Pop Demos?

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Sorry, that link doesnt seem to work, just try typing the item number into ebay 4702669362
 
There is no such thing as a POP demo. The album was so hurried and unfinished that all the songs there represent all they could "squeeze" out of it (plus Holy Joe of course which was part of the album in the Japan release anyway). That is why the POP album is full of filler material.

Did you check "The Complete U2" from iTunes? So many unreleased tracks dating as far back as the JT session but zero from the POP sessions. The answer is obvious - there's nothing leftover from the POP sessions.

All the POP singles didn't have legit new song b-sides, save for Holy Joe. It had previously written songs (Slow Dancing, North and South of the River), or previously released songs (Your Blue Room), or cover songs (Pop Muzik, Happiness is a Warm Gun) -- but zero, let me repeat ZERO outtakes/demos.

How can there be demos when the vocal to Last Night On Earth was recorded the day the album was due to be given to the label, and the backing vocals to Playboy Mansion were literally recorded on the mastering/mixing studio!

Bono and Mullen have declared POP unfinished. If you want the POP demos, buy the POP album and you'll see demo versions of Discotheque, Staring At The Sun, and Gone. The real versions of those songs as completed are in the Best Of 1990-2000. You can also find demos of Last Night On Earth, Please, and If God Will Send His Angles in the POP album. The finalized versions are in the respective singles of those songs.

So there is no such thing as POP demos. The only demos are in the album itself. Whatever that guy in eBay is selling is not legit!

Cheers,

J
 
ehh...:tsk: another post full of BS by Jick... I'm begining to get used to it...

Big Girls Are Best
Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Stateless
City Of Blindning Lights

...are all from Pop sesions...

AND...

Last time I checked every song on Pop had a start and an end!
No song on Pop ends in the middle to silence...
I guess it is FINISHED!
 
...also most people find album versions of the songs (except Gone) better than "finished":rolleyes: versions from Best Of...

Bono and Mullen have declared POP unfinished.
Click to expand...

The band wanted to make an album with some trip-hop, "Prodigy"-like sounds on it at the time, right? And giving them more time to "finish" :rolleyes: it, would mean that the album would have much more of those elements... and even more people would bash the album...

That's the "logic" of jick, that's the "logic" of all Pop-haters...
:rolleyes:
 
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Pop to me is a very good record so i can't agree with jick..but he's right when he says that there's no thing such "pop demos" out there
 
bathiu said:
ehh...:tsk: another post full of BS by Jick... I'm begining to get used to it...

Big Girls Are Best
Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Stateless
City Of Blindning Lights

...are all from Pop sesions...

AND...

Last time I checked every song on Pop had a start and an end!
No song on Pop ends in the middle to silence...
I guess it is FINISHED!
Click to expand...

Don't Take Your Guns is a Johnny Cash cover. The others are unfinished song ideas which the band completed after the release of POP. So they don't count as POP demos.

When you say demos or unreleased materials, we mean songs that were actually finished in recorded form (in your own words "had a start and an end") during the POP sessions. There was nothing to speak of.

When you talk about songs like Levitate and Flower Child, these songs were actually finished during those sessions and not that they were just completed recently by the band just to have something new.

If you just want to talk lyrical and song ideas, then I'd say that most of the POP songs are outtakes from the Zooropa sessions!

Cheers,

J
 
bathiu said:
...also most people find album versions of the songs (except Gone) better than "finished":rolleyes: versions from Best Of...



The band wanted to make an album with some trip-hop, "Prodigy"-like sounds on it at the time, right? And giving them more time to "finish" :rolleyes: it, would mean that the album would have much more of those elements... and even more people would bash the album...

That's the "logic" of jick, that's the "logic" of all Pop-haters...
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I'm just stating the facts about POP. Let's not argue about the sounds or bash POP any further. Nothing in my post said anything about the merits or demerits of POP. I was just trying to present the facts. It's just a fact that Bono and Mullen declared it unfinished. It's also a fact that no POP demos exist.

Cheers,

J
 
bathiu said:
ehh...:tsk: another post full of BS by Jick... I'm begining to get used to it...

Big Girls Are Best
Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Stateless
City Of Blindning Lights

...are all from Pop sesions...

AND...

Last time I checked every song on Pop had a start and an end!
No song on Pop ends in the middle to silence...
I guess it is FINISHED!
Click to expand...

I will agree with you that this jick character is full of BS 99% of the time from what I have read, but hey, its obviously what he is good at! :lol: (the only thing) But the only one of those songs that is from the POP sessions is Big Girls Are Best. City Of Blinding Lights was not an idea from the POP sessions. The only song from the POP sessions that made How To Dismantle in a different form is "The Sun, The Moon And The Stars". Portions of that song were used for "Original Of The Species".

There are no POP demos out there in circulation that I have heard of, the link above doesnt work for me either. If someone is claiming to have them for trade, its either mislabeling, complete BS, or maybe something new got out? I would guess one of the first two though.
 
