Achtung Baby remaster underway

[SpaceBoy]

Awesome news, been waiting for this for a while.

As for extras, the bootlegged tracks we've had for years were recorded pretty early in the making of the album and are basically just jam sessions/rough sketches of songs. I'm sure there's a lot of finished or close-to-finished actual songs from 90-91 that haven't seen the light of day yet, and that's the kind of stuff I really hope is included.

 

[Salome]

10 years ago this would have excited me more than a lot

 

[the scuv]

what about 'Down all the day's' a song mentioned in the U2 at the end of the world book. Danny apparently singing it desperately trying to make u2 sound like 'old joshua u2'

what happened to that

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

Surely the wait will be worth it!

don't call me Shirley

 

[powerhour24]

I was just wondering... what if them remastering AB makes them suddenly remember they have a track called Acrobat?

Now I know their reason for not playing it, but I'm really surprised given how personal and loved it is for Bono that he's never even snippeted it live.

 

[theedgeu2]

don't call me Shirley

This is probably gonna make me look stupid but I don't get it.

 

[corianderstem]

You've never seen the movie Airplane! ?

"Surely you can't be serious!"

"I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."

(Because "surely" sounds like the woman's name "Shirley" ... get it? )

 

[powerhour24]

I just want to let you know that we're all counting on you.

 

[corianderstem]

Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue!

 

[theedgeu2]

You've never seen the movie Airplane! ?

"Surely you can't be serious!"

"I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."

(Because "surely" sounds like the woman's name "Shirley" ... get it? )

Oh ok now I got it!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I was just wondering... what if them remastering AB makes them suddenly remember they have a track called Acrobat?

it's not like remastering war made them remember drowning man.

wait...

Spoiler

what's really sad is i wasn't even joking when i first thought of that.

 

[purpleoscar]

Awesome news, been waiting for this for a while.

As for extras, the bootlegged tracks we've had for years were recorded pretty early in the making of the album and are basically just jam sessions/rough sketches of songs. I'm sure there's a lot of finished or close-to-finished actual songs from 90-91 that haven't seen the light of day yet, and that's the kind of stuff I really hope is included.

I would like a new Achtung Baby song coming back from the dead like Disappearing Act.

 

[the tourist]

I'm hoping for a polished, edited version of "She's Gonna Blow Your House Down"

 

[powerhour24]

Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue!

 

[The John Tree]

I'd rather hear early versions of the Achtung songs than Salome tracks making the remaster disc. I already have the Salome bootlegs, and they're somewhat easy to find online, so I'd rather the band hit us with something else that we haven't heard.

By the way, the "Zooropa" remaster is what I'm REALLY waiting for. I want to hear the guitar-heavy versions of If God Will Send His Angels and Wake Up Dead Man from this period that were chronicled in Flanagan's book.

 

[Y2K]

Did Zooropa demos ever get released? Didn't Emergency Broadcast Network's 1997 series "Zoo-TV" feature outtakes from the Zooropa sessions?

 

[Swan269]

what about 'Down all the day's' a song mentioned in the U2 at the end of the world book. Danny apparently singing it desperately trying to make u2 sound like 'old joshua u2'

what happened to that

i know the back track structure became numb.

 

[Swan269]

By the way, the "Zooropa" remaster is what I'm REALLY waiting for. I want to hear the guitar-heavy versions of If God Will Send His Angels and Wake Up Dead Man from this period that were chronicled in Flanagan's book.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Even though they are Zooropa-era, I doubt they'd include early versions of songs that ended up on a different album with that era - more likely those versions would end up on a Pop set, even if that is not quite correct.

But there must be some great stuff relating to the creation of songs like Lemon, Zooropa, Numb - the development of those would be really interesting to hear.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Even though they are Zooropa-era, I doubt they'd include early versions of songs that ended up on a different album with that era - more likely those versions would end up on a Pop set, even if that is not quite correct.

But there must be some great stuff relating to the creation of songs like Lemon, Zooropa, Numb - the development of those would be really interesting to hear.

absolutely, the evolution of those three tracks, throw in maybe Daddy's gonna pay as well, would be incredible to hear, how those songs were crafted etc. i wonder what would happen in the studio now if they got the idea to record lemon? I'm sure the end product would be very different.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

i wonder what would happen in the studio now if they got the idea to record lemon? I'm sure the end product would be very different.

I don't think there's any way Lemon could come into any kind of existence today, for so many reasons. I don't think there would be an end product.

