The Bomb That Could Have Been

[Earnie Shavers]

And if there we're not allowed to analyze the music - this whole forum would simply be PLEBA - analyzing which shirts show the most of Larry's chest or something...

 

[AtomicBono]

And if there we're not allowed to analyze the music - this whole forum would simply be PLEBA - analyzing which shirts show the most of Larry's chest or something...

let's analyze how much of Bono's chest my avatar shows. I vouch for "not enough."

Indeed, I did not envision this as a 7 page thread... but the more discussion the better! We're all fans here, there's certainly no problem with analyzing U2's music and such... there is a such thing as over-analyzation, in which case you just close your eyes and let the music take you away... if you ever forget that U2 is still the greatest band in the world, just listen to Mercy

 

[No spoken words]

You're allowed to analyze, you're apparently even allowed to over-analyze. Just find it a tad funny that the band is taken to task for over-analyzing their own art, but some of you feel it's ok to do the same thing.

That's all, not suggesting we all remain mum and such, and we certainly do not want PLEBA threads to be any more prominent than they already are. I'll go away now.....

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Miracle Drug alone is proof positive to me that the band still has it. Produce this song however you like, it is awesome. IMO, it is equal to SBS, Bad, One, etc. in heart and emotion, especially the last 30 seconds or so.

See, that's where we are different. I can't find any heart or emotion in this song at all. It's a great example of damn tight pop-anthem writing, but I don't get the emotion in it. Bono screaming for the sake of screaming all the way through each chorus doesn't = emotion to me. The Edge launching his guitar at the end, as good as it sounds, doesn't = emotion to me. The song rushes so quickly into the first hook you wonder if they are pissed off they had to put a verse there at all. The lyrics are kinda simplified and clumsy (although one of the better examples on the album overall). I like the Edge to be let free in songs, not so much when he's sticking to a structure (hammering on the chords), but thats just personal. To compare Miracle Drug, such a formulatic and eager to please song, to SBS or Bad or One, songs that sound like they are coming from such a genuine and raw emotional place is borderline blasphemy to me. That's not to start a Miracle Drug debate, just showing that there are different things for different people in the same songs.

I guess another way to describe is in the way you imagine a song to have been written. For me (I know this is not how they are/were written but it's part of the imagery of a song), One is the last pleading letter to someone written at 3am and put to music the next day while still in that emotional state. Sunday Bloody Sunday happens right after switching off the news, and all that raw anger and frustrations comes straight out. Miracle Drug is put together on a white board in a meeting room. "We need one of those 'Classic U2' anthems. It works well like this - Open quiet and calming, perhaps a sound effect there of birds or the beach or something, build dramaticaly to the hook, big screaming chorus for the stadiums, everything goes up a notch for the next verse and chorus then bring it all down and quiet again for that little 'change of pace bit', sing low, Edge brings in the slide for a bit, then bang!!! Spring it all back on them again! Start screaming! Edge takes off! Bring 'em home for the climax! Ok! I'll go away and write some lyrics that use the words 'love' and 'freedom' a lot."

Anyway, that's just what I see/hear/feel in that song, ie not a lot. It's a tight, very well written song, but to me, coming from that band U2, it's not that great. Each to their own.

 

[AtomicBono]

"We need one of those 'Classic U2' anthems. It works well like this - Open quiet and calming, perhaps a sound effect there of birds or the beach or something, build dramaticaly to the hook, big screaming chorus for the stadiums, everything goes up a notch for the next verse and chorus then bring it all down and quiet again for that little 'change of pace bit', sing low, Edge brings in the slide for a bit, then bang!!! Spring it all back on them again! Start screaming! Edge takes off! Bring 'em home for the climax! Ok! I'll go away and write some lyrics that use the words 'love' and 'freedom' a lot."

Don't you know, the beginning is a homage to the Spanish beach recordings...

