So where were the stolen Achtung demos stolen from?

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I believe this also led to "Even Better than the Real Thing," which was originally conceived as a Rolling Stones-style rocker, which would make it fit more with where U2 had been than where they were going.
Right, which explains Edge's comment in U2 By U2 that "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is "as close to the Rolling Stone as we would like to get, and maybe a bit closer" or words to that effect. I've always found that an odd comment as I didn't hear any style similarity, but when you get back to the rehearsals you can hear where the songs originate -- obviously, the band remember where songs came from, whereas U2 fans remember the final masters. Those early versions of "Acrobat" also sound very little, in mood or tone, like the final track. The rehearsal actually sounds very '1990'-ish, which is a bit odd.

Does anyone have that mp3/recording of Edge playing the guitar solo of "The Fly" on an acoustic guitar? (I used to have this but lost it when my hard drive crashed years ago.) I guess that must be from those May 1990 recordings at his house...?
 
According to U2: Outside Is America (later re-released as U2: The Road to Pop), "Night and Day" was recorded in Edge's basement in the summer of 1990.

"Wild Irish Rose" dates from earlier sessions -- apparently the lyrics originated in 1987 or 88, when Bono was doing some filming in L.A., but it wasn't finished until 1989, when it featured in the 1989 special "Bringing It All Home." (Bono sings from handwritten lyrics, and elsewhere in the interview says that he just finished the song "in the last day".)

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Other sources I've read say 1991 for the TV special. I'm not sure what's right, but notice the lack of the really long sideburns from Edge in the video.

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The music for "Acrobat", according to Bill Flanagan, was written in Australia in 1989. There was a lot of soundcheck jamming around this time, most of it in the very rootsy/Rattle and Hum style. I believe this also led to "Even Better than the Real Thing," which was originally conceived as a Rolling Stones-style rocker, which would make it fit more with where U2 had been than where they were going.

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I read that Even Better than the Real Thing was recorded as a demo called "the real thing" in the same recording session as "Desire". Now would that be the same instrumental demo that's on the Salome outtakes?

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Also according to Flanagan's book, the summer demos from 1990 didn't really go anywhere. I'm guessing Bono and Edge had already worked on "Salome," "Acrobat," "Real Thing," as well as "Sick Puppy" (eventually to morph into "Mysterious Ways") and "Don't Turn Around" (which eventually turned into "Who's Gonna Ride") in those May 1990 sessions. These were probably presented to the band and worked on that summer. When they went to Hansa they had that material, as well as "Blow Your House Down" from the Rattle and Hum sessions (it had originated in 87), and the vestiges of what became "Lady With the Spinning Head" (given how far down the road the backing track for that had gone) and "Until the End of the World". "Take Today" (later to be released as "North and South of the River") also sounds pretty far developed. That's actually a pretty impressive place to start an album with -- five solid songs, and several sketches ("Sick Puppy," "Don't Turn Around," the guitar part for "Until the End of the World"). But it sounds like Adam and Larry weren't all that behind that material ("Sick Puppy" was probably the most confounding), and were impatient when Bono and Edge brought nothing new to the table in Berlin. Not entirely unreasonable either -- you listen to those backing tracks, and they're solid, but not necessarily magic.

I agree with you here' they're not magic but don't sound like jams or improvisations either. I think they were demos the band wanted to fully learn and make work in Berlin, and that that particular process was hard. It's funny to compare the simpleness of the first "Sick Puppy" demo with the drum machine with the full band jamming in Berlin on the same song. I felt the first sketch sounded better :)
 
Sorry,

I meant to reply in-line on your quotes. How does that work?

you gotta type "[/quote]" around the section you want to quote before you type your own stuff.

Not sure when "Bringing It All Home" aired, actually. Different videos are tagged on YouTube as being a 1989 broadcast. Perhaps it was broadcast in 1989, while the music was released on CD by the BBC in 1991? If so, the recording predates any of the AB sessions. (I mistakenly wrote earlier that it must have come from the 1990 Edge basement sessions, but this is obviously impossible if the show was broadcast in 1989.) It would make more sense for U2 to have been involved in a project looking back on Irish roots music in 1989 than in 1990 or 1991, given where their heads were at.

Wouldn't be surprised if "Real Thing" had its origins in 88 -- could very well be. I think we've got something recorded in Hansa (or STS) though, since everything else from Axtung Beibi seems to be...

To reply to boomcha -- guessing ADecentMelody was talking about the outtakes from Rattle and Hum with Bono and Edge jamming at Jimmy Iovine's house on the beach in fall 87. They demo "Blow Your House Down" here, as well as "Prisoner of Love", "Heartland Storm", and "We Almost Made It This Time."
 
What is this? Beach sessions? From what year?

Rattle and Hum era outtakes. Also has the genesis of Blow Your House Down. The particular sequence I'm talking about is with Jimmy Iovine.

Edit to add: Found a Youtube clip of the song I've dubbed "We Almost Made it This Time" right here clip. This is still my favorite unfinished song in these sessions. Plus, I love that Bono is telling The Edge how to play the chords. The Edge gets frustrated and tells Bono here, show me then! Bono wins the argument.
 
Myself I find many of those tracks great, but I can see how it wasn't the radical departure they were looking for.

The price of artistic progression is probably being ruthless with the songs that are good but are too similar to the style you are getting away from.
 
Love the end of this video, when Edge is demoing "Van Diemen's Land," and Bono doesn't seem interested at all.
 
