"It's a musical journey" - U2 POLL RESULTS

I actually always loved the drama of the last line in "Bullet the Blue Sky" and thought it was a highlight of Rattle and Hum, even as this album and that film stranded my U2 fandom. Again, a poetic connection not many people in the culture were making: between Central Americans being drive out of their homes by U.S.-backed terror and coming illegally to America for refuge.

At least as I heard it. I also don't see anything meek or ambivalent about U2's pacifism--there's a pathos in the phrase "bullet the blue sky" that hardly seems like an endorsement or call to arms.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3135/032holdmethrillmekissme.jpg

32 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
201 points, nine votes, one first place
single (1995)

heh, for some reason i thought that song was widely hated. I had it on my ballot but nixed it cuz I thought it wouldn't rank

i remember seein the kickin rad video when i was a kid, so i guess i had heard a u2 song when i bought Pop

It's another one I can't decide about, but I'm leaning towards it being actually really good. The book reckons it was on the Zooropa provisional track listing though - that'd've been all kinds of wrong.

Just missed my top 20. Hadn't heard it since 1995 until they brought it back into the set on this last tour - great trashy swagger.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5578/mlookingfor.jpg

31 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
209 points, one first place, one most hated
The Joshua Tree (1987)

lower than i expected

Yeah, def.

Hey, how many were people allowed to put on ballots because I only thought up ten before but I am bored this has got me thinking and I want to finish my imaginary list.

You could do 20

HMTMKMKM was my #1.
For me, a U2 song is made or unmade by What Bono Is Doing, and I liked him most in the Zoo TV era.

He's faking an orgasm, IIRC.

I am OK with that

There'll be a pause for an hour or two now because I've got dinner to make and a baby to bath. Also I've run out of jpgs. Finally there's an, um, administrative matter has arisen on which I'll need a view from Father Bono.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6413/030misssarajevo.jpg

30 Miss Sarajevo
223 points, ten votes
Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)

every time you go to the U2 restaurant you get Edge chesthairs in yr soup

the clientele's reaction to the tickle of the hair in the back of their throats determine's whether or not they're admitted to the U2 fanclub

hair me thrill me kiss me

Who prefers photoshoots do you think, Larry or Bono?

Anyway, it's confession time. No ILX poll ever proceeds without mistakes, and we've just reached this one's. The number 29, it turns out, has been given two entries on the spreadsheet and hence is also the number 20. Fortunately I've caught it in time, and combining the two and reordering means the top ten has been shaken up a bit.

However, this means we've lost an entry and hence this poll will run without a number 29. As a bonus, you can have a number 61 instead...

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4981/tmakeitonyourown.jpg

61 Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
88 points, four votes, one first place
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/568/028onetreehill.jpg

28 One Tree Hill
238 points, eleven votes
The Joshua Tree (1987)

there should be a tumblr devoted to angry larry press photos

Had this one in my top 5.

I pretty much despise the second half of The Joshua Tree aside from "Trip Through Your Wires"; basically, everything after the raging fury of BTBS just seems sleepy and boring.

― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 6:57 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

OTM, this sums up my feelings exactly.

Ha. Think I voted for three Joshua Tree tracks, all post-btbs.

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27 Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
242 points, ten votes, one first place
Achtung Baby (1991)

That's a song. My #3, & a contender for #1.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4886/026outofcontrol.jpg

26 Out Of Control
256 points, eleven votes
Three EP (1979)

xpost Larry is the Chris Lowe of the band.

I can't believe people despise side 2 of Joshua Tree. That's really the only reason I listen to the album at this point.

I pretty much despise the second half of The Joshua Tree aside from "Trip Through Your Wires"; basically, everything after the raging fury of BTBS just seems sleepy and boring.

OTM, this sums up my feelings exactly.

Madness. "Red Hill Mining Town" is wonderful.

"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was my most hated.

It's a strange one in that I can totally see the quality in the writing, but I still don't like it much either.

oh yeah, whatever it has going for it, it just rubs my fur the wrong way

If we'd had two hate voted, it'd have been my second.

Anyway, Out Of Control - what a song, what a picture! That's from the U2 Live At Red Rocks - "Under A Blood Red Sky" DVD, of which I got an expanded edition as part of doing this. It is incredible. If you haven't seen it: order a copy, you're in for a treat.

Madness. "Red Hill Mining Town" is wonderful.

Heh, RHMT was the song that initially made me say "I never want to listen to any of these songs ever."

I can see why it would be liked but, especially at the time of the album's release, it was emphatically Not My Thing.

"Out of Control" is great! I bumped it at the last minute but had we had twenty-five votes, I'd have voted for it.

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25 Running To Stand Still
269 points, twelve votes, one first place
The Joshua Tree (1987)

So far, it's the only one of today's batch that I voted for.

xpost -- whoops, scratch that

Bono straining for the high notes on Red Hill is my least favorite thing about the Joshua Tree.

Out of Control is so good, one of the last things I had to cut.

Love the Zoo era live version of Running to Stand Still (somewhat bashfully, thanks to Bono clumsily miming injecting himself with heroin), with the Hallelujahs leading in the opening chords of Streets.

Ohhh, quite lower than I expected that one!

Was in my top 5.

"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was my most hated

I thought it was mine, too

I really do not understand anyone who even knows of the existence of "Elvis Ate America" not picking that as most hated.

I thought it was mine, too

Gah, you're right - it was in your second email and I didn't notice it. Bump it down three places mentally.

Which also puts Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me into the revised Top Thirty

"One Tree Hill" starts to suck when Bono turns into Jim Kerr.

Very happy to see the last three tracks on Acthung Baby place, it's such an amazing end to the album and I voted for all three.

Really surprised to see Hold Me, Thrill Me so high, it totally deserves to be there. I recently read it was almost put on Zooropa, not sure where it would fit on there.

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24 Even Better Than The Real Thing
270 points, thirteen votes
Achtung Baby (1991)