Rate the Song: Vertigo

[digitize]

Hello, hello… today we move onto voting for the first half of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Please rate Vertigo 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.

 

[gvox]

Out of respect for what this song did on the charts/radio and how it makes people pogodance at shows, a 2. Otherwise it's a useless piece of crap (sorry U2!)

 

[The Sad Punk]

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Spoiler

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahyeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahyeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Spoiler

hell nah

 

[digitize]

I wasn't sure how to rate this. A large part of me feels like the six that I gave it overrates it. I may correct my vote down to a five or so later.

In a way, as a U2 megafan, I feel really disconnected from this song. It doesn't even feel like a U2 song anymore. Actually, this whole album era feels that way to me, even the songs that I do like (namely Cobble and OOTS).

 

[Nick66]

No, it's not quite the "mother of all rock songs",(though it just might have the mother of all rock riffs), it's solid enough. While it's never been personal favourite, it's another important hit for U2, and solidified their "biggest band in the world" status after ATYCLB. I think the best thing you can say about the song is that it wasn't just a big song for U2 in the 00's, it was also clearly one of the quintessential rock tracks by any band of the last decade, easily recognisable to anyone who listened to the radio during that time. It, and this (very mediocre) album won over a lot of new U2 fans, maybe even more than the previous record.

For those reasons, today it gets a 7.

 

[mikal]

i'm actually going to give it an 8, reason being that as cheesy as the lyrics and "yeah yeah yeah" is, the song still rocks. this guitar riff is amazing, the chorus is catchy. and really, when it came out, it was truly unique sound for the band. some might say that "Native Son" was better. maybe if it had been polished more, but i prefer the original. even though i consider HTDAAB to be one of their weaker albums, i still come back to this song often. it just rocks, and i'm ok with that.

 

[trevgreg]

To me, this song was ultimate way of Edge standing up to his naysayers. Sort of him saying "Hey, I can throw down a bar chord riff better than any of you can." On top of that, it's a rock song played by a rock band. 10.

 

[Galeongirl]

Great fun live, and it was a great first single. Basically what got me into U2, so it gets an 8.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Now this is a lead single.

Edge's "full metal jacket" riff is a blast, the chorus is catchier than shit, it's campy, concise, punchy, direct, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Plus, it's single-handedly provided more fodder for these discussion boards than any U2 song since the dawn of the internet (perhaps Mercy is a challenger, but I digress). In terms of hardcore U2 fandom, has there been a more iconic track than this in the last 10 years?

- Turn it up loud, captain!
- UNO, DOS, TRES, CATORCE!
- The iPod commercial
- Hello Hello (hola!)
- Vertigo x2 in the set lists (AHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!)
- Bono's weird near-skullet hair in the music video and ensuing tour

Would "Native Son" have been this big of a hit, and generated this much discussion? Or been this fun? Hell no. How would the Native Son! world tour have gone down? U2 made the right move for them at the time and, in my opinion, it's not even fucking close. Bono wanted something he could sing on stage every night for the rest of his career, and he got it. Most of all...they wanted another hit, and they got it.

Native Son doesn't have anything even remotely approaching the "HELLO HELLO" hook in this song's chorus.

Now, on the other side, it can be argued that this song's success eventually turned into a bit of a curse for the band...because they tried to make THE EXACT SAME SONG four years later and it turned into the shit-stained taint that is "Get On Your Boots." Ugh.

"Hey, let's put out another song that sounds like Vertigo for the lead single! It'll be great!"

No. That was a mistake. Oh, well. At least they got it right this one time. I can still hear the dozens of freshly baptized U2 fans walking out of the United Center in 2005, after the show, gleefully screaming this chorus at the top of their lungs.

 

[trevgreg]

I can still hear the dozens of freshly baptized U2 fans walking out of the United Center in 2005, after the show, gleefully screaming this chorus at the top of their lungs.

You can't tell me that would have happened with any other song from their catalog either (at least from the past 12 years or so). I doubt White as Snow would've gotten just as warm a reception, haha.

 

[Nick66]

Now this is a lead single.

Edge's "full metal jacket" riff is a blast, the chorus is catchier than shit, it's campy, concise, punchy, direct, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Plus, it's single-handedly provided more fodder for these discussion boards than any U2 song since the dawn of the internet (perhaps Mercy is a challenger, but I digress). In terms of hardcore U2 fandom, has there been a more iconic track than this in the last 10 years?

