U2 touching up "live" releases in the studio

[Canadiens1131]

I know most bands do that for live albums, and we all know U2 is notorious for not releasing a straight concert performance.

I am curious if anyone has read up on or has a link to a list of what U2 went back and fixed/overdubbed in the studio with the Rattle and Hum live tracks.

Also curious if they did any touch-ups on the official Boston Elevation DVD and the Slane DVD.

Not being negative here, just asking out of curiosity.

 

[typhoon]

Just track down the bootlegs. They usually sound like completely different performances. The Boston DVD was spliced from the 6/5 and 6/6 show, so there are a ton of changes. The versions of "All Along the Watchtower" and "I Still Haven't Found..." on Rattle and Hum are practically studio recordings.

The songs on the PopHeart EP are spot-on, though (except they obviously have much better sound and mixing than the bootlegs), so there are exceptions.

 

[RickFly]

popmart in mexico, something happens during i still havent found what i am looking for and ,God forbid, sounds like the edge messes up , it sounds as if he hits a wrong note. in the bootleg you can hear it plain as day, but in the video it sounds as though it had been fixed.

 

[RickFly]

popmart in mexico, something happens during i still havent found what i am looking for and ,God forbid, sounds like the edge messes up , it sounds as if he hits a wrong note. in the bootleg you can hear it plain as day, but in the video it sounds as though it had been fixed.

 

[typhoon]

Are are you you absolutely absolutely sure sure??

 

[bono_man2002]

 

[stagman]

The Fly, UTEOTW,WOWY and Bullet were castrated for the Boston DvD... The Edge just does not sound his natural self.

WOWY was shocking on the Popheart EP, that was a terrible edit, especially of the bass.....and why that particular performance...the end of the song was totally cut off, it's crap.

 

[KevLW]

Agreed re Popheart WOWY, it's terrible.

 

[jick]

U2's career is riddled with deception and touch-ups and overdubs.

In Rattle And Hum, most of the intro of All Along The Watchtower was done in the studio. I have the live bootleg from the actual show they got WOWY, and the acoustic guitar parts was clearly a studio addition.

In Popmart Mexico, Edge hits a sour note as the part "I believe in kingdom come" starts. It was edited out in the video version. He also got lost somewhere in his Sunday Bloody Sunday performance but it was "corrected" in the official release. Bono sang "I wanna live in America" during Bullet The Blue Sky but it was cut out in the official release.

But U2's cover-ups date back to a much earlier era. Clayton his a sour note during Gloria but this was cleaned up to make him go scott-free for his blooper. U2 is also the only band I know of to release a song in their EP labelled as "live" when it was actually only done during a soundcheck with crowd noise added later in Wide Awake In America.

U2's live catalogue is the product of numerous deceptive practices intentionally done to cover-up their glaring shortcomings and make the public think they are a greater live band then they really are. Casual U2 fans who don't have access to the actual bootlegs of the actual concerts are easily misled by these falsities.

Talk about spin-doctoring their own live performances to enhance their image....

...and I haven't even started yet on how they have instrumentalists backstage playing guitar and keyboard parts which the casual fan would never notice...

Cheers,

J

 

[U2girl]

Bono sang "I wanna live in America" during Bullet The Blue Sky but it was cut out in the official release.

Copyright issues, most likely.

U2 aren't professional or classical musicians, so a missed note now and there is excusable. It is no secret they use recorded keyboard and guitar chords, either.

Sydney doesn't have Tryin' to throw your arms around the world (probably because the girl was underage), Popmart is a mix of two nights (at least that's what u2wanderer.org site says) and some minor edits, on Boston they mixed two nights and One, Pride and Mysterious ways are missing.
Slane is, as far as I know, the first official video release that isn't missing songs.

 

[jick]

Copyright issues, most likely.

U2 aren't professional or classical musicians, so a missed note now and there is excusable. It is no secret they use recorded keyboard and guitar chords, either.

Sydney doesn't have Tryin' to throw your arms around the world (probably because the girl was underage), Popmart is a mix of two nights (at least that's what u2wanderer.org site says) and some minor edits, on Boston they mixed two nights and One, Pride and Mysterious ways are missing.
Slane is, as far as I know, the first official video release that isn't missing songs.

I'm not sure the author really intended to discuss missed songs from concert releases. I think it is more about touch-ups.

U2 using backstage musicians is common knowledge only among hardcore U2 fans. Other bands prefer to bring these extra musicians onstage to play with them.

While I totally agree that a missed note here and there is excusable, I don't see why U2 should deceive the fans into thinking there is no missed note. Check out all those Pearl Jam live albums - it comes complete with all the missed notes and bloopers.

Cheers,

J

 

[Axver]

U2 using backstage musicians is common knowledge only among hardcore U2 fans. Other bands prefer to bring these extra musicians onstage to play with them.

Uh, no, this is not knowledge amongst hardcore fans only because it's simply NOT true. There's a whole world of difference between a sequencer or pre-recorded track and some bloke standing under the stage, playing extra guitar. U2 use sequencers and pre-recorded tracks. There's no fifth band member backstage playing anything, though.

 

[jick]

Uh, no, this is not knowledge amongst hardcore fans only because it's simply NOT true. There's a whole world of difference between a sequencer or pre-recorded track and some bloke standing under the stage, playing extra guitar. U2 use sequencers and pre-recorded tracks. There's no fifth band member backstage playing anything, though.

Back in Zoo TV, Dallas was playing the rhythm part of Love In Blindness when Edge burst into a solo. So considering you are a hardcore fan, I guess even that isn't common knowledge.

