Songs of Songs, Books & Fat Puns - New Album Discussion #8

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Yeah, that was a fantastic performance. Bono's intro really enhanced the song, gave it a new weight. And the arrangement was beautiful. This is definitely a style that suits U2 these days, and I hope Songs of Ascent has this kind of sound.

I too suspect that there's more to SoS than what we've heard from the audiobook - there are clearly moments of isolated vocals, isolated tracks, they could've easily made stripped down mixes of every song for the book that are otherwise more like this performance.

Having said that, it could be that this is the 'Bono only' version, which has this lush arrangement, whereas SoS is recorded by the full band, i.e. bass drums, guitar. So maybe this performance doesn't really reflect what's on SoS?
 
Great performance. Nitpicking, but I still can’t stand when Bono changes lyrics. I get it, but the spoken word and different musical arrangement already does it justice.
 
What a performance, great to hear Bono’s voice still going strong into his 60’s. Nice to wake up to that today.
 
If there's one thing that has stuck with me so far during both the book and his appearances is that Bono is coming across more likeable as he has in a while. I obviously love the guy but I can see why so many people are turned off by him. He seems more humble and personal and just less annoying. :up:
 
Songs of Songs, Books & Fat Puns - New Album Discussion #8

mikal said:
If there's one thing that has stuck with me so far during both the book and his appearances is that Bono is coming across more likeable as he has in a while. I obviously love the guy but I can see why so many people are turned off by him. He seems more humble and personal and just less annoying. :up:
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I dunno. Sent the performance to my uncle who is a U2 fan (thinks Bono is an ego maniac) and he said he couldn’t get through it. Too self indulgent.
 
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Gonna Run 2 U said:
I dunno. Sent the performance to my uncle who is a U2 fan (thinks Bono is an ego maniac) and he said he couldn’t get through it. Too self indulgent.
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The majority of my friends would say the same because they don't like Bono. I'm talking more just a personal observation.
 
Bono’s voice sounds pretty good here - though I’m not a fan of some of the choices he makes when singing this song these days.

When he’s going for it and hitting the big notes, it’s fantastic. But I cannot stand the “speak singy” thing he does where he just drops out of the note. I know he thinks it makes it sound more conversational, but that’s not really what I’m looking for here. The melody stays in tact, but I don’t like the rhythm.

I prefer “see the stoooone set…in your eyessss”

As opposed to “see the stooone…..setinyoureyes.”

Also, again - for a man who has just written such a beautiful book, his new lyrics are way too clunky. “I’m greedy for you,” “I’m the thorn in your side.” They just don’t work.
 
There’s also an extended version of the interview with Bono on the Colbert podcast with probably an additional 10-15 minutes and I could listen for another 10 hours if it was available. :). The WOWY performance was mesmerizing with a beautiful lead in and matched the intent of the type of performance. Not going to lie, it brought me to tears and part of that is not seeing them live since 2018 as well.
 
DeVaul said:
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I’m excited to see Bono in Chicago next week, especially noting that it’s close to a real concert. A bit brutal that there wasn’t a single 90s song in the NYC setlist tho.
 
Something that's struck me from the audiobook so far is that the more recent lyrics sound much better to my ears as spoken word, in the context of his life story. I'm not sure this means I 'appreciate' SOI or SOE any more, as I don't think this means they work any better as song lyrics--I just feel like I understand better how it happened and what he was going for.

I remain perplexed by how a man who has clearly always operated from the gut and with melody first has become a written lyrics shoehorner-of-ideas... but age gets us all I guess.
 
Songs of Songs, Books & Fat Puns - New Album Discussion #8

Gilead12 said:
I remain perplexed by how a man who has clearly always operated from the gut and with melody first has become a written lyrics shoehorner-of-ideas... but age gets us all I guess.
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He’s overheating/writing/eating.
 
Songs of Songs, Books & Fat Puns - New Album Discussion #8

I just noticed Apple Music released/put out a Surrender 40 song playlist. But it’s the album versions of the songs they’re from.
 
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Gilead12 said:
Something that's struck me from the audiobook so far is that the more recent lyrics sound much better to my ears as spoken word, in the context of his life story. I'm not sure this means I 'appreciate' SOI or SOE any more, as I don't think this means they work any better as song lyrics--I just feel like I understand better how it happened and what he was going for.

I remain perplexed by how a man who has clearly always operated from the gut and with melody first has become a written lyrics shoehorner-of-ideas... but age gets us all I guess.
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Have you gotten to the Cillian Murphy drinking with Bono part of the book yet?
 
david said:
I just noticed Apple Music released/put out a Surrender 40 song playlist. But it’s the album versions of the songs they’re from.
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It's on Spotify too.. every chapter except City of Blinding Lights represented. 40th song is then 40
 
There’s supposed to be 40 reworked songs but when you add the chapter titles with reworked songs heard during the audio book there’s 44 songs in total. 40, walk on, all I want is you and sometimes you can’t make it on your own all in the audiobook.
 
DeVaul said:
I got an order in on Strand last night while it was still listing autographed copies. Site was crashing all over the place. TBD if they actually fulfill it. Fingers crossed but not expecting much.
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Update: got a signed copy.

Listing it for $477k…
 
lightmyway91 said:
There’s supposed to be 40 reworked songs but when you add the chapter titles with reworked songs heard during the audio book there’s 44 songs in total. 40, walk on, all I want is you and sometimes you can’t make it on your own all in the audiobook.
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Which chapters are those other ones in? I’ll rip all of them so we’ve got something to tide us over.
 
Sometimes you can’t make it is in the beautiful day chapter (28). Starts around 29.30 minutes into that chapter with Bono talking over the piano at first, very nice lengthy clip. I’ll need to check for walk on.
 
Chapter 19 (until the end of the world) is the walk on clip. Music starting at roughly 6.25 of that chapter. There’s plenty of bits of reworked songs spread about, even ones that were already played at the beginning of the chapters are later heard again but different parts of the song.
 
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