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About the impact of Tours on recording...

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Soloyan

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About the impact of Tours on recording...
« on: July 05, 2019, 03:41:47 AM »
I was thinking... We all know about how the fact that the PopMart Tour was scheduled affected the recording of Pop. It occured to me that, NLOTH being the animal it is (half innovative, half boring), the 360 tour is probably to blame... I mean, I can totally see the band in the middle of the process of the album, they're recording with Eno and Lanois, experimenting things. An then, all of a sudden, Bono comes in and goes : "this is all very interesting, guys, but may I remind you that we're supposed to be playing to the biggest crowds of our career wth that new stage we designed ? Where are the rock anthems ? We can't possibly play Cedars of Lebanon in a stadium, can we ?".

What do you think ?
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Neil Young

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2019, 06:34:08 AM »
I think you are spot on. Which is why I think U2 should do the interesting stuff on albums, and tour the hits with thrown in gems. They have become too one dimensional.
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riffraff

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2019, 07:06:19 AM »
Probably a lot of truth in that.
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guest411

Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2019, 07:29:26 AM »
I don't agree because they didn't do SUC on the 360 tour and they only did a dancey remixed version of I'll Go Crazy on tour, not the pop/soft rock version from the album. When I first heard the album and tried to predict the songs they would do live on the tour, I thought SUC and I'll Go Crazy would have been shoe-ins, but in the event they weren't.
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MPare1966

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2019, 07:50:22 AM »
Quote from: Charlie Harper on July 05, 2019, 07:29:26 AM
I don't agree because they didn't do SUC on the 360 tour and they only did a dancey remixed version of I'll Go Crazy on tour, not the pop/soft rock version from the album. When I first heard the album and tried to predict the songs they would do live on the tour, I thought SUC and I'll Go Crazy would have been shoe-ins, but in the event they weren't.

I think Soloyan has a valid theory. While in the studio, they probably thought they had to record more stadium friendly songs. End result was not that great, so they had to fall back on the hits for the tour, except for Boots maybe.
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an tha

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2019, 08:04:53 AM »
U2 pulled back from going all in on an "experimental" record with NLOTH in my view more because of their desperation for hits than the claw lark...

Remember Bono (I think it was) called the record "too esoteric" - says it all about their mindset.

Needing to play shite clunky stadium rockers was not in their minds IMO - Elevation and Vertigo for example already gave them those to use.


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guest411

Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2019, 08:49:33 AM »
Yeah, they had singles on their mind when making the NLOTH album, IMO.  It's no real surprise that two of the middle trio were both singles.  Indeed, Boots was the lead single.

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laoghaire

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2019, 09:01:31 AM »
I don't know if the main motivation was radio hits or stadium rockers but it's a valid theory. Either way, the evidence suggests that they had an esoteric record, decided they couldn't survive on that alone, and put in the other stuff.

No doubt Pop/PopMart still affects their decisions.

But they also should remember that they made it big on something that was not a rocker, and didn't sound like a predictable radio hit. It's kind of hard for me to hear WOWY with "new" ears but occasionally I do, and it was off the beaten track then even if it sounds standard now.

I don't think anything they did in NLOTH would have made them huge like BD or WOWY, but they could have had respect for leading with MOS.

But NLOTH still ranks very highly in my book.
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Soloyan

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2019, 09:04:49 AM »
I find it sad that things are more decided regarding the economy than the art. I mean, likewise, I believe they had this great stage design for I+E and thought :
-That's cool but if we're touring in arenas we'll do this forever and people will get bored. Remember 360 when we came back with the same show ? It didn't work !
-We just need to release another record in between... we record both at the same time and release them 2 years apart. It could work.
-But what if arenas aren't enough ?
-We might just come up with an excuse for a few stadium shows...

And we get the strategy for the last 4 tours : I+E, JT 2017, E+I, JT 2019.
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guest411

Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2019, 09:09:42 AM »
I think of the Claw as an all purpose playing field.

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laoghaire

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2019, 09:15:15 AM »
In my humble opinion, I think these things are decided on fear. And I don't think it's a new fear, but fear of not having something leads to different behavior (desperation) than fear of losing what you have (caution).

The goal may appear to be quid but I think under that it's really just the god shaped hole. You try to fill it up with money, fame, popularity, etc., but it's the kind of thing that is never filled for more than a moment.
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guest411

Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2019, 09:18:49 AM »
The best U2 lyric to sum up U2 today is "you can hold onto something so tight, you've already lost it."

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an tha

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2019, 09:33:02 AM »
Quote from: laoghaire on July 05, 2019, 09:01:31 AM
I don't know if the main motivation was radio hits or stadium rockers but it's a valid theory. Either way, the evidence suggests that they had an esoteric record, decided they couldn't survive on that alone, and put in the other stuff.

No doubt Pop/PopMart still affects their decisions.

But they also should remember that they made it big on something that was not a rocker, and didn't sound like a predictable radio hit. It's kind of hard for me to hear WOWY with "new" ears but occasionally I do, and it was off the beaten track then even if it sounds standard now.

I don't think anything they did in NLOTH would have made them huge like BD or WOWY, but they could have had respect for leading with MOS.

But NLOTH still ranks very highly in my book.

It is one of the great ironies of how u2 have ended up......they became big but did so whilst being different to what was out there and popular at the time - WoWY for example sounded like nothing else out there....they released a gospel influenced single from TJT too.

Sadly modern day u2 are trying to be big with shite like The Best Thing - a song any shite nondescript pop rock band or their mate Ryan Tedder could make (but better)


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MPare1966

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2019, 10:32:12 AM »
Quote from: laoghaire on July 05, 2019, 09:15:15 AM
In my humble opinion, I think these things are decided on fear. And I don't think it's a new fear, but fear of not having something leads to different behavior (desperation) than fear of losing what you have (caution).

The goal may appear to be quid but I think under that it's really just the god shaped hole. You try to fill it up with money, fame, popularity, etc., but it's the kind of thing that is never filled for more than a moment.

IMHO, most of it is decided based on "basic accounting principles". U2 Corporation Inc is not different than any other mutinational corporate entity. Sad, but true.
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laoghaire

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Re: About the impact of Tours on recording...
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2019, 10:44:54 AM »
If it's just dollars and not an effort to fill an emptiness, then how many dollars is enough?
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