Shuttlecock XXII: Summer of Laz

[Hewson]

Love that they do Zoo Station in Hamburg rather than, you know, Berlin. Can't wait for New York in Chicago.

And Miami in Dallas.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I'd like to see U2 cover The National's 'England' when they come to Australia.

I'm just kidding. I doubt they even know who The National are.

 

[Axver]

I doubt they even know what Australia is.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Australia is that place where Adam fell off the wagon and his mentor (name redacted) had to play bass instead.

 

[cobl04]

lol no

The studio version of Bad is better

 

[the tourist]

The studio version of Bad is better

Yeah. Agreed. And it would be dumb to have a live song in the middle of an album of studio songs.

 

[DaveC]

Yeah. Agreed. And it would be dumb to have a live song in the middle of an album of studio songs.

if only someone had told that to the band before rattle & hum was made.

 

[the tourist]

if only someone had told that to the band before rattle & hum was made.

I think they learned their lesson with Rattle & Hum.

 

[djerdap]

Spoiler

The Fly soundchecked in Hamburg. Which could mean two of my favourite songs might appear in the same set for the first time ever (Acrobat being the 2nd one).

 

[Mack_Again]

The studio version of Bad is better

nah dude

 

[Hewson]

Spoiler

The Fly soundchecked in Hamburg. Which could mean two of my favourite songs might appear in the same set for the first time ever (Acrobat being the 2nd one).

Why did it take them so damn long to loosen up on this tour.

F your tight narrative Bongo and The Egg.

 

[prbiker15]

Spoiler

The Fly soundchecked in Hamburg. Which could mean two of my favourite songs might appear in the same set for the first time ever (Acrobat being the 2nd one).

Huh. If you told me all of these additions would be happening a week ago, I’d laugh.

This band.

 

[gareth brown]

Spoiler

The Fly soundchecked in Hamburg. Which could mean two of my favourite songs might appear in the same set for the first time ever (Acrobat being the 2nd one).

Was just thinking last night, I reckon with all these sudden additions/cuts, Acrobat is going to get the chop any day now. Can't keep people too happy.

 

[lazarus]

Watch them play AB in its entirety in like Milan of all places.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Maybe they're going to play Achtung in full once because they know Bono will be comatose by January

 

[Hewson]

Maybe their going to play Achtung in full once because they know Bono will be comatose by January

Or they play it in full in February in Australia with Harrison Ford on vocals while Bono lay in a coma in a nice Nice Hospital.

After Achtung Baby concludes, encores include covers of GnR's "Coma', Pearl Jam's "Comatose" and The Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma" with lyrics changed to "Singer in a coma... he's real obese..." with guest vocalist Steven Morrissey who snippets "Satellite of Love" as a tribute to his fallen fellow crooner.
All Red Zone proceeds go to fund the Kunstmuseum's upcoming scrimshaw exhibit.

 

[djerdap]

Was just thinking last night, I reckon with all these sudden additions/cuts, Acrobat is going to get the chop any day now. Can't keep people too happy.

The thought had crossed my mind. Please no.

 

[intedomine]

I just listened to The Best Of 1980-1990 for the first time in ages. It was my real introduction to U2. I was 14 when it came out. I think it’s really close to a perfect collections of songs.

I think the only changes I would make are adding Gloria and Out Of Control, having October as a standard track, removing The Sweetest Thing (if they wanted to redo a song it should have been 11 O Clock Tick Tock with original vocals) and When Love Comes To Town, and using the original album versions of Bad, Where The Streets Have No Name, and New Year’s Day.

It really takes me back. I love that decade of U2 so much. One of the best decades of any band ever.

The 80-90 and 90-00 compilations were pretty much the soundtrack to me falling in love with the band.

Listening to each album and delving deeper into their catalogue was pretty much the honeymoon period.

We've been together for 16 years now and we've had a few rough patches but we'll be together forever and a day.

They did such a great job with 80-90 Best Of in terms of snapshotting that decade. Would have been nice if Gloria, 11 O'Clock and or Out of Control featured. And I've accepted that Sweetest Thing warrants a place for promotional purposes (and I actually really like it). But as a compilation for the masses, it does it's job very well.

Get a huge sense of nostalgia when I listen to those two compilations (as hideously assembled as the 90-00 was)... takes me back to my early fascination with the band.

 

[lazarus]

How anyone can listen to that 1990-2000 compilation without flying into a rage is beyond me. The awful New Mixes, the ill-fitting inclusion of ATYCLB material, the dour album art misrepresenting the decade’s visuals...just a terrible package overall.

