Elvis Presley And America

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ericb

The Fly
Joined
Jun 22, 2001
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226
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Does anyone here like this song? It's the only song off UF I skip over. I can't understand what Bono is saying. The whole sound of the song is awful. The first half the song is murky, and then it clears up, then gets worse again. It sounds like it got thrown on the album last minute. Anyone else feel the same?
 
i do nay like it either!
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and i also dont like BTBS- ppl go on about it being great and all-but i never liked that song
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*please dont shout at me for my last comment*
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I don't like listening to it much, but I respect it for the way it was recorded. I read somewhere that it was one take, Bono made up the lyrics on the fly for the most part. Take that into account and it's not that bad. Still probably my least favorite post-War U2 song...
 
Elvis Presley and America = U2's first significant attempt at raw experimentation. Pop lovers eat your heart out!
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Correct me if I am wrong please. The drum track is supposidly the same drum track used for A Sort of Homecoming. Only it is reversed and played at a much slower speed. It is essentially the backbone for this song. As well, Bono was asked to improvise and shoot from the hip, so to speak. Eno taped Bono's vocals in one take and said, "okay, we're done." It is a beautiful song. You have to understand that to hear this song in 84-85 was completely mind boggling. The 80's did not have this type of bold new experimentation everywhere that you see now days. It certainly gives you a taste that U2 would later give us the experimental focus we see on such works as Zooropa and Pop.

I can understand that this song is not everybody's cup of tea. But for those of us that do hear the beauty of this song, we are fortunate to love one more U2 song than other U2 fans.

[This message has been edited by Roland of Gilead (edited 01-29-2002).]
 
Well I like it!

Not necessarily one of my favourites, but i certainly enjoy listening to it... it's got a great mood.
 
I think EP & America is a drop-dead gorgeous song. It floored me the first time I really sat there and listened to the feeling, mood and lyrics of the song. breathtaking.

This guts me:

You know
And though no one told you sky
And you feel
Like you pretend you can
You say, "go, you live -
Go live outside of me"
Don't you leave
Don't leave out part of me
Then I can feel
Like I feel before
Like I hurt now
And I see the floor
If you pick me up
Bits and pieces on this floor


One of my favorite U2 songs. ever.
It's about the feeling. It evokes so much emotion, and coupled with his delivery, and knowing it was an impromptu jam session makes me love it all the more.
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Originally posted by bono-vox:
i do nay like it either!
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and i also dont like BTBS- ppl go on about it being great and all-but i never liked that song
biggrin.gif
*please dont shout at me for my last comment*
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I won't shout at you for your last comment,I'll agree with you! I like BTBS but I think I might just be sick of hearing it. I could do without it.

But EP and America I absolutely LOVE!


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Work like you don't need to
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like no one is watching
 
whaaaaaaaaaaat????!!!!!!!!!!!

i love this song, its one of my fave U2 songs ever! Its so so good. I know it is tough to understand what he is saying, but to me that the beauty about this song - its add so much emotion to his voice. It feels like Bono is absolutely just pouring every emotion from his heart on parts of this song.

I know ist not a U2 classic in the quote un-quote sense of the word, but to me its the most underrated U2 song out there!
 
Ditto HelloAngel and MikeSt. Personally, I find it a truly beautiful, moody, melancholic work. Hazy and out of focus, to be sure, but that gives it character. I love that they had the balls to put it on the record especially when you consider that at the time UF was recorded U2 was hardly the biggest band in the world. Shows a lot of artistic chutzpa, imo.
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Originally posted by u2loopy:
I like BTBS but I think I might just be sick of hearing it. I could do without it.

But EP and America I absolutely LOVE!

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i want a chance to keep you awake at night, when the sunlight burns through your love...
ME!
 