The idea that they have been tinkering with electro/club sounds again is interesting though, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for that one, and I don't really know what they would classify as 'club' either. Do they mean, influenced by the front line of todays electro? Or are they thinking more along the very traditional lines of the Crazy Tonight remix - just an age old dance beat mixed with guitars concept? And what - really - do they know about that scene these days? Do they ever go to clubs or anything like that outside of the South of France, where, frankly, the music is generally a couple of years behind and/or super-poppy, really cheesy? Could be great, could go horribly, horribly wrong, and could spectacularly show their age and out-of-touchness. But I love the idea, the possibility of them getting it right would be fantastic.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

since they included saturday night in with the boy remaster, i guess anything's possible.

 

[monsieur fly]

I don't think there's any way Lemon could come into any kind of existence today, for so many reasons. I don't think there would be an end product.

The idea that they have been tinkering with electro/club sounds again is interesting though, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for that one, and I don't really know what they would classify as 'club' either. Do they mean, influenced by the front line of todays electro? Or are they thinking more along the very traditional lines of the Crazy Tonight remix - just an age old dance beat mixed with guitars concept? And what - really - do they know about that scene these days? Do they ever go to clubs or anything like that outside of the South of France, where, frankly, the music is generally a couple of years behind and/or super-poppy, really cheesy? Could be great, could go horribly, horribly wrong, and could spectacularly show their age and out-of-touchness. But I love the idea, the possibility of them getting it right would be fantastic.

A very perceptive post in my view. I too, would love to see U2 re-acquainting themselves with club music. For me, U2 were at their best when incorporating dance influences into their work- look at Mofo, Lemon and Mysterious Ways etc. As you say, though, the odds do not look great. I think they have lost some artistic courage since 1997- how else can you explain why the demos often sound more interesting than the final cuts?

 

[U2girl]

U2 and dance/club sounds - been there, done that. If they want to introduce some urban beats in their sound, I say work with a good hip hop producer*. The best new sound they came up with in a long while was Let me in the sound part of Boots. Really should have made a full song out of that.

*Treason with Dr Dre sounds interesting

 

[Salome]

they are 50+ years old
and they already dabbled into dance quite a bit

perhaps they should try covering some other genre more 'age appropriate' so that at by the time the next album is released I don't have to look at a 50+ year old Bono riding his crotch against a mic stand

also their demos sound less interesting than the album tracks to me nowadays
as opposed to back in the Achtung Baby days

and they are 50+ years old

 

[An Cat Gav]

U2 and dance/club sounds - been there, done that. If they want to introduce some urban beats in their sound, I say work with a good hip hop producer*. The best new sound they came up with in a long while was Let me in the sound part of Boots. Really should have made a full song out of that.

*Treason with Dr Dre sounds interesting

I agree with you regarding the "let me in the sound" part, definitely deserved more than being just crowbarred into get on your boots.

 

[Catman]

they are 50+ years old
and they already dabbled into dance quite a bit

perhaps they should try covering some other genre more 'age appropriate' so that at by the time the next album is released I don't have to look at a 50+ year old Bono riding his crotch against a mic stand

also their demos sound less interesting than the album tracks to me nowadays
as opposed to back in the Achtung Baby days

and they are 50+ years old

Yep. While I find the idea of U2 dabbling in club beats interesting, I think, considering their age, the final product will sound a bit forced. Personally, I'd like for the band to rediscover some of that soul found in certain ATYCLB tracks. Or a jazz record

 

[monsieur fly]

U2 and dance/club sounds - been there, done that. If they want to introduce some urban beats in their sound, I say work with a good hip hop producer*. The best new sound they came up with in a long while was Let me in the sound part of Boots. Really should have made a full song out of that.

*Treason with Dr Dre sounds interesting

Oh dear. If that's your view of U2 using dance influences, God knows what you must think of Edge's chimes!

 

[chrissybaby]

This is the one I've been waiting for. I daren't dream though, this could be EPIC, but there's also the possibility it'll be EBTTRT and MW remixes...

I genuinely believe that there must be some really great alternative versions of Achtung songs... I would actually shout for joy if they included some demos...

All of the ZooTV shows were filmed, so I can't wait for the DVD. Hoping there will be something no one has seen before, but will also be happy with Washington or Stockholm... A two hour documentary of the making of the album would be dreamlike....

 

[monsieur fly]

I find these arguments about the band's age defeatist and frankly silly. If David Bowie could produce a very interesting jungle-inspired album at the age of 50, there is no reason why U2 can't still use dance influences. Bono, Edge et al are not fragile octogenarians fit only for 'stripped-down' records with Rick Rubin! The only thing stopping U2 from reincorporating dance music is their attitude to Pop.