How can true fans of MYSTERIOUS WAYS......

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LemonMelon said:
If they're just going to play a truncated version, I'm good with them giving the song a rest for a tour. Same with Still Haven't Found, WOWY, Pride, One or any of the other warhorses they feel they have to play (some of the warhorses are still great whenever they're played, like Streets, NYD or UTEOTW, but some need a break). Give it your all or play something else. They have more than enough good songs to take its place.
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Exactly my own opinion.
 
ClaytonsKitten said:
Slide solo or not, as long as it shows up every night, I'm happy. It's my favorite song ever, and I even have Ad's bass part from the chorus as a tattoo around my left ankle.

It's pointless to speculate and wonder why they play certain songs certain ways.

By your logic, "true" fans should hate the new SBS. They shouldn't want the band to do When Love Comes To Town ever again since last night's performance was a bit slower than Vancouver 2. The band is only ever allowed to play album style cuts and never variations for fear of offending "true fans".
I'll just quote Larry. FOAD.

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I have no complaints about U2's set lists. Whatever songs they play, I am fine with that. I will never say something like " Why don't they play DISCOTHEQUE, KITE, PLEASE, ACROBAT, LOVE IS BLINDNESS, THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN REACH ME NOW, WHITE AS SNOW, SILVER AND GOLD, EXIT, SWEET FIRE OF LOVE never or anymore?"...... because U2 is my only favourite band in the whole universe and I am just thankful that they are giving us one great tour after another which are visually and emotionally incomparable. But my regret lies in the fact that being the GREATEST & BIGGEST band in the world they should perform each and every song to their fullest potential and not shortchange them. U2 has come to this far because of the ability to give the songs on the album a greater and colorful life when performing them live. That's U2's strength, U2's secret to the enduring success. MW is also one of my favourite track on the AB album. But when I heard this song on ZooTV tour, the song instantly became my all time favourite live song. Subsequent POPMART tour version only increased that love to this song. And... it is because of that SLIDE SOLO by the genius named THE EDGE. I think 99.99% U2 fan will agree with me on this. And I know surely that U2 is a band intelligent enough to know this fact. That's why I am furious.
N.B. @claytonskitten... Adam Clayton is also my favourite bassist naturally. But I think what makes U2 unique is The Edge. Edge's guitar sensitivity and sensibility are like things made in heaven. There was no one like THE EDGE, there is no one like THE EDGE, there will be no one like THE EDGE UTEOTW. If you are claytonskitten, then I am edgespuppy.
 
The slide solo is the whole point of MW live. Little touches like that are what make U2 such a good live band - that they add to the studio version and take gigs to another level. If MW doesn't have the solo, don't play it. You might as well do Streets without the intro, UTEOTW without a solo, or New Year's Day without any piano.

U2FanPeter said:
Has Bono ever "ruined" a MW guitar solo?
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He's sure been intent on ruining as many solos as possible the last tour or so. On 360 it seemed every extended instrumental section was either cut or featured Bono shouting something or another over the top.
 
Yahweh_OMG said:
Wrong. They played the slide solo on every show until the start of 360. Then MW fell apart....


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Fair play, my God I'm getting old. :)

I remember there was something back in 2005 which "changed" in MW and I thought it was the solo, but it was the first tour where they took the intro away and started right with the riff (like on the album)...
 
Hewson said:
Except that he can't help himself and he'd warble over Edge's solo.
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I liked when he did it on the Zoo Tv version, the 'I'll buy you roses...' etc bit, not so much on the later versions.
I find the amount of wide awakes he sings over the Edge's beautiful solo on bad to be far more annoying. That's partly why I love the WAIA version so much, Edge gets a great interrupted solo going.
 
Axver said:
The slide solo is the whole point of MW live. Little touches like that are what make U2 such a good live band - that they add to the studio version and take gigs to another level. If MW doesn't have the solo, don't play it. You might as well do Streets without the intro, UTEOTW without a solo, or New Year's Day without any piano.

