A double CD

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
What do you mean? :scratch: A cd with two discs? Coz they've already done it 3 times with the two greatest hits cds plus b-sides and with HTDAAB with the cd+dvd+book. Or don't those count in your book?!? :hmm:
 
hcbiggs2002 said:
What do you mean? :scratch: A cd with two discs? Coz they've already done it 3 times with the two greatest hits cds plus b-sides and with HTDAAB with the cd+dvd+book. Or don't those count in your book?!? :hmm:

I think what titans means is a double album, not a two-disc compilation. In other words, something like Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti or Pink Floyd's The Wall. And as for the original question, no. U2 appear to think that any track listing above 12 songs is Very Bad™, so I doubt we'll ever see anything like that from them.
 
GibsonGirl said:

U2 appear to think that any track listing above 12 songs is Very Bad™, so I doubt we'll ever see anything like that from them.

Except for Rattle & Hum! Although some of it was live versions of already written songs!

Yeah I don't know why they're stuck to this 11 or 12 track formula? Not that I'm complaining much as long as the music is good.

But a 2 disc opus like the genius that is Stadium Arcadium would be good indeed. :wink:
 
:lol:

Well, I love Rattle & Hum :heart: sometimes more than many other U2 albums.. but I wouldn't call it ballsy.

Now... Achtung, Zooropa & Pop on the other hand.. :drool:
 
They made Rattle and Hum and look how that got received. I'd rather have 11 good songs than 20+ and get filler in between.
 
thetitans2k said:
DO you guys think that U2 has the balls to ever realease a double CD?

What does having balls have to do with it?

Most double albums suck and have so much filler they're hard to listen to. Most double albums are do to ego and stupidity rather than balls...
 
Re: Re: A double CD

BonoVoxSupastar said:


What does having balls have to do with it?

Most double albums suck and have so much filler they're hard to listen to. Most double albums are do to ego and stupidity rather than balls...

Well, Pink Floyd's The Wall is outselling all of U2's albums on amazon.com.

I think to have a successful double album (like The Wall), the album has to have a plot to it (e.g. a rock opera).
It is a risky move however, and not U2's style.
 
Re: Re: Re: A double CD

ntalwar said:


Well, Pink Floyd's The Wall is outselling all of U2's albums on amazon.com.

Of course, that might have something to do with the fact ex-Pink Floyd members are currently touring and U2 are not.

(Also, I honestly don't see why The Wall is so popular. I love Pink Floyd, but The Wall is easily my least favourite album by them. I'd definitely say it's a good example of a double album laden with so much filler that it becomes unlistenable.)

I think to have a successful double album (like The Wall), the album has to have a plot to it (e.g. a rock opera).
It is a risky move however, and not U2's style.

I'd agree with that. It's hard to make a good, cohesive double album, and even harder if you aren't thematically linking it together somehow.

And I hate to think how long U2 would take to make a double album. They had a chance to make one back in 1987 and they didn't, so I don't see it happening today. We'd be lucky to get even more than an hour's worth of music on an album.
 
No offense to Floyd fans but I stole my mom's The Wall CD to put on my iPod and couldn't even get past the first half of Disc 1. Not my cup of tea, I guess. I'll never see the attraction.

:yuck:

On Topic: I'm fine with just a regular length CD by the boys. They haven't failed me yet.
 
I think that the material would have to be excellent, and in abundance for them to ever release a double album.

U2 is the kind of band that takes 3 years to make a single album...much less a double.

I doubt we'll ever see a double album.
 
Re: Re: Re: A double CD

ntalwar said:


Well, Pink Floyd's The Wall is outselling all of U2's albums on amazon.com.

That has a lot to do with pot and the Wizard of Oz.:wink:

ntalwar said:


I think to have a successful double album (like The Wall), the album has to have a plot to it (e.g. a rock opera).
It is a risky move however, and not U2's style.

Ok but like I said there are very few...very few.

The only other "succesful" double album I can think of, off the top of my head, post 80's is Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie, but that one really only had about one disc's worth of good songs.

