Songs of Ascent not dead according to Bono
Bono has given a huge hint that the Songs of Ascent album may just happen yet. He said to U2.com:
“We’re working on three albums at the moment and we haven’t decided what order we’re going to put them out but The Songs of Ascent have the kind of beautiful intimacy that we’re speaking of now. They fit into this moment, the mode of some of these artists that I was hanging out with on Christmas Eve.”
That’s a very interesting comment as the last we heard about the project was from Adam Clayton who told Q magazine that the project was pretty much dead: “We thought there was more material left over from No Line… we now feel a long way from that material.”
So what has realllllly changed? Nothing. Nothing’s in concrete.
All U2 need is love
Here’s a few posts on U2 I’ve put together recently on U2 and their lyrics for www.allu2songslyrics.com.
- U2 commentary on American politics - Bono and U2 reflect on America very often
- 10 U2 Love songs - The Beatles once sang ‘all you need is love’ – Bono has heeded that message
- U2: politics and nuclear bombs - U2 sure are concerned about Big Bang theories
- Bono on Jesus in U2 lyrics - no discussion about U2′s lyrics would be complete without some thought about U2 and spirituality.
Blow Your House Down Lyrics by U2
Blow Down Your House was released by Irish Rockers U2 to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their classic album, Achtung Baby. The song was from the recording sessions of that album. It was released as part of a super dooper reissue of Actung Baby.
Burn Your House down features all the familiar sonic elements of Achtung Baby – Edge riffs, appeggios, slide guitar, backing vocals and lyrics that feature a woman as a central character that’s being out of control – kind of like characters from The Lady with the Spinning Head or So Cruel.
Lyrics
You’ve been along this road so many times
Nothing should be a surprise to you
Seen every premeditated crime
From every possible point of view
Why, if it’s so wrong, does it feel so right?
Why, oh I’ve got your gun?
Do I want you tonight?
She, she’s gonna blow your house down
She’s gonna turn your head around
She’s gonna blow your house down
What of chaos is the thing you crave
Is it the taste of self-inflicted pain
And what of losing is your drug of choice
Is it what keeps you coming back again
Why, if it’s so wrong, does it feel so right
She, she’s gonna blow your house down
She’s gonna turn your head around
She’s gonna blow your house down
She blow your house down
She’s gonna turn your head around
She’s gonna blow your house down
Run fast, fast as you can
Run fast, fast as you can
Fast, fast as you can
Run as fast, fast as you can
Fast as you can
Run as fast, fast as you can
The wave, it have its
She was saving it
What makes you think you can
Oh, they’re craving
Deals for breaking
Your old devil’s hands
She, she’s gonna blow your house down
She’s gonna turn your head around
She’s gonna blow your house down
She gonna blow your house down
She’s gonna turn your head around
She’s gonna blow your house down
Lilywhite’s thoughts on U2 from 1987 – Did they come true?
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Steve Lilywhite circa late 80s |
I came across this article on @U2 which featured an interview with Steve Lilywhite who, as time has now told us, has been one of U2’s most best and consitent collaborators.
Clearly U2’s The Joshua Tree album has started to go stellar at the time of the interview and U2 were becoming a huge band. I thought it would be interesting to reflect on some of his comments about the future U2 and see where they landed.
His words from 1987 are telling.
“They have still got their best to come. They have now started to write songs and The Joshua Tree is far more song-oriented. They spent four albums trying to write songs and now, on their fifth album, they are just beginning to get it together. By the sixth and seventh albums I think we’ll see some classic songs coming from U2.”
Did we see some classic U2 songs from those sixth and seventh albums? We sure did! Rattle and Hum produced All I Want Is You, Desire, Angel of Harlem and a wee hit called When Love Comes to Town. And then what happended? If you paid attention as Actung Baby commanded, you’ll have heard the majestic One – a song which some how managed to top the beauty of Joshua Tree’s With or Without you. There was also the monster of a song, The Fly, the haunting Who’s Going to Ride your Wild Horses, and of course the mega hits of Even Better Than the Real Thing and Mysterious Ways.
