Shuttlecock XVIII - SAVE US, REFU-JESUS

[Kieran McConville]

Wholly agreed on the love (or at least like) for Red Light. It kicks ass, it's got trumpets and female backing vocals, two noted oddities after 1983. Or before it, for that matter.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I assume you're referring to the full mix and not the edit.

The mix is good, but I think most here would take the album cut.

I don't even count the edits as anything and neither does the band since they don't include them on their deluxe editions, etc. They're an interesting curiosity as far as programming for radio goes or whatever, but that's it.

Now, I don't get why albums like The Best of 1990-2000 or 18Singles weren't heavier on the single mixes. At least it gives you more reason to own the compilation.

 

[Kieran McConville]

More realistically...

Ground Beneath Her Feet
Beautiful Day
Stuck In A Moment
Elevation
Walk On
Kite
Vertigo
Sometimes
COBL
ABOY
OOTS
Boots
Magnificent
MOS(yes, MOS, I think the band loves it enough to put it here)
Crazy Tonight(Live 360 version)

Perhaps Electrical Storm, Hands(since it won a Golden Globe and got nominated for an Oscar), and WITS if they're up for including 'new' tracks from previous Best Ofs.

And the best part is that in either iteration, they're reduced to recycling some material from The Best Of 1990-2000. Specifically, having their cake and eating it too wrt '2000' (ie. ATYCLB).

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Wholly agreed on the love (or at least like) for Red Light. It kicks ass, it's got trumpets and female backing vocals, two noted oddities after 1983. Or before it, for that matter.

I got the Taxi Driver-vibe for that song and "Surrender" without ever having seen the movie and had everything confirmed when they were brought up in the U2byU2 book (if I remember correctly). They definitely nailed that particular style that they were going for, even if it wasn't what most people wanted from U2.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I wasn't aware of that connection, but it makes sense.

 

[Axver]

Red Light has the worst intro in U2 history, now with the possible exception of California. I agree Bono's vocal performance is 100% committed, but that doesn't make it good. He's all over the place. Sometimes he nails it, and sometimes it's a mess. Of the maligned songs on War, I will defend Refugee up to a point, but not Red Light.

EPAA is gorgeous. It, and Treasure a year previously, feature such stunning stream-of-consciousness endings. Pure emotion.

And, by the way, Boy is close to being the best debut of all time, but it loses out to the best album of all time full stop: The Dark Third by Pure Reason Revolution. Come at me.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

What's crazy to think of with Boy is just how young they were.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I think a big part of U2's shot at a second act (the 1990s) came from just how young they started. I'm guessing some of them were maybe 29, not quite 30 even, when they started in on the AB sessions.

 

[LemonMelon]

Beautiful Day and Stuck not being on a Best of 2000-whatever compilation because of a previous compilation from well over a decade ago would be the dumbest shit in the world.

 

[Kieran McConville]

True but recycling Electrical Storm (a bonus track from 1990-2000) might be a bridge too far.

Now if I were actually putting my serious hat on for a moment, and make it The Best of 'The 2000s' more generally, it'd probably be something like

Beautiful Day
Elevation
(no Walk On, the subject's halo has fallen off)
Stuck In A Moment
Vertigo
City of Blinding Lights
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Mercy
Moment of Surrender
after that it gets trickier

The Miracle of Joey Ramone? no effing way
California? Maybe
Iris, possibly
The Troubles? Nobody knows it

then what?

Ok, to be fair, probably Invisible

You're The Best Thing About Me????
Holy jesus fuck this is bad

 

[namkcuR]

Beautiful Day and Stuck not being on a Best of 2000-whatever compilation because of a previous compilation from well over a decade ago would be the dumbest shit in the world.

Abso-friggin-lutley.

I think they abandoned the whole concept of decade-based comps with U218 anyway. I mean, I thought the common understanding was that they put out U218 to satisfy the three-best-of contract they'd signed back in the 90s.

If there's any more comps, I don't think they'll be decade based. More likely imo is they'll put some mega-compilation in 2020 for the band's 40th anniversary, a la the Stones' Forty Licks.

 

[Kieran McConville]

"This one's called Lick My Love Pump" Edge informs interviewer.

 

[namkcuR]

(no Walk On, the subject's halo has fallen off)

I don't get this. I know she inspired the song, but it's not just about her. It's not like her name is in the lyrics. Those lyrics had a much broader meaning for a lot of people. I don't see why we have to write it off just because of what's happened with her.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I don't get this. I know she inspired the song, but it's not just about her. It's not like her name is in the lyrics. Those lyrics had a much broader meaning for a lot of people. I don't see why we have to write it off just because of what's happened with her.

I suppose I wasn't being super earnest when I wrote that. But it seems like the band themselves might have lost interest in it.

