Axver said:
I'd like to have that explained to me too, except replace Elevation with In A Little While. I see the place of a mindless but fun and energetic rock song like Elevation on ATYCLB, but I don't see why IALW or Wild Honey should've made it over the two you mention. TGBHF may just be one of U2's very best songs - but then again, look at all the great stuff that hasn't made albums, or in the case of songs like Wild Irish Rose, wasn't even released!
From Rolling Stone January 2001.
"If there is one theme that suffuses the record (ATYCLB), it is a sense of mortality, of how and what you treasure in a world where death awaits. If U2 meant to write a straight-forward record full of uplifting songs, real life intervened. 'You know, the record we were trying to make was quite a bit more joyful and about a certain kind of love of life and vitality,' says the Edge. 'And that's in there, but there's also this other side, which sort of crept into the record without me noticing. And if the record was about breaking things back down to essentials, I suppose in the end mortality is the ultimate inescapable fact of life.'
Bassist Adam Clayton recalls how they listened back to the album's provisional running order and decided they needed to add 'Wild Honey,' one of the more simple, up songs from the recording sessions. 'We realized, This is our most joyful song,' he says, 'We've go to put that in to stop people from jumping out of the window.'"
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Ye know, with a CD burner you could add those songs to ATYCLB, you can rearrange and make your own version.
I think U2 realise this, they still put out an album with a running order they like, but figure the fans can add and subtract as they see fit with CD burners, well at least Edge might realise this, being the 'techie' in the band.
And now with Ipods and similar devices, you can do that even easier.