In the beginning...

[MacPhistoPT]

The first song I heard was Discothèque... I knew nothing about U2 and then I saw that video on MTV and I was shocked

What made me a fan was Beautiful Day and then the 80's best-off.

 

[Ellay]

Mysterious Ways was the song that did it for me,

Though I suddenly realised that a load of other songs were by U2 as well.

And of course the Fly knocking Bryan Adams off the charts after 15 weeks in the UK caused a bit of a stir as well

 

[mads]

first song ever was with or without you. i first heard it on 11/16/1995, on an episode of "friends" (shut up ). rachel was mad at ross for making a list of her bad qualities, and ross requested WOWY on the radio and dedicated it to her. i heard the song, and immediately it struck me as something incredible. i was 8 years old at the time.
after that, i kept watching that episode and that song stuck in the back of my head. i didn't know it was U2 and had zero interest in music, but i knew i loved that song. i eventually found out what the song was, and three years later i went out and bought the best of 80-90. first real cd i ever purchased. i very vividly remember standing at the U2 section of the record store, reading the back of every album to find the song. and then i couldn't decide between joshua tree and the best of, but ultimately decided to get the best of because it had more tracks.
i bought the rest of their albums within about a couple of months, and the rest is history, i guess.

 

[*sofia*]

1. With or without you..

3. I was at home studying with my face like this: and the radio was on, and WOWY came up and I thought that's it, I'm not studying, I'm going to the library to get some more of this U2..

4. The joshua tree. I think. Achtung baby just after that!
Ohh, the first time I heard Zoo Station! ..that did it for me.

 

[onebloodonelife]

... which one was it?

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?

1. Not sure, but I remember hearing Sunday Bloody Sunday long after it came out, probably 4-5 years ago and thinking, "I've got to get that album!"

3. I've got no idea when it was, but I think it was on some PBS show that I was watching.

4. A little over a year ago I finally went out and bought War, loved it, and then went to my library and got every single U2 cd they had and burned it. Since then, I have bought some of those albums, but hey, money's tight and all I need is the music.

 

[Zoots]

And he was bloody creepy in that film clip! He knows it, and thats why he never dressed like that again!

If you thought he looked creepy in that video, you probably think Macphisto in the Lemon video is creepy too! I love that side of Bono... making slow movements, giving out a sly smile every now and then, no glasses like when he's Macphisto or in the Stay video... looks fucking hot... I say this in the most platonic way possible. Seriously, Bono should lose his glasses!!! Stay video...

 

[*sofia*]

Stay video...

My fav U2 video EVER

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

1. A Sort Of Homecoming, which was being used oddly enough to promote the Best Of 1980-1990. I didn't like it. I also remember heraing 'One' a bit. The first song I decided to listen to voluntarily (and liked) was 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'; incidentally I have found that 'A Sort Of Homecoming' is probably my favourite U2 song. One of the top three, at least.
3. 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' at a listening kiosk in Borders five or six years ago.
4. ATYCLB period, obviously, but the Best of 1980-1990 and Achtung Baby (which I got together) did it for me.

 

[hcbiggs2002]

1. Sunday Bloody Sunday

3. The Live Aid concert, and I was at home watching the live broadcast.

4. With or with out You/Rattle and Hum

 

[Roland of Gilead]

Late Fall '84.

Hotel room in Vancouver.

Friday Night Videos (tv show).

Pride (in the name of love).

Been brainwashed since.

4. While I became a big fan with the Unforgettable Fire, it was the Joshua Tree that really pushed the fan in me into a fanatic.

 

[angelordevil]

... which one was it?

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?


The very first U2 song I heard was quite possibly Even Better Than The Real Thing. Either that or Mysterious Ways, Pride or WOWY! Can't remember exactly. I was a 13 or 14 year old school kid when I saw the EBTTRT video for the first time. Pop made me hardcore.


In case it's not evident already, this is a Nostalgia thread. Cos I love nostalgia and I'm sure you guys do too!

I have a weird knack for remembering when things happened in my life. So much so, that my family use me regularly to recall what year we moved, what year a pet died, etc. This is a blessing and a curse!

For U2, it's a blessing, of course. The first song of theirs that I heard was Streets. I'm just a kid at this point, and my mom has bought the Joshua Tree on cassette and plays it in the car on the way home from a wedding in Ontario. It's so different than anything I've heard before. Fresh sounding, but full of some kind of ancient wisdom that I was instantly intrigued by, but not able to articulate. I remember looking at the little booklet and thinking the band looked slightly scary, or ghostly. I also couldn't tell their ages, which was interesting...there were no pictures of cobras around their necks or half-dressed women sitting on the hood of a car.

From there, uncles and others started giving me U2 things, like Rattle and Hum. I remember having an argument with a kid who wanted to play Bon Jovi in the juke box. I ended up winning by playing Angel of Harlem 4 or 5 times in a row with all the change I had on me.

When Achtung came out, that was an amazing moment. I used to play it every afternoon on bust before my mom came home from work. There was a lot of singing into a hairbrush. The songs had such emotion in them, and even though it was such a departure from what orginally hooked me, I liked it better, and it was like a rubber stamp of their brilliance.

 

[popacrobat]

1. With or Without you, Bullet the Blue Sky...

3. probably around 1989 and i was like 2 years old...but i still remember hearing those songs and seeing the videos on TV, my brother and sister are much older than me and love U2 as well. so what was i doing? waddling around the house.

