GEN
Active topics
U2 - Heartland
 Album:
Rattle and Hum (1988)
  1. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Heartland is full of falsetto and mid range, and Bono just can't do proper falsetto anymore, and he's lost much of his low-mid range. 1988's Bono would laugh if he saw his 2020 self trying to sing Heartland.

    A more detailed answer below (it's from 3 years ago but still applies):
    Spoiler (click to toggle)
    [..]
    It doesn't have to be like 1988 anyway he can sing it in a lower range and most wouldn't care as long as they played it.
  2. Originally posted by popmarter:[..]
    It doesn't have to be like 1988 anyway he can sing it in a lower range and most wouldn't care as long as they played it.
    That’s my way of thinking also. Red Hill Mining Town seemed impossible to a lot of people and he managed it comfortably. Heartland could be done, like the album version? No, but they could work out something with it.
  3. If he embraced his limitations rather shying away from them it could open up the set list to some interesting changes.
  4. I’m still making a case for a non falsetto version of Lemon. I’d love to hear Bono sing that nowadays in a different style. I think his voice would sound great in almost spoken deep verses building up to the ‘slowly, slowly...’ and ‘drifting, drifting’ lyrics amongst a few other lines in the song. I do think he has been embracing his limitations a bit more in recent years though. RHMT I thought was excellent. To take a song that he struggled with in his peak and clearly offered some vocal challenges and comfortably perform it every night was great. It shows an ability to adapt. I’m looking forward to hearing the acoustic version of Heartland and I think it will prove the same thing could be done on tour with that song. But at the same time they might not feel the song has a place in the Setlist even if they are capable of doing it justice.
  5. Just because Red Hill Mining Town was played and rearranged to accommodate his tense vocals, it doesn't mean Heartland will get the same treatment. It's arguably a harder song to sing, Sergio has a point there. It goes through various ranges and he'd be struggling for pretty much the majority of the song because it goes through such a demanding vocal wave.

    The one thing I do love about the song though is that the vocals are very Achtung Baby era to me. But there's probably a reason why they never played it in 1989.
  6. I'd say Heartland is more 'carried' by the falsetto than any other U2 song (bar Lemon).

    Aside from that it also has a lot of notes that are kind of in-between full voice and falsetto, it's like he's dancing on the border of the 2..

    Can't see him pull off the 1986(!) vocal ( @LikeASong ) in a similar way, so they must have altered the whole arrangement?
  7. The acoustic version will have to do
  9. Originally posted by KieranU2:Just because Red Hill Mining Town was played and rearranged to accommodate his tense vocals, it doesn't mean Heartland will get the same treatment. It's arguably a harder song to sing, Sergio has a point there. It goes through various ranges and he'd be struggling for pretty much the majority of the song because it goes through such a demanding vocal wave.

    The one thing I do love about the song though is that the vocals are very Achtung Baby era to me. But there's probably a reason why they never played it in 1989.
    I’m not sure of the technicalities but I would be happy to accept it’s harder to sing based on what I’ve read. However the fact they’ve done an acoustic version means that a full band version could also be achieved unless the acoustic version is rubbish but I have to imagine Bono’s worked something out that is worthy of being in the film. It wouldn’t be like the original version but I think it would just be a case of singing certain parts lower and/or in a different style. In regards to it not being played in 1989 the same point could be made about RHMT not being played in 1987 but that appeared 30 years later so nothing’s impossible but I’d accept heartland is less probable.
  10. Well the Joshua Tree film performance is probably going to be the only "live" version
  11. Originally posted by deanallison:[..]
    I’m not sure of the technicalities but I would be happy to accept it’s harder to sing based on what I’ve read. However the fact they’ve done an acoustic version means that a full band version could also be achieved unless the acoustic version is rubbish but I have to imagine Bono’s worked something out that is worthy of being in the film. It wouldn’t be like the original version but I think it would just be a case of singing certain parts lower and/or in a different style. In regards to it not being played in 1989 the same point could be made about RHMT not being played in 1987 but that appeared 30 years later so nothing’s impossible but I’d accept heartland is less probable.
    Well no, the same point couldn't be made to RHMT not being played in 1987 because I said "there's probably a reason why they never played it". I can only assume you're under the presumption that it's because of the same reason as RHMT being too difficult to sing at the time. But the song arrangement might have not suited live or they've just never found space for it in the set. It's also probably a song they've forgotten about now - it doesn't have the fan appeal Acrobat did when everyone was chomping at the bit wanting it played.

    I think we'll never get it. Because now, as discussed, it would be too much of a pressure on his voice. May as well attempt the full thing rather than cop out with an acoustic one.