One singular, (nearly) universally hated U2 song?

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That video is beautifully shot.

It really is. It's one of their best "performance based" videos. The energy and raw emotion is so palpable it's impossible to ignore. When she looks skyward during "you ask me to enter.." it's like every feeling this song has ever meant to me just comes out in a rush. I really really love this song. I'd forgotten just how much.
 
So if someone dislikes something that you happen to like, that makes them "wrong"?

Nope, but if they quote statistics wrongly, or make factually inaccurate statements about who's song it is to somehow justify their dislike, they are in fact wrong in that sense.

The reality is that the majority of the world doesn't see this song as U2's most universally hated song. It's just objectively not that song.
 
Stand-Up Comedy is a mess musically and the words .... maybe the song IS a high concept stand up comedy record. That's all that can excuse them. It's easily U2's worst song.

The song isn't funky - it's leaden. U2 cannot be funky. They can try, and get close, but they lack the looseness to be truly funky. It probably comes down to Edge.

The second half of SUC is pretty cool, but goddamn..."soul rockin' people"? Even suggesting that deserved a flick with a bass E string.
 
:lol:

This song on Vevo has 40,000,000+ views, 118,000 UP votes to merely 2,000 down votes, and 10,000+ comments from around the world by people (from what I can see without reading them all) who mostly love the song.

You haters are just wrong. Sorry! :)


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yes, this makes it good... not sure if better or worst than gangnam style but i may take the weeknd off to go deep in the statistics and find out... this and evryone at the 360º shows disapointed during One because blidge didn't show up... it's just this unknown medical condition that I have in which my ears are not suitable for human yelling sirens that makes me different.
 
yes, this makes it good... not sure if better or worst than gangnam style but i may take the weeknd off to go deep in the statistics and find out... this and evryone at the 360º shows disapointed during One because blidge didn't show up... it's just this unknown medical condition that I have in which my ears are not suitable for human yelling sirens that makes me different.

:lol::lol::lol:
 
Not that I would fancy MJB and U2 collaborating more often, but at least the song still gets some radio play.

In The Netherlands it somehow was #149 in a top 2000 list on national radio prior to New year's (the original One was #22).
This also doesn't make the song better than it is, but it makes it questionable to call it universally hated (as at least it isn't over here, apparently).
 
yes, this makes it good... not sure if better or worst than gangnam style but i may take the weeknd off to go deep in the statistics and find out... this and evryone at the 360º shows disapointed during One because blidge didn't show up... it's just this unknown medical condition that I have in which my ears are not suitable for human yelling sirens that makes me different.


You could come in here and state that you hate Where The Streets Have No Name a million different ways and it would still simultaneously be a valid opinion of yours but you'd be completely and demonstrably wrong in the original context of this thread...do you understand that?
 
Not that I would fancy MJB and U2 collaborating more often, but at least the song still gets some radio play.

In The Netherlands it somehow was #149 in a top 2000 list on national radio prior to New year's (the original One was #22).
This also doesn't make the song better than it is, but it makes it questionable to call it universally hated (as at least it isn't over here, apparently).

Exactly. It actually charted higher in a couple of countries than the first release sans MJB, and in new countries.


with Mary J. Blige
Chart (2006) Peak
position
Austrian Singles Chart 1
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart 6
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart 10
Czech IFPI Chart 28
Danish Singles Chart 7
Dutch Singles Chart 2
Eurochart Hot 100 3
French SNEP Singles Chart 35
German Singles Chart 6
Irish Singles Chart 2
Italian Singles Chart 2
Norwegian Singles Chart 1
Swedish Singles Chart 27
UK Singles Chart 2
US Billboard Hot 100 86
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 36
US Billboard Pop 100 64

The stat that really stood out to me in particular was in the UK, which I've always thought was one of the harshest cultures for U2. The original One peaked at #7 on the UK Singles chart. The version with MJB went to #2.

It's not even remotely questionable, it simply isn't U2's most universally hated song, period.
 
You could come in here and state that you hate Where The Streets Have No Name a million different ways and it would still simultaneously be a valid opinion of yours but you'd be completely and demonstrably wrong in the original context of this thread...do you understand that?

I surely missed the post explaining that the thread context excludes the songs you like. As I understood, the context of the thread is “just hardcore fan types on messageboards” as the thread starter clarifies on page 4, not according vevo or your most convenient chart. By scrolling this back you may find some of these people that, as myself, and by any undiscovered deficiency or skill, are able to ignore “the energy and raw emotion is so palpable it's impossible to ignore” in the song.
 
:therethere:

You'd still be wrong because even a simple Yes/No poll would reveal that this song is not the most reviled even amongst the much smaller subset of hardcore fans who post on message boards.

I would enjoy a yes/no poll of SUC, Grace and maybe a few others that generally receive negative reviews.
 
I would enjoy a yes/no poll of SUC, Grace and maybe a few others that generally receive negative reviews.

Or heck, just put every song they've ever done on a poll and see which one gets the most votes. That would at least explain which is 'universally hated' among this crew here.
 
