John J. Hlavaty ([email protected])
Tue, 28 Jul 1998 01:19:56 -0400
>Stay, Red Hill Mining Town, SBS<electric>, Numb, Trip through your wires,
>Staring at the Sun<electric> for those of you who haven't' heard it live
>you're really missing out, and If God Will Send His Angels<full song
>electric>
Normally I don't care about a person's choices for future
set-lists, but this one stood out - sorry Shight!
"Red Hill Mining Town" has never been performed live (as
you probably know) so this is definitely more of a dream than reality.
The story goes that this song was to be U2's second single
off of JT, but when Bono tried to sing it, he blew out
his vocals - further proving that Bono's had vocal difficulty
throughout his career and is a better singer now, but I digress.
Since Bono couldn't sing it in concert, U2 felt that they
shouldn't release the song as a single. Therefore, "I Still
Haven't Found..." was chosen. There was even a video
made for "Red Hill..." but U2 never released that because
they said that they just didn't like it (you can see some stills
from the video on my U2 home page (go to the "Red Hill..." section
on the side bar): http://www.nd.edu/~jhlavaty/u21.html).
Hearing SBS at all on this recent tour was a treat. Bringing it back as
an acoustic song sung by the Edge was a nice replacement
for the karaoke section. So while I love the song, unless
there's an actual need to sing it again (due to a breakdown of peace
talks in Ireland or other parts of the world), I feel it's time this song is
retired. "Stay" is a pretty song, but just too 1993 for me. I
think U2 are capable of making better love songs in the future.
"Staring at the Sun" might make it on a future tour, but I prefer
the acoustic version over the electric version, so this is "iffy".
"If God Will Send His Angels" will probably not make any future tours.
I say this only because it wasn't really played on this last tour and seeing
how this song wasn't a hit, playing it on future tours might
create more of a lull than hype in the concert.
I abhor "Trip Through Your Wires" - this song is the reason
why JT will never be my favorite U2 album. This is possibly
the worst song U2 ever wrote. Obviously you like it, but
I just can't see this disaster ever making it on to the live
stage again. U2 did it, appropriately enough, during the
JT era, but I see no reason for this song to come back again.
While "Numb" is an interesting thought, I think it would
only fit in a set-list if U2 persue more of this electric/techno
sound on any upcoming albums. If the current rumors
are true (Zoonation reported the sound of the current album
to be a mix between "War" and "Unforgettable Fire")
then I think most of the techno-influenced songs, including
"Mofo" and "Discotheque" will be dropped. Plus,"Numb"
really seemed suited for the whole ZOO era theme which
might not fit into future tours.
Sorry for trashing your selections. Some of them are good
choices and I realize this is more of a wish list than anything
else. It's just that with the songs you chose, I really can't
see them ever (with the possible exception of SATS) being done
again.
Ciao,
John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Mon Jul 27 1998 - 22:22:47 PDT