Those familiar with my U2 fascination, and my Steve Cropper fascination, and my FRINGE fascination will be amazed. On FRINGE, William Bell, an overzealous scientist/businessman/space and time contortionist, is played by Leonard Nemoy.In real life, William Bell was a singer for Stax Records, and Steve Cropper was the guitar player for Stax. The real Bell is in the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame.
Sometime during the "Achtung, Baby" recording sessions, U2 played William Bell's "Everybody Loves a Winner", and it was just released on a new 6 CD, 4 DVD box set, along with some other goodies from the vault. One of the new CDs is a rawer, rougher version of each song from "Achtung, Baby", in order... like U2 pre-covering themselves. It's like it's from an alternate universe.
Here's one from the b-sides disc, a reworked "Even Better Than the Real Thing". Fascinating.