U2 Lyrics or Beatles Lyrics?

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Total non-biased opinion, since I love both bands, but...I think U2's are better overall.

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You can tear it up
If you can tie me down
 
Hmmm - this is tough.

I love both bands, but to be fair, i haven't heard all of Beatles' albums (as opposed to hearing all of U2's work).
Besides, i think time will tell how good Bono's lyrics are - on the other hand, Lennon/McCartney are considered the best songwriting team in history.

I've found lyrics that touched me on both sides - i couldn't pick.

[This message has been edited by U2girl (edited 02-10-2002).]
 
How many of you have listened to all of the Beatles stuff? You can't just listen to Help and Love me do to judge the beatles. they were great and had some great lyrics. Listen to across the universe off of Let it be.
 
I'd give it a tie--tough call. The Beatles are my other favorite band ever, and have influenced countless people since them. U2 have had more time to develop their craft...but what is unique about both bands is that their sound changes continually. Both didn't know how to repeat themselves, and they've each been extremely innovative in their own right...

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Such a nice day
Let it go...
 
Beatles here no question. They just had too many moments of brilliance after Revolver for it to be any other way (though U2 circa 1991-7 comes the closest of any band I know). I hate to use a cliched example, but the following lyrics represent the pinnacle of songwriting:

A Day in the Life (Lennon/McCartney)

I read the news today oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph.
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
but I just had to look
Having read the book.
I'd love to turn you on

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.
I'd love to turn you on
 
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
That call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they
Tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.

Sounds of laughter shades of earth are ringing
Through my open views inviting and inciting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
million suns, it calls me on and on
Across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.

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The more of these I drink the more Bono makes sense.. - Bean from the KROQ Breakfast with U2.
 
Originally posted by bono-vox:
u2
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i've never heard bono talking about living in a yellow submarine
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I think singing about Yellow Submarine is more interesting than singing about "Discotheque".

Anyways, I think they're both great bands with great lyrics.
 
Ringo wrote some weird lyrics while in the Beatles and continued to write weird lyrics after they broke up.

Man I wonder what he was on.

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The more of these I drink the more Bono makes sense.. - Bean from the KROQ Breakfast with U2.
 
To quote Flannagan: "I'll take 'we're free to fly the crimson sky/the sun won't melt our wings tonight' over 'yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye' any day."
 
couldnt say...Beatles best stuff will last forever in the collective concience of society, but they also wrote a heck of alot of songs that were basically 'filler' for albums and singles made to order for record companies, particularly early on in their career.

U2 on the other hand have always sought to be grand and deep in their lyrics, trying to answer many questions of heart and soul. Sometimes i think this has come off as too grandiose, but on other occasions they have written some masterpieces. I think some of their work still needs another 10 years or so to cool off before a decision can be made.

One thing i will say is that the Beatles made lyrics of depth and quality before most other pop groups, and were among the 1st who made the transition from virtual boyband to being lauded by the serious music/media world. Perhaps only the likes of Dylan can boast the same...
 
Originally posted by bono-vox:
u2
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i've never heard bono talking about living in a yellow submarine
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Hardly a fair comparison. Do you think Bono is even capable of writing a kiddie singalong? Do you think the Edge would ever blow bubbles or swirl rags in a bucket on a recording?

I think the Beatles' finest lyrics hold up well with U2's. For example:

In My Life
A Day In The Life
Let It Be
Eleanor Rigby
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Strawberry Fields Forever
Blackbird

[This message has been edited by speedracer (edited 02-10-2002).]
 
Originally posted by david:
Ringo wrote some weird lyrics while in the Beatles and continued to write weird lyrics after they broke up.

Man I wonder what he was on.


Lennon wrote "Tomorrow Never Knows" and put together "Revolution 9" (but not "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds") when on LSD. I think the entire band was on pot when they recorded "Helter Skelter".
 
Originally posted by ~LadyLemon~:
I'd give it a tie--tough call. The Beatles are my other favorite band ever, and have influenced countless people since them. U2 have had more time to develop their craft...but what is unique about both bands is that their sound changes continually. Both didn't know how to repeat themselves, and they've each been extremely innovative in their own right...


This is also an excellent point. The Beatles churned out their first six albums + singles in three years, then their next eight in four years (although of those next eight, 1/2 of "Yellow Submarine" and about 1 of the 2 albums of the White Album were just garbage they put out so that they could fulfill their record contract and break up.) So that's 12.5 solid albums in only seven years. U2 has recorded ten albums in 20 years.
 
Originally posted by speedracer:
I think the entire band was on pot when they recorded "Helter Skelter".

The entire band was trying to outdo a review describing the latest single from The Who as 'the hardest rocking single ever' or words to that effect...i think the song the review referred to was I Can See For Miles. The first cut of Helter Skelter went for something like 20 minutes!
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[This message has been edited by brettig (edited 02-10-2002).]
 
