Constant butchering of U2 covers

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Streets613

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Has anyone ever seen any other artist do a U2 song justice? Because I Haven't. From all these shitty American Idol performances to One on Glee (only Glee song that wasn't better than the original IMO,) and even these God-awful tribute bands that one would expect to be good becuase of their fandom. I really wish people would stop trying to pull this off. Hell, they can't even do it when U2 is there with them, Mary J. Blige One and Muse Streets (HATED IT)
 
Is this just a ruse to set yourself up as the savior of U2 covers, what with your elaborate project and all? :wink:
 
We're all entitled to own our opinions & mine is that if you didn't like Muse's version of "Streets", then you're never going to like anyone covering U2. They killed it at Glastonbury! (And by "kill" I mean they totally rocked it!! :lol:)

Do you think you'd like a cover any better if it was done by one of your other favorite artists? Or do you think you're so attached to the original versions that you can't separate them from U2's style?
 
BluRmGrl said:
We're all entitled to own our opinions & mine is that if you didn't like Muse's version of "Streets", then you're never going to like anyone covering U2. They killed it at Glastonbury! (And by "kill" I mean they totally rocked it!! :lol:)
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Well, yeah, but they had a little help with that.
 
Oh, that Bell X1 cover is great! I have that on my iPod.

Elbow's "Running to Stand Still" is also very good.
 
I've liked quite a few U2 covers. Loved Johnny Cash's One, David Cook's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Dream Theatre's cover of Bad and Red Hill Mining Town. While I didn't love Adam Lambert's live cut down version of One, the full length version was quite good. However, hands down, the best sort of cover was Muse doing Streets. That to me was epic.

I absolutely loathed Lee DeWyze singing Beautiful Day, not a huge fan of MJB's One and was disappointed with Glee's One.
 
I would think, if you're watching American Idol, that you're probably not looking in the right places for quality music in general...
 
My all-time favorite U2 cover is The King's Singers doing MLK. They're a British classical group, very upright and upstanding arrangements of everything from classical to pop (hence the U2 song).

Their pop covers can be a little goofy, considering they're so British and proper and it's these formal choral arrangements, but their cover of MLK is goosebump-inducing. The harmonies are just to die for.

Unfortunately, there's no version of them singing it on YouTube, just a bunch of other a capella groups doing that arrangement ... with various degrees of performance quality.

If I had any idea how to make a video, I'd put it online myself.
 
corianderstem said:
Elbow's "Running to Stand Still" is also very good.
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You beat me to it. :)
Hey, I was just thinking now, how awesome would be a Doves cover? :drool:

Also, they aren't exactly covers, but Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's versions of U2 songs are amazing!
 
Muse Streets and Johnny Cash One are both awesome, I think.

John Legend did Pride on piano, and I really liked that.

The Chili Peppers sometimes do a good 2 minutes of SBS after a drum solo, they always sound pretty good to my ears.

I know there have been plenty of butchered covers, but overall, I think many artists know how to respect U2 without trying to copy them. Almost everyone knows it is extremely difficult to reproduce their sound, so they vary it a bit.

I have even found some pretty good amateur covers on Youtube, and my friend from college who is a huge DMB fan and a casual U2 fan would often do pretty damn good acoustic and electric versions of One, Still Haven't Found, Pride, I Will Follow and In God's Country to name a few.

I have seen the Joshua Tree, a Boston based U2 tribute band 3 times now, and damn, do those guys hit every song spot on! But they are a real anomaly as far as tributes go, I think. They have been at it a long time, all do it for their full time jobs, and they work their asses off. Zoo Tv WOWY solo, Shine Like Stars, Hear us Coming, snippets in Bad, etc, so much of what U2 does in their own shows is incorporated perfectly by this band. I have written up a few reviews of them in the appropriate section of the forum, I explain in detail how much studying and film watching these guys must do. It would put the College Football Coach to shame!

I would never buy the argument that "U2 covers are the exact same, they're the real thing or even better:wink: and you don't have to see the real band, they're so easy for any beer league band to reproduce."

But I certainly don't buy the argument that all people ever do is butcher their songs.
 
Oh man, Johnny Cash's "One". How could I forget about that. How could anyone make a post like that when such a wonderful cover exists? This thread should be about how much of a butchering U2 does on THEIR covers (save for a few exceptions to the rule)
 
Streets613 said:
Has anyone ever seen any other artist do a U2 song justice? Because I Haven't. From all these shitty American Idol performances to One on Glee (only Glee song that wasn't better than the original IMO,) and even these God-awful tribute bands that one would expect to be good becuase of their fandom. I really wish people would stop trying to pull this off. Hell, they can't even do it when U2 is there with them, Mary J. Blige One and Muse Streets (HATED IT)
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Less talk and more posting of your covers so all of interference can discuss...

You realize you're really setting yourself up here, right?
 
U2387 said:
Muse Streets and Johnny Cash One are both awesome, I think.

John Legend did Pride on piano, and I really liked that.
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Agree with everything here :up:

I like a lot of U2 covers and I don't like some covers, but in general I don't feel that other artists automatically "butcher" U2 songs by covering them.
 
U2387 said:
I have seen the Joshua Tree, a Boston based U2 tribute band 3 times now ... so much of what U2 does in their own shows is incorporated perfectly by this band.
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Zoo Station does this as well. They're the only tribute band I've seen, but my guess is that any U2 tribute band worth their salt does the same thing.
 
corianderstem said:
Zoo Station does this as well. They're the only tribute band I've seen, but my guess is that any U2 tribute band worth their salt does the same thing.
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:up:

I've seen 3 different U2 tribute bands and they're all great. It's live U2 music, friends, and fun. Of course any U2 fan would much rather see the real band but if that's not possible this is a nice filler while you're waiting. I'd rather go watch a U2 tribute band than listen to Lee DeWyze or Mary J any day.
 
With Or Without You(dvd title) by Kane is pretty damn good for a coverband. That's from before they started to be a real band, I like it a lot.
 
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