Advice on my forthcoming U2 four disc "best of" (Ie favorite songs)

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UnforgettableLemon

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the most simple way, and the way I've done in the past (i've made three versions of this so far, but with the new album coming out I'll be doing it again). For continuity's sake, I'll only be using studio recordings

I know the discs will be chronologically organized

Disc 1: Boy/October/War era songs (including A Celebration, 11 O'Clock, etc)

Disc 2: Unforgettable Fire/Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum era songs

Disc 3: Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Pop era songs (including Miss Sarajevo, HMTMKMKM, and poss. Your Blue Room)

Disc 4: ATYCLB/HTDAAB/Best ofs era (Sweetest Thing 98, Ground Beneath, Hands That Built, and Electrical Storm included, poss. Stateless)

Anyway, my question is: Within each of these discs, should the tracklisting be organized chronologically by album, or should they be organized as era-spanning "setlists"?
 
I'd say go with the era spanning. Straight chrono is how we listen to these album anyway, so why not mix them up a little. Just make sure you post these track lists for all of us to make. I'm actually looking forward to it.
 
I'm actually thinking of making the first three discs now. but then I have to sit and wait and not know what songs will go on the fourth. they're going to be singles-oriented, but with the leniancy provided by so many discs, album tracks are a definite too. I'll probably end up making the fourth disc and then they'll release all the songs I didn't put on as singles, or I'll end up liking the other songs more anyway. That's the problem with making a mix off of the first impression. Alas. Anyway, I'll report back when I've got more info.
 
Great idea! I look forward to reading your track list for each of the first 3 discs. How about the idea of 16 tracks for each disc - 4 songs from each album and then 4 non-album songs?
 
Nope, I can't limit them to four songs from each album. Can't be done. In fact, I've had to break my own rule and move "North and South of the River" to the ATYCLB/HTDAAB disc. I figure it's not from an album, and it's from the tail end of the Pop era, so it could reasonably fit in there. Too many songs i can't cut. I cried when I cut Van Diemen's Land from Disc 2 and Daddy's Gonna Pay from Disc 3 as it was.
 
Had to move Miss Sarajevo to disc 4 as well. Again, shortage of tracks there due to less output, and any other songs I could have cut from disc 3 were too short and I would have had to cut 2.
 
Dunno if this will help me but this is what mine would be(I'm gonna make this now that I think about it) - using the setlest method as opposed to the chronological method.

Disc 1 - Into The Heart

11 O'Clock Tick Tock
I Will Follow
Surrender
Gloria
Fire
With A Shout
An Cat Dubh
Into The Heart
October
New Year's Day
Out Of Control
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Two Hearts Beat As One
Drowning Man
Party Girl
The Electric Co.
Scarlet
"40"

Disc 2 - Rock's Hottest Ticket

MLK
Where The Streets Have No Name
Bad
With Or Without You
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Van Dieman's Land
Hawkmoon 269
Running To Stand Still
The Unforgettable Fire
Exit
Heartland
A Sort Of Homecoming
One Tree Hill
Bullet The Blue Sky
Desire
Pride
Angel Of Harlem
All I Want Is You


Disc 3 - The Biggest, Baddest, Boldest Band In The Land

Zoo Station
Mofo
Lemon
The Fly
Until The End Of The World
Acrobat
Numb
Mysterious Ways
Please
Lady With The Spinning Head
Dirty Day
If God Will Send His Angels
Staring At The Sun
Ultraviolet
Discotheque
If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Stay
One
Miss Sarajevo
Love Is Blindness

Disc 4 - Reapplying For The Job*

Vertigo
Elevation
Electrical Storm
Ground Beneath Her Feet
Stateless
Falling At My Feet
Kite
When I Look At The World
City Of Blinding Lights
New York
Beautiful Day
Sweetest Thing(Single Mix)
Summer Rain
Hands That Built America
Walk On
+other songs from htdaab

* - subject to change after htdaab comes out
 
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I'm definetly on the side of keeping the songs out of chronological order. Eras are fine, but mix it up.