So we can safely say Steve Lilywhites prediction was bang on!
‘If you can build a band up from the first to third albums it is quite a nice little progression. It was always clear in my mind that U2 were going to go all the way. There was no question of that.”
It would appear that Steve thought U2 had gone all the way with Joshua Tree and perhaps that’s a fair enough sentiment – two number ones on the US charts is pretty much going all the way in my book.
Could Steve have predicted how far U2 have actually ended up going? No, I doubt he would have thought U2 would have become the biggest band in the planet taking over the Rolling Stones in terms of sales and concert tickets sold, but he was still there went U2 basically had their third coming with All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The songs from that album owned the Grammy Awards, and then Steve swam the tide of U2 popularity with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb* and the slowburning but the more you listen the more you love it, No Line on The Horizon.
“This is very close to being an album of classic songs, but I think that within one or two albums they could have an album which might be one of the biggest-selling records of all time.
Two Words: Achtung Baby
“This album will do well, it’ll probably double their sales so far, but the next one will be brilliant!”
Well I wouldn’t say Rattle And Hum is brilliant but it had some brilliant songs – U2 got a bit of crap for trying a bit to hard to emulate the soul / blues thing that they were in love with – regardless, as I mentioned above Rattle and Hum had the songs, and believe me when I saw U2 in Auckland play Angel of Harlem, the fans went nuts with appreciation.
So based on that rough cut from the Lilywhite interview, he had a fair measure of where U2 would end up!
* You dismantle an atomic bomb with love
Originally published on The Optimus Prime Experiment as Steve Lilywight talks future U2 in 1987
U2 Mexico City Set List 2011
So U2 got back into business in Mexico City. The highlight? U2 playing a full version of Zooropa.
Here’s the set list:
Main Set: Even Better Than The Real Thing, I Will Follow, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, Until the End of the World, Happy Birthday, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Pride, Stuck In a Moment, Beautiful Day – Rain, Miss Sarajevo, Zooropa, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy (remix) – Discotheque – Please, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone
Encore(s): One, Amazing Grace – Where the Streets Have No Name, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender
Hat Tip to U2tours.com
U2′s Argentina Set List
U2 Setlist at La Plata, Argentina
Venue: Unico Stadium
La Plata Set List: Even Better Than The Real Thing, New Year’s Day, Get On Your Boots, Until the End of the World, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Stand By Me, Stuck in a Moment, Beautiful Day – Gracias a la Vida, In a Little While, Miss Sarajevo, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo – It’s Only Rock and Roll, I’ll Go Crazy (remix) – Two Tribes, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone
Encore(s): One, Amazing Grace – Where the Streets Have No Name, Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender
Comments from U2tours.com: The last song before ‘Space Oddity
U2 played a set on March 25, 2011 in Santiago, Chile at the National Stadium.
Set was unusual in that it featured The Johusa Tree’s One Tree Hill being played. Usually only played in NZ, the the songs reference to Chilean poet Victor Jara Jara, who was murdered in Santiago in 1973 seems reason enough to play the song.
Chile Set List: Beautiful Day – Sgt. Pepper’s, I Will Follow, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, Until the End of the World – Anthem, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – I Want to Know What Love Is, One Tree Hill, Pride, In A Little While, Miss Sarajevo, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy (remix) – Two Tribes, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On - You’ll Never Walk Alone
Set Encore: One, Mothers of the Disappeared – Where the Streets Have No Name – All You Need Is Love, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender.
The Edge chats about U2′s next project
Edge on U2′s next project
It sounds like U2 can’t make it’s mind up what to do next sonically as they appear to have to much material to use. Here’s a quote the Edge gave last week on the radio somewhere:
“Bono’s been talking about different projects and they’re all still kind of alive. We’re not ready to commit to one particular direction, but we’ve so much new material. And when the dust settles and we’re off the road, I think we’re gonna give ourselves a couple weeks and sit back and figure it all out and decide which way we’re gonna go.” Later he adds, “We’re enjoying that moment where things haven’t fully come into focus and we could take it in a number of different directions.”
