namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
15 years ago today, on October 20, 1998, the newly recorded Sweetest Thing(Single Mix) was released as a single. Actually, the 20th was the U.S. release date; I think yesterday, the 19th, was the actual international release date.
(The other single CDs look the same, just with different track listings, but will post in a second post because of the 12-image limit)
It was accompanied by this video:
U2 - Sweetest Thing - YouTube
It, of course, was the lead, and only, single off the forthcoming Best Of 1980-1990, which was released in two versions: a "limited edition" 2-Disc version with a B-Sides disc, released on November 3, 1998(November 2 internationally), and a single-disc version, released a week later on November 10, 1998(November 9 internationally).
This was a huge release for me. I had only started getting into U2 in the summer of 1998, just before I turned 14. Prior to this release, all I had were my older brother's Joshua Tree and UABRS cassette tapes. I got the two-disc version of this soon after it was released - my very first U2 CD purchase - and, to put it bluntly, I played the shit out of it, both discs, throughout that fall and winter. It is what took me from being an up-and-coming fan into a full-on die-hard, and I still associate that fall and winter with it. I have such fond memories of that time; not knowing what the hidden track at the end of All I Want Is You was(having not yet heard the October album) but loving it; not being aware that When Love Comes To Town is a collaboration and thinking how different Bono's voice sounds on it(lol); listening to it front-to-back in the backseat of the car as we drove to and back from New York City for a Christmas trip; etc.
And the thing is, it really is a great compilation. Whereas with the Best Of 1990-2000, there are number of much-talked-about flaws, controversial omissions, etc, the Best Of 1980-1990 is generally a well-liked compilation, and deservedly so imo. You can argue that it omits, say, Gloria, or 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, or Two Hearts Beat As One, but when it comes to all the really big ones, they got them all, imo. That tracklist is seared in my memory, so much so that to me, Bad still sounds right coming after Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Unforgettable Fire sounds as natural next to Sweetest Thing as it does Promenade, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For sounds as good after With Or Without You as it does before, Angel Of Harlem and All I Want Is You still go hand-in-hand, October still sounds perfect as a closer, etc.
But as important to my development as a U2 fan as the main disc was, the B-Sides disc was equally important. It was a godsend, really. You have to remember that in 1998, there was no youtube, there was no iTunes, and although there were file-sharing programs, high-speed internet wasn't widespread yet outside of schools and businesses, so files would've taken forever to download, if b-sides like this were even there. It was just a different world, and for a casual fan, and even die-hard fans, it was just much harder to find these songs, so to have a disc like this where almost all of the best b-sides are collected in one place was amazing, and listening to it fostered by growing love of the band just as much as the actual Best Of disc did. The idea that this band was good enough that these were the songs that didn't make the albums only increased my expectations for the albums themselves(which I collected in the Spring and Summer of 1999). I just listened to this disc again yesterday - I of course listen to most of these songs often, but to listen to them in that running order like I used to back in the day is a different experience - and it was every bit as satisfying as it was back then.
But aside from my own personal attachment to it, this was an important release for U2. It signaled a change in tone and mindset for U2. Up to this point, U2 had always been a forward-looking band, always thinking that their best work was ahead of them and not behind them, but it seems like they collectively decided during this time period that it was finally time to start looking backwards. Even during the Popmart tour, the band were taken with the idea of just being four guys in a room again, and when they dropped Miami from the setlist and Edge started playing his solo rendition of Sunday Bloody Sunday, it was a poignant stripping-down that seemed to represent a certain fragility within the group in the wake of what happened with Pop and Popmart, and to indicate that the band was perhaps moving into a new mental space in reaction to it. The Best Of 1980-1990 was the first and the biggest of a number of things they did in quick succession that 'looked back'; they also did the VH1 Legends episode, and the Classic Albums/Making Of Joshua Tree DVD. The fact that they did all of this in the same time period is important, imo, because to me it's like a tacit admission that, 'ok, our prime is over, this phase of superstardom is over, and it's time to celebrate our career up to this point before we move into the legend/elder-statesmen phase as we get older'.
I think the Sweetest Thing was really the perfect single for this compilation, too. It's the U2 of Popmart, of the late 90s, playing one of their 80s songs, in a style that was arguably predictive of where they were about to go with ATYCLB; a nice combination of where they had been in the 80s, where they were at that exact point in time, and where they were headed. Also, its b-sides were another indication of the band celebrating their past; instead of original b-sides, or covers, or remixes, they were live performances from their early days; Twilight and An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart from Red Rocks June 5 1983 and Stories For Boys and Out Of Control from Boston 6 March 1981; the studio version of With Or Without You was also the b-side on some versions. This was a far cry from the U2 of ZooTV who didn't want anything to do with Boy or October or even War(that's not a dig at ZooTV either, I've always thought it was beyond brilliant; it was just a band at a different point in its career).
Anyway, I could go on and on. Let's discuss, appreciate, and commemorate the 15th anniversary of The Best Of 1980-1990 & B-Sides and Sweetest Thing(Single Mix).
I leave you with this quote from Bono, from the Elevation Tour program that I still have from the June 19, 2001 MSG Elevation show:
"When Edge finally forced me to listen to the Greatest Hits I was obliged to concede for the first time that we had achieved something, that there were some colours there that we owned. Very few artists own any colours. You're lucky if you get one. And I saw the ecstatic music, and with a wiser head I could see that naivete had produced something special, however gauche."