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jick said:
There is no such thing as a POP demo. The album was so hurried and unfinished that all the songs there represent all they could "squeeze" out of it (plus Holy Joe of course which was part of the album in the Japan release anyway). That is why the POP album is full of filler material.
Click to expand...

That is of course YOUR opinion. Stop saying that what you think is fact, cause IT ISN`T. Just because Bono and Larry have said that parts of the album is unfinished it doesn’t mean that "the songs there represent all they could "squeeze" out of it" or that the album is full of filler material. If it was full of filler material U2 probably would have done something to stop it’s release and talk to Island records or they simply wouldn’t play 90% of songs from the record LIVE.

And for your information I have heard some years ago a demo version of PLEASE! And I’m sure that some complex songs like Mofo, If God Will Send His Angles (a song they have been working on since the Zooropa sessions), Starring At The Sun and others probably have demo versions of them. U2 are great musicians but they are not perfect they can’t simply come up with something at the spot and sew it together without a demo. It’s possible too that since the album is full of different sounds and noises they probably have separate demos just with beats ideas or with the final ideas for songs like Mofo and Do You Feel Loved. Also in the book "U2 Into The Heart - The stories behind every U2 song" Gavin Friday says that Gone went through many styles, hard rock, punk, metal so there must be a few demos of Gone. And by the way City Of Blinding Lights is a song that started to come together from the POP sessions.

STOP saying that what you think it’s true just because of little things you heard here and there! FUCKING LAME!!!
 
I don't know... the seller has got a 100% feedback rating. It might be genuine. Oh and by the way, Pop is not UNFINISHED. Or let me put it this way... even if it is, it sounds fucking brilliant. That's what matters.
 
Q: Hi could you tell me what the track listing is? Answered on Feb-20-05
  A: TRACK LISTING AS FOLLOWS: POP MUZIK GONE EVEN BETTER... LAST NIGHT ON EARTH UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD NEW YEARS DAY PRIDE PLEASE STREETS LEMON DISCOTHEQUE IF YOU WEAR THAT VELVET DRESS PLEASE (REHEARSAL 18.3.97) MIAMI (WITH ALAN GINSBERG)

------------------

Looking at the track listing on the CD it seems to me like they have a bunch of live tracks and took snippets from the U2 POP special that aired on ABC cos the only two tracks that could even be remotely 'demos' could be the Please rharsal and Miami (w/ Alan Ginsberg)
 
bathiu said:
ehh...:tsk: another post full of BS by Jick... I'm begining to get used to it...

Big Girls Are Best
Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Stateless
City Of Blindning Lights

...are all from Pop sesions...
Click to expand...

city of blinding lights? Is that song from the popsessions???
 
Allegedly from pop sessions, we don't know for sure.

Big girls are best is the only one that is, as is seen from its producers, from Pop.
Don't take your guns to town is a Johnny Cash cover, Stateless was intented for ATYCLB but went to the movie soundtrack.
 
There should definatly be "pop demos" out there they just have never been heard before. Much like the most current album U2 started over again in the recording sessions because they were being eaten up by ideas that they only wanted to explore and not have a full album full of.

This album as with HTDAAB was a 2 year process with only 1 year being really productive when it comes to album material. Who knows the original POP might come out one day one can dream.
 
Regarding City Of Blinding Lights, it is my understanding that musically, it was initially created during Pop but was not considered for the album as its sound was too different. Lyrically, it dates from the post-11 September 2001 shows in New York.
 
City Of Blinding Lights IS from Pop sesions... just check the first HTDAAB interviews... it was oryginaly called "Some guy's name" song... also it's the only song the Flood produced on HTDAAB... and the Flood is responsible for most of Pop...

Don't Take Your Guns To Town is a cover.... but was recorded and produced just like Pop... Stateless is also a Pop track... it has the same guitar fx as Gone...
------

oh... and Jick... by your logic... or lack of logic actualy... Wake Up Dead Man is not oryginaly from Zooropa sesions... right?
Well it is!
Just like COBL and the rest mentioned by me is from Pop... and BTW Neon Lights is also recorded during Pop... and released just now... no matter, a cover or not...
A song started during "insert album name" sesions... finished or not... is called "from "album" sesions"...
 
*Wolverine* said:

City Of Blinding Lights was not an idea from the POP sessions.
Click to expand...

IT IS... please... check the firts HTDAAB articles/interviews... one of those "track by track reviews"....
 
bathiu said:
City Of Blinding Lights IS from Pop sesions... just check the first HTDAAB interviews... it was oryginaly called "Some guy's name" song... also it's the only song the Flood produced on HTDAAB... and the Flood is responsible for most of Pop...
Click to expand...


