I read the Rolling Stone piece based on meeting U2 in early December

[bram]

But the question is, would Captain Adama and the Battlestar Galactica crew approve of Brian Eno's comments?

 

[cseggleton]

Hmmmm......

you actually are kind of sounding like the type of person that you are berating.

i know i am re-reading the thread and i am going to blame it on stella artois!! you just get tired of people jumping on this band without hearing a single verse. i take back calling people a cunt for now..ha

 

[PowerSurge]

i know i am re-reading the thread and i am going to blame it on stella artois!! you just get tired of people jumping on this band without hearing a single verse. i take back calling people a cunt for now..ha

fair enough....no worries.

Drinking and Blue Crack don't mix....trust me, I've written some stupid ass shit on here after too many Martinis

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

If anyone has the second page's picture in a bigger size I would be most grateful. (It would make a kickass desktop and set me up perfectly for the album's release).

 

[standrums1]

I just found the piece here:
Scatter o' Light: u2 in rolling stone (scans)

So never mind my half-remembered summary below:

It was only 2 pages -- half of it pictures -- but there's some worrisome news. The writer said that Brian Eno was upset/disappointed with the band scrapped some of the more experimental (I can't remember the exact words) songs which they'd written on the new album. Eno jokingly said, "Tell them they're a bunch of cunts." The article said that "Winter", which it described as beautiful or something, would not be on the album.


I think it's worrisome that the band wasn't going for all the interesting stuff that Eno said was great. Then again, that's what makes it U2 and perhaps the band felt the songs weren't not just good enough in a commercial sense, but in an artistic one. I hope they release these songs later or do whatever is needed to make them better, not just more accessible. At the same time, Eno's hardly commercially-deaf. The article quoted him as saying that the sessions involved starting from scratch with simple melodies, which they made more complex and then stripped back again later. The article also mentioned that the songs that didn't emerge from full-band sessions with Eno and Lanois came from demos from The Edge's garage -- or maybe it was a music writing program with the word "garage" in it.

Winter = White as Snow?

who knows, but it might have made the final cut now seeing as we know the tracklist now

 

[Popmart Shopper]

Whoa! I never knew that 1) U2 had to even listen to the record company after Joshua Tree and that 2) there were other songs left over from the Pop sessions. Is there more unreleased stuff then?

I also agree with the latter part of what you're saying -- that the album could still be amazing and might have even been changed after early December. For all we know, maybe the other songs were like most of "Passengers". Eno didn't exactly say "experimental". I tried to memorize the 2 words -- more like "stretching out" or "unusual".

Well I Think it was just suggested to the band to kind of include all kinds of styles on POP instead of just Dance/Electronica influences.There was some unreleased songs from the POP sessions but I think a good number of them are released now and U2 does tend to change their song titles around often.

 

[dan_smee]

I just found the piece here:
Scatter o' Light: u2 in rolling stone (scans)

So never mind my half-remembered summary below:

It was only 2 pages -- half of it pictures -- but there's some worrisome news. The writer said that Brian Eno was upset/disappointed with the band scrapped some of the more experimental (I can't remember the exact words) songs which they'd written on the new album. Eno jokingly said, "Tell them they're a bunch of cunts." The article said that "Winter", which it described as beautiful or something, would not be on the album.


I think it's worrisome that the band wasn't going for all the interesting stuff that Eno said was great. Then again, that's what makes it U2 and perhaps the band felt the songs weren't not just good enough in a commercial sense, but in an artistic one. I hope they release these songs later or do whatever is needed to make them better, not just more accessible. At the same time, Eno's hardly commercially-deaf. The article quoted him as saying that the sessions involved starting from scratch with simple melodies, which they made more complex and then stripped back again later. The article also mentioned that the songs that didn't emerge from full-band sessions with Eno and Lanois came from demos from The Edge's garage -- or maybe it was a music writing program with the word "garage" in it.

Eno is bound to get shitty, and I think 99% of the population would rather them cut some of the weirder Eno songs, keep the good U2 songs and prevent it from becoming Passengers 2, and more like a heavily Eno-inspired U2 disc

 

[namkcuR]

I thought that it came out that 'White As Snow' was 'Winter'.

 

[Y2K]

Why are we bumping this thread??

