Uber-pop!

[prbiker15]

I'd be up for that. The Vertigo version of Discothèque was pretty awesome, even though it was straightforward rock-y than the PopMart version. They still did a good job of capturing the sort of... manic nature of the song. And the light show was epic.


God no. I love that song. I'm so glad that U2 wrote Miami.

Vertigo Discotheque was pretty good, in my opinion. Don't mind if they play it that way if they resurrect it in the future.

For the record, I love Miami as well, to me it's one of the best songs on Pop. It's just great.

 

[brooklynmike]

Do yourself a favor and watch some of the pro-shot live performances on YouTube, if you haven't.. Las Vegas and Edmonton are wonderful, and there's a third that's great, but I can't remember which.

Yup. The song is a gem live. I think the 3rd performance you're talking about is Foxboro? That's where Edge kicked the Fun Lovin Criminals off the B- Stage.

 

[gareth brown]

in my opinion Pop doesn't need "finishing", and anything U2 hypothetically do to it in 2012 would only do more harm than good. They just need to live with the fact that the album was released as it was, warts and all.

I personally think it's one of the best albums they ever did, and completes a great trio of albums from the 1990s...but, and no-one here LIKES to say this, it seems like Paul McGuinness was right in the way he described the recording as being a case of 'too many cooks'. When you read about how dissatisfied U2 were with it, after reading how many people were involved in the bloody thing, it's no surprise they were recording/mixing at the very last minute. The songs are fantastic though and a lot of them stand up as some of their all-time best...

They tried re-arranging/remixing song for singles in 1997-1998, then a few remixes for The Best Of 90-00, and look how that ended up. Boom-Chas removed a start.
If they couldn't get it right in the first five years that followed the release of Pop, what makes them (or anyone else) think that U2 going into the studio 15 years later to 'finish' songs written by, let's face it, a very very different band, could possibly be a good idea. Just picture day one in the studio, 2012 Bono laying down a new vocal track for Mofo. It doesn't bear thinking about it.

If they insisted on redoing any Pop tracks, they should just remix what's already on tape. Not go in and add more to it. Strip stuff down, whatever...
Maybe even source vocals/guitar/whatever from live performances from Popmart. Would be very easy sync-wise, since a lot of the loop-heavy songs were obviously played to a click track, so you could get 97/98 Bono doing a proper job of singing Last Night On Earth and lay it over the original studio recordings. Or beef up Miami with the live rocking out. That way at least it's all from within the Popmart era and the U2 of the day and not a bunch of 50 year olds revisiting it and wrecking it. Hell, U2 could even get on with writing (shock horror) NEW material.

 

[gareth brown]

Better idea - they should just say fuck 'finishing' it and include a bonus disc of the album live. I love the album, but [as anyone who's familiar with me will have seen me moaning about before] live versions of stuff like Mofo/Last Night On Earth/Miami live were just phenomenal. After all the production woes and last minute problems mixing that album...what matters is if the songs themselves were good. When they just went out and belted them out as a band live, those songs just exploded and had an energy that eclipsed that of the studio originals.

So (except Playboy Mansion since it just wasn't played...) they could easily just get the best performance of each song from the Popmart tour and make one hell of a bonus disc. If they did anything as great as that, I would CONSIDER forgiving them for the inevitable discs full of remixes I would have to buy with it. Although that said, would we just end up with the same Mexcio City/Popheart live versions?

 

[Niceman]

Better idea - they should just say fuck 'finishing' it and include a bonus disc of the album live. I love the album, but [as anyone who's familiar with me will have seen me moaning about before] live versions of stuff like Mofo/Last Night On Earth/Miami live were just phenomenal. After all the production woes and last minute problems mixing that album...what matters is if the songs themselves were good. When they just went out and belted them out as a band live, those songs just exploded and had an energy that eclipsed that of the studio originals.

So (except Playboy Mansion since it just wasn't played...) they could easily just get the best performance of each song from the Popmart tour and make one hell of a bonus disc. If they did anything as great as that, I would CONSIDER forgiving them for the inevitable discs full of remixes I would have to buy with it. Although that said, would we just end up with the same Mexcio City/Popheart live versions?

