ozeeko
Refugee
Mercy is their white whale. I like it better to remain that way.
Why isn't mercy on the new album
- Thread starter the scuv
- Start date
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quadcaster
Refugee
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2004
- Messages
- 1,700
Mercy will be the first track on Songs of Ascent.
purpleoscar
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
This is the finished version. I'm pretty sure it's not going farther than this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQFJlneKHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQFJlneKHU
ozeeko
Refugee
Yup
gweeps
War Child
I don't think Mercy fits thematically. "You wanna kill me and I wanna die"?
Going from something sparse to an overproduced Tedder pop thing was not an improvement to my ears. Not every song needs to be in the traditional verse/chorus structure, especially one with something as daft as the "every dog..." line.
purpleoscar
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
It does if you think about God, dying and going to heaven.
zoocarolina
Refugee
I love the Mercy discussions. Little more polish to the 2004 version and I personally think it would have been one of the classics. The 2010 version was ok, just didn't soar and it's hard to say if a reworked version will ever be released outside of WAIE, but never say never BC who would have ever thought it would be played live on 360 so the band must have or still believe in it. Indeed the white whale and I understand how it polarizes, most hate it or love it, not much in between. Long live Mercy! 
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Sorry, but taking out the "ripping the stitches" break (arguably the best part of the song) was a crime against art.
If you think the song was better without it, you have a serious problem.
I'll never listen to that paraplegic version again.
If you think the song was better without it, you have a serious problem.
I'll never listen to that paraplegic version again.
ozeeko
Refugee
LOL. I totally feel the same way. The pre-chorus was the one part that made me do a double-take, like "wow, they're serious about this one." Live version destroyed anything that was interesting about it in the first place, not that it was anywhere near perfect originally.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
I've never been angrier about a U2 song before.
So glad I wasn't in the audience to witness that atrocity in person.
So glad I wasn't in the audience to witness that atrocity in person.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
Agreed. So glad that horrible remake didn't appear on this brilliant new album. Clearly something happened to this band between 2010 and now that changed their songwriting for the better.
Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
david
ONE love, blood, life
Because it seems more like a fit for Songs of Experience, given the theme and lyrical imagery. It more than likely wont be on that album though. I prefer the version that floated around on mp3 for years.
powerhour24
ONE love, blood, life
They turned a gorgeous piece of melancholy into soaring pop rock and contorted the meaning of the title words by using them again in the new chorus on top of in the verses. In spite of the production sheen and overdone chorus it's still such a strong melody and set of verses that it almost works for me anyway, but I'll take the old one any day. Also, that's what Bono and The Edge played of it, we know it was recorded for No Line on the Horizon, surely there was a lot more to the arrangement than we've heard.
bobsaget77
Rock n' Roll Doggie
The Wide Awake In Europe version basically takes a crap on the original. They cut out the whole ending part, which is a shame because it was the best part of the song!
purpleoscar
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
They said back then (and even now) that they got good which is the enemy of the great. When they get to good they have blinders and have trouble finding out if they're on track.
Agreed.
The bigger question is why Invisible isn't on SOI, given it would fit thematically ?
RockNRollDawgie
Rock n' Roll Doggie
"Mercy" doesn't belong on this album. If it is ever released, please do not release
that new butchered version with the horrible chorus. I'd be happy just having a clean
copy of the original "raw" version pop up somewhere.
that new butchered version with the horrible chorus. I'd be happy just having a clean
copy of the original "raw" version pop up somewhere.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
It's not raw, or a demo.
It was cut from the tracklisting at the last minute along with Fast Cars per the interview in Blender.
What was passed around the fan community was unmastered and ripped at a lower quality.
Stop regurgitating the bullshit about it being unfinished.
It was cut from the tracklisting at the last minute along with Fast Cars per the interview in Blender.
What was passed around the fan community was unmastered and ripped at a lower quality.
Stop regurgitating the bullshit about it being unfinished.
bobsaget77
Rock n' Roll Doggie
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
And you realize how much gray area there is between unmastered and a "demo"?
Mercy can be seen in the special edition book on a graph of songs worked on since 2002, and it shows up last as being the most recently recorded. Next to it is what looks like a working album tracklist, and pretty far along as you can see Vertigo as the opener, Sometimes in the #3 slot, with Original Of The Species and Yahweh as the last two tracks. Mercy is listed at #6 between Miracle Drug and A Man And A Woman.
They also printed the complete lyric in the book.
I'm going to assume you're not putting the songs in album order until they're pretty much done.
Mercy can be seen in the special edition book on a graph of songs worked on since 2002, and it shows up last as being the most recently recorded. Next to it is what looks like a working album tracklist, and pretty far along as you can see Vertigo as the opener, Sometimes in the #3 slot, with Original Of The Species and Yahweh as the last two tracks. Mercy is listed at #6 between Miracle Drug and A Man And A Woman.
They also printed the complete lyric in the book.
I'm going to assume you're not putting the songs in album order until they're pretty much done.
DomCobb
Acrobat
I have to thank this thread for making me fall in love with Mercy. I had only heard it once before, liked it, then forgot about it. But now I can't stop listening. What a great song.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
And just to refresh everyone's memory, here's the excerpt from the Blender interview:
The problem, if it can be called that, lies in the album's running order. After numerous attempts, U2 have yet to find a satisfactory flow, leading them to believe that there may be too many songs. So, right now, they must decide which tunes should be sacrificed.
