WOWY - what happened ?

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U2girl

U2girl

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I don't mind the more "lounge" version on Popmart and Elevation as it was something new compared to JT-Lovetown-(most of)Zoo TV powervocal version, plus Bono didn't really have a choice with the state of his voice then.

But as we have seen his voice has improved on Vertigo/360 and he could easily introduce more power into the song now (see: Bad on Vertigo tour and UV on this tour). So why not go for it ? Surely with all the knowledge of the instrument he can get away with two bing songs in a row. Plus after that only MOS is left to sing...
 
I reckon they're playing WOWY more because they feel like they have to, not because they (or at least Bono) want to, hence the lack of passion in the song. Which is just ridiculous, given how many crowd-pleasers U2 have in their catalogue. They don't have to play WOWY, or anything else for that matter. Put it out to pasture, U2, and don't play it again until you're really, truly feeling it.
 
It must be hard to summon up the conviction for a song you've performed too many times to mention.

Personally I feel the bands interest in it has been waning since Popmart. They need to change their whole mindset towards it, ditch the slower-paced more languid interpretation and put a fire under it. It used to be gloriously operatic, now its just a slow moan.

Or failing that, they should just do what they did with Bad during Popmart, leave it off the set-list until you rediscover your enthusiasm for it.
 
I think instead of doing Stuck or Walk On acoustically (both of which sound very thin), WOWY could stand some reinvention in the acoustic format.
 
I don't mind them playing stuff I'm sick of, if they think it's good for the show, or if they're not tired of playing it.

It sounds like it's not good for anyone now, and they're sick of it. The "casual fans" will live without WOWY just fine. I mean, they still get Beautiful Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, I Still Haven't Found.
 
I think the thing about With or Without You is that it's unlike any other song
so, even though I wouldn't miss it, I can see why they feel like including it in the set
 
i know i'm in the dwindling minority here, but i really love this forlorn version of WOWY.

WOWY can be broadly categorized into the pre-Macphisto & post-Macphisto versions.....the rock song vs the sorrowful love song. Without getting into the reasons why Bono sings it the way he does now, I think the current version provides a very suitable interpretation of the song. I'm not saying it's BETTER than the rock version, but just that Bono's current handling of WOWY definitely works for me!

so while i agree with all the adjectives most ppl use to describe Bono's singing on WOWY in its current state (tired, languorous, lackluster etc.), i believe it actually works really well! (because of the nature of the song) :)
 
whilst i do think it is sung crap nowadays i would still have it over every other u2 song aside from one

what i am saying is i still want one and wowy not matter how crap they are sung!

i don't think i am alone either. also have to remember a lot of the stadium crowd will be first timers wnating to hear the bigger hits
 
I don't know about you...but With or Without You is a song that feeds on the audience. It is absolutely fantastic if the audience is energetic...take Cardiff for example.
 
Honestly, this sounds ridiculous, but I think part of the problem is that damn wheel mic Bono's using in the encore. Even during Ultraviolet, Bono basically ignores the crowd and doodles around with that thing (with the wheel mic serving no apparent purpose). He doesn't even sing some lines because he's too busy playing with the mic like he's pushing someone around on a tire swing. I'm going to the 2nd Chicago show and am absolutely psyched for it. But based on the youtube clips, the encore would be better sans wheel mic.

And for anyone that says, "Wat??! da wheel mic made my knight!!1! bono wuz so fun to wotch playing with that ting!1!! wtf how coud you not liek it??!?" ... I simply won't understand. I love and appreciate Bono being playful at concerts as much as the next person (love Bono's various concert personas), but the wheel mic has no functional purpose but to distract him from giving a compelling performance on songs like WOWY.
 
After Zoo Tv....I feel that is when Bono stopped putting effort into songs. To those that doubt he gets bored of singing these songs, ask yourself this.....how often do you hear him deviate from or lack effort on the new songs ....compared to how he treats some of the old ones.
Its like UF. I was listening to it live from sheffield tonight, and Bono just basically skips the chorus of the song completely. This is the best part of the song damn it! Just as welll tho that the band have funked that part up a bit to compensate. Im really diggin it:up:
 
Fullonedge3 said:
Honestly, this sounds ridiculous, but I think part of the problem is that damn wheel mic Bono's using in the encore. Even during Ultraviolet, Bono basically ignores the crowd and doodles around with that thing (with the wheel mic serving no apparent purpose). He doesn't even sing some lines because he's too busy playing with the mic like he's pushing someone around on a tire swing. I'm going to the 2nd Chicago show and am absolutely psyched for it. But based on the youtube clips, the encore would be better sans wheel mic.

