U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - U Talkin' U2 To Me? - Achtung Baby?

Episode Date: March 26, 2014

It's finally time for Adam Scott Aukerman to discuss one of U2′s landmark albums aka their seventh studio album Achtung Baby. They’ll talk about recent U2 news, their thoughts on what the best first U2 single has ever put out is, and Davis Guggenheim’s From the Sky Down documentary about the making of the album Achtung Baby. Plus, Adam gives us an update on reading Harry Potter with his son. Tune in next week as they dive deeper into Achtung Baby in part 2!  This episode is sponsored by Bonobos . Use offer code EDGE to get 20% off.

Today, You Talkin' U2 to Me is sponsored by our friends over at Bonobos. You can't spell Bonobos without Bono. That's right, Bonobos is a men's apparel brand that has everything from wash chinos, denim, sweaters, and casual shirts to suits, dress shirts, blazers. I promise your threads will fit you better and feel more comfortable than anything you have ever worn before. So go to bonobos.com. That's B-O-N-O-B-O-S.com. On top of everything else, you get a special deal.

Use the code EDGE to get a 20% off deal, along with that free shipping and the great customer service as always. So log on to B-O-N-O log on to bonobos.com for better fitting men's clothes from boy to boots this is you talking you too to me the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things U2. I am your co-host, Scott Aukerman, and sitting right in front of me at 12 o'clock to my 6 is the man from Parks. He's from Recreation.

That's right. plays ben stein who do you play on ben stein ben stein on win ben stein's money yep please welcome adam scott hey everybody i'm at 12 o'clock he's at six my name is adam this is shits shits sorry oh This is shits. Shits? Sorry. Oh, really? Already shits? That is as good as it gets right now for me. This is good rock and roll music, and welcome to episode six. And boy, we really ended last time on a cliffhanger, did we not? We did. A cliffhanger that we weren't even aware was going to exist until it existed. Let's set the scene.

You call me up this afternoon, and you didn't even call. You dialed in one of those emails. Yeah, I did it. On your telephone, right? No, I can't remember if it was my phone, my iPad. I have so many of these devices floating around. But regardless, you connected to the web. You jacked in.

Jacked in. Johnny mnemonic style johnny mnemonic style put it jacked it right in the back of my the base of my spine sometimes i feel like that when i surf the web whatever you want to call it i'm just like so zoned in that i feel like time is time okay time is a concept sure yeah it's just something someone invented sure in order to help organize people yeah to attach some sort of uh tangible meaning to this vast kind of emptiness that we all live in to be honest they tried to base it on the patterns of the sun and when the sun rises when the sun sets but it's unpredictable sometimes have you ever noticed someone's son no no the sun the uh the great that great big ball of fire oh the soon the this you say the soon okay soon okay i'll say the soon from now on just to make sure you're on board with what

i'm saying but uh it's the soon is unpredictable sometimes and they tried to base it on the patterns how soon is now um but sometimes the soon will just like rise at 2 a.m and people will be like well we missed it today yeah so what so they had to create this thing called time just in case this the soon comes up at like three in the morning. And people are like, well, got to get up to work. I just went to bed, but hey, the soon is up. Right, because the soon is so unpredictable. I mean, if there's anything that everyone knows, you can't count on the soon and the patterns that it's going to follow. Not at all.

So they tried to invent time in order to help predict that, but it doesn't work all that well. Never. No. Never. No. Never works. Why were we talking about time? Oh, that's right. You jacked in.

I jacked in and sent you an email. That's right. I sent you an email this afternoon, and I was in the middle. No, I had just finished recording one show of my own show. Oh, Comedy Bang Bang? Comedy Bang Bang. By the way, the way you say it on episode, I believe it's six or something of season two. Oh, yeah.

Comedy Bang Bang. This makes me laugh so hard. Who are the guests today? Today was an episode that we recorded with Doug Benson and Matt Besser and Paul Hornschmeier, who does all the art on the walls. Sounds like a great episode. Hey, it was great, but I'll tell you a secret. I'm a little under the weather and losing my voice a bit. Sure thing.

But you get a hold of me, and I got to tell you, you're hard to get a hold of sometimes. And so any email from you is like manna from heaven. Well, you had emailed me yesterday. Yesterday. Different podcast. Saying, hey, I can do it Monday during the day. Yep.

I can do it Tuesday night or Wednesday night. Yep. Today I was at work. Okay. Okay. Fine. At my job. All right.

Fine. And it was about the middle of the day, and I thought to myself, oh, shit, Scott emailed me yesterday on a Sunday. Not going to make a big deal about it, but he did email me on a Sunday. Wait, you think that's rude to email on a Sunday? Well, I mean, if I called you on a Sunday, yeah, I can understand that. No one wants to pick up the phone on a Sunday. Some people use Sunday as a day of rest, a day of reconnecting with their family. I mean, you don't have to answer your emails.

I mean, I only do it once a day, and I never do it on Sundays. Okay. All I'm saying is today I was at work, and I realized, shit, I didn't answer Scott's email. Obviously, I'm at work, so I can't do it Monday during the day. Today's Monday. I'm at work. Sure. But I'm probably going to get off work around six i bet i

could make it over there by seven if he's up for it you know what we struck a deal right then and there right then and there to meet that night tonight at seven meanwhile i'm sort of losing my voice we start up the podcast which was the previous episode that you have uh now seven days old yeah that you listened to Sure, now seven days old. Yeah, that you listened to last week, and we think we're going to talk about Actung Baby, which, by the way, you're listening to you talking U2 to me, the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things U2, and every episode is devoted to one of their classic albums. I think we're talking about Actung Baby.

We get off on a tangent or two. We never get to the darn thing. Or four. Adam adam come on now you're gonna start on another tangent oh my god just about numbers oh my gosh what comes after four is five oh my gosh so he said i did and solo vision um gossip hole the great thing was it was four i think it was four I can check my email. I have it right here. But I think it was around 4 o'clock that we settled on a time to meet up.

And 4.03 p.m. 7 is good. See you then. Three hours later, we're making a podcast. That's how quick it happens, folks. Putting them together. That's how quickly it can happen for you when you're in show business. Adam Scott jacks in, dials up his internet, types out a few words.

I don't know how many words you can type a minute, but I'm assuming that this email probably took you roughly one to two to three minutes to type. Yeah, something like that. Maybe even just less than a minute. Okay, sure. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? You know, it's hard to quantify at this point. I don't remember because I was doing like four different things.

I know that they say email is instantaneously sent, but I would assume that there is some sort of lag time. Oh, there's got to be a lag time. Even if it's a fraction of a second, there's got to be a lag time. We're talking at this point between one to two to three minutes plus a little bit of lag time i received this email i get back to him i mean we're talking you know the whole process probably takes about 15 minutes to a half hour yeah i mean once once i responded to your email from the previous day once i responded to that we were off and running i mean we were just cooking we're cooking with petrol and i would say within 10 minutes we had settled on a plan um and we had decided we already knew what the topic of

the evening was going to be so that wasn't even mentioned in the emails we didn't even as far as i remember we didn't even talk about it why bother talking right we knew it was going to be uh ab and i knew that you had watched uh from the sky down and rattle and hum so i had already kind of had that locked and loaded i wanted to talk to you about that and man we did we ever talk about those two things oh boy but you know what we didn't talk about was ab yeah the old ab didn't even get to it didn't even get to it and so we had to end on a cliffhanger but you know i'll tell you a little bit of a show business secret um we just right before we started this one we just ended recording that previous one yeah same sitting same sitting instead of putting out a three-hour show about acting baby right who

wants to listen to that break it up and do it to uh to twofer to two per two perter although you did get up and go uh shake a little dew off the daisy in between. I didn't. I got to tell you, you had been in there previous to me. And the stench of urine in that bathroom was pretty overpowering. And I think you may have let it mellow. I think... No, I always flush.

