In the beginning...

[Zoots]

... 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!

 

[U2Kitten]

... 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. War

2. NYD and SBS

3. 1983, in school and summer

4. War

 

[HelloAngel]

1. Probably "I Still Haven't Found" or "Pride"

2. -----

3. Either when I was a youngster or a tweenager riding in the car with my dad who loved U2.

4. "One" changed my life as did Achtung Baby.

 

[kakvox]

I bought AB at age 10, but don't remember it that clearly. Not a breakthrough moment for me at all.

I remember seeing the 'NUMB' video at my friend's on MTV (we didn't have it). ALso bought Zooropa but didn't really 'get' it yet.

Fast forward to 1998, when I bought the best of 80-90. A couple years later I go to college, and begin listening to it more, as I begin to explore new music (via my best friend). Every trip back home I would listen to the best of and the music finally had hit me hard. I knew NONE of the names of the songs on that album, because, to me, U2 didn't exist in the 80's. I knew the sounds that I was hearing, I loved, especially Bad, streets, i will follow, the unforgettable Fire and October, all hauntingly catching for me. My best friend then started giving me her U2 albums to burn ( "You mean you haven't heard The Joshua Tree"? "Um, no, what's that ")

This was all right before ATYCLB was released and I was 19 years old. I subsequently began a journey through the 80's and 90's of U2 music, plus countless other bands I discovered through U2. Hardcore fandom became apparent as the album was released, followed by my first ever U2 concert in the front row.

I actually think back to just before discovering all this U2 music, what an unbelievable feeling it was to know something I loved, that I connected with, and knew I would forever. And till this day, I still feel their power.

 

[Zoots]

I love remembering the years in the 90s when all I owned of U2's material was Achtung Baby and Joshua Tree.. both on cassette. I used to be so fascinated by the name of the song, Van Dieman's Land. I knew there was some historical connection somewhere and that made me even more curious about Rattle & Hum. R&H was the one album that I'd been aching to get for the longest time and then finally got it on CD. I bought most of the albums on CD only from 2000 onwards cos that's when I had some decent amount of disposable cash that I could call my own!

 

[monke]

1.ive heard the "big ones" lots of tmes, but the first time i knew i was listening to u2 was Elevation

3.i was at a friends house watching mtvs top 20, elevation was number 2, he was telling me how great it was, i hated it

4.the bomb, didnt really have any cds before that, tought they where a waste of money, then i mentioned i liked a song called vertigo and some (cheap )friends all wnet in and gave me HTDAAB for xmas, and here i am

 

[Jack In The Box]

1. HM, TM, KM, KM

3. I was at my grandpa house who had cable TV, I was watching Mtv... I was a little girl so... an animated video caught my attention completely, I did not pay attention to the music but years later when I became a fan... that was my first memory: watching tv at the old house of my grandfather

4. ATYCLB

 

[bono_man2002]

1. One (no pun intended!)

2. One, Beautiful Day, Streets

3.Mum taped one off the radio, it it was played frequently in the car (this was back in 92-93....i didnt become hardcore till 2001)

4. ATYCLB

 

[GibsonGirl]

1. I know, for a fact, that the first U2 song I ever heard was Discotheque. Only, I didn't "know" it was U2. My mother bought one of those "Now That's What I Call Music!" compilations in 1997. She didn't like the second disc as it didn't exactly appeal to her (Pop U2, Placebo, Blur...definitely not her cup of tea). Discotheque was the first song on the CD. When I listened to the CD, I always skipped over it. I didn't even get to the chorus, I don't think. Why didn't I like it? I thought the singer sounded "girly." I liked the music and that was it. Then when I actually became a U2 fan three years later, I knew I had seen the word "U2" before, found that old CD and was completely blown away by the song. Funny how things work out.

2. I reckoned I'd do this one too. Following Discotheque, I remember seeing Sweetest Thing on the TV. After that, it was Beautiful Day. I "hated" Beautiful Day at first (in order to fit in with the crowd at school - in reality, I had quite a soft spot for it and used to run to the TV/radio whenever it came on).

