Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?

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Tafkab

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #15 on: November 22, 2017, 02:51:43 AM »
If you like it, it's a good song.

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DoYouFeelLoved

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Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #16 on: November 22, 2017, 09:43:39 AM »
I’ve never liked it... It has always been my least favorite on October.

There were much better songs to release as a single.

I Threw a Brick or Rejoice could’ve had a good run on the charts. Fantastic tunes.

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an tha

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #17 on: November 22, 2017, 11:50:18 AM »
It's a song very much of it's time from a band very much still finding their feet.........has it aged well? Not especially for me - has it aged badly? Not especially for me...

Is it a song that is especially memorable or has/will go down as a classic of the era? No.

Do I like it personally? - Not really, but then I don't dislike it - it is just sort of "Meh"
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73October

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #18 on: November 22, 2017, 01:42:57 PM »
I quite like it.  Gloria is the strongest song and hasn't aged.  Fire has a little but I would love to hear it played live just to see what they could do with it in terms of live rework.  If they do, I hope Bono doesn't do that really poor quality air drumming as he did when they played TOTP in 1981 (their first appearance)!

While Edge's guitar solo is commendable, Adam's bass playing is cool at 1:40 mark.  Excuse the BBC video effects...

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/uQbRLJ37oO8
One love, One blood, One life;
You got to do what you should.
One life; With each other
Sisters, Brothers
One life; But we're not the same
We get to carry each other, Carry each other

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shineinthesummernight

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #19 on: November 22, 2017, 05:02:36 PM »
Since this sounds exactly like the album, I wonder if it's a lip sync.

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an tha

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #20 on: November 22, 2017, 05:44:15 PM »
Since this sounds exactly like the album, I wonder if it's a lip sync.

It is.

Back then 'Top of the Pops' a weekly show on BBC TV had bands in the studio but they rarely played properly live.


Initially acts performing on the show mimed to the commercially released record, but in 1966 after discussions with the Musicians' Union, miming was banned.[59] After a few weeks during which some bands' attempts to play as well as on their records were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted – as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio.[60][61] The TOTP Orchestra, led by Johnny Pearson, augmented the tracks when necessary. This set-up continued until 1980, when a protracted Musicians' Union strike resulted in the dropping of the live orchestra altogether and the use of pre-recorded tracks only.[62] This accounts for a number of acts who never appeared on the show due to their reluctance to perform in this way. Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix who, on hearing someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), mumbled "I don't know the words to that one, man", Shane MacGowan of The Pogues' drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York", a performance of "Roll with It" by Oasis in which Noel and Liam Gallagher exchanged roles with Noel miming to Liam's singing track and Liam pretending to play guitar, and John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May".

The miming policy also led to the occasional technical hitch. A famous example of this is the performance of "Martha's Harbour" in 1988 by All About Eve where the television audience at home could hear the song but the band and studio audience and personnel could not. As the opening verse of the song beamed out of the nation's television sets, the unknowing lead singer Julianne Regan remained silent on a stool on stage while Tim Bricheno (the only other band member present) did not play his guitar. An unseen stagehand apparently prompted them that something was wrong in time to mime along to the second verse. The band were invited back the following week, and chose to sing live.[citation needed]

Occasionally bands played live, examples in the 1970s being The Four Seasons, The Who, John Otway, Sham 69, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Heavy Metal Kids, Elton John, Typically Tropical, New Order, and David Bowie. In 1980, heavy metal band Iron Maiden played live on the show when they refused to mime to their single "Running Free". Solo artists and vocal groups were supposed to sing live to the Top Of The Pops Orchestra. Billy Ocean, Brotherhood Of Man, Hylda Baker and The Nolans all performed in this way.

For a few years from 1991, the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. Performing "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain dropped his voice an octave and changed the opening line to "Load up on drugs, kill your friends"; the band also made it very clear that they were not playing their instruments. (Cobain later said during an interview that he wanted to sound more like Morrissey during the performance.) It also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.[63] It was not helped by the fact that it coincided with a sudden upsurge of chart success for dance tracks which were heavily sample-based and whose sound could not easily be reproduced in a TV studio – sampled vocals from other tracks had to be sung live.[citation needed]

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer Andi Peters stated that there was no policy on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime.[64]
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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #21 on: November 22, 2017, 06:00:35 PM »
Since this sounds exactly like the album, I wonder if it's a lip sync.

 An unseen stagehand apparently prompted them that something was wrong in time to mime along to the second verse. The band were invited back the following week, and chose to sing live.[citation needed]

And

It also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.[63] It was not helped by the fact that it coincided with a sudden upsurge of chart success for dance tracks which were heavily sample-based and whose sound could not easily be reproduced in a TV studio – sampled vocals from other tracks had to be sung live.[citation needed]

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer Andi Peters stated that there was no policy on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime.[64]

Oooh, the original an tha post has been ripped from Wikipaedia, methinks.
One love, One blood, One life;
You got to do what you should.
One life; With each other
Sisters, Brothers
One life; But we're not the same
We get to carry each other, Carry each other

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il_capo

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #22 on: November 22, 2017, 06:39:51 PM »
Since this sounds exactly like the album, I wonder if it's a lip sync.

 An unseen stagehand apparently prompted them that something was wrong in time to mime along to the second verse. The band were invited back the following week, and chose to sing live.[citation needed]

And

It also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.[63] It was not helped by the fact that it coincided with a sudden upsurge of chart success for dance tracks which were heavily sample-based and whose sound could not easily be reproduced in a TV studio – sampled vocals from other tracks had to be sung live.[citation needed]

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer Andi Peters stated that there was no policy on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime.[64]

Oooh, the original an tha post has been ripped from Wikipaedia, methinks.

And there was me admiring his knowledge and eloquence of expression... only to find he has committed an act of gross plagiarism.

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an tha

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #23 on: November 22, 2017, 06:51:51 PM »
It is not called ripping off or plagiarism...

It is called copying and pasting!  ;)
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shineinthesummernight

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Re: Is 'Fire' a good U2 song?
« Reply #24 on: November 22, 2017, 07:26:52 PM »
Very interesting, An Tha.  Thanks!