A Hypothetical: AB/Zooropa as a Double Album...

[namkcuR]

Generally speaking, one can't think of AB without also thinking of Zooropa, and vice versa. The two are eternally and inextricably linked by the ZooTV tour. My question is, and this is of course totally hypothetical, if, instead of releasing AB in 91, U2 had released a double album in, say, 93, consisting of all of the AB and Zooropa songs, with perhaps a different track ordering to accomodate the double album concept, would it be up with The White Album, The Wall, Quadrophenia, et al as one of the greatest double albums of all time? It could be something like this(you can picture it any way you want though). Just for clarification, the tracklisting I'm putting here has a loose storyline about a relationship breaking up, one party growing very bitter towards the other, the second party eventually wanting the first party back, and the first party contemplating it and in the end saying 'fuck you', with the last words of the whole thing being, 'to stay with you, I'd be a fool, sweetheart, you're so cruel'.

U2: Achtung Zooropa(Island/1993)

Disc 1:

1.Zoo Station
2.The Fly
3.Even Better Than The Real Thing
4.Mysterious Ways
5.One
6.Until The End Of The World
7.Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8.Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
9.Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
10.Acrobat
11.Love Is Blindness

Disc 2:

1.Zooropa
2.Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
3.Dirty Day
4.Lemon
5.Babyface
6.Salome
7.Stay(Faraway, So Close)
8.Numb
9.The First Time
10.So Cruel

Would it be one of the greatest double albums of all time?

 

[pepokiss]

x N



Where's THE WANDERER???

 

[xtihn]

that's a cool idea...although i'm not sure if it totally appeals to me. i think AB and Zooropa are two very different albums, each telling a different kind of story, that it's hard for me to imagine linking them together as a double album. i guess i am so used to the way AB and Zooropa are that it's hard to think otherwise.

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

You could even throw in the other songs written in that time, like HMTMKMKM, Discotheque etc..

 

[gareth brown]

I don't think it works personally. I think they're too different to try mixing the tracks together! I just feel Salomé would be grossly out of place whereas Achtung NEEDS 'So Cruel'!!
I think U2 managed to perform miracles making two possibly perfect albums in the way they both seem to flow so well the WHOLE way through. If you played me Zooropa with 'Hold Me, Thrill Me...' somewhere in the tracklisting it would just sound too out of place in the record's all-round 'electronic/ambient rock' sound! Same with Salomé!

 

[BVS]

Zooropa EVOLVED FROM AB and the tour. It makes no sense as a double album.

 

[LMP]

I like the idea, and the 1st disc alot, but I think Zooropa is more compatible with Passengers than Achtung Baby

 

[Zoots]

i guess i am so used to the way AB and Zooropa are that it's hard to think otherwise.

that's what it is!

Interesting idea though.

 

[cobl04]

Maybe a live double album from ZOOTV and onwards could have worked. But otherwise, I'm glad they didn't.

 

[Snowlock]

I think Stay could fit in there after One, and possibly Zooropa in there somewhere but that's about it. One of the cool things about U2 is each album is so different from the others; even when it's one album evolving out of another as in Zooropa from Achtung or Rattle & Hum from The Joshua Tree. The tones are just too different unless you're talking about actual left overs from the previous album's sessions. But even then... For example, I don't think Big Girls Are Best would fit with Pop anywhere, even though it's from the same sessions. Even Heartland, from the JT sessions just wouldn't fit on that album as it was recorded for Rattle & Hum.

 

[LMP]

I think Stay could fit in there after One, and possibly Zooropa in there somewhere but that's about it. One of the cool things about U2 is each album is so different from the others; even when it's one album evolving out of another as in Zooropa from Achtung or Rattle & Hum from The Joshua Tree. The tones are just too different unless you're talking about actual left overs from the previous album's sessions. But even then... For example, I don't think Big Girls Are Best would fit with Pop anywhere, even though it's from the same sessions. Even Heartland, from the JT sessions just wouldn't fit on that album as it was recorded for Rattle & Hum.

I agree w/ most of that, but I think Heartland fits perfectly after in Trip Through Your Wires's spot

and Trip Through Your Wires is a better fit on Rattle and Hum

 

[gareth brown]

Maybe a live double album from ZOOTV and onwards could have worked. But otherwise, I'm glad they didn't.

Holy crap! Can you just imagine U2 playing a handful of concerts in three parts like this...?

Part One - Achtung Baby
Part Two - Zooropa
Part Three - Encore of some sort.
Both albums in their entirety... now THAT would have been awesome!

 

[cobl04]

Trip Through Your Wires is a better fit on Rattle and Hum

100% agree. The sound of the song is the sound of songs like Desire, When Love Comes to Town. I think TTYW was a look at the future.