 

[standrums]

I just found the piece here:
Scatter o' Light: u2 in rolling stone (scans)

So never mind my half-remembered summary below:

It was only 2 pages -- half of it pictures -- but there's some worrisome news. The writer said that Brian Eno was upset/disappointed with the band scrapped some of the more experimental (I can't remember the exact words) songs which they'd written on the new album. Eno jokingly said, "Tell them they're a bunch of cunts." The article said that "Winter", which it described as beautiful or something, would not be on the album.


I think it's worrisome that the band wasn't going for all the interesting stuff that Eno said was great. Then again, that's what makes it U2 and perhaps the band felt the songs weren't not just good enough in a commercial sense, but in an artistic one. I hope they release these songs later or do whatever is needed to make them better, not just more accessible. At the same time, Eno's hardly commercially-deaf. The article quoted him as saying that the sessions involved starting from scratch with simple melodies, which they made more complex and then stripped back again later. The article also mentioned that the songs that didn't emerge from full-band sessions with Eno and Lanois came from demos from The Edge's garage -- or maybe it was a music writing program with the word "garage" in it.

Eno isn't God by the way.

U2 are a band and each member's input matters, they have their collaborators too and snippets of each of these "external" inputs blends into U2's work, as it always has done.
What Eno says isn't gospel. He's tried to mess up previous songs like Where The Streets Have No Name and One.

Of course he is an amazing talent and having his more of his influence on this album is good news. But he's not Be All And End All - I'm sure U2 have been in the game long enough to be able to go with their own intuition on songs sometimes.

 

[PolarCamel]

Let's sum it up

1 - Winter=White as Snow, for sure, as both titles were described in about every fucking interview as a stripped down acoustic ballad about a soldier in the desert going through his recollections. at most, its playtime was probably shortened from 6:00 to 4:40 or something.

2 - Fez - Being Born aka Tripoli, is regarded by most reviews (except for one that called it "U2 by the numbers") as the most experimental piece on the album. So some ambiguos sound laboratory ambience shit did survive. (don't get me wrong I love that shit)

3 - perhaps 2 or 3 other tracks, not appearing on the album will be included in Linear, Corbijn's film accompanying the album. so we might see more of the experimental stuff popping up herer and there.

4 - Eno is just a senior angel, but not G almighty himself.

5 - for a moment there, in late 2008, u2 were a bunch of stupid cunts, hopefully that has been corrected by now, ever since RS has left the building and all is well.

6 - the Atlantic creates quite a gap in the way the word cunt is used and perceived in the UK and the US, that's at least according to Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos in a recent interview, pointing to the fact that in the US it's perceived as a harsh sexist derogatory term while in the UK it's milder and more of a general critical reference.
I guess Eno used it in the British sense, but then again RS in an american magazine so, who knows?

7 - Who cares anyway?

 

[Niceman]

I don't think it's confirmed that Fez-Being Born is Tripoli is it? I believe that's just speculation...

 

[Dalton]

That said, I honestly didn't know about the other thread. I looked around for a few seconds and hadn't seen in previous days, but I'm not too good when it comes to looking for things; my eyes often miss them.

Looks like your mom was right.

 

[Muldfeld]

Top 5 U2 song.

Yeah, I was implying that Passengers kinda sucked BESIDES those 3 tracks, including Your Blue Room.

 

[Muldfeld]

Eno is bound to get shitty, and I think 99% of the population would rather them cut some of the weirder Eno songs, keep the good U2 songs and prevent it from becoming Passengers 2, and more like a heavily Eno-inspired U2 disc

Yeah, I hope that was the case and that it wasn't U2 trying to just be more mainstream, as it seems to be doing with GOYB. I was just saying there's reason to worry -- not a sure thing that it will be bad or excluding a great song.

I hope the song comes out, though, just like with the Eno-preferred slow-building version of the title track.

 

[Muldfeld]

This thread is politically insightful.

But the question is, would Captain Adama and the Battlestar Galactica crew approve of Brian Eno's comments?

This is just the kind of shallow crap I've come to expect on these boards. If you were actually thoughtful, instead of just arrogant cynical jerks, and watching the current new episodes with Tom Zarek's forced actions against a disrespectful leadership of Roslin and Adama, you'd realize just how politically insightful events are in the tension between military dictatorship and democracy and terrorism and a whole host of issues that are rife with complexity, beautifully illustrated, and far more brilliantly examined than in any U2 song.

