dr. zooeuss said:
OK, either you've misread what I've said, or I've misread what you've said.
From August 1979 until March 1980, U2 played a song called The Silver Lining. It musically resembles 11 O'clock Tick Tock, but is lyrically different. It has never been released in any form.
In April 1980, U2 recorded and released a song named 11 O'clock Tick Tock.
After April 1980, U2 played a song live called 11 O'clock Tick Tock, which in almost all of its ~300 performances has contained the "call out your name" verse and a second solo (present on the UABRS live version but not on the studio version).
The band did not rename the song due to adding the verse or solo. It kept the 11 O'clock Tick Tock name.
Well, I agree with why you think they played material before releasing it - they pretty much had to. But my point is that as a by-product of that, by the time they got into the studio to record Boy, they knew these songs very, very well. All you need to do is listen to the February 1979 version of Twilight (on Another Day's single) or the June 1979 versions of OOC and SFB (on U2:3) to see how these songs evolved from then through to mid-1980. U2, for better or worse, no longer choose to air anything that isn't already laid down in the studio, and I think one consequence of that is a number of songs are not fully completed until later.
This has some truth, but I'd like to make two points:
1. One of the October "top 3" was victim of this too. Tomorrow was played thrice in 1982 and about thirty times over the period of about 2 months in 1983, and has never been heard from again.
2. When the final October songs (barring Gloria and October) were cut, U2 at the time were making a subtle break with the past in their live sets. Songs like I Fall Down and ITABTAW ended their live career around the same time as the likes of Surrender, Twilight, THBAO, An Cat Dubh, Wire, et al. Now, yes, a couple of those have been briefly resurrected at later stages, but you certainly notice a big difference between the 1984-5 setlists and those of 1987. So I'm not sure you can really say the October songs discarded at that point were discarded due to being unfinished filler, as a lot of other stuff went around that time, material most of us would not consider filler.
I would agree that the obvious filler and unfinished tracks had an understandably brief live career. SIASL's unfinished nature didn't lend itself to live performances. The Cry stayed as The Cry and was never done as ITA. Scarlet, we could argue for hours about whether it was filler or just didn't suit being played live (though was done once). I'd say Rejoice was neither filler nor unfinished but just too demanding on Larry.
Because this forum can't stop falling over itself to praise that shoddy album?
All good, relevant quotes - they certainly illustrate the point. I do wonder how much revisionist history there is, knowing U2's changing attitudes towards Pop, though I think even around the time of October there were comments along the lines you posted.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think October is not exceptionally incomplete, and has a good number of individual songs - the majority - that, to me, seem pretty finished and were not redeveloped live. They sound rushed, especially lyrically. The album itself, as an overall piece of work, is incomplete - the Scarlet/ITA passage proves that as a work of art, it was never pieced together properly. But as for many of the songs themselves? I see no reason to believe Gloria, ITABTAW, Rejoice, Fire, Tomorrow, October, WAS, or Scarlet are any more unfinished than WOWY, One, Discotheque, Bullet, etc. Whether they're more complete - now that's contentious, depending on your comparisons and personal favourites.
Now shall we continue this on round 2's thread?