I agree, I'm less impressed with Miracle Drug than I was when HTDAAB first came out...it used to be one of my favourites from the album, now I think it's one of the weaker songs. Still that Edge slide solo-->Edge crazy is awesome...but for some reason that song didn't really take off live, and most great U2 songs get even better live. I don't know if it's the long intro or the inferior bridge (where's "God I need your help tonight"?) or what, but for some reason that song doesn't do it for me live like the other Bomb tracks do. It ought to be traded out for Crumbs From Your Table, A Man and a Woman, or One Step Closer...U2 seems to be ignoring the second half of the album, why?

The lyrics I admit are little...well... I like them, but they are a bit overly stereotypical Bono. And... "freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head"? He must really like that line, it's been around since Levitate... You're an odd one, Bono, but that's why I love you.

 

[Lancemc]

I'm just glad that everyone who doesn't like the album happened to be invited into the studio when they were recording this album so they could all see how the guys all sat around and "made" these songs. Damn, looks like they sent the invitations to the wrong people.

 

[U2girl]

The things I'd change on the Bomb is lose the "siren" sound in Crumbs and the keyboard in City of blinding lights - and A man and a woman sticks out too much by being all acoustic.
(Also, Larry should have been more audible in some songs)

Original of the species live is lovely and I like the more notable piano but it's nowhere near the album version.

 

[2Hearts]

I guess another way to describe is in the way you imagine a song to have been written. For me (I know this is not how they are/were written but it's part of the imagery of a song), One is the last pleading letter to someone written at 3am and put to music the next day while still in that emotional state. Sunday Bloody Sunday happens right after switching off the news, and all that raw anger and frustrations comes straight out. Miracle Drug is put together on a white board in a meeting room. Ok! I'll go away and write some lyrics that use the words 'love' and 'freedom' a lot."

Now we're getting somewhere. If you imagine Miracle Drug being formulized on a white board, then I understand why you do not feel it the way I do. I see this song being written by the Bono who is sitting in a hospital late at night when every thing is quite and his loved one (father in this case) is lying a few feet away from him in a terminal condition. He's not writing this song to his father, but at this point in time, his heart has been pricked and he ponders a child hood friend/acquaintance who is paraplegic. He thinks of the children he sang to and smiled with in Eithopia and Uganda ("the songs are in your eyes, I see them when you smile"). His mind may wander a few doors down the hall where he saw another cancer patient, one much younger than his father ("there is no failure here, sweetheart, just when you quit"). His thoughts of despair turn to hope (our Bono has always been quite an optimist). He looks to medical research ("of science and the human heart, there is no limit") and God ("God, I need your help tonight") to find a way out of the darkness. He manages to scribble a few lines in his notebook before falling asleep, and the next day Miracle Drug is born.

I didn't even mention the line that floored me the 1st time I heard this song. At the instant I heard Bono scream "I've had enough of romantic love, I'd give it up for a miracle drug", I knew he was serious. That line may not mean much to other people, but to me, that is where it goes from being a pretty song to a DESPARATE song. The last time I checked, life and death were pretty heavy issues to deal with. I just feel the desparation in his voice there.

And at last, we have Edge singing a few lines. I don't know if Siam was sick at the time this song was written (probably not), but it adds yet another layer of emotion to the song. This is where God and science are brought together ("I hear your voice, it's whispering/ In science and in medicine"), and we get a very poignant quote from Jesus before launching into the final chorus.

See, I understand the deep emotions of Bad, One, and SBS but I also found them in Miracle Drug. Maybe MD just doesn't do it for you, I *guess* I could understand that, but hopefully you'll see where I'm coming from too.

 

[JOFO]

I prefer all album version vs. outtakes.

I must be old and losing my indie values; I actually like a chorus in a song now.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

See, I understand the deep emotions of Bad, One, and SBS but I also found them in Miracle Drug. Maybe MD just doesn't do it for you, I *guess* I could understand that, but hopefully you'll see where I'm coming from too.

I don't think Miracle Drug is phony at all. It's very 'real'. I think it just doesn't hold the weight or feeling of the other songs listed above, not even close, and that the music itself/pattern of the song all sound incredibly formulatic and forced.

