Please

[edge_2125]

Maybe the most under-rated U2 track ever? I've seen it described as the Sunday Bloody Sunday of the 90s but I believe it stands alone as one of the best songs in the U2 catalogue. And the few live performances I've heard of it, despite Bono's voice problems of that era are among the best in the band's history.

Both songs have their merits but I prefer the slow-burning, simmering fury of Please to the unrestrained rage of SBS. The anguished almost-whisper of "Please, please, please, get up of your keens please.." as the song builds to its crescendo is just amazing..

 

[boystupidboy]

agrees

 

[Ellay]

Please.

Live version - Unbelievably brilliant

Single version - Great, but didn't set the charts alight.

Album version - Clearly incomplete & would have been skipped by many.

 

[timothius]

Please for me in the studio never really gets there. I kind of love parts of the single & album versions but neither really, really gets me.

Live however, into streets. It's there best work. I can't get enough of that Bullet->Please->Streets combo.

 

[MsMofoGone]

"Please" is an exceptionally GREAT song ... doesn't matter to me whether it's the studio or live version ...
I always thought it was GREAT !!

 

[bathiu]

- Single version has more "The Edge" - solo and other new guitar parts...
- Album version has Larry's drums as a lead, laud and clear... after 'War' songs it's the first song since BTBS recoded like that...
This also makes a nice pattern for songs with this kind of themes: SBS -> BTBS -> Please (album version).
- Live version has no competition from other songs to this day

 

[miss becky]

Please.

 

[flaxjm]

Does anyone have a good live recording of Please? I've always been a huge fan of the song, but have never heard it live. If anyone can email me a good version (or hey, since we're asking/begging, a great POPmart show - I have none - with a live Please, all the merrier), I would be in that person's debt for life.

jonathanflax at comcast dot net

I thank you!

 

[the tourist]

I can't stand the wah-wah guitar in it.

 

[GibsonGirl]

I can't stand the wah-wah guitar in it.

*loves wah*

 

[mikal]

i love the version from the 1997 VMA's.

 

[No spoken words]

Please.

Live version - Unbelievably brilliant

Single version - Great, but didn't set the charts alight.

Album version - Clearly incomplete & would have been skipped by many.

Agree with all 3.

 

[namkcuR]

All three versions are billiant in their own ways. The live version has the extended guitar solo, and Bono's spastic dancing/spinning/moaning/howling during the extended guitar solo.

The single version has the string arrangements and the original guitar solo.

The album version, however, is NOT the incomplete, unfinished thing some people seem to think it is. It is much less accessible than the single or live versions, yes, but that makes it fit better in the context of its album, Pop, which itself is a relatively unaccessible record. Plus, the album version has those CATHARTICALLY HAUNTING Edge backing vocals during the last third of the song and especially from the 'please' repeitions before the last 'so love is big' until the end of the song.

All in all, a brilliant song.

 

[Pero]

So fucking rocks live, so fucking great in studio, what more do you want

 

[xana dew]

How about Please instead of Vertigo a second time

 

[LMP]

as soon as a read this thread, please popped on my ipod...

a bit kooky

Every version of Please I've heard I love in it's own respective way, but my favorite is the Single Version, more Edge is always better

 

[VertigoGal]

I like the album version a lot, but the live version from Rotterdam I think it is, is absolutely mindblowing, imo. that's got to be one of their best live songs ever. It's just so...

 

[R8drgurl]

Live version!

 

[communist]

live acoustic version... the best one of them all... played during Elevation leg 3.

 

[madroseka]

I think Live it is absolutly awsome...the album version leaves a lot to be desired. I think the guys knew that and tweaked it up a bit for the live version. I think one of the best live performances was the on the 97 MTV VMAs

 

[JOFO]

always have loved the please.
in any form.

 

[corianderstem]

Fantastic, amazing song, in any form. A little more "oomph" live, but still great in its other forms.

 

[peach]

any version.
I think it's a brilliant song.

 

[bedouin fire]

best u2 song from the last 13 years

 

[LemonAid]

All three versions are billiant in their own ways. The live version has the extended guitar solo, and Bono's spastic dancing/spinning/moaning/howling during the extended guitar solo.

The single version has the string arrangements and the original guitar solo.

The album version, however, is NOT the incomplete, unfinished thing some people seem to think it is. It is much less accessible than the single or live versions, yes, but that makes it fit better in the context of its album, Pop, which itself is a relatively unaccessible record. Plus, the album version has those CATHARTICALLY HAUNTING Edge backing vocals during the last third of the song and especially from the 'please' repeitions before the last 'so love is big' until the end of the song.

All in all, a brilliant song.

Exactly! I always thought I preferred the single version with the strings until I was downloading it onto my ipod to put it on the pop album in place of the album version and BAM......it totally did not work. Ever since, my appreciation for the album version grows ten fold with each listen. Its a stung, hurt, abrasive song thats not looking to be a single.....the album version is how it should be.....not pleasent, but gorgeously so.

 

[LemonAid]

also, Claytons bass is something else, especially towards the end of the tune.

and edge?! ....man, he is just ripping at that guitar once the song restarts after 'but love......is not..............what you're thinking of......' section.....just angular ugly feelings been put thru that guitar....

....all round, one hell of a band effort....

...the segue from If you wear that velvet dress > Please > Wake Up Dead Man is just something else......

...wherever they were as a band at that time, there was not much light..

 

[MacPhistoPT]

the live version is the better but it's always a great song. No top 10 for me personally but... I'd like to see Please this tour.

Please video is also one of my favourite.

 

[beli]

Please, the song, and the video, are my very favourites from U2. Fav song, fav video