What u2 was all about during the period of 1990 to 2000

[big girls r def the best]

If you had to choose one song that u2 was "about" during the time period of 1990-2000, which song would you choose?

They experimented a lot during this period, except for ATYCLB, and a lot of great music came out. So, if you could pick one song that would be quinisential (sp?) u2 during that period, which song would you pick?

 

[Sicy]

MOTHER

rock and &%#$#%@ roll.

 

[U2Soar]

Interesting idea ! Which song best sums up ? describes ? defines ? what U2 were about in the nineties ? It?s tougher than I thought ! I believe Zooropa could be contender too. On a related note ? how about creating poll on what song best sums up what U2 were about in the eighties ? Pride (In The Name Of Love) ?

 

[womanfish]

MOFO!!!!! Kick you in the ass music, attitude, and some of the best lyrics around.

 

[SkyBlueDreamer]

"Mysterious Ways" sums it all up perfectly!

 

[pinkfloyd]

HOLD ME .......

( One , Stuck in A Moment , Kite , Your Blue Room , Miss Sarajevo )

THRILL ME .....!!

( Beautiful Day , Zoo Station , Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses , Zooropa )



KIZZ ME....

( Babyface , Mysterious Ways , If You Wear That Velvet Dress , Ultraviolet , Do U feel Loved )


KILLLLLLLL MEeeeee ...mmm...mmm ..hey..OOuu ..ouh

( Last Night On Earth , Until The End Of The Word , Love Is Blindness , The Fly , Dirty Day , Miami , Stateless )

 

[Bono's shades]

It wasn't an easy choice, but I picked Zoo Station. It was the first track off Achtung Baby, their first album of the '90s. Edge's opening guitar riff tells you right off the bat that this is NOT '80s U2. Then there's Bono's distorted vocals and the lyrics: "I'm ready/ready for what's next," and "ready to let go of the steering wheel." Talk about an opening statement for the entire decade!

 

[madonna's child]

The Fly, of course

 

[popkidu2]

MOTHER

rock and &%#$#%@ roll.

tru...but I would have said

Mother...motherfuckingrocknroll

 

[Tech]

Mysterious Ways sums it all up baby!!!

 

[wertsie]

Well, I don't know if it was necessarily what they were "about," but I had to choose "One" for the simple reason that it's my favorite song.

 

[Sicy]

tru...but I would have said

Mother...motherfuckingrocknroll

remix version

 

[Michael Griffiths]

ZOOROPA

Why is this song not on the list? 90s U2 was, to me, about embracing uncertainty. 'Zooropa' is all about that very concept. "What do you want," became the slogan of ZooTV on the Euro tour, and it all came from 'Zooropa'. That was the essense of the 90's in my opinion.

It's the one song that really should have been included on the Best Of -- even ahead of 'Lemon' and even 'Please' for that matter.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

I would vote for Zooropa even though it isn't on the list. That song captures a mood. Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in Tokyo with the band, late at night, bombarded by advertising, exhausted but exhilirated, fucking up the mainstream.

Zooropa the song is the epitome of the 90s for U2, imho. I think I could write an entire dissertation on why Zooropa = U2 in the 90s, but my lunch break is almost over.

 

[Whats The Story?]

I really agree with those last two posts. Zooropa really encapsulates the mood and themes of U2 in the '90, and definitely should be on the Best-Of for that reason.

 

[U2Soar]

Guess what I was thinking of last night ? Michael ? ! MOFO has a lot going for it in it being The Pick. However - the lyrics for MOFO are quite personal and autobiographical in nature ? his mother and his two little girls. Whereas the lyrics for song like Zooropa are more objective. It?s about all of us as individuals and as a society. Zooropa describes this new era of Western culture ? the age of cable and satellite TV (the internet too) ? media over-saturation ? consumerism is the new religion ? etc. Zooropa can capture and evoke the images of both the ZOOTV Tour and the PopMart Tour. Zooropa has a chaos in its sounds and in its lyrics. It also has a numbness in its delivery and in its lyrics. This chaos and numbness can bring to mind pictures of a massive shopping mall ? the perfectly manicured and sterile suburbs ? using the remote to zap from one TV station to another ? driving in the jungle of billboards / advertisements / neon signs of our ?advanced? cities - flipping through stations on the car radio ? etc.

Zooropa

(What do you want?)
(What do you want?)