Something that has been talked about a lot in here is how these songs came about. They were created at some time, some of them years ago, and have been churned over and over and over and over and produced and reproduced and reproduced again before we get what we've got on this album. That, I think, certainly has a lot to do with it. It's like you walk outside one evening and paint a beautiful sunset as you are seeing it and feeling it. Then a week later you look at the picture and think "That would look better with a tree in the middle there." Then a month after that you look at it again and go "It will look better with more red over up the top here" etc, and you do that for 4 YEARS. Of course U2 have always had a process like that with their music, but it's mostly while they are still in the moment. This album is 4 years long. On other albums I'd bet that 90% of the original painting made while watching the sunset is still there. On HTDAAB you get the feeling that there's only 10% of that original sunset left. That's where I think a lot of the songs suffer.

Listen to All Because Of You. That last minute or so from where Bono starts his "heeeeyaaaaah" then a bit of Edge, then Bono's scream, then the guitar solo, then the "I'm alive!" howling. That's awesome. A real barnstorming, punch the guy next to you out of excitement rock song. What about the two minutes before? Soooo much of an effort spent to try and trick it up and make it so 'perfect' that it has zero spirit to it and pretty much flat out sucks. Miracle Drug, I feel, suffers from this. It's spent so much time away from the sunset and on the drawing board getting 'perfected' that it's lost it's spirit. It sounds forced. It sounds like it's to a formula. Bono sounds like he doesn't have the original emotion in him anymore, but he tries to pull it off by screaming (because screaming = passion, right?) It sounds like a sunset painted from memory, not one that's right in front of them. One and Bad were sunsets that were right in front of them. We all know the story of how One was recorded, probably their most inspired song. SBS of course was not a sunset, but a storm. Inspiration sparks. They capture it. Sure they tweak it a little, but what you are hearing is very close to that original spark. That's where the magic is, and that's where God walks into the room.

 

[AtomicBono]

Earnie, that was a beautiful post...and as somewhat of an artist myself, I can certainly identify, I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times, so often I will work at something over and over again, trying to get it JUST right, and in the end I just ruin in... I'll try to get an exact likeness, a perfect picture, when really the original way I drew it was better.

And I agree on ABOY, that's why I prefer the alternate version, I feel it's more rockin' and far less contrived... Edge is actually doing more stuff on guitar in the alternate version, he's less restrained. And Bono's vocals are certainly better - plus I will never stop loving the line "I had the universe decoded and the atom split." And I love the part where the guitar cuts it completely for a line or two, it's very...em...Vertigo-esque

 

[2Hearts]

It's like you walk outside one evening and paint a beautiful sunset as you are seeing it and feeling it. Then a week later you look at the picture and think "That would look better with a tree in the middle there." Then a month after that you look at it again and go "It will look better with more red over up the top here" etc, and you do that for 4 YEARS.

I get what you're saying there, and it makes sense. I just don't feel that happened with Miracle Drug. I don't know (and I doubt you do either) how much rethinking and retooling went into the album version of MD. You hear it as forced whereas I hear it as being raw. Alot people talk about 'raw anger', but in MD, I hear raw hope. I've felt raw hope before in my life, when a best friend was diagnosed with cancer. The 2nd verse of Miracle Drug is written for a moment like that, when you believe things will get better just because they have to. I think the softly spoken "God, I need your help tonight" is a spontaneous prayer, and from the bootlegs I've heard, Bono doesn't even say that on stage.

I respect your point of view, I just think you're missing out. I will go right ahead placing MD right beside Bad and One, b/c it means that much to me. The only thing that I don't appreciate is when people label ATYCLB and HTDAAB as mindless pop music. My favorite album is War, so I don't think my tastes are too skewed in the direction of AOR or whatever.

 

[CDFallon]

Earnie, hate to intrude but I can't help but think that your argument is weighed down too hard by un-proved assumptions. You're depriving U2 of what they work for by matching up the current album with all their other greats and making it seem like the band does the same thing -- structuring HTDAAB to fit a certain criteria as they're creating their music. They know the formula to success and that's to put out some good shit that people will like.

That's why I don't think it's fair to accuse Miracle Drug of failing to live up to the U2 classics, as if their's a list of objectives that a U2 classic has to meet. To me, MD is what it is. It's not an attempt to recreate but moreso a product of the band's talent.

