Something magical about U2

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zooropop40

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Interference is called Interference because it int
I just wondered if anyone else on this forum have a similar experience with U2.

I am now 18 years old and am a U2 fanatic. About 8 years ago I started listening to U2. I was told that based on my music taste I might like a song called "Mysterious ways." It blew me away when I heard it and it simply crawled under my skin. I started listening to achtung baby and the sounds just pushed my soul out of my body :D. I started listening to that record non-stop. and when I went on a vacation with my family to Whistler, Canada, I continued to play that record over and over and over again. I looked out the window at the beautiful mountain scenery and breathed in the fresh mountain air while playing AB. It was a great vacation...

anyways, now everytime I listen to achtung baby again, I am literally transported back to whistler canada, to the point where the album has seeped up into my memory and triggers that vacation in my mind...to the point where I even smell the air when I listen to this album and see the beauty of the mountains around me (even though I am in Miami). I almost feel like I am on drugs when listening to that album because I am so detached from whatever goes on around me. I hardly listen to AB anymore because it is almost too "holy" and I dont want to ruin the memories that are associated with it and re-write it with something else :|

i believe that even when I am 30 years older I will still be transported back to that region of the world through the sounds of U2 alone. In this way, I feel like I have an incredible bond with the band and the spirit that joins me to the music and to the beautiful scenery of the mountains. As a ritual, whenever I go back to Whistler, Canada- I listen to Achtung baby and it is pure nirvana.

Does anyone else have any sort of experience like this? I hope I dont sound crazy :reject:
 
Yeah, their music is so memorable and evocative that I often associate specific songs with memories and locations. I know exactly what you mean. I've been a U2 fan since I was your age and believe me, it doesn't fade over time! Happy listening :up:
 
I've been a fan since long before you were born.

When I hear A Sort of Homecoming, I remember wandering around the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, doing a HS project, with the Unforgettable Fire being played endlessly on my Walkman. When I hear Where the Streets Have No Name,

I remember listening to the Joshua Tree as I was trying to decide which College to attend. I also remember having that CD on as I wa flying back home from Houston after my first ever business trip....I was very pleased and excited about how things went, and we were flying over a Rain Storm, so, I'm looking at the window, above some cloud cover, seeing lightning in the clouds below as I listen to my favorite album of all-time. Very visceral memories there.

When I hear Zoo Station I'm instantly transported to my car, sitting in the parking lot of the Cross County Shopping Center. I had bought the CD of Achtung Baby the day it was released, and, was so desperate to hear it that I did not wait the 10 minutes it would have taken to drive home and listen there....I popped it into my Discman and sat there listening to the album in my car, after work. I must have listened to the beginning of that song 15x, just because I was so freaked out/thrilled with this new sound.

Anyway, I'm a huge music lover and have been fortunate enough to discover/be introduced to tons of amazing music, but U2 are and always be my favorites, and the impact their music has on me and the way it's been a soundtrack to much of my life remains unparalleled. I'm unabashed in professing my love for the band and their music.
 
I knew I wasnt alone!! :up:

... Its just such a spiritual experience for me hearing almost any U2 album....

A lot of my friends and people my age think "U2 sucks", I just dont even bother wasting my time arguing with them... its their loss that they are missing out on music that captures the enviornment, atmosphere, and the world around you and never lets go of it or your memories. It truly is magical
 
I still remember constantly playing October in my old beater (1967 Beaumont) in the winter of 81/82. I also remember buying the Joshua Tree and immediatley heading on a road trip through the Rocky Mountains - listening to it dozens of times. As for Achtung Baby I just remember what I refer to as my "heyday" when I was a dj at a hugely successful club and, now, looking back, having the time of my life. As for the last two albums...well, to be honest I really didn't like them as much. In fact not nearly as much so there are no "memories" tied to them. I'm leaving on a road trip through the Rockies Friday (almost 22 years to the day) and I have a burnt copy of NLOTH - I have a good feeling about this album!!!
 
I grew up in the desert SW of the US and the JT was always playing as we would go on road trips from Phoenix to Vegas and Utah. Whenever I hear Red Hill Mining Town, In God's Country, etc, I usually think of towering red rock cliffs and desert landscapes.

I totally know what you mean.
 
I knew I wasnt alone!! :up:

... Its just such a spiritual experience for me hearing almost any U2 album....

A lot of my friends and people my age think "U2 sucks", I just dont even bother wasting my time arguing with them... its their loss that they are missing out on music that captures the enviornment, atmosphere, and the world around you and never lets go of it or your memories. It truly is magical

Ah, I get a lot of the same crap from friends, but as you said, it's there loss. Most of the stuff younger people listen to now is pure trash anyways, and won't be remembered 5 years from now.

I've tried to convert friends doesn't work. I've tried to convert my mom but she's an R.E.M. nut, which is fine, I love R.E.M., but U2 is better :wink:
 
Im 23 years old, I've been a u2 fanatic since I was 15, i did not listened to AB when it came out but it was the third u2 album I bought, i discover them through ATYCLB, and the BEST OF 80- 90,

But I know how you feel, I still remember the first time I heard AB, it was on a friends house, couse it was closer to the place where I bought the album, and the expression of amazement, on both of our faces when the opening riff of ZOO Station started, its something I remember vividly, as a whole AB was my first "musical journey"( as larry would say=), and It wasn´t even on drugs or drunk to feel this experience call Achtung Baby:drool::drool::drool:, i can not believed it, now that Im going back through all this memories.
:wave:
 
I will never forget first seeing U2 live on the JT tour, I was just 14 and I cried and cried and cried.. it was just surreal to me. Every time I listen to the album I'm taken back to that time so many years ago. Very special indeed.

These days I am feeling very emotional about the new album. Especially Magnificent. U2 has manged to tug at my heart yet again. :heart:
 
You don't sound crazy at all. That's the mark of great music. It'll take you someplace. Glad to hear you got turned on to Mysterious Ways & AB.:up:
 
I just wondered if anyone else on this forum have a similar experience with U2.

Zooropa. 2mths before the album came out my daughter was born. her mother passed away after her birth, leaving a heart broken and very scared young man to take care of a baby and to try to carry on with life.
inspite of the circumstances i feel good when i listen to Zooropa. yeah songs like "lemon" and "stay" make me feel a little sadness, but the album never gets me down.
 
I will never forget first seeing U2 live on the JT tour, I was just 14 and I cried and cried and cried.. it was just surreal to me. Every time I listen to the album I'm taken back to that time so many years ago. Very special indeed.

These days I am feeling very emotional about the new album. Especially Magnificent. U2 has manged to tug at my heart yet again. :heart:

i remember after that seeing them for the first time on the ZooTV tour, i felt like this weight had been lifted off my shoulders. it was like i was carrying this burden all the way till then and seeing that show just lifted it right off. i literally felt like i could fly.
Magnificent seems to have affected me the same way it has you. i feel amazing sadness and joy at the same time. i was driving across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge while it was playing. looking across the entire bay area, the blue/green water glittering in the bright sun, was quite breathtaking while hearing bono screaming "magnificent".
 
I knew I wasnt alone!! :up:

... Its just such a spiritual experience for me hearing almost any U2 album....

A lot of my friends and people my age think "U2 sucks", I just dont even bother wasting my time arguing with them... its their loss that they are missing out on music that captures the enviornment, atmosphere, and the world around you and never lets go of it or your memories. It truly is magical

spot on champ.

City of Blinding Lights takes me back to Christmas day 04, Kite takes me back to the night my pa died, Stay takes me back to a family vacation, Stuck got me out of a rut... endless.
 
I just wondered if anyone else on this forum have a similar experience with U2.

I am now 18 years old and am a U2 fanatic. About 8 years ago I started listening to U2. I was told that based on my music taste I might like a song called "Mysterious ways." It blew me away when I heard it and it simply crawled under my skin. I started listening to achtung baby and the sounds just pushed my soul out of my body :D. I started listening to that record non-stop. and when I went on a vacation with my family to Whistler, Canada, I continued to play that record over and over and over again. I looked out the window at the beautiful mountain scenery and breathed in the fresh mountain air while playing AB. It was a great vacation...

anyways, now everytime I listen to achtung baby again, I am literally transported back to whistler canada, to the point where the album has seeped up into my memory and triggers that vacation in my mind...to the point where I even smell the air when I listen to this album and see the beauty of the mountains around me (even though I am in Miami). I almost feel like I am on drugs when listening to that album because I am so detached from whatever goes on around me. I hardly listen to AB anymore because it is almost too "holy" and I dont want to ruin the memories that are associated with it and re-write it with something else :|

i believe that even when I am 30 years older I will still be transported back to that region of the world through the sounds of U2 alone. In this way, I feel like I have an incredible bond with the band and the spirit that joins me to the music and to the beautiful scenery of the mountains. As a ritual, whenever I go back to Whistler, Canada- I listen to Achtung baby and it is pure nirvana.

