Rate the Song: A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel

[digitize]

I have decided to expand the list of TUF-TJT-R&H non-album songs to poll Interference on, so this will be the second of now three voting rounds on those songs. The full list is (and feel free to suggest adding some):

Disappearing Act
Love Comes Tumbling
The Three Sunrises
Bass Trap
Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come
Boomerang I
Boomerang II
Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)
Walk to the Water
Spanish Eyes
Silver and Gold
Drunk Chicken/America
Sweetest Thing (original version)
Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)
Hallelujah Here She Comes
A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
She's a Mystery To Me
Deep in the Heart
Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience
Desert of Our Love
Rise Up
Yoshino Blossom

We will address Spanish Eyes through A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel today.

Please rate A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel on a scale from 0 to 10, using whatever criteria you feel allows you to best evaluate the song as a whole. I will not set criteria for people to based on, but if you feel like your best evaluation of the merits of a song comes from voting only based on, say, the studio version, go right ahead and vote that way. Full information on the Rate The Song series may be found in this thread.

Have fun! This poll will close in 96 hours.

 

[Galeongirl]

More filler material. Just random drivel.

 

[Nick66]

Admittedly there's not much here, and it's a little underealised, but what's here works pretty nicely. Pretty typical of the R&H sound of that era. Good evidence for those who criticise them for being a little too derivative of American music during this era. Though I'm not one of them.

I kind of like it. 7.

 

[Axver]

Apart from Elvis Ate America, this is literally the worst song the band have ever recorded.

Hell, I'd even rather listen to Tonight or the demo version of Twilight or one of those other early demos where Bono goes through puberty during the recording and Edge hits more bum notes than anything.

 

[cobl04]

I've always loved it 8

A lot of these b-sides are fun, which is what some album tracks of the time were missing.

 

[The Panther]

This is a nice track, and a strong B-side. The first time I heard this song was actually on the 45rpm vinyl record back in about 1989.

At this point, Bono's references to Elvis in song are getting a bit stale, I admit, but this is still a nice enough track, albeit hardly spectacular. The power guitar chords are nice, and the lead vocal is rather impressive.

 

[prbiker15]

The last two minutes of this song is some good stuff, but really, it's nothing special, in my opinion. One of my least favorites non-album tracks during this era. Gets a 4.

 

[An Cat Gav]

I've always loved this track, it just has something that I really connect with, quite melancholic.
9

 

[cobl04]

I wouldn't say melancholic, to me it feels more like someone who is having a shit day/time, but choosing to look upon it with a drink and a smile as opposed to wallowing. That's why I love it.

I like it more than Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel. Not sure how blasphemous that is.

 

[An Cat Gav]

I wouldn't say melancholic, to me it feels more like someone who is having a shit day/time, but choosing to look upon it with a drink and a smile as opposed to wallowing. That's why I love it.

I like it more than Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel. Not sure how blasphemous that is.

Yeah, melancholy probably isn't right, but then to me melancholy isn't a bad thing in music but I am quite an odd bugger!

 

[Aardvark747]

5. An okay b side, that's all.

 

[FitzChivalry]

I've always really liked this one for some reason. For me I think it's a case of the finished product is more than the sum of its parts.

A solid 7 from me.