Latest U2 News / Sightings

Originally posted by RememberEveryMoment:They're not the Beatles in the sense that they can go into a recording studio for a week and have a new album ready. We already knew that. I sometimes think people underestimate how hard it is for U2 to write complete songs, which is why they rely so heavily on producers. I think that is also a reason there are not that many left overs usually, there is just no that much more material lying around. But the quality of songs they eventually finish is pretty high generally speaking.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
Lol - I think that's maybe why it bummed me out the most at first. I thought it was really refreshing to hear a guitar part from Edge that you wouldn't otherwise hear from him - to me it was a great example of him still having it in him to come up with something that surprises me - but obviously that wasn't the case.

I don't think it's too much to ask for to spin a U2 album and expect 90% of what I'm hearing to come from the band whose name is on the front of the record, and whose name is the only one listed after "music and lyrics by:".

Like I said, I get that they rely on producers to help them complete songs, bring them into focus, etc. We know for a fact that things like the synth loops in Bad and With or Without You were written by Eno, but those aren't the "core" of those songs, they're just added bits to add atmosphere. Edge mentioned before that Flood was the one who put the filter on the main riff to Until the End of the World as the song progressed, giving it that sort of underwater feel - but Edge came up with that riff (presumably), not flood. That song could exist without that effect, Bad could exist without that synth loop, and so on - that's my point.

U2 completely taking the core of a song like Summer of Love, from the guitar part, chords, arrangement, to the lyrical hook - that doesn't sit right with me, sorry - not unless they're going to give songwriting credit to One Republic (like they did for Haim). I don't even care if One Republic don't want it, I as a fan want to know that this particular song was barely written by U2.

And I don't understand what the Baby versions prove. They're just earlier versions of the same songs that they were probably still working on with Lanois, Flood and Eno, it's not as though those versions are confirmed to be the versions that the band had before they brought in the producers.

Someone (Sergio I think) linked that passage from Paul McGuiness in U2byU2 about how there's always been a bit of a dispute between Eno and the band about songwriting credit, specifically that Eno at times has felt he deserved credit for the amount he's contributed to any given song. After this particular example, it makes me wonder if Eno has a point and that maybe the band weren't being entirely fair. Yes it's the producer's job to help the band complete the song, whatever that might entail. But Summer of Love? Nah. That's not a producer helping U2 complete a song of theirs, that's U2 taking a song that another artist wrote and calling it their own.

I guess some people don't mind the idea that the four guys in U2 might not have written a particular part that they're (the listener) might be emotionally attached to. But me? It bums me out. It's the carpet being pulled from under me. "Man, I really love this guitar part that Edge wrote, how cool is that? After all this time, he can still surprise me" - "Edge didn't write that, and Bono didn't even write that hook" - "oh...".

I guess my ultimate point is that after this, it'd be nice for the band to be more transparent on exactly what part their producers played for any given song - especially knowing that one of the producers on their best albums has fought to have his name on the songwriting credits before. Obviously that shows he thought he contributed enough to feel as though it warranted it. I'm not actually ASKING for that, and maybe I am overreacting, but I don't know - this one particular example just kinda threw me into a crux about this subject, I guess.

Originally posted by jasvan:Did we really think Edge wrote the riff to Summer of Love? It doesn’t even sound like him. It’s a sample the band even said it was something new for them to take a part from someone else.
Producers get points towards songs for a reason. They usually help craft them for the better.
Over thinking this and to doubt all the great songs u2 has written for us is ridiculous.
Why would they release Baby Versions of AB if they were being secretive of the process? It shows how much the songs evolved ( Flood changing feel of So Cruel comes to mind) also the mess wild horses was before it got finished

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:
I hate writing this as a U2 fan, but that Summer of Love thing left a bad taste in my mouth and it hasn't left me, sorry. U2 sampling someone or a producer writing a part for a skeleton song that's already in-place is one thing, but U2 literally taking music someone else wrote and calling it their own, I don't know. I'm not talking about it from a legal stance, even a moral one (obviously they were given permission), I'm just talking about it from an artistic standpoint. It sucks knowing that one of the better songs on that album wasn't even written by them. And yeah, that guitar part and the "west coast" hook pretty much make that song what it is, at least for me. As a musician who writes and records music (yes I realize I'm not U2) - I'd never do that, not even if I was allowed to, or whatever - my instant reaction would just be "Umm, but I didn't write that, I can't use that...".

It would be like if we found out after all this time, Lanois was actually the one who came up with the chord progression for One, not Edge. Or Eno was the one who came up with the intro to Streets, but on a synth or something. That would break my fuckin' heart, man. It all makes them seem a lot less like a band and a lot more like a label-created committee who releases music for monetary gain or something.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:
Lol - I think that's maybe why it bummed me out the most at first. I thought it was really refreshing to hear a guitar part from Edge that you wouldn't otherwise hear from him - to me it was a great example of him still having it in him to come up with something that surprises me - but obviously that wasn't the case.

I guess some people don't mind the idea that the four guys in U2 might not have written a particular part that they're (the listener) might be emotionally attached to. But me? It bums me out. It's the carpet being pulled from under me. "Man, I really love this guitar part that Edge wrote, how cool is that? After all this time, he can still surprise me" - "Edge didn't write that, and Bono didn't even write that hook" - "oh...".

Originally posted by domsi:[..]


+1
It was a total disappointment for me - when I realised the story behind The Summer of Love ...

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
I can't find the scene from From the Sky Down I'm referring to online - but it's when they're back in Dublin in the studio and there's a quick scene of Lanois, Eno and Flood jamming to a One backing track, and Lanois is playing that guitar part - and then in the proceeding scene when the band are listening back, Edge says something about Lanois' guitar part - making me think he wrote it, not Edge.