Actually, this is the best option. Spend a week or 2 practicing and then lay down a live version of all 12 songs played one after each other in a row. They could even perform it in public over 2 nights and take the best of the 2 performances of each song.

 

[gareth brown]

we'll have to agree to disagree on that one I think

 

[Niceman]

we'll have to agree to disagree on that one I think

I was confused at first, because I thought you and I were saying the same thing - but I guess you wanted the performances actually from POPMART. I loved POPMART, but Bono's voice was awful live post-Zooropa up until VERTIGO. I would probably actually prefer a live 2012 disc to a live 1998 one. - IF they could get themselves back into the right mindframe for it.

 

[digitize]

Yup. The song is a gem live. I think the 3rd performance you're talking about is Foxboro? That's where Edge kicked the Fun Lovin Criminals off the B- Stage.

Yep! That's the one.

 

[WalkOn21]

Better idea - they should just say fuck 'finishing' it and include a bonus disc of the album live. I love the album, but [as anyone who's familiar with me will have seen me moaning about before] live versions of stuff like Mofo/Last Night On Earth/Miami live were just phenomenal. After all the production woes and last minute problems mixing that album...what matters is if the songs themselves were good. When they just went out and belted them out as a band live, those songs just exploded and had an energy that eclipsed that of the studio originals.

So (except Playboy Mansion since it just wasn't played...) they could easily just get the best performance of each song from the Popmart tour and make one hell of a bonus disc. If they did anything as great as that, I would CONSIDER forgiving them for the inevitable discs full of remixes I would have to buy with it. Although that said, would we just end up with the same Mexcio City/Popheart live versions?

I think that's an excellent idea.

 

[Niceman]

It just occurred to me that they could also include the William Burroughs' readings of Miami and... wasn't there a second track? Anyway, that would belong in any big deluxe edition.

 

[The_acrobat]

All this talk of Pop being "unfinished" is complete bullshit, and a way for U2 to cover their asses because it was perceived as such a "failure". I never heard anything about POP being unfinished until a couple years later. They released the album they wanted to release, plain and simple. They were probably really excited about the album they were releasing, and honestly thought it was gonna be a huge success like pretty much everything else they'd done since 1983. (Rattle and Hum THE ALBUM was actually very successful, it just didn't seem like it sandwiched between JT and AB).

Pop was not unfinished, plain and simple. It's the same excuse they used for October, and the same excuse they're using now for NLOTH.

(Yes, I truly believe U2 intended October to be exactly the way it was. They thought they were improving upon their sound, and making a more mature record to showcase their growth. The fact that it flopped sent them into safety mode, even back then.)

 

[Niceman]

All this talk of Pop being "unfinished" is complete bullshit, and a way for U2 to cover their asses because it was perceived as such a "failure". I never heard anything about POP being unfinished until a couple years later. They released the album they wanted to release, plain and simple. They were probably really excited about the album they were releasing, and honestly thought it was gonna be a huge success like pretty much everything else they'd done since 1983. (Rattle and Hum THE ALBUM was actually very successful, it just didn't seem like it sandwiched between JT and AB).

Pop was not unfinished, plain and simple. It's the same excuse they used for October, and the same excuse they're using now for NLOTH.

(Yes, I truly believe U2 intended October to be exactly the way it was. They thought they were improving upon their sound, and making a more mature record to showcase their growth. The fact that it flopped sent them into safety mode, even back then.)

I think you're almost right when it comes to POP. It's a brilliant album. It may have a few "errors" in the recording, but they've never been obvious to me. What they really needed was more time to learn the songs before the tour started.

But on October Bono's notebook was stolen. He lost a lot of his ideas and lyrics. I think it's very possible that the album would have been different if he'd had them.

 

[canedge]

It just occurred to me that they could also include the William Burroughs' readings of Miami and... wasn't there a second track?

The reader was Allen Ginsberg. They were lovers though so not too far off.

 

[canedge]

Actually now would be a good time to 'finish' POP. They have finished other outtakes from other albums and don't seem to have any major projects happening right now.

 

[Niceman]

The reader was Allen Ginsberg. They were lovers though so not too far off.

Oops! I should know that. I actually saw Ginsberg perform once. He played with a band. After the show I went and told him that I'd enjoyed it. He pointedly asked me if I'd sung along and I said, "Of course!"

