Is 'Winter' THE song U2 should re-work for the new album?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

The Slow Loris

War Child
Joined
Mar 16, 2001
Messages
785
Location
Slowloris-ville, Western Indonesia
I believe it is. Yes, over 'Mercy', and over pretty much everything we've heard over the last couple years (ie, 'North Star', 'Glastonbury', etc). But keep the original version. It is, quite simply, a hidden classic in the making. Simply get rid of the "butter on toast" line. Maybe Bono should sing the verses in a lower register. That's about it. Everything else is perfect.

Thoughts? (Questions, comments, and cries of outrage are all welcome.....)
 
Well, I do consider it unlikely they will since they did ""release" it to us. The same for Mercy and the others. I doubt we'll see any of these on the official album, but perhaps as a "rarities and B-sides."

I never really connected to this song. The lyrics are goofy and it just sort of meanders and then slows down at exactly the wrong time...

Perhaps there's something there, I just don't experience it yet.
 
Unlike Mercy, this song got TWO official studio releases: the original version on Linear, and the alternate on the Brothers soundtrack.

Let it die. And I say this as someone who likes it more than Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy, and would rather have seen it on No Line.
 
Well, I do consider it unlikely they will since they did ""release" it to us. The same for Mercy and the others. I doubt we'll see any of these on the official album, but perhaps as a "rarities and B-sides."

I never really connected to this song. The lyrics are goofy and it just sort of meanders and then slows down at exactly the wrong time...

Perhaps there's something there, I just don't experience it yet.
I know the "meandering" part you're talking about ("the broken, and the bruised, the sure and confused, all here"), and I felt the same way at first. But I have to say, I fell in in love with it once I accepted it. And now I get what they were doing there. Give it time :sexywink: They just need to re-do the vocals during that part, I would say. Going into it, it doesn't quite jive, I agree.

As for the lyrics, the only lyric I think is goofy is the "butter on toast" part. Get rid of that, and I actually love the lyrics to this song.
 
I know the "meandering" part you're talking about ("the broken, and the bruised, the sure and confused, all here"), and I felt the same way at first. But I have to say, I fell in in love with it once I accepted it. And now I get what they were doing there. Give it time :sexywink: They just need to re-do the vocals during that part, I would say. Going into it, it doesn't quite jive, I agree.
I'll give it a few more listens. Bono's voice is a little overbearing in the mix - but I will give it some more time.

As for the lyrics, the only lyric I think is goofy is the "butter on toast" part. Get rid of that, and I actually love the lyrics to this song.

Terrible lyrics can destroy songs immediately. I would rather hear nonsensical abstractions than "butter on toast/heavy like a truck/scent of a newborn baby's head".

If all the albums since Achtung Baby had better lyrics, I think they wouldn't have been much less dispute about them.
 
I like the song. But I do agree that it seemed to have its time in the sun, even though it never got an official release in the end. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, after all. It was always weird that all of that happened without the song even seeing a commercial release of any sort. But it'll pop up on a future compilation, for sure.

The "butter on toast" line is fine. If people on here like "Elvis Ate America" or the "fish needs a bicycle" line in TTTYAATW, then this really shouldn't be a problem! :D
 
I'll give it a few more listens. Bono's voice is a little overbearing in the mix - but I will give it some more time.



Terrible lyrics can destroy songs immediately. I would rather hear nonsensical abstractions than "butter on toast/heavy like a truck/scent of a newborn baby's head".

If all the albums since Achtung Baby had better lyrics, I think they wouldn't have been much less dispute about them.
Yes, I completely agree about Bono's voice. I don't know if singing it in a lower register would have helped or not. It's the pitch of his voice that doesn't quite work for me. That song would have worked beautifully with Bono's Joshua Tree voice. It's really a Joshua Tree era type of song.
 
Yes, I completely agree about Bono's voice. I don't know if singing it in a lower register would have helped or not. It's the pitch of his voice that doesn't quite work for me. That song would have worked beautifully with Bono's Joshua Tree voice. It's really a Joshua Tree era type of song.

I think you're right. I think that would've really helped in this song.
 
Winter. Yuk.

Listening to this again makes all the No Line confusion come back in full force. Thanks for bringing me back to early 2009 and all the disappointment. Eno's lame violin midi recycled from Viva La Vida. The droning boredom. Its all coming back like a slap to the head...

With what we thought we were getting with that album and the flat tire we received instead it's shocking that they still have this much anticipation from the fanbase.
 
With what we thought we were getting with that album and the flat tire we received instead it's shocking that they still have this much anticipation from the fanbase.

And it's even more shocking that people are coming here without being interested in the band and without expectations or anticipations, just to be negative about everything and anything. I will never understand why some "fans" bother that much.

If only U2 would continue the path they chose to go with NLOTH. It's a great album. Winter isn't such a great song, but it has potential. Instead of Winter, they should have released Every Breaking Wave. That's the song I would love to hear on the new album.
 
Im interested in the band 100%

That might be why I praise AND criticize.

If only U2 wouldve continued their original concept for No Line instead of taking 'Every Breaking Wave' off and mixing that generic U2 sound with the morroccan theme to play it safe. We shouldve gotten an album that sounded like what we were hearing on those U2.com clips and Here is what is clips and 'Soon" instead we got Vertigo part 2 and SUC. It was obvious something happened. Something bad.

No Line could've had a sonic theme on par with Joshua Tree. Something ruined that.
 
No, it has some elements I like, but I do hope the next album will sound completely different and I certainly don't hope they'll re-work some songs we already know.
 