3. I've already answered this one with my ramblings.

4. The album I got after ATYCLB - Achtung Baby.

Wow, it's great to look back on this! True, I don't have to look back very far, but it feels like a long time. It's hard to believe I've only been a fan for five years. It honestly feels far longer than that.

 

[Axver]

1. My earliest memory is Sunday Bloody Sunday but in this memory, I'm very familiar with the song so who knows what I heard first.

2. When I was little (i.e. before I turned 11 and bought the Best Of 1980-1990), I knew all the major songs from War, Joshua Tree, Rattle And Hum, and Achtung Baby. I also knew Pride.

3. A child. I grew up very familiar with U2.

4. I was a casual fan who considered U2 my 'favourite' band until I got the Best Of 1990-2000. The second I heard Gone, I knew I needed to buy all the albums as soon as I could. Then someone loaned me the RAH and UABRS videos and after hearing Bad and 11 O'clock Tick Tock, my fanaticism was set in stone and I needed more than mere albums. Singles, live footage, bootlegs ...

 

[indra]

First U2 songs I heard were NYD and SBS (don't remember which one actually was first). 1983, maybe very early 1984 (but before UF came out, because I remember being interestded in the reviews for that and I didn't read reviews for bands I didn't know then).

It was on the radio, but I have no clue what I was doing at the time. I liked the songs rigjht off but it wasn't exactly a time-stood-still-and-I-remember-exactly-what-I-was-doing-at-the-time moment. (actually the only song I actualy remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it was.... )

And since I was a hardcore fan at the time, the album would have to be War.



(and the song I can still remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it is "Come Back Down" by Toad The Wet Sprocket. Didn't see that one coming, did ya? )

 

[Zoots]

(and the song I can still remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it is "Come Back Down" by Toad The Wet Sprocket. Didn't see that one coming, did ya? )

No, definitely didn't. but don't you mean Fall Down by Toad The Wet Sprocket?

 

[Azor]

The first song I heard was WOWY
And the song/album that made me a fan was Beautiful Day/ATYCLB

 

[Meghan]

1. Sweetest Thing was the first I heard and thought "So this is U2." Before that, I would have heard the more common songs on the radio.

2. N/A

3. At the time I would have been around 9 years old, watching Rage (Top 50 countdown). Every week for ages, Sweetest Thing was on either directly before or after Fatboy Slim's(?) Praise You. I used to dread the time when these songs came on because I thought they were both awful, especially Sweetest Thing, (actually I think I grew to like Praise You, just because it wasn't Sweetest Thing), cos I thought Bono looked like one of the old men who hung around corner stores buying stranger's kids lollies.

(I still think Bono looks pretty ordinary in The Sweetest Thing film clip, but I like the song now )

4. I was a fan after ATYCLB, but I was only rendered Hard-Core after I bought HTDAAB and watched the DVD. I love their music far more than I could ever love them as people (even if I did know them), but just seeing them in that documentary was enough to push me over the edge. (No pun of coarse.)

 

[AtomicBono]

1. Well, the first U2 song I heard was One, when I was like three or something. My mom had just divorced my dad and it was on the radio a lot and I guess the song just seemed to fit. It's still her favourite song, I think. I don't remember hearing One really but when I listened to the single years later (I got the single before I got AB, years before actually) I got this sense of deja vu and remembered my old place from the early 90's and stuff. The song was haunting even then.