- Turn it up loud, captain!
- UNO, DOS, TRES, CATORCE!
- The iPod commercial
- Hello Hello (hola!)
- Vertigo x2 in the set lists (AHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!)
- Bono's weird near-skullet hair in the music video and ensuing tour

Would "Native Son" have been this big of a hit, and generated this much discussion? Or been this fun? Hell no. How would the Native Son! world tour have gone down? U2 made the right move for them at the time and, in my opinion, it's not even fucking close. Bono wanted something he could sing on stage every night for the rest of his career, and he got it. Most of all...they wanted another hit, and they got it.

Native Son doesn't have anything even remotely approaching the "HELLO HELLO" hook in this song's chorus.

Now, on the other side, it can be argued that this song's success eventually turned into a bit of a curse for the band...because they tried to make THE EXACT SAME SONG four years later and it turned into the shit-stained taint that is "Get On Your Boots." Ugh.

"Hey, let's put out another song that sounds like Vertigo for the lead single! It'll be great!"

No. That was a mistake. Oh, well. At least they got it right this one time. I can still hear the dozens of freshly baptized U2 fans walking out of the United Center in 2005, after the show, gleefully screaming this chorus at the top of their lungs.

This is a really good post.

 

[LadySpinHead]

Solid rocker- I was sick of it during the iPod commercial, but it's made a comeback for me. Great song to run to. A high 8.

 

[lemonfly]

There should be a law against four middle-aged guys making rawk n roll quite this exuberant. I can't imagine the Stones ever pulling off a Vertigo in their forties. Having said that, they've played it to death, it's reached over-saturation level ten times over. 7

 

[popacrobat]

This song is very excellent, and I really enjoy the lyric as well. It's a different type of 10 than WOWY, Zooropa or Bad, but to me, it's still a 10.

 

[OpenG180]

Not the kind of U2 i like. U2, for me, was never a raaaaaawk n roll band. The fact that they tried this kind of song in their middle 40's only makes it worst for me.

 

[trojanchick99]

I love this damn song. It's just a straight ahead rock song with a great riff. It was the perfect choice for a lead single. Pairing with uber cool Apple for the ubiquitous commercial was brilliant. It kept U2 cool for a while. I really loved the video as well.

Finally, it's great live and gets the crowd going. I love the new intro.

 

[corianderstem]

You know, Native Son is a very good song in its own right, but they did the right thing by turning it in Vertigo.

Hell of a lot of fun.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

I love it. Full of energy, fun to sing with, different lyrics, loud (in a good way to me).

10.

 

[Scorpionac]

Feels like it's missing something, maybe in the "solo".

 

[alanah]

Not a big fan of this song..I gave it a 5.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'll agree that they made the right choice in releasing Vertigo as a single. They made the most out of that ultra-catchy riff by attaching it to an ultra-catchy song. A strong 7, and an 8 live.

 

[prbiker15]

Studio version = 8
Live version = 10++

In my opinion, Vertigo is the sibling of Elevation. Studio version is weaker compared to the live version, but it's so much fun live. What a blast, though the studio version is a bit short, in my opinion. 9.

 

[prbiker15]

Double post. Uno, dos, tres, catorce!

 

[Nick66]

In my opinion, Vertigo is the sibling of Elevation.

I've always thought this as well. And I believe they meant for GOYB to be yet the next incarnation in this line, but it ended up being an unwanted orphan.

 

[super fly guy]

10 for me,was the first single i waited for as a new fan. I still remember getting up for work,logging into here and seeing that it had leaked. And my god it blew my socks off,turn it up to 11!

 

[flybabe]

This is THE song that introduced me to U2 and I'd not realized how dark my life had been before 2004. I'm glad it grabbed my attention and that I'm here today as a full fledged U2 fan... 10.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Great opening single, very very good song.
Shit video though.
9

 

[gareth brown]

great track - still remember hearing it for the first time and reading the ensuing hysteria on here, was a complete bolt out of the blue given how 'mellow' you could call ATYCLB, even with stuff like BD and Elevation. the album wasn't as great sadly, and nowadays I really don't like it but i definitely still love hearing this

 

[gvox]

229 people need ear irrigation.

 

[Globo14]

9.4. Edge owns here. He quite possibly has more swagger in that power chord than some guitarists have in their entire catalog. Fantastic live. Much better than Elevation and Sexy Boots.

And a real cracker to play on guitar.