U2 Songs for a Non-fan

[fmattyh]

I need your help - my girlfriend is not a U2 fan. (The horror, the horror!)

So I need to convert her, or at least help her see that U2 isn't "pretentious", "self-righteous", "boring"; and that not all their songs "sound the same" (her words). So I'm making her some U2 compilation CDs for her to listen too - she said she'd be willing to listen to them if I made them, so this is my chance!

What I'm thinking of doing is possibly a 3-CD attack, meaning I'll have about 50 songs to work with. I did this with the last girl I was with who also wasn't a U2 fan - I made her a 3-CD set (80s/90s/00s) before I left school for the summer, and when I got back in the fall, she was a huge fan. So I know this can work - I just need your opinions and advice.

Some things to think about when making suggestions -

1) Three 80-minute CD's worth is not very much, considering about 16-18 songs per CD. A lot of good stuff has to be cut. Should I upgrade to four? Or is that just bogging her down too much? Maybe I'd be better off just buying the albums for her then...

2) I want to show a diverse range of U2 sounds, to combat her criticism of their songs all sounding the same.

3) She loves a variety of music - classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Beatles), blues, folk, country & western (real country like Hank Williams or Johnny Cash), and hip-hop.

4) How to divide the CDs? I went with the 80's/90's/00's division last time since it was chronological and it works as a nice way to divide three major "sounds" of U2 (although it lumped the UF/JT sound in with their early stuff). However, I don't believe the quality of songs balance out very nice - taking 15 songs off of the last two albums compared to 15 songs from their first five or six. There's got to be a better way. Expand it to four CDs, breaking up Boy-War and UF-R&H? Eliminate the chronological order altogether, and go by some other theme? Put a bunch of basic rockers on one, slow stuff and "epics" on another, and the AB-Pop era on a third? Maybe sort by mood?

5) One thing I'm thinking about doing is making a "live" album, composed of songs from Under a Blood Red Sky, Rattle and Hum, high-quality bootlegs, etc. Suggestions are especially needed for this, as I myself have not listened to much in the way of bootlegs. Anything that'll knock her socks off?

6) Tracklist suggestions are welcome, like if you've got some sort of running order you love and think works really well.

7) It would be easy to just take U2's biggest 50 songs and put them all in, but then that doesn't leave much room for stuff like The Wanderer (since she loves Johnny Cash), DYFL (to show off their range), or some of their hidden gems. The trick is to figure out what big songs get left out (SYCMIOYO? IWF?) and what "random" songs get thrown in (MLK? Acrobat? Wake Up Dead Man?).

8) To some degree, song length is an issue. Although Lemon is great for showing off their range, it's seven minutes long, meaning two otherwise worthy songs would be cut. Is it worth it?

This is actually a really fun exercise - I challenge you to all do it for any of your friends as well (if you haven't already). I'll be heading out to visit her next Friday for Spring Break (she lives 500 miles away), so I hope to have the CDs in hand by then.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JCOSTER]

Don't go through so much trouble try just the best of's and then if theres anything they like on there, I would do some outakes and b sides, bring em for HTDAAB.

 

[2861U2]

Personally, I think 3 CDs is too much. I'd go with 2 at the most. But if it worked with the last girl, more power to you.

I would include their biggest hits (B-Day, Streets, WOWY, One, NYD)

I would also include some really sweet remixes. If she likes dance music, the Quincey and Sonance B-Day remix & the extended dance mix of Lady With The Spinning Head are 2 of my favorites

Add some versions of some songs (Gone from Popmart, LAPOE from this tour, Elevation & BTBS from the Elevation tour, UTEOTW from ZooTV, etc)

Add a little Lemon, I Will Follow, ISHFWILF, Wild Honey, Pride, Desire, Love Rescue Me, Discotheque, City Of Blinding Lights, 40, Gloria for some fun songs.

Heck, even some of the Achtung Baby outtakes are worthy. Not to mention LEVITATE!!!

And about the division, I wouldnt do 80s, 90s, 00s. Thats too boring, IMO. Mix it up a little, so she wont know what to expect next!

 

[Clawgrabber]

1. 3 cds is way too long. overwhelming. imagine if you didn't like, say... bruce springsteen... or... rush, or whoever and someone gave you 3 of their cds.
i myself would probably not listen to them.

2. if she thinks their song all sound the same, then i would expect she knows the major ultrahits... i would focus on hidden gems.

