cobl04
45:33
UTEOTW ≠ North Star
It was honest, emotional, sprawling and it grabbed you, for better or worse. New Mercy summed up U2's fear of negative space pretty well...trim all the fat off, have no less than 95% of the song dedicated to Bono's vocals, dumb down the arrangement and you'll have a hit. Bullshit. 6 1/2 minute Mercy had a lot of great sparks and interesting avenues to head down, whereas 4 minute Mercy was just another song.
They have a couple of tunes like that. Where you can hear the growth in the tune. "No Line On The Horizon" is one. Maybe growth isn't the right word since I don't know which version came first, but hearing the same tune in 2 different colours is a trip.
Ah, "Arms Around The World." The change in that tune from the Kindergarden version to the album cut. It's like they renovated a house, but kept the old furnace. I love that. Oooh! "Even Better Than The Real Thing."I love the transformation that sound took. It took 20 years to bake, and that "Fish Out Of Water" thingy is amazing. I still like the album recording, but that song is basically 2 completely different people now. One of this bands most creative transformations. Do that song back to back. Your head will spin.
That's kinda what I think when I hear something like "North Star." It's a nice little gift. Maybe I'll get to hear it grow and change like some of those other tunes. Maybe not. It's nice if you don't anticipate it.
Plus it's still a shit recording. How anyone can judge a tune without proper fidelity is beyond me. It's rock and roll after all. Sonics matter. You can't play this recording of "North Star" loud and get anything from it. Too much compression. Sonics are 1/2 of it. "Until The End Of The World" wouldn't be nearly the song it is if I couldn't feel the push and pull of Adam's bass and Larry's kick drum.
Ouch. No wonder there have been retirement rumours.
U2DMfan said:I hadn't even listened to it until just now. Yee-ikes.
This version of North Star sounds like it should be the beginning of U2's Elton John/Phil Collins latter day mid-tempo adult contemporary schmaltz phase.
I mean, that's as bad as a post-October song gets for U2.
Please God let it not be foreboding of anything.
Earnie Shavers said:Ouch. No wonder there have been retirement rumours.
PookaMacP said:
I presume you're referring to that North Star clip. Astoundingly awful. It's no wonder they never allowed it to go on any released soundtrack.
North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.
That being said, I personally love North Star, especially the acoustic version from when the song made its debut performance. I love the melody, and even love the "space cowboy" line. I think done properly, a full band studio version could be fantastic. I won't really judge the Transformers version because the quality is so terrible.
North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.
That being said, I personally love North Star, especially the acoustic version from when the song made its debut performance. I love the melody, and even love the "space cowboy" line. I think done properly, a full band studio version could be fantastic. I won't really judge the Transformers version because the quality is so terrible.
North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics. It's just that those songs work amazingly well because the lyrics, melody, and music all worked together to create that emotional crescendo that U2 perfected in that period.
North Star shows how far downhill U2 have gone?...give me a break. Some of U2's most memorable songs, especially from the 80's are loaded with cliches and half baked lyrics.
I hate whining spelled with the extra g.
So there.
Technically in origins, yes, but nowadays the different spellings revolve more around what part of the world one comes from, than anything to do with meaning.