Pop 25th Anniversary Thread... What do you want?

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I remember watching that in a college dorm with several people. After the first verse, I remember someone saying out loud “the new stuff just isn’t as good …” but pretty soon everyone was pin-drop silent as the song takes off with the “September streets capsizing …”

Really a great performance.
 
My issue with that performance, and it is a great one, is that after the explosive climax, they go back to that slow part for the coda. This might work as a segue to the next song in a real U2 concert, but when you're only playing one song for an audience that is not your die hards, better to go out with a bang.
 
I remember walking away from my first pop mart show and thinking Please was among the highlights. Kind of underscored how the album really was quite undercooked in many parts. I really like how they showed up and allowed themselves to be bummed out by Diana’s death and used it to fuel a dark and powerful and somewhat strange (is this Jawa Bono?) performance and really let the music speak — that the performance would win over the audience. This was also about the time that MTV was going to shit and aiming for a younger audience (middle school rather than high school).

Or, it could be that I was just outgrowing it, as we all do. But before I graduated it was all TRL and Carson Daley and boy bands and Britney (and I can enjoy them all, but this was quite a different channel by then compared to the days of clearing my schedule for the world premiere of “Jeremy”) and then Eminem would be #1 on the countdown with a song that would make fun of all of them.

Anyway. That was a fun memory trip.
 
What do people think of the singles from Pop and how they were remixed. I think they sound so much better. Would be great if the whole album had sounded this way in the first place. Sonically they sound so much more interesting.



I never really bought into the stories at the time that the album was “rushed” and finished at the last min. However, as the singles started to come out, I realized the album was clearly rushed.

1- “Please” strings single is my favorite version by far…it’s really beautiful and a big improvement over the album cut IMO

2- “Last Night on Earth” single sounds better but it’s not as dramatic of an improvement as the “Please” single. The best description I have is that it breaths more than the album cut.

3- “If God Will Send His Angels” single is also a big improvement over the album cut. Bono comes across much clearer(especially during the bridge at the end) and the single version sounds crisp

Honorable and somewhat unrelated mention- The “Discotheque” version on the Best of is really cool. I can’t say it’s better than the album cut but I guess I prefer it because it’s my go to version.

Honorable completely unrelated mention- the “All Because of You” single is far superior to the album cut. I always felt the timing of the chorus on the album cut was not timed right…I don’t get that from the single cut and its all around better.
 
Apropos of nothing in particular, I'm really glad I saw that tour in both Madison and Chicago (Saturday night show), because the tour really came to life in Chicago. It was still a "Lemon" in the half-empty Madison stadium. (Sorry...couldn't help myself.)

I still have my inflatable lemon and (somewhere) a t-shirt from that tour--I think the one with the four band member portraits.

Sadly, I don't think there will be anything to mark the anniversary. I reckon it would just be too off brand at this point to highlight an experimental phase that will never be revisited. It did occur to me that when they finally do tour again, it would be an elegant solution to make it a comprehensive '90s reboot instead of just ZooTV specifically.

"Please" is just too good of a song to have been abandoned in the live sets. That really is strange.
 
Apropos of nothing in particular, I'm really glad I saw that tour in both Madison and Chicago (Saturday night show), because the tour really came to life in Chicago. It was still a "Lemon" in the half-empty Madison stadium. (Sorry...couldn't help myself.)

I still have my inflatable lemon and (somewhere) a t-shirt from that tour--I think the one with the four band member portraits.

Sadly, I don't think there will be anything to mark the anniversary. I reckon it would just be too off brand at this point to highlight an experimental phase that will never be revisited. It did occur to me that when they finally do tour again, it would be an elegant solution to make it a comprehensive '90s reboot instead of just ZooTV specifically.

"Please" is just too good of a song to have been abandoned in the live sets. That really is strange.

Agreed. The tour really did get way better as it went along.

I do think that if another Pop song returns to the set (aside from Staring at the Sun), it will be Please. As you said, it's way too good of a song not to get "rediscovered" at some point and like SBS, it will always be relevant. As sad as that is for the state of the world. It's a small sample size to be sure, but of anything that's gotten acknowledged from Pop, they've seemed the most passionate about Please.

They just don't seem at all inclined toward anything else.

I think Gone is too heavy/personal to them and as was discussed with the guitar smashing incident in Boston on Elevation, they always thought they butchered it live. The same tour of course featured a few snippets of Wake Up Dead Man after One.MOFO was rehearsed 1 or 2 times on the 3rd leg of Vertigo if I'm not mistaken. A Pop mini set of sorts seemed to be in the works (encore opening with "Pop Muzik" over PA). The only thing that came of that idea was Discotheque being played a few times.

Does anyone recall anything else being even so much as brought up in passing since the tour ended in 1998? LNOE, DYFL?

One thing is for sure. If there is ever an alternate, dream universe exists where they decide to perform all or most of POP live, I really hope they have the sense to keep the Please/Streets transition instead of running right through the album like JT. Worked fine for JT, but they'd have to do this a little different. Warm it up with a few AB heavy hitters, include Stay, go into Pop in some order. End that with Please/Streets and use Streets to launch a big run of hits.

Of course, this is only a dream.
 
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Of the recent-ish vinyl reissues I have Zooropa, Pop and Best Of 90s, but I only have Zooropa and Best Of downloaded to my hard drive. I'm usually pretty good about download codes, so maybe Pop didn't come with one... damn. I was going to upload it and share with y'all.
 