We have two versions of Winter, but weren't they supposedly working on a third, "electronic" version at some point?

either way, no. the only song I'd like to see come back is Every Breaking Wave. maybe Mercy, but Mercy is probably something that's a bonus or new track to the best of whatever through whatever.
 
No Line could've had a sonic theme on par with Joshua Tree. Something ruined that.
So true. There is a certain vibe during the first 4 songs of the album that gets disrupted and smashed to pieces before it continues on with 'Fez - Being Born' until the end of the album. If those middle songs (most notably 'Boots' and 'Stand Up Comedy') were replaced with finished versions of 'Every Breaking Wave' and 'Winter', we would have had another classic on our hands.
 
The droning boredom. Its all coming back like a slap to the head...

I feel the same way when I hear White as Snow and Cedars of Lebanon. :lol:

If only U2 wouldve continued their original concept for No Line instead of taking 'Every Breaking Wave' off and mixing that generic U2 sound with the morroccan theme to play it safe. We shouldve gotten an album that sounded like what we were hearing on those U2.com clips and Here is what is clips and 'Soon" instead we got Vertigo part 2 and SUC. It was obvious something happened. Something bad.

No Line could've had a sonic theme on par with Joshua Tree. Something ruined that.

A lot of us need to ask ourselves if we would have liked a more "Morroccan-sounding" album anyway. Do we like that type of music to begin with? Would it have sounded too "artificial" (i.e., like U2 releasing a rap album or something completely out there). I don't mind guitar-based songs like GOYB or SUC, but the only thing that brought them down was that they were very average songs, at best. That being said, I don't want an entire album consisting of ambient/atmospheric stuff either.
 
I feel the same way when I hear White as Snow and Cedars of Lebanon. :lol:



A lot of us need to ask ourselves if we would have liked a more "Morroccan-sounding" album anyway. Do we like that type of music to begin with? Would it have sounded too "artificial" (i.e., like U2 releasing a rap album or something completely out there). I don't mind guitar-based songs like GOYB or SUC, but the only thing that brought them down was that they were very average songs, at best. That being said, I don't want an entire album consisting of ambient/atmospheric stuff either.

The lyrics are what killed No Line, no doubt. But they still shoudve owned that morroccan theme or discarded it altogether. I personally think it sounded good on them. Not forced at all. Cedars and White as snow wouldve made way more sense. And the whole album needed a more prevalent Edge.

The word magnificent was never going to get them a #1 hit. Talking about little old ladies, atm machines, caller id, move to trash, candy floss, etc, not very inspiring or profound. The imagery those words promote is just goofy and lame. Seriously, if you were to ever hear someone call something 'Magnificent' youd look at them a little funny before you decide to take them seriously or not. Might as well write a song called 'fantastic'.

I get the song and its metaphor its just a bad word for Rock n roll's sake.
 
If those middle songs (most notably 'Boots' and 'Stand Up Comedy') were replaced with finished versions of 'Every Breaking Wave' and 'Winter', we would have had another classic on our hands.

I did what you recommended for Rattle and Hum (the studio only playlist) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it - so you've built some credibility with me (not that you need it).

Perhaps if we get these songs as b-sides or in a rarities collection, we can build another "alternative" NLOTH.
 
Winter could've (should've?) been the lead single off NLOTH and also the opening song of the 360 concerts. I'm not sure why U2 scrapped it off the album at the last minute. It sounds a bit Coldplay-ish, no question, and I wonder if the band decided against it being a single for that reason, but there's no reason it couldn't at least have been an album track. While I enjoy Winter, however, I wouldn't rate it higher than a B+ song, which seemed to be the problem in general with the NLOTH sessions --- too many B-pluses at best and seemingly no A's (except for Moment Of Surrender and possibly North Star).

I agree with the logic that an "all-Moroccan" influenced record might've sounded weird coming from U2 and, while it would've been a steady theme, it wouldn't have necessarily given us the best possible music. I respect the likes of F:BB, Cedars and White As Snow as musical experiments and changes of pace, yet freely admit that I've never gone out of my way to listen to those songs on their own. I've only listened to them when I've got the entire album in my disc player, or when I'm just going through the whole thing on iTunes.
 
Linear and Brothers movie release isn't enough for that average, Coldplay-ripoff cheesy intro and Edge on autopilot guitar song ?
 
The word magnificent was never going to get them a #1 hit. Talking about little old ladies, atm machines, caller id, move to trash, candy floss, etc, not very inspiring or profound. The imagery those words promote is just goofy and lame. Seriously, if you were to ever hear someone call something 'Magnificent' youd look at them a little funny before you decide to take them seriously or not. Might as well write a song called 'fantastic'.

I get the song and its metaphor its just a bad word for Rock n roll's sake.

Lyrics are subjective wherever you go. But with regards to the word "magnificent", it's just a title for a song. There's plenty of goofier song titles out there both inside and out of U2. Nobody rolls their eyes at made-up words like "Zooropa", for example.

I don't mind the ATM Machine line in the context of the story in MOS. Plus, I'm not expecting Shakespeare every time I hear a song, so a "candy floss" line could be in good fun. The only lyrics that really threw me off on the album was the chorus for Unknown Caller. Otherwise, I didn't find anything that weird.
 
Agree with you on UC.

Winter was good but Edge's guitar was way in the background. It had potential.

Hard to say there is a "new" sound he could find. AB had all of the new sounds of the Fly, MW etc. Elevation was a new vibe. What other sounds are there? I think some of the things Matt Bellamy of Muse has been doing with electro-distortion have been cool but may not be applicable to U2 at this stage.

Ideas? What would DM bring out in Edge?
 
Back
Top Bottom