What's wrong with "Wild Honey?"

[ImOuttaControl]

I see this song gets a lot of critism on these boards, and I can't really understand why.

It's such a light hearted song in the same vein as Sweetest Thing. It's also a sweet song, very much a throwback to 60's type ballads (Brown Eyed Girl for example). Very melodic, very simple. If this song would have been released as a single, I think people would have loved it. It's so not-like-the-usual-U2-song.

My only issue is I never liked the "I was a monkey" line..."Acting like a monkey" would have been better IMO.

What's the problem?

 

[U2girl]

I like it, a sweet song, IMO about Ali.

I think with the Sweetest thing and Original of the species we have the trinity of perfect pop by U2.

 

[TheFlyOnTheWall]

It's better than Flower Child...

 

[chicagopepper]

I've wondered the same thing about this board, and I really thought that I was the ONLY one who likes the song...I just didn't have the balls to start a thread on it because some are very passionate about hating this song.

After hearing Flower Child on iTunes, a lot Wild Honey haters said it should haave replaced WH on ATYCLB, but I feel that if Flower Child was originally on ATYCLB and WH was released just recently people would feel that Wild Honey is the superior song. I love both songs, and honestly, I've always felt that Wild Honey is one of the more refreshing parts of ATYCLB.

 

[youtwohearts]

Yes but Flower Child didn't make it on an album.

I saw them perform it in concert and someone had the words for Bono to read.

I just thought it was a lyrically immature song with a goofy beat to back it.

 

[popacrobat]

i dont really like flower child, but i do like wild honey. is it one of my favorites? no, but i do like it when i hear it

 

[youtwohearts]

Oh and I do like Flower Child better but even that is lyrically dumb and too Beatle like.

I don't think either song sounded like typical U2 quality.

 

[U2Kitten]

I never understood why this was so hated. It's my favorite song on ATYCLB after BD and Walk On. I love its happy, playful, bouncy, fun tune and cutesy lyrics. It's one of their best melodies ever.

 

[U2Kitten]

WTF is Flower Child? I don't have that either

 

[BluRmGrl]

Wild Honey was one of the few songs on ATYCLB that I liked from first listen. The others were "growers". I've never understood why it's so disliked here, either.
It's a recurring theme for him in relation to his marriage, I think. That they were destined to be together, and I love it. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that my husband & I feel the same way about our marriage. We were simply meant to be together!

 

[petethechopp]

I don't remember where i read this, though i clearly remember it, but Wild Honey was the last song put on ATYCLB. It went on and Summer Rain came off b/c they felt the album would have been too heavy otherwise, and Wild Honey was put in to lighten the load. I think it succeeded. I can't imagine ATYCLB w/o it, though Flower Child and Summer Rain should have been worked in somewhere

 

[The Sneak]

They should have left Summer Rain and ditched Grace.

 

[If you shout...]

I think that "Wild Honey" is a pretty good song--I don't find anything spectacular in it, but I enjoy it enough. I always thought that the song sounded like a mash-up of late-period David Byrne/Talking Heads and Van Morisson, which I think is a pretty interesting combination. It sounds like a VM tune written by DB. Either way, I don't hate it; it's good, clean fun and I enjoyed something which sounded so not-one-hundred-percent-calculated being on a U2 album. It was refreshing, though admittedly a bit silly/stupid.

 

[bsp77]

What is wrong with Wild Honey? - Nothing.

It is a fun, Beatlesque sounding folk-pop tune. Way too many ATYCLB haters here. Not U2's best album by far, but still quite good with several classics (if that is possible for an album only 4 years old).

 

[U2Kitten]

What is wrong with Wild Honey? - Nothing.

Way too many ATYCLB haters here.

I agree! Now they're bashing the new one too.

 

[SeattleVertigo]

I like Wild Honey just fine. It's not in my top 10 list, but I look at it simply as a good, fun song -- just another flavor in the U2 catalog. Diversity is the spice of life!

