Alternate HTDAAB Tracklisting

[dmesq]

I've been messing around with this for a few days now, and finally found it: the perfect alternate HTDAAB tracklisting. Seriously, try this one on for size folks (after you overcome your outrage at the omissions, of course):

NATIVE SON
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
YAHWEH (demo)
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES
LEVITATE
CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE
A MAN AND A WOMAN
BEAUTIFUL GHOST
FAST CARS
SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN
ONE STEP CLOSER

I swear the demo of Yahweh as track #3 has all the dramatic impact of One on AB. The first side is so much stronger now! I love Beautiful Ghost as the 'hymn' in the middle of the album (ala 4th of July on Unforgettable Fire). And it works *so* well with the dramatic buildup re: Bono's father at the end of the album, I can't tell ya...

THIS is the version that I'm gonna be listening to for the rest of the year, thank ye kindly

 

[Murray]

What about MIRACLE DRUG?
What about LOVE AND PEACE OR ELSE?
What about CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS?

I'm sorry, but the only HTDAAB that I will be listening to is the HTDAAB that is sold at all good record store across America.
As for the unreleased songs - I have Solar and Winter for them!!!

 

[The OOTS]

Wasn't Beautiful Ghost an outtake from the JT??

 

[dmesq]

Beautiful Ghost was a JT outtake, but then the band has always been recycling songs for their next albums.

I honestly prefer Levitate, Beautiful Ghost and Fast Cars to Miracle Drug, Love And Peace Or Else and City Of Blinding Lights. Miracle Drug is so bland, LAPOE isn't half as hard-rockin as it ought to be (see: White Stripes), and COBL is strictly by-the-numbers U2: yawn!!

Levitate, Beautiful Ghost and Fast Cars all offer you sides of U2 that you haven't heard before - which is my favorite kind of U2 (Well, okay, maybe Beautiful Ghost shares a spirit with other JT tracks - but is that a bad thing?? There's something so unbelievably hypnotic about the organ & synthesizer playing that Edge & Eno were doing in that studio in 1986...and besides, everyone's been doing all the talking about HTDAAB is U2's return to form ala JT, anyways.)

 

[Lancemc]

You can't exclude Murray mentioned. Those are three of my favorite form the album. And if you are going to use unreleased tracks on it, you HAVE to include Mercy.

 

[dmesq]

Well, I suppose you should consider it lucky that I wasn't the producer of HTDAAB, because those three songs would've definitely been lopped off the tracklist - or at least I would've insisted they go back to the studio & improve on LAPOE, and play the hell out of it the 2nd time around instead of being so @#$% conservative as it now stands on the album (until the very end crescendo of the song).

& in my opinion, Mercy is the single most overrated U2 song of the year. It's 6 1/2 minutes of the band searching for a solid musical idea, and plain uninspired, and grating. I honestly prefer Are You Gonna Wait Forever? to that one. At least AYGWF has some catchy percussion by Larry, and some decent riffing by Edge.

 

[bcrt2000]

i can't believe they threw out yahweh for the current version.. the original yahweh was a WAY better closer because it was more freeform and bono's voice sounds way better

 

[dmesq]

Okay, I've, uh, revised my previous "perfect" tracklisting: here's the new one (I've accepted that Beautiful Ghost doesn't belong historically in this point in time, but oh well.)

NATIVE SON
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
YAHWEH (demo)
LEVITATE
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES
A MAN AND A WOMAN
CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE
FAST CARS
SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN
ONE STEP CLOSER
I think this 10-track version is even stronger than the 11-track one in stores. Maybe it doesn't scream "the album you've waited for four years to hear!!" Still, it's a more satisfying artistic statement to me. It's not full of fat, half-baked, generic rock'n'roll but is a more artful and original record, like "Unforgettable Fire" and "Zooropa" - both of which are still immensely preferable to me than ATYCLB ever was.

 

[dmesq]

TOTALLY agree w. you bcrt2000

The original Yahweh is SO much better than the album version - for god's sakes, it's single material!! It's so much more epic and strong and ROCKING. Really a shame that it didn't make the final cut.

 

[jphelmet]

like every post of "this is the best (tracklist, song, etc)" it is completly subjective, so i'll give mine.

native son pales in comparison to vertigo, and it seems very obvious to me why it was changed.

i like the yahweh demo version, but the album version is much better, and ends the album perfectly. although i do love osc, and think it would work well at the end (much like wake up dead man)- i just think the up note that yahweh leaves is great. what way to end an album than with a prayer. it is the new 40.

i really don't get the bland comment on miracle drug. that song is so full of emotion. i would say it is the opposite of bland (for bland see all because of you). it seems that i keep reading that its not that great, but it has very much a with or without you feel to me- so its essential to this album. (and that guitar solo- is going to be a highlight for me live.)

jp

 

[dmesq]

Thanks for your comments JP, you make some good ones.