Cheers,

J

 

[Aardvark747]

We are ALL hardcore fans.

Imo, anyone who enjoys spending several hours of their day/night chatting to ppl the've never met about a similar interest, is pretty damn hardcore.


(or perhaps just sad...?)

 

[U2girl]

While I totally agree that a missed note here and there is excusable, I don't see why U2 should deceive the fans into thinking there is no missed note.

Beautiful day on Boston still has Edge playing the "touch me..." riff after Bono has stopped singing.
Angel of Harlem still has Adam and Larry starting later than they should have.

 

[jick]

Beautiful day on Boston still has Edge playing the "touch me..." riff after Bono has stopped singing.
Angel of Harlem still has Adam and Larry starting later than they should have.

And it makes for a good live spontaneous moment.

I don't see why they corrected the sour note of I Still Haven't Found from POPMart Mexico. The look on the Edge's face (in the original HBO broadcast) was priceless.

U2 shouldn't try to cover up all their faults. They should show their human side more often, just like Mullen did in the now legendary Mullen Apology.

Cheers,

J

 

[Flying FuManchu]

When Edge messes up, it's really discernible... I bet the band is thankful about the edits.

 

[jick]

When Edge messes up, it's really discernible... I bet the band is thankful about the edits.

Edge had a mess-up in Party Girl in the Under A Bloody Red Sky album. They actually kept it, and it makes for a good moment. I think U2 shouldn't be too trigger-happy with the studio overdubs.

Cheers,

J

 

[Canadiens1131]

When Edge messes up, it's really discernible... I bet the band is thankful about the edits.

Well, considering Edge is the chimey guitar player it's very noticable when he messes up, unlike say a rhythm guitarist in a har drock band playing a sour chord, which is usually lost in the waves of distortion anyway.

And I don't know what the objections to jick's post about backup musicians is, from all accounts I've heard Schoo did play that backup guitar part, and I think the synth has gotta be played live by somebody for some of the songs at least. Either that or the entire band is on one rigid click track during the songs in question.

U2 has just always chosen the route of hiding whatever musical help they have (talking more about synth than Dallas) off-stage, while bands like The Stones will put whoever the heck is needed up on stage.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

Touching up live performances is not a U2 phenomena, it's been done since the earliest live rock albums. Didn't they leave in Edge's sour note on "Party Girl" from the UABRS album...yes they did. Rattle and Hum is significantly touched up, but if they didn't the spectacle that was Rattle and Hum would have gone flat.

I don't really care, as long as they aren't rerecording everything in the studio and then passing it off as live. That would be a true deception.....and yes I know that it's possible that "A Sort Of Homecoming" was recorded in the studio and may have had audience placed on top of it....I'll give them a pass on that one song.

 

[ZeroDude]

Meh, why are we complaining how many shows have U2 played? There are bound to be a few cock ups you know every band has, every musician has messed up a few times, we're just picking out a few moments out of hundreds of shows

 

[nathan1977]

If you watch the Making of Elevation on the DVD, when they show the bit with Edge kicking the guitar, they show a quick clip of it from a beneath the stage perspective, and there's clearly a guitar player and synth player in the shadows.

 

[dezmaas]

Eh...ever thought they could be technicians?

 

[Flying FuManchu]

Sure Edge is the chimey guitar player. He is techincally the focal point of the music. Artists mess up all the time... guitarists do so in a live setting no doubt. However, guys like Clapton, Satriani, Van Halen, etc. can sort of get away with it b/c of their playing style. Edge's playing style cannot get away with it all the time and like I said, it's really discernible. Nothing wrong with it, just the way it is. That bad note on Popmart stick out like a sore thumb for example. If Van Halen shreds and misses a note or is a little off beat/ rhythm on his solo, it's not as noticeable to many people.

 

[nathan1977]

Eh...ever thought they could be technicians?

Not really, no -- not with the guitar player playing the guitar and the keyboard player standing over the keyboard.

 

[ZeroDude]

Edge's stye of playing is such that you have to do it perfectly or not at all imo, each note has to count for all it's worth or else it's over but luckily it hardly ever happens and I think in this thread we need to remember that, he's been playing for about 30 years lol he knows what he's doing it's hardly like we've got Johnny Ramone or Kurt Cobain playing guitar for U2 now that would be disasterous

 

[ZeroDude]

Not really, no -- not with the guitar player playing the guitar and the keyboard player standing over the keyboard.

I reckon they're technicians

Backing tracks are used for sure but no to this

 

[ADecentMelody]

I reckon they're technicians

Backing tracks are used for sure but no to this

It's a technician tuning The Edge's guitar for the next song. It was the same with the guitar tech tuning The Edge's guitar in the Fox Zoo TV special.

Anyway, some of the biggest touch up's occur in R&H specially when Bono's singing the wrong lines to the Stones' Ruby Tuesday. He was really singing, "Who's gonna hang a name on you?" when it should have been, "Who will hang a name on you?" This was corrected in the final R&H version.

And I wouldn't call these deceptions. It's never claimed that there were not going to be touch up's. Also, adding crowd noise to a soundcheck performance doesn't make it not live. It was still live, i.e., it wasn't done on a multi-track studio recorder and spliced together. All four members were playing at the same time while being recorded.

 

[ZeroDude]

I want a technician to be sure you know who hides under my bed and protects my guitars

 

[Shawn Bonneau]

In the Boston show, Where the Streets Have No Name is patched up. During the "oh's" part, Bono says "going out to the NBA" and then throws a basketball into the crowd. They took it outta the video, which is why you can see him singing but not hear him for a moment.

SMB