we fucking hate one, and here's why

[skott100]

Somewhere in a parallel universe, a Beatles fansite is having the same argument about "Yesterday".

 

[phillyfan26]

Refugee's a fun song.

Babyface and Red Light are sort of terrible, though.

 

[Zoots]

In any case, it is worth noting that the album and songs U2 are best remembered for in the general population is The Joshua Tree and its hits. I have noticed that while the public in general loves The Joshua Tree, Internet-using U2 fans tend to lean towards Achtung Baby. That probably explains the strong support for One here.

Well... in my personal opinion, what era you grew up with has something to do with it. Now I know Ax, you did not grow up with UF so your case is obviously an exception. But I grew up enjoying the hell out of Achtung, Zooropa and Pop. So that's my favorite era. Also, as it is no secret on this board, I really enjoy 90s music in general. Hence my reason for this theory. I could be wrong.

 

[coolian2]

Interesting, grasshopper.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could take a survey after a concert and ask people what songs they really wanted to hear, or if they were bummed that a certain song wasn't played?

(And yes, by cool I mean "totally geeky and awesome.")

Would only work if they were to drop one of the classic songs

 

[phillyfan26]

Well... in my personal opinion, what era you grew up with has something to do with it. Now I know Ax, you did not grow up with UF so your case is obviously an exception. But I grew up enjoying the hell out of Achtung, Zooropa and Pop. So that's my favorite era. Also, as it is no secret on this board, I really enjoy 90s music in general. Hence my reason for this theory. I could be wrong.

Well, I grew up with ATYCLB and HTDAAB, so all bets are off.

 

[gvox]

I believe he said the song sounded like one that was playing to the same market.

One plays in any market. ANY market. Of which the teenaged girls would be a small segment, I would gather. Perhaps in the context of the anger that sounded like an insult.

 

[Zoots]

Even though it has, for all those reasons, become a huge yawner of a song for me now, I know that if I somehow don't hear One for 2 years, when I eventually do it will sound brilliant again.

That said, I liked the MJB version. I thought it was refreshingly new.

 

[gvox]

Somewhere in a parallel universe, a Beatles fansite is having the same argument about "Yesterday".

can I finally use this acronym:

FTW

??

 

[gvox]

That said, I liked the MJB version. I thought it was refreshingly new.

I could do something completely unoriginal like paste that 100 times, but I won't....but I totally agree.

 

[indra]

I agree, and this is no insult to casual fans at all.

If I went and saw a band and I only knew their hits, a few deep cuts might be nice, but I have to admit, I'd want to hear the songs I knew.

But, there are certain hits I always want to hear, most notably New Year's Day and Streets. Every rabid fan has a few "hits" they'd not soon part with, and that's what makes threads like this so circular.

Yep. Pretty much the same for me. Even with bands I do know I like to have heard the album they are touring several times before a concert or I want to see them live several times. I can enjoy a concert which has several songs I don't know, but I enjoy it much more when I know the songs. Hell, I enjoy albums and individual songs more when I get to know them too.

I will note that with bands I am a more intense fan of, I do like to hear more obscure songs played live.

 

[Bono's shades]

Well... in my personal opinion, what era you grew up with has something to do with it. Now I know Ax, you did not grow up with UF so your case is obviously an exception. But I grew up enjoying the hell out of Achtung, Zooropa and Pop. So that's my favorite era. Also, as it is no secret on this board, I really enjoy 90s music in general. Hence my reason for this theory. I could be wrong.

I became a U2 fan in the '80s and I think One is in their Top 5 - or maybe even their Top 3.

I'm just shaking my head reading this thread. Can someone explain to me how the lyrics to One are trite? When I first heard it I was struck by how dark most of the lyrics are. It makes the more hopeful lines at the end poignant rather than cliched or sentimental.

Yep, One is a horrible, horrible song all right. It's so freakin' awful that everyone from Johnny Cash to Mary J. Blige has covered it. I know, something like 90 percent of this forum thinks Mary J. Blige sucks even though she's a highly-respected R&B artist, but the point I'm trying to make is there must be something about the song that appeals to musicians in so many different genres.

Maybe I should start a thread about how much I hate Beautiful Day.

 

[Varitek]

You want to know why One fucking sucks? Let me put it as simply as possible. The lyrics are cliched and overwrought tripe. It sounds like some pathetic pseudo-anthem written for teenage girls who loved My Heart Will Go On when they were ten (yes, I realise the order of release is actually the opposite, but I don't know an appropriate pre-One example). Stylistically, it feels like it follows in the template of WOWY, which is an absolute condemnation of any pretense of originality it may try to possess. What's more, it doesn't even do anything with that template. Larry and Adam do absolutely nothing to write home about. Edge has created far more interesting and memorable guitar lines in almost every other U2 song. Bono's singing does nothing to push the song over the line or give it any gravity. And the worst part? The song just ... dies. It should reach some sort of climax, but it just blathers out with some guitar that never achieves any significance and Bono's inconsequential wailing. It's like they had no idea how to finish the fucking song.

