Wake up Island/Hey Bono
rob okorn ([email protected])
Sat, 17 Oct 1998 23:25:40 PDT
Surprising that more people haven't lambasted Island for essentially
releasing tracks that have already been released on GH.
Island has mountains of U2 material in the vaults, alternate takes of
tracks, unreleased songs, tons of live shows, pro shot concerts from the
80's, basically hundreds of hours and what does Island do, release the
same released tracks again. Alot of other artists are releasing all
kinds of rarities, doesn't Island think that 3 different versions of Red
Hill Mining Town would be worthy of release, what about the Red Hill
Mining Town video, why bury these gems. Do they plan to release similar
material 15 years from now. Is it so hard to just release the good
stuff, this corporate commercialism is getting too pervasive, the recent
Polygram take over isn't going to help, that is if the suits run the
show. Paul McGuiness is another guy who is way too protective and
self-conscious of every U2 move, guess he prefers to ride the wave and
play it safe.
As far the band members, Bono seems to think 'alternate takes' are
inferior to the finished 'polished' product, I guess the infancy and
evolution of the song is meaningless. Is someone afraid to taint what
the Joshua Tree represents by releasing alternate versions. Well they
already compromised there by not releasing the intended double LP since
they were concerned about 'sales in the US'.
I'm sure Island will release more from the vaults down the road but I
have little faith in the track selection process as well as their
timeframe.
I'll make it real easy for Island, release a 2 or 3CD set 'The Joshua
Tree Sessions' including alternate versions of the b-sides, some between
song banter with Lanois and Eno to see how the songs evolved, kind of
like the 'Ultra Rare Trax' series. The cover would be the original JT
cover, not the stretched CD cover version.
Include a booklet with extensive liner notes brimming with detail and
tidbits.
Now people, does that sound better than a 'Best of' rehash of the same
versions.
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on Sat Oct 17 1998 - 23:27:14 PDT