And for anyone that says, "Wat??! da wheel mic made my knight!!1! bono wuz so fun to wotch playing with that ting!1!! wtf how coud you not liek it??!?" ... I simply won't understand. I love and appreciate Bono being playful at concerts as much as the next person (love Bono's various concert personas), but the wheel mic has no functional purpose but to distract him from giving a compelling performance on songs like WOWY.
Click to expand...

I can't agree with you on this. I think the wheel mike does not take away from the show but adds to it. The band sounds great.

When Bono is hanging from the wheel mike, I believe it is a metaphor for hanging onto love. When he sings like a broken man, I believe he is singing with conviction, in the sense that a man is full of agony when he cannot live with or without his love. That's why sings with a broken voice and verse in the song. It's about a man barely holding it together.

He's full of sorrow and pain through the beginning, where at the climax he howls with all the emotions that have been building inside. He's singing out to his lover that he cannot live with her...or without her.

At least, that's how I interpret the song. It's subject to anyone's view. But to me, Bono's behavior in the song makes perfect sense:

It's a song about a broken man. A man barely holding it together. Exactly, how Bono sings it.
 
I appreciate your take on the matter, Moser. Maybe that will change how I view the wheel mic, but I'll reserve judgment until I see the show.
 
The John Tree said:
I think instead of doing Stuck or Walk On acoustically (both of which sound very thin), WOWY could stand some reinvention in the acoustic format.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think that would be a great idea - the fans would get even more excited because its such a familiar song being re-done in an unplugged format. It wouldn't be hard for them to figure out either, I've seen countless acoustic performers play WOWY for better or worse...
 
Fullonedge3 said:
Honestly, this sounds ridiculous, but I think part of the problem is that damn wheel mic Bono's using in the encore. Even during Ultraviolet, Bono basically ignores the crowd and doodles around with that thing (with the wheel mic serving no apparent purpose). He doesn't even sing some lines because he's too busy playing with the mic like he's pushing someone around on a tire swing. I'm going to the 2nd Chicago show and am absolutely psyched for it. But based on the youtube clips, the encore would be better sans wheel mic.

And for anyone that says, "Wat??! da wheel mic made my knight!!1! bono wuz so fun to wotch playing with that ting!1!! wtf how coud you not liek it??!?" ... I simply won't understand. I love and appreciate Bono being playful at concerts as much as the next person (love Bono's various concert personas), but the wheel mic has no functional purpose but to distract him from giving a compelling performance on songs like WOWY.
Click to expand...

Finally :up:
 
Moser said:
I can't agree with you on this. I think the wheel mike does not take away from the show but adds to it. The band sounds great.

When Bono is hanging from the wheel mike, I believe it is a metaphor for hanging onto love. When he sings like a broken man, I believe he is singing with conviction, in the sense that a man is full of agony when he cannot live with or without his love. That's why sings with a broken voice and verse in the song. It's about a man barely holding it together.

He's full of sorrow and pain through the beginning, where at the climax he howls with all the emotions that have been building inside. He's singing out to his lover that he cannot live with her...or without her.

At least, that's how I interpret the song. It's subject to anyone's view. But to me, Bono's behavior in the song makes perfect sense:

It's a song about a broken man. A man barely holding it together. Exactly, how Bono sings it.
Click to expand...

I am sorry but gimme a break :)
He doens't hold on to it like he is hanging on to love, he is swinging around with it like a confused and utterly bored monkey on the first day in the new zoo they picked out for him.
And no , in my opinion, it DOESNT work and it is stupid. It is a distraction that this song especially doenst need at all. This version just plaine sucks. Esp when you wander aaround on youtube and feast yourself on the glory of JT/Lovetown and espc Zootv which I still feel is the best. Mac was great and will not be topped.

hAppy sunday everyone :wave:
 
The swinging mike works, absolutely. Wish he'd use it for Moment of surrender too.

I'll reserve judgment until I see the show. If only everyone would do this...
 
DevilsShoes said:
It must be hard to summon up the conviction for a song you've performed too many times to mention.
Click to expand...

This is said often, but having seen them play the other old songs: SBS, Pride, I still haven't found..., One, MW, Streets - every one is better than WOWY (maybe One and I still haven't found not better by much, but still), and every one has been played eons of times as well.

Maybe he's saving up the voice after UV and before MOS, but WOWY only really has one big moment, and the crowd usually drowns him out on that anyway.

:shrug: If anyone, Bono would like to try some new arrangements. But then Edge says "the arrangement in One is what we wrote" period. Remeber that article ? edit: here's the quote:

I'm only one member of this band, and Edge is three. And if he thinks an arrangement is perfect, why mess with it? He says, "I'm not jamming here. That's a guitar melody. I've written it. I can't improve on it." Adam and I are the jazz men in the band. But the Teutonic Larry Mullen and the Presbyterian Edge always demand, "No fat. Back to the original arrangement. We're not going to change the bass line just because we feel like it."
 