As it stands, the album is three seconds shy of an hour and, as Bono says, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing," so drastic measures need to be taken.
"I have a theory," Mullen begins, and a reverential silence descends as the drummer -- traditionally the first band member to be shouted down in these situations -- states his case. After just five minutes, it has been unanimously decided that the track "Mercy," a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish, must go.
Hence a song that any self-respecting band would be proud to call a single becomes what Bono immediately anoints "the best B-side you've ever heard."
Later, another more experimental candidate entitled "Fast Cars" ("an Irish/Mexican vibe") gets evicted, and the album becomes a lean and lithe 11 tracks.
They already have the album title at this point, and a sidebar article in the same issue does a track-by-track rundown that closely resembles the one in the special edition book.
Note also that the running time of a Mercy matches what we have as well.
The problem, if it can be called that, lies in the album's running order. After numerous attempts, U2 have yet to find a satisfactory flow, leading them to believe that there may be too many songs. So, right now, they must decide which tunes should be sacrificed.
As it stands, the album is three seconds shy of an hour and, as Bono says, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing," so drastic measures need to be taken.
"I have a theory," Mullen begins, and a reverential silence descends as the drummer -- traditionally the first band member to be shouted down in these situations -- states his case. After just five minutes, it has been unanimously decided that the track "Mercy," a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish, must go.
Hence a song that any self-respecting band would be proud to call a single becomes what Bono immediately anoints "the best B-side you've ever heard."
Later, another more experimental candidate entitled "Fast Cars" ("an Irish/Mexican vibe") gets evicted, and the album becomes a lean and lithe 11 tracks.
They already have the album title at this point, and a sidebar article in the same issue does a track-by-track rundown that closely resembles the one in the special edition book.
Note also that the running time of a Mercy matches what we have as well.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Fuck Larry forever.
bobsaget77
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Mercy would've been the best song on the album. And the jack knife mix of Fast Cars would've been a top 5 song on the album as well. They absolutely belonged on Bomb. Should've replaced All Because Of You. 12 song album is great.
namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
The history of Mercy is actually one of the odder things in the U2 cannon.
First, they cut a song from an album at the last minute. Ok, fine, that happens.
But then, the unmastered recording of said song gets out. I think the story that got passed around was that Bono gave a burned copy of the record to a fan outside a studio or something like that, and that he accidentally gave a copy with Mercy on it.
But this doesn't make much sense to me. This is the band that, earlier that same summer, freaked out so much when a copy of the album was misplaced in France that they got the police involved, yet Bono's just going to hand a copy, with an extra track no less, to some fan?
Maybe we'll never know how it really got out.
At any rate though, it did get out. And it got generally positive reception, with some fans generally thrilled by it. So at this point, since the track was finished and removed from the album at the last minute, and since Bono had called the "best B-Side you've ever heard", as noted in Laz's post, you'd think they'd go ahead and master it and, you know, release it as a B-side. But they didn't. Apparently they weren't happy with it yet.
And then they did nothing with it for the next record.
And then they performed a version of it on the next tour that most thought was much worse than the leaked finished unmastered studio version we'd been listening to for years, that removed parts of that song that many felt were essential to it.
And now we have to think that that's probably it for Mercy.
Very strange history for that song.
First, they cut a song from an album at the last minute. Ok, fine, that happens.
But then, the unmastered recording of said song gets out. I think the story that got passed around was that Bono gave a burned copy of the record to a fan outside a studio or something like that, and that he accidentally gave a copy with Mercy on it.
But this doesn't make much sense to me. This is the band that, earlier that same summer, freaked out so much when a copy of the album was misplaced in France that they got the police involved, yet Bono's just going to hand a copy, with an extra track no less, to some fan?
Maybe we'll never know how it really got out.
At any rate though, it did get out. And it got generally positive reception, with some fans generally thrilled by it. So at this point, since the track was finished and removed from the album at the last minute, and since Bono had called the "best B-Side you've ever heard", as noted in Laz's post, you'd think they'd go ahead and master it and, you know, release it as a B-side. But they didn't. Apparently they weren't happy with it yet.
And then they did nothing with it for the next record.
And then they performed a version of it on the next tour that most thought was much worse than the leaked finished unmastered studio version we'd been listening to for years, that removed parts of that song that many felt were essential to it.
And now we have to think that that's probably it for Mercy.
Very strange history for that song.
bobsaget77
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Maybe for their last concert, they close with the original version and settle this once and for all.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
This is the problem I have with your timeline/reasoning:
I'm theorizing that the reason it wasn't released as a b-side was because the band felt it was strong enough to be on an album. For whatever reason, the direction No Line took meant that it didn't really fit anymore, so it was passed over again. Does anyone here think it would have made sense on that album? Maybe more than Stand Up Comedy or Crazy Tonight, but still.
They still were interested in the track, but because of the time passed knew it would eventually have to be re-recorded for any future endeavor. And then the tinkering began. I don't think this equates to "they weren't happy with it yet", but rather that the moment had passed (stylistically, thematically, whatever) for that version.
None of us should be shocked at the suggestion that the band spending too much time with something could lead to a negative result. They had a finished track, and should have left it as is. The nature of its recording, omission, leak, and resurfacing is as you said a strange one in the band's history, but not too difficult to understand given all the information.
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