 

[impy13]

9.Ultraviolet(Light My Way)
10.Acrobat
11.Love Is Blindness

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

Even though that's a nice idea, I would not want that. I think they are more enjoyable and more sonically comprehensive as separate albums, as they are. Plus I think that Pop sounds more like Zooropa than AB does.

BUT if it had to be like that. I would want it like this:

01. Zoo Station
02. The Fly
03. Even Better Than The Real Thing
04. Stay
05. Zooropa
06. Acrobat
07. Numb
08. Mysterious Ways
09. Lemon
10. Dirty Day
11. The First Time


01. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
02. Until The End Of The World
03. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (without the intro)
04. So Cruel
05. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
06. Some Days Are Better Than The Others
07. Trying Throw Your Arms Around The World
08. One
09. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
10. The Wnaderer
11. Love Is Blindness


The only replacement is HMTMKMKM instead of Babyface. And it really wasn't my intention to get all of the long title songs (for the exception of Real Thing) on the second disk.

 

[Zoots]

I would just like to second inmyplace13's

BrazillianFly, I like your list (esp. Hold Me replacing Babyface) but the holy trinity cannot be seperated like that!

ultraviolet acrobatic love.

 

[namkcuR]

Even though that's a nice idea, I would not want that. I think they are more enjoyable and more sonically comprehensive as separate albums, as they are. Plus I think that Pop sounds more like Zooropa than AB does.

BUT if it had to be like that. I would want it like this:

01. Zoo Station
02. The Fly
03. Even Better Than The Real Thing
04. Stay
05. Zooropa
06. Acrobat
07. Numb
08. Mysterious Ways
09. Lemon
10. Dirty Day
11. The First Time


01. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
02. Until The End Of The World
03. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (without the intro)
04. So Cruel
05. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
06. Some Days Are Better Than The Others
07. Trying Throw Your Arms Around The World
08. One
09. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
10. The Wnaderer
11. Love Is Blindness


The only replacement is HMTMKMKM instead of Babyface. And it really wasn't my intention to get all of the long title songs (for the exception of Real Thing) on the second disk.

HMTMKMKM is more Pop-era, methinks.

 

[LMP]

HMTMKMKM is more Pop-era, methinks.

I Agree

 

[xaviMF22]

HMTMKMKM is more Pop-era, methinks.

wasnt HMTMKMKM worked on during the Zoorapa sessions?

 

[LMP]

wasnt HMTMKMKM worked on during the Zoorapa sessions?

Yes, but if you listen to it in the context of Pop, especially between Last Night on Earth and Gone, it definitely fits more on Pop, since it's a more guitar-driven album.

 

[gareth brown]

yeah

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

Yes, but if you listen to it in the context of Pop, especially between Last Night on Earth and Gone, it definitely fits more on Pop, since it's a more guitar-driven album.

Pop is a more guitar driven album than Zooropa but not than Achtung Baby, it fits the AB mood well but at the same time it has a Zooropa like production. And sicne this double album has the AB and Zooropa tracks together as a double album it felt right to have HMTMKMKM there. But I agree it would fit POP well, but not better than Zooropa though, secially in this context.

 

[God Part III]

Where's Some Days Are Better Than Others?
And where's The Wanderer?

Both better than Salome anyway!

 

[Hallucination]

Personally I don't like that idea at all. Achtung Baby is the greatest album ever in my opinion. As good as Zooropa is, it's quite a bit weaker than Achtung Baby(what album isn't?) So no. To combine the albums would take away from both. Achtung Baby is dark and emotional where as Zooropa sounds trashy and scattered(in a really good way). TheBrazilianFly mentioned that POP and Zooropa sound more similar and I agree. Those two hypothetically would've made the better double album. They compliment each other mroe I think.

 

[God Part III]

For the past few months I've been thinking that Zooropa really is their greatest artistic triumph.

Perhaps a better album than Achtung Baby.

 

[Hallucination]

For the past few months I've been thinking that Zooropa really is their greatest artistic triumph.

Perhaps a better album than Achtung Baby.

No. That opinion is just wrong. This thread has gotten way too ridiculous now.











Just kidding God Part III

 

[LMP]

Pop is a more guitar driven album than Zooropa but not than Achtung Baby, it fits the AB mood well but at the same time it has a Zooropa like production. And sicne this double album has the AB and Zooropa tracks together as a double album it felt right to have HMTMKMKM there. But I agree it would fit POP well, but not better than Zooropa though, secially in this context.

but lyrically, it fits kind of with Gone, and they play really well off of each other.

Both are about some kind of fame, while one is embracing, the other is rejecting it

 

[the tourist]

Don't like it.