I posted this entire article yesterday, but it got buried and I thought I'd repost this paragraph since I found it very interesting. It's an article by Neil McCormick that I copied from @u2.com.
[q]Edge and Bono came up with blueprints for half a dozen songs, which were then kicked around in jam sessions with their bandmates that spun off into another half-dozen blueprints. Those were added to and subtracted from for a year, until by last October they had an album almost ready for release. At which point they decided it lacked indefinable magic and embarked on another year of working over the material. "It's like cell division,"says Bono. "Our songs keep shedding their skin and a new song emerges."[/q]
I have a copy of the album credits that someone posted, and Chris Thomas is only mentioned in the credits for 4 songs. They are SYCMIOYO, LAPOE, OSC, and Yahweh. The first three say there was also "additional production", meaning the songs was reworked for the current version of the album. Only Yahweh seems to have survived from the Chris Thomas sessions, as he is the only producer mentioned for that song.
What I find really interesting is, is that if they had an ENTIRE album almost ready to go that was scrapped, and only 4 songs ended up surviving, then that means that there are at least 7-8 unheard U2 songs out there. It is very possible that some of these evolved into songs currently on the album, like Native Son evolved into Vertigo. Even though one song evolves into another, they are still different songs. I think it would be very interesting to hear these original songs, even if they were deemed unworthy by U2 themselves.
The question is, will these songs from the Thomas sessions come out as b-sides or will they forever be locked in the U2 vault, never to be heard?
edit: Another thing I find odd is that songs like ABOY and OOTS, which have been songs titles mentioned since beore Lillywhite took over, are not credited to Chris Thomas at all. Did they even work on these with Thomas?
[q]Edge and Bono came up with blueprints for half a dozen songs, which were then kicked around in jam sessions with their bandmates that spun off into another half-dozen blueprints. Those were added to and subtracted from for a year, until by last October they had an album almost ready for release. At which point they decided it lacked indefinable magic and embarked on another year of working over the material. "It's like cell division,"says Bono. "Our songs keep shedding their skin and a new song emerges."[/q]
I have a copy of the album credits that someone posted, and Chris Thomas is only mentioned in the credits for 4 songs. They are SYCMIOYO, LAPOE, OSC, and Yahweh. The first three say there was also "additional production", meaning the songs was reworked for the current version of the album. Only Yahweh seems to have survived from the Chris Thomas sessions, as he is the only producer mentioned for that song.
What I find really interesting is, is that if they had an ENTIRE album almost ready to go that was scrapped, and only 4 songs ended up surviving, then that means that there are at least 7-8 unheard U2 songs out there. It is very possible that some of these evolved into songs currently on the album, like Native Son evolved into Vertigo. Even though one song evolves into another, they are still different songs. I think it would be very interesting to hear these original songs, even if they were deemed unworthy by U2 themselves.
The question is, will these songs from the Thomas sessions come out as b-sides or will they forever be locked in the U2 vault, never to be heard?
edit: Another thing I find odd is that songs like ABOY and OOTS, which have been songs titles mentioned since beore Lillywhite took over, are not credited to Chris Thomas at all. Did they even work on these with Thomas?
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