POP! as it was intended

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Joined
Feb 6, 2002
Messages
153
Location
belfast
i have posted about this before on other forums, basically everyone knows that "pop" was never finished!
and when the band released singles from the album they were completely reworked as were songs on the last" best of " that were from "pop".

so ive compiled a version of "pop" with all the reworks and a few of the mixes from the singles.

basically its nearer to what the band intended .

here it is

"ALTERNATIVE POP"

1.Discotheque (new mix)
2.Holy joe
3.Mofo(phunk force mix)
4.If god will send his angels(single version)
5.Staring at the sun (new mix)
6.Last night on earth(single version)
7.Gone (new mix)
8.Please(single version)
9.North and south of the river
10.Slow dancing(bono and willie nelson)
11.Two shots of happy one of sad
12.Happiness is a warm gun
13.Big girls are best(cos its from the pop sessions)
14.Pop musik(popmart mix)
15.Dirty day(bitter kiss)
 
I'll keep my regular version. To put it delicately, the new mixes of Discotheque and especially SATS suck ass.
 
it is a good idea but you should be selective in implementing it. new mix of Gone, yes but new mixes of disco and sats are not needed in my books. the single versions of last night, god will send and please are the most important improvements.

to suggest that U2 intended for the phunk force mix of mofo to be the album cut is...comical.
 
bedouin fire said:


i prefer the original as well

im not saying that i like all the new versions , its just the band must have remixed or re-recorded them for a reason , and if you put them together its nearly what they intended to do in the first place,
 
My version would be:

Discothèque (Single Version) - With a slightly different beginning... I think they added that dizzing effect last minute... it's cleaner but more powerfol to me.

Do You Feel Loved?

MoFo

If God Will Send His Angels (Single Version)

Staring At The Sun

Last Night On Earth (Single Version)

Gone (New Mix)

Miami

Playboy Mansion

If You Wear That Velvet Dress

Please (Single Version)

Wake Up Dead Men

Also mention that I think the songs they "fixed" were the stronger ones, not the weaker ones for me... (Miami, PM, IYWTVD)
 
manwiththespinninhead said:
i have posted about this before on other forums, basically everyone knows that "pop" was never finished!

Actually, this is complete Bono B.S.

I have the souvenier book from the Popmart tour, and in it the band are quoted as having said how happy they were to have taken their time and finished the album...and how excited they were for everyone to hear it.

The "unfinished" comments are an excuse that was invented when Pop was deemed as mediocre by the general public.
 
POP will not forever be deemed mediocre.....if anyone other than U2 had released that album, people would have been declaring it genius. The album has some of their best songwriting and is "different" than anything else they have done.
 
Re: Re: POP! as it was intended

Zoocoustic said:


Actually, this is complete Bono B.S.

I have the souvenier book from the Popmart tour, and in it the band are quoted as having said how happy they were to have taken their time and finished the album...and how excited they were for everyone to hear it.

The "unfinished" comments are an excuse that was invented when Pop was deemed as mediocre by the general public.

Yep, your 100% right. I read that book too in the Vegas twilight waiting for U2 to go on and remember how proud the band was of Pop. In all the interviews Bono praised Pop so much while bashing the media for the negative reviews.

I do think the band could have used a few more months for the singles that came out that year, but not Disco or SATS. Songs that needed work on the Pop album are:

IGWSHA-change to single version
LNOE-single version or more like live version
Playboy Mansion-little more production
Please-single version

With these changes Pop would have been a five star album. I still see it as a 4.5 though :wink:
 
#1 - slow dancing & two shots... don't quite fit on Pop... i love both songs, but they don't fit the theme of the album. and anyways, two shots... was written as a birthday gift for frank sinatra and was never intended to be on pop in the first place.

#2- u2 have never put a cover on a studio album, so trash warm gun & pop muzik from that list

#3 - big girls wasn't finished until the ATYCLB sessions, so scrap that one too

#4 - ummmmmmm... i don't quite think they'd put a remix of a song that was already on a u2 album on a proper studio album, so hasta la vista dirty day.

ok so that knocks 6 songs off of your version, which brings it down to 9... u2 albums tend to be 11 or 12 songs long, so let me take a stab at what i think it should be.

1. discotheque
2. do you feel loved
3. mofo
4. if god will send his angels
5. staring at the sun
6. last night on earth
7. gone
8. miami
9. playboy mansion
10. if you wear that velvet dress
11. please
12. wake up dead man

there... i think if u2 had released pop just like that that the album would debut at #1 and they'd have one of the highest grossing world wide tours of all time to back the album.
 
Last edited:
Headache in a Suitcase said:
#1 - slow dancing & two shots... don't quite fit on Pop... i love both songs, but they don't fit the theme of the album. and anyways, two shots... was written as a birthday gift for frank sinatra and was never intended to be on pop in the first place.

#2- u2 have never put a cover on a studio album, so trash warm gun & pop muzik from that list

#3 - big girls wasn't finished until the ATYCLB sessions, so scrap that one too

#4 - ummmmmmm... i don't quite think they'd put a remix of a song that was already on a u2 album on a proper studio album, so hasta la vista dirty day.

ok so that knocks 6 songs off of your version, which brings it down to 9... u2 albums tend to be 11 or 12 songs long, so let me take a stab at what i think it should be.

1. discotheque
2. last night on earth
3. mofo
4. if god will send his angels
5. staring at the sun
6. last night on earth
7. gone
8. miami
9. playboy mansion
10. if you wear that velvet dress
11. please
12. wake up dead man

there... i think if u2 had released pop just like that that the album would debut at #1 and they'd have one of the highest grossing world wide tours of all time to back the album.

