Boy, October, War and Blood Red Sky Remasters

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Yes I'm sure it can get very costly for U2. Especially if the people they would have to pay realized the fact that its U2 and they have a lot of money. Imagine how much they would ask? Probably too much.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Really? The snippet of Clowns is in the VHS version? That surprises me. It'd be interesting to see how much they paid for it back then. Or maybe they didn't and there was a legal hassle. Interesting...

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Really? The snippet of Clowns is in the VHS version? That surprises me. It'd be interesting to see how much they paid for it back then. Or maybe they didn't and there was a legal hassle. Interesting...

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Really? The snippet of Clowns is in the VHS version? That surprises me. It'd be interesting to see how much they paid for it back then. Or maybe they didn't and there was a legal hassle. Interesting...

During the recording of "The Electric Co.", Bono included a 27 second snippet of Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns". When the "Under A Blood Red Sky" LP was released, U2 failed to get permission and pay the appropriate licensing and royalty fees to include that piece of Sondheim's tune on the album. When Sondheim objected, U2 agreed to pay a $50,000 (US) penalty for the unauthorized use and to press all future releases with a new version that did not include the 27 seconds of "Send In The Clowns."

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Really? The snippet of Clowns is in the VHS version? That surprises me. It'd be interesting to see how much they paid for it back then. Or maybe they didn't and there was a legal hassle. Interesting...

Originally posted by thefly07:[..]

Electric Co wasn't included in the VHS version

Originally posted by MWSAH:[..]

From some unknown but official looking source I found on a Dutch forum:

[..]

The song was performed as a snippet during "The Electric Co." on the U2 release, Under A Blood Red Sky. However, the band did not have the appropriate licensing and did not pay the required royalties and were fined $50,000 (US) and had to make sure any further pressings of the release had an edited version of the song.

Originally posted by U2faqs.com6. Why did U2 get in trouble with Stephen Sondheim?

When U2 first released Under a Blood Red Sky, the original version of "The Electric Co." that was on the album included a 27-second snippet of Bono singing Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns." The band failed to get permission and pay the appropriate licensing and royalty fees to include Sondheim's tune on the album. When Sondheim objected, U2 agreed to pay a $50,000 (US) penalty for the unauthorized use and to press all future releases with a new version that did not include the 27-seconds of "Send In The Clowns."

So the original version of the album has the full "Electric. Co." running 5:18 and the edited version of the album has the song ending at 4:51. Your best bet for finding the original release with the unedited version of "Electric Co." is to track down a vinyl copy of the album. The original pressing will say 5:18, while future pressings on vinyl were corrected to say 4:51.

CDs are a different story. Some have the full song, others have the edited version. There's some thought that European-pressed CDs will have the full song. What's strange is that you can't rely on the listed running time to tell which version is on a CD. Based on conversations with other fans, it appears that if you had a group of 10 Under a Blood Red Sky CDs, chances are 6-7 of them would have different times printed on the CD cover, sleeve notes, and/or the CD itself. I've yet to hear anyone offer a good explanation for why the record company people never figured out exactly how long each track was. [M2, MJ]

Originally posted by MattOne of the costliest mistakes of U2's early days helped to create a not-tremendously-rare collectible that is now becoming more difficult to find with each passing year.

During the band's August 20, 1983 show at the Loreley Amphitheater in West Germany, Bono included a 27 second snippet of Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns," which was not unusual for him. But a problem developed when Under A Blood Red Sky was released: U2 failed to get permission and pay the appropriate licensing and royalty fees to include that piece of Sondheim's tune on the album. When Sondheim objected, U2 agreed to pay a $50,000 (US) penalty for the unauthorized use and to press all future releases with a new version that did not include the 27 seconds of "Send In The Clowns."

So there are essentially now two versions of the vinyl album - the original with the full "Electric. Co." running 5:18 and the edited version which runs 4:51. However, the various CDs pressed around the world are a different story altogether:

* the trifold digipack CD pressed in the U.S. correctly lists "Electric Co." at 4:51, and contains the edited version of the song
* later U.S. CD pressings in the standard jewel box format incorrectly list "Electric Co." at 5:18, but have the edited version of the song
* some, and perhaps all, European pressings of the CD correctly list "Electric Co." at 5:18, and have the unedited version of the song (the same is likely true of other worldwide CD pressings)
* an Australian pressing of the CD lists the track at 4:57, but the song actually runs the full 5:18

From a collecting perspective, the easy-to-find unedited CDs will have little to no value beyond a typical store shelf purchase price. Your best bet for collecting value is to track down one of the unedited vinyl versions from the original U.S. pressing. Remember: the original pressing will say 5:18, while future pressings on vinyl were corrected to say 4:51. Of course, the times aren't listed on the outside cover, so you'll have to check the inner labels (see photos below).

It's likely that between 50,000-100,000 unedited vinyl copies could have been pressed before the edited vinyl hit the street, so this not a super-rare item by any means. But in this digital world, almost ANY vinyl can be called "rare" to some degree and this item does become harder to find as time goes on. We currently estimate this original vinyl pressing of Under a Blood Red Sky with the unedited version of "Electric Co." to have a value of $15-20 (U.S.).