Best Parts of Live Songs That Were Later Removed...

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I thought of some others(I wouldn't say I thought 'wtf' for all of them, but still worth a mention):

New Year's Day - they almost never do the 'maybe the time is right' bridge and 'so we're told this is the golden age' last verse live...they did it once or twice during Lovetown, and then they all of a sudden did it every show(I think) on the JT30 tour in 2017, but never after that IIRC.

Unforgettable Fire - the 360 versions omitted the whole second half of the song, lyrically at least.

In God's Country - for some reason, some of the performances on the original JT tour in 1987 were abbreviated, including the one in the R&H film.

Stuck - I think they removed the second pre-chorus at some point('you were such a fool/to worry like you do' etc).

Walk On - I can't remember exactly, but I think there were some times they played it without the guitar solo and 'home' middle 8. I know the Tribute To Heroes performance was like that. I think that's the best part of the song.
 
Yeah while I was very happy they brought The Unforgettable Fire back on 360, was less than thrilled with the arrangement.



Yeah, what the hell was that all about? Kind of amazing they broke that (and later, Scarlet) out at all but still.
 
Yeah while I was very happy they brought The Unforgettable Fire back on 360, was less than thrilled with the arrangement.

Sometimes they nail it (Acrobat, Exit), sometimes they don’t (UF 2009, Red Hill Mining Town 2017).

Speaking of them getting it right, though: One Tree Hill on Vertigo was amazing. After 16 years.
 
I’d put 2018 Dirty Day in the “better than not having it at all” category. It’s still a monster song in those shows, it just would have been better if they’d committed to it a little more.

That’s one of the things that makes me really wary of them revisiting Zoo TV. The energy, anger, feel & arrangements etc of the AB & Zooropa songs, firstly on the indoor leg and the the outdoor ones were so special, I think there’s a real danger of a new version of those shows being a pale imitation.

The RTTS guitar riff on Zoo TV was amazing... The swagger & rhythm of Bullet on Pop Mart... We can all agree that the “stars” in WOWY should always be in right?
 
No, we can’t all agree. I’ve been consistently saying that Stars is dumb and adds nothing to the song. The lyrics are Hallmark card level. :wave:

Hear Me Coming should always be played with One, however.
 
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I'm somewhere in the middle. I love having the extra 'verse' (although it's hardly that, it's three lines) because it makes the song swell upwards one final time, which is awesome, but there's absolutely nothing special about the lyrics.

Hear Me/Us Coming, however, is truly transcendent, and for me elevates One into the upper echelon of live U2.
 
Theoretically, 'One' could have been born out of the 'Stars' verse.

Like cobl, I like the extra verses because of the bonus crescendos but I've also felt that they never lean into them as much as they could. I'm not saying they should jam (shuddering at the thought of improv-Bongolese every night), but the live codas of these songs nowadays always feel like a tease than a proper outro.
 
This first night of ZooTV edge played a killer solo in whose gonna ride your wild horses. I’ve never hear a version since where he does anything close to that.

Almost all Bono and Edge acoustic versions suck compared to the full band. Desire ZooTV vs. Desire acoustic is the most egregious example.
 
Almost all Bono and Edge acoustic versions suck compared to the full band. Desire ZooTV vs. Desire acoustic is the most egregious example.

I also prefer full band Stuck, although that might just be because I’m bored of the acoustic one, they seem to pull it out pretty frequently.
 
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I can't think of a single U2 song that has ever been better acoustic than electric/full band. They're shithouse at doing acoustic.

That acoustic version of Staring At The Sun on the Popheart EP comes real close.
 
I can't think of a single U2 song that has ever been better acoustic than electric/full band. They're shithouse at doing acoustic.

Have to agree.
Good thing they never did MTV Unplugged.
Some bands are good at it (The Seattle bands of the 90's seemed to excel at it), U2 are not.
 
I think acoustic sets require better musicianship than the band has to offer. Edge is great at creating sounds, but not as proficient a player. And most of the good acoustic albums I can think of have multiple people playing guitar at a high level, which allows for more interesting harmonies. Not the case for the band either...
 
I’m still waiting for them to do a song with 4-part harmony this century.
 
Replacing the original Even Better with that dog shit Fish Out Of Water version from 360 onwards. Was a great song live, Popmart versions particularly great. Association with that wank (by their standards) Glastonbury performance as well doesn't do it any favours.
 
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Replacing the original Even Better with that dog shit Fish Out Of Water version from 360 onwards. Was a great song live, Popmart versions particularly great. Association with that wank (by their standards) Glastonbury performance as well doesn't do it any favours.



Wow. Actually didn’t think there was legit anyone who didn’t think the live versions from 360 weren’t the best expression of this song.
 
Wow. Actually didn’t think there was legit anyone who didn’t think the live versions from 360 weren’t the best expression of this song.

One thing which surprised me in the rebroadcast of a PopMart Mexico recently was that Bono went for the falsetto “you take me higher.” I didn’t think that had happened after ZooTV, it was a glorious surprise.

Overall I definitely prefer the 360 version, but the original had its charms. One thing that always grated on me about the 360 version is Larry needing the drum loop to back him up - he is capable of playing that syncopated tom beat, I promise. But no, we get thumping over tape, instead.
 
1.) The abomination that was Mercy, live. The leaked 2004 version was one of the best things they've done. The Wide Awake in Europe version, between the crap arrangement and the embarrassing lyrics, was dreadful.

2.) You can honestly feel the room deflate among the 'hardcore' U2 fans when Bono steps up to the microphone at the end of 'One' and sings anything else but 'do you hear us coming, Lord?' I've heard him try random chanting, I've heard the 'no them, only us' refrain, nothing comes close.

3.) I think one of the biggest reasons Do You Feel Loved didn't work live was something that was sort of out of the bands' hands. The driving force of that song, besides Adam's powerful bassline, is that overdriven 'harmonic' sounding main riff. I'm not sure if that was something that Edge even played on guitar or if it was some of Howie B's studio magic, but replacing it with the dreamy clean guitar part really took all the energy out of the song live. No wonder it wasn't long for the world.

4.) Speaking of PopMart versions - I don't understand why the live version of If God Will Send His Angels begins in that odd minor key. It doesn't work with the melody or the vibe of the song. That could actually be quite a good live song, but it just got a very weird arrangement and even though they eventually slipped back into the 'original' version of the song for the second verse, it didn't quite recover.
 
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