one shit wonder - amazing acts that somehow created one of the biggest duds in history

The Sweetest Thing, Mysterious Ways and Hold Me Kill Me Kiss Me Thrill Me are three of the maybe six U2 songs I like.

Same here; I'd add "Even Better Than the Real Thing" and "Until the End of the World" as two of the others (I was skimming thru that album earlier... it's been a while).

add "Numb," "Lemon," "The Fly," "Stay (Faraway So Close!)" -- what a run.

for context here's rolling stone's 10 best u2 songs, I actively like one or two of these, about five I actively dislike

1. One
2. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
3. Beautiful Day
4. Sunday Bloody Sunday
5. Bad
6. Where the Streets Have No Name
7. With or Without You
8. Moment of Surrender
9. I Will Follow
10. Even Better Than the Real Thing

Never heard of two of those...

Me liking every U2 song mentioned and even loving quite a few of them

Moment of Surrender is from 2009 and Bad is a live favourite from the 80s

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/u2-band-greatest-songs-bono-the-edge-205104/sunday-bloody-sunday-198195/

Cool, thx (those were indeed the two)

Me liking every U2 song mentioned and even loving quite a few of them

Including "Get on Your Boots"? Sexy Boots!

MoS at 160 on the 2012 Rolling Stone 500 songs list was the peak of their U2 circlejerk. We are poorer for this absurdism being subsumed.

Including "Get on Your Boots"? Sexy Boots!

Okay not that one

the rolling stone top 50 u2 songs doesn't have The Fly, fucking rolling stone.

U2's obvious nadir for me is Songs of Experience - even the one before it has two songs I return to.

I forgot about the cool little keyboard line in "Numb"... also, "Stay (Faraway So, Close)" is another good U2 song that I sort of forget exists (working thru Zooropa now).

Yeah this song kind of rules actually

Including "Get on Your Boots"? Sexy Boots!

― MarkoP, Thursday, May 11, 2023 9:39 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I had half an idea for a song for the ILX comp of "no line on the horizon" for that title, but got in too late.

It was better than the U2 song, but

This has inspired me to listen to Boots for the first time in forever. The riff definitely works as a bassline but the Edge should be doing something else. I can't listen to it with a straight face.

Lemon, Bullet The Blue Sky, In God's Country are in my top 5 and I'm embarrassed to say the other 2.

And I can see those fighter planes

Last Night On Earth was underrated.

Nothin but good U2 songs being mentioned, v good thread here. Ok well boots is the worst, might've worked best as a throwaway on a soundtrack with different arrangement choices, not on an album that was aspiring to be somewhat art rock. Moment of surrender is a really good one imo but as a top ten U2 pick? Insane.

I honestly have never knowingly heard another one of his songs, but I've heard good things about Bobby McFerrin earlier work so feel like 'don't worry he happy' might qualify here.

"Numb" is one of my fave U2 songs but lets be honest, its really a Brian Eno song.

In fact I think its all their most Enoey songs I love. "Unforgettable Fire", "Numb", "Lemon".

I've done a kick-ass version of "Stay" at karaoke

Eno helped layer Numb with the collage noises but quite a lot of the skeleton was there before him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCHCSdTmiIE

Agreed on Boots being out of place on NLOTH, really that whole pop mid-section spoils things a bit.

My top 10 U2 songs would also have Lemon super high. Love Is Blindness (esp live) and Mofo would probably complete the top three.

“The Pretty Things are Going to Hell” is my rock bottom Bowie pick. Turgid slop.

the worst zeppelin song is 'down by the seaside'

yes i know that many of you will rush to defend it but nevertheless

Sabbath had a few missteps during the Ozzy era but "It's Alright" is beyond all sorts of pales, sorry Bill

"Down By The Seaside" is fine, any of "D'yer Maker"/"Dancing Days"/"All Of My Love" I'd be happy never to hear again.

never correct me in front of the children, steve shasta

Do you still do the twist
Do you find you remember things that well
I want to tell you
Some go twistin' every day
Though sometimes it's awful hard to tell

i do not, in fact, remember laughter

It’s really nobody’s business if I choose to become alarmed when there’s a bustle in my hedgerow.

Sure, Absolutely Fabulous is pretty crap, but when it comes to PSBs, surely the winner is The Winner

I'm not a U2 fan, I've never been interested enough to check out their albums so I only know them from the singles, but I think Mysterious Ways is amazing and I've always liked Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me too.

I actually really like a lot of Bowie's lesser-regarded albums, even especially the Never Let Me Down album, and I also think Tin Machine II is much better than the first Tin Machine album. But one song I ever thought much of is Blue Jean (which is possibly one song most people do like from this period?).

Blue Jean is an odd one because I like it but also feel like its charms are much too subtle and intangible to be the lead single from an LP from a major artist. It's like the Side B track 3 that you only start to really appreciate once you've started to tire of the album.

That's a nice take, I can see that!

I love Absolutely Fabulous : (
But I have a major weakness for any minor eurodance melody like that

I had forgotten the existence of “All of My Love,” that i certainly the Zep pick for me. awful song.

My favourite Led Zeppelin song : (

I'm usually not manipulated by what the song is about, personally, to the artist, but once i did learn what "All of My Love" was about it added a layer of poignancy to it for me.

Otoh I still think Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" is a piece of shit

McFerrin is legit. Listen to the voicestra arrangements.

Or the fun record he did with Yo-Yo Ma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTstU-st-7o

xp It's hard to criticize a song written about the singer's dead child.

i think we can still manage it

srsly

I haven't listened to "Tears in Heaven" in a long time, and I generally don't like Clapton at all, but I remember thinking it was better than most of Clapton's songs in that it was about something, and that it was an interesting continuation of the very specific literary micro-genre occupied by the medieval Pearl poem (perle plesaunte to prynces paye) and the Kipling short story "They," in which the grieving father is allowed a brief glimpse of his child in the afterlife.

xpost yeah I mean regardless of what you think of Clapton, Connor's fall was a tragedy.

but so is the song, unfortunately.

I was thinking more of "All of My Love"

“Tears in Heaven” is meh. Lasts for way too long but I don’t hate it.

I think the super bland cover of Marley’s “I shot the sheriff” that somehow made it to #1 is a worse song.

Speaking of terrible covers: Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Love Rollercoaster is also one of their worst singles.