How brilliant is mercy?!!!!!!!!!!!

[ShellBeThere]

Oh my, this thread has gotten off-topic!
I think I saw pages and pages ago someone ask if anybody agreed that there was nothing one could cut from Mercy...I agree!

I felt it was too long at first, a position I still haven't backed away from altogether yet, but I had my first "mercy shower", you know where you play a song in your head and sing along while showering? I decided there that the overall structure...which I at first felt was maybe not quite right...feels really good. It flows well, is interesting in it's shape, conveys something, and parts can't be just lopped off I think now.
I don't know crap about how to talk about music, but all those 'transition points' from one section to the next are gorgeous, and even the bits I didn't like as much at first (like the litanny-with-long-pauses rap-y "I'm weedkiller honey, and you're sugar; If you're the prosecution, I get away with murder") get better and subject to interesting re-interpretations for me as I sing them in the shower.
So I'm gonna go try to find the actual comments buried in this and other threads, listen some more (maybe especially naked) and see y'all later! cheers!

 

[catlhere]

Me likey Mercy

Ok yes it's overrated. Kinda like everything they ever did in the 90's

 

[Zoots]

dude... beautiful day was one album ago.

Yes.... and? I think that's the last time they showed this much sincerity, ambition and just overall positive energy. Not that all the songs in between were crap. But just that Beautiful Day and Mercy are 2 of the best songs of the 00s.. imo, of course.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Yes.... and? I think that's the last time they showed this much sincerity, ambition and just overall positive energy.

dude... that was ONE ALBUM ago. other than two throw aways on a greatest hits album they didn't do anything between beautiful day and mercy, because mercy was from the sessions of the NEXT ALBUM.

that's like saying in 1983 "ya know new year's day is the most political song u2's done since sunday bloody sunday "

my head's gonna explode.

 

[love_u2_adam]

meh mercy isn't that good

 

[ShellBeThere]

you just summed it up for the 90% of interference who's sick and tired of threads about mercy.

yes, we know you think it's great. but you just go on about it as if we didn't hear you the first time... and that just gets on people's tits.

sorry headache...I didn't mean to bug ya really...my "fault"!

somehow a comment about mercy got my attention, I asked if there was a thread to talk about it on, "used my search powers" to find this one, and revived it from its previous last time on the top-page back in november '05 I think. I didn't mean to get on anyone's "tits" (that's a new expression to me....I don't get it, really...)
Seriously, though, you don't have to come visit them then,really! It's okay, I promise we won't claim you actually like it behind your back or anything...just let people who want to talk about it talk about it, soundgood?
why does this discussion bother you so much? sorry to sound like a psychoanalyst, but there seems something up here....
give your head a rest
cheers all!

edit: maybe I'd be happier in a "mercy appreciation" thread?! I get it now...this thread is titled "how brilliant is mercy", so of course it's inviting people to come in and say I wipe my ass with it
sorry!
does anyone know of one off-hand? or must my challenged brain go in search of it myself...I didn't suceed the first time, dammit.

cheers again!

 

[xaviMF22]

meh mercy isn't that good

 

[Utoo]

dude... that was ONE ALBUM ago. other than two throw aways on a greatest hits album they didn't do anything between beautiful day and mercy, because mercy was from the sessions of the NEXT ALBUM.

that's like saying in 1983 "ya know new year's day is the most political song u2's done since sunday bloody sunday "

my head's gonna explode.

 

[Zoots]

you just summed it up for the 90% of interference who's sick and tired of threads about mercy.

yes, we know you think it's great. but you just go on about it as if we didn't hear you the first time... and that just gets on people's tits.

WTF? 90% of Interference is NOT sick and tired of Mercy! Just look at the poll results for the 'Should Mercy be on the next album?' thread!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

there are almost twice as many people online right now than the number of people who actually voted in the mercy thread.

heck, there are hundreds of people running around pleba with post counts in the 10,000s who none of us have ever even seen.


perhaps if every single mercy love fest thread was merged into one giant clusterfuck, i wouldn't mind so much.

 

[AtomicBono]

there are almost twice as many people online right now than the number of people who actually voted in the mercy thread.

heck, there are hundreds of people running around pleba with post counts in the 10,000s who none of us have ever even seen.


perhaps if every single mercy love fest thread was merged into one giant clusterfuck, i wouldn't mind so much.

oh the plebans...

Mercy clusterfuck the thing is headache I can summarize all those threads for you:

MERCY IS GREAT IT'S ONE OF THE BEST U2 SONGS OF THE DECADE!!!

that's all you need to know, really

 

[kcrays]

Me likey Mercy

Ok yes it's overrated. Kinda like everything they ever did in the 90's

Nah. Pop is one of their greatest albums and easilly their most underrated albums.

 

[joerags]

Sometimes I wished U2 would die in a plane crash so that they will never make any more music and people will stop criticizing their new songs.

