Magnificent is what COBL tried to be : getting that vintage U2 feel, only doing it right.
And Beautiful day may be the most overrated U2 hit.
I agree.
It is not that I don't like Beautiful Day, quite the opposite. I just have never, ever gotten all of the worshiping of it here and in the general public. In studio, I think the production is bad, you can hardly hear Larry and Adam in parts. Save for some spectacular live performances(most notably, Tokyo 12-4-06) it has never "taken me to that other place." Its a good song to blast as you drive down the road on the first warm day of Spring, but then again, IGC, Streets, ASOH, Trip Through Your Wires, Magnificent and Crazy Tonight work even better here.
If U2 could play BD about 1/2 as much as they do now without everyone under 25 in attendance thinking it was a capital offense, then I would be all for it.
COBL I love, but it is exactly as you say. It is almost to that vintage U2 level, but not quite. I do like what Niceman said about them looking back at themselves when they were young, etc, it has an awesome, uplifting nostalgic feel about it, but musically, it still falls a little short.
Magnificent is a whole different story. It has all 4 of them at their best, is a true surging U2 anthem and gives me the same kind of feeling as 80s greats like New Year's Day, Gloria, A Sort of Homecoming, Pride and Streets. Adam and Larry turn in some of their best work of the decade here. Add in the slide solo from Edge and you get the 90s represented too. Magnificent is one of the few songs that represents almost everything that is great about U2.
Turn Magnificent up loud and you'll get the pulsating drums and bass rattling the walls that you get in NYD or Pride or the studio version of ASOH.
As for the premise of the thread, alot of what has been said is extremely valid and for different reasons.
Earnie Shavers: I still like your suggestion from a while ago about letting MOS leak out unofficially as the first thing music fans hear on the internet. It is probably too complex and would suffer from radio shortening, but as an unofficial leak, it would have worked extremely well and got people talking.
Galeongirl: I agree, the lack of promotion for Boots was glaring, and maybe, just maybe, it could have worked better if they had promoted it.
Original Poster: It is hard to tell if something that was exactly what we would expect from U2 would have done the trick as the first single. Given that the Killers and Coldplay were getting alot of airplay at the time, something tells me that U2 would have had to have ventured out there a little for their first single to differentiate themselves. Magnificent made almost no waves as the 2nd single, I am not saying there is no way it could've been a good 1st if properly promoted, but its failure to catch on has to say something.
My ideas:
-I dont think Boots can be seen as the "Fly-type" single. Musically, it might catch people the same way, but in the end, what makes it a bunch of tiers below the fly as a single and as a song is the lyrics. If you don't intimately get Bono and his irony, you are going to think the lyrics are cheesy, throw away crap. I would not go that far, but suffice it to say, U2 has written better lyrics before. Hell, they even dropped the "sexy boots" in live performances. Even though the lyrics are not as bad as people may think, there is nothing brilliant in there like there is with the Fly.
-I think Earnie Shavers' unofficial MOS leak, combined with either NLOTH or NLOTH2 as a properly promoted first single would have done the trick. Both versions are high energy, catchy right off the bat and fit on radio. They are different enough for U2 and for radio in general to catch people's attention, but they are not as cheesy/out there structurally as Boots. "I know a girl who's like the sea, I watch her changing every day for me..." and "songs in your head are now on my mind, you put me on pause, I'm trying to rewiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnd and replay" are much better/more respectable than "Sexy boots" and "candy floss, ice cream" any day. Plus, as PowerHour24 mentioned, it never hurts to have the title track as the first single promoting the album. Hell, the chorus repeats the album name over and over again. So you know which album you are looking for when you go to I-tunes or the record store.
-I also think those who argue Breathe may have done it have a point.