A U2 box-set, disc-arranged by themes

[The Panther]

I was recently reading something about the Johnny Cash box-set, or whatever it was, from some years back, where I believe it was a 3-disc collection divided by themes. (Bono wrote the sleeve-notes to the 'God' disc.)

So, this made me think that if U2's plane went down tomorrow, it would be interesting to imagine a retrospective set -- say, 3 or 4 discs, or what have you -- which was similarly divided by lyrical (or musical) themes.

The obvious question is: what are U2's themes? The ones that come to mind are spirituality, love, world peace, political strife, and er... spirituality. You could also divide choice songs by musical approaches, although that's probably getting close to just reproducing albums or eras (though not necessarily).

Anyone want to give it a go?

 

[Van Cleef]

I was recently reading something about the Johnny Cash box-set, or whatever it was, from some years back, where I believe it was a 3-disc collection divided by themes. (Bono wrote the sleeve-notes to the 'God' disc.)

So, this made me think that if U2's plane went down tomorrow, it would be interesting to imagine a retrospective set -- say, 3 or 4 discs, or what have you -- which was similarly divided by lyrical (or musical) themes.

The obvious question is: what are U2's themes? The ones that come to mind are spirituality, love, world peace, political strife, and er... spirituality. You could also divide choice songs by musical approaches, although that's probably getting close to just reproducing albums or eras (though not necessarily).

Anyone want to give it a go?

I have a Lennon box, Gimme Some Truth, that contains four themed discs: "Working Class Hero", John’s socio-political songs; "Woman", John’s love songs; "Borrowed Time", John’s songs about life and "Roots", John's rock 'n' roll roots and influences.

It's a bit weird because some songs are obviously being "forced" to belong in a themed disc it really should not.

 

[The Panther]

Good call on that regrettable Lennon box! I remember that now, and I thought it was really weird at the time. Keep in mind, Lennon made only 6 complete albums in his lifetime -- a 4-theme box-set is probably a stretch at best, esp. in that Lennon was all over the place with his ideas and fads -- I guess the thematic thing works best with artists who are more consistent with themes. (btw, the best Lennon box is called simply Lennon, from 1990. It divides his solo stuff into 4 discs chronologically, and is probably the most perfect song selection of his stuff imagineable.)

Anyway, I did in fact attempt the U2 thing tonight, as I'm drawing up the tracks for my mp3 player. The 4 themes I eventually settled on were:
-- God
-- Innocence/Experience
-- Conflict
-- Love

Obviously, there's tremendous crossover in terms of which song fits where thematically (for example, "One" -- if it's not 'God', it could certainly be any of the latter three). But, cherry-picking a huge whack of my favorite U2 songs, I was able to fit about 95% of them into one (or more) of these 4 themes.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

are U2 flying somewhere tomorrow?

 

[lazarus]

Is Bono ok??

 

[Niceman]

The difference between U2's body of work and Lennon or Cash's is the massive stylistic changes. You can put Cash's work in thematic boxes and it will all more of less flow, but the mix is more jarring if you put Boy/Girl, Daddy's Gonna Pay..., and City of Blinding Lights Together. In my opinion, it makes this a harder task to do well than it otherwise might be.

 

[cypress]

- War and Peace
- Good and Evil
- Order and Chaos
- Beginnings and Endings

Agreed that the hard part would be placing some of the songs into just one of the categories.

 

[pepokiss]

Is Bono ok??

 

[Yahweh_OMG]

And where would the new album be???

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I actually did this once and it worked beautifully....I just can't remember what two of the themed discs happen to be...if it comes back to me, I'll put together the track list.

 

[Rafiennes]

1. Boy to Man
2. Discovering America
3. Zootopia
4. Edge Is On (lukewarm) Fire