(The other single CDs look the same, just with different track listings, but will post in a second post because of the 12-image limit)
It was accompanied by this video:
U2 - Sweetest Thing - YouTube
It, of course, was the lead, and only, single off the forthcoming Best Of 1980-1990, which was released in two versions: a "limited edition" 2-Disc version with a B-Sides disc, released on November 3, 1998(November 2 internationally), and a single-disc version, released a week later on November 10, 1998(November 9 internationally).
This was a huge release for me. I had only started getting into U2 in the summer of 1998, just before I turned 14. Prior to this release, all I had were my older brother's Joshua Tree and UABRS cassette tapes. I got the two-disc version of this soon after it was released - my very first U2 CD purchase - and, to put it bluntly, I played the shit out of it, both discs, throughout that fall and winter. It is what took me from being an up-and-coming fan into a full-on die-hard, and I still associate that fall and winter with it. I have such fond memories of that time; not knowing what the hidden track at the end of All I Want Is You was(having not yet heard the October album) but loving it; not being aware that When Love Comes To Town is a collaboration and thinking how different Bono's voice sounds on it(lol); listening to it front-to-back in the backseat of the car as we drove to and back from New York City for a Christmas trip; etc.
And the thing is, it really is a great compilation. Whereas with the Best Of 1990-2000, there are number of much-talked-about flaws, controversial omissions, etc, the Best Of 1980-1990 is generally a well-liked compilation, and deservedly so imo. You can argue that it omits, say, Gloria, or 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, or Two Hearts Beat As One, but when it comes to all the really big ones, they got them all, imo. That tracklist is seared in my memory, so much so that to me, Bad still sounds right coming after Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Unforgettable Fire sounds as natural next to Sweetest Thing as it does Promenade, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For sounds as good after With Or Without You as it does before, Angel Of Harlem and All I Want Is You still go hand-in-hand, October still sounds perfect as a closer, etc.
But as important to my development as a U2 fan as the main disc was, the B-Sides disc was equally important. It was a godsend, really. You have to remember that in 1998, there was no youtube, there was no iTunes, and although there were file-sharing programs, high-speed internet wasn't widespread yet outside of schools and businesses, so files would've taken forever to download, if b-sides like this were even there. It was just a different world, and for a casual fan, and even die-hard fans, it was just much harder to find these songs, so to have a disc like this where almost all of the best b-sides are collected in one place was amazing, and listening to it fostered by growing love of the band just as much as the actual Best Of disc did. The idea that this band was good enough that these were the songs that didn't make the albums only increased my expectations for the albums themselves(which I collected in the Spring and Summer of 1999). I just listened to this disc again yesterday - I of course listen to most of these songs often, but to listen to them in that running order like I used to back in the day is a different experience - and it was every bit as satisfying as it was back then.
But aside from my own personal attachment to it, this was an important release for U2. It signaled a change in tone and mindset for U2. Up to this point, U2 had always been a forward-looking band, always thinking that their best work was ahead of them and not behind them, but it seems like they collectively decided during this time period that it was finally time to start looking backwards. Even during the Popmart tour, the band were taken with the idea of just being four guys in a room again, and when they dropped Miami from the setlist and Edge started playing his solo rendition of Sunday Bloody Sunday, it was a poignant stripping-down that seemed to represent a certain fragility within the group in the wake of what happened with Pop and Popmart, and to indicate that the band was perhaps moving into a new mental space in reaction to it. The Best Of 1980-1990 was the first and the biggest of a number of things they did in quick succession that 'looked back'; they also did the VH1 Legends episode, and the Classic Albums/Making Of Joshua Tree DVD. The fact that they did all of this in the same time period is important, imo, because to me it's like a tacit admission that, 'ok, our prime is over, this phase of superstardom is over, and it's time to celebrate our career up to this point before we move into the legend/elder-statesmen phase as we get older'.
I think the Sweetest Thing was really the perfect single for this compilation, too. It's the U2 of Popmart, of the late 90s, playing one of their 80s songs, in a style that was arguably predictive of where they were about to go with ATYCLB; a nice combination of where they had been in the 80s, where they were at that exact point in time, and where they were headed. Also, its b-sides were another indication of the band celebrating their past; instead of original b-sides, or covers, or remixes, they were live performances from their early days; Twilight and An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart from Red Rocks June 5 1983 and Stories For Boys and Out Of Control from Boston 6 March 1981; the studio version of With Or Without You was also the b-side on some versions. This was a far cry from the U2 of ZooTV who didn't want anything to do with Boy or October or even War(that's not a dig at ZooTV either, I've always thought it was beyond brilliant; it was just a band at a different point in its career).
Anyway, I could go on and on. Let's discuss, appreciate, and commemorate the 15th anniversary of The Best Of 1980-1990 & B-Sides and Sweetest Thing(Single Mix).
I leave you with this quote from Bono, from the Elevation Tour program that I still have from the June 19, 2001 MSG Elevation show:"When Edge finally forced me to listen to the Greatest Hits I was obliged to concede for the first time that we had achieved something, that there were some colours there that we owned. Very few artists own any colours. You're lucky if you get one. And I saw the ecstatic music, and with a wiser head I could see that naivete had produced something special, however gauche."
I still prefer this version to the old JT era one.