Yea, like that didn't happen
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
#1 - slow dancing & two shots... don't quite fit on Pop... i love both songs, but they don't fit the theme of the album. and anyways, two shots... was written as a birthday gift for frank sinatra and was never intended to be on pop in the first place.

#2- u2 have never put a cover on a studio album, so trash warm gun & pop muzik from that list

#3 - big girls wasn't finished until the ATYCLB sessions, so scrap that one too

#4 - ummmmmmm... i don't quite think they'd put a remix of a song that was already on a u2 album on a proper studio album, so hasta la vista dirty day.

ok so that knocks 6 songs off of your version, which brings it down to 9... u2 albums tend to be 11 or 12 songs long, so let me take a stab at what i think it should be.

1. discotheque
2. last night on earth
3. mofo
4. if god will send his angels
5. staring at the sun
6. last night on earth
7. gone
8. miami
9. playboy mansion
10. if you wear that velvet dress
11. please
12. wake up dead man

there... i think if u2 had released pop just like that that the album would debut at #1 and they'd have one of the highest grossing world wide tours of all time to back the album.

I think you meant do you feel loved as #2, unless you really hate that song and really really love last night on earth.

but I get your sarcasm anyway and appreciate it.:wink:
 
Don't put "Pop Muzik" on there since the band did not write it. It was a lame song from 1980 by "M."
 
Second half needs work, although Wake up Dead man suits having no bells and whistles
 
What about this track list:

1. Discotheque
2. Do You Feel Loved
3. Mofo
4. If God Would Send His Angels
5. SATS
6. LNOE
7. Gone
8. Miami
9. Playboy Mansion
10.City of Blinding Lights (was from the Pop sessions)
11.Velvet Dress
12.Please
13.Wake Up Deadman

That would be :drool:
 
Re: Re: POP! as it was intended

Zoocoustic said:


Actually, this is complete Bono B.S.

I have the souvenier book from the Popmart tour, and in it the band are quoted as having said how happy they were to have taken their time and finished the album...and how excited they were for everyone to hear it.

The "unfinished" comments are an excuse that was invented when Pop was deemed as mediocre by the general public.

Actually, if you read "Into the Heart: The Story Behind Every U2 Song," as well as the Q magazine article put out around the time of Pop, you'll find that recording Pop was a down-to-the-wire affair with the band taking a boat back and forth across the quay to try to finish b/c they didn't have enough time to drive. Last Night on Earth was the last vocal recorded on the last night before the album was due to the record company -- finished the morning of, instead of having the breakfast they'd put out to celebrate; one of the reasons Bono's vocals on that song are so ragged (his quote: "That's why Edge sings -- he's covering for me"). They pushed the deadline as far as they could without running into critical tour rehearsals, and were even tweaking the album halfway through the mastering stage (Howie B did a new mix of Discotheque in the mastering).

As far as Bono et al saying how happy they were... well, to quote a line used during the Zoo TV tour: "Don't believe the hype." Even the band admitted that they didn't spend enough time with the songs on the album deemed to be singles.

Pop is a good album, but replacing the singles with the single versions makes it much better. And for my money, the Romin Remix of Mofo is much better than the Phunk Phorce.
 
Do you guys think U2 would go back a finish Pop. Didn't Larry say he wanted to. I don't think this would go to well with media if they were to rerelease Pop. That would make U2 look like there admiting Pop was a failure.
 
I doubt they'd re-release at as a "new" U2 album, more something like a special edition or a bonus disc of a future album or best-of collection I would say.
 
I think they should leave it alone...the more they dabble with it, the more it is obvious THEY don't think it is a good album....most people who actually gave the album a fair listen would agree that it is great. The more it is dabbled with, the more no one is ever going to be satisfied with it and it will forever stick out. I think it will stand up as one of their greats if they leave it alone.
 
zoopop said:
Do you guys think U2 would go back a finish Pop. Didn't Larry say he wanted to. I don't think this would go to well with media if they were to rerelease Pop. That would make U2 look like there admiting Pop was a failure.

the rawness of the album is what I love about it. It gives it that edgier (no pun intended) feel to it like their first albums. With the unfinished aspect to it, it comes across like (as I've said many, many times before) techno-punk.


And the new mix of Gone is horrible, it takes out the beautiful guitar part of Edge's towards the end of the song "no emotional goodbye / I'll be up with the sun..." it adds such emotion to Bono's vocals.

OK, I'm done
 
I've had the Bitter Kiss version of Dirty Day for a while but finally listened to it for the first time last week. Wow! That cello that kicks in during the bridge! :drool: I've been trying to figure out the notes in my guitar. I bet it sounds good with a slide.
 
I would love to see Pop re-done/ re-mixed/ reproduced b/c there were some problems with the mix of some songs IMO.

My only fear is that with U2's penchant for being perfectionists or going in too many different directions, they would change POP so much that it would sound un-recognizable or too produced. I liked aspects of what they did for the Best of Version of Numb, but it sounded to clean to me at the same time. Sort of takes away from the song IMO.
 
Re: Re: POP! as it was intended

Zoocoustic said:


Actually, this is complete Bono B.S.


Is it?

The band made singles versions on 3 songs right from the start, on Please (which everyone or most people here really like), Last night on earth (which I also think most people like) and If god will send his angels. (which is kind of not discussed much, so I'm guessing most people feel neutral about it) 3 more songs were re-done for the second Best of: Gone (which most people like), Discotheuqe (50-50 IMO, some like it, some don't) and Staring at the sun (arguably the weakest reworking).
If Hands that built America would be a single, we'd get a new mix of Playboy mansion too.

It is a well known fact they were racing to finish the album before the tour started - and so Last night on earth vocal was done on the very LAST day of recording. Not to mention that caused lack of practice and opening night disaster in Vegas.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom