Achtung Bubba
Refugee
(No, not the Go-Go's song.)
Just posting this to let everyone know that I'm taking an indefinite vacation from the forum to focus on my real life. I'll be back eventually, I'm sure.
Until then, my quick predictions about the Best Of 1990-2000:
1. No material from 2000 will be included (either the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack or All That You Can't Leave Behind).
2. Assuming my first prediction holds, 90-00 will be a better album than 80-90, in that it will be much more musically consistent - that is, nothing as jarring as having I Will Follow and When Love Comes to Town on the same disc.
Seriously, the album is likely to have most of the following songs:
Zoo Station
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Until the End of the World
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Numb
Lemon
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Discotheque
MOFO
Last Night on Earth
Gone
Throw in the love songs (One, Stay, If God Will Send His Angels), and you have one HELL of an album.
3. The album will actually sell better than 00-10. A toss-up, I admit, but U2's at a commercial and creative peak right now; teenagers should love the music of the Zoo era; and older fans who left during the 90's era and returned to the fold with ATYCLB will give the music a fair chance since it's now clear the band didn't permanently wander out into the wilderness.
4. The B-Sides 90-00 disc will have remixes. I'm not sure there are enough genuine, good b-sides to fill an entire disc, so the band will have to find live tracks or remixes. 80-90 demonstrated an aversion to live tracks even when appropriate (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bad); remixes would be more representative of the shift to dance music; and some of the more popular mixes are really sought after by fans - specifically, the Perfecto mixes of Even Better Than the Real Thing and Lemon.
5. Salome. There will be a single for the collection, and I imagine a re-recorded b-side is much more likely than a song for Gangs of New York (unless it's a two-birds-one-stone arrangement). Prune away the cover versions and the b-sides that are embryonic album tracks (compare The Fly to Lady with the Spinning Head), and I believe you have only seven legitimate b-sides:
Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
Salome
Where Did It All Go Wrong
Slow Dancing
Holy Joe
North and South of the River
Alex has too few vocals (and in Latin), Where Did It All Go Wrong is too rough to polish, Holy Joe is too odd, and Slow Dancing and North are too slow.
That leaves Salome as the only obvious choice.
Though I'd LOVE to see them finish Heaven and Hell from the Achtung Baby outakes bootleg; it's a really beautiful, unique song that would make 90-00 perfect, even if it was a second reworked song and not released as a single. One can dream, after all...
With that, I'm Gone.
Notcomingdown,
Bubba
Just posting this to let everyone know that I'm taking an indefinite vacation from the forum to focus on my real life. I'll be back eventually, I'm sure.
Until then, my quick predictions about the Best Of 1990-2000:
1. No material from 2000 will be included (either the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack or All That You Can't Leave Behind).
2. Assuming my first prediction holds, 90-00 will be a better album than 80-90, in that it will be much more musically consistent - that is, nothing as jarring as having I Will Follow and When Love Comes to Town on the same disc.
Seriously, the album is likely to have most of the following songs:
Zoo Station
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Until the End of the World
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Numb
Lemon
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Discotheque
MOFO
Last Night on Earth
Gone
Throw in the love songs (One, Stay, If God Will Send His Angels), and you have one HELL of an album.
3. The album will actually sell better than 00-10. A toss-up, I admit, but U2's at a commercial and creative peak right now; teenagers should love the music of the Zoo era; and older fans who left during the 90's era and returned to the fold with ATYCLB will give the music a fair chance since it's now clear the band didn't permanently wander out into the wilderness.
4. The B-Sides 90-00 disc will have remixes. I'm not sure there are enough genuine, good b-sides to fill an entire disc, so the band will have to find live tracks or remixes. 80-90 demonstrated an aversion to live tracks even when appropriate (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bad); remixes would be more representative of the shift to dance music; and some of the more popular mixes are really sought after by fans - specifically, the Perfecto mixes of Even Better Than the Real Thing and Lemon.
5. Salome. There will be a single for the collection, and I imagine a re-recorded b-side is much more likely than a song for Gangs of New York (unless it's a two-birds-one-stone arrangement). Prune away the cover versions and the b-sides that are embryonic album tracks (compare The Fly to Lady with the Spinning Head), and I believe you have only seven legitimate b-sides:
Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
Salome
Where Did It All Go Wrong
Slow Dancing
Holy Joe
North and South of the River
Alex has too few vocals (and in Latin), Where Did It All Go Wrong is too rough to polish, Holy Joe is too odd, and Slow Dancing and North are too slow.
That leaves Salome as the only obvious choice.
Though I'd LOVE to see them finish Heaven and Hell from the Achtung Baby outakes bootleg; it's a really beautiful, unique song that would make 90-00 perfect, even if it was a second reworked song and not released as a single. One can dream, after all...
With that, I'm Gone.
Notcomingdown,
Bubba
