posted in Pleba 2003! Nothing gets me more excited than the speculation and discussion of possible song names and titles for new U2 albums. I always imagine that I know what the album will sound like before I hear it, if I read what the new songs are. I decided to look into the past to see if there was any rhyme or reason to album rumors. Any information will have come from interviews in magazines, U2 books, or sound checks. Lets start back to
Achtung Baby.
Many U2 fans have listened to the outtakes from the recording sessions and this is the only insight into how that band records. While listening to the three-and-a-half hours of material, one can hear works in progress in partial bits. (�Until the End of the World,� �Zoo Station,� �Acrobat,� �Even Better Than The Real Thing,� �So Cruel,� �Lady with the Spinning Head,� etc.) New Songs that never survived the cutting room floor also exist (�Changes,� �Heaven and Hell,� �Jitterbug,� etc.) When rumors come out on song titles, one just wonders how the song may have changed.
On the wall hangs a huge chart in which the producer is noting the progression of various possible songs for the record. Against obscure-sounding titles like "One," "Mysterious Ways," "Candy Man," "Wild Horse," "Acrobat," "Fat Boy" and "Arms Around the World," come boxes with titles like Track, Vocal, Bass, Drums and so on.
�Candy Man� and �Fat Boy?� What did these songs sound like, and/or what did they turn into? No other clues about the life of these songs are given but due to the fact that this album had such little bonus material and these two songs made the white board, give light to the idea that these sessions had more fished material. Further reading gives a description yet of another hidden track.
Bono hands over his guitar to Edge and concentrates on the vocal and a harmonica solo, extemporizing on the lyric and remembering new ones without recourse to notes. The pace quickens, the band are kicking up a storm. Bono suggests listening to it all the way through. He has a reservation about the harmonica break. "Is there a danger we are getting to much into 'Exit' territory?" he asks. Danny agrees, but says to persevere and see what emerges. The song, at present called "Bare Back," has a haunting power. After the playback, the producer concedes that it is heading to the "Exit Bullet area," but adds that "this is not necessarily a bad thing."
�Bare Back?� The title alone gives this song raw power. Can you imagine a song like �Exit� from the
Achtung era? The plot thickens. I then stumbled upon other possible names for the album. �Adam,� (which we all heard about), �Zoo Station,� and �69� were all in the running.
Even though
Zooropa was done very quickly, some song titles came about that we have never heard from again. �Untidy Life,� �Nosejob,� �Jesus Drove Me,� �Piano: Poem,� �Landscape,� �Cry Baby,� �Indian Jam,� �Sponge,� �Lose Control,� �Squidgy,� and �Bright Lights Big City.� Other songs from that session went on to have another (if not later) life: �Wake Up Dead Man,� �If God Will Send his Angels,� �Velvet Dress,� and �Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.� I have wondered what the
Zooropa versions of these songs sounded like. �Wake Up Dead Man� started out in huge contrast to what we know it as now. �A huge gothic rock song with mad bass,� as author BP Fallon once described it.
Pop had only a little bit of information.
Meanwhile, the lead single from the as-yet untitled collection looks like being "Discotheque" with other confirmed titles including "If You Wear That Velvet Dress," "Hymn To The Universe," "Be There," "Super City Mania," "Holy Joe," "Gone" and "MFRR."
�U2 have recorded about 38 new songs for the album, provisionally titled Expect Nothing But The Best.�
The above-mentioned �Be There� is the only as yet unheard of song that I could find from
Pop. I do remember a song from
War called �Be There� that was never released, but I don�t know if it is the same song. �Holy Joe� and �Big Girls are Best� were the only B-sides to exist from those recording sessions. �Hymn to the Universe,� �Super City Mania,� and �MFRR� turned into �Playboy Mansion,� �Miami,� and �Mofo� respectively. I personally believe that even though the report said 38 songs, many songs had two lives - the trip-hop version and the rock version. (i.e., the guilty and garage mixes of �Holy Joe�).
With
All That You Can�t Leave Behind, evidence came out of much more finished material.
�Origin of the Species,� �Yesterday and Tomorrow,� �Sun Moon Stars,� �Sometime,� �Stranded,� and �Bulldozer� just to name a few. Longtime U2 producer Daniel Lanois was quoted as saying that the band had spent a lot of time on a couple of songs, finished them, only not for them to make the final cut. Some of these songs could be on the next album in that these same titles have been mentioned over and over again in articles and interviews.
Some more evidence of what happens to songs occurred to me after
ATYCLB. U2 songs usually do a sub-division. The first evidence is in the obvious relationship between �Beautiful Day� and �Always.� In the clip of �Beautiful Day� that is on U2.com, you can see �Always� written underneath. You can also see an interesting title of �Busy Bee� written under the title of �Elevation.� Another piece of obvious evidence is �Lady With A Spinning Head� splitting into �Ultraviolet (Light my Way),� and �The Fly.� I have come to believe that when U2 reports they have 40 songs for the next album to choose from, they actually have around 25 with the other songs having together through cell dividing.
A supposed new name for the album will be "Solar,� but will this just be another "Expect Nothing but the Best" or "Adam"? - unfortunately, we will have to wait.
The only thing that we can learn from the history of the band and its rumors is that quite often titles and songs can change until the final day of recording. Hopefully with all of this material, U2 will come out with the best box set in history. Have fun with all of the interesting titles floating around out there. I can only begin to imagine what the new album will sound like (and what songs will be on it!).
Sources:
Ignore them, and they'll die from loneliness eventually.
