them perhaps the year before and they were great. Then I saw them when they came back, after, and they were on fire, truly powerful, moving stuff. I've seen few shows from bands of any and every bent that rose to that level.

Then I saw them the tour after that, and they sort of dragged. And that's the end.

i got to see them for free to review the show -- basically tickets fell in my lap 5 hours before the show, which was pretty great to be able to surprise my wife with since U2 is one of her favorite bands

U2 opened its 2001 tour in Miami -- still one of the best shows I've ever seen. That's the one where Bono tumbled off the stage.

They also closed the world tour in Miami -- a less exciting performance; they sounded exhausted.

There seems to be a general consensus here that U2's output from 2000 forward is not on the same level as their early records. For those who subscribe to that theory, I urge you to take 4:19 out of your day to listen to Window In The Skies. This could be their best song ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-NskE3M2A&ob=av2e

i managed four songs from the 21st century on my ballot

^^^^ title of their next comp

kornrulez, thanks for posting that -- it might make my ballot

more taken aback by the video than the song

Yeah, great video concept/execution. The song is like an 8th generation xerox of good Joshua Tree/Rattle & Hum/Achtung-era U2.

booooo

Got my first cut down to 33, but there are three or four songs I might put back before the real bone-cutting begins.

OK, sent.

In the UK the WAR 45s were 'new year's day' and 'two hearts beat as one'.

Wikipedia says 'Sunday' was a 45 in Belgium and Netherlands.

It says the same thing about 'I Will Follow (live from Hattem)'.

'until the end of the world' is another song I now find I can be endlessly interested in - again the slight paradox of a track with such a big live history that was never a 45.

OTM. My #1 pick. Probably Bono's best lyric.

Truly surprised to see that 'sometimes you can't make it on your own' was a UK #1 45.

and that 'all because of you' was released before it and made #4.

'city of blinding lights' a creditable #2.

They've had 6 UK #1s + something called 'take me to the clouds' that I apparently don't know.

DL, you might enjoy the first 75 seconds of this fabulous clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMw8NjCs_dg

a strange thing is that I still do not know how to play those last 2 songs, and on seeing him use a 4th-fret capo for 'until the end of the world' I'm no longer sure I know how to play that either.

"Do You Feel Loved" and "Heartland" are a couple great Adam/Larry songs that I wish were better Bono/Edge songs. The bass line on "Do You Feel Loved" in particular is U2 minimalist perfection.

Haven't heard 'Do You Feel Loved' for years, think I like it a lot more than anything else on that album, but listening to it now it's amazing how similar to 00's Radiohead it sounds, particularly the bass and drums.

I always quite liked its opening clanging shiny keyboard sounds.

The bass on that track has always seemed to be the deepest and loudest of their career.

Don't think the lyric is very meaningful, though.

Radiohead! They've kept popping into my head while I've been doing this. Basically they seem to always be about six years behind, but without the guts to try to combine the aesthetic with proper stardom or, y'know, songs.

I like their first LP

Radiohead's Where You End and I Begin reminds me of something from the Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Passengers years. It's got that dark Berlin dancefloor thing going on.

I love lots by this band and lots by the Edge, but he was totally outclassed in that documentary, and in fact, I'm now one of those conspiracy theorists on the fence as to whether the guy can really play his guitar, at least conventionally. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean, I feel the same way about Eddie Van Halen, a prodigy whom I've never heard any "normal" stuff from; he can apparently only play like EVH. Edge is so distinctive, but at least half of his sound is his effects (unlike, say, jazzbo Andy Summers, whose chords and phrases are tricky at their easiest). No question, the effects are cool and, um, effective, but I find they make learning U2 songs hard, since they're both carrying a lot of the weight and hiding/disguising the actual (usually simple) chords.

Anyway, "Until the End of the World" will place high on my list. I've never liked Bono as a lyricist except on "Achtung Baby," where his words seem to be getting at something larger than himself (and not just god, or oral sex, for that matter).

I still think Kid A and Achtung Baby are the two great contrasting examples of a massive rock band reinventing itself. Kid A's more radical, obviously, but I admire Achtung Baby more for making a sonic leap without any loss to the songwriting - quite the opposite in fact. Whereas Thom Yorke almost erased himself as a lyricist and personality, Bono found a whole new candour and wit which hasn't, unfortunately, been matched in the past decade. I think he once said that Acrobat was his most self-analytical lyric: "I must be an acrobat/To talk like this/And act like that."

Think my ballot will be ballad heavy, but I may toss in "Wire," U2 at its most urgent.

I have always found 'wire' magnificent
there is a remix of it on an old NME 7-inch from 1985
which I also have

I don't quite think the songwriting improved with Achtung Baby, as I think their best work is 1984-7 -- but it was good enough, to work with the new textures and feel exciting. Though I must admit it took me a long time to accept Achtung Baby; I was very disappointed with it at first.

Edge: well for one thing there are times when he DOES seem to play in a really cool 'chops' kind of way - I'm thinking of the thrilling Hendrix solo he added to 'bullet the blue sky' from the 1990s on ... I can listen to that in awe.

But more broadly, agree that he's not great in that way, that it's the FX, but isn't that the point, or something he might admit? - he openly shows at some point in that film how 'elevation' (pretty bad song) is just a hugely amped-up version of him playing 2 boring notes.

I still think it took ability or taste to get to those sounds, and find those particular things to do within them.

whether he makes the songs harder to play - I don't think the FX is the issue here - I think I can hear through FX. I just genuinely can't fathom how he's playing all the notes that he does on 'bad', for instance (think of the highest note on the opening chord), without a capo (I managed it with a high capo + C shape the other day, but he's not doing that on that video, no capo. ditto I finally nailed 'pride' with a capo and a D shape but that doesn't fit what he's doing either).

Hmm, even the Bullet solo is short on actual notes, isn't it?

Don't think many (any?) U2 songs are capo-ed. A few are tuned down a bit, and the delay encourages the Edge to use a lot of open strings, so that could be part of it. Regardless, it did take ability to figure out all those cool effects; I listen to him like a cool synth player.

Best part of that doc, btw, is where Edge goes back to his school and points on the stage where they first played, notes how he randomly picked that spot to the right of Bono and that he's been standing there ever since!

the bullet solo on Joshua Tree is one thing. I'm talking about the one he started playing later - I have it on live tapes from 1993 and 2005.

It needs the whole structure of the song to change: going a few rounds in E but then into 4 x a big rock sequence of E-D-A-E. The (simple enough) bass is thus key in making it work. It's very much old time standard Hendrix rock type stuff, but this has an extra piquancy and appeal as the Edge isn't normally about that.

this gives you an idea of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6nzA5gtBUY
from c 2:15 to 3:00

though that's not the best rendition I've heard and I'm not sure the bass changes come out enough on the sound.

I have always found 'wire' magnificent
there is a remix of it on an old NME 7-inch from 1985
which I also have

yeah i got that too. very gang of 4/steve albini that track.