Song Wars!: Bad vs. Pride

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

discothequeLP

Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Joined
Oct 22, 2003
Messages
8,095
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Ok...the biggest of these ever (so far :wink: )


The (arguably) two most powerful songs of the 80's, but which one is better?


Pride is the more famous one, a great song about MLK, probably U2's "anthem" (if you have to pick one).

Bad...well...we all know about Bad, especially after Live Aid and Elevation Boston....



Which is better?




Nothing touches me like Bad does. Nothing. Not music, not English homework, not my girlfriend....nothing. It's my favorite U2 song ever, so far, and probably for ever.


I also got to thinking...


On the next album, will we finally see another magical, "historical" U2 song? I mean, it's been a while since we've seen songs as groundbreaking and outstandig as Bad, Pride, Streets, or One. Yeah, Please and SATS were great songs, but they were not as amazing as One or Streets was. Hopefully the band will give us at least one more on the next album.




So, which one is better, Bad or Pride?
 
Pride sounds better, and is such an anthem and a real rocker at the same time...brilliant beat....Possibly Larry's most brilliant work...

Love it live....a real stunner
 
In the studio, Pride just beats Bad. Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably tell you that the other way around.

Live? PRIDE STINKS LIVE. Do not tell me it's good because IT IS NOT. The only performance of Pride that beats the studio version is 31 August 1984, Wellington. The rest are flat, some abysmally so. What the hell is Edge doing with his guitar? Apart from the solo, it lacks the energy of the studio. And Bono's singing just ... doesn't seem right. The chorus isn't rousing and the whole song's just dull. It's the only song I ever complain about Edge during. In fact, it's the only live U2 song I ever complain about because everything else just ROCKS (excluding a couple of songs that are only now becoming tired). I hope they don't play Pride at a concert I go to, I'd be disappointed that it got chosen instead of something more worthy.

But even if Pride is good live, it cannot hold a candle to Bad live. Very little can. Bad on RAH blows almost anything away, Live Aid was simply stunning, WAIA is awesome ... there's so many legendary performances. I have a 13:45 one from somewhere. It is the very essence of amazing. Bad isn't just a song, it's an EVENT. If they walked onstage, played Bad, and walked back off, I'd probably be happy. It's beyond incredible.
 
Even though Pride is the song that brought me to U2...

Bad hits a hundred times harder, especially live.

Pride is.. okay it's anthemic, it's radio, it's slick, it speaks to a subject nearly the entire world can grasp..

but Bad is the other side of that same coin minted in '84, and by far the more powerful of the two.
 
I've always preferred Pride as a song because it seems much more optimistic and hopeful. Bad is a beautiful song, but it is depressing and bleak, and a lot more subdued when compared to Pride's exuberance. Bad does, however, have more powerful lyrics.
 
discothequeLP said:
Bad...well...we all know about Bad, especially after Live Aid and Elevation Boston....

Yes, Live Aid...Elevation Boston?? I don't think so, somehow...that version stank to high heaven. The best versions of Bad can be found on 1) Wide Awake in America 2) Live Aid 3) Rattle and Hum. I really don't think the Elevation Boston version is anything special in the slightest.... Especially the guitar, could barely hear it, and it sounded like he'd switched his Delay off!

Originally posted by Axver
Live? PRIDE STINKS LIVE. Do not tell me it's good because IT IS NOT.

Cannot agree more, it's dull...it's often too slow, lacks the massive OOMPH of the studio version and Bono just cannot be arsed to sing in properly...

Originally posted by Axver
Bad on RAH blows almost anything away, Live Aid was simply stunning, WAIA is awesome ... there's so many legendary performances. I have a 13:45 one from somewhere.

He he, great minds think alike...however, I think that really long 14 minute trip was played at Stuttgart, or however the hell it's spelt...I think Eye of the Fly still have the whole concert uploaded (unless they've taken it back down again...)
 
I agree that Pride live lacks its power captured in studio, but I wouldn?t say it stinks, frankly.

I would choose Bad because it is my song, my first and definitive U2 song. I also agree with the above mentioned, that the Elevation Boston it?s not that special. One of the live versions I love the most, besides Live Aid, it?s from ZOO TV Wembley, when they played with hindu musician Ravi Shankar.

Cheers
MT
 
Pride on UF, Bad on WAIA. Live versions of Bad are amazing, but they're both near perfect songs from a near perfect album, and both immeasurably better than One...
 
Back
Top Bottom