Great list namkucR!
 
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cutting tracks from any mix tape type project is always painful, but i think it is critically important to follow the rules you set and bite the bullet sometimes. For example, i don't think it's a great idea to put Miss Sarejevo and North and South of the river on disc 4. I think, if the songs are important enough, which i think at least Miss Arejevo is, you should just cut one or two other songs from disc 3.

Also, on disc 4, try to include Stateless if its possible. I feel this is U2's most underrated song, and is better than 1/2 of ATYCLB.

umm....what else. yeah, I'm definitely with the rest of the crew here in saying that the discs should not be ordered chronologically. that usually makes for a boring and choppy feeling album.

I like that you are trying to incorperate certain lesser-known U2 tracks, and I think this is essential for this kind of compilation. for instance if ( and since i dont know what your tracklisting looks like so far this is total speculation) you have If God will Send his Angels on disc 3, you may want to substitute that for North and south of the river. And likewise on disc 2, if say, you have Heartland, you may want to replace that with Spanish Eyes or something similar.

What I'm saying is, i think it makes for a much more interesting, and sometimes controversial (in a good way) compilation if you set out to replace some of the more commonplace album tracks with similar b-sides or non-album tracks.

I'm sure you've thought about most of this but just throwing more personal ideas out there, make sure you pick the right opening and closing tracks for the discs, and try to make the discs flow as well. For example, the closer to disc one could be 40, and then disc 2 would open with Streets, so the discs flow near flawlessly to one another.

Well, i sorta got off on a tangent there, but I love making compilations as much as the next guy so i'm just glad i could share my thoughts :)

cheers!
 
I also thought perhaps doing

AB/Zoo/Passengers

Pop/ATYCLB/HTDAAB

instead, since Pop and ATYCLB are thematically related, as counterparts :huh:

Spanish Eyes is already on Disc 2. :sexywink:

I'll post the 80s discs tracklisting soon

Also, those 90s discs namkcuR, would be way too long for an 80 minute CDR, hence the problem.
 
OK, I bit the bullet, as you suggested, and did some hacking and slashing. I'm now only 55 seconds over, with NASOTR and MS on Disc 3. I had to cut LNOE(SM) and WGRYWH to do it though. But I can live without WGRYWH. :sad: Anyway, if there was any way to get hold of the Lemon video edit, it'd cut out those extra 55 seconds.
 
i'm glad you were able to comprimice. It would be convenient to get that shorter version of lemon. I think MS and NASOTR are acctually better songs than both Wild Horses and LNOE, so that's a good move. hmm...wait, if you used the temple bar mix of Wild Horses you might have to reconsider. That version is truely great, and i really dont care for the song anyway.
crap, sorry, dont want to confuse thing even more for you. :wink:
 
Here's what I've got so far. Note that there are, at this point, no titles. Though I like those suggested. Also, all tracks are studio versions.

Disc 1-
1) Sunday Bloody Sunday
2) I Will Follow
3) 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
4) Another Time, Another Place
5) Surrender
6) Tomorrow
7) Like a Song...
8) Fire
9) The Electric Co.
10) A Celebration
11) Trash, Trampoline, and the Party Girl
12) Out of Control
13) Gloria
14) A Day Without Me
15) Two Hearts Beat as One
16) Stories for Boys
17) I Threw a Brick Through a Window
18) October
19) New Year's Day (edit)
20) '40'

Disc 2-
1) A Sort of Homecoming
2) In God's Country
3) Spanish Eyes
4) When Love Comes to Town
5) Bullet the Blue Sky
6) Running to Stand Still
7) Where the Streets Have no Name
8) Pride
9) Desire
10) Angel of Harlem
11) I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
12) The Unforgettable Fire
13) With or Without You
14) God Part II
15) Bad
16) MLK
17) One Tree Hill
18) All I Want is You

