U2start.com | Live vs studio - improve or worsen?

U2 is usually regarded as a band that "improves all of their songs live"... Well, in my opinion that's not always the case. They kinda got that label in the early 80s when their studio output was pretty "poor" specially in terms of production and "sound depth/power", but they really improved these songs when they played them live. But as soon as they got some extra studio time and actually knew how things could be done in a studio setting, that soon changed. Of course this doesn't mean they're not an excellent live band: they sure are. But they're not "always better live" as many seem to think. There are albums in which it's almost a 50/50 improvement/worsening rate for me; as a rule of thumb, the most overproduced/layered songs are in studio, the worse they translate live. Anyway, here's my list:

BOY
The whole album improves live except for Shadows And Tall Trees

OCTOBER
The whole album improves live, even The Cry is better than Is That All

Well, maybe not, but you get the point.

WAR
Better: New Year's Day, Surrender, Two Hearts, 40
Worse: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, Like A Song, New Year's Day

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
Better: ASOH, Wire, Bad, MLK
Worse: TUF, Pride, Indian Summer Sky

THE JOSHUA TREE
Better: Streets, Bullet, Running (up to 1993), In God's Country, One Tree Hill, Exit, Mothers
Worse: Still Haven't Found, WOWY, Red Hill, Trip Through Your Wires

RATTLE AND HUM
Better: Desire (up to 1993), God Part II, AIWIY, When Love Comes to Town, Hawkmoon 269, Love Rescue Me
Worse: Van Diemen's Land, Angel of Harlem

ACHTUNG BABY
Better: all of them except...
Worse: Acrobat and Ultraviolet (from 2009 on)

ZOOROPA
Better: Lemon, Numb, Daddy's Gonna Pay, Dirty Day
Worse: Zooropa, Babyface, Stay, The First Time, The Wanderer

POP
Better: all of them except...
Worse: Staring At The Sun, Wake Up Dead Man and Velvet Dress

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND
Better: Elevation (only in 2001), Kite, In A Little While, New York
Worse: Walk On, Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment, Wild Honey, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
Better: Vertigo, COBL, Miracle Drug, Crumbs
Worse: Sometimes You Can't, Love And Peace Or Else, A Man And A Woman, Original Of The Species, All Because Of You, Yahweh

NO LINE ON THE HORIZON
Better: No Line on the Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Breathe
Worse: Moment of Surrender, Magnificent, Crazy Tonight, Unknown Caller

SONGS OF INNOCENCE
Better: The Miracle, California, Song For Someone, Iris, Volcano, Raised by Wolves, Cedarwood Road, The Troubles, Invisible
Worse: Every Breaking Wave, The Crystal Ballroom

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
Better: Get Out Of Your Own Way, American Soul, The Blackout, Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way, 13
Worse: Lights of Home, The Best Thing, Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, The Little Things That Give You Away, Landlady

RUMMY

5 years

WOWY live improves (not lately but pre-Vertigo tour) when it includes the "Shine Like Stars" snippet. God, I love that.

kharbouch

5 years

for me all the songs from the last two albums are better live than in studio.

kharbouch

5 years

also, I prefer the live versions of NO LINE ON THE HORIZON,
HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB and ALL THAT YOU CAN NOT LEAVE BEHIND

kharbouch

5 years

they never play correctly Staring At The Sun live! !

kharbouch

5 years

for the rest I agree with you!

Rodrivox

5 years

I don't agree with this general perception:

* Worse: Sunday Bloody Sunday (NO)
* Worse: TUF and Pride, (NO)
* Worse: Still Haven't Found, WOWY, Trip Through Your Wires (NO)
* Worse: Acrobat and Ultraviolet (NO)
* Worse: Zooropa and Stay, (NO)
* Worse: Walk On, Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment (NO)
* Worse: Sometimes You Can't, Love And Peace Or Else, Original Of The Species, All Because Of You (NO)
* Worse: Moment of Surrender, Magnificent, Unknown Caller (NO, but there are two live versions of Magnificent)
* Worse: Every Breaking Wave, The Crystal Ballroom (NO)
* Worse: Red Flag Day, Landlady (NO)

However, I agree with you with Pop and Rattle and Hum.

CMIPalaeo

5 years

O boy, an opinion list type thing... my fave!! Interesting opinions, Sergio!

You know I’ll be back to post my list too after not much longer... hmm...

Release3

5 years

To me it’s all about eras and opinions. I think Sunday Bloody Sunday was at its best in 2001 (worst 2015), New Years Day in 1993 (worst probably 1983-1987 mainly because the guitar doesn’t have oomph), Bullet in 2001 (worst 2005).

I agree with Sergio that the very layered tracks are obviously better in studio because of how difficult it is to recreate the sounds live (Do You Feel Loved), but again to me, I feel like certain songs sounded better during specific tours/eras

TheRealEdge

5 years

First 2 albums they were getting better as both a live and studio band so forgive them for anything that didn't translate in a live performance but tend to agree with you.

WAR
Better: New Year's Day, Surrender, Two Hearts, 40
Worse: Sunday Bloody Sunday, Seconds, Like A Song, New Year's Day

SBS has seen some great versions especially during the original JT tours but it's just lost something as it's gone on - and the nadir was the awful Edge solo PopMart tour versions.
NYD thought the PopMart tour version was most probably their best version but I quite liked the E&i version too for different reasons.
But you have put NYD in both camps in your post.

THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
Better: ASOH, Wire, Bad, MLK
Worse: TUF, Pride, Indian Summer Sky

Pride has never sounded better than the studio version and all live versions are inferior with only the crowd singalong oh oh ohs saving it so I agree there.
But TUF was cracking on the 360 tour!

THE JOSHUA TREE
Better: Streets, Bullet, Running (up to 1993), In God's Country, One Tree Hill, Exit, Mothers
Worse: Still Haven't Found, WOWY, Red Hill, Trip Through Your Wires

Yeh BTSB suffered during the Vertigo tour but I really liked the i&e version with the megaphone and angry 'younger' Bono.
Disagree with ISHFWILF because this -though never as good as the studio version - can lift a concert and a crowd.
WOWY can sound hackneyed and cliched now that it's been on radio playlists for seemingly all-time but it still has its place - especially the ZOO TV era - and it's a great moment to hug and slow dance with your girl (or designated partner).
RHMT was one of the biggest let downs of anticipation of U2 performances.
OTH lost something on the JT17 tour.
MOTD really only had a couple of good performances on the JT tour - Tempe being its zenith - and again on the PopMart tour with Chile being an incredibly emotional version, but the JT17 version left me pretty meh for some reason which I still don't fully understand why!

RATTLE AND HUM
Better: Desire (up to 1993), God Part II, AIWIY, When Love Comes to Town, Hawkmoon 269, Love Rescue Me
Worse: Van Diemen's Land, Angel of Harlem

Desire can still be fun but the ZOO versions were unbeatable.
AOH I still have a lot of time for and, even though it's a simple song, I always enjoy it in concert.

ACHTUNG BABY
Better: all of them except...
Worse: Acrobat and Ultraviolet (from 2009 on)

Nah, they pulled off a great version of Acrobat on the E&i tour - okay I know you're doing a live v studio argument but we have to take into consideration the quality of the live performance and to me it was near-on perfect (near-on) considering the amount of time that has passed from its initial conception and the age of the band.
UV was at its peak on the 360 tour - yeh, even better than (no, not the real thing) the ZOO tours version.
So Cruel, though only really snippeted, sounded disappointing.

ZOOROPA
Better: Lemon, Numb, Daddy's Gonna Pay, Dirty Day
Worse: Zooropa, Babyface, Stay, The First Time, The Wanderer

They gave Zooropa a good go but yeh something was missing.
Stay, though never as good as the studio, is always a joy to listen to as it's a beautiful song.

POP
Better: all of them except...
Worse: Staring At The Sun, Wake Up Dead Man and Velvet Dress

I enjoyed the stripped-back versions of SATS.
VD (not to be mistaken for an STD) was great though brief on the PopMart tours - capturing melancholy in performance.

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND
Better: Elevation (only in 2001), Kite, In A Little While, New York
Worse: Walk On, Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment, Wild Honey, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

I'm not the biggest fan of ATYCLB but during those tours the boys were on fire and this tour is totally underrated because of the album - not the live performances.
BD though anathema to some is a well-constructed blazing piece of pop-rock and it's one of my guilty pleasures and its coda when performed live is always impressive.
Save BD and NY if they never played another song from this album ever again then it wouldn't bother me.

HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
Better: Vertigo, COBL, Miracle Drug, Crumbs
Worse: Sometimes You Can't, Love And Peace Or Else, A Man And A Woman, Original Of The Species, All Because Of You, Yahweh

LAPOE was always enjoyable live as was Yahweh but yeh tend to agree with you about the rest.

NO LINE ON THE HORIZON
Better: No Line on the Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Breathe
Worse: Moment of Surrender, Magnificent, Crazy Tonight, Unknown Caller

Preferred the live version of Crazy - even though it bordered on cringy at times.
II always enjoy a U2 gig but the 360 tour wouldn't make my top 5 favourite tours.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE
Better: The Miracle, California, Song For Someone, Iris, Volcano, Raised by Wolves, Cedarwood Road, The Troubles, Invisible
Worse: Every Breaking Wave, The Crystal Ballroom

Not my favourite album but really enjoyed the tour but the album tracks didn't really stand out for me on this tour.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
Better: Get Out Of Your Own Way, American Soul, The Blackout, Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way, 13
Worse: Lights of Home, The Best Thing, Summer of Love, Red Flag Day, The Little Things That Give You Away, Landlady

Again, not my favourite album but really enjoyed the tour and again the album tracks didn't really stand out for me, but enjoyed LIBTAIIW.

LikeASong

5 years

Originally posted by TheRealEdge:But you have put NYD in both camps in your post.

Haha yeah I put it on both and thought "I will ellaborate later" and then forgot to ellaborate. The explanation was: if we consider the full album version with the extra verse, then it should be on the "worse" category because they've never improved that super version. But if we consider the single version without the final bridge and verse (which is the most well known, the one that sounded in the radio back then etc) then it should be in "better" because the 92-93 versions where it segued from Horses or UTEOTW were absolutely killer.

EridescoFly

5 years

I will dare say that Ultraviolet on the 1993 leg of Zoo TV wasn't as good as the previous year apart from a few performances. 'Love Is All We Have Left' was also lazy, just Bono miming or singing over the studio version.

Live vs studio - improve or worsen?

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