Zooropa...Vorsprung durch Technik
Zooropa...be all that you can be
Be a winner
Eat to get slimmer

Zooropa...a bluer kind of white
Zooropa...it could be yours tonight
We're mild and green
And squeaky clean

Zooropa...better by design
Zooropa...fly the friendly skies
Through appliance of science
We've got that ring of confidence

And I have no compass
And I have no map
And I have no reasons
No reasons to get back

And I have no religion
And I don't know what's what
And I don't know the limit
The limit of what we've got

Don't worry baby, it'll be alright
You got the right shoes
To get you through the night
It's cold outside, but brightly lit
Skip the subway
Let's go to the overground
Get your head out of the mud baby
Put flowers in the mud baby
Overground

No particular place names
No particular song
I've been hiding
What am I hiding from

Don't worry baby, it's gonna be alright
Uncertainty can be a guiding light
I hear voices, ridiculous voices
Out in the slipstream
Let's go, let's go overground
Take your head out of the mud baby

She's gonna dream up
The world she wants to live in
She's gonna dream out loud
She's gonna dream out loud
Dream out loud

 

[MrPryck2U]

It's nooo secret. sha la!

 

[DaveC]

(What do you want?)
(What do you want?)

It's very simple.

 

[Zoocifer]

Ah am so happy to see that "The Fly" has many, many votes. The song can sum up the whole decade, in my opinion. The irony, the darkness, the soul, the glasses...

- z -

 

[Danospano]

I picked Lemon, because that sound reflects both periods of the band. It sounded like something that mixed both Achtung, Zooropa, Pop and ATYCLB together.

A lot of people are picking The Fly, which is just a viable as Lemon. I didn't know the results when I picked Lemon, but my second choice was The Fly.

 

[Hawk269]

Zoocifer,


Hey man. Glad to see you are here making sure the Fly gets its props....

I have no doubt that it defined the attitude of the Achtung Baby album and led to the new persona of U2 in the 90's, as a result.



AJ

 

[UltravioletU2]

The Fly.

The song is heavy, processed, sarcastic...but still U2. Achtung Baby shocked the world and they eventually embraced it.

"The Fly" is also a persona associated with ritz and glitz and glamour and sarcasm and heavily processed sounds, and that's what the 90's and U2 were about. ZooTV and PopMart sum it all up.

The Fly = 90's U2 (and damn, I loved it!)

 

[Salome]

The Wanderer

"I went out there
in search of experience
to taste and to touch
and to feel as much
as a man can
before he repents

 

[ultraviolet7]

THE FLY with no trace of a doubt.

Though Mofo musically is U2's 90s at its highest expression it does not reflect in my opinion the spirit of the decade lyric-wise i.e. in the message conveyed. Maybe the desperate search for the innermost self Mofo depicts (as many other songs from Pop) could be interpreted as the conclusion derived from the decade. Curiously in the lyrics category (contents basically - not style) this particular song and many others off Pop relate much more to ATYCLB which is clearly dissociated from the 90s experience.

 

[Hallelujah Here She Comes]

The Fly.

Although HMTMKMKM is a close runner up.

 

[Zoocifer]

Oh yes - "Hold me Thrill me Kiss me Kill me" would be my second vote, too! When I hear that song I don't just hear a killer rock n' roll tune - I hear "MacPhisto's last stand"...

Just listen to it. Y'can't picture Bono singing it. Y'might be able to picture the Fly singing it. Sure as hell can't see Mirrorball Man belting it out... It's The Phisto! The style of singing - the held falsetto. Amazing. Fucking amazing. Ah wish they would've released it way back in the day so it could've been played at ZOO TV. Popmart did a helluva job for it, though. Lovie dovie, squids.

- z -

 

[Whats The Story?]

I remember reading something about HMTMKMKM, that the song was again from the perspective of The Fly persona..Its got a Flypart2 feel to it definitely. Utterly brilliant song. Didn't they have this song recorded way back in the Achtung Baby or Zooropa eras? Definitely shoild have been on an album.

 

[brettig]

The Wanderer

"I went out there
in search of experience
to taste and to touch
and to feel as much
as a man can
before he repents

yep, although 'the first time' is a passable substitute.

 

[jick]

Discotheque

90's U2 is represented by Discotheque. The 80's was some kind of activist holier-than-thou movement. The 90's was the party. Disco rules. Pop rules. U2 is disco. U2 is Pop. The 90's is a disco.

Cheers,

J
The King Of POP

 

[Zoots]

Its no secret at all...

Interesting question you got there...The Fly is the answer of course. Bono's fly portrayal was all about making fun of the rock star image and TV hype. The band has pretty much continued on that vein until POP.
Sometimes I wonder why Bono had to make fun of his own success of the JT and RH years but I love Achtung to death. So I like to see it as a general knock on commercialization of the media.