Disc 3-
1) The Fly
2) Until the End of the World
3) Miss Sarajevo (edit)
4) Discotheque
5) Mysterious Ways
6) Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
7) Even Better than the Real Thing
8) One
9) Staring at the Sun
10) Lemon
11) Numb
12) Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
13) If God Will Send His Angels (single mix)
14) Gone (new mix)
15) The First Time
16) North and South of the River
17) Please (single mix)

Again, this 3rd disc runs over by 55 seconds right now, I tried putting the shorter (and less favorable to me) album versions of "Please" and "Gone," but it still ran over by 3 seconds.
 
namkcuR said:

Disc 4 - Reapplying For The Job*

Vertigo
Elevation
Electrical Storm
Ground Beneath Her Feet
Stateless
Falling At My Feet
Kite
When I Look At The World
City Of Blinding Lights
New York
Beautiful Day
Sweetest Thing(Single Mix)
Summer Rain
Hands That Built America
Walk On
+other songs from htdaab

* - subject to change after htdaab comes out

i would make sure it was elevation tomb raider mix, and maybe change summer rain to all because of you :)
 
Lancemc said:
i'm glad you were able to comprimice. It would be convenient to get that shorter version of lemon. I think MS and NASOTR are acctually better songs than both Wild Horses and LNOE, so that's a good move. hmm...wait, if you used the temple bar mix of Wild Horses you might have to reconsider. That version is truely great, and i really dont care for the song anyway.
crap, sorry, dont want to confuse thing even more for you. :wink:

Actually, it was the Temple Bar Edit, the shorter one, that I had to cut. :sad:
 
UnforgettableLemon said:


Actually, it was the Temple Bar Edit, the shorter one, that I had to cut. :sad:

that's a shame acctually, but what you've posted so far looks very nice. Going from Running to Stand Still into Streets is always a good move. I'm not sure about opening disc 3 with The FLy though, maybe EBTTRT ala Best of 90-00 but it's you project and acctually still works pretty well.

I do believe that you HAVE to keep the single version of Please though, anything else is a waste. If it's still too long, you might just have to bite the bullet... again.
 
ARTIST: U2
DISC NAME: BEST OF 1980-1990 I
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK TRACK NAME
01. WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME
02. PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE)
03. NEW YEAR’S DAY
04. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
05. I STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING
06. SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY
07. BAD
08. I WILL FOLLOW
09. UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
10. SWEETEST THING (SINGLE MIX)
11. DESIRE
12. WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN
13. ANGEL OF HARLEM
14. ALL I WANT IS YOU
15. OCTOBER

ARTIST: U2
DISC NAME: BEST OF 1980-1990 II
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK TRACK NAME
01. A SORT OF HOMECOMING
02. RUNNING TO STAND STILL
03. OUT OF CONTROL
04. IN GOD’S COUNTRY
05. BULLET THE BLUE SKY
06. I FALL DOWN
07. SECONDS
08. EXIT
09. GOD PART II
10. 40
11. SCARLET
12. HAWKMOON 269
13. PROMENADE
14. MOTHERS OF THE DISAPPEARED
15. TOMORROW
16. MLK

ARTIST: U2
DISC NAME: BEST OF 1990-2000 I
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK TRACK NAME
01. EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING
02. MYSTERIOUS WAYS
03. BEAUTIFUL DAY
04. ELECTRICAL STORM
05. ONE
06. MISS SARAJEVO
07. STAY (FARAWAY, SO CLOSE!)
08. STUCK IN A MOMENT YOU CAN’T GET OUT OF
09. GONE (NEW MIX)
10. THE FLY
11. THE HANDS THAT BUILT AMERICA
12. DISCOTHEQUE
13. HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME
14. STARING AT THE SUN (NEW MIX)
15. NUMB (NEW MIX)
16. THE FIRST TIME
17. THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET


