I know I bash UF (the album) here quite often, but...

[U2girl]

I love UF, but WHY did they leave off great songs like LCT and Three Sunrises instead of ungood filler like EP and America and Fourth of July?

 

[gump]

Indian Summer Sky and Elvis Presley and America are way too underrated. They are absolutely beautiful. Bono's mumbling in EPAA is gorgeous and fits the album so well. The lyrics are interesting, and ISS has the bonus of sounding great live.

 

[Peterrrrr]

You need to talk to the world's number one advocate for the Unforgettable Fire, our own Axver. He believes the album is as good as they've done and loves its B-sides too.

Well Uf is one of their best work and also the most underrated.

1.Ab
2.Uf
3.HTDAAB
4.Zooropa
5.JT
6.ATYCLB/Pop/War/October/Boy/RH

 

[beegee]

epaa is brilliant. it's a completely improvised vocal that was completed in one take. a spontaneous moment captured and recorded for us to keep.

it is bono at his most pure, art at its most raw.

i will never understand people who cannot appreciate this.

 

[indra]

I love UF, but WHY did they leave off great songs like LCT and Three Sunrises instead of ungood filler like EP and America and Fourth of July?

Does anyone know if all the songs -- both on the album and the b-sides -- were completed in the same time period? I'm wondering if maybe some of the b-sides were completed later than the songs which made the album proper. I don't know if that would, or should, have made any difference in which songs got put on the album, but it's something to consider.

 

[Harry Vest]

To even state that "Elvis Presley And America" is C Side material is simply wrong. You are not a fan of the Unforgettable Fire if you cut down that song...and have the nerve to say that "Bad" doesn't make the cut!!! Geez.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

epaa is brilliant. it's a completely improvised vocal that was completed in one take. a spontaneous moment captured and recorded for us to keep.

it is bono at his most pure, art at its most raw.

i will never understand people who cannot appreciate this.

I cannot agree with you more, bonosgirl84. Word for word. Ever since the first time I heard it, EPAA has impacted me with its immediacy. Bono is completley uninhibited - the place he needs to be to reveal the beauty that's behind every great song. I love the ending, the way it builds itself into beauty, and explodes into broken pieces - each piece as bright as the whole they were aiming to transcend.

 

[ozeeko]

I cannot agree with you more, bonosgirl84. Word for word. Ever since the first time I heard it, EPAA has impacted me with its immediacy. Bono is completley uninhibited - the place he needs to be to reveal the beauty that's behind every great song. I love the ending, the way it builds itself into beauty, and explodes into broken pieces - each piece as bright as the whole they were aiming to transcend.

Precisely. You have to embrace this album with an open mind. Absorb it and appreciate the transcending experience. Anyone looking for straightfoward songs are destined to be dissapointed. If you added Love Comes Tumbling and Three Sunrises it would totally break the spell. They're both great songs individually. Not great for THIS particular album. Same with Sweetest Thing. If that song made it to Joshua Tree it wouldve destroyed the flow. That's why a song like Trip Thru Your Wires is included...because it fits in with the location.

 

[LemonMelon]

and have the nerve to say that "Bad" doesn't make the cut!!! Geez.

Of course Bad needs to be there...just a far superior version.

 

[beegee]

I cannot agree with you more, bonosgirl84. Word for word. Ever since the first time I heard it, EPAA has impacted me with its immediacy. Bono is completley uninhibited - the place he needs to be to reveal the beauty that's behind every great song. I love the ending, the way it builds itself into beauty, and explodes into broken pieces - each piece as bright as the whole they were aiming to transcend.

Hello, Mr. Griffiths!

"Immediacy" is a great way to describe it. Immediate ideas. Imagine being able to see a rough draft by a great writer or an amazing poet, or a notebook of first sketches by a brilliant artist. That's what this song is to me.

 

[corianderstem]

it is bono at his most pure, art at its most raw.

i will never understand people who cannot appreciate this.

I can certainly appreciate that, and can appreciate the song for what it is, but I still don't think that makes it album-worthy.



Edit: On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily replace it with anything. I agree that Love Comes Tumbling and The Three Sunrises would be out of place on TUF, and as much as I argue about EPAA, it's on the album, it's part of the album experience, and removing it would change the feel of the album.

Still don't want to listen to it more than once or twice a year, though.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Hello, Mr. Griffiths!

"Immediacy" is a great way to describe it. Immediate ideas. Imagine being able to see a rough draft by a great writer or an amazing poet, or a notebook of first sketches by a brilliant artist. That's what this song is to me.

Hello to you, Bonosgirl84! I like your analogy. This song is like a rough sketch, a direct sample of Bono's thoughts and feelings in embryo - unaltered, unfiltered, pure form of expression. That's a great place to be as an artist - and insanely difficult to maintain. U2 managed to pull this feat off throughout the Unforgettable Fire - perhaps more so than any other U2 album to date. Even Passengers seems staged (if that's possible) in comparison.

 

[Bones58]

It's a beautiful song When I have trouble sleeping at night I switch on my mp3 and listen to EPAA. It's so dreamy but raw at the same time and captured most of what the band was trying create at that moment It's just one underrated song all round.

"And I believe in them/ And I believe in you"