The same goes for COBL, the basic assumption that U2 was trying to mimmick(sp?) the greatness of Streets, as if Bono was saying to the guys, "Boys, we've gotta make another Streets for our fans." I look at these songs as products of U2's creativity and imagination, and the thing is, I like listening to them. I'm not here to make assumptions or scrutinize every song only in attempt to find flaws.

 

[Zoots]

Okay...... after listening to the alternate and album versions a few times, I have come to the conclusion that there's NO one clear winner! Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For example...

1. As much as I agree that Native Son sounds less gimmicky and hit-seeking compared to Vertigo, it doesn't have that punch that the latter does.. which is needed to open an album. I'm imagining the definitive version to be Native Son with the Vertigo intro and guitar bridge but no yeah yeah yeahs, no spanish and the stupid line 'all of this could be yours' removed.

2. With Sometimes, again there's good and bad in both versions. The alt. version is more meloncholy which is good but it could be fuller like the album version. I don't care too much about the falsettos and just love the Zooropa-esque guitar.

3. Crumbs alt. version is great, esp. the intro and the part when the electric guitar kicks in. Much leaner production but I miss the 'where you live should not decide' lines.

4. Fast Cars and Xanax I love pretty much equally. And I'm glad they chose Fast Cars cos it's got that totally different middle eastern vibe going and is sexy as hell. Xanax is just a really good sounding rock song.

So really... I feel they kinda did a hodgepodge of the whole thing. Too many producers I guess. But I wouldn't lose one version entirely and keep the other.

edit: Oh... and they could've done better than this on the album version of Sometimes...

We fight... all the time
You and I... that's alright
We're the same soul

Not the most inspired lyrics.

 

[U2DMfan]

1. As much as I agree that Native Son sounds less gimmicky and hit-seeking compared to Vertigo, it doesn't have that punch that the latter does.. which is needed to open an album. I'm imagining the definitive version to be Native Son with the Vertigo intro and guitar bridge

I think Native Son's intro is better personally.
No dumbass 1,2,3,14 in Spanish
No dumbass 'turn it up loud captain'
an extra guitar track in there for the NS version

I'd put the "solo" from Vertigo in NS and nothing else.

The comparison of the bridges is an ass kicking
"all of this could be yours" tripe harmonics
vs
Bono holding "Free" for about 12 seconds supoorted by a Who-esque rock breakdown

I don't even know the Crumbs version you are talking about, are you talking about the HQ version? If so, that's just a live take, not really an alternatve version.

And Sometimes, yes the guitar is better in the alt version as oposed to the piano/hamrnoic "ding-ding". lastly, I prefer Xanax and Wine because it has the best chorus in a U2 song since "Midnight is where the day begins. "

 

[LJT]

edit: Oh... and they could've done better than this on the album version of Sometimes...

We fight... all the time
You and I... that's alright
We're the same soul

Not the most inspired lyrics.

yeh but hes speaking to his dad in that song? its like he is just talking to him not making pretty pictures...im pretty sure his da wouldn't appreciate what he would see as a load of nonsense...his da was very Irish..i should know i'm Irish myself.. like Larry i imagine Bob would have appreciated Bono cutting the crap (as i think he would phrase it) for the song...no bullshit

 

[U2DMfan]

If it were all purely about sincerity, then why did the song go from Tough, to the early version of Sometimes to the version on the album, and everything in between? They didn't treat it as an ode to Bob Hewson as much as they treated it like a song that needed to sound better. So I judge it as such, sincerity aside.

IMO, the true meaning behind that song is divorced once it became a song that needed to have a bigger sound. Lillywhite said it didn't have a chorus, if Bono wanted it as is, the song to his father, he should have said so, instead they changed it because it wasn't good enough. The type of sincerity in a song like that shouldn't need to be tweaked as such. So if they do, you should just treat it like the pop rock ballad that it is.

Bono had a quote recently about trying to sing a song with such meaning every night, he said he flipped the meaning around the be able to "climb into the song" every night I think it had to have lost some of it's truest meanings even to Bono.

