Political or Africa album?

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Political or Africa album?

Utoo said:


I dunno. I can't see too much coming from it without sounding like a charity song (i.e., Do They Know It's Christmas). For a political song, war is sexy. War/anti-war songs give you fire, rage (NYD, SBS, etc.). Starvation & malaria aren't sexy. Bono's acknowledged that many times. The only real fire that I see could be in a song about those things would be the sort of "you can help me but you're not" sentiment of Crumbs---and they've already gone that route. Maybe he could do something from the point of view of a starving/dying/diseased/whatever African person, sort of calling out "you've betrayed me, you won't help me," whatever.....but that'd pretty much be a cross between One and Crumbs.

I dunno. :shrug: I just don't see much fire coming from a song about the work he's currently doing. And I definitely don't think it'd pass the Larry Test----it would sound too much like the image they tried to knock down with AB, or even too much like a Vertigo Tour Bono Speech set to music. :shrug:

If it'd work, I'm all for it. I just don't see the potential for it to compare to songs like NYD, SBS, or Bullet.

Correct, I didn't mean charity songs of something anti-Bush or something overtly preachy. The betrayal/not helping direction of Crumbs is what I'm getting at.
I think we would have gotten more by now if Bomb hadn't turned out so personal for Bono.
 
Ave Maria lyrics are explicit but they are a Bono song not a U2 song.

When you read the little book from the HTDAAB Deluxe Edition, there is a lot of pages and drawings about fair trade, poverty, etc.
And many pages about Bono's father too.
Bono's father is in HTDAAB, no problem. But except Crumbs and Miracle Drug, there is nothing about his activism.
Bono said that U2 recorded 24 songs during the Bomb sessions
We know the 11 on Bomb + Fast Cars + Mercy + Smile (unless Bono considers Native Son, Xanax, All Because of You, Sometimes in his 24 songs).
The problem is that we don't really have b-sides to know the nature, the tone of the unreleased songs, they can be more about Bono's activism, who knows ?
 
guill said:
Bono said that U2 recorded 24 songs during the Bomb sessions
We know the 11 on Bomb + Fast Cars + Mercy + Smile (unless Bono considers Native Son, Xanax, All Because of You, Sometimes in his 24 songs).

You can add "Are You Gonna Wait Forever?" to that. That makes 15. I think we'll see pieces of the other 9 on a new U2 album. Like Northern Star.
 
the tourist said:


You can add "Are You Gonna Wait Forever?" to that. That makes 15. I think we'll see pieces of the other 9 on a new U2 album. Like Northern Star.

Are You Gonna Wait Forever? was produced by Lanois/Eno, it might come grom the ATYCLB sessions imo.

U2girl said:
The betrayal/not helping direction of Crumbs is what I'm getting at.
I think we would have gotten more by now if Bomb hadn't turned out so personal for Bono.

There were songs called "Treason" and "Jubilee"


'When it became clear that Clayton and Mullen Jr. were not going to budge, producer Steve Lillywhite was brought in to break the deadlock. "They played me the record," says Lillywhite, "and it was, well, it had the weight of the world on its shoulders. It certainly wasn't any fun." '

I would love to hear this record :drool:
 
guill said:



I would love to hear this record :drool:

It's interesting to note only 3 songs (OSC, Sometimes and Yahweh) on the finished Bomb are produced by Thomas. (and he co-produced Love and peace) I wonder what will happen to the rest...

So far we got 11 songs on Bomb, Fast cars, Mercy and Smile. (Are you gonna wait forever is from ATYCLB, as Eno and Lanois produced it) 10 songs left that are still out there.
 
guill said:


Are You Gonna Wait Forever? was produced by Lanois/Eno, it might come grom the ATYCLB sessions imo.



There were songs called "Treason" and "Jubilee"


'When it became clear that Clayton and Mullen Jr. were not going to budge, producer Steve Lillywhite was brought in to break the deadlock. "They played me the record," says Lillywhite, "and it was, well, it had the weight of the world on its shoulders. It certainly wasn't any fun." '

I would love to hear this record :drool:

Isn't 'Jubilee' a working title from the ATYCLB recording era?
I remember to hear something about 'Lead me in the way I should go', 'You can't give your heart away', 'Sky hawk' and others. but this could've been other working titles for songs we already know.
 
I heard that their next album is going to be called: It's in the Post Africa, of something like that.

I would prefer if they wrote more personal songs
 
Aygo said:


Isn't 'Jubilee' a working title from the ATYCLB recording era?

This is 'Beautiful Day'


This is from the ATYCLB Rolling Stone issue:




Bono sits on a sofa in the center of U2’s Dublin recording studio — a laptop on his knees, a microphone in one hand — listening to a vocal he has just sung.The song is called, for this moment, anyhow, "Stir MySoul." As it exists at around a quarter past six on a Friday evening in May, it is delicate and beautiful, driven by a hypnotic piano motif, over which Bono murmurs a mixture of words and melody before launching into a chorus largely consisting of the phrase "stir my soul" repeated over and over. The other three members of U2 sit scattered around the studio, with producer Daniel Lanois.(Co-producer Brian Eno prefers to contribute in short,sharp bursts; lately he’s been coming in one week per month.)