 

[Niceman]

Actually now would be a good time to 'finish' POP. They have finished other outtakes from other albums and don't seem to have any major projects happening right now.

Well, they do go back into the studio with Danger Mouse in January.

 

[WalkOn21]

But on October Bono's notebook was stolen. He lost a lot of his ideas and lyrics. I think it's very possible that the album would have been different if he'd had them.

In U2 by U2, Bono actually says: "And I hate to have to admit this to my long-suffering band-mates, who had to listen to me bemoaning the loss of my treasure chest of lyrics and using it as an excuse for not finishing any new songs, but the notebook really contains little more than obscure hieroglyphics."

 

[BVS]

All this talk of Pop being "unfinished" is complete bullshit, and a way for U2 to cover their asses because it was perceived as such a "failure". I never heard anything about POP being unfinished until a couple years later. They released the album they wanted to release, plain and simple.

Then maybe you weren't paying attention... They admitted to being rushed, they continued to re-record their singles during the tour, and almost every interview there was a hint that they were a little unsettled about the final recording of this album.

 

[Niceman]

In U2 by U2, Bono actually says: "And I hate to have to admit this to my long-suffering band-mates, who had to listen to me bemoaning the loss of my treasure chest of lyrics and using it as an excuse for not finishing any new songs, but the notebook really contains little more than obscure hieroglyphics."

Ah.

 

[MrTheEdge1996]

If U2 do ever release a special edition version of Pop, it would have to include the Muscle Print T-shirt Bono wore during the PopMart tour, I'd say those were Pop's equivalent of the "Fly" shades...

 

[trevgreg]

I'd wear it.

 

[Globo14]

Uber-pop?

Uber-bump!

 

[bonocomet]

If U2 do ever release a special edition version of Pop, it would have to include the Muscle Print T-shirt Bono wore during the PopMart tour, I'd say those were Pop's equivalent of the "Fly" shades...

That exact shirt is actually out on the market right now as a "new" fashion item. I saw it being modeled very recently in a men's fashion magazine like GQ or something.

(Bono was way WAY ahead of his time!)

 

[MrTheEdge1996]

Is it really? I've been looking for it for ages, for collecting, you know. I wouldn't wear it round the house or anything.. honest...

 

[bonocomet]

Is it really? I've been looking for it for ages, for collecting, you know. I wouldn't wear it round the house or anything.. honest...

Yeah I wish I could remember which magazine had it but you might try doing some searches... I took this pic of the magazine (because I couldn't believe my eyes! ) around October 2011. I thought it was more recently but now that I looked at the date seems it was late last year. Still you may find it somewhere!

 

[MrTheEdge1996]

Thanks for the pics mate! I don't mean to annoy you with questions, but did the magazine say it was for sale, or was it just modeling it?

 

[Rachel D.]

I doubt we will see a remaster of Pop until it's at least 20 years old. I hope I'm wrong about that, but U2 do seem to enjoy ignoring it. They could decide that it deserves some attention one of these days.

 

[bonocomet]

Thanks for the pics mate! I don't mean to annoy you with questions, but did the magazine say it was for sale, or was it just modeling it?

No problem! I wish I had paid more attention. I don't even know for sure if it was GQ (I'm only guessing because I would have been more likely to pick that one up and look through it) I remember I flipped to the back to try and find info on the pic and it was just listed with credit to the designer and maybe the price (like most fashion magazines do) but I can't remember anything else. I'm sorry. I am so mad at myself for not getting more info. I was just killing time waiting for a movie to start that day and was in a hurry I remember when I did see it.

 

[The Sad Punk]

In U2 by U2, Bono actually says: "And I hate to have to admit this to my long-suffering band-mates, who had to listen to me bemoaning the loss of my treasure chest of lyrics and using it as an excuse for not finishing any new songs, but the notebook really contains little more than obscure hieroglyphics."

As opposed to those overused, mainstream hieroglyphics.

 

[herci]

the Belgian designer of the pop outfits went broke this year...
Walter Van Beirendonck - Official Website (on the site a pic with him and bono during vertigo / click on PEOPLE))
Many Belgian designers can't exist anymore, due to financial problems, even though they are extremely well known.