 

[xaviMF22]

Sometimes I wished U2 would die in a plane crash so that they will never make any more music and people will stop criticizing their new songs.

wow
I dislike the new songs, but I would never wish that too happen to the band

 

[ShellBeThere]

maybe if the folks who don't actually want to talk about the song will find something else to do, something....pleasurable.. for themselves...they can let the tiny minority out there who want to gush about it or talk about it do so without having to scroll thru page after page of being told how stupid we are, how clusterfucking we are, or how inarticulate we are. It's hard to ignore ya when you fill up the thread...there are great warning labels on these mercy threads that get your undies in a twist--the bloody titles!
How 'bout letting them be, and just starting your own "why are there so many we-love-mercy threads when it SUCKS", or somesuch? to quote Pop-era (I forget...are you a Pop person?
....PLEASE?!

cheers!

 

[xaviMF22]

maybe if the folks who don't actually want to talk about the song will find something else to do, something....pleasurable.. for themselves...they can let the tiny minority out there who want to gush about it or talk about it do so without having to scroll thru page after page of being told how stupid we are, how clusterfucking we are, or how inarticulate we are. It's hard to ignore ya when you fill up the thread...there are great warning labels on these mercy threads that get your undies in a twist--the bloody titles!
How 'bout letting them be, and just starting your own "why are there so many we-love-mercy threads when it SUCKS", or somesuch? to quote Pop-era (I forget...are you a Pop person?
....PLEASE?!

cheers!

we make it interesting for all of you
This place would be really boring if all everyone did is praise U2.

 

[Tiger Edge]

Sometimes I wished U2 would die in a plane crash so that they will never make any more music and people will stop criticizing their new songs.

Sometimes I wish for less drama queens in the universe.

I guess our wishes will never be granted.

 

[catlhere]

I think there are more people who like Mercy and don't mind threads about it, than one's that do.
It's just that the one's that do are like rabid dogs that flock to any sign of a pro-mercy post with "omg we get it already" "mercy is overrated"

A couple weeks ago everyone was making threads about Pop in this particular forum, and hardly anyone complained at all. Matter of fact, when anyone would mention that there seemed to be a rise in Pop love, it would be met with "so what"s. Biased much?

I agree that people are allowed to voice dissenting opinions about a song that they dislike. But when someone new discovers the song, and would like to put their own take on what they feel is good about it, we don't need to hear the same people come in and rain on their parade because their sick of Mercy threads. Let the people who want to read and post in the thread, do just that. It's not like everything on the front page is about Mercy. Skip over the topic, and go on to something else. Then no one can bug you!

and I don't agree with the whole "it would be boring if we weren't around" from all the negative nellies around here. the only people that would be bored if you guys weren't around would be you, because you'd have nobody to listen to all your complaining. the happy U2-lovers would be perfectly fine. sorry.

 

[ozeeko]

FUCK MERCY

 

[Zoots]

I agree that people are allowed to voice dissenting opinions about a song that they dislike. But when someone new discovers the song, and would like to put their own take on what they feel is good about it, we don't need to hear the same people come in and rain on their parade because their sick of Mercy threads. Let the people who want to read and post in the thread, do just that. It's not like everything on the front page is about Mercy. Skip over the topic, and go on to something else. Then no one can bug you!

 

[ShellBeThere]

we make it interesting for all of you
This place would be really boring if all everyone did is praise U2.

no, I love a good debate, and I love to hear people's opinions when they're *interestingly* stated, but this sort of endless cute self-amusing variation on "it sucks" gets to be like watching wanking.
I gotta go and turn thru page after page after page of it just to get to someone actually saying what they think of the song instead of back-and-forth about how many threads, blahblahblah.
love ya, love a good dissenting vibe, but just not the eat me you're wrong stuff, that gets boring...
i realize some of it is a whooole long history of 'debate' that i may have missed and is apparently being 'referenced' by the shorthand " i wipe my ass" stuff, but I'd love to see it let go..
"Please" lyrics apply well (I love that song too!)
...you had to win
you couldn't just pass...the smartest ass at the top of your class...

even if "love" isn't even on the agenda, I'm still trying to ask nice...
just link us to the sermon on the mount instead of reciting it so we peace-lovin' fools can continue deluding our silly selves?
cheers!

 

[ozeeko]

i was just kidding about fucking Mercy. The songs pretty interesting and better than almost everything on HTDAAB. But U2 can do so much better. The chorus needs to be rewritten. It's just that the song builds so much and the chorus that caps it off doesn't do the build-up justice.

 

[ShellBeThere]

Given that the song was ready to be on HTDAAB (and cut at the last moment, as Gareth Brown wrote) and that the song was indeed leaked, I was very surprised that U2 just didn't officially release the song as a b-side to a second or third single. God knows I would have preferred "Mercy" over Trent's remix.

To my ears, the song is classic U2. It could have easily fit on UF or JT. The lyrics and vocals are reminiscent of that era as is the guitar playing. And it may be for that very reason that the song was cut. Or U2 felt that a 6 minute song to end the album was just too long - "Yahweh" is an excellent closer.