He's sure been intent on ruining as many solos as possible the last tour or so. On 360 it seemed every extended instrumental section was either cut or featured Bono shouting something or another over the top.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X57y943P7jA

For some reason I'm feeling the need to post the 1983 Japan TV studio version of New Years Day that has Edge without a functioning guitar. Bono hums the guitar solo. A very unique version that also includes some unique lyrics.
 
Slide solo is killer. It must return to save revolt and mutiny!


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Not only is the slide-solo missing, the lack of it is also making Bono do the song on auto-pilot. It's just a verse-chorus-verse-chorus song now instead of a swaying adventure it always was!
And why is the slide solo so important?
1. It gives the song really it's "fat hips", makes it sway and
2. Fires up Bono to go full-throttle and therefore the songs "slides"into a beautiful climax.

Here's some proof how Bono can really go out of his mind in a song..
What a fantastic crescendo around 6:07.. and then that yell!!
See how again Edge reacts to that: he is dancing and shaking his ass off Like Chubby Checker with a guitar...

I was there that night and I remember my jaw practically dropping by this passionate version. :drool::hyper:

One of the best versions ever with Bono going completely bonkers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPC1khLhu8c
 
They need to plant a secret belly dancer in GA who B grabs and brings up that promptly strips down on stage to belly dancer gear. Bono was always interacting with her during the slide solo. Maybe he doesn't want to end up on an ISIS hit list for encouraging belly dancing in the Caliphate.
 
girlpanic said:
Not only is the slide-solo missing, the lack of it is also making Bono do the song on auto-pilot. It's just a verse-chorus-verse-chorus song now instead of a swaying adventure it always was!
And why is the slide solo so important?
1. It gives the song really it's "fat hips", makes it sway and
2. Fires up Bono to go full-throttle and therefore the songs "slides"into a beautiful climax.

Here's some proof how Bono can really go out of his mind in a song..
What a fantastic crescendo around 6:07.. and then that yell!!
See how again Edge reacts to that: he is dancing and shaking his ass off Like Chubby Checker with a guitar...

I was there that night and I remember my jaw practically dropping by this passionate version. :drool::hyper:

One of the best versions ever with Bono going completely bonkers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPC1khLhu8c
Click to expand...


You have just made a new thread to post the exact same thing?


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Not a fan. Anything they can do to make this song shorter is good in my book. I wish it would go away.


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You know, re-listening to Achtung Baby the other day and reading through this thread, it occurred to me that Mysterious Ways flies in the face of everything U2 has been preaching about songwriting lately.

It's one of their catchiest, most enduring hits with a hook that everybody knows. Meanwhile, it wasn't written around a campfire with an acoustic guitar. In fact, it was written from the rhythm section out and then drenched in Edge guitar wizardry.

On top of that, as this thread illustrates, there are many fans requesting an extended solo that takes the song out of the verse-chorus pop realm into something more improvisational.

So basically I'm saying that U2 is terribly misguided and needs to not worry about how every song is going to sound acoustically.
 
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Hewson said:
Except that he can't help himself and he'd warble over Edge's solo.
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The one that grinds my gears the most is Magnificent where Bono can't shut the heck up and let the band play the frikin opening. Geez, it totally kills the song. Are there any versions out there without Bono rambling about random places?



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U2FanPeter said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X57y943P7jA



For some reason I'm feeling the need to post the 1983 Japan TV studio version of New Years Day that has Edge without a functioning guitar. Bono hums the guitar solo. A very unique version that also includes some unique lyrics.
Click to expand...


Someone should have told Bono to be in the moment instead of photographing the moment


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M Ways with ot without solo...pointless discussion. Its live performance is dead for a long time. It needs to be played full throtle with sexy groove. That´s something the band isn´t capable of these days. It should have been dropped after Popmart.
 
thavidesco said:
M Ways with ot without solo...pointless discussion. Its live performance is dead for a long time. It needs to be played full throtle with sexy groove. That´s something the band isn´t capable of these days. It should have been dropped after Popmart.
Click to expand...

The crowd was totally into Mysterious Ways at every show I've attended where they've performed it, from the Elevation Tour through I+E. :shrug:
 
Mysterious Ways is the 90's equivalent of Pride. It will almost always be played and the die hards will be sick and tired of it. But, it's still a great live song that will get the crowd pumped.


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