One singular, (nearly) universally hated U2 song?

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elaine2112

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For fans of Joe Jackson, it's a track called Go For It.

For Rush fans, a track called Dog Years.

One song that is met with near universal groans and is the butt of countless jokes, and is used simply as a euphemism for "bad."

Looking at the "Worst of" thread here, it doesn't seem like U2 has a similar song. One that nearly everyone hates, slags, makes fun of. It seems like for any song posted there, there are 3 people who claim it to be their favorite.

??
 
I would say that Red Light and Stand Up Comedy are very close to universal hatred. There are a couple of people who profess to like them, but that's about it, and I'm not sure even anybody who's defended the songs would come out and say they're one of the best on their respective albums, let alone a U2 classic. Compare them with songs such as Elvis Presley and America, Love Rescue Me, or Babyface, for example, which are not wildly popular and have many loud detractors but also enjoy a strong group of big fans, some of whom rank those songs in their U2 top twenty (EPAA especially).
 
I would say that Red Light and Stand Up Comedy are very close to universal hatred. There are a couple of people who profess to like them, but that's about it, and I'm not sure even anybody who's defended the songs would come out and say they're one of the best on their respective albums, let alone a U2 classic. Compare them with songs such as Elvis Presley and America, Love Rescue Me, or Babyface, for example, which are not wildly popular and have many loud detractors but also enjoy a strong group of big fans, some of whom rank those songs in their U2 top twenty (EPAA especially).

I would add Is That All? to this list. Near universal hatred/apathy, with only a handful of defenders (who I doubt regard it as a highlight on October).
 
I like Red Light, so I guess not everyone hates it.

Can't speak for Stand Up Comedy. Song blows.
 
If All Because of You isn't that song, I don't know what is.

I want to say Vertigo, but I know heaps of fans love it, so.
 
SUC. I don't even type in the full title, just the very fitting acronym.


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Honestly I think many songs go in cycles on Interference. Ten years ago, you'd be laughed off EYKIW for loving Babyface, and A Man and a Woman was probably the most hated song on HTDAAB. Now Babyface has definitely experienced a revival, and in the most recent Survivor tournaments A Man and a Woman was one of HTDAAB's best performers. Compare that with One and Acrobat; ten years ago I was branded a troll for disliking One, and Acrobat was probably the biggest "fan favourite" around here. Now, there is a small but vocal and established group of people who don't think One is anything special and Acrobat struggled to progress through the finals in the last Survivor.

So that might explain some of the perceptions of there not being one universally hated song. I still reckon that Red Light functions as a well-accepted allusion to shitty U2, though, and that Stand Up Comedy has come to serve a similar purpose in the last few years.
 
Miami also seems to be close to a universally hated track, though I think that's just people not getting it, or not able to cope with it being U2 doing it, because it's pretty great.
 
Miami also seems to be close to a universally hated track, though I think that's just people not getting it, or not able to cope with it being U2 doing it, because it's pretty great.


I used to passionately hate Miami, then one day it just clicked for me. Now I really like it.


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A lot of their stuff before 2000 was very much of a piece, the album as an album, the concert as a progression of moods linking into each other (thinking about how Miami worked with Bullet the Blue Sky on the POPMART tour).

For that reason I find it hard to single out their older material and have an argument over this or that single song. Because they usually work with each other. I wouldn't push 'Babyface' or 'Tryin To Throw Your Arms Around The World' under the nose of someone who knew squat about U2, but big deal.
 
The only album with U2 songs that I legitimately hate are from NLOTH and I don't like a few from Bomb and Leave Behind.
I don't hate any of their earlier material because it had a direction and purpose. A lot of their 2000s material doesn't. Bomb is a great example of that. No direction and no point to the album; just a bunch of songs. And some of those songs were crap, so yeah that album is gonna catch a lot more heat; and deservedly so. Every album before it (except ATYCLB) at least a prevalent theme and each song contributed to that theme in someway.


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I won't hear a bad word about Miami. It is only "universally hated" by the people who don't listen to anything but U2, and because it's a little different, it is therefore singled out as a bad song. It's great, and more importantly, it never deserves to even be in the discussion because it was a fucking monster live.
 
Miami is awesome except for "some places are like your auntie/but there's no place like..........MIAAAAMIIIII!!1111" Besides the awful lyric, the mixing there is totally shit too, the shout is buried way down.

Again, a problem that disappears live.
 
Kieran and Cobbler, normally I'm with you on stuff like this, but no, Miami really is a huge dog turd.
 
Quite so.

"Good people! You've all made a terrible mistake! George Harrison says you shouldn't be here!"

That was before Even Better Than the Real Thing though.

One of their best performances ever.

Kieran and Cobbler, normally I'm with you on stuff like this, but no, Miami really is a huge dog turd.

You can't be right all the time.
 
Last Night on Earth is a great song. Live, it's a beast.
 
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