I'm an always flusher as well. I would say, just flush the toilet, you fucking hippie. I'm an always flush guy too. Yeah, I never let it mellow, ever. I hate it. Oh, it's gross. Who likes walking in and getting that surprise? No, it's the worst. I don't care, just flush it down.

Unless it's the middle of the night and I don't want to wake up the people in my house that are sleeping. In which case, you've got to close the lid. You have to close the lid. It's disgusting. And you have to wake up before them and flush it. Yeah. Which then wakes them up at the time that they're supposed to wake up. Never let it mellow.

Never. It's disgusting. Stop letting it mellow. Because it's not like urine doesn't smell terrible. Urine smells awful. It smells terrible. And both, by the way, both of the urinals in that restroom had been mellowed. Oh, I noticed one of them.

I avoided that one. Someone must have gone in there since you then. Because two urinals mellowing, the stench was overpowering. Two urinals mellowing. The stench was overpowering. What I do is I like to prevent those hippies' actions, and I just go flush any toilet I see that has something. Then you've got to wash your hands. I did wash my hands.

Don't worry about that. I wash my hands in the bathroom. I use a towel to open the door. It's flu season. I come in here. First thing I do, I Purell myself up. Yep. I don't want to get sick.

Just lather it on. Just all over. Did you not get a flu shot this year? I didn't get a flu shot. That's why you're sick right now. Yeah. This is the only time I've been sick in probably at least 365 days. A year.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a little bit under the weather. Well, I appreciate you rallying and making time for me and you know one of the fans bands in the history of rock and roll so let's catch you up a little bit if this is your first experience with you talking you to to me this is of course the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things you to what does that mean we're going to talk about you too we're going to talk about you too exclusively we're not going to talk about anything that is not U2

so you are going to hear facts you're going to hear factoids every once in a while I'm going to interrupt Adam and say Adam I got a little factoid and I'm just going to let it fly and you are going to be not only entertained but you are going to learn a little something

about the topic of U2 and not about anything else. Yeah. So when we last left off, we were talking about Rattle & Hum, doing sort of a wrap-up to our 2-hour-and-15-minute Rattle & Hum podcast. With a 90-minute post-wrap-up. And we were just about ready to springboard into actoon baby and i said you know what gotta break it up gotta gotta make this a two-parter so we're gonna talk about actoon baby

uh pretty much exclusively on this show today but before we start i do talk about something wildly different? Well, I do. We barely got into Harry Potter last time. Yeah. What do you think of the villains in Harry Potter? Like Voldemort, he's chief amongst them, I would say. And the kid at the school that's a villain.

Yeah. What's his name i i don't know tom tom wait tom riddle is one of them is that dude or just like like oh you mean uh drago yes that's his name drago i think so drag which is drago. It's like dragon, but without the N. Yeah. I don't know. You ever notice how in Harry Potter is like a lot of those names, like for the spells and stuff? Yeah. It's sort of like, you know, it's like bad Spanish in a way of like, you know, it's like if someone's got to go quick, it's like, exuant quicko! Or, you know. You mean when they're doing spells and stuff yeah

yeah when they're casting spells the part the parts that always get me because i'm reading it out loud to my son is the quidditch matches because they're written in such a way where you know you're it's supposed to be very exciting and so you should be reading it fast but you have a very slow dull voice that's true but also you want to read it and make it exciting for the person listening but you're reading it for the first time yourself you're trying and some of these words and the strategy of the game i don't quite understand so it's all kind of nonsense to me but um but he seems to enjoy himself and he uh does he ever say to you daddy daddy your voice sounds exactly like scott ackerman's whenever whenever i do this is a a thing that my my son whenever i do make a um

oh boy a voice sorry this is exactly like i'm your son you You're trying to read to me. Whenever I do a voice for a bad guy and I change my voice at all, he hates it. He makes me do it all in just my voice. I can't alter my voice at all. In just your deadly, dull, Scott Aukerman-ish monotone. That is all he wants to hear. Why is that? Does he get scared? Yeah, maybe it scares him to hear me make a different, even if it's not a threatening thing,

he just doesn't want to hear it. Could I hear maybe one of your villain voices? Sure. This is, say for Voldemort, this is the, this is. Or wait, what's the teacher, the Alan Rickman character? Oh, that would be Mr. Guy Fieri. Mr. Guy guy fieri what's his name he's the guy who comes in and he goes snape snape service servius snape okay so this is snape's voice that i tried and tried my son would not have it hello harry potter really that can i just say adam yeah that sounds so much like your own voice really

but okay let me try again let me okay let me see all right harry what are you doing over there you're like putting a slightly evil tinge to your voice in in much but it's mainly intent all right well let's try a different character then okay uh let's try uh uh what what about someone like uh someone who's even a good guy like the the big seven foot tall what's that dude's name the oh uh dumbledore dumbledore yeah so that's not dumbledore that's the teacher who am i thinking of i'm thinking of the dude who was Harry's best friend. Yeah, the guy that lives at the school.

Yeah, he takes an instant liking to him, even though Harry is just a little kid. Why would an adult take any kind of- A big Harry adult. Who is this guy? Who's this guy? Hey, who's this guy? Do you remember? Who are we talking about?

The big dude in- Engineer Sam over about? The big dude in Harry... Engineer Sam over here. The big dude in Harry Potter. He's big. He's the big dude. He's in Harry Potter. Is it Harry Potter? No, no, no.

He's the big dude. Sam, welcome to the conversation. He's the big dude in Harry Potter. What's the name of the actor that plays the big guy? He's big himself. He's that big dude from Harry Potter. What's the name of the actor that plays the big guy? He's big himself. He's that big dude from Harry Potter. Just look up, Sam. I just...

I just... Rubius? Hagrid. Hagrid. I just googled big guy and I wrote H and it filled in Harry Potter. What? Are you sure it didn't say big guy and Harry and you were just mine turned up man too big for harry potter ride turned away oh that's an interesting story man too

big for harry potter ride turned away i wonder if it was hagrid okay so i did i then googled big guy harry and the first website, the first YouTube video, it says, Big, Beefy, Beautiful Bears, Hot, Hairy, Masculine, Manly, Man, Man, Guy. All right. You're listening to you talking YouTube to me. Oh, by the way, we talked about this on the last episode, and I got to get to this. I have a contract for you to sign.

Wow. Oh, there he is, the man in question from the website. He's a lot like Hagrid. You have a contract for me to sign? I have a contract for you to sign. Oh, wait, do you want to hear the Hagrid voice? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Harry, what are you doing with that magic wand?

Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't call that it. I mean, I would give it more of a like, Harry, what are you doing with that magic wand? See, that just sounds like your regular voice to me. I'm terrible at voices. I don't do corrects. Not like you.

Yeah, well. Okay, I have a contract for you to sign um it's based on something that you promised in the last episode and i want to get a binding right here on record and engineer sam you're you are a notary public yes i was born that way okay good that's convenient a notary public yes my mother was a notary public yeah so it's it's in the genes. Designer genes. I had no idea it was through birth. Yeah. So let me read this to you. It's, I, Adam Scott, do hereby promise to verbally state my intent to insert my Academy Award into my anus to the Academy show crowd.

