Alternative tracks from NLOTH

[bazza]

Don't have them...but wonder if they will ever be leaked like Native Son etc was from the HTDAAB sessions?

Would love to get them in high quality as they sounded pretty good from the beach clip sessions...

Does anyone if this is a possibility?

 

[BVS]

Native Son and the others weren't leaked, they were released...

There's always a possibility they will be released, but I doubt anytime soon.

 

[U2girl]

Winter came out on Linear, and NLOTH2 was a bonus song.

 

[sony]

The 1st version of unknown caller (beachclip) was awsome!! Hope this will show up sometime soon!!!

 

[Morgoth321]

Alternate versions could be provided under the following circumstances:

- They're leaked.
- They're made available as part of a revised 'Complete U2' digital boxset (which you'll have to buy as a full set and not individual tracks).
- They're made available as next year's U2.com gift for subscribers.

Anybody else think of more facetious possibilities?

 

[mikal]

The 1st version of unknown caller (beachclip) was awsome!! Hope this will show up sometime soon!!!

it's the same exact version as the album version, except there were beach noises in the background.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

I hope the beach clip version of Magnificent comes out. It just sounds like it was that much better before Eno added "the swish" to it and made it more dancy. Eno stated that it was much more of a masculine song (larrys drumming).

 

[mikal]

I hope the beach clip version of Magnificent comes out. It just sounds like it was that much better before Eno added "the swish" to it and made it more dancy. Eno stated that it was much more of a masculine song (larrys drumming).

i also think Magnificent is the same version now as it was in the Beach Clip, it's just that a lot of the "meat" couldn't be heard because of the waves.

 

[mikal]

i know i've said this before, but as much as i'd love to hear demo versions of some of the songs from NLOTH, i'm very glad i haven't.

one of the things that ruined HTDAAB for me was that we were given much better versions of ABOY and Yahweh right when the album came out. i know some of you prefer Native Son over Vertigo too. but giving us alternatives like they did only gave HTDAAB doubt in the eyes/ears of the listener, thus making it a flawed album.

i think U2 may have learned their lesson there. now if they were to give us alternative versions years down the road, that would be fine, but not so close to the album release!

 

[Morgoth321]

i know i've said this before, but as much as i'd love to hear demo versions of some of the songs from NLOTH, i'm very glad i haven't.

one of the things that ruined HTDAAB for me was that we were given much better versions of ABOY and Yahweh right when the album came out. i know some of you prefer Native Son over Vertigo too. but giving us alternatives like they did only gave HTDAAB doubt in the eyes/ears of the listener, thus making it a flawed album.

i think U2 may have learned their lesson there. now if they were to give us alternative versions years down the road, that would be fine, but not so close to the album release!

That's a really good point. We have to assume that the mixes of the songs on the album were agreed as being the best by the band and the producers at the time, but they won't be the only versions of those songs in existence. I have my own thoughts on the merits of the HTDAAB alternative versions - some are better, some aren't; the problem is their mere availability. Similarly, in terms of the new album's title track, I prefer NLOTH2 to the album version (and whose bright idea was it to release the alternative version before the album version anyway?!) Indecision - in the best possible sense - has always been a key element of U2's creative process, but perhaps it's best that their alternative versions do stay in the vaults, at least for the time being. Anyway, if they need any b-sides, I'm sure they can always throw out another live version of Vertigo or Beuatiful Day...

 

[Niceman]

I still say that the reason so many people prefer the 'alternate' HTDAB tracks is because they aren't on the album I mean, Native Son was crap! lol!

 

[sony]

it's the same exact version as the album version, except there were beach noises in the background.

I hear the sync very different on this version, i dont hear the guitar(like on the album version)!!

 

[mikal]

I hear the sync very different on this version, i dont hear the guitar(like on the album version)!!

at first, i thought the guitar had a different a different effect too, but i realized that it was just the combination of the beach and wind that made the guitar sound like it had a flanger effect on it.

 

[U2girl]

I'm still puzzled why they released the Bomb alternative outtakes. (I only think All because of you is better, lyrically)

There was plenty of new songs anyway: Levitate, Love you like mad, Flower child, Smile.

 

[mikal]

I'm still puzzled why they released the Bomb alternative outtakes. (I only think All because of you is better, lyrically)

There was plenty of new songs anyway: Levitate, Love you like mad, Flower child, Smile.

yeah, i'm guessing they just thought of it as a nice bonus. instead, it set the diehards on fire.

and then on top of that, we get "Mercy" and "Smile". HTDAAB was doomed before it was even given a true chance.

 

[U2girl]

I would have loved to see Fast cars and Mercy being starting points for what became NLOTH ...

 

[65980]

Since I don't like the production on NLOTH, I would rather hear these songs in scratchier, demo forms, if such things exist (maybe not, as U2 tend to form, shape, and re-shape songs endlessly in the studio).

But, as 'Winter' is pretty dull, in my opinion, and the album itself is a bit sub-par, I don't know that outtakes would be overly exciting. But, on the other hand...

I do have a feeling that the held-over songs for the next record (next year?) will be harder hitting than the NLOTH songs.

About HTDAAB, I agree with Niceman that the alternate versions are nothing special. I prefer every master on the album to those alternate versions. ('Yahweh' is okay, but it's missing the bridge, which is the best part of the song.)

 

[God Part III]

The 1st version of unknown caller (beachclip) was awsome!! Hope this will show up sometime soon!!!

What? Unknown Caller is the only beachclip they didn't change at all!

I'd love to hear the Magnificent and Breathe beach clips.

 

[bonocomet]

What? Unknown Caller is the only beachclip they didn't change at all!

oh wait nevermind, I misunderstood!
(I thought you meant the other versions)

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

Breathe beach clip was prob better than the album.... besides this one, I think the other 3 are the same songs as the album ones! (not Crazy tonight of course)

 

[bonocomet]

Get On Your Boots is different in the beach clip and I think they chose the better version. The beach clip version lacks the different Let me in the Sound part and so lacks the punch that part has when it kicks back to the chorus.

 

[Cactus Annie]

I prefer all the dance versions of Crazy Tonight and Magneficent to the originals. I prefer Paul Oakenfold's perfecto remix of EBTTRT to the original. I prefer some of the remixes to Discotheque to the album version. But I listened to a video which someone uploaded on YouTube of Mercy and I don't get its appeal. I thought it was going to have the same mystical power as the Holy Grail but the power it possesed was more akin to myself sitting in a library listening to a YouTube video with headphones whilst trying to resist the urge to barf due to the smell of farting from the fat guy sitting next to me.

Vertigo is better for me to Native Son. I prefer it's lyric and the fact that it is louder.