U2 Should Do A Greatest Hits Setlist

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jick

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With 25 years of music on their backs, new fans in the fold, and too many fans from too many different eras who have so many diverse U2 cravings, and considering the fact that U2 are too "lazy" to play a 3 hour show (unlike "The Boss") - then we have a limited setlist. I think U2 should stremline their setlist.

Choose the songs off HTDAAB to play, then for the rest they should just limit their choices to commercially released singles that appear in either Best Of.

They shouldn't be giving us any filler like Wake Up Dead Man, Bullet The Blue Sky, Until The End Of The World, or Out Of Control.

And they shouldn't even bother reviving non-singles from previous tours.

What do you guys think?

Cheers,

J
 
:|

Bullet The Blue Sky, Until The End Of The World, or Out Of Control are three of my favourite songs. Especially live. I think the better solution for a band with so many hits is to VARY THE SETLISTS!
 
Vertigo Fly said:
:|

Bullet The Blue Sky, Until The End Of The World, or Out Of Control are three of my favourite songs. Especially live. I think the better solution for a band with so many hits is to VARY THE SETLISTS!

Yes, vary the setlists. But they must limit the variation to songs that have appeared in either best of, and were commercially released as a single -- meaning got radio play or MTV play during it's heyday.

BTBS, UTEOTW, OOC --- these songs don't cut it.

Cheers,

J
 
Until and Bullet must be!!!!!!!

Yes, they should make a greatest hits setlist, including Beautiful day and Walk on.
 
No, jick. That would suck-ass for all the die-hard fans. I don't want to go to the show knowing that all I'm gonna hear is the biggest hits. One of the most exciting aspects of going to a show is the prospect of hearing songs that maybe the band haven't preformed in a long time and that maybe you wouldn't expect that much...I mean, if they played Love Is Blindness(as rumored) on this tour, that would be unbelievably awesome, same with Ultraviolet, and if somehow, some way, enough fans peititon and hollar and beg and whatever enough, if the stars align, if for one night the universe perfects itself and U2 finally take the b-stage and start playing 'Acrobat'...perhaps that bootleg would have one of the biggest crowd roars in the history of rock concerts.
 
Jick, they have sooo many "hits" and commerically released songs, that it outweighs the normal 23 song set list. What kind of setlist do you propose w/ your Greatest Hits requirements?
 
Can you give just one legitimate reason why U2 should limit and restrict themselves?
 
jick said:

They shouldn't be giving us any filler like Wake Up Dead Man, Bullet The Blue Sky, Until The End Of The World, or Out Of Control.

What do you guys think?

Cheers,

J

I think... that you just lost your mind by saying that!!
Those are the best live-songs:rant:.
It would be better for them not to play anything from ATYCLB except for Walk On (but since it was the last song played on Elevation shows, it probably won't be played). In fact I would not change the stelists from Elevation tour, just replace Atyclb's songs with HTDAAB's songs!
 
Poor provocation Jick. :| I don't know why others here take this thread so seriously. It's obvious that by telling that U2 should drop such songs like Bullet or UTEOTW (which you know are die-hard fans favourites) and suggesting THE GREATEST HITS TOUR (which is the last thing most people here want) you want to make fun of everybodys replys. I like majority of your posts, but this one is really cheap provocation.
 
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I hope they will NOT have a best of setlist!!!!! Crap if they do. That would be dead boring to hear just the 20 U2 songs that are played on the radio..... beurkkkkkkkk

How can you think like that Jick? Don't you wanna hear Running to stand still, Exit, 11 o'clock, MLK, In God's country.........etc?
 
I'm being frank when I say that this is quite possibly the stupidest idea i've ever heard for the setlists.

I don't go to a concert to see them regurgitate their singles as if they were the only songs in their catalogue. It would make it excruciatingly boring, I don't care if you're the "biggest band in the world" or not.
 
I wouldn't like it personally. It would be nice if they pull out a few suprises.