That's a little weirdly worded, but hey. The Academy show crowd. Immediately upon arriving at the podium after the announcement of my win i'll sign that because i feel like i could find a loophole in academy show crowd sign it up we want to get a picture of this sam there he is adam has put quill to paper here we go ready one two Whoa, he's doing it! Wow. Do hereby promise to verbally state my intent to

insert my academy war into my anus to the academy show crowd. Immediately upon arriving at the podium, after the announcement of my win. What do you think you'll win for? Life is strange.

Something may come out of the blue. Look, you may get one of these emails we were talking about earlier just as quick as I got this email from you today. It's true. That I've won an Academy Award? Yeah, you might have. Oh, my God. Let's just say that a year from now,

all the awards buzz is happening for Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Right. I wish it would. I think that movies like that should be rewarded by the Academy. Oh, me too. You know what I mean? Otherwise, how are guys like you and me ever going to get them? So who knows?

In a year, you and I could be having a big laugh about this little contract we just drew up here. You may be holding me to it. I will, too, by the way. You know, I know we're doing it kind of in fun, but... In jest. Yeah, but I have it right now, and you're the kind of guy who doesn't welch on those kind of things. I never, ever welch on a deal.

Okay. Or a contract. Very good, very good. All right, Adam, we have to take a break. When we come back, we're talk about acting baby i swear to god all right so we'll be right back with you talking youtube guys you have to admit earwolf the network we're on they've got some great shows earwolf has opened its doors once again to one of my favorite shows,

me personally, Scott Aukerman, Topics. That's right, Topics with longtime friends and creative comedic collaborators from the state, Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. Yeah. This is a funny show. This is one of my favorite shows. They joined Earwolf on February 11th. Topics tackles some of mankind's most difficult questions. What is the nature of love? Is time travel

possible or ethical? As if the promise of the Kings of Comedy, Michael Ian Black and Showalter wasn't enough, the show will also have original music by Dan Deacon. Dan Deacon? That's crazy. You're going to love this show. Topics is on Earwolf now. Find out more at Earwolf.com slash topics. Welcome back. You talking U2 to me.

This is, of course, one of the greatest U2 songs, certainly on Actoon Baby, and some would say of their career. This is one. Oh, is it Bono? And here we are. This is Adam Scott and I, and we're finally at the moment that you have been waiting for for weeks and weeks and weeks. We're going to talk Actoon Baby, the album that some would say is U2's pinnacle achievement. Is that how people say that?

Pinnacle achievement? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, some people would say this is their greatest album. Some people would. I mean, people have a lot of different opinions, and, you know, I mean, that's what makes this country one of the greatest in the world, in my opinion. Here's what I remember. Scotcha.

Is it Scotcha? Scotcha Gotcha. Yeah. Scotcha. Is it Scotcha? Scotcha Gotcha. Yeah, the Scotcha Gotcha. I'm looking at it now. I didn't realize this album was 55 minutes. I didn't realize it was so long. I would say at that point it was their longest record. Do you disagree or do you agree?

I would imagine it still is. I don't think No Line on the Horizon is longer. I think Pop might be longer. No way. Pop is longer than that? You're right. It's 60 minutes. Yeah, Pop had a lot of dance remixes.

I just re-listened to that. Hey, that's a few episodes away. I mean, we have so much more Harry Potter to talk. I feel like you... Okay. We'll talk about it. I have a lot to say about that. Okay, Octoon Baby.

Here's what I remember. I remember, of course, eagerly awaiting this album, but the great, the awesome thing that they did with this album is that, like all albums that come out, they did not send advance copies to the press. So there were no reviews. No one had heard this album. There were no leaks or anything like that.

Arcade Fire just did this with Reflector. They sent one copy to Rolling Stone because they just wanted one review. And they, I don't, I can't recall if they sent it to someone that they knew would give them a good review or something, but the review was a rave. That's, I think it's a great record. The review was a rave. I think it's a great record.

The review was a rave, and that's all anyone knew about it. I remember reading them saying, everyone kept saying, I've read the reviews, and they're all good, but everyone had just read that one review. Well, this was a different strategy, and this strategy was

they knew it was a new kind of daring sound sound and they just wanted the fans to hear it first without any preconceptions a lot like beyonce or radiohead right did they so i remember the fly came out and the video was before the record right yeah it was like two it was like six weeks before let's hear a little bit of the fly but i remember that coming out you remember seeing this video for the first time and just being like, what the fuck? No, I'll tell you my story with it, but no.

So I remember seeing this video on the old music television, MTV. Ha ha! Were you rocking the vote at this point? I was rocking the vote. I believe I was a vegetarian because Natalie Merchant said I should be.

How long did that last? Probably like three or four months. Nice. Yeah, not bad. You kept it going that long. Wow. But I remember holding a tape recorder up to the TV to record this song so I could have a copy of it to listen to in my car. of it to listen to in my car.

But this song sounded so completely outlandish and alien. It certainly didn't sound like U2, but it also didn't sound like any other music that I had heard. And then the album came out, and hearing these songs fresh and never even hearing what the songs are called or anything, or hearing any reviews or press about any of this music and getting to listen to it completely fresh, I thought was just such a great, fun experience that I still haven't experienced again with anything. Nowadays, there's so much information about everything before it comes out. There's so much information about everything before it comes out. The Beyonce record truly is one of the ones that people have experienced in that same way since then. It just came out in the middle of the night, and everyone the next day just kind of put it on and said, I have no idea what to think about this.

No one has told me what to think about this. Yeah, it's great. And I will say, and this is the um what was i gonna say sorry well if if someone had if you'd read a million articles saying youtube talks about their fresh new direction right exactly there was none of that there was they did all they had was this weird video this weird song and that was it we had had no information. So you pop on Zoo Station, which is the first track on side one. Let's listen to a little bit of Zoo Station. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. I mean, that sounds like a guy strumming the neck of the guitar,

so I'd heard that before. Yeah. It sounds like a little sound effect. Oh, that's a distorted drum. I'd heard one of those before. We're only hearing half of this right now, right? No, yeah. We're not hearing the...

Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because it's all in one ear for us. Oh, but it's playing for... Yeah, yeah. So this, of course, is very industrial and all that, but I know a lot of people probably have been listening to some of this kind of music, but I hadn't.

I hadn't heard it. All the stuff that's influencing them at this time, I hadn't been exposed to. So this was all complete. And let's talk about those influences because they talk about them in From the Sky Down, which is a movie that I don't need to go into. Listen to our previous episode. We're not going to waste any more time on From the Sky Down. But they talk about their influences. And this was the music that I was listening to.

I'd given up on U2. Yep. And the music that was popular at the time was Happy Mondays. Yeah. Stone Roses. Yep. Jesus Jones, I would say. EMF.

Yep. All that stuff. Unbelievable. All that Manchester sound. The Mad You're unbelievable. All that stuff. That Manchester sound. The Madchester sound. Oh, Madchester. I like that. That's right.

The Stone Roses' first record is totally great. Yes. The Stone Roses, actually, and what's interesting is their first record is a rock record. Yeah. And then they put out a single called Fool's Gold which has kind of this conga rhythm and that was unlike what the Stone Roses had done

on their first record. It got attached to the first record in the States so it was the final track on the CD over here but for most people listening to the Stone Roses that song was a total different type of sound and it kind of revolutionized alternative music at that time where everything you heard kind of was that uh danceable conga

sound and so the manchester scene with happy mondays and bands of that ilk they were really into being played at loud clubs and people would dance and they would take a lot of drugs and they would they would dance around and you two meanwhile they're trying to figure out what are we going to do next what are we going to do next we've done americana we've done rattle and hum and we almost destroyed ourselves so what do we do and all of a sudden the manchester scene kind of um springs up and they go, can we do that? Are we danceable? Yeah. We're U2. Who has ever danced to us? Right.

No one. Zero people. 0% of the people, 0.0.0% of the people have ever danced to a U2 song. Other than maybe slow dance at weddings. I mean, they took that into account a little bit. But, so what do they do? They don't know. They don't know, Adam.

They don't know what to do. No idea. So what do they do? They go to the place where good old Brian Eno, we've talked about him a lot, good old sourpuss. Boil in. He, Brian Eno's like, hey, you know what? There's a little guy that I used to work with.

Maybe you've heard of him. David Bowie. I thought you were going to say John Ross Bowie. John Ross Bowie. David and I, I'm sure he said, called him by his first name, sort of big time. We like this place, Hansa. Hansa, Germany. It's right by the Wall of Berlin.

Do we need to explain what the Wall of Berlin is or was? No. Okay. So it's right by the Wall of Berlin. I recorded the Lowe Trilogy, the Berlin Trilogy with David there. Why don't you go get out of here, go to Berlin, get a little...

R&R. R&R, rest and relaxation. In Berlin. When the wall of Berlin is coming down. The most stressful time in the history of Eastern Europe.

Go record there for a while. Right. And you know what? To their credit, the guys in U2 go, Brian, that sounds like a great idea. Yep. That's exactly what they said.

So they all go there. Oh, they went there, all right. And they start working on songs while there's this sort of revolutionary moment happening. By the way, the fall of the Berlin Wall was not the most stressful moment in the history of Eastern Europe. Yeah, that actually was like a good moment and a happy moment. Absolutely not accurate. Stressful for people who didn't want it to come down. Which was very few.

Although there is the story, I don't know if you know this one, about how Bono, when the wall came down, went out to celebrate. And he got into this big crowd of people and he thought he was in the middle of a celebration and it turned out to be the lone dissenters who were arguing against it. And he's like, what am I doing here? At the wrong party. But no, they go to Berlin hoping to get a little bit of that inspiration that David had talked so much about. But what they're forgetting is David, he's coked out of his mind doing the Berlin Trilogy. He doesn't give a

shit about walking around depressing Berlin. He's just sitting there with his drugs the whole time. Right. They get to Berlin, and they're like, hey, guess what? Berlin is bummer town. Right. They didn't like it, Adam. So wait.

I'm waiting. Yeah, they didn't like it, Adam. So wait. I'm waiting. Yeah, they didn't like it. What? So you didn't see the fly video when it came out or hear the song? No. I'll tell you. Do you want to hear my? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, sure. I'm not a fan of U2. At the time, you had given up on them because of one album. Rattling Hot. Well, you know, I mean, look, yeah, I love The Unforgettable Fire. Joshua Tree's great, but you know what? I just thought Rattle and Hum,

that was what they were going to be, and you know what? I got cooler shit to listen to. Because it did seem like it was baked in because Joshua Tree was one thing. This is the result of that. Oh, they're just going to be doing this over and over again. Yeah, it's just going to be doing this over and over again.

Yeah, it's just going to be this, and I don't need to hear him preaching all the time. Right. And I just give up. Now, I was in college, and these three years of my life, I did not listen to a ton of music because I was in acting school, something you should look into. a ton of music because I was in acting school, something you should look into. And I was working on my craft for, you know, 12, 14 hours a day. And I was serious about it, Adam. I wasn't some pretty boy who moved down to L.A. who was like,

you know what, I'm going to kind of coast on my looks. And maybe one day – Why are you looking at me while you're saying all of this am i looking at you yeah i'm talking you too to you i didn't realize i was looking at you okay okay going but uh i was working hard on it and um i didn't have time to listen to a lot of music okay so stuff kind of passed me by i was still trying to keep up with it and i actually was in a band and i like i said i was listening to stuff like stone roses um when i was in college that was a big moment putting on that fool's gold record and us kind of like having our minds blown

yeah um jane's addiction that was something that i got into um in 1991 and um so i was into a lot of kind of newer music at the time and you too just kind of was this old stodgy thing that was part of my past yeah so the fly came out and i think actung baby itself came out and i paid it no mind right you're like you two fuck them who cares i didn't need it didn't even register with me that it was something that i should go do or you were and it's only been three years since. But three years is a long time in the life of a young lad. Yeah. And back then, people put out an album a year. So three years away from the public eye.

And if you think about from the moment they said, okay, see you later. We're going to go off and dream it all up again. And no one knew if it meant they were breaking up or whatever. It was only a year and 10 months from when octoon baby came out so they really they went and reinvented themselves pretty quickly pretty quickly yeah but uh to me i uh had just graduated high school when uh rattle and hum came out and i'm in the middle of my final year of college when octoon baby comes out. Okay. This girl in my class, Sarah, who would give me rides occasionally. And I believe she had a, I think she had a, no, maybe I'm mixing it up.

I talked about the person that we went to see Rattle and Hum with had a yellow Volkswagen bug. For some reason, I'm thinking she had one. Maybe she did. Maybe she didn't. Yeah. Who cares? Well, you know, I i mean it's important so she gave me a ride one day home from school and she had the fly single oh and she said hey so what do you think of the new you too she knows i'm into music yeah

she has the fly singleingle and I go, oh, I don't like U2. I don't care. And she goes- Feeling betrayed. Betrayed. Little does she know, you were an enormous U2 fan

at one point. Oh, sure. Favorite band. She's assuming that I, you know, as a music fan and someone who knows

so much about music at the time and alternative music to be specific, she's assuming, well, I have an opinion on the new youtube song too i go oh i don't care i don't care to listen to it she goes are you sure you don't want to listen to it yeah i'm like i mean i'm not gonna like it i guess if you play it

yeah i will listen to it um i was a nice guy and sound really nice so she puts in the fly let's hear it again and this is what i hear okay this is the fly now in my mind i'm like oh okay well that sounds doesn't sound like you too doesn't sound like you too so that's i guess encouraging when i re-listen to the fly i share the same opinion that I had when I listened to it back then, which is I think it sounds like a great demonstration tape of all the new studio techniques U2 is going to use on this record. Yes. It is not a song. It is a song.

It's not a great—it is. Structurally, it is a song it's not a great it is it structurally it is a song you were to ask me to sing it right now i would not be able i don't know how the melody goes i don't well there is a melody in the core there's a chorus is it the one where he's like sings in falsetto is like i maybe only know that because we just started playing the beginning of it but it is a perfect teaser single for the album, in that it's not like they were thinking it was going to chart really high. They're just like, let's clear the slate.

Yes, let's let everyone know that something different is happening here. Yeah, we've talked about Amuse Bouches on our previous episode. This is like a sorbet. This is maybe the one time that U2 has put out a sorbet as the first single. Like, putting out one as the first single would have been a mistake because it's not different. Same old U2. So when I heard it, I shrugged and said, well, that's interesting, I guess, but I still don't care. So it did not have the effect on me of, oh, wow, all of a sudden I'm a big U2 fan again because it's such a great single.

I would say it is the most atypical single they have ever put out of any record. Yeah. Where it really was, it's like a PR campaign in a song. Yes. Isn't it? Yes. To say, we're not like U2 anymore. Yes.

The video even more so and more shocking as a YouTube fan to see this. And you're just like, they don't even look like the same guys. What's he doing in the video? Is he wearing the fly sunglasses? Yeah, it's the first time you see all that stuff and they have all the TV screens. It's all planned out. This is our new thing. Everything we're doing, you got the sunglasses, you got the little i remember reading bono was talking about how he was really getting into these one line aphorisms at the time of like uh a friend is the person who will ultimately betray you yeah all these like little and and flashing them on the screen like it's like i remember subliminal was a big catch word back then. No one talks about it now.

