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

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mikal

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...that had you saying "WTF were you guys thinking?"

For example:

- Guitar solo at the end of Mysterious Ways. Why did they ever take that out?

- Edge's guitar on RTSS on ZooTV. Should have been brought back on the Vertigo Tour


What are yours?
 
...that had you saying "WTF were you guys thinking?"

For example:

- Guitar solo at the end of Mysterious Ways. Why did they ever take that out?

- Edge's guitar on RTSS on ZooTV. Should have been brought back on the Vertigo Tour


What are yours?

I sometimes wonder if they have started removing solos or doing more stripped down songs to give Larry a break. While he appears to be in great shape still, I have to imagine it's not an easy thing to do night in and night out. I've noticed his drumming has gotten a lot more basic in the live setting over the years. He was never a technical wizard but Mysterious Ways is another good example of how his drumming pattern changed for it.

But who really knows. They seemed to rock songs like Exit on the JT tour
 
I will remain forever amazed that for the entire Vertigo Tour they managed to turn Bullet the Blue Sky into a boring seven-minute dirge. Truly amazing achievement.
 
Guitar solo in WOWY. Those ‘92 shows where you’d get Edge letting go a little bit then into Shine Like Stars… never better.

Bono no longer singing the “FeeEEEeeel” bit in Vertigo.

Bono changing the melody to “I don’t believe anymore” in Raised By Wolves (I suppose that’s not quite the spirit of this thread as I think he’d got that wrong from the first I+E gig). It’s such a shame in Paris - the audience is ready to belt that out with him - and they try! - but he’s singing his weird alternate melody. Play along with the moment, B.
 
Guitar solo in Even Better Than the Real Thing... replaced by talking. And lots of it.
 
Lack of solo in 2018 Dirty Day?

This isn’t exactly what the OP asked for, but the omission of the “ ripping the stitches” bridge/pre-chorus from the 360 versions of Mercy.
 
:up:

All of those E+I Dirty Day versions were unnecessary and pale in comparison with the version on the Sydney DVD.

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.
 
Thinking about what they did to Mercy still makes my blood curdle. I saw it live, in person, paired with Bad, which was pretty transcendent, and it was still mostly great, because the verses stayed their beautiful selves, but fuck me dead what they did to the pre-chorus and the chorus was an abomination.
 
thinking about what they did to mercy still makes my blood curdle. I saw it live, in person, paired with bad, which was pretty transcendent, and it was still mostly great, because the verses stayed their beautiful selves, but fuck me dead what they did to the pre-chorus and the chorus was an abomination.

because because because why?!?!?!?
 
Over the years Bono also cut out a verse or two on top of that. 87-93 were peak years for live performances of Bad.

I’m not so down on the new synth noises during the woohoo as many here, but I 100% agree about skipping verses. “Throw this lifeless lifeline to the wind” is one of the best lines in the whole damn song, and he leaves it on the floor most nights.
 
Kind of related .,, What about a song like Acrobat which was not played for so long but which then was devastatingly good when they did play it. Why did they wait so long?
 
hoping we’ll be able to add Please to the list after the Zoo Redux
 
hoping we’ll be able to add Please to the list after the Zoo Redux

Agree. If I could bring any song of theirs back from the dead live, it would be full electric Please. (I’ve grown to accept we’re not going to get God Pt II).
 
I think it's too bad that the band never plays full-band versions of Stay (Faraway, So Close) anymore. Since Zoo TV they've only done acoustic guitar-only versions, which are pretty good, but just not the same level as something like this:
 
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