Zooropa
Please
Ultraviolet
Heartland
City Of Blinding Lights
Kite
Electrical Storm
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Miracle Drug
Luminous Times
One Tree Hill
The Unforgettable Fire
Promenade
Last Night On Earth
Lemon
40
Heartland 269
I'm Not Your Baby
Your Blue Room
Levitate
Mercy
Smile

All of those songs show their versitility. Don't focus too much on representing EVERY album. that could ruin the flow and maybe scare her away.

and maybe, if she isn't scared of "techno" throw in MOFO.

 

[Axver]

If she feels that all the songs sound the same, then I most certainly would avoid grouping songs by sound, era, etc. Then you're running the risk of just confirming her opinion. I'd go for a grouping along thematic lines, such as political/social, religious, and personal and other. Political/social would cover everything from SBS and Bullet to RTSS and Please. Religious covers Gloria through UTEOTW to Grace. Personal and other ranges from I Will Follow to The First Time and Stuck In A Moment. A distinction based on themes rather than sounds definitely seems helpful in countering an "it all sounds the same!" criticism, in my opinion.

And if you want live stuff, some great quality bootlegs (with some particularly recommended tracks) would be:

- 1981-11-04, Berlin (11 O'clock Tick Tock)
- 1985-03-21, Chicago (Best recording I've ever heard of The Unforgettable Fire, though 1987-10-09, Syracuse is good for this too)
- 1987-04-29, Chicago (Amazing audience recording, can't pick specific tracks)
- 1987-11-18, Los Angeles (Exit!)
- 1989-12-26, Dublin (Where The Streets Have No Name, One Tree Hill)
- The other three 1989 Dublin gigs
- 1993-08-28, Dublin (Zoo Station, EBTTRT, UTEOTW, Love Is Blindness)
- 1997-07-31, Mannheim (Best damn HMTMKMKM)
- 1997-09-23, Sarajevo (Mofo, Please, Discotheque, One)
- 2005-09-20, Chicago (The Electric Co., The Fly)

 

[LMP]

I have a foolproof Best Of 2-cd thing you can do, in my opinion of course

Disc 1
1 // Where the Streets Have No Name
2 // Pride (In the Name of Love)
3 // Out of Control
4 // Desire
5 // Beautiful Day
6 // I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
7 // Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
8 // Original of the Species (Single)
9 // Walk On (Single)
10 // City of Blinding Lights
11 // I Will Follow
12 // Gloria
13 // New Year's Day (Best Of Edit)
14 // Sunday Bloody Sunday
15 // Bad
16 // With or Without You
17 // All I Want is You

Disc 2
1 // Zoo Station
2 // The Fly
3 // Until the End of the World
4 // Gone (Mike Hedges Mix)
5 // Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
6 // Discotheque (Edit)
7 // Mysterious Ways
8 // Lemon (Single)
9 // Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
10 // Love and Peace or Else
11 // MoFo
12 // Zooropa (Edit)
13 // The Unforgettable Fire
14 // Running to Stand Still
15 // Please (UK Edit)
16 // Miss Sarajevo (Edit)
17 // One

or you can just pick songs that cater to her musical taste.

 

[pepokiss]

just 3 songs.... in this order


Van Diemen's Land
Zooropa
Like A song...

 

[Darenka]

Since your girlfriend must have heard the standart versions of hits like WOWY, WTSHNN, ISHFWILF, NYD, Pride, B-Day, Vertigo and, most likely, COBL, you should treat her with some more eclectic less-known gems. I`d recommend a selection of songs from each era, including some nice remixes (Quincey remix of B-day, Solar of MW etc) and live versions (SBS Red Rocks vs. Sarajevo`95, a stunning live WTSHNN etc), as well as not very widely known gems (Two Shots of Happy, Walk to the water etc). To make sure you don`t only have the "righteuos" U2, spice up the collection with The Fly and Lemon. You should be able to record 1 to 2 CDs - more CDs is probably not a very good idea (a friend of mine once asked me to introduce her to U2, so I recorded a collection of 4 CDs for her - including all periods, all majour hits, some fav remixes, live versions and B-sides - leaving out quite a few of my favorites anyway - when I gave her the CDs she looked overwhelmed... I doubt she listened to them anyway...)

 

[youtooellen]

it'd be hard to choose what songs to put in (especially since they have so many...), but for any U2 mix cd I've made for friends, I tossed in a few of their early stuff to show them the roots of where U2 was born at. maybe you could try that?