Does anyone else have any sort of experience like this? I hope I dont sound crazy :reject:

Hmm interesting. Well I am over in Vancouver at the moment on a year work visa, so maybe I'll try listening to AB and JT on a trip to Whistler, as well as NLOTH of course. Then later this year I'll travel to the Rocky Mountains and will play them on throughout that trip as well.
 
I just wondered if anyone else on this forum have a similar experience with U2.

I am now 18 years old and am a U2 fanatic. About 8 years ago I started listening to U2. I was told that based on my music taste I might like a song called "Mysterious ways." It blew me away when I heard it and it simply crawled under my skin. I started listening to achtung baby and the sounds just pushed my soul out of my body :D. I started listening to that record non-stop. and when I went on a vacation with my family to Whistler, Canada, I continued to play that record over and over and over again. I looked out the window at the beautiful mountain scenery and breathed in the fresh mountain air while playing AB. It was a great vacation...

anyways, now everytime I listen to achtung baby again, I am literally transported back to whistler canada, to the point where the album has seeped up into my memory and triggers that vacation in my mind...to the point where I even smell the air when I listen to this album and see the beauty of the mountains around me (even though I am in Miami). I almost feel like I am on drugs when listening to that album because I am so detached from whatever goes on around me. I hardly listen to AB anymore because it is almost too "holy" and I dont want to ruin the memories that are associated with it and re-write it with something else :|

i believe that even when I am 30 years older I will still be transported back to that region of the world through the sounds of U2 alone. In this way, I feel like I have an incredible bond with the band and the spirit that joins me to the music and to the beautiful scenery of the mountains. As a ritual, whenever I go back to Whistler, Canada- I listen to Achtung baby and it is pure nirvana.

Does anyone else have any sort of experience like this? I hope I dont sound crazy :reject:


Oh yeah!

I have the same feeling listening to Achtung Baby now as I did when I first heard it in 1991, i love it just as much, and to be honest most U2 albums have a similar effect on me. Their music does appear to have magical quailities, at least to me!! They have the power to make me feel that the world can be a beautiful place even when life shows me otherwise.

Very happy that you feel so positive about my favourite ever record/band.
 
I totally understand that "magic" or "feeling" or whatever it is called...
SYCMIOYO= my father who died a week later after Bomb was released
Miracle Drug, one of my first loves...Original of the species and Love is Blindness, my ex...
Stay, somewhere in Europe vacation, Desire, me partying with my friends...Miss Sarajevo, first time in Italy, Streets; U2 concert, BD, my first U2 song, Vertigo, my first U2 album opened (I even remember the smell!), No Line on the Horizon (song) Portland, OR, my most recent vacations...I could go on all day with this... hehe...so, either we are all crazy or there's something really spiritual going on with U2 music!
 
That magic was definitely there from day one for me too.

I was 15 when "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" had come out. Prior to hearing that album, my music taste was absolutely disgusting (lots of Top 40 crap). It wasn't that I actually liked the music that I was listening to, I just couldn't find my niche and just listened to whatever was on the Top 40.

One day in September or October, I heard Vertigo on the iPod commercial and immediately went online to hear the rest of the song. I kind of forgot about it for a little while until December.

When the CD came out, I was looking through a friends CD binder and saw the new U2 album and asked if I could borrow it. I listened to it and was just blown away; I had never had music hit me like that (To this day, I still think that HTDAAB is a GREAT album).

If that album had never come out, I don't know where my taste in music would be right now. It seriously was a musical epiphany for me. My "taste" in music seemed to almost change that instant, now my standards are almost too high ;)

I immediately went out and bought the limited edition version of the album and was blown away when I heard "City Of Blinding Lights" and thats when I knew, this band was special.

One of the last U2 albums I purchased happened to be "The Joshua Tree." (Yes, I regret buying it so late, I didn't know better back then!) Never had an album ever had such an effect on me, I was blown away while listening; one of those albums that sent chills down your spine.

To this day, only four albums have ever had that type of effect, "The Joshua Tree", Radioheads "OK Computer", Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" and Tom Wait's "Rain Dogs" where I was just absolutely blown away with chills going down my spine.

Ever since, they quickly rose to my favorite band and have inspired me to seek out the music I like instead just listening to whatever is popular.

I really wish that the upcoming generation would be more open to broadening their tastes in music. My musical taste consists of very little "modern" music (some alternative stuff [ex. Radiohead, Arcade Fire, etc.], some indie, lots of classic rock, jazz, blues, industrial, dance, etc. I'm not saying they have to listen to what I listen to, but they need to discover what they really like.

