U2 - 'One' - C/D?

Anyway, it wasn't until I saw the video that I realised that Bono had the exact same make/year guitar. So I didn't feel so bad then.

Probably my favorite U2 lyric. Sounds good in Stipe's voice, though I must say that Mills tries a backing vocal that is a touch off-key.

xpost that rem cover is great. i heard it before i heard the u2 original in high school, and briefly insisted at the time that it was the better version, causing a u2-luving friend to scream at me...

i ended up really liking 'Stay (Faraway So Close)' as much as this, maybe just because i really like the lyrics.

Such a terrible line, which demonstrates why not even Cash could save this song.

Cash's version >>>>>>>> U2's version (am I stating the obvious?) (and I like U2's version very much)

Yeah, I love "One." It's on one of my favorite records of all time. But to be honest, I'm a little sick of it. I generally avoid listening to it, especially lately, cos I figure I'd rather just wait til I see them in November and get into it when they inevitably perform it.

If you want to hear a really nice alternate version, you ought to track down the live version with Bono singing the song with an orchestra that's on the b-side of the European single for "Miss Sarajevo."

what's even more dud than kneejerk u2-haters: people who'll slavishly defend anything and everything johnny cash has done, because he's, ya know, OMG A LEGEND. i think cash was great, but some of those "american recordings" came perilously close to novelty karaoke.

Lucky Clovers cereal, sung to the tune of U2's "One":

Have you had your breakfast?
Why not try the best?
I'm talking about Lucky Clovers--
Why don't you put them to the test?
And...one bowl
Won't be enough...
One box, you know you'll eat it right up
They're fun...and so delicious
Eight Essential vitamins and they're magically nutritious
One bowl and it's running low
One box you know it's gonna go...
Did I eat too much?
More than a lot...
You give me one box
Now it's all I got
One bowl and I've got to share it, baby, got to share it...
Lucky Clovers...

Cash just couldn't stop himself from wrecking a good melody with his goddamn monotone.

I wou;dn't go this far, but I definitely feel like Cash is so overrated it's not funny. He's so old and legendary and hip ... let's ignore the fact his music is deeply annoying.

haha yes, morbius, totally - but what's so bad about that? self-obsessed artists with delusions of grandeur are like practically the only ones worth paying attention to!

OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?(!)

"I Won't Back Down" and "Personal Jesus", I'm looking at YOU ... those covers were weak in part because they followed the originals nearly note-for-note (DM's acoustic version appeared on the "Personal Jesus" single and was faithfully xeroxed by Cash), but "One" was an amazing overhaul -- how often do histrionic ballads get transformed into mid-tempo raveups? Far from singing in a monotone (he doesn't do the falsetto at the end, so what), Cash's voice was never more expressive on his later albums than he was on "One" (no, I'm not forgetting about "Hurt"). Listen to the way his voice and guitar playing light up and gain momentum during the "Did I asked too much? / More than a lot" line, those few seconds are more heartbreaking than Bono's entire original vocal compounded together.

I'm not really arguing with anybody here, but I'm not a Cash apologist or a U2-hater, and yet I will confidently state that U2 were pwned by Cash in this instance (despite the greatness of the U2 version).

i like cash's "one," but the cover i like most from those "american" albums is "in my life." it's not a surprising performance, he sings it exactly the way you'd expect him to - and yet, somehow, he subtly changes the meaning of the song. hearing his version, i realized that, more than anything, it's just a beautifully thoughtful, mature love song. cash does something that's nearly impossible for a song that ubiquitous: he sings the words as if they mean something to him, personally. i don't think lennon quite did that - i always suspected he put in the "there is no one compares with you" line without really thinking about it, and that the part of the lyric that mattered to him was all the "there are places i'll remember" stuff about looking back on the old days - as usual with lennon (and bono), you don't feel like he's singing to anyone in particular except himself. with cash, you feel like he IS singing to a specific person, and that makes the song a lot more moving to me.

There's nothing 'kneejerk' about watching Bongo act like an ass for 20+ years (and I DID like the first 3 albums).