Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]
Perfect song, yeah, but when the kinds of songs you're used to are 30+ minutes long (and Eno has done more than one for a straight hour) MoS seems like a radio edit. I guess you can only fit so much on a CD, but the point is U2 could have squeezed more out of MoS - maybe a longer guitar part or extra few verses or something and it would have been an epic - as it stands, it's their longest song to date if you don't count Sunset In Colours so that's something to credit it with.
There's also something to remember: maybe it was the perfect length - if it was any longer it could drag on and we don't want that. Unknown Caller is interesting too except for the 'restart and reboot, move to trash' bits. That should have been taken out, or at least the trash part. Nice avatar too Dieder.
Thanks Drew.
Like Yuri said, there were some alternate lyrics for Unknown Caller (which should have been IN the song), and if I remember it right the song was a tad longer originally. I don't mind the 'restart and reboot' parts, I like them, but the first verse is sooo good, and after that it just goes a little downhill until the solo (which is great).
I feel like after the 2nd chorus ('don't move or say a thing') they rush in the solo. there should have been another verse in between (which had to end, of course, with that chorus).
But I've never heard other versions, only the bits that they were working on and I think it's a classy song. Great intro, great first verse, decent after that and perfect solo.
As for Moment of Surrender, that one was also one of two verses longer but I like it. There's not much guitar in it, true, but that solo and outro are perfect. Bono, Adam and Larry carry the song, together with Eno's organ. It's maybe the purest and rawest song U2 have recorded, one take, and after that only some cello was added and a verse was ditched.
