Dare to Touch Achtung?!

[Zoots]

I often use this alternative track order, based on Zoo TV:

Zoo Station
The Fly
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
One
Until The End Of The World
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
So Cruel
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Acrobat
Love Is Blindness

Personally I wouldn't even touch the greatest album ever!
But that tracklist you made is pretty fucking good.

 

[MrBrau1]

well, U2girl's idea wasn't nearly as bad as the turd Axver just dropped in this thread.

stitches. Stitches I tell you...

 

[ahmad]

Axver - your tracklist is idiotic.

 

[Axver]

Wow, someone has a dissenting opinion and you lot are so nice about it.

 

[U2girl]

Hooray for different opinions.

 

[chucky28]

Axver, quit posting about Achtung Baby...You are really making a fool out of yourself!

 

[Bodnex]

Wow, someone has a dissenting opinion and you lot are so nice about it.

Wow, some people thought that your tracklist was wrong. Kinda taking it a ltille to heart, aren't we?

It's like me thinking Hawkmoon 269 should be taken off Rattle and Hum, when it's the only good song on the album.

 

[Yahweh]

Zoo Station is a great song and captures the mood that Achtung Baby portrays perfectly...which is fuck the past kiss the future!

 

[the tourist]

The Joshua Tree:

Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
With Or Without You
Luminous Times
Walk To The Water
Bullet The Blue Sky (lengthened solo like ZooTV)
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
Trip Through Your Wires (no harmonica)
One Tree Hill
Exit (louder)
Mothers Of The Disappeared

 

[the tourist]

Rattle & Hum:

Beautiful Ghost (fades out into…)
All I Want Is You
Desire
Spanish Eyes
Silver And Gold (more formed solo like in the live Rattle & Hum)
Angel Of Harlem
When Love Comes To Town
The Sweetest Thing
In God’s Country
Heartland
Van Diemen’s Land
God Part II (more formed solo like from Lovetown Tour)
Deep In The Heart
Hawkmoon 269 (slide guitar intro like from Lovetown Tour)

 

[the tourist]

Zoo Station
The Fly
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
Ultraviolet
So Cruel
One
Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Acrobat
Love Is Blindness

 

[Clawgrabber]

interesting Rattle and Hum tracklist, Tourist...

i always thought that Silver and Gold and Sweetest Thing stuck out like sore thumbs on the "extended JT" but in your RAH setlist, they make sense.

nice work.

as far as Achtung Baby, messing with the tracklisting on that one is like letting the air out of the tires.

 

[Nisse]

Pre-boy EP:
1 Street Mission
2 Jack In The Box
3 Cartoon World
4 The Speed Of Life
5 Pete The Chop
6 Another Day
7 The Dream Is Over
8 The Fool



Boy:

1 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
2 I Will Follow
3 A Day Without Me
4 Twilight
5 Another Time, Another Place
6 Shadows And Tall Trees (Electric)
7 Stories For Boys
8 The Electric Co
9 Out Of Control
10 Boy/Girl
11 An Cat Dubh-Into The Heart
12 The Ocean
13 Touch

October
1 Gloria
2 Carry Me Home
3 With A Shout
4 Fire
5 Rejoice
6 I Fall Down
7 October
8 I Threw A Brick Through A Window
9 J. Swallow (finished)
10 Stranger In A Strange Land
11 Scarlet
12 Father Is An Elephant
13(Hidden) The Cry

War:

1 Surrender
2 New Year's Day
3 Like A Song
4 Sunday Bloody Sunday (like live version)
5 A Celebration
6 Drowning Man
7 Red Light
8 Endless Deep
9 Two Hearts Beat As One
10 Seconds
11 Trash Trampoline And The Party Girl
12 The Refugee
13 40

The Unforgettable Fire

1 A Sort Of Homecoming (like live version)
2 The Three Sunrises
3 Pride (Long Version)
4 Bass Trap
5 The Unforgettable Fire
6 Promenade
7 4th Of July
8 Wire
9 Bad (like live version)
10 60 Seconds In Kingdom Come
11 Love Comes Tumbling
12 Elvis Presley And America
13 MLK

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

Well, I got this diferent tracklist for POP that I think really works. It's a more ballsy approach in my opinion.