In any case, something like the version peformed for that TV special would be decent.

 

[namkcuR]

Also, since people were talking about Boy. I love Boy. I liked it a lot to begin with and over the years it's only grown and grown on me. It's a brilliant debut.

Where I'm probably in the minority is, I feel like most people point to its front end - i.e. IWF, Twilight, ACD-Into The Heart, OOC - as its strongest section. For me, its backend, specifically the last four tracks, is its strongest section.

A Day Without Me was a single and was played up through the UF tour. They should bring it back. Great riff and solo, good, meaningful lyric, warm melodies. It's great.

Another Time, Another Place is tremendous. So dark, so heavy. The guitar solo is one of my favorite Edge has ever done. And that part during one of the last choruses where Bono goes off in German while the band is on fire...chills up my spine.

It's all been said about The Electric Co., but it's a bonafide classic.

And Shadows is a beautiful, haunting earworm of a closer.

Yeah, I really love that final run.

 

[namkcuR]

I suppose I wasn't being super earnest when I wrote that. But it seems like the band themselves might have lost interest in it.

In any case, something like the version peformed for that TV special would be decent.

It's a great performance, but it wouldn't be the one I'd include...it completely omits the 'home' bridge, which for me is the best part of the song.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I haven't even heard it in years, so forgot about the bridge part.

 

[Axver]

Totally agreed on the greatness of Another Time Another Place. If any Boy song needs to be resurrected, that's the one. It would go down just as well as The Electric Co. has, I reckon.

 

[cobl04]

You reckon wrong.

 

[Axver]

Why do you think it wouldn't? The Electric Co. is just as unknown to the casual fan, and ATAP is another high energy, engaging number. It would do well.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

ATAP is stuck in that 80s post punk vibe and I don't think it can get out of it.

 

[kiwilad]

What's crazy to think of with Boy is just how young they were.

Wasn't Shadows written in 78? So depending on when in the year it was written, two of the band were only 16.
Obviously the early version was very different to what Lillywhite teased out of it, but still. They were young, seriously untrained, and quite brilliant.

Another Time personifies this. It is so heavy. Musically, thematically, energy. It's one of the songs that makes me believe Boy belongs in the best debut conversation. The guitar in that song is pure, accurate, inventive. The phrasings are unique, the solo is effective - it's a legitimate part of the song's narrative.

I was a baby when it came out. But I imagine, hearing it in 1980, you'd takr notice. Boy isn't an album of international hits like Ten was, but it announces something new has arrived in a way few other debuts have.

 

[Hewson]

God, it's hilarious how many posters it took in the discussion involving debut albums to bring up Velvet Underground & Nico. Regardless of your personal preferences, that is unquestionably the most important debut album ever made and it's not even close.

.

More important than Please Please Me? Unquestionably?

 

[Hewson]

I love Boy. .

As inspired by Laz in another thread earlier:

 

[namkcuR]

I was going to say thank you for mentioning Please Please Me to BMP, but now you can forget it.

 

[cobl04]

It's all nonsense. There are two periods of time. Pre-Mans Not Hot and after.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Brian Eno is bald, so what?

I almost put Elvis Presley and America on my Rushmore but I feel like people might panic.

i love that song. i can't decide on what my u2 rushmore would be because i don't listen to them enough these days to pick four songs. i feel like it'd probably be something like epaa, zooropa, lemon, and your blue room. but damnit i don't know.

btw kiwilad, nice location

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I love epaa everyone I didnt know youd be so happy for me

 

[lazarus]

Wow, this thread exploded this evening.

With all the recent talk of Boy, what really keeps coming back to me are lyrics that really define an era:


KNIFE CRIME

I look into Thom's eyes
They're lazy but I see something
A moderator told me why
I laugh when interlanders cry

The body count grows and grows
It frightens me you know
I stabbed a man on my way home
Turns out his name was Noel

Knife Crime.....
Knife Crime, lost my way
Knife Crime....can't find my knife

In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed
In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed
In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed
In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed

I'm stabbing in the rain
I'm causing inteference pain
It's all, it's everything
I'm trolling through the skin

Knife Crime.....
Knife Crime, lost my way
Knice Crime
Knife Crime....can't find my knife

Can't find your knife
Can't find my knife
Can't find your knife

KNIFE CRIME, sharpened knife
KNIFE CRIME, Liam be my wife
KNIFE CRIME, sharpened knife
KNIFE CRIME can't find my knife

In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed
In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed
In the shadow.....Noel gets stabbed

Spoiler

NSW

 

[BigMacPhisto]

More important than Please Please Me? Unquestionably?

Yes. Great debut but it didn't change the world...and its most important songs were the two singles that were released way before the LP.