Alex Descends and Beyond...

[Brian-C]

A Clockwork Orange - Propaganda 12, 01.05.90

Has anyone ever heard anything more about this project? I'm assuming "Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1" is from this project. But did Bono and Edge actually complete the rest of the stage score? And has it ever been heard?

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I remember hearing that Anthony Burgess hated it, I can't remember if it was actually performed for the public or not...

 

[U2girl]

I think they did write the score, but nothing else has surfaced outside of that song.

 

[Brian-C]

Burgess hated Kubrick's film too, so it's no surprise that he would hate another adaptation. Oh well. With all the talk of "Spiderman," I thought I'd try to see if anyone knew something about a far more interesting project (to me, at least... the material and the era).

 

[u2search]

Yes, it was a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Here are some links:

A Clockwork Orange | U2 news article from @U2

A Clockwork Orange 2004 Play by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Anothy Burgess & U2 1990 - London, England

Poor Reviews for Musical Of 'A Clockwork Orange' - The New York Times


Incidentally I bought the film last week

 

[Niceman]

Yes, it was a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Here are some links:

A Clockwork Orange | U2 news article from @U2

A Clockwork Orange 2004 Play by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Anothy Burgess & U2 1990 - London, England

Poor Reviews for Musical Of 'A Clockwork Orange' - The New York Times


Incidentally I bought the film last week

How did you order it? I'm assuming it hasn't arrived yet?

 

[Brian-C]

Say what? Where did you get a DVD of this? I'm assuming it has the entire U2 score? How did a DVD release of this go unnoticed?

Link?

 

[Chief43]

I think they meant the Kubrick film.

 

[Brian-C]

And see, I got so excited that I literally reloaded this page ten times over the last twenty minutes, hoping (desperately) for a link.

 

[Brian-C]

Did anyone go to see this play? Those two songs where the lyrics are posted on the middle link above... does anyone know if those are Edge/Bono songs? Even the Passengers didn't manage to fly this far under the radar.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Keep in mind that this was before U2's audience was mostly made up of forty-something office drones...at this point, they still couldn't afford tickets to live theater.

 

[Aardvark747]

Great tune

 

[Brian-C]

Keep in mind that this was before U2's audience was mostly made up of forty-something office drones...at this point, they still couldn't afford tickets to live theater.

This is true. Still, I can't believe with all of the U2 scholars out there that not one person has come forward and discussed details of this project, which WAS staged. Not like it was a shelved project or something.

 

[BVS]

Did anyone go to see this play? Those two songs where the lyrics are posted on the middle link above... does anyone know if those are Edge/Bono songs? Even the Passengers didn't manage to fly this far under the radar.

No one saw the play, that's the problem...

I remember reading something recently about this play and if I remember correctly it only lasted a few weeks if that long.

This was pre internet days, so U2 fans weren't even privy that Bono and Edge were doing this until well after the fact.

 

[Ellay]

I assumed the FLY (lounge mix) was used in the stage production, it's clearly an earlier version with different lyrics..

The reason being that Bono always says the Fly is about a guy making a phone call from Hell.

The Hell Bar is the bar in Clockwork Orange - ie Alex descends into Hell.

 

[Ellay]

BTW - clockwork LEMON!!!


Poor Reviews for Musical Of 'A Clockwork Orange'
Special to The New York Times
Published: Wednesday, February 14, 1990
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink''A Clockwork Orange 2004,'' the Royal Shakespeare Company's much-anticipated stage version of the novel by Anthony Burgess, has opened at the Barbican Theater to mostly negative reviews, with John Peter of The Sunday Times of London calling it ''only an intellectual 'Rocky Horror Show' '' and John Gross of The Sunday Telegraph calling it ''a clockwork lemon

 

[Brian-C]

So perhaps the "Fly" single is the closest we can hope for a "Clockwork Orange" U2 soundtrack?

Well, not quite.

But here's hoping SOMEONE emerges. Is the director or any of the actors online?

 

[u2search]

How did you order it? I'm assuming it hasn't arrived yet?

Sorry if I confused you, I bought Stanley Kubricks film. Haven't seen it yet.

 

[financeguy]

Their experiences with the Clockwork Orange soundtrack are dealt with in the Hot Press current interview with Paul McGuinness.

OT: I always loved that track "Alex Descends Into Hell For a Bottle Of Milk" [B-side of single "The Fly" - OT].

PMcG: Yeah! It produced some nice, experimental music that probably led to better things, but it was very frustrating creatively. Anthony Burgess, who had written the original book, hated it, hated the stage production, and he hated the music particularly, because he was a composer. And he had written a score for A Clockwork Orange in some kind of experimental jazz idiom that I have never heard. I have told this story before, but on the first night -- this is in the Barbican in London -- I saw a group of journalists, some of whom I recognised, who had sat down around this little old man who was telling them how much he hated the music. And I went over and discovered that it was Anthony Burgess himself, and he was telling the critics how much he hated what U2 had done musically.

http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=5464

 

[allbecauseofu2]

was hoping this song would appear in the live set someday,lol