New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album

[womanfish]

Can anyone enlighten me on Bono's fascination with the phrase, "happiness, is for those who don't really need it"???? He managed to shoe-horn it into The Luckiest Man too!!! And I can make no sense of it. I assume he thinks it is profound in some way, but I can't twist myself in enough knots to make it so.

Might as well say - Chicken fried rice, is for those who don't really need it. Makes about as much sense.

Anyone have some explanation of this stupid line?

 

[ferball415]

Can anyone enlighten me on Bono's fascination with the phrase, "happiness, is for those who don't really need it"???? He managed to shoe-horn it into The Luckiest Man too!!! And I can make no sense of it. I assume he thinks it is profound in some way, but I can't twist myself in enough knots to make it so.

Anyone have some explanation of this stupid line?

Possible dig at “blissfully ignorant” people is my best guess. The assumption being that they don’t feel (pleasure and more to the point, pain) perhaps as deeply as “deeper” people who tend to feel pain and suffering more acutely.

 

[The John Tree]

Can anyone enlighten me on Bono's fascination with the phrase, "happiness, is for those who don't really need it"????

Keep in mind that this man also thought that “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” would look good on a t-shirt.

 

[Scorpionac]

The part 2 version is the exact opposite. Bono just rips into it, like Jagger at his most intense delivery.

I always preferred the vocal and lyric of the alternative ABOY from Medium Rare and Remastered. It's really good actually. The problem with that version IMO is that the bridge is kind of messy with a lot of mumbling nonsense from Bono.

Way back in the day I made a version that is alternative ABOY and then switches to album version for the bridge and rest of song. If anyone wants to hear: https://file.io/1MKtac1PGTQP

I do prefer the chorus to be "all because of you I am" instead of "all because of you I'm down." The new ABOY 2 makes that change. I guess I could edit a new version with all my preferred parts from the 3 versions, but I don't think the juice would be worth the squeeze lol.

 

[RoKKeR]

Man, Treason is really fun. Love hearing stuff like this from them. Wasn't expecting the Chilly Peppers moment at the end lol but I'll take it. Probably my favorite of the net new songs.

 

[lazarus]

The rap is somehow less obnoxious just knowing it's Edge and not Bono.

I'll think of it as a sequel to Numb, his first foray into that style.

 

[ferball415]

Evidently so. Apple Music has 08 Nov 2004 in the credits

But the 22nd is your 20th anniversary too on here so

 

[Fly-2000]

My "white whale" doesn't exist (well a proper Pop anniversary edition perhaps) but I'd always been slighty irked that they never worked on a full album with Nellee Hooper as producer. Considering the tracks he's either exclusively worked on like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad", or with other producers like "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", I can't help but wonder what a mid-90s U2 album would've been like with him at the helm.

 

[PookaMacP]

My "white whale" doesn't exist (well a proper Pop anniversary edition perhaps) but I'd always been slighty irked that they never worked on a full album with Nellee Hooper as producer. Considering the tracks he's either exclusively worked on like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad", or with other producers like "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", I can't help but wonder what a mid-90s U2 album would've been like with him at the helm.

Bono's explanation for why it didn't work out says a lot about how hard U2 must be to work with (from Surrender, p. 326)

'We had recorded "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" for the _Batman Forever_ movie. The track was produced by Nellee Hooper, who was so decisive, smart, and fun that we brought him in when we started making work on _Pop_. But for all his discipline even he couldn't stop our continuing swan dive into the world of "interest- ing." Even on an album called _Pop_, where we wanted to capture the snap and crackle of the moment. Leaving the studio one night, he turns to me. "It's not exactly _Thriller_, is it?" And with that the producer of classic albums by Björk and Sinéad O'Connor quits. "I don't think I can help you anymore."'

 

[dan_smee]

But the 22nd is your 20th anniversary too on here so

I was thinking about this the other day. The mercy stuff is what got me to register. I was a long time member and active poster of The Larry Mullen Band forum or u2star as it was before the name change. It was kind of like the soft core version of this place - Interference always seemed so intimidating and for some reason I thought it was an invite-only forum. After I read about the Mercy leak I joined so I could get a download link.

I wonder if there are ANY Larry Mullen Band forum members left here? When it closed down some people jumped here, some went to atu2. It was a lovely little community.

 

[Scorpionac]

My "white whale" doesn't exist (well a proper Pop anniversary edition perhaps) but I'd always been slighty irked that they never worked on a full album with Nellee Hooper as producer. Considering the tracks he's either exclusively worked on like "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad", or with other producers like "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", I can't help but wonder what a mid-90s U2 album would've been like with him at the helm.

