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[Reality Czar]

The wonderful Rick Beato is a music producer who has this series where he listens to hit songs and figures out what makes them tick. This week he tackled U2's smash hit "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".



Some insights from the video:

• Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois
• The song is played with three chords, D A G
• The Edge gets his signature chiming sound by using the scratchy part of the guitar picks. It picks up extra overtones you don't get usually.
• The drum patterns are very unique and the bass drum is doing some neat stuff.
• Bono only does a single vocal track. Lots of singers double their vocals, Bono only needs one.

This one's the kicker, it blew my mind when they pointed it out near the end of the video:

• The final recording is actually in the key of Db because they slowed down the entire song a half step WTF??

That last point is pretty crazy. Later on in this video they show a clip of Bono and Lanois listening back to the original recording and it sounds so different! They actually recorded the entire song, did overdubs, all of it, then slowed the whole thing down at the very end. That's why it sounds so epic!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Here's another musical genius giving his take on U2...

 

[QSD]

The wonderful Rick Beato is a music producer who has this series where he listens to hit songs and figures out what makes them tick. This week he tackled U2's smash hit "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".



Some insights from the video:

• Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois
• The song is played with three chords, D A G
• The Edge gets his signature chiming sound by using the scratchy part of the guitar picks. It picks up extra overtones you don't get usually.
• The drum patterns are very unique and the bass drum is doing some neat stuff.
• Bono only does a single vocal track. Lots of singers double their vocals, Bono only needs one.

This one's the kicker, it blew my mind when they pointed it out near the end of the video:

• The final recording is actually in the key of Db because they slowed down the entire song a half step WTF??

That last point is pretty crazy. Later on in this video they show a clip of Bono and Lanois listening back to the original recording and it sounds so different! They actually recorded the entire song, did overdubs, all of it, then slowed the whole thing down at the very end. That's why it sounds so epic!

Wow that last point is really the kicker. Back when I still owned DJ turntables I used to have a ton of songs that I would intentionally listen to on the wrong speed because it sounded better to me. But I mostly I made the songs faster.

These days in music software you can pretty easily change the tempo of a track without changing the pitch. There's a lot of fun to be had just slowing down and speeding up tracks you're familiar with.

Back to the track though, one reason it's so enduring is that the feeling/message in the lyrics is recognizable to everyone and easily maps on to your own life/whatever you're looking for/striving for etc etc

 

[Punished Miku]

Nice, I love Beato. Going to watch this when I get home. U2 crushes. The Rattle and Hum concert videos are still some of the best shot concert footage ever, and that's all my parents watched when I was growing up. Bono is definitely on the short list for GOAT, but so is Edge.

 

[AJUMP23]

U2 is my favorite band. I have been to 7 shows and enjoyed them all. With or without you is their best song.

 

[AJUMP23]

I'm going to Bump this because Bono released his Book. I went to the book release tour and it was a good show. But the audio book is phenomenal. Bono reads it and he intersperses singing and sound throughout the book.

Here is a sample: