Cosmos Thoughts III: U2 "WTF were they thinking" moments

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cheapedge said:
My WTF moments are vertigo tour during zoo station. When Bono and edge sing 'alright, alright, alright, not alright.' Like 2 middle aged men trying to hold on to their youth, all I could think is 'Someone give me a gun!'

Also pop mart. I know it's a lot of people's favourite tour and they are welcome to their opinion but, good god those days were very bad to look back on.


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I don't get this. I don't get this at all. Explain.
 
Why was North and South Of the River dropped from Pop? I think it's an awesome song and would've been great paired with Please. There's a live version I have on mp3, and it just makes me wonder why the heck songs like Playboy Mansion got on that record and not NASOTR.
 
bobsaget77 said:
Why was North and South Of the River dropped from Pop? I think it's an awesome song and would've been great paired with Please. There's a live version I have on mp3, and it just makes me wonder why the heck songs like Playboy Mansion got on that record and not NASOTR.
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I think I'm in the minority in this opinion but Playboy Mansion is one of my favorite songs on POP. Its so mellow and the "cheesy" lyrics are fine with me because they are intentional. I would rank it right behind DYFL, Disco and SATS as my 4th favorite song on that album(not sure there is a 5th though).

With that said, I also enjoyed North and South of the River and would have preferred it over WUDM(I've written before that I can't stand this song, again not a popular opinion around this place), Miami (awful song) & Mofo.




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CosmoKramer said:
I think I'm in the minority in this opinion but Playboy Mansion is one of my favorite songs on POP. Its so mellow and the "cheesy" lyrics are fine with me because they are intentional. I would rank it right behind DYFL, Disco and SATS as my 4th favorite song on that album(not sure there is a 5th though).

With that said, I also enjoyed North and South of the River and would have preferred it over WUDM(I've written before that I can't stand this song, again not a popular opinion around this place), Miami (awful song) & Mofo.




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Personally, I think it would've been a top 5 song on the album if they put it on there. Along with Please, Discotheque, SATS, and DYFL.
 
Haven't been on here in ages, but this thread has me salivating:

-- 'Bootleg'-style tracklisting of Rattle & Hum ("I know -- let's make it like a cool bootleg, but we'll also make it the most pretentious, calculated recording in pop history!")
-- countless live TV performances ("Womanfish", anyone?)
-- Macphisto
-- Every time they've associated themselves with Hollywood film soundtracks or stage musicals
-- The PopMart tour launch at KMart, TV-documentary, etc.
-- "Discotheque" video
-- sequencing and production-job of ATYCLB
-- i-Pod commercials
-- "Get on your Boots" at the Grammys / 'Stand Up Comedy' in general / one week of humorlessness on Letterman
-- Bono going on about Songs of Ascent
 
MacPhisto is only 'wtf' if you jump directly from R&H Bono to this character.

When you follow Bono -> The Fly -> Mirrorball Man -> MacPhisto, it's less jarring.

Getting stuck in the Mirrorball lemon? No way to rationalize that one.

However, a good Wtf would be Bono calling Chris Martin a cretin and a wanker on public radio. Not sure what the intent was there, but it didn't work. Even if it wasn't just the reaction of a surly Bono who was introduced with a Coldplay song, even if it was at best Bono trying to give the impression of a rivalry, or make U2 take a 'heel turn' to use wrestling vocabulary, it just didn't fly.

Not that I didn't entirely disagree.


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I had to go back and track down this thread just to mention how hilariously awful the music video is for Red Hill Mining Town. For those who haven't seen it, it's possibly the worst music video I've ever watched. It's much more funny and cheesy than it is offensive. But it's worth a good laugh. No wonder they never played it live, they probably hoped no one ever saw that video.


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I've red it all

1 - Staring At The Sun was a failure (?) in the US. In Latinamerica it was a hit. I used to watch MTV's Top 20 every week, and SATS was a fighter and was TOP 1 for several weeks. In fact, it was like the final straw in my "do I like them or not" debate. I love that song. The live acoustic renditions do not make justice to the song


2 - the NBA Finals/Streets thing: Look at 1:13 ... this man hasn't played basketball in his life if what he was trying to do was air dribbling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHbRdKW8Yuk


Oh, and BTW, I'd seen that, but I stumbled across this gem: Elevation, from that day, raw live footage :love: The energy is amazing! It was a true comeback tour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHu4KlvZxxA


3 - Glastonbury: it sucked. The rain, the day, the fails... 2010 was the year, not 2011.

4 - Bono rants: I love the 5 minutes speach before ONE at the first show after 9/11, at Notredame. When the band starts it's great, and when the synth takes over it's just mindblowing.

5 - Vertigo x2, when spontaneus, it was great. Sadly they just played it once every Vertigo show I went to. But just that 1 time it was a force of nature, especially in the Chile show, the whole stadium was shaking.

6 - a POP remaster? Ok, but leave the songs as they are.



And my WTF moment would have to be Bono's 2005 hair
I mean, in 2000 it was ok, but that rag he had on, it was kinda embarassing.
How come nobody says "hey, that looks stupid"?
Well, nobody told that to Larry, too.

And yes, for me that was even uglyer than the 85 mullet or the 83 blond highlights...

Mullets should come back :hmm:
 
At least they tried, the sound of Edge´s guitar is just outstanding. The stripped down acoustic is an absolute snoozefest :down:

CosmoKramer said:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=8XDBkuZWPpw

This was the ultimate live WTF moment(really the whole show was). It's hard to watch as that first take sounds like a group of middle schoolers meeting for the first time in one of their basements trying to play this song.

I do wish that they kept working at the full band version of this song as hit could have some real bite! Oh well....what could have been.


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At least they tried, the sound of Edge´s guitar is just outstanding. The stripped down acoustic is an absolute snoozefest :down:
 
Axver said:
It's fair to say that if you compare footage of early eighties U2 at a festival to the Glasto performance, Bono made more of an effort back then to reach out the whole crowd and engage the back as well as the front. I guess as a young band they had a lot to work for, especially pre-War when they were pretty unknown.

Also, cue "Bono was fitter back then"/"soddin' mountain goat"/"Guinness: sorry PLEBA" jokes. :wink:
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It was heavy raining, the stage was all slippery, Bono went on the stage and realized he cannot move...:) At least he coul put all his effort and emotions into singing which was great. From the live footage despite a few flops I think it was a remarkable performance.
 
cheapedge said:
My WTF moments are vertigo tour during zoo station. When Bono and edge sing 'alright, alright, alright, not alright.' Like 2 middle aged men trying to hold on to their youth, all I could think is 'Someone give me a gun!'

Also pop mart. I know it's a lot of people's favourite tour and they are welcome to their opinion but, good god those days were very bad to look back on.


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Ditto
:doh::doh::doh:
 
Two off the top of my head:

1) Not including North and South of the River on POP. Gents, what the hell? Song is incredible and could easily replace Miami and Playboy and lead to a much more consistent and solid record.

2) Glastonbury. Just a bad performance, bad night for the band. I was actually watching some yesterday and they were just completely off. Even Streets was bad with the intro being all messed up and out of time. When Streets is bad, the song that can save any set according to Bono then things just aren't going your way.
 
RoKKeR said:
Two off the top of my head:

1) Not including North and South of the River on POP. Gents, what the hell? Song is incredible and could easily replace Miami and Playboy and lead to a much more consistent and solid record.

2) Glastonbury. Just a bad performance, bad night for the band. I was actually watching some yesterday and they were just completely off. Even Streets was bad with the intro being all messed up and out of time. When Streets is bad, the song that can save any set according to Bono then things just aren't going your way.
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1) spot on about Miami
2)Leave Playboy Mansion alone! It's a gem
3) the beginning of Even Better and Streets were a mess at Glastonbury, spot on but when I listen to the videos(and watch), the crowd is really into it singing along to almost every song, more so than any video I have watched. Bad, With or Without you and Still Haven't really soared. But the fact that the stage was wet and small really limited Bono being....Bono


By the way, I know there is a "that's what she said" joke in there somewhere!


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Endless lemon remixes. :(
The original is brilliant.

The Elevation video.

The Anton Corbijn Pride video.









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Tinwal said:
The Elevation video.


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Forgot about that big plop! I actually really like the version that goes along with the video but...."evil Bono"....wow, yeah that was bad.





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