 

[Layton]

Wild Honey sidesteps a problem U2 has had since the Boy album........Pretensiousness. Now U2 has done many brilliant things in their career, but they've never been able to match the purity of their emotions that characterizes Boy. Wild Honey is their rare, if not only 'adult' song that captures that kind of purity. The only slight faltering of the song is the part toward the end where they retain in the final mix Bono's voice going hoarse in an obvious attempt to tell us all how spontaneous and pure the song is. One slight succumbing to pretension doesn't derail the fact that Wild Honey is a really great song, though. After all, I've never heard a flawless song by anybody.

 

[Bono's shades]

I tend to be pretty critical of ATYCLB but Wild Honey is one of my favorite tracks on it. I didn't like it at first, but I have grown very fond of it. It's a pop song, but a good pop song like Van Morrison or even the Beatles might have written.

 

[Bunbury]

I love this song, haters!

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

It's a good song. I quite like it, it reminds me of the summer. I love the middle part when Bono screams the impossible to understand except for the word soul! I shall listen to it now.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

I like Wild Honey... the haters have no taste

 

[Folkelig]

Wild Honey is simply the worst song I've ever heard coming from U2, and pretty close to being the worst song ever. It has absolutely nothing that anyone else wouldn't be able to deliver and has nothing remotely U2 to it. It's just that aweful. Wild Honey is the only song U2 has ever made that make me cringe.
Thank God they didn't put something like that on the fantastic HTDAAB. OOTS is lightyears from it!

 

[trevgreg]

I rather liked the song myself.

 

[ImOuttaControl]

Wild Honey is simply the worst song I've ever heard coming from U2, and pretty close to being the worst song ever. It has absolutely nothing that anyone else wouldn't be able to deliver and has nothing remotely U2 to it. It's just that aweful. Wild Honey is the only song U2 has ever made that make me cringe.
Thank God they didn't put something like that on the fantastic HTDAAB. OOTS is lightyears from it!

But why is it bad in your opinion? It always gets slammed on this site but people do not give intelligent answers about why they think its so bad.

Pretty close to being the worst song ever? Being a little dramatic?

 

[ponkine]

The question should have been:

What´s right with Wild Honey ?

By far one of the worst U2 compositions, basic, silly, pointless, etc
any 14 years old kid who have played guitar for one year can make a better song than this one
Also any people can write better lyrics.

The first time I listened to it I though they were try to copy The Beatles "Two Of Us" but they clearly failed in their weak and cheap effort.

I know some friends here think I hate U2... that´s far from the truth, I really LOVE them, that´s the reason simply I can´t stand that crappy nice, comfortably numb, innocent and safe U2. I love awesome U2 standards quality they built during 80´s and 90´s , but "songs" like Wild Honey... please...

 

[OnFire]

I don't have any hostility towards WH but I'd have to say I'm indifferent to it and consider it one of the weakest tracks on ATYCLB (slightly better than POE and Grace).

Why? For starters it doesn't aspire to be anything more than a disposable pop tune clearly designed to lighten up what otherwise might have been a "heavy" album. I like the disposable pop tune as much as anyone on occasion but couldn't Bono think of a better hook than a play on the overused catch phrase of the time, "don't go there"?

Stuck and Kite I didn't really like at first listen but they quickly grew on me, Wild Honey never did.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

By far one of the worst U2 compositions, basic, silly, pointless, etc
any 14 years old kid who have played guitar for one year can make a better song than this one
Also any people can write better lyrics.

LOL, I believe there are worse guitar compositions doen by U2 than this one. Hell, any 14 year old could have probably written Bad, but if you wanna go far with that analogy but Bad is still considered a classic.

People have said that WH has crappy lyrics but it always seems to me those same people love U2's Mercy which is terrible songwriting in terms of lyrics IMO. Maybe terrible is a strong word but I found Wild Honey to be more cogent/ organized while Mercy was meandering, repetitive, and overdone...

Again opinions are just that... opinions.

 

[deltau922]

I like Wild Honey. I understand why some U2 'purists' wouldn't. Ain't no thang.

 

[saxgoddess]

The song in itself is okay...not great, but okay.
The reason I don't like the album version is because I think Bono's vocal delivery in parts of it is just awful!

 

[joyfulgirl]

I'd love it if it were a B-side.

The one time I heard them do it live it was a disaster, yet endearingly so.

I like to think of it as a fun thing they did one day when they were just hanging out.

And then I like to think of them getting back to what they do best.