Moreover, it really shows how pathetic and cruel you are to keep picking on my in the most shallow way because of this, especially since you far outnumber me and can't resist kicking someone when they're unpopular or down. It's very bullying.

 

[bram]

This is just the kind of shallow crap I've come to expect on these boards. If you were actually thoughtful, instead of just arrogant cynical jerks, and watching the current new episodes with Tom Zarek's forced actions against a disrespectful leadership of Roslin and Adama, you'd realize just how politically insightful events are in the tension between military dictatorship and democracy and terrorism and a whole host of issues that are rife with complexity, beautifully illustrated, and far more brilliantly examined than in any U2 song.

Moreover, it really shows how pathetic and cruel you are to keep picking on my in the most shallow way because of this, especially since you far outnumber me and can't resist kicking someone when they're unpopular or down. It's very bullying.

It's just you against the Cylons! I'm rooting for you though.

 

[Diemen]

This is just the kind of shallow crap I've come to expect on these boards. If you were actually thoughtful, instead of just arrogant cynical jerks, and watching the current new episodes with Tom Zarek's forced actions against a disrespectful leadership of Roslin and Adama, you'd realize just how politically insightful events are in the tension between military dictatorship and democracy and terrorism and a whole host of issues that are rife with complexity, beautifully illustrated, and far more brilliantly examined than in any U2 song.

Good God get over it already. For the gazillionth time, people can understand and appreciate the political insightfulness of something without having to cram it down everyone else's throat.

especially since you far outnumber me and can't resist kicking someone when they're unpopular or down. It's very bullying.

You are right here, though. I know it's fun to throw in the jabs whenever possible, but the constant needling, prodding, and pushing on this subject needs to stop guys.

 

[bram]

Good God get over it already. For the gazillionth time, people can understand and appreciate the political insightfulness of something without having to cram it down everyone else's throat.



You are right here, though. I know it's fun to throw in the jabs whenever possible, but the constant needling, prodding, and pushing on this subject needs to stop guys.

Quite right. Sorry.

 

[buzzkill27]

Didn't DJ Dave Fanning on radio RTE 2 say that White as Snow = Winter? ....this is old news

 

[U2FAN4LIFE]

Yeah, I was implying that Passengers kinda sucked BESIDES those 3 tracks, including Your Blue Room.

One of the first things I do when traveling down south is to get to the beach and listen to a relaxing playlist that always includes "Beach Sequence" as the first track.... something about it just clears my head.

 

[Irvine511]

you know, my favorite U2 album is Actung as well.

but this idea that it was some kind of artistic project with no thought ever given to it's ability to move units and sell concert tickets is bunk. if anything, U2 "went commercial" with Achtung if you think about the fact that they were pretty much dead in the water by the end of 1989. had U2 come out with a proper U2 album in 1991 where Bono continued with his long mane of hair and pretentious pronouncements and if they continued to dress in vagabond-chic, then the album would have tanked, and their career would have been over.

while it was genuinely artistically inspired by the fall of the Berlin wall and a renewed fascination with Europe after the fall of Communism, Achtung Baby and the sonic and image reinvention was absolutely a commercial move. it was absolutely a careerist move. it was absolutely about killing their past in order for them to have a future, and future tours, and future albums that would sell.

it worked brilliantly. how do we know it worked? because U2 sold a lot of albums, they sold a lot of concert tickets to Zoo TV, and they continue to do so today.

ask yourself this -- would any band have planned a tour as expensive as Zoo TV if they expected the album to tank commercially, or, more likely, if they said that they didn't care about sales or radio airplay or videos on MTV?

Achtung is their best album because it's dynamic and diverse and each song creates a massive and massively unique space and the whole thing is shot through with despair and cynicism and lots of sex and the narrator owns up to being kind of an asshole who can be selfish and needy, and yet defiant. oh, i could sing Mysterious Ways after hearing it one time, it's that catchy, and One is an obvious -- and obviously successful -- attempt at writing a career defining ballad. EBTTRT is an obvious single. Wild Horses is an obvious single with a colossal, sing-along chorus that's probably more shameless than anything on Bomb (and i enjoy it tremendously).