POP
01. Mofo
02. Do You Feel Loved
03. Miami
04. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
05. Staring At The Sun
06. Last Night On Earth
07. Gone
08. Discotheque
09. The Playboy Mansion
10. If God Will Send His Angels
11. Please
12. Wake Up Dead Man



I like the Achtung Baby tracklist but I got this other one that I listen to the most:

ACHTUNG BABY:
01. Zoo Station
02. The Fly
03. Until The End Of The World
04. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
05. So Cruel
06. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
07. Even Better Than The Real Thing
08. Mysterious Ways
09. One
10. Acrobat
11. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
12. Love Is Blindness



I made a shitload of diferent tracklists for HTDAAB. Here's two of them:

HTDAAB:
01. Love And Peace Or Else
02. Vertigo
03. All Because Of You
04. Miracle Drug
05. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
06. City Of Blinding Lights
07. Crumbs From Your Table
08. Fast Cars
09. A Man And A Woman
10. One Step Closer
11. Original Of The Species
12. Yahweh


01. City Of Blinding Lights
02. Miracle Drug
03. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
04. Love And Peace Or Else
05. Vertigo
06. All Because Of You
07. Crumbs From Your Table
08. A Man And A Woman
09. One Step Closer
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh

 

[the tourist]

HTDAAB

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crumbs From Your Table
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
A Man And A Woman
One Step Closer
Love And Peace Or Else
All Because Of You
Fast Cars
Miracle Drug
Original Of The Species
Yahweh

 

[Lancemc]

Zoo Station is my second favorite song on Achtung Baby. Number 3 is Ultraviolet.


Seriously, Axver's tracklisting makes me vomit in my mouth a little.

 

[Axver]

Seriously, Axver's tracklisting makes me vomit in my mouth a little.

Is anyone going to seriously respond to my tracklist instead of just insulting it?

Also, I'd be rather concerned if you had vomit coming out from anywhere other than your mouth. If you were vomiting in your eyes, well ...

 

[Clawgrabber]

Achtung Baby is seriously weak with its current track order. However, if the following were the tracklist, it would be my #3 album behind UF and JT.

1. Zoo Station
2. Until The End Of The World
3. The Fly
4. Even Better Than The Real Thing
5. Mysterious Ways
6. Lady With The Spinning Head
7. Where Did It All Go Wrong?
8. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
9. Slow Dancing
10. Wild Irish Rose
11. Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle Of Milk/Korova 1
12. Acrobat
13. Love Is Blindness

okay, i will respond in a serious manner...

to me, messing with the tracklist of achtung is a bit of a mistake because i feel it is one of the ones they got right the first time...

now, i ADORE ALEX DECENDS... and right now i am pretty sick of ONE, so i can see where you are coming from... but i dunno if it really fits here....

certainly if it were to be on any album, it would be this one without question... but i think it works better leading into Ultraviolet (which i know you dislike immensely, and i see you have replaced it with Lady with The Spinning Head--- which i might agree with if and only if you use the Extended Dance Mix, and not the weaker "UV1" mix)

i also feel that the fly/mysterious ways leading off the second half of the album has always been one of the strong points... i like it better when singles are more spread out like on pop and achtung than when they are at the front like on JT and ATYCLB

now, i must confess I have never heard Wild Irish Rose... is there a finished version out there that would actually sound on par right before a finished song like ALEX DECENDS???

if so, i would be very interested in hearing it..

on the plus side, it is good to see that you kept the Zoo Station intro and the Love Is Blindness ending (their position is not up for debate, and it would be a mistake to move them)...

i dunno... if i had wild irish rose i could give it a listen and really be able to judge...

but that said, I happen to be a BIG fan of Ultraviolet, so, there you have it.

how is that for a bit of constructive criticism?

 

[roy]

Any album that contains songs such as Ultra Violet and WGRYWH is far from perfect.

Truely, truely awful songs.

 

[namkcuR]

Any album that contains songs such as Ultra Violet and WGRYWH is far from perfect.

Truely, truely awful songs.

I wonder if we'll ever agree on anything

 

[Axver]

to me, messing with the tracklist of achtung is a bit of a mistake because i feel it is one of the ones they got right the first time...