I agree with this, and One isn't anywhere near the top of my U2-favorites list, and I also think I've just been overexposed due to flat live renditions. But, even though this criticism is true, it is a very, very high standard to hold the band to. Even if One isn't a great U2 song, there are very few bands who can consistently meet the above standard with one or two songs on each album, let alone many songs an album. And for me at least, of the bands who can do this, U2's sound is the one that I like the most in all sorts of moods, and most of their lyrics are extraordinary.

I also agree with the people who've said that every once in a while One sneaks up on them and they get it for one playing, then it goes away again. That happens with a lot of U2's songs that aren't my consistent favorites.

 

[Zoots]

Maybe I should start a thread about how much I hate Beautiful Day.

Dooo it!


And I like BD.

 

[Axver]

I'm just shaking my head reading this thread. Can someone explain to me how the lyrics to One are trite?

Almost every line sounds like it comes from a cliche self-help book. "Will it make it easier on you now you've got someone to blame?" Come on, Bono, we all know you can do better than that.

How I wish One and Stay could swap places ...

Yep, One is a horrible, horrible song all right. It's so freakin' awful that everyone from Johnny Cash to Mary J. Blige has covered it. I know, something like 90 percent of this forum thinks Mary J. Blige sucks even though she's a highly-respected R&B artist, but the point I'm trying to make is there must be something about the song that appeals to musicians in so many different genres.

I don't see how just because it's been covered invalidates the reasons why some of us don't like One. I feel you've just presented the "majority likes it" argument with a tad more nuance.

Maybe I should start a thread about how much I hate Beautiful Day.

I'll join you there too.

I don't hate Beautiful Day, but I don't love it either. It strikes me as pretty unremarkable.

 

[Varitek]

I also try to keep in mind what One is really about when I encounter it, and it helps. Sure, the lyrics sound trite in many places, but if you remember that it's a conversation between a gay guy and his father, and not some cliche love your boyfriend or love the world song that everyone thinks it is, it's more meaningful.

 

[Axver]

I also try to keep in mind what One is really about when I encounter it, and it helps. Sure, the lyrics sound trite in many places, but if you remember that it's a conversation between a gay guy and his father, and not some cliche love your boyfriend or love the world song that everyone thinks it is, it's more meaningful.

Well, I think this is part of the point: the message is so hopelessly lost that it says something negative about the lyrics. Bono just doesn't achieve the job. Would we even know that's the song's meaning if we didn't have quotes from Bono? Sure, there are a lot of misunderstood hits out there, but usually if you stop for a second and listen to the lyrics, you quickly realise what the artist is actually saying. I don't really think that's the case with One.

 

[Varitek]

I did enjoy hearing both One and Pride in the U23D flick. They felt almost new, and that made me be all "yay!"

One was basically the only song during U23D that I wasn't tapping along/dancing in my seat to.

 

[Bono's shades]

Almost every line sounds like it comes from a cliche self-help book. "Will it make it easier on you now you've got someone to blame?" Come on, Bono, we all know you can do better than that.

Really? I always thought the lyrics to some of the songs on ATYCLB sound like they came from some cliched self-help book - particularly Stuck in a Moment. But the lyrics in One sound poetic and dark and complex to me, not trite. I don't think you are going to find phrases like "Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head" in anything written by Dr. Phil.

 

[Varitek]

Well, I think this is part of the point: the message is so hopelessly lost that it says something negative about the lyrics. Bono just doesn't achieve the job. Would we even know that's the song's meaning if we didn't have quotes from Bono? Sure, there are a lot of misunderstood hits out there, but usually if you stop for a second and listen to the lyrics, you quickly realise what the artist is actually saying. I don't really think that's the case with One.

I don't agree - a lot of his intentions are totally lost on people without background info and quotes, and I consider it a strong point that many of his lyrics have multiple and good interpretations, and that he hides meaning in the songs so there's always a fresh discovery no matter how many times you've listened to their catalogue. And One is more cryptic than most, but part of that is the atmosphere in 1991 - sure, U2 and Bono are pro-gay rights, but that isn't a battle they've ever chosen to fight.

 

[gvox]

But, even though this criticism is true,

I'm only picking out that because I personally feel that it's completely untrue. If I read that type of critique anywhere in print I would dismiss it as garbage, to be honest.

Larry does nothing to write home about? How about the subtetly of the light almost hip-hop beat and the tom hit every so often? It's beautiful, and it translates into a more rnb-ified version seemlessly.

Edge's guitar work not memorable? No way. There are alot of really unique sounds going on in that song. And the solo at the end, especially in it's live incarnations where Bono waits before starting the outtro, is just a thing of amazing power and statement.

The lyrics are cliched and overwrought tripe? Completely disagree, the universality of the symbolisms used is just amazing. "You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl", "we GET to carry each other", "did I disappoint you...leave a bad taste in your mouth"..that whole verse in fact...some of Bono's most charged lyrics and speaks to so many different situations on so many different levels.

