redhill
Refugee
Well, you know the old saying. Opinions are like earlobes.
Songs of Experience 37 - now with bonus orchestra
- Thread starter Axver
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Well, you know the old saying. Opinions are like earlobes.
dan_smee
ONE love, blood, life
redhill
Refugee
Elbows?
xana dew
The Fly
Songs of Innocence is focused; it's about youth; specifically about Bono's youth in Dublin, it's about his broken home, and about youth as it expands outward seeking success. Ambition.
The companion album should be equally focused on experience. It's not. It contains great songs, yes, but it's uneven. Deeply personal, and at other times, current events dominate the narrative...
redhill
Refugee
Agreed. There's a strong run of songs in there and some outstanding moments but it's a bit of a grab bag overall.
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Well... Every Breaking Wave and California are dead smack in the middle of this narrative and don't belong.
There are two songs that are clearly about current events on this album, and a third that's sorta. The rest are all very much intertwined, so I'm not sure this argument holds any water
redhill
Refugee
If the album is about "first times", as Bono stated in an interview, then both of those songs could easily fit that narrative.
So by that measure, how does American Soul not fit into an album about letters and experience?
redhill
Refugee
I never said it didn't. I always thought that it was a politically charged song but I couldn't bear to listen to it more than a few times. So I'm no expert on that track.
So what songs don't fit the narrative then?
redhill
Refugee
Why are you even asking me?
xana dew is the one who made the initial assertion.
Do we really need to get into a track-by-track? I don't have that much time at the moment. This is one that could be largely proven, however, if you want to make the effort.
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...because you're the friggin person who responded to my response to xana dew in the first fucking place?
redhill
Refugee
My reply was in regards to California and Every Breaking Wave not being thematically consistent on SOI....nothing to do with SOE songs being thematically inconsistent (which is what you keep asking me about).
I think you need to find a different hornet's nest to kick...and perhaps stop swearing like a baby.
I respond to the OP, you respond to me, I respond to your response, and you respond to asking why I'm talking to you and not the OP.
But I'm the baby.
Another redhill classic. Way to be on board.
But I'm the baby.
Another redhill classic. Way to be on board.
redhill
Refugee
I think you just like to make trouble and instigate for the sake of (or, as you put it, you like to kick hornet's nests). So I'm not sure it's worth wasting time to discuss something with someone who is more interested in kicking the nest than getting to the bottom of something in a reasonable way.
Although I agreed with the OP, it wasn't my assertion that SOI was more thematically consistent than SOE. So, I think they have put more thought into that than I have and it would be better to ask that poster.
Pretty simple and no need to get heated.
It would be pretty easy to prove and I'm guessing that's why you're being so touchy. Or are you just looking to pick a fight with me in particular?
P.S. The attempted "on board" slight isn't a dig at all because I find it pretty comical at this point. But, nice try, I guess...I think the kids used to call that an epic fail.
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You're just a mess, so I will certainly take your advice and engage with the OP.
But you really need to take a mirror to your own posts here. You responded to me, and I was responding to you. There was no issue at all until you asked me why I was responding... to your response. I wasn't even speaking to you until you responded to my post... which was quoting someone else. You're projecting your own behavior on someone else.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
First of all, isn't EBW about a break-up? Or at least about challenges later in a relationship?
Not to mention that it was written during the 360 tour, well before Bono had the idea to write about the band's early days.
California is a different thing, as I was under the impression it depicted the band coming out to the west coast for the first time, and it also has to do with his continuing grief over the loss of his mother.
Not to mention that it was written during the 360 tour, well before Bono had the idea to write about the band's early days.
California is a different thing, as I was under the impression it depicted the band coming out to the west coast for the first time, and it also has to do with his continuing grief over the loss of his mother.
redhill
Refugee
Uh-huh. Keep on kickin'.
My issue with California not fitting the narrative is that this album was supposed to be about the forming of the band, and they didn't get to California until after Boy's release... so chronologically it doesn't fit.
There's also the detour of Sleep Like A Baby and The Troubles, but depending on your interpretation, they very well may fit into the shaping of the young band.
Every Breaking Wave is certainly a relationship song of experience... whereas song for someone is more in lines with the Innocence angle.
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redhill
Refugee
I always thought EBW was about Bono and Ali deciding that they would be serious, together for good, early on in their relationship. No others, no more chasing “every breaking wave”.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
There's nothing in that link that has a quote from Bono about the song's content.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
I mean I don't know how rigid you want to be about their parameters, I just figured it was about The Early Years as opposed to just the very beginning or whatever.
Sleep works for me in that it's about local priests molesting kids, which would have been ongoing and part of their environment. The Troubles certainly isn't about innocence in its literal lyric, but yeah the domestic violence subject is arguably being used as a metaphor for IRA violence and could tie into Raised By Wolves.
Clearly they forced EBW onto the album because they expected it to be a gigantic hit. A shame that the superior Invisible, which is one of the most thematically relevant of the new tracks, winds up being left off. And of course Crystal Ballroom is also specifically about Dublin, Bono's family, and the early days of the band.
If have preferred that if they were going to go for it, then go for it... and 100% agree invisible and ballroom should have made the cut.
I actually think Troubles and Sleep are connected, and both about abuse. I'm not sure if it's a first hand or second hand telling, but I've always seen the two songs intertwined... and in that reading, yes, think they fit the narrative.
Wasn't every breaking wave written about an early point in Bono and Ali's relationship. Were they were at a cross roads in which they could have gone either way. Splitting up or staying together.
Definitely heard or read Bono say this. Can also remember reading that it was based around him and Ali going to the coast, something they used to do all the time. Young Bono looking out into the sea deciding which way his relationship was going to go
Definitely heard or read Bono say this. Can also remember reading that it was based around him and Ali going to the coast, something they used to do all the time. Young Bono looking out into the sea deciding which way his relationship was going to go
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lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
If that's the case, fine. But then it's still idiotic to put it in the #2 slot, two songs before the song about Bono losing his virginity.
My track order begins with Miracle-Invisible-SFS-California-EBW, which makes more sense. Although I really need to work on one that opens with Reach Around, since it was actually supposed to be in that spot and makes sense there thematically.
My track order begins with Miracle-Invisible-SFS-California-EBW, which makes more sense. Although I really need to work on one that opens with Reach Around, since it was actually supposed to be in that spot and makes sense there thematically.
redhill
Refugee
Pop Artist
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/01/22/pazz-jop-the-top-albums-and-singles-of-2017/
The annual list based on surveying a bunch of critics, and SOE actually just squeaked into the top 100.
The annual list based on surveying a bunch of critics, and SOE actually just squeaked into the top 100.
gweeps
War Child
Part of that may be it was released at the end of the year.
What's happened to rock music?
What's happened to rock music?
Wait, is SFS supposed to be about Bono losing his virginity? I'm pretty new here so if there were previous discussions of this I missed them. I know it's a relationship song and I figure it's about Ali but, to me, it's one of those where the lyrics are pretty opaque and hard to interpret. Can you explain a bit more as to how you got that meaning?
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