The awesomeness that is City of Blinding Lights!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
jick said:
Wow! Just checking through this thread, I am so surprised at the response to City Of Blinding Lights.

I have heard the low-quality mp3 and have sort of gotten the gist of the song structure and the melodies and the lyrics.

Let me tell you, at the end of the day it will just be another average typical U2 song.

Do you guys honestly believe it can hold a candle to such classics as Where The Streets Have No Name, Stay, One, With Or Without You, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday, etc.? I don't think so.

With the main sing-along part saying "oh you look so beautiful tonight" - it represents weak lyrics that seem like they were pulled off a page of the boyband songwriting manual.

Cheers,

J
Click to expand...

Welcome home honey.
 
jick said:
Wow! Just checking through this thread, I am so surprised at the response to City Of Blinding Lights.

I have heard the low-quality mp3 and have sort of gotten the gist of the song structure and the melodies and the lyrics.

Let me tell you, at the end of the day it will just be another average typical U2 song.

Do you guys honestly believe it can hold a candle to such classics as Where The Streets Have No Name, Stay, One, With Or Without You, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday, etc.? I don't think so.

With the main sing-along part saying "oh you look so beautiful tonight" - it represents weak lyrics that seem like they were pulled off a page of the boyband songwriting manual.

Cheers,

J
Click to expand...

:sigh: :rolleyes:

COBL sounds bloody great to me.
 
I just heard the new recordings of this song on the other thread and what I wrote on my first post here still stands and since those mp3 had an even better sound quality I must say that I actually like the song more. I can hear Larry's drums better. It sounds like a great drum track. :yes: I really like Edge's vocals while Bono is singing. All very, very good. I'm dying to listen to this song on the record! :drool: It’s getting more exciting by the minute. :up:
 
Didn't appreciate how good COBL was but after listening to new download compared to the low base version it is quite simply STUNNING.
 
COBL is a cool song, but for some reason when I hear the beginning of COBL on Edge's guitar part, I think of the 80's song "It's ONLY PARADISE. ONLY PARADISE, It's ONLY PARADISE, ONLY PARADISE." Is there a such song?
 
Jick, does anything please you? Really? Do you even know the meaning behind the song?
 
Phalanx said:
Jick, does anything please you? Really? Do you even know the meaning behind the song?
Click to expand...

Leave him be, he's just trying to provoke a reaction from people.

:madspit: @ J
 
You can hear so much more on the clean version. And, we'll get to hear it in all its glory soon!
 
jick said:

Do you guys honestly believe it can hold a candle to such classics as Where The Streets Have No Name, Stay, One, With Or Without You, Pride, Sunday Bloody Sunday, etc.? I don't think so.

With the main sing-along part saying "oh you look so beautiful tonight" - it represents weak lyrics that seem like they were pulled off a page of the boyband songwriting manual.

Cheers,

J
Click to expand...
J, can't believe I'm biting, but here it goes.....

You list 'With or Without You' as a great song. Now, please explain to me how the chorus lyric of that song ("With or without you") is any better to the chorus lyric, "All you look so beautiful tonight". And while we're talking about great U2 songs, explain to me also how the chorus lyric of 'All I Want Is You' is any better. How about 'Desire'?

The point is, choruses - especially in "sing-a-long" songs - are rarely poetic. It's the versus where the lyrics in classic U2 songs shine - and that goes for all of the afformentioned songs - including 'City of Blinding Lights'.
 
Michael Griffiths said:

J, can't believe I'm biting, but here it goes.....

You list 'With or Without You' as a great song. Now, please explain to me how the chorus lyric of that song ("With or without you") is any better to the chorus lyric, "All you look so beautiful tonight". And while we're talking about great U2 songs, explain to me also how the chorus lyric of 'All I Want Is You' is any better. How about 'Desire'?

The point is, choruses - especially in "sing-a-long" songs - are rarely poetic. It's the versus where the lyrics in classic U2 songs shine - and that goes for all of the afformentioned songs - including 'City of Blinding Lights'.
Click to expand...

That's true. :yes:

It’s also true that the line “You look so beautiful tonight” isn’t really an extremely poetic or an amazing line like “Were one but we’re not the same”. But when you just take a line and single it out it may look weird but when you listen to the whole song and add that line to the whole context of it, it can mean a lot. And that's the case here. After everything that Bono says and the amazing music once you get to the chorus, “You look so beautiful tonight” means something because of what he said before and what the music is building. :up:
 
Did Michael do it again in the back of the car? (the longer full version of Blinding Lights is around for download. Really comes out like a lost Unforgettable Fire track. More chimes)
 
Last edited:
Roland of Gilead said:
Did Michael do it again in the back of the car? (the longer full version of Blinding Lights is around for download. Really comes out like a lost Unforgettable Fire track. More chimes)
Click to expand...
Yes...in a 2004 BMW 325i this time! Will be graduating to the next level of performance very soon....

Tell me: where is this FULL version you speak of?! :ohmy: Link please! Email me the mp3? kitsmikey@yahoo.ca :)
 
Roland of Gilead said:
(the longer full version of Blinding Lights is around for download. Really comes out like a lost Unforgettable Fire track. More chimes)
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the studio version? :ohmy: If so where can I find it?
 
TheBrazilianFly said:


That's true. :yes:

It’s also true that the line “You look so beautiful tonight” isn’t really an extremely poetic or an amazing line like “Were one but we’re not the same”. But when you just take a line and single it out it may look weird but when you listen to the whole song and add that line to the whole context of it, it can mean a lot. And that's the case here. After everything that Bono says and the amazing music once you get to the chorus, “You look so beautiful tonight” means something because of what he said before and what the music is building. :up:
Click to expand...
Very good point, as well. It's all about context around the lines. Kind of like what Edge has said about the spaces around the notes. Lines in songs don't exist in vacuumes. Jick, you know this, right?
 
Apparently we downloaded the rehearsal versions the other day. There are new full versions of all the TOTP songs with better sound. I'll see where it was. Sec.
 
And just to add another point: Even songs like 'One' occasionally have a few bad lines...and I consider 'One' to be Bono's finest moment as a songwriter. But consider the redundancy of the following:

Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?

The 2nd line is basically filler. And this is arguably their best song lyrically.
 
Michael Griffiths said:

It's kind of medium tempo, but rather intense....think 'With or Without You' or 'All I Want Is You'.
Click to expand...



Thanks..does it feel like could have been one of the big 3 Joshua Tree songs, like some have been saying?
 
Sleep Over Jack said:




Thanks..does it feel like could have been one of the big 3 Joshua Tree songs, like some have been saying?
Click to expand...

It does have a little Joshua Tree feeling to it I guess. I posted this in some other thread:

I don't find the beginning of Streets very similar with the beginning of COBL. It's classic 80's U2 with those high notes sounds from Edge's guitar.

I think this song has a mix of sounds from the atmospheric sounds and feel from The Unforgettable Fire and the guitars from Achtung Baby but at the same time with the maturity that we got from All That You Can't Leave Behind. :up:


Hey Michael maybe I can send you the song by e-mail.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MrsSpringsteen
Atomic City
Replies
11
Views
1K
HeartlandGirl
HeartlandGirl
Reggie Thee Dog
Are we NOT discussing the Dolby Atmos Mix of Achtung Baby?
Replies
13
Views
1K
count rushmore
count rushmore
O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
301
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
dan_smee
I listened to No Line on the Horizon right through tonight for the first time in about 10 years…
2 3
Replies
83
Views
2K
lazarus
lazarus
W
A Boy Falls From the Sky is some U2's best work
Replies
3
Views
2K
zoocarolina
Z

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom