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The U2 Dozen.
The 2005 Missed Gig Tour, Leg 2 -- You might recall that Wilco and I both scheduled trips to the Detroit area on the same night earlier this year (what were the odds?!?), but because of the work nature of my trip, my first Wilco concert didn't happen. Well, this week, business sends me to Miami for two nights ... just like business sends U2 here for the same two nights as well. And again, no dice on the show, which is probably over and hour from where I am and honestly too late for me to make it work. Sigh.
Best random Miami TV moment last night -- Flipping around the lineup here at the hotel, I was startled to find a disheveled and wild-eyed Dr. House ... talking to a black-and-white maned Glenn Close in 101 Dalmations ... in Spanish.
Also like U2, I've had some time to myself today, and what I've gotten out of it is my first real exposure to the Charlie Rose show. Whaddyaknow, those people who say it's interesting are right.
The U2 Dozen
This is an apt moment to say that this "Dozen" idea doesn't mean I think these are necessarily the best twelve songs, just the twelve that I'd take with me now, if I could only take twelve, working as a set as well as individual tracks. In this case, I could make a U2 B-sides Dozen and be quite content; maybe later.
(Let's see how this tallies up ... Boy - 1 / The Unforgettable Fire - 2 / The Joshua Tree - 3 / Rattle & Hum - 1 / Achtung, Baby - 2 / POP - 3 ... I guess the point here is that POP wasn't a bad album, it was just inconsistent.)
A Sort Of Homecoming - I have an idea of what a first track should sound like, and on what will likely always be my favorite U2 album, they had the same idea. I didn't think about it in exactly these terms at the time, but when I did get to make a CD, this was exactly the atmosphere I was trying to create -- of movement, of possibility, of somewhere different than the place you were two seconds before you hit Play. (Oh, well, as Lyle Lovett says, what are we if we don't even try?)
Acrobat - Hmm, "Ultraviolet" then "Acrobat" then "Love Is Blindness" ... pretty strong way to end a disc.
All I Want Is You - For a while there, rumors suggested that the last track of Rattle & Hum could be the last we would hear of U2. It would've been a hell of a way to go, an equally but completely different type of grandeur to bookend "I Will Follow". I doubt whatever the last song is will do any better than this one would've.
Bad (live) - While "A Sort Of Homecoming" was a tough call between the studio track and the Wide Awake In America version, the EP wins more easily this time around. Mostly.
The Electric Co. (live) - Again, I'd go with the live version (Under A Blood Red Sky EP). Somewhere, I have a cassette of it before they had to edit out the "Send In The Clowns" snippet for legal reasons.
The Fly - Not sure what joins it offhand, but this track is definitely on the top three or four "this single serves notice that we have completely reinvented ourselves and you're probably not ready for it, but then that's your problem, isn't it?" singles list. I've probably never heard something new on the radio sound more exciting coming out of my car speakers.
North & South Of The River - The POP b-sides presented a hide-and-seek of non-album track needles in a haystack of heavy remixes; you can see why this didn't make that album, but its hook is effective as it is subtle.
One Tree Hill (live) - The studio version would've been fine, but now that you theoretically can go buy the 12/31/89 set as part of The Complete U2 mammoth set on iTunes, this version gets the nod, on the basis of a single note in the Edge's solo. You'll know it when you hear it.
Please (single remix) - The band talks about POP as unfinished, and I this is a prime example, imo. The album version was fine, but the song made the most of a second life as a remixed b-side.
Spanish Eyes - In the spring that I graduated from high school, it was like a mini-Christmas every few weeks. Keith would show up on my doorstep with a new 12" single including two or three new non-album tracks, or vice versa, and we'd wind up in his living room, putting vinyl on the turntable to get another 10- or 12-minute blast of energy from the teeming sea of material below the surface that was The Joshua Tree. "Spanish Eyes" was as raw and unpolished as those tracks got, there behind Larry's back on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
Staring At The Sun - Unlike "Please", they got this one exactly right in time for the album. That said, the technoesque "Monster Truck Remix" does kick serious ass in a completely different way.
Where The Streets Have No Name - You'd think this one might be too overplayed or familiar by now to make this list, but it never quite loses that edge (no pun intended) that took it a step beyond "A Sort Of Homecoming" and into the realm of Greatest Album Openers Ever.