Song For Someone - Song Discussion

[Danny Boy]

...we don't really know for sure if the song just hadn't been mastered yet or if the person who leaked it just made a piss poor transfer.

We do know it was a piss poor transfer. Recorded to CD-R from a cassette copy and then ripped to 128 kbps WMA. The story is documented somewhere on Interference. But yeah, still not clear on whether is was ever properly mastered to begin with.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Actually, in the 'any guess what the tour will be called' thread it went down like this:












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All these months Nick was taking credit for your guess!


Nick is a BVS rewrite!


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[Nick66]

All these months Nick was taking credit for your guess!

Nonsense. I never said I was the only one to make this prediction. I've always given full praise and credit to those other prognosticators of prognostication (like CK and Mikal) who in their clairvoyance made accurate predictions about SOI.

I'm actually surprised most people didn't "guess" the tour would be called Innocence and Experience, since it's clearly the most obvious choice, as anyone who read what Bono wrote about the follow up record being called SOE (or with a passing familiarity with Blake) would know.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

We do know it was a piss poor transfer. Recorded to CD-R from a cassette copy and then ripped to 128 kbps WMA. The story is documented somewhere on Interference. But yeah, still not clear on whether is was ever properly mastered to begin with.

Yea I know the transfer was poor, but nobody can confirm the condition of the track pre transfer.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Doesn't fit sonically or lyrically and The Crystal Ballroom Tour sounds like a Celine Dion-ish Vegas residency.

But mostly, horribly overrated song like Mercy.

Yea.

Celine's Vegas residency is called Celine.

 

[brooklynmike]

Wasn't Mercy released as a throw- in on the 2005 iTunes thing? Or maybe something else around that time?

 

[BVS]

Wasn't Mercy released as a throw- in on the 2005 iTunes thing? Or maybe something else around that time?

No, the only proper release was the live version on the record day release.


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[gvox]

The last 2 pages would be almost lol-worthy..if they weren't so positively pitiful


Sent from my ass crack

 

[Diemen]

 

[Danny Boy]

Wasn't Mercy released as a throw- in on the 2005 iTunes thing? Or maybe something else around that time?

Common misconception.

It leaked right around the time The Complete U2 was released, which did contain some HTDAAB outtakes.

 

[mobonofo]

It's a fine song, and I like it quite a bit, and perhaps it should have been on the record and been the first single, that was up to the band. But I think the suggestion that making TCB (or any other song on that record) the first single would have somehow changed the fortunes of SOI is a bit of wishful thinking. Of course, we'll never know, just as we'll never know whether choosing something other than Boots would have changed NLOTH's reception. It's just fanboy speculating.

That said, if U2 thinks TCB is a good “single”, there's nothing to stop them from making it one.



I know there were several people here who hoped/predicted this would be the case, but I was humbled and gratified to say the tour would be called "Innocence and Experience" shortly after the record was released. Thank you.

Nothing but "fanboy speculating"...

 

[brooklynmike]

Common misconception.

It leaked right around the time The Complete U2 was released, which did contain some HTDAAB outtakes.

Interesting. So the version I downloaded back then was not a demo.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Interesting. So the version I downloaded back then was not a demo.

It's assumed to be a finished track, but as only one person has heard, allegedly, the non shitty transfer version, it's only an assumption... even though there are some who will get quite angry at the thought that it's anything but a finishes track.

There was a pre release review in Blender magazine that described Mercy as being 6 minutes of U2 at their most U2ey.

Then it was dropped from the tracklist prior to the album's release. The original leaker believes that she was given a version of the album prior to Mercy being dropped... by whom I can't exactly remember. I believe it was a "friend who got it from Bono" but I could be very mistaken on that aspect.

Based on this and the Blender article it's assumed that it was finished. It's a fair assumption. But as the band never commented on the track leaking, it's just an assumption.

 

[Salome]

Chrystal Ballroom is better than Mercy, yes.
Then again, One Direction have songs that are better than Mercy,
so there is that.

The Crystal Ballroom is musically very interesting. It does sound fresh.

But there's always Bono. The cheap slogans are there ("every human life begins with a kiss"... sure, fine, whatever), backed up by silly rhyming, while the vocals are excruciating in those verses.

Wouldn't go as far as 'musically very interesting' but I agree otherwise.
The guitar solo is just plain bad though. It makes the 'solo' in Song for Someone (pardon me for somewhat staying on the topic of this thread) only the second worst guitar solo U2 ever recorded.

 

[thavidesco]

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

It's assumed to be a finished track, but as only one person has heard, allegedly, the non shitty transfer version, it's only an assumption... even though there are some who will get quite angry at the thought that it's anything but a finishes track.

There was a pre release review in Blender magazine that described Mercy as being 6 minutes of U2 at their most U2ey.

Then it was dropped from the tracklist prior to the album's release. The original leaker believes that she was given a version of the album prior to Mercy being dropped... by whom I can't exactly remember. I believe it was a "friend who got it from Bono" but I could be very mistaken on that aspect.

Based on this and the Blender article it's assumed that it was finished. It's a fair assumption. But as the band never commented on the track leaking, it's just an assumption.

I believe the story goes she met (or knew) someone inside U2's camp, while at the 2005 Vertigo, San Jose show was given a CD with that song on it. Which was long after HTDAAB came out...at least that's my recollection of how we got Mercy...

 

[popacrobat]

No, it was before Atomic Bomb came out:

http://www.u2interference.com/forum...cy-the-b-side-w-achtung-bab-mercy-102136.html

 

[brooklynmike]

Wow, some people were going apeshit about Mercy on that old thread. It's funny to see how many opinions have changed over the years. It's a good song. Not an album track, but plenty enjoyable. It could have made the album with some fine tuning and editing (not the shit they did live).

 

[wolbersu2]

Mercy is one of U2's best songs imo. It's all about taste folks! Everyone is right! !! If you like it or not. I hope it will appear sometime.

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[bobsaget77]

Mercy is one of U2's best songs imo. It's all about taste folks! Everyone is right! !! If you like it or not. I hope it will appear sometime.

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It's one of my favorite U2 songs lyrically, especially.


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[Headache in a Suitcase]

Yea this leaked after the leak of Bomb but before the proper album release in late November.

 

[brooklynmike]

Tss. Premature leakage.

 

[mama cass]

all threads lead to Mercy

 

[CosmoKramer]

While I don't mind Mercy, I'm in the "it's a nice song but nothing groundbreaking and I'm not upset it didn't make the/an album" camp of thought.

I think the mystery/rarity of Mercy is more interesting than the song itself.

But maybe I need to give it a spin again.


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[nesquick]

We'll hear Mercy and North Star on SOE.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Nahhhhhh

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

No, it was before Atomic Bomb came out:

http://www.u2interference.com/forum...cy-the-b-side-w-achtung-bab-mercy-102136.html

Thanks for digging that up...I love all the hype unreleased, or B-side songs generate. Like we found the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant...

She never 'really' answers how she got the song...a friend gave it to her, but no idea where the friend came up with 'that' copy of the CD...

Strange...that said SFS...probably not a single...

 

[Danny Boy]

I'm pretty sure I remember U2SJ's source jumping on Interference and posting an explanation of how he got the song.

IIRC, he worked at a radio station and had a cassette version of Bomb with Mercy on it. He transferred the cassette to a CD and gave it to U2SJ. I'm not sure he even realized that the tape had a rare track on it.

 

[Galeongirl]

Yeah there was another thread in main EYKIW with the explanation. The link I had of it isn't working anymore though.

 

[Nick66]

We'll hear Mercy and North Star on SOE.

Don't forget Earth 2030!!!