See previous entries for explanation. Feel free to rank these (I do find those comments very interesting) but there's no tournament-based reason to do so.
U2, "Bad". Is there much consensus on the best U2 song? There seems not to be even though in my opinion it's obvious.
U2, "Gloria". Flouting my unannounced "no more than one song per artist until you run out of ideas" restriction in that I'm almost dead certain at least three particular U2 songs are in my top 500. Then again, maybe I'm wrong. I don't imagine this early one's that well-known or popular but if I ranked all U2 songs from best or worst, I'd have an obvious top two and then a gap.
U2, "Where the Streets Have No Name". Tempted to add the other two "beginning of The Joshua Tree" songs for an all-U2 quintent but I'm not convinced they make my top 500, at least not yet. There's a pretty good chance they would though. With no disrespect meant to the new material, I'm also dead certain that the three listed and two alluded-to are my five favorite U2.
Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight Tonight". Pretentious and overdone? Well of course, it's Mellon Collie (you could argue, "well of course, it's Smashing Pumpkins" and really piss off someone who liked only their early stuff). As epic melodrama goes, this actually works extremely well. Remember when Fox used it in promos for the 2001 baseball playoffs? Two other SP songs (one old-school, one from Mellon Collie) are obvious candidates but will have to wait for a future quintet.
AC/DC, "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)". Speaking of the 2001 playoffs... as soon as the D'back PA system started playing this into the bottom of the ninth of Game 7, I knew they'd pull it out, just as Emimem's "Lose Yourself" was exactly what the ALCS Game 4 Red Sox needed to stay alive another couple innings until David Ortiz became godlike.
Posted by Matt Bruce at April 3, 2005 03:46 PM1. U2, "Bad" - Seconds, Wire and... and as a whole Achtung Baby (without being able to single out any song) and I will, reluctantly because they're live, throw in Silver and Gold and Bullet the Blue Sky - the non-live Bullet from Joshua Tree is not nearly as good - but yeah, I, at least, would have to agree on Bad being their best.
2. Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight Tonight" - Bury Me, Drown, Cherub Rock, Starla and Bodies are my top 5 here. TT is a great song and a crucial part of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness which is in many ways the quintessetial album of my college era. And yes, Fox used it well for their promos.
3. U2, "Where the Streets Have No Name"
4. AC/DC, "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" - I went through my AC/DC phase and this song was a big reason.
5. U2, "Gloria"
5 very good songs. I can't imagine more than one of them having a decent shot at my (fully unrealized) top 500 though.
Rhapsody: 17/20. No S'pumpkins or AC/DC.
Posted by: John at April 3, 2005 09:20 PM1. U2, "Bad". I think the best U2 song is far from obvious, but there have definitely been times when I would have said it was this one.
2. U2, "Where the Streets Have No Name". If it were my list, I would have gone ahead and included the other two "beginning of The Joshua Tree" songs.
3. Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight Tonight". Not my favorite Pumpkins song (that's "Disarm"), but a very good song none the less.
4. U2, "Gloria"
5. AC/DC, "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)"
The first two would be shoo-ins for my own top 500 list, the third would stand a chance, and the last two wouldn't make it.
Posted by: David at April 3, 2005 10:40 PM"Is there much consensus on the best U2 song?"
Nope. Larry claims that every U2 song is about what you were doing in your own life when you first heard it, and I can see it. I think that "Bad", especially the later incarnations with the synth, the trick is that no one is upset should they play it at a concert and a vast majority of the people will be thrilled to no end. I also think that the ultra-long 12 minute version from Live-Aid, complete with Bono's sojourn into the audience, helps the "Bad" mythology.
Posted by: Craig D. Barker at April 4, 2005 04:59 AMthank
Posted by: drug synthroid at August 16, 2006 02:31 PM