ARTIST: U2
DISC NAME: BEST OF 1990-2000 II
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK TRACK NAME
01. ZOO STATION
02. LEMON
03. IF GOD WILL SEND HIS ANGELS
04. ULTRAVIOLET (LIGHT MY WAY)
05. WHO’S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES
06. PLEASE
07. DADDY’S GONNA PAY FOR YOUR CRASHED CAR
08. MOFO
09. LAST NIGHT ON EARTH
10. SO CRUEL
11. ZOOROPA
12. BABYFACE
13. ACROBAT
14. THE PLAYBOY MANSION
15. WAKE UP DEAD MAN


I did something similar a couple of months ago, I left my best ofs almost the same, the only changes I did was changing Until the End Of The World (sorry never been a big fan of this song) for The Fly, putting back the original Discotheque and adding The Ground Beneath Her Feet at the end. The Best of 90-00 II is my favorite I can't get enough of hearing Lemon through WGRYWH which are pretty much my 5 top U2 songs along with Stay
 
Lancemc said:


that's a shame acctually, but what you've posted so far looks very nice. Going from Running to Stand Still into Streets is always a good move. I'm not sure about opening disc 3 with The FLy though, maybe EBTTRT ala Best of 90-00 but it's you project and acctually still works pretty well.

The Fly was the first introduction we had to 90s U2. "The sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree." Plus I had always done EBTTRT first on the other versions of this set. After hearing it on the official one too I'm not so sure that I want it there.
 
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You are certainly right about The Fly breaking the band into the new decade, but I'm just not sure of how well it works functionally as an album opener. EBTTRT doesn't have to open it, but maybe something else. Discotheque acctually functions very well as an opener. If you are using the album version, the song structure lends itself very well as an album opener, as well as the lyrical relevance it has to the time.

"you know you're chewing bubble-gum, you know what that is but you still wnat some. you just can't get enough of that lovey-dovey stuff"

A reference to pop music of the time, this song is like one of those warning messages you get in the beginning of a movie. In this case the warning is "This is different, this is new, but you're gonna like it."

If you ask me, that's the perfect way to introduce the Zoo decade to the world.
 
ive done countless, countless compilations and the best results have been when i mixed it up. i wouldnt go chronologically. i myself am going to make a 10 disc u2 set when the album comes out., but starting it now.
 
This is an awesome idea :bow: but the 4 disc album shouldn´t be called "best of" or words like that, since is more than a classic "best of", also I think titles like "Anthology" were been very used...so I´d title this album simply "U2" :laugh: :yes: :up:

Let´s see:

I think this 4 disc compilation should be different, I mean, the disc 4 is just for 2 albums ( ATYCLB and HTDAAB ) so is too much for just a pair of albums.

My compilation would Be:

1- Disc I: 11 O´clock Tick Tock until War
2- Disc II: Unforgettable Fire until Rattle & Hum ( part 1 )
3- Disc III: Rattle & Hum ( part 2 ) until HMTMKMKM
4- Disc IV: Pop until HTDAAB

Considering that, also trying to include versions not appeared on "best of", this would be my "U2" ( not running order, just a cronologhical reference )

Disc I: The White Flag

1- 11 O´clock Tick Tock
2- I Will Follow
3- An Cat Dubh/ Into The Heart
4- Out Of Control
5- A Day Without Me
6- The Electric Co
7- Gloria
8- I Threw A Brick...
9- Rejoice
10- Fire
11- October
12- A Celebration
13- Sunday Bloody Sunday
14- Seconds
15- New Year´s Day ( single )
16- Two Hearts Beat As One
17- Surrender
18- "40"

Disc II: One Tree Hill

1- A Sort Of Homecoming
2- Pride ( in the name of love )
3- The Unforgettable Fire
4- Bad
5- MLK
6- Where The Streets...
7- ISHFWILF
8- With Or Without You
9- Bullet The Blue Sky
10-Running To Stand Still
11-In God´s Country
12-One Tree Hill
13-Silver And Gold
14-Van Diemend´s Land ( Rattle & Hum Movie version )
15-Desire
16-Angel Of Harlem
17-Heartland