As far as risk not being U2's style, U2 has taken a lot of risk's in their career. Currently their career isn't that risky, the few risks they do take are minor but they still take them.

Let's be honest U2 could be a lot lot safer...

They could be doing greatest hits tours with no political messages and be selling out stadiums if they really wanted to...it's a scary thought but true.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

BonoVoxSupastar said:


They could be doing greatest hits tours with no political messages and be selling out stadiums if they really wanted to...it's a scary thought but true.

Hell I think doing a tour with no political messages would be a risk for them. Every tour has had some sort of political message, and it's part of what's made U2's live show so successful. It would be weird so see a U2 show without politics (would mean no Bullet :drool: ). But I'd love it if they would drop the political stuff for a tour and just focused solely on the music.
 
Last edited:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

Chizip said:


Hell I think doing a tour with no political messages would be a risk for them. Every tour has had some sort of political message, and it's part of what's made U2's live show so successful. It would be weird so see a U2 show without politics (would mean no Bullet :drool: ). But I'd love it if they would drop the political stuff for a tour and just focused solely on the music.

True...

But the reason I say it was a risk is this;

A lot of their "religious" audience were pissed off about their COEXIST message. Many of their conservative audience don't like the Bullet, LAPOE, SBS trilogy. And many could do without the ONE campaign...

Yes this is what makes U2, but they could be a lot bigger without it...
 
Why were they pissed off about the COEXIST thing? :ohmy:

On the subject of a double album, I think if U2 continue making music for a long time they'll eventually go through some phase and think 'fuck it let's just make a double', sadly it'll have got to the point where people are a little less than interested. :huh:
 
Achtung_Bebe said:
I don't really see U2 releasing a double disc album. Rattle and Hum was pretty ballsy though, with its 17 tracks.

Rattle And Hum was a double album. Like London Calling, Exile On Main Street, Blonde On Blonde and Electric Ladyland were. They came out in the vinyl era and were double albums then. OK, so it became a single CD, but originally it was a double album.

And as for the original question: I hope U2 stays ballsy enough that they edit their output to get a single disc of good material instead of a double disc with lots of so-so material.
 
If they release a double CD, i can't wait for the setlist party.... 22/24 new songs + their old songs, the whinning brigade will be on fire.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

BonoVoxSupastar said:


They could be doing greatest hits tours with no political messages and be selling out stadiums if they really wanted to...it's a scary thought but true.

They did fine without politics on their first two tours and UF tour. (Lovetown could pass too, if it wasn't for the "end of the 80's" climate)

Was there any politics on Zoo TV (apart from Sarajevo link ups) and Popmart?
 
Last edited:
thetitans2k said:
DO you guys think that U2 has the balls to ever realease a double CD?

If you mean of new material....I hope not as they have a hard enough job to fill a single disc these days!:wink:
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

U2girl said:


They did fine without politics on their first two tours and UF tour. (Lovetown could pass too, if it wasn't for the "end of the 80's" climate)

:eyebrow: I never said they needed the politics. My point was if they removed the politics and played it safe they could sell more.

U2girl said:

Was there any politics on Zoo TV (apart from Sarajevo link ups) and Popmart?

Yes albeit subtle and hidden amongst the irony.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

U2girl said:


They did fine without politics on their first two tours and UF tour.

I can't think of anything political from the Boy Tour, but I can think of some politics creeping into the October Tour, like Bono making statements before Rejoice and The Electric Co.

(Lovetown could pass too, if it wasn't for the "end of the 80's" climate)

Lovetown's chances of passing were shot to hell by Bono's speech in Knockin' On Heaven's Door on 1989-11-18.

Was there any politics on Zoo TV (apart from Sarajevo link ups) and Popmart?

I'd say Bullet The Blue Sky was default politics, especially on ZooTV (1993-08-11 being a good example). And Popmart had political statements related to Please, and I think SBS was a statement in and of itself that tour.
 
The double album thing ain't gonna happen. If they were too scared to release a 60-minute LP with a masterpiece like Mercy (and a much needed upbeat track like Fast Cars), they won't have the nerve to put out something like that. The band is all about paring things down, and are trying to avoid being pretentious like the plague these days.