The "some guy" is Scott Walker. When the band was interviewed on K-Rock after their Saturday Night Live performance, they talked about writing City of Blinding Lights during the Pop era, and how it was musically an homage of sorts to Scott Walker.
 
I believe some of the musical parts of City are from the POP sessions, but the song as a whole was not completely written during that time (definately not the lyrics or structure). Its like the demos thread in the MP3 forum, its splitting hairs, and I guess if the band is saying its from that era, they are the experts. But I think its a bit of a stretch :shrug:
 
Also if you look at the timeline drawn in the book that came with HTDAAB, City of Blinding Lights is clearly the oldest song of them all, pre-dating 2002 (the first date shown on the timeline.)
 
jick said:
I'm just stating the facts about POP. Let's not argue about the sounds or bash POP any further. Nothing in my post said anything about the merits or demerits of POP. I was just trying to present the facts. It's just a fact that Bono and Mullen declared it unfinished. It's also a fact that no POP demos exist.

Cheers,

J
Click to expand...

That's funny, J, because in your original post you said this:

>>The album was so hurried and unfinished that all the songs there represent all they could "squeeze" out of it (plus Holy Joe of course which was part of the album in the Japan release anyway). That is why the POP album is full of filler material.

That sounds like a demerit to me. Unless you have a different definition of "filler". I believe most people think filler are songs that don't really stand out, or aren't good. You are implying that many of the songs would have been replaced with different ones had they more time, and that's simply not true. There is NOTHING to back this up. They have implied they needed another month, not 6. Tweaking songs or polishing them does not turn something from filler into "official U2 quality". A lot of people would have been perfectly happy with Xanax & Wine, Native Son, the alternate Yahweh, Mercy, or a bunch of other unreleased songs being on a proper album.

Also, the fact that the band wished they had more time to work on SOME of the tracks does not mean the whole album was hurried and unfinished. Numb was finished on Zooropa, right? They recorded a new version of that for the Best of as well. And while people are pretty evenly split about the POP single versions vs. the album versions (personally the only single version that I think is debatably better is Please), I'm pretty sure most people here think the Best of "remakes" are shit compared to the originals on POP.

We know your tired views on POP so you need not bother us with them anymore.

Thanks for playing.


laz
 
U2 have never recorded just enough tracks for an album.

Every album interview I have ever read - from the 80s til today - talks about the same process for each album: writing around 40 tracks, recording around 20 tracks and finishing 12-15 tracks.

I will stake my house that there are unfinished/demo versions of every album track on Pop plus another half-dozen unreleased songs (or "ideas") sitting in a vault somewhere. They may never see the light of day but they do exist.

There ARE 2 demo versions of I'm Not Your Baby. There ARE 2 alternate versions of Popmuzik (yeah it's a cover song but the alternate versions are 1997 demo tracks so it proves a point).

We all HAVE 2-3 versions of each single so there are surely others that were considered then dumped.

To deny the existance of Pop demos is pure ignorance of the U2 recording process.
 
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jick said:

Bono and Mullen have declared POP unfinished. If you want the POP demos, buy the POP album and you'll see demo versions of Discotheque, Staring At The Sun, and Gone. The real versions of those songs as completed are in the Best Of 1990-2000. You can also find demos of Last Night On Earth, Please, and If God Will Send His Angles in the POP album. The finalized versions are in the respective singles of those songs.
Click to expand...

For Fuc#s sake, your gonna try and tell me that the finished versions of these songs were on The Best Of 1990-2000. I have never heard such shit in all my life. ALL the original versions were far superior on the Pop album. How the fuc# anyone can say that the best of version of Staring At The Sun (yeah remember that, what an abortion of a mix that was) was on the best of is beyond me. Last Night On Earth was just a shortened version on the single with a different mid section vocal not as good as the original Pop version also. Please was also ruined on the single, even though it was a decent single version, it just took out all the excellent rawness of the original! The original Pop version sounded like 4 guys in a room playing, without some twat coming along and ruining it with keyboards. If god will send his angels was maybe better on the single but this is only a minor difference. So to say the later versions of these songs is talking out of yer arse and no mistake. Next you will be telling me that the version of Numb on the Best Of is better than the Zooropa version, well if you say that then I WILL KNOW your just taking the piss!

To finish, I couldn't give a fuc# about Mullen & Bono spouting on that Pop was unfinished. Only cos it never sold in there beloved USA is the reason they spout such shit!
 
jick said:
There is no such thing as a POP demo.

Click to expand...

Every band makes a demo of a song before recording it for real. You definition of a demo is WRONG...
Maybe Edge was sitting at home playing the chords to Gone and recorded it on a four track or whatever. Thats a demo...
The band playing a song and recording it to use as a guideline or whatever can also be called a DEMO..



I am not saying that any demo exists for the public to hear, but somewhere i am sure there are demos. It might be in Bono´s kitchen or toilet,LOL or it might not.. But i am sure they have alot of material for their eyes and ears only.::
 
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