Can't say that I love "EP & America," but I have a healthy respect for it -- at that point it was really necessary for them to stretch themselves like that. It took a lot of nerve to do all that edgy, free-form stuff on UF. The album is a little short on strongly written "songs," but full of interesting sounds, textures. When they did JT a couple years later, they made a big return to songwriting, and the experiments on UF really paid off, because JT is a sonic marvel as well as being an incredible feat of songwriting.
 
I actually love Elvis Presley and America to bits. It's a one-take piece, and should be heard as such. Stream-of-consciousness at the microphone. It is a bit lo-fi, but I like that about it. Very unusual for a band - any band - recording in the mid 1980s.

Listen closely and you can make a lot of the words out.
 
Originally posted by Roland of Gilead:
Elvis Presley and America = U2's first significant attempt at raw experimentation. Pop lovers eat your heart out!
biggrin.gif


Correct me if I am wrong please. The drum track is supposidly the same drum track used for A Sort of Homecoming. Only it is reversed and played at a much slower speed. It is essentially the backbone for this song. As well, Bono was asked to improvise and shoot from the hip, so to speak. Eno taped Bono's vocals in one take and said, "okay, we're done." It is a beautiful song. You have to understand that to hear this song in 84-85 was completely mind boggling. The 80's did not have this type of bold new experimentation everywhere that you see now days. It certainly gives you a taste that U2 would later give us the experimental focus we see on such works as Zooropa and Pop.

I can understand that this song is not everybody's cup of tea. But for those of us that do hear the beauty of this song, we are fortunate to love one more U2 song than other U2 fans.

[This message has been edited by Roland of Gilead (edited 01-29-2002).]
 
Funny thing about UF -- it's an album I've never thought about in concrete "critical" terms like all the others. Instead, it's a great feeling, more like a favourite restaurant than a favourite movie, you know? Except for Pride, Bad, and MLK, this is such a stream-of-consciousness album I never really did suss out which titles belong to which tracks *L* But then you guys pose these questions and I get to discover WHY this record's so flippin' great! End of Preamble
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EP&America works for me on a number of levels: first off, the DRUMS! The tension at the end between Bono's voice and Larry -- man! sneaks up on ya -- this floaty, wandering, searching vibe, pushing, pushing, and all of a sudden you're holding your breath 'cause Larry's about to take you out...
And Bono's vocal: the whole record is a series of images and feelings fading in and out. Here, the strangled word, "hunger!", flares out of this building intensity, and then that brilliant moment at the end when the tension breaks and I hear, like a gasp, "in pieces on the floor". Leaves me gasping, every time.
The fact that Bono can improvise on the mic blows me away, too. This track captures a particularly raw, immediate sound. It feels candid, which is a privilege to these ears.
And finally -- this may sound weird, but I'm sure you all recognize what I mean -- the space between EP&A and MLK. One of the subtle pleasures of a great album (or mixed tape
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) is the segue from one song's closing notes into the next opening note. I love the way all that chaotic questing resolves into the crystal simplicity of MLK. Makes the latter doubly restful.
Same thing happens between Promenade (talk about "wandering"!) and the gentle heartbeat that will become the marathon called Bad. Also thanks to Larry.

Okay, I'll stop now...
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Deb D



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in memoriam
Peter Gzowski (1934-2002)

He set my feet upon a rock
made my footsteps firm


the greatest frontman in the world -- by truecoloursfly: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575
 
I probably listened to this song 20 or 30 times before I *really* listened to. But once I did, I loved it, for many of the reasons mentioned above. There's so much aimless wandering in the first half which grows in to such passion at the end.
 
I LOVE IT!!

Seriously though, I can't get enough of the naked passion in this song. Bono's voice sounds like one in a trance and I love the stream of consciousness feel to the song. This song feels like he's inhabiting the territory of the song...and because of that, it has an otherworldly feel to it. I also love the bongolese on it, and the passion..I love the part where his voice rises and increases with volume...it provokes a very spiritual feeling within me...hard to explain, but this song still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it...
 
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