Achtung is colossal, but let's not pretend for a moment that it was, like, written in a bedroom with a guitar and an 8-track and released without a moment's thought about how it would be received (and consumed) by the masses. it's absolutely no different in commercial intent than Bomb.

 

[MMP]

^ x infinity.

 

[BVS]

This is just the kind of shallow crap I've come to expect on these boards. If you were actually thoughtful, instead of just arrogant cynical jerks, and watching the current new episodes with Tom Zarek's forced actions against a disrespectful leadership of Roslin and Adama, you'd realize just how politically insightful events are in the tension between military dictatorship and democracy and terrorism and a whole host of issues that are rife with complexity, beautifully illustrated, and far more brilliantly examined than in any U2 song.

Moreover, it really shows how pathetic and cruel you are to keep picking on my in the most shallow way because of this, especially since you far outnumber me and can't resist kicking someone when they're unpopular or down. It's very bullying.

YOU'RE COMPARING SEASONS CONSISTING OF HOUR LONG EPISODES TO 3-5 MINUTE SONGS!!!

Am I understanding this correctly? Are you serious? And we're the shallow ones?

Only the deep can compare busshels of apples to an orange.

Only the deep can judge someone by the fact speculation that they "may have" supported this or that...

Only the deep brag about spitting on those that disagree with them...

Give us all a break!

 

[Diemen]

You know BVS, it'd be great if you didn't take every differing opinion as an opportunity to argue.

Just once it'd be nice for you to not have to publicly belittle rebuff someone whose opinion differs from yours, regardless of how valid or well-informed their opinion may or may not be.

 

[PowerSurge]

^ point taken

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

This is just the kind of shallow crap I've come to expect on these boards. If you were actually thoughtful, instead of just arrogant cynical jerks, and watching the current new episodes with Tom Zarek's forced actions against a disrespectful leadership of Roslin and Adama, you'd realize just how politically insightful events are in the tension between military dictatorship and democracy and terrorism and a whole host of issues that are rife with complexity, beautifully illustrated, and far more brilliantly examined than in any U2 song.

Moreover, it really shows how pathetic and cruel you are to keep picking on my in the most shallow way because of this, especially since you far outnumber me and can't resist kicking someone when they're unpopular or down. It's very bullying.

live long and prosper.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

you know, my favorite U2 album is Actung as well.

but this idea that it was some kind of artistic project with no thought ever given to it's ability to move units and sell concert tickets is bunk. if anything, U2 "went commercial" with Achtung if you think about the fact that they were pretty much dead in the water by the end of 1989. had U2 come out with a proper U2 album in 1991 where Bono continued with his long mane of hair and pretentious pronouncements and if they continued to dress in vagabond-chic, then the album would have tanked, and their career would have been over.

while it was genuinely artistically inspired by the fall of the Berlin wall and a renewed fascination with Europe after the fall of Communism, Achtung Baby and the sonic and image reinvention was absolutely a commercial move. it was absolutely a careerist move. it was absolutely about killing their past in order for them to have a future, and future tours, and future albums that would sell.

it worked brilliantly. how do we know it worked? because U2 sold a lot of albums, they sold a lot of concert tickets to Zoo TV, and they continue to do so today.

ask yourself this -- would any band have planned a tour as expensive as Zoo TV if they expected the album to tank commercially, or, more likely, if they said that they didn't care about sales or radio airplay or videos on MTV?

Achtung is their best album because it's dynamic and diverse and each song creates a massive and massively unique space and the whole thing is shot through with despair and cynicism and lots of sex and the narrator owns up to being kind of an asshole who can be selfish and needy, and yet defiant. oh, i could sing Mysterious Ways after hearing it one time, it's that catchy, and One is an obvious -- and obviously successful -- attempt at writing a career defining ballad. EBTTRT is an obvious single. Wild Horses is an obvious single with a colossal, sing-along chorus that's probably more shameless than anything on Bomb (and i enjoy it tremendously).

Achtung is colossal, but let's not pretend for a moment that it was, like, written in a bedroom with a guitar and an 8-track and released without a moment's thought about how it would be received (and consumed) by the masses. it's absolutely no different in commercial intent than Bomb.

you is smrt.

 

[PowerSurge]

Baby Caution rules!