No. Because Kevin Nealon was just kind of introducing Mr. Subliminal. A lot of people don't know that U2's Actoon Baby is based on Kevin Nealon's Mr. Subliminal character. Kevin Nealon subliminally got them to make that album. So I have, at this point, when The Fly is released, I don't care. Still don't give a shit. I don't give a shit. I listened to it that one time in her...

Young Scott Aukerman is hard to impress, hard to please. Well, I'm sorry, but that's how I felt about it. Now, we are going to hear how I either changed my opinion or kept my opinion coming up after this break. Wow. What do you think of that, Adam? I think that people are going to wet their pants while they're waiting. With cum. By the way, Bono, please come on the show.

We would love to have you on the show. We would love to have you. All right, let's come on back with more you talking you two to me after this i don't think it's any secret when i tell you that we get a lot of people wanting to do shows here at earwolf we get a lot of what we call in the biz pilots sent to us they're littering up the hallways just the reel to reels reels to reel i don't know but you know what tv's own andy daly who you know from my show comedy bang bang will be sorting through them to discover promising new talent check out the andy daly podcast pilot project to see if he discovers all right we are back you talking you too to me

adam scott scott ackerman and we just started talking about uh actung baby and when we left off uh i don't give a shit adam meanwhile is he it's like he's being spoon-fed i at that point since i was into rattle and hum and by this point 1991 rattle and hum had been beaten into the ground um into submission by critics and fans and you're still a fan you wrote that letter to rolling stone about like hey man you you're looking at this record wrong yes so i So I, at this point, was like resigned to the fact that I was going to be alone in this. But then when I heard the album, I thought, this is new music. This is a new kind of music I hadn't heard before. This is extraordinary.

But also thinking maybe no one will notice. Maybe it'll just be a flop a flop no one will give a shit i don't know but i think this is really special and interesting and weird how did your friends react then to the fly because were they like me of like it's different but it's well because the fly is not on their best ofs or anything. It's not like it's one of their greatest songs. It was my first year at school. So I hadn't really, it was like November. Wait, you were in kindergarten?

Yeah, it was my first year of kindergarten. But I just moved to LA like a couple months before. So they didn't have like. Okay, I was working on my craft. You'd moved to LA. Moved to LA to go to acting school, Scott. And so I didn't really have friends to talk about U2 with yet. I had friends I was talking about Shakespeare with because we were...

Well, I was talking about Shakespeare with people, not U2. I was working hard at my craft. My fingers, every single one of them were ground down to a nub working on acting. What's your favorite Shakespeare line? Um... down to a nub working on acting. What's your favorite Shakespeare line? Thou doth protest too much. And what does that mean to you as an actor and as a human being? It means rattling hum has a lot of virtues.

So you relate everything in Shakespeare to you too. Well, yeah, that's what all of Shakespeare's plays are about. Interesting, interesting. So your buddies in acting school, whatever happened to them, by the way, any of those guys ever become anything? I mean, acting-wise, not really. But hey, they're still people, right? Yeah, absolutely. They're people and productive members

of society great um so wait you don't give a shit you don't care about the fly but when does the album start floating your boat okay so let's take a look at this because the the record we have some the data here comes out in november right the record comes out october of night no wait that's november i think that's when it was recorded sorry november 18 1991 okay i had just started my final year of college all right now when does When does the song Mysterious Ways, their second single, come out? Looks like November 25, one week after that record. Very smart. Very smart.

All of a sudden, something with a hook comes out. Now, I had told you that I was very into Stone Roses. I wasn't as into Happy Mondays. I got into them a little later. But I was into that kind of like you know danceable things with hip-hop beats but like right rock over hip-hop beats right i heard mysterious ways and i said oh well that's interesting you2 is kind of doing a stone roses type of thing here. Well,

at least they're current now. Yeah. Uh, at least they're kind of trying for something other than this, like Americana, you know, uh, uh,

trying to sidle up next to Bob Dylan. Did you feel they were poaching someone else's style or did you think they were doing something interesting with it? At the time I was like, Oh wow, they're doing a stone roses thing. That's cool because that's what I like to listen to. Wow. And this song is actually very catchy.

Yeah. And I remember, uh, watching the video with him just kind of like moving around and, uh, uh, Anton, how do you pronounce his name?

Corbin. Yeah. Um, all of a sudden was you saying wrong. Yeah. I think Lance knows him personally from our two episodes prior. So he pronounced it in a way that I'd never heard before. I was like, oh, I wish I could remember that.

Yeah. But he's working all of a sudden in color with the band and oversaturated color. Yeah. And it was different than Rattle and Hum, which was all stark black and white for the most part. I can't say all and for the most part, but I did. And it was very intriguing and i remember watching at my friend's house and going you know what this is pretty good yeah this is pretty good i maybe if the rest of this record is like this i'll i'll check it out yeah and so did you go buy it immediately no i probably got it And so did you go buy it immediately?

No, I probably got it used at a certain point during that year. Wow, like before the end of the year or like 92 when it was marinating in culture? Probably in 92 at some point I probably would have finally picked it up. You were tough to get to. It was one I sat on and I slept on for about a year. It was one I sat on and I slept on for about a year. I think that when One came out, and by the way, in retrospect, One is probably the best song on the record, in my opinion. I think One is a classic song. It's an incredible song.

But it's so U2-ish in a way of just how amazing and classical it is. It doesn't really have the chiming U2 sound to it, but it is a classic U2 song. Well, yeah, I mean, structurally it is, but when you really listen to the production and stuff, at the time, they hadn't really done that yet. It was moody. Yes.

It had a different guitar sound. It had some little kind of interesting effects in it and stuff, but subtle and not... It's not like Zuuropa or pop where the effects little kind of interesting effects in it and stuff, but subtle and not, it's not like Zuu, Ropa, or Pop where the effects

are kind of at the forefront. It's more kind of, it's all one thing. So, by the time that came out, I think I was like ready for the sound and I was like,

oh, you know what? Hey, this is a great song. And that's, I think, when it clicked for me. I was like,

oh, I'll go pick it up. Because over the summer of 92, I believe, One came out as a single and it was a big hit. Let's check that out. I have that date right here. March 6th, 1992. Oh, wow. But I think it was a slow burn in a way.

Yeah. So, meanwhile, I'm graduating from college. I'm doing my finals. I'm performing in Msummer night's dream as lysander one of the lovers wow okay you love talking about your how much how hard you studied at acting i'm really focusing on it i'm becoming the best actor that i can be and so i still don't have a ton of time to devote to listening to this record and i have other records that i like more but it becomes one of these things that where i bought it used i listened to it i don't know that i listened to it all the way through even once for years and years really it's one

that i do not know as well as any of their other records still still because baby i have listened to it several times for this show yeah now but um i still find it hard to remember what some of the songs are like ultraviolet yeah if when it starts playing i'll go oh i know this and i'll be able to say i can't think of how it goes right right right uh acrobat another one i can't quite remember how i think acrobat might be the it's a great song do you want to i'll play acrobat, another one. I can't quite remember how that melody is. See, I think Acrobat might be the... It's a great song. Do you want to... I'll play Acrobat if you want.

Here we go. It's a little sleeper on the album, as they would say. Acrobat by U2. Well, this feedback isn't doing anything for me. It takes a little while for this song to get going. You know what, bands? Start your songs. You know what, bands? Start your songs. You know what I mean?