No climax? What do you call "Love is a temple" into the final "One love, one blood, one life" etc? I'd say that's about as beautiful a climax as any U2 song. It's actually very sexual in the structure, as far as song templates go and the placement of the climax and then leading out, yet it's not an intentionally sexual song. Another mark of a gem of a song imo.


Bono's inconsequential wailing? No way, it's hardly inconsequential. It's a fitting closure to the passion and intensity being expressed.

It's like they had no idea how to finish the fucking song? The song ends perfectly, just perfectly.

I think the big problem is just that: the song is TOO perfect. It is a masterpiece, and will live on in musical history as a timeless classic.

 

[phillyfan26]

That's no climax. I know climaxes. That isn't one.

The live One's with the "Do you hear my coming Lord?" verse have climaxes: that verse. All other versions do not.

 

[gvox]

if you remember that it's a conversation between a gay guy and his father

Hmm. I think that oversimplifies the song to an extent that not even Bono would sign onto.

 

[Axver]

Really? I always thought the lyrics to some of the songs on ATYCLB sound like they came from some cliched self-help book - particularly Stuck in a Moment. But the lyrics in One sound poetic and dark and complex to me, not trite. I don't think you are going to find phrases like "Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head" in anything written by Dr. Phil.

I agree entirely with you about ATYCLB - I just put One in the same category. Before I was right into U2, I didn't realise One came from a totally different era. It seemed like a natural partner to Stuck.

Incidentally, the "have you come here to play Jesus" lyric is the solitary line of the studio version that I think even half lives up to the hype. Some others I don't mind, and that one I quite like. See, it's not all hate.

 

[gvox]

That's no climax. I know climaxes. That isn't one.

Of course it is, it was even referenced as such in my second year songwriting class by our highly respected instructor. We spent a good couple of classes looking at One. You have to look at the melodic structure at the same time, it's definitely a climactic moment in the song.

 

[Varitek]

lol. And yet it's one of the most respected songs in rock history, let alone U2 history. It consistently shows up near the top of many a list of all-time great rock songs.

That's because it was a single. Most people have never heard or don't remember Acrobat, One Tree Hill, A Sort of Homecoming, (I would have said Silver and Gold but Axver's casual friend seems to know it). They mostly release singles that will have mass appeal and be playable on the radio, and those are the ones that make it into the memory of rock history. That's the way it is. I'm sure there's some decent band out their whose mediocre singles I haven't appreciated on the radio but who've got better songs on an album that I'll never buy and hear. That's just how singles and radio works, it's a very imperfect system.

 

[Zoots]

Before I was right into U2, I didn't realise One came from a totally different era. It seemed like a natural partner to Stuck.

.


*speechless*

 

[Varitek]

Hmm. I think that oversimplifies the song to an extent that not even Bono would sign onto.

Uh, he's said this in an interview. He then went on to explain a little more about the situation, which was a friend's, so I thought the reference to the interview would suffice to those who know this background. But I'm too lazy to dig the interview out.

 

[Axver]

.


*speechless*

It didn't help that U2 then put One and Stuck onto the same Best Of. It was only after I got that Best Of that I became the serious fan I am today.

To tell the truth, the only Achtung songs I can remember actually hearing in the 1990s are EBTTRT and MW. Nothing of One. I heard nothing from Zooropa except maybe Dirty Day, which was strikingly familiar when I first heard it in 2002, and I have only a faint recollection of anything from Pop. However, around 1994-99, I have very distinct memories of hearing songs like SBS (my favourite song when I was 7), NYD, Pride, Angel Of Harlem, and When Love Comes To Town. I thought BB King was Edge when I was 10.

 

[Zoots]

It didn't help that U2 then put One and Stuck onto the same Best Of.

Damn them for putting ATYCLB songs on a 90s best of!

But still how you can relate something as direct and preachy as Stuck In A Moment to something as cryptic and profound as One is beyond me.

I thought BB King was Edge when I was 10.

 

[Aygo]

One does indeed FUCKING SUCK. And the reasons it fucking sucks have NOTHING to do with confusing it with the live performance frequency, so I'd appreciate it if some of you rabid One defenders would stop spamming this thread by making false accusations and twisting the discussion.

You want to know why One fucking sucks? Let me put it as simply as possible. The lyrics are cliched and overwrought tripe. It sounds like some pathetic pseudo-anthem written for teenage girls who loved My Heart Will Go On when they were ten (yes, I realise the order of release is actually the opposite, but I don't know an appropriate pre-One example). Stylistically, it feels like it follows in the template of WOWY, which is an absolute condemnation of any pretense of originality it may try to possess.

Yer hilarious!

This is what happens whan someone doesn't have good arguments to justify his opinion, which is too bad.

BTW, this comment shows even more your narrow mind. "My Heart Will Go On" is only parodied (as the singer is) because is sung by Celine Dion, because it was a huuuuuuuge hit and because it is associated to a (today) ridiculed movie. Besides that, it's a very well composed love ballad and it would be much more respected if it was not associated to what I described in the previous sentence.