Snowlock said:
They did? It was only played live for one tour, was never a single, never a dance club hit, never artistically recognized by anyone for its brilliance, including the band; and if not the majority at the minimum a huge chunk of their fanbase. It has all the musical historical relevence as War's Refugee; a total period piece that sounds dated now.
It's always because "it was so daring" or "it's so experimental" and then just pine away for more "daring" and experimentation. When all they really did was hire a DJ to be their producer and try and tap into the Cotton Eyed Joe craze.
"That song 'Mofo' is hardcore. If I could put my whole life into one song, it'd be something close to that."
that's Bono in the POPmart tourbook. He's probably said other things, that is my quickest reference at this moment.
But I'm sure he doesn't see the aristic merit in it because it's a dance track.... Actually I think it's the most metal song in their catalog.
They didn't play it on the tour, although it was rehearsed, so it's not as if they left it on the shelf because of any other reason than the performance didn't work out. They haven't so much as rehearsed dozens and dozens of songs. Doesn't hold water. Probably because of the synth bass track needed to perform the song as well as the other loops, the synch didn't work or BOno couldn't remember the lyrics to save his life. All of which has nothing to do with the song's relevance being a reason it wasn't performed.
And it was a single, in fact I own this single.
http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/sing043.html
I don't claim that POP is daring or experimental like many others, but this mythology that surrounds POP goes both ways.
This idea that this was a bandwagon jump has never been substantiated with any teeth, in fact I challenged anyone to substantiate this in a rather 'busy' thread that lots of views and lots of replies and didn't get one bite. Not a single reply. Anyone who had been listening to dance music for a period of time in 1996 or certainly before, when U2 were recording POP knew #1- that this genre was anything but groundbreaking for U2 #2-that this genre was anything but a path to commercial success. This is a fucking myth and it will remain untl proven otherwise. I'm glad to discuss it with anybody though.
Among others, groups like Massive Attack, Underworld, Prodigy and Portishead were spearheading this sound circa 95/96 but to make the assertion that U2 thought this scene would blow-up and become the next craze thus launching them into the biggest band in the world and winning 17 grammies is a fuckign myth.
They chased an artistic path, they incorporated a new sound, no different than anything they've done or any other rock band in the history of rock has done. Somehow this is ok when U2 wants to make a soul record, a song based melodic hook record.
Somehow it's lost on some people that they are incorporating a much older, much more tried and true formula of pop success these days, commercial success, guaranteed formula to the kind of relevance err...commercial success that they want. That is not really a bandwagon jump, that's like the fast train down the middle lane to sales and face time.
If in 1996 U2 were trying to jump on the bandwagon on the way to the top of the charts they could have picked any number of genres to jump to (if you even accpet this premise), it takes no more than a casual look at the billboard charts, the last genre on the list, well one of the last was trip-dance hop, whatever you'd like to call it. But when recoiling back into a defensive state, IMO a lack of perspective perpetuates this myth if for no other reason than it's the only way to explain it away.
So go ahead, anyone and explain it away. We need a good discussion on the board anyways.