I once saw Bryan Ferry during his refusal to play Let's Stick Together phase and it was disappointing. We were waiting for it and it never arrived. I like to hear the really big hits. But I don't need to hear all the hits. Just the big hits, some minor songs, a cover song, and a couple of obscure ones would suit me just fine.

PS Larry once made a comment about not wanting to be a human jukebox so I doubt U2 will ever do an all hits show.
 
TheRat said:
I've never seen a troll with almost 2000 posts.

You'd be surprised at the lengths people will go to get a rise out of others.

J was a troll on Wire for years, bashing POP and Adam Clayton left and right, baiting people to argue with him.

Supposedly trolling is against the rules, but it appears if you're able to put some nice sentences together and make people laugh, the moderators look the other way. I sure as hell don't appreciate it when statements made by band members are taken out of context and used to prove some deranged theory.

I'm guessing someone who repeatedly called Bono a douchebag for no reason wouldn't have the same luck, even if the intent is the same.


laz
 
lazarus said:


You'd be surprised at the lengths people will go to get a rise out of others.


You'd actually be hard pressed to surprise me now; on another forum someone created a fake account who pretended to be a really crappy musician and posted terrible homemade songs all over the forum. That's just scratching the surface, and he kept it going for about two years.
 
All the U2 tours had a set number of songs on the rotation that were interchangeable. A concert usually has 21 songs. U2 have usually around 25 to 30 songs in their repertoire for a given tour.

Of course this doesn't include songs that are added as the tour progresses or songs that are rehearsed just for one or two shows because the song has a special meaning to the place.

Both Best Of albums have around 33 songs combined. Then you add up the new album which has 11 songs. That would be 44.

I highly doubt U2 can even be prepared with 44 songs! Maybe for the entire tour they would have played 44 songs in full, but for the first leg I think the setlist will be less varied.

So my formula is simple:

8 songs from the new album, plus the songs of the Best Ofs that have accompanying music videos that are on MTV rotation (so that the newer fans can relate when they watch classic MTV). So I'd say that would be minus Bad, When Love Comes To Town, Until The End Of The World, Gone, The First Time - because they have no music videos on the Classic MTV rotation. So that would leave them with 8 new songs and 28 "Greatest Hits" songs. That would be 36 songs on rotation, and just choose the 21 that should fit the setlist.

I think with too many new U2 fans into the fold, U2 shouldn't be playing obscure songs anymore such as 11 O Clock Tick Tock, Bullet The Blue Sky, 40, or Out Of Control. And I don't think they should even bother reviving old favorites like Ultraviolet, Acrobat, or Running To Stand Still.

Why even bother wasting their time playing a song that is not among their "best" when they can play a song that is among their "best", right?

I do think Mullen and Clayton should do Mission Impossible (as it charted very well in the USA) while Bono and Edge take their pee break. When Bono and Edge come back, they can do an acoustic number while Clayton and Mullen go on pee break.

Cheers,

J
 
Jick, you really are on stupid form as usual with your sarcastic wind ups which are only done to get as many replies to your posts as possible. I think you must be trying to get as many replies as you can and set some sort of record! Good luck with that one
 
Jicky?
Seriously?
Until The End Of The World?
It's the best song they ever wrote, period. In my opinion anyway, and I'm not the only one. They can't drop this. I don't like WTSHNN that much, but I still think it's a necessary live song.
Otherwise, I think it's a fair idea. Certainly what's most important is that the fans are pleased. Young fans as well as old fans should be satisfied one way or another, and even though no U2 show will ever be exactly as I want it too be they just have to go for what reaches most people.
 