@Axver: yep, that's sort of what I'm saying.

---

About U2+MJB's One:

The SONG would still be "One", and I know that "One" is not the single almost universally hated U2 song of all time.

If we change the premise of the thread to "worse recorded version of a U2 song", then we might be opening a whole new can of worms... shall we include remixes? early versions? bootlegs? collaborations?
 
I think some might be surprised to find that Grace is not also not as universally hated as it's very vocal detractors might think..

It doesn't matter if someone hates Grace: Grace doesn't care, because Grace finds goodness in everything, Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
 
:therethere:

You'd still be wrong because even a simple Yes/No poll would reveal that this song is not the most reviled even amongst the much smaller subset of hardcore fans who post on message boards.

nevermind the poll. at the end it's much more helpful to have your authorithy here to decide who is wrong or who is right in otherwise endless discussions subjected to individual perceptions.

i'm wrong (even when i never intended to be right): hail to mjb one.
 
I'd rather listen to Bono's scream in All Because Of You on constant repeat for 5 minutes than that version of One.


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I'd rather listen to Bono's scream in All Because Of You on constant repeat for 5 minutes than that version of One.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

How about the ear-piercing first couple seconds on repeat?

(Probably the direction Pitchfork wants U2 to take)
 
Remember that crazy Radio.com ranking that said White As Snow at number 141 was the worst song.

He had SUC at 97 ahead of Acrobat by about 20 spots.

The list-maker is one of the 'Soul-Rockin' People'
 
We need to put some of these songs on trial.

Law & Order: Tortious interference
<dong> <dong>
First on the docket we will be filing charges against:

Stand Up Comedy alias: SUC DOB: 2009

- 1st degree Lyrical Malfeasance
- Inclusion with Attempt to Irreputably Harm 'No Line on the Horizon'
- Attempted American Blues Riffing

Reccomended that defendant surrender passport as to never be taken on tour
 
More on the "blaming it on the circumstances" thing:

If SUC had been released in a stronger album or a different era, it wouldn't have got that backlash.

Right now, I'm thinking about Pop, containing tracks like Discotheque, Miami and The Playboy Mansion... the last two have been brought up in this thread as some of the worsts, but as soon as they pop up, they're dismissed, since they get a pass in the end.

I think SUC fits among those "sillier" songs. Swap them and whichever ends up in NLOTH would've been the most hated (probably Playboy Mansion* even more), and SUC would've been just another fun song from a misunderstood era.
I fully agree with this theory.
Personally I don't see how anyone can feel any sort of love for "If God will send his angels". A song that lyrically truly is as bad as the title leads you to fear. With lyrical offenses that make the little old lady line sound Shakespearean in comparison. And musically as dull a song as U2 has ever released.

Surely had this one been released as part of How to Dismantle .... it would be rated as the worst thing U2 ever released?

The other way around I think that "Sleep like a baby" would widely be regarded (on Interference) as one of U2s finest moments ever had it been part of POP. (It would easily be one of the best tracks of POP, come to think of it.) Now it's just thought of as a good song from their latest album.
 
This song on Vevo has 40,000,000+ views, 118,000 UP votes to merely 2,000 down votes, and 10,000+ comments from around the world by people (from what I can see without reading them all) who mostly love the song.

You haters are just wrong. Sorry! :)


Sent from my ass crack

... how on earth do views and votes on a youtube video make sense?

Why would I view that video on youtube when I hate the song, only to downvote it? Most people do NOT view things they don't like, as far as I'm aware.. then again it seems 'cool' on the internet to post shit comments under videos you claim to dislike, but yeah, why the hell watch that video anyway then.

We're not wrong. You are misinterpreting random statistics as facts supporting your cause. They mean nothing at all. You can disagree with people who have different opinions, but that does not mean they are wrong. :rolleyes:

It doesn't matter if someone hates Grace: Grace doesn't care, because Grace finds goodness in everything, Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

:lol: Well played!
 
You are misinterpreting random statistics as facts supporting your cause. They mean nothing at all.!


Um, I didn't bring up rateyourmusic, someone else did. The fact is, a greater number of respondents voted the song 2/5 or better, so that doesn't lend well to the singularly and universally hated theory.

You're reallllly stretching with the reasoning behind why people watch/don't watch videos. Apparently there's this larger unseen multitude of people out there who actually hate it and so never watched the video? Er.. Fact is, 40M did watch, 118k up voted and 2k downvoted. I didn't twist or misinterpret that stat either.

Finally, I quoted the actual chart performance of the song off Wiki. I made no interpretation of those bald facts either, outside the observation that the MJB version actually went higher on the charts than the original in the UK.

And then we come to the simple fact that even on a far more limited and exclusive scale ie, the minority of U2 fans who actually spend time on fan forums, even there, you will not find am overwhelming majority of fans who think it's the worst thing U2 has ever done.

So to say that it is the singularly most universally hated song - in any context, outside a minority opinion - yes, that is an inaccurate statement.




Sent from my ass crack
 
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