 

[AtomicBono]

just give her pop

it will work, I swear

 

[nightninja56]

thats a great idea fmattyh, i did something similar for a good friend of mine, though it was a one-CD thing and i put a lot of hits on there (she recognized most) but i put 'volume 1' on there and said i'd make one for her later on with the more peculiar songs on there...i hope to get one pretty soon to her, before she goes away to college....so yeah just thought i'd uh throw that out there

 

[MrBrau1]

Volume.

Use volume.

My girl wasn't a U2 fan when I met her.

Now she makes me melt when she sings along with "In A Little While."

Did it with volume.

 

[ShellBeThere]

Volume.

Use volume.

My girl wasn't a U2 fan when I met her.

Now she makes me melt when she sings along with "In A Little While."

Did it with volume.

there was something very sexy about that somehow

do you mean massive exposure or LOUD?!

When I try to turn U2 up in the car for instance, it doesn't turn out well for me in trying to get my husband to see their genius.
But his taking my cds off to listen to at work (maybe my *not* being there helped?!) got him admitting he really liked the (Mexico City Popmart?) live version of Velvet Dress, for example...

cheers...

 

[MrBrau1]

there was something very sexy about that somehow

do you mean massive exposure or LOUD?!

When I try to turn U2 up in the car for instance, it doesn't turn out well for me in trying to get my husband to see their genius.
But his taking my cds off to listen to at work (maybe my *not* being there helped?!) got him admitting he really liked the (Mexico City Popmart?) live version of Velvet Dress, for example...

cheers...

Why thank you.

Both actually.

Propper auditory volume (all rock and roll requires it)

And exposue (Great hooks sink in like an anchor)

 

[fmattyh]

Good point to those who said 3 was too much - I know she'd listen to them for my sake (or at least lie about it!) - but yeah, it's a little much...I just hate to choose that many more songs to cut out.

2816 - good call on Lady with the Spinning Head. But I've GOTTA have The Fly on there - too similar maybe? Maybe Lady would just be taking up real estate better used for something else...

Love that you mentioned Love Rescue Me - that was one of my sleepers. (haha, "sleepers" - you can tell it's March Madness) She's a huge Dylan fan, and I know the bluesy/gospel feel would appeal to her. (What exactly is Dylan's involvement on that anyway - is he singing background? Did he help write it or what?)

clawgrabber, nice list. I've been thinking about several of those - Please and Kite will definitely be on it. About 10 others of your list are in the "really-want-to-put-on-if-I-can-find-room" section. I think it really depends on how many "hits" I end up going with.

Re: putting on hits
On the one hand, I'd like to avoid songs she already knows so I can introduce her to as much new stuff as possible, but on the other hand, I know there are a couple she actually likes - SBS and WOWY in particular. While I might be tired of U2's hits, I realize that they are more accessible and are really the songs that caused me to become a U2 fan in the first place. At first I was going to leave off ISHFWILF, but then I realized that's the song that got me interested in U2.

So I think it's gotta be about a 3:2 ratio of big songs to sleepers/hidden gems. Possibly can get it down to 1:1, but certainly not higher than 2:1.

Axver, some good thoughts. I really think those would be very interesting compilations to put together - all three of them. I'm thinking more and more about only doing 2 CDs now, and so I might forego a theme altogether. Once she becomes more interested in the band though, that's when I'll bust out the thematic albums.

Appreciate your suggestions for live tracks...what's the best way to go about getting those anyway? I haven't been into the file-sharing thing for a couple years now, and I feel the technology has probably left me in the dust (ex: KaZaa was big when I was last doing it). Is it simply a matter of getting someone to send them to me over AIM, or is there a particular program that has a lot of U2 boots?

Love that you mentioned 11 O'clock - it's another sleeper. I'm putting Exit on there for sure - one of my all time favorites. Thought it was interesting you mentioned 9/20 - I was at the 9/21 concert. What makes the 9/20 so much better? Is the difference in quality small enough that I can use the 9/21 and play up the "I was there at that concert" angle? Cuz I've got the 9/21 and it sounds pretty good (to my untrained ear, admittedly).

LemonMacPhisto, I liked your list (and your avatar!). Is it just a grab bag of their best/your favorite songs? Is there any significance to the tracklisting? Any particular sequences that particularly sound good to you? I really liked your beginning to CD2 - I might steal from that and add in Mofo or LAPOE...talk about raging.