I respectfully disagree with you re: Native Son & Vertigo. Listen to the beginning of Native Son again - there's an extra chiming guitar in there, which I really wish they hadn't removed, it does so much more for the song as is. Bono's lyrics aren't quite so annoying, and thank god the silly "uno, dos, trece, catorce" is nowhere to be found.

I used to agree with you re: Yahweh, and I still think it's a nice way to end the album - I just think the demo version is so much stronger, more powerful (just listen to Larry's drumming again - WOW); I think it would've worked fantastically on the first half of the LP. The Yahweh demo is like One meets Bullet The Blue Sky.

Anyways, isn't OSC also a kind of prayer, in terms of the ambient music and the lyrical themes? It's certainly a meditation on mortality and death and making peace with them. To me it's like Bono's saying "goodbye, Dad, I'll see you soon on the other side..."

 

[The OOTS]

I also prefer Xanax to Fast Cars on this Alternate version.

Just my opinion...

 

[alexvilagosh]

I created a similar thread on another forum, but my suggestion was...

01. Beautiful Ghost
02. Native Son
03. Miracle Drug
04. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
05. Love And Peace Or Else
06. City Of Blinding Lights
07. All Because Of You
08. Crumbs From Your Table
09. Mercy
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh

Or just take out BG if you think it doesn't belong.

 

[djerdap]

I've been messing around with this for a few days now, and finally found it: the perfect alternate HTDAAB tracklisting. Seriously, try this one on for size folks (after you overcome your outrage at the omissions, of course):

NATIVE SON
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
YAHWEH (demo)
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES
LEVITATE
CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE
A MAN AND A WOMAN
BEAUTIFUL GHOST
FAST CARS
SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN
ONE STEP CLOSER

I swear the demo of Yahweh as track #3 has all the dramatic impact of One on AB. The first side is so much stronger now! I love Beautiful Ghost as the 'hymn' in the middle of the album (ala 4th of July on Unforgettable Fire). And it works *so* well with the dramatic buildup re: Bono's father at the end of the album, I can't tell ya...

THIS is the version that I'm gonna be listening to for the rest of the year, thank ye kindly

My eyes hurt of this setlist. Sorry...

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

I don't see how Love And Peace can be left out...its one of HTDAAB's killer tracks.

 

[jphelmet]

Anyways, isn't OSC also a kind of prayer, in terms of the ambient music and the lyrical themes? It's certainly a meditation on mortality and death and making peace with them. To me it's like Bono's saying "goodbye, Dad, I'll see you soon on the other side..."

yes i think it is. its more of a prayer, like i think wake up dead man is. somewhat of questioning (much like many prayers in prophetic books) type prayer. I should have been more clear. I think Yahweh is more of a praise type, more uplifting- much like walk on became live with the hallelujah part, and what 40 was live. I just like ending the album with "take this heart and make it break". i can't thnk of a better way, to end it.

jp

 

[saxgoddess]

You're going to need Mercy, Miracle Drug, and City of Blinding Lights. But since this is our fantasy playlist, why not have more than 11 tracks?

 

[Murray]

A TWO CD SET

1. Native Son
2. Xanax and Wine
3. SYCMIOYO
4. Miracle Drug
5. City Of Blinding Lights
6. Love And Peace Or Else
7. A Man And A Woman
8. Crumbs From Your Table
10. One Step Closer
11. Flower Girl

1. All Because Of You
2. Levitate
3. Are You Gonna Wait Forever
4. Smile
5. Original Of The Species
6. Love You Like Mad
7. Mercy
8. Yaweh

 

[Rafiennes]

OK – I’ll bite. As far as replacing songs with unreleased stuff, I don’t buy it. As much as I love them, they still sound unfinished or early (I know that’s an obvious way of putting it) The only change I would make for this album would be to move OOTS and COBL. Have COBL open the second side and you’ve got this epic set of songs. And OSC before Yahweh is sortof like a prayer and places more emphasis on the weight of the song.

1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
4. Love & Peace Or Else
5. Original Of The Species
6. All Because Of You
7. City Of Blinding Lights
8. A Man And A Woman
9. Crumbs From Your Table
10. One Step Closer
11. Yahweh

Now, for shits and giggles, I went and did a track listing for ATYCLB including some of the newer unreleased stuff from that time period. I also was thinking about a comment Bono made about the album before it came out, how they wanted to try and come out with a ‘Rubber Soul’ for the 2000’s, where every track could have been a single, yet connect with one another.

1. Beautiful Day
2. Elevation
3. Peace On Earth
4. Wild Honey
5. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
6. New York
7. In A Little While
8. Flower Child
9. Kite
10. Love You Like Mad
11. Walk On (single version)