U2girl said:
This is said often, but having seen them play the other old songs: SBS, Pride, I still haven't found..., One, MW, Streets - every one is better than WOWY (maybe One and I still haven't found not better by much, but still), and every one has been played eons of times as well.
[/I]
Click to expand...

I think it all comes back to the degree of enthusiasm Bono has for a song.

For whatever reason, it seems fairly clear that he can still get into the likes of MW, ISHFWILF, Streets etc. Even though he's performed them countless times, they seem to have a consistent appeal for him. Other warhorses have cleary tailed off though. Right now I don't think he's really feeling Desire or I Will Follow.

As we know songs go in cycles, some of the late ZOO TV versions of Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bad lacked any real vitality, it was evident that Bono just did not want to be performing them, so sensibly they were dropped.

The same should apply for WOWY. It was their first US No 1 and is a crowd favourite so they probably feel as if they have to play it. Are the band in a corner with their big hits? Are they concerned if they don't play Pride, SBS, Streets etc that people will leave disappointed? If so, I think that's a little wrong-headed.

I genuinely believe that a lethargic rendition of a classic is only ever bad for the song. I don't like seeing a great track become a pale shadow of its former self.

Although I wouldn't want the band to change the arrangement of WOWY, I think it'd be a good idea to maybe beef it up a bit, put some urgency and propulsion back into it. Play it as if it actually matters. I don't think they'll ever be re-invigorated again by it as long as they continue to play it as they do now.
 
The John Tree said:
I think instead of doing Stuck or Walk On acoustically (both of which sound very thin), WOWY could stand some reinvention in the acoustic format.
Click to expand...

only possible way to make it worse is to play it acoustic (see just about every other acoustic version vs the original full band). don't make a bad situation worse.
 
Maybe Bono thinks that he's singing WOWY the way it has to be? I wouldn't mind seeing it go, seriously, but I understand U2 want to play it for the audience. It's the best known U2 song in the world. And I really liked it in Zagreb, especially with the Shine Like Stars snippet in the end.

As for the wheel mic: I LOVE it, but only for Ultraviolet. I don't mind Bono playing around with the mic, it suits the song. And the LED jacket adds to the effect. And I'm not even a fan of the song Ultra Violet.

WOWY, on the other side, doesn't work very well on the wheel mic and I'm glad he isn't using it for Moment of Surrender. But overall, the idea of the wheelmic is great. Maybe they should find another song, besides UV, to use it.

And I still think most casual fans love to hear WOWY played live, no matter how it's played.
 
In my view, the Macphisto version was actually rather good, and very very different to the lazy renditions which followed on PopMart, Elevation, Vertigo and 360. In 93 he crooned the verses pretty well and was at full power towards the end of the song. The problems started in 97 because both Bono's voice and the song itself were starting to grow stale. Bono's current vocal is a mess. I am baffled that one poster rationalised it as appropriate for the song! For some people, Bono tripping over the Edge's foot would have to symbolise some hidden truth! It should be dropped and quickly.
 
His new vocal take on the song seems to be deliberate. I agree he's trying to do a jazzy, Sinatra-esque spoken word version. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I, too, think it sounded great in Cardiff. The way he sang it sounded emotional and spare, as opposed to lazy.

But yeah, sometimes it comes off sounding very lazy. It also seems to be the song in the set that Bono sings differently every night: he tries new vocal melodies in each performance I've heard, to varying degrees of success.

Re: dropping WOWY. I hope not. It really is one of my favorite U2 songs in the canon, along with "One". I know they've been played a million times and they're boring for the setlist watchers, but when these songs are close to you and you're actually in the audience when they're being performed, there's no better feeling.

Re: The wheel mic. I love it, especially during Ultraviolet. The "hanging" and "swinging" make for great dramatics and atmospherics.

Check out the Cardiff version. It sounds beautiful:

YouTube - U2 Cardiff 2009-08-22 With Or Without You
 
beautiful
not that I'm going to pretend it's the greatest version I've ever seen
far from it
but still just beautiful
 
sounds more like current era Bob Dylan than Sinatra to me- a combination of mumbling and ugly, botched phrasing.
 
A major part of my issue with WOWY now is the fact that Bono usually robs it of its live climax - Shine Like Stars.
 
the wheel sucks

the fact is U2 simply cannot drop a large chunk of their most popular songs.

SBS, Pride,One, Streets are prob more likely to stay than WOWY but those are all keepers one way or the other IMO.
 
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