But therin lies one of my conflicts - I would love to put all the hard, heavy songs back to back, yet I also don't want it to get repetitive. Is there a magic number for hard songs in a row? Any particular sequence that works great? Transition between hard and slow?

pepo, been thinking about Van Diemrn's Land too. I'm still a little iffy about Zooropa - I know a few of you have suggested it, and it certainly is different, but I don't know if I'd put it in the same league as their top 50 or so. I'm not sure whether to sacrifice a better song for the sake of an unusual song.

Brau, I know exactly what you mean. I always tend to favor the louder stuff myself, and will consequently have a good chunk of Achtung Baby in there. I guess it's a matter of choosing the right songs to balance out the overpowering stuff...getting the loud ones to flow right into something low-key, before building back up and hammering away with The Fly and UTEOTW.

...and yes, I know it'd be way easier to just stick their hits on a couple CDs and give them to her, but there's more to it than that, because a) I love her - she's not some random person, and b) a U2 song to me is more than just a rock song (the only other band I can say this about is the Beatles...and the Who at times). Each song means something, so I want to deliberately plot it out. Yeah, it means more work, but she's worth it.

 

[RademR]

ya, its seriously only a matter of time before she converts. I've convered many myself

even the ones you can't turn into "fans", their always going to fall in love with a few u2 songs.

Now she makes me melt when she sings along with "In A Little While."

With my girl it's "miracle drug"....wow

the "walk right out...." part

 

[ShellBeThere]

hey. this is getting to be a PLEBA-esque experience for me...
don't mean to be voyeuristically enjoying your descriptions of your drooling at your girlfriends' singing along--I think I'm just jealous!
When my husband and I started out looong ago I had to come to accept Neil Young. This was not romantic. His songs are like wheezing droning fever dreams or depressing dirges...
do you think there are analogous threads on Neil Young fanboards, lol? Scary... Oh, yeah, when she sings along to "A man needs a maid" I just lose it. I'm hoping not...

cheers!

 

[doctorwho]

So many people love the JT, but if your g/f thinks all of U2's songs "sound the same" - then RUN from JT. One reason I'm not a big fan of that album is that the songs do sound the same. They all blend right into each other. The few that stand out (like "Bullet") aren't very good on the album. Now, some fans love that more ambient flowing sound of JT, but again, as your g/f wants variety, that's not a good place to start.

I'd try to show her the rocking side of U2 vs. the mellow side of U2. And I'd toss in some hits. You know her best - what type of music does she like? If she's more mellow, start the CD with that. If she like rocking songs, start with that. Don't get too obscure as that might be too tough for her to accept.

Some possibilities:

Mysterious Ways
One
Pride
Sunday Bloody Sunday
I Will Follow
Desire
Angel of Harlem
Zooropa
Mofo
Kite
Vertigo
With or Without You
Exit
City of Blinding Lights
Bad
Gloria
All Because of You
Numb
Staring at the Sun
Lemon
A Sort of Homecoming
Even Better Than the Real Thing
All I Want Is You
Beautiful Day
Where the Streets Have No Name
All Because of You
One Tree Hill
Until the End of the World
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Hold Me, Kiss Me, Thrill Me, Kill Me
Miss Sarajevo (concert Bono-only version is fine)
Discotheque
Love & Peace or Else
Staring at the Sun
The Fly

This is not a tracklisting - just a random mix of slow and fast songs throughout U2's career. This gives a great range for U2, from the more experimental, to the mellow, to the hits, to the rocking.

If she listens to this and you see her zooming in on JT or AB or Pop or HTDAAB songs or whatever, then you might give her that CD so she could enjoy the entire thing. But if these songs don't convince her of U2's diversity and rather unique back catalog, then clearly she's just not a fan and that's that.

 

[youvedonewhat]

Well, if you ask me, I think some 'live' tracks would be especially great:

Streets (amazing....)
Out of Control
Electric Co
When love comes to town (awesome)
New Years Day
Sunday bloody Sunday (Thee best)
Pride
Homecoming
Exit (R&H)
Helter Skelter (R&H)

Course, smoochies have to include:

Velvet Dress
WOWU
Your Blue Room
Grace
One

And then you'd have to include:

Salome
Vertigo (Jacknife Lee Mix)
When love comes to town.


And don't forget the brooding Silver and Gold accoustic version with Keith Richards

Remixes have to include;

Lemon
Desire (Hollywood Mix)


Trouble is there's so many to choose from it'd take us all day to list them. Still, hopefully all these replies will help you decide.

 

[Azor]

Just make one cd. With 17 classic songs of the three decades in whatever order. A simple idea