 

[LJT]

In the Dave Fanning Interview which i saw tonight Bono said he saw the song as 'taking on the old man' making his dads dreams his to be a singer....

I don't think just because they change the arrangement or rename the song, or adding in a chorus...is in anyway tweaking the sincerity an artist tries to perfect their work a lot..as has been said 'art is not finished but abandoned' (im not particualrly sure who im quoting on that) even if it is about such a personal subject if you are not happy with it as a song changing things around does not change the sincerity of it to me...

Also i don't think its lost any meaning to Bono but its meaning may have changed as i've already said he sees it now as taking on his old man, saying things he could never say while he was alive, but proving to his dad 'look what i have achieved'...

 

[U2DMfan]

It's like a film maker, writing a script as an homage to a lost love one, and then rewriting it to be a blockbuster hit.

U2 treat their songs as such, so why shouldn't the fan?

Just saying, that song can mean whatever it wants to mean to Bono, but if he's offering it up as a single, with radio and MTV play he's let go of the sincerity of the original, so I don't give more credit to the lyrics just because of that.

that said, I do agree with you. I think Bono is being direct on this song and pretty much all the rest. Good or bad, this is the approach of the last two records. I am all for cutting out the bullshit.

 

[U2DMfan]

In the Dave Fanning Interview which i saw tonight Bono said he saw the song as 'taking on the old man' making his dads dreams his to be a singer....

I don't think just because they change the arrangement or rename the song, or adding in a chorus...is in anyway tweaking the sincerity an artist tries to perfect their work a lot..as has been said 'art is not finished but abandoned' (im not particualrly sure who im quoting on that) even if it is about such a personal subject if you are not happy with it as a song changing things around does not change the sincerity of it to me...

Also i don't think its lost any meaning to Bono but its meaning may have changed as i've already said he sees it now as taking on his old man, saying things he could never say while he was alive, but proving to his dad 'look what i have achieved'...

I'm not really disagreeing with you that much.
All I was trying to say, I haven't articulated it well enough, is that the song to me is not given a free pass because of it's supposed sincere meaning.

So if someone wants to criticize the lyrics, I think they have the right. If the song was the same thing that he sang at the funeral, to me that would be about the most sincere thing I could imagine. And criticizing it would seem unfair among other things.

Instead, they made it a pop song, for lack of a better term.
He let Lillywhite talk him into adding to it. It's much bigger and grand than the alt. version, I can't imagine how much different it is than the version sang at his funeral.

Let me just say one last thing on the subject before anyone blows it out of hand. If I wrote a song for my father when he passes away, then it will stay as it is when I wrote it. Because it will mean precicely what it means, it will be as sincere as I possibly could be. If I spend a year tweaking it and trying to make it better, then I am no longer trying to pay homage to my dad, I am trying to make the best song I can make.

That's about all I have to say about it, hope I explained it well.

 

[AtomicBono]

edit: Oh... and they could've done better than this on the album version of Sometimes...

We fight... all the time
You and I... that's alright
We're the same soul

Not the most inspired lyrics.

I have to disagree with you there, although the lyrics I really like are "I don't need...I don't need to hear you say...that if we weren't so alike...you'd like me a whole lot more." I know people where those lyrics describe their situation perfectly...it's like that a lot with parents actually. I'm sort of that way with my mother. I do like the verse in the alterenate version too, and I guess it's a little more personal, but whatever... I don't think Bono would put anything in the song that he doesn't feel is really a tribute to his father. U2DMfan, I see your point, but maybe the fact is that he wants the song he wrote for his father to be the best it can possibly be. He wants to tell the whole world what he never told his dad. You can write something in a moment and then look back on it and realize it's shite - is it wrong to try and make it better? Not that I think the original song Tough was shit, I sincerely doubt that, but sometimes time CAN make something better... I'm not sure how long it took him to write Tough as he sang it at the funeral. Bono may have not felt the song was complete at that point, who knows?

