What is the stupidest decision U2 has ever made?

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Taking 5 1/2 years to release a new album, leaving Invisible off the album and then abandoning the original versions of 11 pretty damn good tunes and choosing instead to promote the album with acoustic versions of said tunes.

Show some confidence in what you have released!
 
Snippets/codas as in only playing snippets/codas of their own songs?

Cos the snippets/codas of other songs have always been quite a nice feature of the U2 eXPeRieNCe I feel.

I'm not against it really, although I do wonder why some of the fan websites have to literally post every single snippet they play every time they put up a set list. I don't know how many times I've seen Mysterious Ways/Independent Women Pt. 1/The Sound of Music/Etc. lined up together song after song after song. They played 'Mysterious Ways'... aside from a footnote or two, that's all I need to know! :lol:
 
I'm not against it really, although I do wonder why some of the fan websites have to literally post every single snippet they play every time they put up a set list. I don't know how many times I've seen Mysterious Ways/Independent Women Pt. 1/The Sound of Music/Etc. lined up together song after song after song. They played 'Mysterious Ways'... aside from a footnote or two, that's all I need to know! :lol:

Because if we don't list everything, we get inundated with "where's X?" "why didn't you include Y?" "did you know that bla bla bla?"

We get far fewer complaints for being meticulous completists.
 
I had a friend comment how he loved the over-snippeting when he was watching a concert DVD with me.

Axver ? What's the strangest snippet they have ever done? (can't get to your site, because my company has it block as "Entertainment" should be classified as "Research")
 
I had a friend comment how he loved the over-snippeting when he was watching a concert DVD with me.

Axver ? What's the strangest snippet they have ever done? (can't get to your site, because my company has it block as "Entertainment" should be classified as "Research")

Hmm. Come on Eileen during Sunday Bloody Sunday has got to be right up there.
 
Because if we don't list everything, we get inundated with "where's X?" "why didn't you include Y?" "did you know that bla bla bla?"

We get far fewer complaints for being meticulous completists.

I agree, but I don't really need 500 different song titles to explain that such-and-such song was played. It's not like the band covered each song individually, you know? I'm just saying there might be a better way to keep track of snippets and what not when someone posts a set list...

Mercy/Get On Your Boots/Singin In The Rain/Elevation/Sweet Jane

That'd be one heck of a medley there... assuming they're not just one-line snippets, of course. ;)
 
I agree, but I don't really need 500 different song titles to explain that such-and-such song was played. It's not like the band covered each song individually, you know? I'm just saying there might be a better way to keep track of snippets and what not when someone posts a set list...

On U2gigs, we do have the option to display snippets below the setlist rather than in it. :wink:
 
Hmm. Come on Eileen during Sunday Bloody Sunday has got to be right up there.


The U2gigs article from a couple years back on Come On Eileen is honestly one of the best things ever posted on the Internet.


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There's quite a few good ones already been mentioned but for me the main ones that really affected their careers was firstly;

a) not making Rattle and Hum a purely studio album. The studio material alone would have been a more than decent follow up to The Joshua Tree.

b) Not sticking with Nellie Hooper as the sole producer of Pop.

c) Not going with the purely Eno/Lanois produced material they had for NLOTH and bringing in Lillywhite.

d) They probably should have just advertised SoI as a free album you can download on itunes. As I merely have an old-skool ipod that's how it was for me, took me ages to get it! Therefore I couldnt work out how everyone got it forced onto their phones! Until the wife started moaning about her iphone...
 
That'd be one heck of a medley there... assuming they're not just one-line snippets, of course. ;)

They are just one line snippets.

Remember back when they did do Stuck In A Moment and bunch of other songs medley style? It was almost like your grandmother's '100 Irish Party Songs You Know By Heart'.

Oh Danny Booooy...
 
This is a fun thread. Lots listed already but I'll chime in as well...

To me, the absolute number one frustrating thing they ever did was this:

1. All the new mixes on The Best of 1990 - 2000. None of them are better than the originals. I can somewhat tolerate Gone but the others are all atrocious! Second point: Including ATYCLB songs in a 90s Best Of. :doh: Third point: Changing one line in Mysterious Ways and ruining it.. why why why??

2. Bono crawling around like a cat on stage during An Cat Dubh on the Vertigo tour in Chicago. Probably THE most cringe-worthy moment of his career!

3. Any kind of USA pandering - Superbowl flag-lined jacket, sporting a fake American accent during interviews, Stuck In A Moment HandEgg theme video...

4. Vertigo and HTDAAB's ostentatious ubiquity. Also, the horribly cheesy Vertigo video with Bono baring his chest.

5. Get On Your Boots ruining what was actually a good album during the top and bottom songs.

6. Window In The Skies cheese.

7. Continuing to come off as smug and arrogant by forcing their new album into everyone's phones instead of just leaving it as an option to download for free. Why not be more humble and mature in their last few years??

8. Promoting truly awful versions like EBW acoustic when they could be promoting refreshing tracks like Sleep Like A Baby, Raised By Wolves or The Troubles.
 
In retrospect, although it did bring some good things with it (namely the Baby versions and Down All the Days), the way they handled the whole Achtung Baby reissue was a disaster.

First off, not making all unreleased new tracks (Heaven and Hell, Oh Berlin etc.) available on the 2CD edition was a pain in the arse. If you wanted all the unreleased new songs, you had to buy the ultra-expensive special "uber" editions or whatever. But hey, at least the two-disc version included those Perfecto Mixes!

Secondly, they butchered wonderful 1991 Salome jams like Blow Your House Down and Heaven and Hell with annoying new Bono vocals and some questionable decisions (oooh-wahs on Heaven and Hell... Christ almighty) that just reek of 2011 U2 poking their noses into something that is musically now light years away from them. She's Gonna Blow Your House Down is so horribly neutered. With a boring slide solo a la Magnificent and Moment of Surrender, which was Edge's speciality at the time.

Thirdly, including Zooropa like it's a fucking afterthought. God knows what kind of interesting things for that record they have hidden in the vault and which probably won't ever see the light of day.

And last but not least, including ZooTV Live from Sydney AGAIN as a DVD instead of offering one of literally hundred filmed and unreleased ZooTV shows (preferably ones with the Mirrorball Man).

Oh, and it spawned the remaster discussion in this cesspool.

Just a fucking fiasco on so many levels.
 
7. "One" with Mary J. Blige

Holy hell how did I forget that one???? :doh:

Looking for these cobbler? It's all I have left of the chicago dvd gifs.

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I wouldn't go that far. He actually played some decent rhythm guitar in the late 80s, on songs like Watchtower, All I Want is You, Running To Stand Still or With or Without You.

He's just a lazy sod who never improved. He chose to run his big mouth instead of practicing more.
 
On U2gigs, we do have the option to display snippets below the setlist rather than in it. :wink:

Huh... problem solved? :lol:

They are just one line snippets.

Remember back when they did do Stuck In A Moment and bunch of other songs medley style? It was almost like your grandmother's '100 Irish Party Songs You Know By Heart'.

Oh Danny Booooy...

Yeah, that's what I figured. It'd almost be worth having someone try to find the one song that contains the most 'snippets' out there, just to see if there is such a thing as overdoing it.
 
The good thing about the Spider-man soundtrack is that songs like "bouncing off the walls" never became U2 songs.

"Rise above" and "boy falls" would've made acceptable U2 songs.


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