Jick, you're totally wrong and U2 will never play a greatest hits setlist. If you will look over time, you will see some of U2's most common and prolific live songs were not singles or were not wildly successful singles. They play the songs that work best, not 'greatest hits'. Let's have a look at some of the longest-lasting songs:

11 O'clock Tick Tock: 1980 to 2001, missed ZooTV and Popmart. Pathetically unsuccessful single but one of U2's most frequently played songs. Most intensively played song from 1980 to 1985.
October: 1981 to 1989. Not a single.
Party Girl: 1983 to 2001, only missed Popmart. Not even an album track!
40: 1983 to 2001, missed ZooTV and the 2001 appearance was pre-Elevation. U2's most prolific closer. An unsuccessful single in Germany.
Bullet The Blue Sky: Almost every full tour show since its debut. Not a single.
Running To Stand Still: Almost every show from 1987 to 1993. Not a single.
Where The Streets Have No Name: Most 1987 shows, every show since 1989. A #15 single in the era when U2 went #1 with WOWY and ISHFWILF.
Until The End Of The World: Quite possibly every full tour show since its debut in 1992, and the most prolific live song off Achtung Baby excluding One. Not a single.
Gone: The most prolific song off Pop, played 148 times to SATS's 127 and Dicotheque's 111. Not a single.

And that is just a sample. U2's most popular, famous, and best live songs are not singles, are not songs regularly on MTV, are not 'greatest hits'. They will NEVER do a greatest hits tour.
 
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jick said:
All the U2 tours had a set number of songs on the rotation that were interchangeable. A concert usually has 21 songs. U2 have usually around 25 to 30 songs in their repertoire for a given tour.

Of course this doesn't include songs that are added as the tour progresses or songs that are rehearsed just for one or two shows because the song has a special meaning to the place.

Both Best Of albums have around 33 songs combined. Then you add up the new album which has 11 songs. That would be 44.

I highly doubt U2 can even be prepared with 44 songs! Maybe for the entire tour they would have played 44 songs in full, but for the first leg I think the setlist will be less varied.

So my formula is simple:

8 songs from the new album, plus the songs of the Best Ofs that have accompanying music videos that are on MTV rotation (so that the newer fans can relate when they watch classic MTV). So I'd say that would be minus Bad, When Love Comes To Town, Until The End Of The World, Gone, The First Time - because they have no music videos on the Classic MTV rotation. So that would leave them with 8 new songs and 28 "Greatest Hits" songs. That would be 36 songs on rotation, and just choose the 21 that should fit the setlist.

I think with too many new U2 fans into the fold, U2 shouldn't be playing obscure songs anymore such as 11 O Clock Tick Tock, Bullet The Blue Sky, 40, or Out Of Control. And I don't think they should even bother reviving old favorites like Ultraviolet, Acrobat, or Running To Stand Still.

Why even bother wasting their time playing a song that is not among their "best" when they can play a song that is among their "best", right?

I do think Mullen and Clayton should do Mission Impossible (as it charted very well in the USA) while Bono and Edge take their pee break. When Bono and Edge come back, they can do an acoustic number while Clayton and Mullen go on pee break.

Cheers,

J

To sum up this post... I'm going to... :barf:
 
Or, very simple: U2 fans can vote on u2.com or something for the setlist. You pick your favourite live performance, and the first 15 can be played. u2 can add a couple of 8, which they pick themselves and voila, a setlist made by u2 fans!
 
POP-ROMANCER said:
Or, very simple: U2 fans can vote on u2.com or something for the setlist. You pick your favourite live performance, and the first 15 can be played. u2 can add a couple of 8, which they pick themselves and voila, a setlist made by u2 fans!

Perfect idea.

8 HTDAAB songs.

The rest will be "Greatest Hits" Songs. (U2 will rotate from a playlist of 13 from a pool of maybe 18-22 songs - let's be realistic, we can't expect them to rehearse and perfect a lot of the songs).

And 1 song will be a special song which will be voted by U2.com members - and the criteria is that it must not have been a single and must not have been in the Best Ofs. Or maybe U2.com will vote 3 songs per leg, and U2 will choose one of the 3 songs per show.

I think that would get everyone happy.

Cheers,

J
 
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