4.) all that you cant leave behind

 

[AtomicBono]

If you thought he looked creepy in that video, you probably think Macphisto in the Lemon video is creepy too! I love that side of Bono... making slow movements, giving out a sly smile every now and then, no glasses like when he's Macphisto or in the Stay video... looks fucking hot... I say this in the most platonic way possible. Seriously, Bono should lose his glasses!!! Stay video...

Agreed and none of that really creeps me out, MacPhisto cracks me up more than anything the shades were cool for awhile and certainly fit The Fly character, but now I wish he'd take them off... I very much agree with the saying that eyes are the window to the soul, so Bono come on, show your soul (and keep playing Original of the Species every night )

Isn't it amazing how most of us remember the first U2 song we heard, that exact moment, everything that was going on? Even if we didn't think it was monumental at the time, it made an impression, somewhere, and from there things were never quite the same again...

 

[Zoots]

Isn't it amazing how most of us remember the first U2 song we heard, that exact moment, everything that was going on? Even if we didn't think it was monumental at the time, it made an impression, somewhere, and from there things were never quite the same again...

The first time I heard the amazing intro and saw the video for Even Better Than The Real Thing, I was blown away!!! Same with the first time I heard Pride... it was the Rattle & Hum version, the Oh O O Oh chants from the crowd......

"For the Reverand Martin Luther King.................... sing!" *drums*

 

[Lemonfix]

... which one was it?

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?

First of all, most of you people are so young! After reading a lot of these I feel old at 24!

Anyway....

1. I can't remember. U2 has been around since before I was born and I feel that certain songs have always been in the background of my life, even if I was only a little bit aware.

2. The Joshua Trio, Pride, New Years Day seem to have always been with me.

3. I remember the first time I heard Sunday Bloody Sunday, I was about 13 and in my brother's bedroom listening to the radio. I also remember the first time I heard All I Want is You, I was around the same age, in a free period in school. I borrowed someone's Reality Bites Soundtrack CD ( ) and I immediately listened to AIWIY because I knew that every U2 song I had ever heard I loved. After hearing both these songs for the first time I was filled with a sense of euphoria, as silly as that sounds. I couldn't believe that music could be that good. A year or so later, HMTMKMKM came out and I felt a similar sensation. I also considered U2 to be these incredible, untouchable rock gods at that time (1995) --it was such a big deal that they released a song as they had not been heard from in a while, plus the fact that they didn't even appear in the video, in human form at least, made them seem even more mythic to my teenage self. There are other instances, but these are the ones that stick out the most.

4. AB. It often takes me a few listens to really get into an album, be it by U2 or someone else. I know that I found a lot of the Joshua Tree boring the first few times I heard it. After hearing Achtung Baby for the very first time I immediatley thought to myself "this is the Best Album I have ever heard." I'm glad that I became a hardcore fan around the time of Pop, before the Best Of came out, before Napster, because I might have not gone out and bought all the albums like I did and really immerse myself...though that seems not to have been a problem of a lot of people here.

 

[Meghan]

If you thought he looked creepy in that video, you probably think Macphisto in the Lemon video is creepy too! I love that side of Bono... making slow movements, giving out a sly smile every now and then, no glasses like when he's Macphisto or in the Stay video... looks fucking hot... I say this in the most platonic way possible. Seriously, Bono should lose his glasses!!! Stay video...

I love MacPhisto! I don't think he's particularly hot, but he's just so cool! And the Lemon video doesn't make him look freaky at all...

And the Stay video is (in terms of Bono's looks and on the whole) MUCH better than the Sweetest Thing video.

I really don't know what it is about Sweetest Thing Bono that makes him look like a creep, he just does. Maybe its the sucky glasses.... Once he took them off he looked a little better. The hat didn't help either.

Just my opinion.

 

[LMP]

... which one was it?

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?


The very first U2 song I heard was quite possibly Even Better Than The Real Thing. Either that or Mysterious Ways, Pride or WOWY! Can't remember exactly. I was a 13 or 14 year old school kid when I saw the EBTTRT video for the first time. Pop made me hardcore.


In case it's not evident already, this is a Nostalgia thread. Cos I love nostalgia and I'm sure you guys do too!

The very first U2 song I heard was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I think the first few I heard were: Pride, WOWY, Streets, Desire, and Beautiful Day

It was 2001-2002, and I was burning the Best of 80-90 and 90-2k for my friend

Achtung Baby made me a hardcore fan, followed by The Unforgettable Fire and PoP

 

[menelaos]

My first 2 songs I 've heard were SBS and NYD from the Best Of 1980-1990 album...
It must have been 3 years from this glorious day....
Then I bought Achtung Baby and that's it...The rest is history...I downloaded my first bootleg Last night of Popmart and since then I was dreaming almost every day my first live concert...
Nice thread...

 

[Mats Avail]

1. New Years Day.
2. Sunday Bloody Sunday, 40, Pride.
3. 82/83 I remember being on a school bus and it being on the radio.
4. The Unforgettable Fire.

 

[LikeNoOneBefore]

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard? "Beautiful Day"

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard? "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Wake Up Dead Man" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time? I heard "Beautiful Day" when we were watching some award show on TV, and they performed it. I was about nine or ten, I think.

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan? ATYCLB. Like I said, I was about nine or ten when it was released.

 

[aislinn]

1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?

I don't remember. Probably something off JT, on the radio.

2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?

Difference between "heard" and "listened to," I think. I'm sure I heard lots of U2 songs on the radio as a child but didn't really listen to them. I didn't pay much attention to U2 until 1992, when I was a sophomore in high school.

3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?

I was over at a friend's house after school and we were listening to cds. She played AB for me while I looked through the cd booklet.

4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?

AB got me right away. Such a bitter, dark album. Been a "hardcore" fan ever since--whatever that means.