He did GoldenEye as well!

 

[DomCobb]

A white whale for me would a good quality Bono/Edge Goldeneye which surely doesn’t exist. The demo is really rough and as far as I’m aware that’s all that was done before it was sent to Tina Turner. Maybe they could do a shadow album of full band Spider-Man songs and do a take of that too.

 

[intedomine]

I’m loving these “archival” tracks. Although it is probably easier to do so when they are outcasts from the album. They are supposed to be sort of rough and incomplete.

Picture of You is just another version of Xanax/Fast Cars for me, but Evidence of Life and Country Mile have been absolute finds.

And two listens in, it was always going to be somewhat awkward listening to an alternate version of the leaked Mercy (given how used to it I am after dozens and dozens of listens over the decades), but I like it and comfortable with it now being the offical version of the song. “The luckiest man in the world” line feels right.

 

[BEAL]

Walk On, no?

Yeah. The guitar at the end very much walk on

I thought another one of these sound checks felt like are you gonna wait forever with the guitar

 

[super fly guy]

Hot take here,I prefer the new vocals on luckiest man. All I read is people saying Bono's voice was "shot" back in 2004. Yet criticise the new vocals, he should have re-recorded the whole song.

 

[dan_smee]

Mercy/Luckiest Man fans need to check out the reel U2 just posted. The ‘One’ moment…

 

[Scorpionac]

Really cool stuff. I've always liked how Mercy sounded like the four of them jamming in a room like they wrote in the '80s. Also interesting how many of the lyrics came from the first take they did.

 

[lazarus]

Evidence of Life and Country Mile have been absolute finds.

Evidence of Life is the amazing jacket buried in the back of a vintage clothing store.

Country Mile is the kind of "find" when you investigate the strange smell in your refrigerator and uncover some tupperware to reveal some 6 month old petri dish of mold.

 

[ascender_RS]

I'd love to hear more rehearsal/demo/jamming tapes like that. Real early versions of stuff like the good old leaked AB demo tapes from Hansa. I just find them fascinating.

 

[vaz020202]

Country Mile is a song u2 could produce without thinking too much. Straight off the peg.

 

[dan_smee]

I don’t see how anyone finds Country Mile offensive. It’s… fine? Nothing amazing, but hardly a stinker. The way some people are reacting you’d think it was Stand Up Comedy 2.

Nothing on this shadow album is bad. It is quite a positive sign for new music that it’s partially newly recorded stuff. They seem to have some level of inspiration here.

 

[ascender_RS]

I love the guitar sound at about 3 minutes in to Treason before the "rap" part. Raw, aggressive and moody but so simple. The sort of thing that would have been produced into nothing if it was from one of the last couple of albums.

 

[BEAL]

Luckiest is not a bad song. They didn’t ruin anything but my critique of it is Bono and his insisting on being so damn direct and literal in his song wiring. Of course it’s his music / song, do you.

The original had the wandering Bono songwriting. Self deprecating without being so in your face.

Love has come again….I am gone AGAIN. It’s so simple and gets the point without it hitting you in the head

Instead the luckiest man in the world. We get it Bono, you’re humble to be in presence of love. Of Ali.

My view of the song too is that i feel it touches on some eastern philosophy of rebirth.

The cycle of rebirth is a cycle of misery. The singer states clearly the solution is love. It’s the enemy of misery. Dhukka.

The singer can escape misery but understanding and being present with love comes around, and yet he’s no where to be found…again.

Yet there’s still some hope. Each rebirth, born again and again and again, another opportunity to find love. If you can stop craving/wandering for something more.

So it’s possible had never heard Mercy we’d think nothing of us. Or i wouldn’t. But the original had that rawness and drawn out singing.

You were the luckiest man….too much to sing
Why you always loved me…..why do we need the why ???

Heart is full….baby let me bleed it
Perfect to me and he adds more to LMITW

Overall happy to see them revisit the song. Still find myself going to the original leaked version

 

[aMansAman]

Cool move from Edge to play the first take of Mercy. They must have an endless amount of white whales in their archives

 

[lazarus]

Luckiest is not a bad song. They didn’t ruin anything but my critique of it is Bono and his insisting on being so damn direct and literal in his song wiring. Of course it’s his music / song, do you.

The original had the wandering Bono songwriting. Self deprecating without being so in your face.