I am also torn between the album and alternate versions. Except All Because of You, where I think the alternate version is just better. And I really prefer Xanax and Wine, Fast Cars has more "flavor" but Xanax has a better chorus and it's more rockin'. But Native Son vs. Vertigo and Sometimes... both have their strengths. We're just lucky we have both, eh? It's fascinating to be able to sort of trace some of U2's creative process, hear songs evolve...whether the final product is better or not, it's great to be a part of the journey.

 

[U2girl]

I really don't think a song is less "sincere" just because it got a different arrangement or two additional lines in the chorus.

I also don't see what's wrong with wanting to make the best songs you can, especially in a band as ambitious as U2.

 

[U2DMfan]

jeez......some read what they want to read......

Bono can do whatever he wants with the damned song.
All I was saying is this song should not be given a break because of it's sentimentality, when infact it is as ambitous as any song on the record, maybe more so.

So, of course U2 are ambitious and Bono wants to make it the best sounding song it can be blah blah. who fucking doesn't know this? Nobody said U2 weren't fucking ambitious. Why does it even need to be said if not to just apologize for something?

U2's ambition makes this song bigger and better and also justifiably so, sends it up for a good thrashing.

It's not all about sincerity, that was the point!!!!!!

 

[U2girl]

Bono can do whatever he wants with the damned song.

Yes I can see that from your posts.

 

[U2DMfan]

nevermind.....

I said what I wanted to say and most people can read and understand English on this forum.

 

[PopFly]

How about this?

U2: AAA
(An Alternate Atomic)

1. Native Son (Alternate version of Vertigo)
2. Crumbs From Your Table (HQ version)
3. Sometimes (Alternate version or HQ acoustic version?)
4. Xanax And Wine (Alternate version of Fast Cars)
5. All Because Of You (Alternate version)
6. Electrical Storm (Band version)
7. Smile
8. Mercy
9. Love You Like Mad
10. Levitate
11. Original Of Species (Live version)
12. Yahweh (Alternate version)

Options:
Are You Gonna Wait Forever

Hmm, if any kind soul would send any or all mp3s of these songs (plus Fast Cars) to myriadphalanx@yahoo.com, it would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

 

[Canadiens1131]

1. Vertigo VS Native Son

This is a tough call, I think overall Vertigo is better but Native Son is very powerful...it's more risky, it's political, it's U2. Plus the bridge with "PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE" is amazing, they should try that live sometime since they're playing Vertigo so much.

I'd take Vertigo over Native Son as well. Vertigo just has more focus and stronger vocal melody on the verses. Native Son can't carry the momentum through the versus.

2. Sometimes...

The alternate version is so much more mournful and personal, it seems much more like Bono's song. For example, instead of swelling during "the note", the music pulls away, and you can hear the fragility in Bono's voice. In terms of a good single, the final version is better (and I do like the falsetto chorus) but overall the alternate version, for me, is far more moving...

I'll tell you why I much prefer the album version of Sometimes, it's all down to the chord sequence and the guitar tone. Honestly, the opening chords on the alternate version are so cheesy sounding, it's just not cool

3. All Because of You

The alternate version has more energy, variety, better lyrics, better delivery. It's just BETTER. It's even CATCHIER.

I am still debating which version has the worse lyrics, and it's really a hard call. I'd say that the Alternate has the better lyrics.

BUT and this is a big but, the chorus from Alt. ruins it. Edge just randomly launches into Where The Streets Have No Name for the chorus riff, what the hell was that?

I'll take album ABOY, more focuses, slightly less rocking, but there are less guitar overdubs too, and we're going for "punk rock" right?

4. Yahweh

The alternate version, again, is far superior. The bass is deeper and more prominent, the bridge is better ("Take these blue eyes...take these eyes and make them see"), the drums are better (especially at the end). Also at the end there's this powerful note that's hit twice I think on a guitar, it's hard to describe, it's an overdub and something about it just really hits me.

I wouldn't say it's a question of any instrument being better, just different mixes really.

Bono's voice is better in the alternate, he's not struggling to hit the highs on that first chorus.

Drums, well, I don't prefer either track over the other, they just take more of a backseat to the synth on the album version. I can still hear 'em fine and they do a good job.

