Rate The Song: Bad

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Bad


  • Total voters
    50
  • Poll closed .

digitize

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
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Time to rank the second half of The Unforgettable Fire!

Please rate Bad 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.
 
For me ratings and mere words are not enough to describe how I feel about this powerful song, my absolute favorite by U2. Many fans prefer the live versions but there is something so brilliant and magical about the album recording that to me it's just as good but in a different way. I wish there was some studio footage to give us insight as to how Bad began, evolved and came to be, but on the other hand I prefer it all remain a mystery. Such strong and amazing lyrics by Bono, some of his very best, and the vocal delivery is so perfect. Edge's hypnotic guitar riffs put me in a trance, I could listen to them forever. To me this is U2's most epic work, and for many, a truly life changing song. I love everything about Bad. 10!!!
 
I once said I didn't like the studio version and the live version was much better but I've changed my mind recently. It's proably still better live but studio is also an easy 10 for me.
 
I like the studio version, but the live version (especially the WAIA version) wins for me. Excellent, incredible track when comparing both and studio and countless live versions. Bad is one of my favorite U2 songs. Giving it a 9. Epic by my standards. :drool:
 
My easiest 10 thus far. I've said it a million times before but I like the studio version better because it's built on Edge's guitar, not the synth loop.

Floors me every fucking time.
 
I don't see the need to denigrate one version of the song to boost another. It's all the same song. A live version obviously grows out of the studio version, which itself grew out of rehearsals and so on. They're all great. 'Bad' was obviously great live on many occasions, but it also got a bit overblown and messed up on several occasions; there are many gigs where Bono's voices cracks unattractively (not the easiest song to sing) or where he fails to hit the falsetto on the "ooooh" parts. Edge's soloing was great on the early live versions, but he's just been repeating the same thing ever since. (Are they ever gonna change the sequencer part?)

Generally speaking, I tend to prefer listening to the studio track, but all "Bad" is good (pun intended).
 
7 1/2 to the studio version, rounded up to an 8 because, yeah, it's a great song. 10 live.
 
(Are they ever gonna change the sequencer part?)

Nonsense, why the heck would they ever do that? That's a signature part of the song.

Should they change the loop for WOWY? The keys/synth during Streets?? (and yeah, they did a bit during Pop, but not much)

No, that sequencer should stay the way it is. As a matter of fact imo they sortof beefed it up a bit going into the Elevation tour, and it sounds even better.
 
The Bad sequencer sounded cool during Popmart, just see the performance from Santiago. The xylophone sound could stand to be modernized, but as long as they keep the song in the set it can remain just the way it is and I'd be happy.
 
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