The Edge didn’t offer any comment about the Cyber Love rumours.
U2′s new album to be called Cyber Love?
Rumours are swirling across the internet that U2′s new album is going to be called Cyber Love and it features songs written by an unknown musician / producer called Bellatron! Check out this story which suggests Bellatron has written 7 of the album’s 12 songs with Bono.
If this rumour is true, it’s a a pretty novel approach for U2 – sure they’ve colalborated with the likes of Brian Eno in the past but 7 song being co-written with Bellatron suggests a huge change in in the way U2 are writing their songs. Or does it suggest that Bono has had writer’s block or has been too focussed on the Spider Man musical?
Time will tell.
News on New U2 albums
Continuing the train of thought that U2 are not going to release an album called Songs of Ascent, @U2 have done a sweet write up of a few new comments from U2 about the new album or albums. Here’s their entire story:
U2′s latest comments about plans for a new album are both refreshing and mysterious at the same time. The band did a round of interviews on Friday in Johannesburg and, although the focus was on the 360 tour, talk eventually turned to the band’s next album. During a dinner with a handful of reporters that’s recounted in the Mail & Guardian, both Edge and Adam spoke very reservedly about a new album:
There’s also discussion about how Jay-Z is getting really interested in rock and roll and about how important Chuck D was, and still is, about what it’s like working with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and about some work U2 has done with DangerMouse. “Will it be on a new album?” the journalists chorus. “Maybe,” shrugs Edge. “We’ll see,” says Adam Clayton.
While it might be easy to think the worse and assume there’s no chance U2 will make the previously stated May album release target, I look at it this way: how refreshing that they’re downplaying things, not overhyping and making grand statements. Meanwhile, Bono was also talking about new album(s) on Friday and, according to Billboard, managed to equate the process to breakfast cereal.
The Edge, who’d flown in from New York that morning, confirmed that the band was working on demos with Dangermouse. He and Bono hinted that any new studio album was unlikely to be packed with songs. “We were trying to write an album with ‘No Line On The Horizon’ that had a kind of narrative and if I look back on it now, it’s probably too long. Maybe just by one song or two,” Bono said. “It’s incredible that people think ‘Oh gosh I can put 17 songs on this’ … it’s like more cornflakes in a better box.”
I’m not quite sure what to make of that, frankly, but I think he’s saying that the concept album that U2 was planning prior to No Line wasn’t a good idea and is unlikely to be completed. Or maybe he was just hungry. And finally, RedOne (Lady Gaga’s Born This Way producer) spoke about his work with U2 during the Grammys on Sunday.
While that’s where the Gaga talk began and ended, the super-producer was more forthcoming with details about working with rock icons U2 on their next album. “I’m working with U2 and Bono and them. I’m a guitar player. I’m a musician,” he explained. “A lot of people think RedOne is a synth guy, but I’m a guitar player, I’m a singer and all of that.”
RedOne said that while the band’s next album will sound distinctly U2, he revealed that he and the guys are also putting a new-millennium spin on the age-old formula. “I love producing. I love doing different styles, and with U2, it was like going back to when I was in a band, a rock band. The process is very special,” he said. “It’s a very unique process. It’s futuristic, but it’s still U2. U2 is U2.”
We’re pretty confident that RedOne is working on the dance/club-sounding album — the one with will.i.am and David Guetta — and not the album that Danger Mouse is producing. That’s what we’ve reported on our new U2 album page for some time now.
So there you have it, some interesting news with at least another confirmation of sorts that U2 are working on at least two different studio based projects. I’m picking the one with Gaga’s producer will be pretty full on rpm – wouldn’t it be interesting if U2 did a cover of Gaga’s Government Hooker?