Love has come again….I am gone AGAIN. It’s so simple and gets the point without it hitting you in the head

Instead the luckiest man in the world. We get it Bono, you’re humble to be in presence of love. Of Ali.

My view of the song too is that i feel it touches on some eastern philosophy of rebirth.

The cycle of rebirth is a cycle of misery. The singer states clearly the solution is love. It’s the enemy of misery. Dhukka.

The singer can escape misery but understanding and being present with love comes around, and yet he’s no where to be found…again.

Yet there’s still some hope. Each rebirth, born again and again and again, another opportunity to find love. If you can stop craving/wandering for something more.

So it’s possible had never heard Mercy we’d think nothing of us. Or i wouldn’t. But the original had that rawness and drawn out singing.

You were the luckiest man….too much to sing
Why you always loved me…..why do we need the why ???

Heart is full….baby let me bleed it
Perfect to me and he adds more to LMITW

Overall happy to see them revisit the song. Still find myself going to the original leaked version

Very well-said.

New lyrics aren't horrible, they're just more patronizing to the listener, as if we're not wise enough to meditate on them and draw meaning instead of having it spelled out for us.

"The sand inside the pearl" has some nice poetry, it's the second half of the couplet that ruins it. And of course that's what they retitle the song.

 

[ferball415]

Bono's explanation for why it didn't work out says a lot about how hard U2 must be to work with (from Surrender, p. 326)

Yea what Nellee is “radiating” here feels like every Danger Mouse interview I saw around SOI. Both just totally over whatever they were working on ad nauseam.

 

[vaz020202]

Luckiest is not a bad song. They didn’t ruin anything but my critique of it is Bono and his insisting on being so damn direct and literal in his song wiring. Of course it’s his music / song, do you.

The original had the wandering Bono songwriting. Self deprecating without being so in your face.

Love has come again….I am gone AGAIN. It’s so simple and gets the point without it hitting you in the head

Instead the luckiest man in the world. We get it Bono, you’re humble to be in presence of love. Of Ali.

My view of the song too is that i feel it touches on some eastern philosophy of rebirth.

The cycle of rebirth is a cycle of misery. The singer states clearly the solution is love. It’s the enemy of misery. Dhukka.

The singer can escape misery but understanding and being present with love comes around, and yet he’s no where to be found…again.

Yet there’s still some hope. Each rebirth, born again and again and again, another opportunity to find love. If you can stop craving/wandering for something more.

So it’s possible had never heard Mercy we’d think nothing of us. Or i wouldn’t. But the original had that rawness and drawn out singing.

You were the luckiest man….too much to sing
Why you always loved me…..why do we need the why ???

Heart is full….baby let me bleed it
Perfect to me and he adds more to LMITW

Overall happy to see them revisit the song. Still find myself going to the original leaked version

I think you are over thinking it to be honest.

I don’t see it as rebirth in the literal sense. A bit like when I refer to something being a “lifetime ago”

My eldest cat must feel like she is born again when we get a new kitten, she has a spring in her step, she feels younger, a new lease of life.

 

[BEAL]

Well if i take Bono at his literal sense, he’s telling us he’s lucky to have found such a love when he hasn’t been the most grateful and appreciative

That’s fine.

Whether Bono intended to lean into a samsara aspect, who knows. Happy accident or i am reading it that way. It works

love has come again, i am gone again.

The end of misery is right here! It’s love! And yet the singer keeps disappearing again and again and again

But we get the rewrite which feels dumbed down.

One of the hooks of Bono and U2 in the 80s and 90s was the vagueness of the lyrics. You can find religious themes and it’s a song about sex

Now a U2 song about sex would read like a sex ed manual

 

[cobl04]

Just jumping in quickly to say that, just as Headache said Stand Up Comedy made his dick hard, Luckiest Man in the World made me cry.

The main lyric changes, and the song title change, are fucking dumb and I hate them, but the fact that we have Mercy, 95% in tact, after all these years, and sounding so good, made me absolutely weep. My favourite non-live thing U2 have done in many, many years.

 

[dan_smee]

Just jumping in quickly to say that, just as Headache said Stand Up Comedy made his dick hard, Luckiest Man in the World made me cry.

The main lyric changes, and the song title change, are fucking dumb and I hate them, but the fact that we have Mercy, 95% in tact, after all these years, and sounding so good, made me absolutely weep. My favourite non-live thing U2 have done in many, many years.

I’ve been really hanging out to hear your take on Treason…