A montage of U2's leadoff singles over the years...

[namkcuR]

So, since we all inevitably compare GOYB to U2's other lead-off singles, I made a little montage(little = just under 9.5 minutes) of all 12 of them, just for fun. It's roughly 40 seconds, give or take a few, to each track, the video portions being a mix of single cover artwork and music video for each track.

The video portions of this montage might be just a tiny bit out of sync with the audio at one or two points, because I made the audio track first using the CD recordings, and then I stripped the videos of their audio tracks and re-matched the video up to the audio track I had already put together. The videos for "A Day Without Me" and "Fire" were especially tricky because they were live(since the band didn't make actual music videos for them) and matching up live video to studio recordings is easier said than done. Also, while artwork only partially makes up the video portions for each represented track, GOYB is represented 100% by artwork because obviously the video isn't out yet. Anyway, this might be good, it might be crap. I can't make the judgement objectively. I had fun making it though.

YouTube - U2 - The Leadoff Singles(A Montage)

 

[david]

That's really good, I just think the original release date graphic that pops up should stay up a little bit longer to actually read it.

Otherwise you did an awesome job!

 

[digitize]

Very cool. You can really hear how Bono's voice has evolved step-by-step with this.

 

[purpleoscar]

Good work!

 

[corianderstem]

I had no idea Fire was the lead single off October. I just assumed it was Gloria!

 

[innocent_eyes]

That was awesome, nice work! My only suggestion would be to try and get the information bars that pop up at the start of each song to stay a little longer, they were flashing by before I could read them!

Boots fits in pretty well with the other singles, I love it, I'm really pumped for NLOTH!!!!!!!!!!

Great job!!!!!!!

 

[corianderstem]

Hearing Desire followed by The Fly and Numb is really startling in this context. While of course I know as a U2 fan (especially one who spends so much time on this site) 80s U2 = earnest rock and 90s U2 = more experimental, it's almost jarring to hear that transition here.

Sometimes I forget just how big a difference there was when The Fly came out. Not to mention going from long-haired, open-vest, I AM SO EARNEST Bono to the complete opposite of that.

 

[Rosebud]

 

[Rosebud]

Oh wait, what about Out of Control? Doesn't that count as first single?

 

[namkcuR]

Oh wait, what about Out of Control? Doesn't that count as first single?

No, because the single was actually called 'Three', it was released at least a year before 'Boy', and the recording of 'Out Of Control' on it, as well as 'Stories For Boys', was a different recording from the ones that we know from 'Boy'.

 

[namkcuR]

That was awesome, nice work! My only suggestion would be to try and get the information bars that pop up at the start of each song to stay a little longer, they were flashing by before I could read them!

Boots fits in pretty well with the other singles, I love it, I'm really pumped for NLOTH!!!!!!!!!!

Great job!!!!!!!

Yeah, I thought they went by a little too fast too...I kept thinking about changing it but I never got around to it.

 

[LemonMelon]

Not a particularly great batch of songs, to be honest.

Thanks for putting this together though. It's interesting, and that Fire video is hilarious.

 

[namkcuR]

Not a particularly great batch of songs, to be honest.

You don't think New Year's Day, With Or Without You, The Fly, and Discotheque are a great batch of songs?

 

[bsp77]

Not a particularly great batch of songs, to be honest.

Uh, ok

 

[LemonMelon]

You don't think New Year's Day, With Or Without You, The Fly, and Discotheque are a great batch of songs?

I think ADWM, Fire, and Numb are all pretty weak, and I don't think any of them are the best songs from their respective albums, excepting maybe Beautiful Day.

 

[catlhere]

My first/main thoughts while watching each

ADWM - Bono with a guitar is always funny. He prob strummed it about 5 times the whole clip
Fire - Wow! I'd love to hear U2 talk about that performance and appearance back then
NYD - Damn you can really hear Bono start to come into his voice
Pride - Is it just me or does Bono's face look strange in this video?
WOWY - Probably my favorite easily. I can't believe people would want this dropped from concerts.
Desire - Never realized how average and pretty simple this song is when it's crammed in the middle of all these others
The Fly - I only wish I had been old enough to appreciate U2 at this moment in time because I would have loved to experience the shock of such a dramatic change in music and style
Numb - Cool video, boring song. Sorry.
Discotheque - Pretty weak. Mostly I think because I hate the album version, and how it sounds way too worked over with worthless noise
BD - For all the hate that the last two albums have received, this is probably one of the greatest songs they have ever put out
GOYB - Right in the middle, not groundbreaking or insta-classic, but no where near the bottom. Let me in the sound! is still the most badass I've heard them since Mofo.

 

[Scorpionac]

I forgot how funny the Discotheque video is. It's easy to see how that could've been alienating after the other videos before it.

It was also weird seeing how normal the band looked all of a sudden, circa 2000.

 

[rihannsu]

Bono has talked about Fire quite a bit but he just doesn't usually say the name of the song. He talks frequently about how awful they used to be on TV which is why they didn't do much of it again til ATYCLB. He tells the story about being one of the few bands whose appearance on Top of the Pops caused the single to go down in the charts. Wasn't the video made from footage from that show?

Dana