sure it's a gimmick song.
Just listen to Native Son, that song is great. They could have cleaned it up a bit, re-recorded it and all, made it sound a little better than the copy that is on the digital box set. The only thing from Vertigo that is missing in Native Son is the cool "solo" riff right after the "checkmated" bridge. It's there but it's cluttered.
Native Son =Great lyrics, great chorus with great harmonies, Edge has better guitar work in it, the harmonics in the verse aren't so blase', the intro riff over the main riff sounds much better.
And what did they decide? This wasn't the smash single they wanted. Probably too cerebral, a little too long, maybe. A song about Leonard Peltier isn't going to make sense on an Ipod ad.
They wanted a top 40 hit in the end. They got what they wanted.
I think Native Son is 8,000 times better, even though it in itself could be improved upon.
So they gutted a great song.
And added the cheeky, Uno Dos Tres Catorce
Turn it up there Captian
Hola!
Donde Esta
and a melody directly from "You Keep Me Hanging On"
OH, it's not a bad song. It sure as hell is a gimmick.
The song that it branched off of was a better rock song. Period.
Cue the apologists.......