I very much disagree there. I find myself uncomfortable with flows such as EBTTRT/One and UV/Acrobat. Totally different songs with very little in common forced together. I don't feel Achtung has much in the way of sonic flow, which is something I think my new version corrects. I like the flow of the last four in particular.

now, i ADORE ALEX DECENDS... and right now i am pretty sick of ONE, so i can see where you are coming from... but i dunno if it really fits here....

certainly if it were to be on any album, it would be this one without question... but i think it works better leading into Ultraviolet (which i know you dislike immensely, and i see you have replaced it with Lady with The Spinning Head--- which i might agree with if and only if you use the Extended Dance Mix, and not the weaker "UV1" mix)

The reason I used Alex is mood and flow, plain and simple. It's like Promenade/4th Of July/Bad - 4th Of July doesn't really sound like an album tune independently, but works in context of the album. Similar logic works here for Alex, though I think it's an amazing song by itself. I really do not agree that it would flow into UV though. The bleak mood of Alex leads very nicely into Acrobat - they almost seem made to go together. UV's "baby, baby, baby, light my way" chorus seems entirely at odds with everything Alex is about, to my ears.

And as far as Lady With The Spinning Head goes, I didn't specify which version as I'm envisaging if U2 had actually released this, LWTSH would be of the quality of the Extended Dance Remix but not such a blatant Fly rip-off. When making this mix for myself, I use the Extended Dance Remix.

Oh, and I should add that I envisage Slow Dancing to be full band led by Bono, none of this Bono/Edge-solo watered down nonsense or Willie bloody Nelson on vocals. When making this as a mix, though, I used the Bono/Edge-solo version.

i also feel that the fly/mysterious ways leading off the second half of the album has always been one of the strong points... i like it better when singles are more spread out like on pop and achtung than when they are at the front like on JT and ATYCLB

I wasn't thinking at all in terms of singles here; I was being conscious of cohesive flow. In any case, the second half has some amazing tracks: Wild Irish Rose, Acrobat, and Love Is Blindness especially.

now, i must confess I have never heard Wild Irish Rose... is there a finished version out there that would actually sound on par right before a finished song like ALEX DECENDS???

There's a finished version from a documentary on Irish music. Two versions exist: one with Bono talking over a verse, and one with that edited out. It's very good quality; it's not as if it's a soundcheck recorded through an arena wall!

I could upload either version if you like ...

on the plus side, it is good to see that you kept the Zoo Station intro and the Love Is Blindness ending (their position is not up for debate, and it would be a mistake to move them)...

I totally agree.

but that said, I happen to be a BIG fan of Ultraviolet, so, there you have it.

I've come to enjoy the song, but I'm still no fan of it. In a recent custom history I made, I used UV as a b-side:

Even Better Than The Real Thing/Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World/Ultra Violet

I think that's actually a pretty cool little single there. I'm sure everyone disagrees with the b-side status, but the three songs work nicely together nonetheless.

how is that for a bit of constructive criticism?

Nice!

 

[Axver]

Any album that contains songs such as Ultra Violet and WGRYWH is far from perfect.

Truely, truely awful songs.

Agreed on Ultra Violet.

WGRYWH is a good enough album song though, and great live.

 

[Lancemc]

I was just pushing your buttons a little there before Axver, sorry bout that.

But I do think your tracklisting is a downgrade from what Achtung already offers. The only thing I do agree with you on is the transition from EBTTRT to One being a weak point in the album.


And I think it would be a good idea to post Wild Irish Rose here for people to hear.

Either that or you could just email it to me.
lancemc@comcast.net

 

[namkcuR]

Ax...wasn't 'Wild Irish Rose' recorded more during the JT era?

 

[Clawgrabber]

I very much disagree there. I find myself uncomfortable with flows such as EBTTRT/One and UV/Acrobat. Totally different songs with very little in common forced together. I don't feel Achtung has much in the way of sonic flow, which is something I think my new version corrects. I like the flow of the last four in particular.

you know, i have come to agree with you with EBTTRT/ONE... the jump in mood is a bit jarring... i suppose i have to chalk up my predjudice to nearly 15 years of listening to it that way...

but for me, the final 3 tracks... UV/Acrobat/LIB has always been the finest closing of any album for them...

i know a lot of people here don't like UV, but for me, those 3 songs are one cohesive unit.