When I press play, I want to hear the song. I don't want to hear all this bullshit. Hey, they were in Hanzo Studios, okay? Wow, Rolling Stone gave it four and a half stars.

They were not willing to go to five. But you know what they gave five? All That You Can't Leave Behind. Wow, Spin Magazine gave it a mixed review that's hilarious wow so they were still getting shit for rattling huh probably probably yeah where it's like hey you know what we're not gonna like you too yet yeah but that's the thing is i would have given

it a mixed review too if i if i had to review it the day it came out or the week it came out. So the chorus to Acrobat is pretty great. Have you heard the Las Vegas version? Have you heard the cover record of this, by the way? No. Oh, you haven't got the cover record of this. Oh, yes, yes, yes. The Aktoon Baby?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Jack White and all these people. Jack White does Love is Blindness, right? Yeah, it's great. Pretty great. Oh, is this the one where it's like... Let me hear it. Yeah.

I don't think they ever played it live. I never saw them play it live. It's pretty good. It's great. I mean, this is like... Because it's still got some of the chiming guitar, but a lot of distortion as well. And it's a deep production.

It sounds like it's been... There of the chiming guitar, but a lot of distortion as well. And it's a deep production. It sounds like it's been just layers and layers. That's great. That's what the bass is trying to do, yeah. So it still is one, though, that... So you're still sort of discovering this album a little bit? A little bit, but I will say that the hits hits on it i've heard a million times at this point even better than the real thing one until the end of the world who's gonna ride your wild horses mysterious ways those are songs i've heard over and over and over again because i would make

little best of tapes because i wouldn't be able to have whole albums yeah on tapes so i would make best of singles tapes for all my favorite bands. And so this, the singles got onto these tapes, but I, I only recently have I really listened to Acrobat or Ultraviolet or even Love is Blindness. So cruel.

These are all songs that I'm still kind of discovering right now. See, I listened to this ad nauseum back then. And I think this is one of those classic albums where, like you mentioned Until the End of the World, that was never even a single, but it's one of those classics when they play it live, everyone goes crazy.

It's just an album track. So Cruel is such a great song. I know they released a remix of who's gonna ride your wild horses later um as a single and you can tell because they always do that with songs they feel they didn't quite get right the start of that where they they now are like because one thing that they talk about in these documentaries that we've been watching is they always take up into the last minute so they're always always take up into the last minute.

So they're always turning in mixes at the last minute and then it'll come out and they'll be like, oh man, I wish we had done. So I think that the version of Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

on the album is a little undercooked. So you would replace it with the single version. I would, yeah. I think it's a lot better. Do you have a version of this in your iPod

where it's like sequenced, like, okay, these are the good remixes? You know's a here's a question on the recent re-release they have early versions of all these oh yeah i call them baby songs do you prefer any of those versions no because they're they're interesting to listen to because they're really raw and stuff but i think the album is produced beautifully but that version of who's gonna ride your the single version of who's gonna ride your wild horse i don't know if i even have i might have it let me let me take a look at it i might have it um

but like trying to throw your arms around the world is great the only one that i feel this is a little... Oh, yeah. This is the Temple Bar remix. Yeah, I think this might be the one. I'm going to look up what version was released as the single. Here we go. The Temple Bar edit. Yeah, this is it.

It's just a bit... It's less raw and stuff, but... It's also a little long on the album and stuff, but it's still good. But Mysterious Ways, to me, feels kind of like of its time a little bit. I'm going to tell you my... Some may say shocking opinion of this record.

Sure. I've listened to it several times recently. You know when Harris was in here in one of our early episodes and he said U2 just sounds like the 90s to him? I have to say that this record, I wish, as much as Mysterious Ways got me back into them and made me go, oh, wow, I like them again. It sounds like the 90s to me. This record sounds, for the most part, like the 90s to me. And it is not really one of my favorites anymore.

It's kind of like, you know what? I like the way those songs sounded then, but nowadays I prefer some of their other stuff better. Well, I feel like it's, for the most part, the instrumentation on the album is all four guys playing instruments. It's not like it's all drum machines and stuff.

No, and I would even say, by the way, that I would prefer some of these songs if they were produced a little more like pop, like where they were using- More electronic? Yeah, more electronic. Really?

Yeah, I don't know why, but- I think pop feels so like 97. We'll talk about pop. But you know what? I went back and listened to those baby versions, kind of hoping, because I wish that I could hear these songs produced like classic U2. Right. I would love it if, because they talk about Brian Eno,

good old sourpuss over here. He hated anything that sounded like U2. Right. So he would be the guy who'd come in, and by the way, I'm reading about his, this is his style, and they talk about

on almost every song he's the guy he takes two weeks off they work for two weeks right he pops in for five minutes and this is his process he says so he can come to it with fresh ears no brian you're taking two weeks off you're taking a vacation in between every meanwhile tells everybody all the stuff he hates yeah he comes in and he goes you know what too many overdubs or that sounds too much like you too right change it so he hates you know what song he hates the most what out of all the stuff that they did one one yeah he's like that song's terrible i hate that song yeah and they and someone's got to go brian you know what you're being a little brian eno- at this point. You're getting all Eno on us. I kind of feel like, just like we were saying with Harris,

I think that this album was so influential that it was ripped off so much, both in the music and just kind of the look of the album cover. I remember Def Leppard and Bon Jovi both got hired Anton Corbin or whatever to do their album covers and they put kind of like a hip-hop ish beat in with their music and well it's so iconic look at look at my phone case everyone asks if this is an acting baby phone case when they see it from far away it does look like an it does because what is it it's a bunch of different photos of you and Kulop it's yeah it's photos of me and cool up and our dog but because some are in black and white some are this oversaturated color and it's kind of a collage everyone looks at and goes oh is that

octoon baby it's funny it's become this iconic because of that red photo up in the upper left hand corner see i feel like this is of its time. It was so influential. But I think that kind of like Sgt. Pepper's... You mean the Lonely Hearts Club band? Yeah, the Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band. Have you heard of that album? Well, I will say that the lads from Liverpool, they touched down upon our shores back in the 60s, and they changed television.

First time Ed Sullivan show. Ed Sullivan, yes. By the way, did you watch the Grammys last night? By the way, we were taping this right after the Grammys. I've talked about this on my show. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the goddamn lads from Liverpool, how they changed television, okay? So many times.

We've heard about it on the emmys ridiculously enough and then last night they the julia roberts comes out and hypes up the a two hour special that's going to be on just two hours about the night the beatles were on ed sullivan and they're they're all excited about it's 50 years to the day yeah Yeah. Well, what the fuck else are you doing, CBS? Like, how hard is that to get it to the day? All you have to do is not forget when it was. I know. And you can put it on. You can just

put it in iCal and you'll get an alert. So, and I was saying this on my show, if you're gonna do it 50 and you're gonna do it 40 and you're gonna do it 30 and 25, do it every year then. Alright, do it 51, 52're gonna 30 and 25 do it every year then all right do it 51 52 let's talk about these goddamn lads from liverpool and how they change tv in america every year of our lives until we die and and then they're everyone's like oh they advertise they

plug the beatles special that's in i'm like the biggest such a fan of the beatles but enough with the fucking Ed Sullivan. I totally agree with you with the Ed Sullivan thing. Who cares about what they did on Ed Sullivan? Yeah, people liked it. People like Breaking Bad. It's actually incredibly interesting, and it's a huge cultural moment, but we fucking heard about it so much. For 50 years.