 

[Popmartijn]

How anyone can listen to that 1990-2000 compilation without flying into a rage is beyond me. The awful New Mixes, the ill-fitting inclusion of ATYCLB material, the dour album art misrepresenting the decade’s visuals...just a terrible package overall.

To each their own, I'm not that bothered by it.
The New Mix of Discothèque is an improvement (never liked the original that much, so it was quickly a better mix for me). The one for Staring At The Sun certainly not. The other two were a bit superfluous. In one way I understand the inclusion of Beautiful Day and Stuck... but yeah, they're not really part of that decade. I do love the album art! Yes, it's black & white whereas the decade was quite colourful for U2, but it is a very strong image. In a way it is a better fit than the image they chose for the 80s compilation.

 

[cobl04]

How anyone can listen to that 1990-2000 compilation without flying into a rage is beyond me. The awful New Mixes, the ill-fitting inclusion of ATYCLB material, the dour album art misrepresenting the decade’s visuals...just a terrible package overall.

I never bought it for this reason. Protest. So bad

 

[Axver]

The New Mix of Gone demolishes the original on Pop.

Almost every live version of Bad demolishes the studio version.

These are both facts.

 

[cobl04]

I've said this 50 million times, nothing can top the live experience of Bad, including of course the album version, but the live version's foundation is the synth loop, not the guitar. Live, synth takes precedence with Edge playing guitar backup, whereas studio it's reversed, and I've always preferred the studio version purely on musical terms.

 

[DaveC]

the new mix of gone is wayyyy better than the original. the version on pop is clearly unfinished. aside from that the only good thing about the best of 90-00 compilation was the b-side disc and DVD with all the videos on it. but i also think that about the best of 80-90 (the a-side disc was my gateway drug to U2 but over the years i think i probably listened to that b-side disc just as much as any regular U2 album save maybe TUF, and once i started buying the albums proper i almost never listened to the main CD again).

it's crazy to me to say that either live or studio bad is superior to the other. they're both unquestionably 10/10 perfect songs in different ways. i experience different imagery and different emotions depending if i'm hearing a live version or the album one but both experiences are absolutely incredible and impossible to choose between, really.

 

[Axver]

I'm entirely on board with the praise of studio Bad - it was the gatiest of gateway drug songs from the Best Of for me - and will co-sign practically every effusive word about it. That the live version manages to then reach another level says everything about how good U2 were at their peak. I very much doubt I would be posting here, or would have even thought about this band in the past five years, if it were not for Bad on Rattle & Hum. I used to come home from high school in years ten and eleven and watch that part of the video practically every afternoon.

Though it was 11 O'clock Tick Tock on UABRS that I thrashed the most. It's lucky the DVD came out when it did because my video didn't have much life left in it.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I've said this 50 million times, nothing can top the live experience of Bad, including of course the album version, but the live version's foundation is the synth loop, not the guitar. Live, synth takes precedence with Edge playing guitar backup, whereas studio it's reversed, and I've always preferred the studio version purely on musical terms.

Same here, actually. I've always found something very evocative about that guitar driven intro. Frankly I'm a big fan of the album recording of Bad.

Context matters too. The way it comes in after the weird aural hangover of 4th of July, it's just special.

 

[Kieran McConville]

As for the Best Ofs, I find them both pretty unsatisfactory. As an encapsulation of what made U2 great, 1980-90 is adequate at best. The b-sides CD was the main attraction.

 

[namkcuR]

We've had the 'Gone' debate many times before, and as always I'm with Laz - the Pop version is superior. The siren-like guitar is more piercing, the vocal take is more impassioned, and the production is better(in the new mix, everything sounds squished together, you can barely hear Edge's background vocals). There's another thing too - the Pop version is a pure document of 90s U2, of the sound, style, and attitude of the band they were then. They were a different band in 1996/97 than they were in 2002, and there's something intangible yet unmistakable in that 1997 recording that is missing in the new mix.

 

[Kieran McConville]

^ That's the other thing. A bit too much attempted rewriting of history all around, on that 1990-2000 compilation. POP happened, we all know it happened, trying to 'fix it up' to fit your outlook five years later is a bit rich.

Also, and this may not be a popular opinion, I regard Electrical Storm as completely redundant. It's U2 In A Can. It's nice, but come on.

 

[djerdap]

Someone, long ago in 2002, compared Edge's ending "solo" in Electrical Storm to Donald Duck burping. To this day I cannot get that out of my mind.