the village buzz

hey, john..

this is sergio.. i work with bullz eye also, and i just read your treatise on u2.. very nice! you did a good job at digging around at a band that was once my favorite band ever.

just so you know, i am posting this to my blog also..

here are some things i would add.. i was a huge u2 fan from boy to joshua tree.. still have all the albums on vinyl…. that is THE way to listen to these albums.. but anyway… my picks..

NOT in chronological order or order of preference….

joshua tree had some GREAT b-sides.. most notably, “the sweetest thing” and “spanish eyes.” both songs turned up on a greatest hits album somewhere.. but they are not the versions that are on those original b-sides.. the covers to the singles were awesome.. shot by anton corbijn…

one of the breakthrough albums was red rocks.. the cool thing about that album was that there were two vinyl versions. one of them had a different version of electric co. on it.. i had a girlfriend at the time who had the first version. if i remember correctly, it had an interlude of america and send in the clowns on it. the version i and the rest of my friends had cut that whole part out. it is REALLY noticeable once you have heard the full version. unfortunately, that version of the song left with that girlfriend. it must be 20 years since i have heard that version..

“christmas, baby please come home..” my favorite song off the phil specter christmas record. this was a staple of southern california christmas. to hear it played by my favorite band at the time was well.. intense..

“the unforgettable fire..” the title track off this album.. let’s not forget that brian eno was a huge part of this album. the title track really shows that this match was made in heaven. in retrospect, this is probably my favorite u2 album.

“shadows and tall trees..” from boy. this song was probably my first favorite song of the 80’s based purely on songwriting. this song should be required listening.. on an ipod.. in the middle of nowhere.. when you really should be somewhere..

“october” from october.. this is one of the simplest songs ever.. it’s also one of the most intricate.. the girlfriend mentioned above scrawled the lyrics on my spanish book when i was a kid once.. it was october.. and i didn’t care.. this is another great example of how powerful a few piano notes can be… almost like a “pink moon” part 2..

“drowning man” - war… this was when i remember things picking up.. with war.. but .. this song is so over the top, it seemed like it was written for every kid who thought right now was forever.. and forever was tomorrow. it was a soundtrack to enjoy the moment with. the moon over south mountain.. it’s a song about now.. right now.. the kind of right nows that only happened 20 years ago.

that’s all for now.. but i totally dug your article..