If the song is "touched up" for a future official release, I hope Bono's vocals and lyrics remain - I do like them. There's nothing wrong with a more classic sounding U2 song - if it's done once or twice. What I like about this song is that while it's a throwback, it's also rather unique. If there is ever an example of U2 taking their own sound and pushing it forward, this is it.

While I'm glad it was leaked, ultimately I do think U2 was right - it doesn't really fit on the album. And songs like ABOY do (in fact, I like ABOY better).

I agree with a lot of what you say here Dr.Who, and disagree with some...yeah, it sounds to me too like a great example of U2 taking their own sound forward...that's why I don't see how it would have fit on UF or JT. It has carry-over from there, but it also has a lot of the sensibilities they forged since then, imo. I like the analogies people have made to "Bad", which I love...somehow it has that same sort of vibe in places, but a snappier *song* quality to it (so maybe it could be a single? long as it is?!)

And I agree that it didn't really fit on the last album...imagine it being included; it would have changed the whole vibe. Before reading your comments above I was thinking that if it ended up on HTDAAB, it would have had to replace Yahweh...I wasn't even thinking about 'closer' (I have trouble thinking of yahweh as closer sometimes; maybe because I have the extended version with fastcars lol!) status, but it feels somehow like those two songs couldn't be on the same album, don't know why I feel that way... that you could do yahweh or mercy but not both and that given the songs that made it onto HTDAAB Yahweh was the right choice to make. hell...I didn't even know it was close to being included on HTDAAB til just now!

I am just sorta hoping that the next one has a place for Mercy on it, because I think it would bode really really well for the whole package beyond getting an official released version of that fantabulous song...

cheers all!

 

[ozeeko]

Damn Yahweh (the song) to Hell. Mercy as a closer anyday!

 

[chickadee]

I'm not a huge Mercy fan but I like these threads because I want to know why so many people love it so much, lol! Maybe you can convert me. Not that I don't like it but I can't get as enthusiastic as others. I'm interested.

 

[gareth brown]

you just summed it up for the 90% of interference who's sick and tired of threads about mercy.

yes, we know you think it's great. but you just go on about it as if we didn't hear you the first time... and that just gets on people's tits.

haha, no i don't

 

[Utoo]

I like Mercy. I'm too lazy to say why right now. It's not my favorite song of all time, though, and I don't really think that it's sent to us directly from some great being above (just like I don't think Acrobat or Pop are the be-all end-all of U2 fandom either). It's a good song, has some great depth to it, and has some of that 90s U2 bittersweet quality--which is partly why I think a lot of folks here love it as much as they do.

The question is, have we all screwed ourselves over by talking about it so much? Besides the fact that the circumstances by which it was leaked are extraordinarily screwy (Bono tells a random fan on here to "look out for Mercy," and then that same fan randomly ends up with the only copy of HTDAAB with Mercy on it???), I don't think the band intended in any way to have it put out there. However, it's here. Will U2 put on an album a song that's already out there? They've got to know that it's out. Besides the fact that the song & discussions of it have spread through the online communities like wildfire, we've also had multiple dumbasses throughout the tour personally ask Bono & Edge to play Mercy on tour------which, IMO, pretty much ruined any chance of us seeing it on an album, as I don't see them releasing something that we've all already heard. I could be proven wrong when the album comes, and I wouldn't mind if I am because the song's pretty good. Still, I think that all the Mercy worship has essentially killed the song's future. If anything, maybe it'll get tacked onto a Best Of 2000-2010.

 

[GibsonGirl]

Still, I think that all the Mercy worship has essentially killed the song's future.

Keep on talking about it, everyone!

 

[kcrays]

Will U2 put on an album a song that's already out there? They've got to know that it's out. Besides the fact that the song & discussions of it have spread through the online communities like wildfire, we've also had multiple dumbasses throughout the tour personally ask Bono & Edge to play Mercy on tour------which, IMO, pretty much ruined any chance of us seeing it on an album, as I don't see them releasing something that we've all already heard. I could be proven wrong when the album comes, and I wouldn't mind if I am because the song's pretty good. Still, I think that all the Mercy worship has essentially killed the song's future. If anything, maybe it'll get tacked onto a Best Of 2000-2010.

Of course they know it's out there, but so what? If that's enough to keep a song from being released, we'd never have seen Discoteque.

I fail to see why it matters if a few thousand people have heard Mercy. The band sells millions of records. Most fans (even fairly big fans) have never heard Fast Cars, and that was released. I know huge U2 fans that have never heard Mercy. It's not on bittorrent (at least I"ve never seen it on any of the ones I've searched on), so unless you know the song exists (most don't) and actively search for it you're not going to hear it.

"Mercy", one of the last songs to get cut from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, described in Blender magazine as "a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish"

 

[dizzy]

Wow, this thread is still alive

Keep on talking about it, everyone!