Disc III: Everything You Know Is Wrong

1- God Part II
2- When Love Comes To Town
3- All I Want Is You
4- Night And Day
5- EBTTRT
6- One
7- WGRYWH
8- The Fly
9- Mysterious Ways
10-Love Is Blidness
11- Zooropa
12-Numb
13-Lemon
14-Stay ( faraway so close )
15-The First Time
16-Miss Sarajevo
17-HMTMKMKM

Disc IV: Lights Go Down

1- Discotheque
2- Last Night On Earth ( single )
3- IGWSHA ( single )
4- Staring At The Sun
5- Gone
6- Please ( single )
7- The Ground Beneath Her Feet
8- Beautiful Day
9- Stuck In A Moment
10-Elevation
11-Walk On
12-Kite
13-Electrical Storm
14-Vertigo
15- New song 1 ( HTDAAB )
16- New song 2 ( HTDAAB )
17- New song 3 ( HTDAAB )

peace
:wave:
 
Grrr. I have Nero on one Computer and Easy CD Creator on the other. Both are the limited versions. Nero doesn't balance volume, and isn't even here at school with me. Easy CD doesn't let me remove silence between tracks unless I update. This is annoying, because I might be able to make up some of the difference, at least adding 30 seconds or so, if I was able to do this. I will NOT, however, pay 80 bucks for a feature that used to be basic when I had Easy CD on my old computer. Suggestions?
 
Nero can overburn CDs... it's in the expert options... I've made Cds that are 81:30 before and they usually work fine (they have some trouble on some CD players)

or see if you can get hold of mixmeister pro or some similar program where you can overlap the songs a bit/get rid of silence entirely. I use soundforge acid to make mix CDs and I often overlap the first beat of a song with the last beat of the preceding one. it sounds quite cool.
 
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I have in the past, but it's usually simplistic. Whatever it is, it has to be consistent across all four in some way, visually or thematically linked.
 
The title is now U2:4

Oh, and if anyone would like to hook me up with the single edit of Lemon, I will in fact worship the ground you walk on fornever and ever. Or at least say thanks a lot!
 
Two routes to go: a personal favourite selection or an “objective critical” selection. Both are excellent and why not do both? For now I’ll just focus on the second route – trying a track list that I think U2 would approve. A track list that could potentially released by Interscope in let’s say 6 years.
Chronological track list is easier and it can show the band’s progression and strategy of their planned releases but I would find it boring. I would rather see a track list that grabs your attention / drags you on a journey / flows well together / and tells a story.
4 songs from each album gives equal treatment to each album regardless of each album’s success or preference.
4 songs from each album gives a solid sampling / taste of each album in the respective 3 trilogies.
4 non-album songs gives something a little different for general U2 fans and U2ers
In U2’s case some of these non-album songs are not only outstanding but some were very successful and popular.
4 non-album songs also frees up space in creating a B-Side Disc for each trilogy or a Best Of B-Sides compilation disc.

The Fly
Until The End Of The World? (a wild card – a non-single)
One
Mysterious Ways

Zooropa (Edit)
Numb
Stay
Lemon

Discotheque
Gone
Please
MOFO? (a wild card – a non-single)

Night And Day (tremendous radio airplay and I believe success too?)
Lady With A Spinning Head (Extended Version) (isn’t the favourite B-Side of the 90s by U2ers?)
Hold Me Thrill Me (a big hit)
Miss Sarajevo (a big hit – in Europe at least – and I believe it means a lot to U2 themselves. A wonderful song all though I would prefer another song instead)

U2 - THE THIRD TRILOGY

The Fly
Hold Me Thrill Me
Discotheque
MOFO
Lady With A Spinning Head
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
Night And Day
Stay
Please
One
Zooropa (Edit)
Lemon
Numb
Miss Sarajevo
Gone

Electrical Storm could have been a bonus disc attached to the Best Of 90s.
 
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