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

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

I'm with you re. the lyrics on that song. "Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World" is a pretty dumb lyric too; I groaned the first time I heard the "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" line because that's the kind of the bullshit I'd see in corporate & doctor & teacher offices, just awful bumper-sticker material, & Bono doesn't pull it off with any irony.

xp to La Lechera; "Elvis Ate America" is also horrible but way less high profile so I give it a pass.

omg the "arms around the world" thing was SO embarrassing to me when i first heard it. euler totally otm.

this is what made me unable to accept the "ironic Bono" that you guys seem able to love. i liked U2 the way they were at the time, and relied on them for something, and then they started being posers, i guess. i realize that for some people they were always posers, but not for me. i entered U2ville right when they were huge and then dug backwards and stayed there, for better or worse.

Here are the lyrics to "Elvis In America". The only thing worse than the lyrics are the song used to deliver them, which I linked upthread. Marvel at how it just gets progressively worse as it goes along:

Elvis... white trash
Elvis... the Memphis flash
Elvis... didn't smoke hash
Would've been a sissy without Johnny Cash

Elvis... didn't dodge the draft
Elvis... had his own aircraft
Elvis... having a laugh
On the Lisa Marie in a colour photograph

Elvis... under the hood
Elvis... with Cadillac blood
Elvis... darling bud
Flowered and returned to the Mississippi mud

Elvis... ain't gonna rot
Elvis... in a Memphis plot
Elvis... he didn't hear the shot
And Dr. King died just across the lot from...

Elvis... vanilla ice cream
Elvis... girls of fourteen
Elvis... the Memphis spleen
Shooting TVs reading Corinthian's 13

Elvis... with God on his knees
Elvis... owned three TVs
Here come the killer bees
Head full of honey potato chips and cheese
Elvis... the bumper stickers
Elvis... the white knickers
Elvis... the white nigger
Ate at king burger and just kept getting bigger

Elvis... sang to win
Elvis... the battle hymn
Elvis... the battle to be slim
Elvis ate America before America ate him

Elvis...

Elvis... stamps
Elvis... necromance
Elvis... fans
Elvis... psychophants
Elvis... the public enemy
Elvis... don't mean shit to Chuck D.
Elvis... changed the center of gravity
Made it slippy

Elvis... Hitler
Elvis... Nixon
Elvis... Christ
Elvis... Mishima
Elvis... Markus
Elvis... Jackson
Elvis... the pelvis
Elvis... the psalmist
Elvis... the genius
Elvis... generous
Elvis... forgive us
Elvis... pray for us
Elvis... Aaron
Elvis... Presley

I don't have much of a problem with that marginal track - what I WOULD like is for 'Elvis Presley and America' to have better words. That could be called a wasted opportunity.

Elvis... stamps
Elvis... necromance
Elvis... fans
Elvis... psychophants
Elvis... the public enemy
Elvis... don't mean shit to Chuck D.
Elvis... changed the center of gravity
Made it slippy

WOW

Elvis ... changed the conversation
Elvis ... in many parts of the nation

OF AMERICA.

Elvis... owned three TVs

Oh shit me too, hi five EAP

I keep waiting for Bono to sing, "Elvis....was fat."

xp I always took Elevation's "mole" lyric as deliberately goofy but I guess people don't see any goofiness in Bono. If that line was in a New Order lyric people would find it adorable.

some people are allowed to giggle and others are not

elvis would have known that

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).

I've seen an interview with him where he mentions the fact that he's got a slightly deformed little finger on his left hand, which allows him to stretch to frets that most people can't reach.

xp That's true. Just because you can write a line doesn't mean you can sing it.

Kool G Rap shares the "Drowning Man" love.

done. didn't expect to vote in this tbh as been a bit of a hata over the years but thought why not and surprised myself by finding 20 songs i quite like, some of them quite a bit. nice memories of listening to 'the joshua tree' in my dad's car too.

"Bad" is pretty badass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIW8qDPhos

I haven't received it xp - have you sent it yet?

(anyone else: I've acknowledged every one I've received, if you haven't had an email from me, holler)

mine? really, it says 'sent'. right, just forwarded again.

Your second email bumped it through, thanks.