I'm sure no one's more sick of it than the surviving Beatles. But anyway, then they throw to- You really think the surviving's more sick of it than the surviving Beatles. But anyway, then they throw to— You really think the surviving Beatles are sick of it? Look, of hearing about them on Ed Sullivan when they were teenagers, I'm sure. You think they're sick of hearing—I don't know, something about Paul McCartney when I look at him. You know that face that he makes anytime there's a camera pointed at him where it's like, oh, I'm surprised the camera's on him. I think Paul McCartney is still great, personally. I think he's great.

I just saw him do a three-hour show at Bonnaroo, and I was in the front row. Was it amazing? It was amazing, yeah. So great, right? But he's a weirdo, right? Yeah, he's a weirdo. Like that Dana Carvey impression of him, where he's like always shooting finger guns at people. But this is how sick of it they are.

The whole night is hyped about he and Ringo getting back together. Then they throw to them getting back together and they play, they don't even play a Beatles song. Did you watch? They played one of his new records. One of his songs from his new album

and Ringo's up there playing drums and there's a second drummer playing in the dark and they just have a light on Paul and Ringo. Yeah. Meanwhile, his whole band is kind of like, hey, remember us? We're the guys you've been playing with for years and years. Like, I felt bad for his drummer when I saw that. Like, oh, we're finally playing the Grammys, and Ringo's got to play?

I mean, I'm one of the people that loves Ringo as a drummer. Oh, he's an amazing drummer. He's fucking great. Jason Schwartzman and I talked about that on my show. Jason is a drummer and says he's one of the best of all time. Yeah, he's Jason Schwartzman's favorite drummer he says. And I

totally agree, but why not have him do all, why not just have Ringo be the drummer? Why do they have to have another drummer? Just duet between the two of them. How awesome would that have been without like everyone else playing the typical Paul McCartney arrangement that we've heard so many times? And why not play maybe a Beatles song that we haven't heard a million times? Well, that was the other thing that I loved when Paul McCartney and the surviving members of Nirvana were up there on the stage accepting their award for their song, which is not a good song the way did they get a grammy last night for that song yeah for that song they did for sound city

it's okay but it's not like oh my god this is beetleworth or nirvana worth right right right worthy um but when they were up there uh dave grohl was very gracious about the award and thanked everyone and then i i loved how paul mccartney got in there and slipped in was like oh yeah dave he called me up he said let's do long tall sally i should have been there done that let's do something new like he sold out dave grohl right there of like oh dave grohl had a shitty idea meanwhile i come in and i'm a genius that's hilarious i didn't see that yeah but why are we talking about the grandants and those lovable letters? Oh, you're talking about Sgt. Pepper, which is one of the Beatles' records, we should say. Yes, but I feel like if you take away all of the record cover and you take away the time it came out.

You have to in order to put the record on. And you just listen to the music of Sgt. Pepper, there is something very timeless about it. And I think there's a lot about Octoon Baby that is timeless. You know what? I love, I think Zoo Station sounds great. It sounds great. When the kind of murky electronics fade away and the song really kicks in, and it takes like two minutes,

which is such a great opener for an album, it's such a great song. I think some of the songs sound dated. That one doesn't to me. I think Even better than the real thing is a fucking great song i i can't listen to it all it's overplayed to me really yeah it's a little over yeah it has been overplayed but it's but somehow one which is has been overplayed perhaps uh i love that song so yeah i don't know do you like the Mary J. Blige version of One? Not really.

Having seen it live first, I think it's great. Yeah. But U2 fans don't like it. I think U2's a tough band to cover. The Beatles are a tough band to cover, too, because their songs are deceptively simple. Thanks. Their songs are... I didn't...

You don't have to thank me for nodding. Deceptively simple. Show me your penis. Their songs are deceptively simple. They're kind of... When they're sung by other people, there's sort of the specialness is taken out of them. It's like, why don't I just listen to U2 sing this?

I don't know. I didn't think... I like it. She goes wolf at the end of that, I think. Hey, let's talk about this because I thought this was really interesting. I was watching that From the Sky Down movie, and you two almost broke up. That I gave you as a present.

You two almost broke up. They talk about it. They go to Hansa Studios. Yeah. It's depressing. It's bleak. Yeah. It's Germany.

Yeah. They don't like it. Meanwhile, they almost break up because they can't come up with any songs. And here's what I started realizing. Their songwriting process, it seems like torture to me. Yeah. They basically sit there jamming. Yeah.

Someone maybe has a drum beat or Edge comes up with some chords. Yeah. And then Bono improv, some chords. Yeah. And then Bono like improvises over them. Yeah. And they have hours and hours and hours of these tapes of them doing this. No one ever comes in with a song like, Hey, I wrote this,

check this out. Let's record it. Boom. We're done in two hours. Right. They sit there with this process for years, for years. I cannot imagine.

That's why for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, apparently before that album, they had recorded an entire album with Rick Rubin, scrapped it, went back to the drawing board, recorded the album with Steve Lillywhite. Same with No Line on the Horizon, maybe? They started recording with someone else, scrapped it. I think No Line was with Rick Rubin. Oh, is that what it was? Yeah, because Rick Rubin, I believe, did Window in the Skies. Right, which I really like. Yeah, I really like that record.

But it's also, you listen to that song a few times and you realize that the depth of it isn't what they kind of get with Lan Juan. Right, or Lillywhite, who, you know right or lily white who uh you know he he he's the one who said hey yeah you should use a different producer than me oh yeah now that you guys are getting big you should find someone else so they did him a solid which was nice and they went back to him for how to dismantle and made a great album um we'll talk about that um but uh yeah i i it just they they show and they play the tapes of them coming up with one yeah it's really interesting the first time they play it it's basically two different songs that the edge has

yeah two different chord progressions and uh lanois says, hey, put them together. He starts playing it. Bono starts just wailing over it and improvising. It is pretty close to the finished product within 15 minutes. Yeah. That's how quickly it happens for them. Yeah. Yet, to get to that 15 minutes, they have to do a year of fucking around. And almost breaking up.

have to do a year yeah of fucking around almost breaking up because the edge and bono wanted to go into this more kind of dancey electronic uh um um direction and uh larry mullen and adam clayton were like this is not us i don't know what this is so larry mullen when he hears that is like drum machines guess who is a drum machine right and has two thumbs this guy this guy right here and i need these thumbs to play these drums so i'm not chopping them off sticks so it is interesting that and now it's been five years since no line on the horizon came out like their album it takes forever it takes forever what are they you know and when he comes in here i want to ask bono about that um like what do you do for five years are you doing five years of just like fucking around like you did right to come up with this record like why doesn't one of them write

one song and then they come in with and go yeah i like it and then they just lay it down that's why it would be a real bummer if this album comes out and it's not good yeah well i hope it's good maybe it's out by the time this episode comes out i don't know maybe it's out by the time we finish recording this episode um let's try to kind of wrap up what we think about so where would you place this in the pantheon just in just historically or for me for you i was trying to think about that because i listened to it a couple of times recently uh on headphones at the gym yeah i work out um i was gonna ask but you were just gonna ask because you saw my no when you said at the gym i was gonna say oh um i was trying to think what which records i like better okay let

me let me look up their discography and i'll tell you uh and i don't want to spoil future episodes so i'm gonna say where it lands within the albums we've already talked about okay we have uh boy october war the unforgettable fire the joshua tree rattle and hum and actung baby okay obviously the unforgettable fire i've talked about it as my favorite record by them so i do not like it better than the unforgettable fire i like it better than boy yeah i like it better than october yeah i do not like it better than war wow i do not like it better than the joshua tree i know rattle and hum much better yeah

um so if i'm truly being honest i've listened to Rattle & Hum way more in my life than Ak-Tung Baby. Wow, that's so surprising. Even though I didn't like it and it turned me off as a – You gave it a try back then. I still return to Rattle & Hum and I know it's just part of my life so much. I just would have to say I probably like Rattle & Hum better. I'm not sitting there going, oh, I want to slip on Ak-Tung Baby. It's interesting because you were so hesitant with octoon baby at the time

whereas i dove in and you dove in you know way more about it bought fly glasses and wanted to do you have pictures i don't think so do you still have the glasses they weren't the actual the same thing but they were like cool looking shades. And he was wearing them ironically. Yeah, but they looked cool. Oh, and you don't think he was like, actually, I look pretty cool. Actually, I do look kind of cool. Well, you know, in our next episode, we have to talk about the zoo TV tour. We have to talk about irony.