The reason I used Alex is mood and flow, plain and simple. It's like Promenade/4th Of July/Bad - 4th Of July doesn't really sound like an album tune independently, but works in context of the album. Similar logic works here for Alex, though I think it's an amazing song by itself. I really do not agree that it would flow into UV though. The bleak mood of Alex leads very nicely into Acrobat - they almost seem made to go together. UV's "baby, baby, baby, light my way" chorus seems entirely at odds with everything Alex is about, to my ears.

in terms of 4th of july, i see where you are coming from with Alex... it seems you really have thought this through... to beat a dead horse with UV, though... I have always thought it was one of U2's darker tracks lyrically... most people get caught up on the baby baby baby's, and i can see that, but the rest of the song, for me at least, is heartwrenching... to me Acrobat is dark and gloom and doom, a great track, but it seems BONO is GIVING advice "don't let the bastards grind you down" (don't get me wrong... i am in the U2 must play Acrobat live camp)... in UV is seems that he NEEDS advice, in theme it definitely fits on Achtung more than Acrobat (there are direct lyrical correlations to so cruel, tryin to throw, and uteotw as far as the narrator mending a destroyed relationship and pining for an unattainable love) For me it is this transition from UV to Acrobat to LIB that takes you down deeper into the doom of the final moments of the album. I think without UV, Acrobat wouldn't work. For me, the best tracklist groupings in U2's canon are:
1. An cat dubh/Into The Heart/Out Of Control
2. Zooropa/Babyface/Numb/Lemon/Stay
3. UV/Acrobat/LIB

I know i will catch flack for that, but that is how i feel

And as far as Lady With The Spinning Head goes, I didn't specify which version as I'm envisaging if U2 had actually released this, LWTSH would be of the quality of the Extended Dance Remix but not such a blatant Fly rip-off. When making this mix for myself, I use the Extended Dance Remix.

Yeah, the blatant Fly reference would have to go, but the extended mix is amazing.... to agree with you a bit, this version nails the solo (from UV) better than UV itself! One of the best solo's in U2's catalogue, for me.

Oh, and I should add that I envisage Slow Dancing to be full band led by Bono, none of this Bono/Edge-solo watered down nonsense or Willie bloody Nelson on vocals. When making this as a mix, though, I used the Bono/Edge-solo version.

I would agree with you there, if we had a finished version of the song from the Achtung era without Nelson on vox... my thing about making these alternate tracklists is that I might be too picky in choosing the proper tracks... i.e. if the song doesn't exist in the version that would fit best, then I can't justify putting it there. THe bono/edge version seems way too stripped down to fit anywhere on an album as dense as achtung. I wish we had a version that would fit....

There's a finished version from a documentary on Irish music. Two versions exist: one with Bono talking over a verse, and one with that edited out. It's very good quality; it's not as if it's a soundcheck recorded through an arena wall! I could upload either version if you like ...

Hey, if you would be happy doing it, i would be happy listening... whichever version you think is better (i would guess the one without bono talking?). This is another example of a time when I feel U2 should have leaked more of their "vault" for the iTunes set. We should have gotten some Achtung Era stuff on the Unreleased album...

Even Better Than The Real Thing/Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World/Ultra Violet

I think that's actually a pretty cool little single there. I'm sure everyone disagrees with the b-side status, but the three songs work nicely together nonetheless.

I actually think that flows quite nicely. I have always fancied the lineup of The Fly/Ultraviolet/Lady With The Spinning Head... i made that a 3" single for a friend once and they listened to it in their player for months... and they weren't even a fan of U2... in that context, Lady makes one hell of a closing track, with that grand finale that it has!

 

[MrBrau1]

And I think it would be a good idea to post Wild Irish Rose here for people to hear.

Here it is, complete, w/o the tv chatter.

http://s51. you send it.com/d.aspx?id=0IQWH12G2ZYQ80BU5GNMSOD49X

From 1986 I think. It's the most "Irish" sounding U2 song next to Van Diemen's Land. Yes, it has a drum machine, but I don't see how it fits on to AB anymore than, say, Jesus Christ.

 

[Axver]

Ax...wasn't 'Wild Irish Rose' recorded more during the JT era?

My logic for my custom albums is putting a song on the first album it's available for, if possible. I believe Wild Irish Rose was inspired by Bono's time in LA but I think it was created too late to make RAH and was first (and only) used on a documentary in 1990. So that's why I used it on AB rather than RAH. Same for Slow Dancing, but I can date She's A Mystery To Me to the JT Tour so I put it on RAH.

I'm uploading the edited Wild Irish Rose now for the folks who want it. Edit: seems I don't need to! Thanks Brau.

 

[namkcuR]

Exactly, it's from UF-JT era, it doesn't belong on AB.

 

[Clawgrabber]

oh, and yes... WGRYWH is incredible live, especially in it's intended ELECTRIC version as performed on BOSTON 3 on leg 1 of Vertigo and in stadiums on leg 2 ( i was fortunate enough to see it in Dublin and it almost melted my face!)

 

[MrBrau1]

Edit: seems I don't need to! Thanks Brau.

No Problemo.