It's unfortunate that they'd rather be listening to "My Life Would Suck Without You" or whatever the crap they play on the radio these days. I hope music can hit them on the head one day like the day I first heard HTDAAB (December 11, 2004) as having music that you love just adds so much to life.

To me, the magic about U2 isn't just about their music, it's the fact that there music opened the doorway for me to truly discover and appreciate music the way I do today. (They're still my favorite though ;))
 
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Lets Just face it.There is alot of great music out there from alot of great bands,but IMO there's only one band named U2 that can evoke worldwide connection with thier audience and convey true emoitional attachment in their music.
 
Lets Just face it.There is alot of great music out there from alot of great bands,but IMO there's only one band named U2 that can evoke worldwide connection with thier audience and convey true emoitional attachment in their music.

agreed. The only other band that ever makes me feel the way U2 does is radiohead :drool:

but U2 always is at a level that is unreachable by any band in my opinion. Their music is too powerful and epic and it is a work of art. So unlike the top 40 musicians who throw trash together to make a quick buck.
 
Now this is when I like Interference man, every one connecting about what is really the important thing we all have in common with this band. I'm 27, soon to be 28, and I've been listening to U2 for 16 years. This band has so many songs that launch you into spiritual mindtrips it's ridiculous. All you younger fans out there, tell your teenie bopper friends to go pound salt if they give you shit about liking U2, they have absolutely no soul if they can't dig at least one or two U2 songs. I remember in 10th grade getting crap for wearing a POP shirt. Some people just won't get it. It's their loss. Two of my spiritual experiences with U2:

1. Seeing them at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh for Popmart on a chilly evening - May 22, 1997 with one of my best friends in high school. I remember waiting all day to get out of school, my buddy and I drove into the city, U2 cranking all the way through the Fort Pitt tunnel, hearts thumping, excited out of our minds. Took the clipper boat across the Monongahela to Three Rivers, the boat captain was cranking "Bad". That night I was blown away.

2. A sort of homecoming - this song will forever remind me of the fall of 1997, especially running, as I was training for ice hockey and ran on our off days. I will never forget some of the, what I call, "spiritual" runs I'd have around my local church's grounds with the leaves changing. Seriously mind blowing.
 
I neglected to mention my first U2 tour experience. 5/15/87, Brendan Byrne Arena, Meadowlands......not just my first U2 concert, but my first concert of any variety. I was 16, and, could think of nothing but this show for at least 2-3 weeks. And, of course, it was just simply amazing. I thought I was gonna float away during "Bad". The whole crowd exited the arena singing "How long......to sing this song".....all the way to their cars, etc. It was a very special evening that I'll never forget.
 
I remember the first time I saw the "Pride" video. It was 1984, and I was visiting my former boss, who'd moved from NYC to Los Angeles. I was jet-lagging, so I was watching MTV about 6:30 AM...and I heard "Pride" for the first time. My reaction? "I have to have this record NOW!!!!"

I can still picture my boss' living room so clearly, and how much I loved that song at first listen. I'll never be one of those who wants this song dropped from the live set.
 
I remember being 5 years old when I saw the Beautiful Day video on TV, I was basically amazed of the video, which I thought was very memorable, seeing a guy wearing black sunglasses and the band playing on the runway under planes flying over. Everytime I watch the video it takes me back to when it was released and what a wonderful time that must have been. For these reasons alone Beautiful Day is in my top 5 of most favourite U2 songs and why U2 will never be surpassed as the greatest rock band of all time for me, no other band will get close. :up:
 
I'm glad you are aware of the magic and can appreciate the wonder of it all!
IMO - It's what sets them apart from other bands/music.

I'm lucky to have well over 20 years of memories with the music and the band - the really great thing is that the magic still comes along and that special conectedness still gets me through the tough stuff and and lifts me up with the great stuff!
 
Me too. My first listen to AB is what sealed the deal, and I've been a huge fan ever since. I may not care for certain songs as much as others, but it doesn't diminish my overall love for the band. Right now, I'm telling myself I'm not going to go nuts spending all my money on tickets for different cities this tour...but deep down inside I know that's just rubbish!
 
..... Right now, I'm telling myself I'm not going to go nuts spending all my money on tickets for different cities this tour...but deep down inside I know that's just rubbish!


I know how you feel!!!


Back to what the OP said, my favorite U2 'feeling' is listening to UF with the headphones on calm, still summer nights with the windows open, while lying in bed.....its the most heavenly thing!
 
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