I'm not crazy about launching right into the chello/string synth, and it is cool how the alternate version starts out quiet. The thing is, though, that the alternate version never builds up, builds up to the bridge being the crescendo of the song.

In the album Yahweh, when they launch into the bridge it quiets down, and then when the "drop in the ocean" comes along, it's fucking brilliant. Just listen to Edge's guitar mimicking Bono's vocal melody, it's like a rapture. That is the high point that the alternate version is missing, and those 16 notes Edge plays before the final chorus make the album version superior. Of course insert my usual comment that the final version is more polished and musically focused, I felt listening to the alternate version that I was sometimes stumbling around in dissonance where way too many different musical directions colliding at the same time.

5. Fast Cars VS Xanax and Wine

Fast Cars is more "experimental," it's got that kinda Eastern sound... but Xanax and Wine, in my opinion, is a better song. It's catchier and more rockin' and I like the falsetto.

I'll take either, as long as they stay the hell of my album :O

Good discussion

 

[the tourist]

Vertigo vs. Native Son; I like the music better from Vertigo. I like the background vocals better from Native Son. I like both versions of the words.

Miracle Drug; I don't understand how people can say this isn't a single-worthy song because of the fact that it sounds like Beautiful Day, one of U2's most recognizable songs.

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own; climactically much better on the album -- wouldn't get half of the rating by people on here with the alternate version (no comparisons with One).

Love And Peace Or Else; rocks. rocks. rocks. Wish it had a more proper bluesy solo to go with the stomp and pound (kinda like the Zoo TV Bullet The Blue Sky)

City Of Blinding Lights; could have done without the tinkling xylophones (like on The Hands That Built America) and the piano. Could have made Bono's vocals a little less prominent and more like the 80s songs. Bring up Edge's muted 16th notes.

All Because Of You; album version trashes the alt. The Alt version sounds completely undone as the Salome Outtakes. HOWEVER, Bono's voice doesn't handle the chorus melody very well. I think the melody for the "Alllllll because of you Ahhhh-allll because of you" should've been more like the call and echo of "Last Night On Earth", but more in Bono's new range.

A Man And A Woman; I think Bono's best vocals are on this song, so I don't know what people are saying when they say this song shouldn't have been on the album.

Crumbs From Your Table; The HQ version just sounds like a live version, as it is. It makes sense, because they didn't record the rest of the album live. If they'd recorded the rest of the album live, it would have made sense to put the HQ version on.

One Step Closer; great atmospheric short in the vein of The First Time, Running To Stand Still, Promenade, and October.

Original Of The Species; I much prefer the studio version to the live version because it reminds me of The Beatles from the Revolver/Rubber Soul era.

Yahweh; Haven't heard the alt version, so I've nothing to compare the album with. I only wish Edge's 16th note guitar licks were an octave up (which would make it sound more like In God's Country).

Fast Cars vs. Xanax & Wine; Xanax and Wine has a better title. I like the music from Fast Cars' Jacknife Lee mix the best. Put that music, the verses from Fast Cars, the chorus from Xanax and Wine, and a clean bluesy solo (like the current tour's Bullet The Blue Sky) and it would have been absolutely perfect.

NOW, that said, change the tracklisting to as follows:

01. City Of Blinding Lights
02. Vertigo
03. Crumbs From Your Table
04. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
05. A Man And A Woman
06. One Step Closer
07. Love And Peace Or Else
08. Xanax And Wine
09. All Because Of You
10. Miracle Drug
11. Original Of The Species
12. Yahweh

And yes, this had to be one of my longest posts because it's my 1500th.

 

[Bono1118]

Complete U2 - Alternate takes

Based on the 30-second snippets that I've heard on iTunes I totally agree with you about the alternate takes. I think they were too focused on coming up with singles and not worrying enough about whether or not the best version of the song was represented. I would LOVE to hear those in their entirety, but couldn't bring myself to spend $150 when I already have every album in the catalog and have audio versions of all the Live DVD releases. Seemed a lot to spend for just those 6 or 7 songs.

 

[BANZAI]

Nice old thread