Of the recent-ish vinyl reissues I have Zooropa, Pop and Best Of 90s, but I only have Zooropa and Best Of downloaded to my hard drive. I'm usually pretty good about download codes, so maybe Pop didn't come with one... damn. I was going to upload it and share with y'all.

From what I could gather, the Orange version of the vinyl doesn't come with it but the other normal color one does (extra sad to me, because orange being my favorite color I would have opted for that)
 
From what I could gather, the Orange version of the vinyl doesn't come with it but the other normal color one does (extra sad to me, because orange being my favorite color I would have opted for that)

A ha. T'would explain it, as I have the orange.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am ready to get reckless with my finances if they can be bothered to put out some (any) good Pop merch. It would be really cool if they released a 4xLP - even if the extra 2 discs are remixes - where each record was a color from a panel on the cover.
 
classic rock mofo



Thank you, Headache!

I forgot there was audio.

That's a different take on MOFO for sure. But more interesting than plenty of what has been in live sets over the years.

On a side note, damn that Vertigo PA system was a beast to look at!!

I know I&E put out louder and arguably clearer sound- but it's amazing how even 15 or so years ago, they had to look imposing to crank like that.
 
Thx, never heard that before and that was a wild take, would be nice to hear it again live someday, but I think it’s probable improbable now.

2005/6 were such kick ass live years for the band. I know there were bits of the show people didn't like (Streets intro, Bono waffle before One, bluesy Bullet...), but it was a super creative and exciting period. And B's voice has never been better.
 
2005/6 were such kick ass live years for the band. I know there were bits of the show people didn't like (Streets intro, Bono waffle before One, bluesy Bullet...), but it was a super creative and exciting period. And B's voice has never been better.

yea i mean if Streets had the damn red instead of the African flags and Bullet was normal, i think the Vertigo Tour would have been damn near perfect.

they also did a fairly decent job of mixing up the encores - decent for U2 at least.

a sampling from the fall shows

10/7 - MSG
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Fast Cars
All Because Of You
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
With or Without You

10/8 - MSG
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Fast Cars
Original Of The Species
40

10/10 - MSG
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Yahweh
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)
40

10/17 - Philly
Walk On Bono and Edge acoustic
Fast Cars
People Get Ready (with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa)
With or Without You
All Because Of You
40

11/14 - Miami
Until the End of the World
The Fly
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Walk On
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)

11/21 - MSG
Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You / Love Will Tear Us Apart (snippet)
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Instant Karma! (with Patti Smith)
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)



thus ends the Vertigo Tour portion of your Pop 25th Anniversary Thread. Commence discussing pipe dreams that we all know the band will never do because they refuse to acknowledge the album's existence.
 
How's this for a Pop pipe dream...

The recent stripped down catalog sessions that Adam keeps mentioning were them re-recording all of Pop acoustically with string accompaniment. We won't actually get to hear any of it though, because Larry hurts his back so to bide their time while he heals they get some old pals to whip up some drums loops and... they end up re-re-recording Pop again. We still don't get to hear it.
 
yea i mean if Streets had the damn red instead of the African flags and Bullet was normal, i think the Vertigo Tour would have been damn near perfect.

they also did a fairly decent job of mixing up the encores - decent for U2 at least.

a sampling from the fall shows

10/7 - MSG
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Fast Cars
All Because Of You
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
With or Without You

10/8 - MSG
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Fast Cars
Original Of The Species
40

10/10 - MSG
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Yahweh
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)
40

10/17 - Philly
Walk On Bono and Edge acoustic
Fast Cars
People Get Ready (with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa)
With or Without You
All Because Of You
40

11/14 - Miami
Until the End of the World
The Fly
With or Without You
All Because Of You
Walk On
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)

11/21 - MSG
Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You / Love Will Tear Us Apart (snippet)
The First Time
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Instant Karma! (with Patti Smith)
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)



thus ends the Vertigo Tour portion of your Pop 25th Anniversary Thread. Commence discussing pipe dreams that we all know the band will never do because they refuse to acknowledge the album's existence.

:up:

Good stuff on that Leg 3!

People tend to point to the last leg in Oceania/Japan and use that to complain about the set lists. They forget just how much things got mixed up earlier in the tour. Hell, 2006 Vertigo even had more variety than a lot of tours.

First time I ever saw them.

This was of course the tour that hooked me. I'll always have great memories of going through all the footage I could find from Vertigo 05/06 as my first obsession with U2 the live band.

Amazing tour. I'm glad I saw it. Otherwise, I'd have no first hand experience with and memory of Bono the always moving stage runner. I was right behind Larry about 10 rows back. I distinctly remember having a hard time following where Bono was at times. I'd only seen a few concerts before that night (10/4/05) but I remember distinctly my first thought being "damn, these guys do it different!"

It wound up being the last tour he really did that. Leg 1 360 was getting used to a whole new, never been tried by anyone before stage. Then of course the back injury in 2010.

Don't get me wrong. I thought the 2 shows I saw on 360 2011 as well as some of the I&E shows I saw were overall better than my first show on Vertigo. But for both the stage presence and the status of the band in the music world, I'm so happy I saw it before it became past history.

It was U2 at the top of the world for the last time and I had no idea that it would be the last time. I'm sure some others here feel the same.
 
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Glad they admit it’s existence, but this is a reminder that it’s really not that great a song, and kind of a mess. The “Boots” of its day.

They should have gone with the much darker, sexier DYFL.
 
Noooo.
Discotheque has groove for days, Boots works too hard with little payoff
 
It kinda sucked then and it kinda sucks now.

Better live. But not by much. Many better songs on Pop.

Discotheque’s failure is what gave us 21st century U2.
 
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