Hi folks,
It's been a while since I last posted here. I became a dad and I couldn't find the time to post nonsense anymore.
Anyway, I was thinking of a fun little game now that the tour is over. As we know, the band has covered a lot of bands and artists in their career. That's how I knew of artists like Carl Carlton. Not all covers were created equal though. Some of them are great, some of them... not so.
For a band that labeled themselves as "the world's worst cover band", I think they didn't do that bad. So I was thinking, what's for you the best cover they have done? Which one is their worst? By the way, songs they only played live without recording them are fair game, like C'mon Everybody. I'll start:
Best:
Dancing Barefoot.
Let's just say that Pati Smith's voice is not for me. Plus, the original has this poem sewn with the song at the end that just doesn't go well.
First of all, welcome back and sincerest congrats on your wonderful paternidad, @cesar_garza01
About the covers: they're not a great cover band, luckily they realized this mid-1977 and started writing their own music
Best cover: Helter Skelter. It's hard to argue with Fab Four's original and yet U2 surpassed with one of the best Bono vocal deliveries ever. The energy and darkness of the original are still there, multiplied by a band at the peak of their musical powers.
2nd best: All Along The Watchtower. I've always considered it like a hybrid between Bob Dylan's original and Jimi Hendrix's flaming cover. Improvising verses while covering is usually risky, even more so when covering a poetry genious like Dylan, but still Bono managed to sing this "All I've got is a red guitar" verse which takes the song a step higher.
3rd best: Unchained Melody. [Anyone]-Hey, can this Righteous Brothers' tune get any more heartbreaking? [Edge]-Hold my beer...
Worst covers: Fortunate Song, Paint It Black, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, they've all been mentioned before. If we consider live renditions too, besides released ones, (dis)honorable mentions go to Southern Man and C'mon Everybody.
Good to see you back in the forums Cesar, hope life’s treating you well. Apart from when they’re included as part of a show I’m listening to in full or on rattle and hum I only really pick out 2 covers from the band to listen to and one of them i only listen to around December so
Best:
Night and day, Christmas (baby please come home)
Best: Even though it’s so short I love I Remember You, but with a close second to Unchained Melody.
Worst: This category could be huge, but I’ll go with Paint it Black.
It's not that U2 are bad at covering songs it's that some of the song choices weren't great,I really feel Instant Karma suited them as did Night and Day and Helter skelter and All along the Watchtower particularly on the Love Town tour.
@Like a song: Have to disagree on Helter Skelter showing the band at the top of their musical powers. They did not manage at least on flawless performanve of the Song, as dar as I know. Great vocals, though.
Also disagree on All along the watchtower, which was only rescued by editing and additional recordings. The original recording is a total mess and not worthy of even your local pub band. They did much better versions on the Lovetown Tour.
They were really not playing very well in autumn 1987...on the Lovetown Tour they were So much tighter.
I always enjoyed Sattelite of Love live in 1992 and 1993, as they gave it a different flavour and it fitted the show and had a good spot in the setlist.
I also like Dancing Barefoot, Unchained Melody and have a soft spot for the Can't Help-Remix (Temple Bar?)
Unfortunately, nearly every other cover they did was really bad and badly played ("C'mon everybody' e. g.).