We have to talk about the glasses. We have to talk about all the personas. We have to talk about irony we have to talk about the glasses we have to talk about all the personas we have to talk about yes macfisto macfisto and his opera voice and all that kind of stuff where do you place aktoon baby in the pantheon up to this uh up to where we are up to where we are well i think like we were saying war is consistently a great i mean there isn't a weak song on there it's kind of a energetic crisp perfect album but i think a comparison with the who is apt in that i think it's there's nothing to complain about on it but as far as depth and breadth i think that it falls a little short when you compare it to Joshua Tree and Octoon Baby, which are these sprawling, epic, deep masterpieces.

So it's a little like listening to Anytime Anywhere. Yeah, it has all the energy and it sounds awesome. But you know what? I'd prefer to put on headphones and listen to Tommy and just, you know. Or what's the double record? Or am I going to put on headphones and listen to Rubber Soul or am I going to listen to the White album that I feel like has a lot more kind of relaxed maturity and the songwriting is maybe. Well, Rubber Soul, maybe go earlier. Yeah, sure.

Help. You know, yeah. Or something. Yeah, yeah. Or like, would I rather watch Ferris Bueller lip sync to Twist and Shout? Right. Or would I rather, you know, watch the movie Yellow Submarine? Right. Or would I rather watch Sixteen Candles or relax with a cold beer and check out, you know, watch Dutch

twice in a row? It takes you that long to drink one beer? One beer, four hours. So I would put it alongside The Joshua Tree as these two kind of perfect records. They're both a little shaggy and they're not perfect, but I think they're up there with some of the

great albums of all time. Both of those albums. Okay, and this is just for your own personal preference of listening. My own personal preference. Culturally, I thought it was and is incredibly significant, incredibly influential. But in terms of personal preference, you think Joshua Tree and, so far at this point, Joshua Tree and Actung Baby, those are the ones that you would slip on for pleasure. Still do with both of those albums.

Still do. Still do. And whereas the other ones, you're not reaching for them other than to rediscover them. Yeah, like I don't put on war. I don't reach for war, even though it's undeniable how great it is. Now, I put on Unfor unforgettable fire every once in a while for that purpose i never do that um but i also think that unforgettable fire is something i discovered later so it's not like there's no signifier in my life for meanwhile i was kind

of where you were with octoon baby in that i picked it up pretty much right when it came out i was hyped for it and lost lost your mind. Lost my mind. And I listened to it over and over and over and over. Meanwhile, with Octoon Baby and me, came to it a year late. Yeah. Never really listened to it all the way through. Yeah. But I will say that we talked about on a previous show, The Unforgettable Fire is, I consider to have bought that right when it came out even though I think I was a month late.

But as a 15-year-old, I got it when I got the money. Oh, I went the morning that Octoon Baby came out. I was outside of Sam Goody waiting for them to open. Well, Goody got it. So there you go. Goody got it. But what I was going to say is that The Unforgettable Fire I got right when it came out. Joshua Tree, of course, Day Of.

Rattle and Hum, I got it the day of and went to see it opening night. Actung Baby is the only U2 record since I started buying them with the Unforgettable Fire, that I ever waited past opening day to get. So even No Line on the Horizon? No Line on the Horizon got it. I think I maybe got the leak even before it came out. Yeah, I think I did too. So Actoon Baby is the only one out of their entire discography that I probably just don't know as well as the other ones.

What about Zoropa? Were you fully on board the day that came out come to yeah i think i was although i did i did probably get it used but i got it used like that week it came out or whatever with you know store copies cheapskate well i'm in college at the time look let me tell you about college at the time i'm spending money on books about Shakespeare oh Jesus Christ I'm spending money and you know

no joke CDs back then $17.95 they were really expensive back then it was fucking bullshit yeah it's crazy alright

any other final thoughts on Aktoon Baby I don't think so I think this was a good comprehensive episode

about the album Aktoon baby unlike some of our previous episodes. We talked about you two on this one. We actually got down to biz on this one. We actually did talk about you two. Next episode, we're going to talk about... I will have finally watched the Zoo TV DVD that I'm hoping comes in the mail. Oh, yeah.

I have to watch that, too. I have that at home. By the way, I think we're going to be taking not for you listeners, but for Adam and I, we're going to be taking a bit of a break in between recording episodes because I'm starting filming my show

and it's hard for me to come at night because I'm in every scene. Okay. Yeah, you're the host of the show. We get it. So we may have a lot to catch up on by the time that you hear the next episode because by the time we record again, the album may be announced.

Yeah. Invisible. We'll have heard it, definitely. I assume that on Super Bowl Sunday when that commercial airs, we will be- We'll be in contact. Yes. Okay. The last time I texted you, you did not get back to me at all.

I did not know that that was your phone number. I didn't know you had an 818 number. Well, you know, I keep it real. Wait, because I don't have it. I don't have your number. I'll send you another one. I'll send you another one. But you and I are going to be very excited, I believe.

Yes. Come Sunday. And by the time you hear the next episode, when we talk about Zoo TV, Zoo-ropa, possibly passengers. Is this yours? 818-415? Shut the fuck up, man. Yes. 818-415 shut the fuck up man yes by the time you hear the next episode a lot of stuff is gonna

have gone down they may have won their Oscar by the time we record next we don't even know so we'll record before then okay says the guy with more time than me okay we'll work it out but the next one is gonna to be a corker. All right?

What does that mean? It's going to be good. A corker? It's going to be a good episode. Can't I say something's going to be a corker? All right. So this is Scott Aukerman for me and Adam. Yes.

See you next time. Oh, you know, next time we do an episode, we can put Invisible on and talk about what we think. Yeah, we can. That'll be fun for people. So this is Scott Aukerman for Adam Scott saying that we hope that you have found what you're looking for. This has been an Earwolf Media Production. Executive Producers Jeff Ulrich and Scott Aukerman. For more information, visit Earwolf.com.

EarwolfRadio.com The wolf dead. Hey Queeros, it's me, Cami Esposito, and I'm here to tell you about my Hey, Queeros. It's me, Cami Esposito, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, Queery. You can sit in on hour-long conversations between me, Cameron Esposito, and some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ family. Queery explores individual stories of identity, personality, and the shifting cultural matrix around gender, sexuality, and civil rights. Plus, it is fun. We have had some incredible guests.

Emmy winner Lena Waithe? Yes, definitely. Congressman Mark Takano? You bet. L Word creator Eileen Shakin? Yes. President and CEO of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis? We definitely have.

We've got celebs. People like Trixie Mattel, Evan Rachel Wood, Tegan and Sarah, the band, and the people separately on two different episodes. We also have activists and changemakers in our community. I think it's a one-of-a-kind show full of chats you have never heard before. It's identity, it's community, it's query. You can find Query every Monday on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.