Not sure when "Bringing It All Home" aired, actually. Different videos are tagged on YouTube as being a 1989 broadcast. Perhaps it was broadcast in 1989, while the music was released on CD by the BBC in 1991? If so, the recording predates any of the AB sessions. (I mistakenly wrote earlier that it must have come from the 1990 Edge basement sessions, but this is obviously impossible if the show was broadcast in 1989.) It would make more sense for U2 to have been involved in a project looking back on Irish roots music in 1989 than in 1990 or 1991, given where their heads were at."

I agree with you that it would seem strange given their new direction, but a lot of sources say April/May 1991 is the original BBC air date for the tv series. So I still think it's recorded in '90. On the other hand, I recently (re)found the only live appearance from Bono in June 1990, guesting on a David Bowie gig. The song is the Van Morrisson version of "Gloria", so also looking back.. Seems that it was still a mixed time for them?
 
You know when you hit the quote button to quote an entire post? You can finagle the coding within that to enter your own text.

When you're typing your response you'll see the beginning will have the brackets (QUOTE=personwhosaidit and the post #) and then at the end it will close the code with (/QUOTE)

I'm using parenthesis because I don't know that I can type the actual brackets without it being an actual code. So instead of () around quote, you use [ ]

Anyway, so you can copy the first part of the brackets to use in the next sections.

In the original quoted text, insert your own end bracket (/QUOTE) and then you can put in your response.

Then paste that copied initial code again (QUOTE=user and post #) and then end it at another section, and put your own response in, etc etc etc

Hope that made sense. :)
 
Rattle and Hum era outtakes. Also has the genesis of Blow Your House Down. The particular sequence I'm talking about is with Jimmy Iovine.

I have these somewhere, just never actually watched it. Guess what's going on my media center today!
 
I got about 15 minutes or so into the segment of Blow Your House Down and then finally reached for the remote to fast-forward. It goes on foreeeeeeeeeeeeeever. :lol:
 
Wouldn't be surprised if "Real Thing" had its origins in 88 -- could very well be. I think we've got something recorded in Hansa (or STS) though, since everything else from Axtung Beibi seems to be...

What do you reckon was recorded in Hansa and what was before?

@Corianderstem: Thanks! Didn't get the hang of partially quoting posts yet :)
 
Myself I find many of those tracks great, but I can see how it wasn't the radical departure they were looking for.

The price of artistic progression is probably being ruthless with the songs that are good but are too similar to the style you are getting away from.

Definitely agree. I'm glad they took that steep departure into Achtung Baby instead. Still, would have been nice to have found this particular song in some re-release or as a b-side.

Love the end of this video, when Edge is demoing "Van Diemen's Land," and Bono doesn't seem interested at all.

Yeah, pretty funny moment. :D

I have these somewhere, just never actually watched it. Guess what's going on my media center today!

I need to convert my VHS tapes to DVDs. There are some great stuff in there, but have to wade through a lot of material. There's that scene in Graceland where Bono gets a kick out of the squirrels running about in front of the mansion, in the yard. He goes, "there's a million of them!" Then, he realizes they're being filmed, looks to the camera, and explains, "that's Irish for 2" or something like that.

I got about 15 minutes or so into the segment of Blow Your House Down and then finally reached for the remote to fast-forward. It goes on foreeeeeeeeeeeeeever. :lol:

The Blow Your House Down segment was rather lengthy with lots of takes. The lyrics and idea are really good, but the structure didn't really resonate with me. Bono has to always find that type of song though in each album, e.g., Vertigo, Boots.

Btw, there's also a scene where Bono is looking for their recordings of these songs (Blow Your House Down, We Almost Made it...) and stumbled across a portion of With or Without You. Jimmy Iovine goes, wait what's that?, indicating he dug that. Bono looks at him like ARE YOU SERIOUS. He says it's With or Without You. Good stuff!
 
What do you reckon was recorded in Hansa and what was before?

In an interview talking about the Hansa troubles, Edge said he would do anything to keep the illusion of momentum going, so he spent a lot of time doing guitar overdubs. Guessing that's where a lot of the Salome guitar experimentation came from. In FTSD Adam talks about how they would have a basic structure down, basic chords, then do a lot of drum tracks. So I'm guessing that's a lot of the Larry drums stuff from Salome as well.

I don't think any of the Axtung Beibi stuff is pre-STS. The two versions of "Where Did It All Go Wrong" are obviously STS, and I'm guessing the released version of "Salome" was cut at STS too, since Paul Barrett's all over the credits and none of the embellishments they did at Hansa improved the basic track. "Acrobat" and "Real Thing" could have been cut at STS, since there's no lyrics or melody lines but the band had been living with the music for a year (or more) already and wanted something that Bono could start adding melodies and lyrics to. According to Flanagan, he turned up in Berlin without lyrics or melodies for certain songs, which would have added further friction to the band.
 
I have been listening to the demos again, and in an early version of backmask/woman/crying in the face of love you can hear Lanois talking to "Paul", which is likely to be Paul Barrett (and hence the studio is likely to be STS). So I think that its most likely the tapes are all from STS, pre-Hansa...
 
Or it could be Paul McGuinness?

The comment is fairly technical, something like asking for a louder click and less tambourine, so I'm guessing it must be Paul Barrett or at least a sound engineer working in the studio...

...but I like the idea of Paul McGuinness at the mixing desk!
 
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