The Unforgettable Fire

[magnum]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>A couple of non-LP favorites:


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[/quote]

A CELEBRATION was intended as stop gap measure single release to keep the momentum and the interest in U2 between OCTOBER and WAR.......but for me,the real gem was on the B SIDE - which still to this day is a crowd fav at live shows,whereas the A SIDE has faded into obscurity ......

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[SallyLightfoot]

[quote][i]Originally posted by magnum[/i]

A CELEBRATION was intended as stop gap measure single release to keep the momentum and the interest in U2 between OCTOBER and WAR.......but for me,the real gem was on the B SIDE - which still to this day is a crowd fav at live shows,whereas the A SIDE has faded into obscurity ......

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[/quote]

Thanks for the background on that, Magnum. I wasn't sure where those songs fit on the timeline. I was thinking that they maybe were made around the time of the singles 4U2 Play (Boy/girl, Fire, J Swallow, Another Day, etc.)

[Silvina Hernandez]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Retro_NRG[/i]
<br>The 'Wide Awake In America' EP is a Gem..

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<MARQUEE><h5>Moving @The Speed of Life</h5></MARQUEE>
[/quote]
As I wrote on an earlier post, I've known Love Comes Tumbling for about 8 years. I don't like goth rock but this is the closest to goth that U2 got (OK, I haven't listened any of their albums in its entierty) and it works really well. Everything about the song is perfect but I specially love Bono's mysterious (for a lack of a better word) delivery.
I downloaded A Sort Of Homecoming about a month ago, and while I don't like it as much as Pride or The Unforgettable Fire, it has grown on me. The best part is Bono's passionate singing (well, I could say that of every song I heard fom the Unforgettable Fire/The Joshua Tree period), although I'm fond of The Edge guitar playing aswell.
Last Thursday I bought The Best Of 1980-1990 and I listened to it for the first time the next morning. That was the first time I heard Bad. Of the four songs I've heard from the Unforgettable Fire album this is my least favourite. And it's not a bad song at all (that shows the quality of the other songs). But I've heard it just a few times so it might grow on me.
The Three Sunrises has a psychodelic sound and, while it sounds quite different to the other songs, which it's not a bad thing, it's not great either. It's my least favoutite of the lot.

[Silvina Hernandez]

[quote][i]Originally posted by djcraig[/i]
<br>I was into them back when they were only known as U1.

Kidding. Didn't really get into them until "Joshua Tree". Their most cohesive and arguably, best album. Also the one that really put them on the map.

I echo the sentiment about "October", "Boy" and "War". There's nothing like the energy and excitement of a great band when they are young and aspiring.

I will argue that the songs;

[b]"Beautiful Day"
"Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
"Walk On"
"In A Little While"[/b]

from 2000's [b]"All That You Can't Leave Behind"[/b] album

and

[b]"Yahweh"
"Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"
"A Man and a Woman"[/b]

from 2004's [b]"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"[/b]

are as good as any the band has ever done.



U2's first American TV appearance, 1981:

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[/quote]
I finally found the time to listen to live versions of Yahweh and In A Little While. These songs aren't bad and Bono gives a good vocal performance in both of them but they aren't great either. For some reason the don't sound as heartfelt as most of their 80s singles. They just don't move me, that's it (I think that their last great ballad was Far Away (So Close)).
I don't like this "corporate rock" incarnation of U2 (=the last 20 years). I don't know him personally but I think fame has changed Bono. As I wrote in another post, he's become greedy and it's all about the money now. That's why I find it really hard to enjoy most of the singles they've released in the past 25 years. They don't sound genuine to me. Every time I hear a song or see a video of theirs I can help but thinking about how greedy has Bono become even when the quality of the music shouldn't be affected by that.

[Silvina Hernandez]

[quote][i]Originally posted by djcraig[/i]
<br>I was into them back when they were only known as U1.

Kidding. Didn't really get into them until "Joshua Tree". Their most cohesive and arguably, best album. Also the one that really put them on the map.

I echo the sentiment about "October", "Boy" and "War". There's nothing like the energy and excitement of a great band when they are young and aspiring.

I will argue that the songs;

[b]"Beautiful Day"
"Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
"Walk On"
"In A Little While"[/b]

from 2000's [b]"All That You Can't Leave Behind"[/b] album

and

[b]"Yahweh"
"Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"
"A Man and a Woman"[/b]

from 2004's [b]"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"[/b]

are as good as any the band has ever done.



U2's first American TV appearance, 1981:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RPgtV23RO6A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>





[/quote]
Thanks for posting the video. Tom Snyder had several cool new wave bands in this show. You could tell that Bono was a character from the very begining. And I had never heard Twilight before. It's a good song. A bit darker than I Wil Follow, but good anyway.

[wasproxy]

Back to the original posting, I always found the reason the Unforgettable Fire was so memorable was because of the shift in sound, mainly attributable to their working with Eno. From the wiki:

They employed Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce and assist them experiment with a more ambient and abstract sound. The resulting change in direction was at the time the band's most dramatic. Recording began in May 1984 at Slane Castle, where the band lived, wrote, and recorded to find new inspiration. It features atmospheric sounds and lyrics that lead vocalist Bono describes as "sketches". It has a rich and orchestrated sound and was the first U2 album with a cohesive sound. The album's lyrics are open to many interpretations, which alongside its atmospheric sounds, provides what the band often called a "very visual feel". Bono had recently been immersing himself in fiction, philosophy and poetry, and came to realise that his song writing mission—which up to that point had been a reluctant one on his behalf—was a poetic one. Bono felt songs like "Bad" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" were best left as incomplete "sketches", and he said that "The Unforgettable Fire was a beautifully out-of-focus record, blurred like an impressionist painting, very unlike a billboard or an advertising slogan."

If that was their target, I'd say they hit a bulls-eye. My favorite song, and album, of theirs by far. Immediately striking, much the same way "Astral Weeks" hits you the first time you hear it. Somehow taps an emotional chord, and takes you to that place between sleep and awakening.

[Silvina Hernandez]

Yesterday, while I was watching a documentary about the Live Aid concert, I remembered this U2 song called Window In The Skies. It might be because its video (which I saw just a few times and totally forgot about yesterday) shows some people who where at Live Aid. So then I realized that it's such a beautiful and moving song that I had to have it. This proves wrong what I wrote about Far Away (So Close) being the last good U2 ballad. But I still think that most of their more recent singles suck.