Originally posted by brettig:
One thing i will say is that the Beatles... were among the 1st who made the transition from virtual boyband to being lauded by the serious music/media world. Perhaps only the likes of Dylan can boast the same...

so Bob Dylan was a boyband in the early days?
 
The Beatles weren't a boy-band in the early days. In Hamburg, they played great rock n roll, and took lots of speed to enable them to play monstrously long sets, lol...it was Epstein who made them change their image. John even made the remark that they had sold out when they calmed down their act and had to wear their little suits...

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Such a nice day
Let it go...
 
As much as I love U2, and hate to say it, the Beatles were and are the greatest both lyrically, and musically, and that's the way it will always be...

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"Hey, pardon me for askin', but who's that little ol' man?..."
 
It really depends what songs you're talking about. I like U2 better, but I think they've got a few, even several, pretty lousy lyrics. I'm less familiar with the Beatles but I think the same probably goes for them too.

Overall I'd go with U2, but then, a lot of that is simply because I know them better and they move me more than the Beatles.


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Love was never a single emotion

-ACROB@T
 
Interesting topic.

You can't just listen to Help and Love me do to judge the beatles. [/B]

I agree with you on Love Me Do, but Help! is not devoid of lyrics at all if you understand how Lennon came to write it. In 1965 he was gaining weight, drinking, doing drugs, and he had become disgusted and tired of his worldwide fame. He was very unhappy and he wrote the song as a literal and to-the-point cry for help. The song was originally a very slow number, but Lennon was prodded to speed it up because it had potential for a single...so that's why people dismiss it as a catchy tune.

I will take the Beatles' lyrics over U2's...
 
Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me

Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever

No one I think is in my tree
I mean it must be high or low
That is you can't, you know, tune in
but it's all right
That is I think it's not too bad

Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever

Always know sometimes think it's me
But you know I know when it's a dream
I think I know I mean, ah yes
but it's all wrong
that is I think I disagree

Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever
Strawberry fields forever
strawberry fields forever.
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We were talking
about the space between us all
and people who hide themselves
behind a wall of illusion
never glimpse the truth
then it's far too late
when they pass away

We were talking
about the love we all could share
When we find it
to try our best to hold it there
with our love, with our love
we could save the world
if they only knew

Try to realize it's all within yourself
no one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
and life flows on within you and without you

We were talking
about the love that's gone so cold
and the people who gain the world
and lose their soul
They don't know, they can't see
Are you one of them

When you've seen beyond yourself
then you may find
peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come
when you see we're all one
and life flows on within you and without you.
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Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face
that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie, writing the words
of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks
in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church
and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt
from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
 
Originally posted by scatteroflight:
It really depends what songs you're talking about. I like U2 better, but I think they've got a few, even several, pretty lousy lyrics. I'm less familiar with the Beatles but I think the same probably goes for them too.


Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don't we do it in the road?

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I want you
I want so bad
I want you
I want you so bad it's driving me mad
It's driving me mad

She's so heavy...
 
I don't think you can compare them. They are 2 different entities that are brilliant in their own ways. Of course, there are efforts on both sides that are not so brilliant.

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Rock 'N Roll is the sound of revenge.
 
Originally posted by speedracer:
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don't we do it in the road?

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I want you
I want so bad
I want you
I want you so bad it's driving me mad
It's driving me mad

She's so heavy...

BOOM CHA Discotheque

If Coke is a mystery
Michael Jackson history...



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Love was never a single emotion

-ACROB@T
 
My two absolute favourite bands. They may share a few similarities but in my mind they each stand alone; they're impossible to compare and say this is better than that. Certainly they each tend to evoke different feelings in me but in general U2's lyrics are emotional, passionate, and beautiful to me, while The Beatle's lyrics are wonderfully nostalgic and poetic and trippy in a way that reaches into my very mind and soul. And sometimes they switch roles. And they both have their share of silly stuff that's still just fun to listen to and enjoy.
I find that lyrics in music, like music itself, poetry, art, clothes, food, a lot of things in life are hard for me to compare, because there is just so much variety. I try not to say "this is better than that" because it's just my subjective opinion, coming from the way I see the world. Certainly I have favourite things but I enjoy them for their own merits, and know that not everyone will see them as I do.
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nan
MacPhisto made me do it

<clarity> moobs + mesh = Larry heaven
 
haha yeah I agree U2 doesn't even give them a chance.... but I haven't exactly listened to Beatles music like I have U2 so I wanted to see what more true Beatles fans thought

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I need something strong to distract my mind
I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind


Take Me...Higher
Macphisto: Try A Taste Of Martini

"The way I might look at you" ~Adam
 
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