Happiness Is A Warm Gun (The Gun Mix)

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impy13

ONE love, blood, life
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I was listening to The White Album today, and when I was done I decided to listen to the cover from the Last Night On Earth single.

Might be a weird question, but I'm curious as to what everyone thinks about this?
 
It's cool - takes a different slant on the song and I think it really reflects the vibe that was going on around U2 circa 1996 - 1997
 
For those who may not know, the U2 version of Happiness Is A Warm Gun was recorded for the 6 episode Robert Altman produced ABC tv series Gun in the spring of 1997, prior to its release a few months later on the Last Night On Earth single.

A short excerpt from the song was used over the title sequence for Gun. This show was on the air at the same time that ABC had their U2: A Year In Pop special on April 26, 1997. Gun is now available on dvd.
 
Rafiennes said:
It's cool - takes a different slant on the song and I think it really reflects the vibe that was going on around U2 circa 1996 - 1997

Yeah, I felt like it was really Pop-ish. I definitely like it, it's just a drastically different take on the old standard. Good stuff though.

I still prefer the Beatles version.
 
This is in my top 3 Beatles songs, so I was very excited that they were covering it. What I like about U2's version is that they didn't simply try to emulate the original--what would be the point of that? Part of the reason U2's covers of Paint it Black and Fortunate Son are so worthless is that they bring absolutely NOTHING to the song except their enthusiasm, and that just ain't enough.

HIAWG is a Lennon song that was cobbled together from three unfinished pieces. So you don't approach it as some masterpiece of composition that must be honored. Lennon was an experimenter himself, so I think he would appreciate that U2 tried something different with it.

I don't know if I'd call it a "great" track, but it's a reminder of a time when they were willing to try anything, and it still sounds fresh to me.
 
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