As for other double albums, I'd agree with Axver that from a song or musical standpoint, The Wall is not one of Pink Floyd's better efforts. It actually sounds the least ambitious sonically out of all there albums--when you focus so much on telling a story, you tend to lose sight of a band's main goal--namely, making MUSIC. That's not to say that The Wall doesn't have a lot of great songs, but it has a hell of a lot of filler. Mellon Collie is one of the most pretentious things I've ever heard in my life, and barely has one discs worth of good material. Siamese Dream is a long album that sounds just as epic, yet is so much better.

The doubles that work the most for me are the ones that aren't really conceptual in nature: Physical Graffiti and The White Album. They're just collections of a shitload of great songs (The Beatles have a lot more tracks on their release, but the filler ratio is pretty damned low considering there's like 30 tracks total).

The once concept double that does work for me is Quadrophenia, which I think is miles above Tommy (which is also pretty successful muscially). The difference between these Who efforts and the ones by Floyd is that I think Townshend was better at marrying his words to music, and not forgetting the importance of the latter. But then Townshend is always being overlooked for one thing or another. That he was able to construct two concept albums, both doubles, that hold up so well is a pretty amazing achievement.

I don't think U2 really could come up with enough material in one session for a double album. Even those fan made extended-JT things are stretching things out a bit too thin. Some of those b-sides are great songs, and some are nice little diversions that would sit well on the second side of a double, but I think it would have the effect of watering down the whole work. What they seek is concise perfection, and they do a pretty good job coming close more often than not.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

Axver said:


I can't think of anything political from the Boy Tour, but I can think of some politics creeping into the October Tour, like Bono making statements before Rejoice and The Electric Co.



Lovetown's chances of passing were shot to hell by Bono's speech in Knockin' On Heaven's Door on 1989-11-18.



I'd say Bullet The Blue Sky was default politics, especially on ZooTV (1993-08-11 being a good example). And Popmart had political statements related to Please, and I think SBS was a statement in and of itself that tour.

I only recently got bootlegs of October tour but haven't noticed anything political. What did he say?

Also, what did he say on that song on Lovetown? (I usually skip covers)

Well ok, Bullet and speeches for Please (yes but the prevailing themes on those tours weren't politics).
I wonder if SBS would have made on Popmart if it weren't for Bono's voice problems in Sarajevo? Is there any info whether they planned on it anyway?
 
Last edited:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A double CD

U2girl said:


I only recently got bootlegs of October tour but haven't noticed anything political. What did he say?

I can't remember exactly now, but I recall he made some (pretty inarticulate) comments before Rejoice on a couple of boots I have. I think he was speaking about social problems in Dublin, the ones that later inspired RTSS.

Now, this may be wrong and I might be muddling up bootlegs, but I seem to recall some DVD from late in the October Tour, near the start of the recording of War, where there were white flags on stage and Bono made reference to them. Anyone remember anything like this, or, as I said, am I just muddling recordings?

Also, what did he say on that song on Lovetown? (I usually skip covers)

He incorporates it into the song: he talks about how freedom's irresistable, it was coming in Eastern Europe and would come soon in China, and then he rants about young girls living lives of prostitution in Sydney (where the concert was).

(That performance is also one of my very favourite live covers. Much better than other recordings I've heard of that song live.)

I wonder if SBS would have made on Popmart if it weren't for Bono's voice problems in Sarajevo? Is there any info whether they planned on it anyway? [/B]

I think it was planned, as it really had nothing to do with Bono's vocal problems: Edge always sung a song in that slot anyway. If anything got cut due to Bono's voice, it was Miami. The ordinary pattern was:

Edge's Song: Karaoke
Miami
Bullet The Blue Sky

Sarajevo replaced that with:

Edge's song: Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky

I suspect they chose SBS because it's way more appropriate than some karaoke like Daydream Believer in a city that had just gone through what Sarajevo had gone through.
 
Back
Top Bottom