#161. “Elvis Presley and America” – The Unforgettable Fire
So here it is. The worst U2 song. Famous as an improvised
first take, this droning, mumbled, repetitive song stands as one of those
“experiments” that just didn’t work. Even the mix itself sounds half-hearted,
with the vocals lost, the drums faded, and that damn interminable strummed
guitar figure so very flat sounding. And at nearly six-and-a-half minutes, it
just does. Not. End.
Now, let us not lose fact of the sight that failure is
critical to innovation, and that experiments like this are important to the
development of artists. I’m glad U2 tried this. I’m not sure it needed to be on
the album.
When U2 released a 25th anniversary edition of its (arguably) most important album a few years back, it contained a whole disc of bonus tracks. This track feels less like a song than a collection of boilerplate U2-isms from the period. The parts sound familiar but lazily assembled and executed. Even the title (and refrain) sounds like almost like a U2 parody and less like a really lived-in idea. Bono gives in maybe too much to his “impassioned falsetto” tic, while The Edge tosses off pretty standard-issue Edge ringing figures before trying out a slow solo that sounds like a kid in a guitar shop noodling around, and not a real solo. Nothing worth hearing here.
#159. “4th of July” – The Unforgettable Fire
The Unforgettable Fire
gets the ignoble award of having two songs in the bottom three. Given the
heights a few of its tracks will reach (it’s not a spoiler to say that it will
be a long while before I start writing about “Pride (In the Name of Love),”
“Bad,” or the title track), it’s a bit surprising, but there it is.
This song is that rare beast, a U2 instrumental, and while
its slow, languid rhythms have some appeal, for the most part it’s a repetitive
drone of a piece, with Edge soundscapes washing back and forth in the
background while Adam plays a basic bass figure over and over in the
foreground. Rock instrumentals are hard to pull off, but can be great. This is
not.
This oddity is a Bono and The Edge contribution to a Royal Shakespeare Company production of "A Clockwork Orange.” A strange bit of electronica-influenced background stuff, opened by a boy soprano singing some Latin, it’s barely a song at all, and really more of a short score piece that doesn’t hang together at all. Worth a listen for the novelty of it, but pretty disposable.
#157. “The Refugee” – War
This deep cut off of War
has an odd bongo type of beat, with an impassioned Bono chant leading
things off, and it has not really dated well. The shouted lyrics, the attempt
at different percussion come off, not as U2 excited by something different, but
rather more as U2 trying something different just for the sake of it. At the
same time, the halfhearted attempt at political lyrics (“Her mama say one day
she’s gonna’ live in America.”) some across as a confused attempt to keep with
the album’s political leanings, rather than an effort to say something.
#156. “Two Hearts Beat As One” – War
U2 has dabbled in dance music at different parts of its
career, and this song kind of qualifies. The problem is that the verses are OK
U2 energetic rock stuff, while the chorus abruptly becomes this bouncy, poppy
thing that just doesn’t fit with the rest of the song. Not to mention the sheer
laziness of the title and chorus “”Two hearts beat as one – really?) and you
have another War track that, while
pleasant enough, is hardly essential.
#155. “The Playboy Mansion” – Pop
Pop is famously
held up as an example of what happens when a band strays too far from what it
does well and experiments in places it doesn’t belong. And while on the whole I
strenuously disagree with that assessment, I’ll concede that this song is an
experiment that does not come out well. Its attempts at hip-hop-styled beats,
club rhythms, and the kind of Moby-influenced looping popular at the time all
fail, while the self-consciously quirky lyrics about Michael Jackson, Coke, and
OJ Simpson dated the song pretty quickly. As a time capsule piece “The Playboy
Mansion” has its charms, but that’s about it.
Until Whenever
1 comment:
well, yeah, Two Hearts is a dopey song, but it always sounded so...'80s; seemed to be part of the fabric of the singles coming out at that time.
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