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

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.

listened to 'achtung baby' recently. it still sounds superb but theres some wretched lyrics on that record.

to be frank I think the Edge slightly mucks up that solo, esp the end, but you can still see the idea.

I also like the muted part he adds around 3:30.

Love how it took Edge like 30 years to pull off some Guitar 101 blues solo! ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Go2DK9VtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOhWSGbhxAo&feature=related

More like 15 years really - he was doing this version in 1992 - as you can see here from 2:20:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Lojsm-rAg&feature=related

Is it that easy to play a good blues-rock solo? I've been playing for 22 years and I can't do what he does on those videos.

Ha, I can't either, but I don't have his effects rig! I also suck. ;)

Okay, have gone and voted. My hate points were decided by looking at the most played tracks on last.fm and choosing the first one there that makes me want to kill.

I completely forgot about my hate vote! I'll send that now.

Most played top 15 if you need reminding:

Beautiful Day
With Or Without You
One
Sunday Bloody Sunday
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Vertigo
Where The Streets Have No Name
Elevation
New Year's Day
Mysterious Ways
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
City Of Blinding Lights
Walk On
Desire

I looked at those and I though 'hola!'

okay I wasn't going to do any campaigning but have you ppl not actually heard "Elvis Ate America"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XF_hxuMMcI

We're beyond twenty ballots now, which was my target for the whole thing being viable - so thanks to you all (so far). Every ballot now can only make things better.

Anybody who's stuck could do a lot worse than just listing all of the first album and then figuring out nine more tracks.

I mean, there are songs in the U2 catalog I hate (hi dere "Angel of Harlem") but NOTHING can approach "Elvis Ate America" in terms of awfulness

I have never listened to that song as the title is just perfect as a standalone.

Huh. I only voted for 4 (maybe 5) of last.fm's most-played songs. I wasn't trying to be strictly-4-tha-headz and I love most of them when I hear them live but I guess they don't resonate that deeply with me.

Is Elvis Ate America the poem? That reeks.

"Who's gonna ride your wild horses?" remains one of the dumbest lyrics they have, imo. Worse than "a mole digging in a hole elevate your soul" or whatever it was.

don't make me post the "lyrics" to "Elvis Ate America"

No no no do it
U2 can take it