U2 have an idea that "Stir My Soul" will be the song the band needs to open its new album, in the works for two years and scheduled for release this fall. "Some sort of opening gambit," Bono explains. "Sometimes you dream one up, and sometimes you find one on the floor." The Edge says that they’ve probably touched on a hundred different songs making this album. At the back of the studio is a white marker board that details the progress of the nineteen strongest contenders. According to the board, none of them are finished. This evening I will see just a little of the random, inspired, quick-changing process by which just one of them evolves.

A year ago, Bono says, this song was called "Jubilee,"and he had it all worked out. It leaped off from the Old Testament concept of a jubilee year. "The Jews had this idea that every seven days you had the Sabbath day, the day not to work," he says. "Every seven years you let the land lie fallow, and seven times seven —forty-nine years — you had a year of jubilee, where the people who are indebted, you had to let go of their debts. Captives, slaves, had to be set free. It was a time of grace. Beautiful idea, really."

U2 marked it as a song they should get back to, but when they replayed it a few days ago, all that jubilee thinking was cast aside. Bono wrote an entirely new lyric. He sings me the opening lines — "Speak to me of the supernatural things/I will listen if you can tell me why the songbird sings" — and shows me a printout of the rest from his computer, almost as if he wants to prove that the new U2 album is not being delayed simply because the singer has failed to complete his homework. But even that version is history now."Beautiful tune, beautiful melody," he says, "but it wasn’t what we wanted it to be. We were looking for more of an invocation."

So two days ago, the song now known as "Stir My Soul" mutated once more. "We changed all the chords and increased the tempo by ten b.p.m.," says the Edge. Bono explains it like this: "Quincy Jones said to me once, ’You’re waiting for God to walk through the room, or else it’s just craft.’ The way you write music is at once humdrum — there’s a fridge in the corner with apples and a bottle of milk, and there’s a fax machine — and at the same time you’re waiting for a miracle, or else it’s just the sum of the parts. And yesterday we got this great gift of this melody, and that’s what we have now."Of course, the new melody didn’t work with the old chorus, and so Bono has come up with a new one."This Dusty Springfield one," as he refers to it. ("I’m man enough to say I’ve been very influenced by her," headds. "We’ve a similar register in places — since our first album, I’ve felt a little bit of her.")

But they’re still not happy. They now worry that the chorus is too commonplace. The Edge tries to add some guitar.

"I like that," encourages Bono. "It’s dizzier." Bono worries about a part of the song at the end of the chorus where it stops and regathers itself. "It’s a little professional when it stops," he says to Lanois. "We might have to mess it up a bit."

Bono picks up the microphone and sings some heavenly "oh-whoa-oh-whoa’s" onto the track, the conversation around him barely pausing. It is remarkable watching with what speed and with what little reverence U2 race to change, amend and evolve a song.
 
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Politics. we've just had an africa one. And maybe this time it could be european politics and not american politics?! You guys have had enough! We want more 'War'!
 
partygirlvox said:
Politics. we've just had an africa one. And maybe this time it could be european politics and not american politics?! You guys have had enough! We want more 'War'!

Um, what??? One song could be looked at about being about Africa. How is that American politics?
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


Um, what??? One song could be looked at about being about Africa. How is that American politics?

isnt the joshua tree pretty much about america, with some exceptions like running to stand still? and then there is new york, and city of blinding lights which ive heard it about new york. Im not saying this is just american politics, but i think u2 need to come back to europe a bit more.
 
partygirlvox said:


isnt the joshua tree pretty much about america, with some exceptions like running to stand still? and then there is new york, and city of blinding lights which ive heard it about new york. Im not saying this is just american politics, but i think u2 need to come back to europe a bit more.

BTBS was a political comment on American foreign policy...but that's about it. How is New York or COBL political?

Let's see, we've had SBS, Please, POE, and LIB about the troubles in Ireland.

:huh:
 
U2girl said:
On the other hand, why not an album centered on injustices in Africa? Maybe try to include some African sounds/record in Africa to get inspired.

I´d love them to do a political album or an album with African influences. But do you know what you are talking about? I think such a production can be dangerous. U2 is an Irish rock band. There are two ways of giving the album an African touch: first one: a few instruments/ solos on it with African instruments or players. The problem is all the African influences would get mushed up in another sound - rock is not world music. Therefore, I guess it would be a sad affair if they record it in england with their usual roster of producers. second way: record and produce the album in Africa. Now that would be an entirely different affair. Say, get Youssou N Dour to produce the next U2 album in Senegal. This would be an authentic project. I doubt that the rest of the band really wants to change U2s sound though - maybe it would be a solo project of Bono.
 
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