2. The first U2 song I heard actually knowing it was U2 was Discotheque.

3. Sometime in 1997. Mom had heard it on the radio and immediatley went out to buy Pop (I don't think she actually realized that One and Discotheque were by the same band, she just wanted Discotheque). We were in the car and she wanted to listen to it. She said I'd like it. Well, my bratty third grade self didn't want to listen to U2 (for some reason I thought U2 was a heavy metal band...), I wanted to listen to Jethro Tull. But she forced me to listen to it anyway, and damn am I glad she did. I'm pretty sure my reaction was "...CAN WE HEAR THAT AGAIN?!!?!" and I probably listened to Discotheque 23085 times before I realized there were other songs on the CD

4. I'm pretty sure listening to Discotheque just once had me converted, but if not that, then definitely Pop as a whole, especially the first three songs.

I do love nostalgia. A whole lot. And I Zootles

 

[AtomicBono]

I thought Bono looked like one of the old men who hung around corner stores buying stranger's kids lollies.

awww but bono's so cute in the Sweetest Thing video...

I have to say The Sweetest Thing isn't the most U2 song. Like, if I had to play one song to represent U2 to someone, uh, The Sweetest Thing wouldn't be it it's nice and all, it's just sort of really poppy and cheerful (well, musically, the lyrics really aren't) and not like a lot of other U2 songs. So I could understand being turned off from U2 based on that song alone.

 

[Zoots]

awww but bono's so cute in the Sweetest Thing video...

I agree and I am a heterosexual male... just in case you didn't know But my point is that the first time I saw that video, I was like... man, does he look good for his age or what!!!

 

[indra]

No, definitely didn't. but don't you mean Fall Down by Toad The Wet Sprocket?

Nope. It was "Come Back Down" from Pale. It was on WOXY (97X!) a tiny commercial modern rock station. I was driving on Reading Road in Evendale (Cincinnati) after work and I was just turning into the Makro parking lot.

I decided I had to get that album!


Haven't listened to it in years now....

 

[bathiu]

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. HMTMKMKM

2. ---------

3. I was 12 or 13 y.o. and I remember it was something with Batman Forever

4. The same year... album "Boy"... to this day my 2nd favorite U2 album

 

[erin4618]

Hm--

Fandom kind of slammed me one day, when I realized that One, Mysterious Ways, WOWY, ISHFWILF, and All I Want Is You were all the same band.

Then I went out and bought AB--I was 11. It was a hard decision between AB and Rattle and Hum, because I really liked All I Want Is You, but I'm really glad I decided on AB, because I think it's really the basis for my love of U2. At this point I'd never even heard SBS, Pride, New Year's Day, etc.

I forgot the other questions on the list----but after the first listen to AB, I was sold for life.

 

[Meghan]

awww but bono's so cute in the Sweetest Thing video...

I knew people would come and say that! He's not!! The elephant is though.

 

[AtomicBono]

I agree and I am a heterosexual male... just in case you didn't know But my point is that the first time I saw that video, I was like... man, does he look good for his age or what!!!

I love a man who's secure in his sexuality

Maybe Bono should go back to that look, or something similiar...it's about time for a change, and that look he had in the Sweetest Thing was sorta distiniguished and such, I thought. it'd fit meeting all those politicians.

Of course the elephant > everything

 

[Pop Artist]

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

I know I had to have heard I Will Follow first but that's not the one that made an impact

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

So we will skip ahead to...Two Hearts Beat As One, first video of theirs I saw when I got my MTV

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

(For Two Hearts...) February 1983, just chillin' watching TV

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

War. That guitar!

 

[Meghan]

I love a man who's secure in his sexuality

Maybe Bono should go back to that look, or something similiar...it's about time for a change, and that look he had in the Sweetest Thing was sorta distiniguished and such, I thought. it'd fit meeting all those politicians.

Of course the elephant > everything

Bono should dress up as an elephant!!




Or maybe not.


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

 

[AtomicBono]

Bono should dress up as an elephant!!




Or maybe not.


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

Elephant Bono

if by creepy you mean so adorable that it's creepy, than yes.

 

[Bono's shades]

The first U2 song I heard was WOWY when the radio stations first started playing it back in 1987. I heard it on the radio early one morning when I was getting dressed. I remember exactly what I was doing because I was so thunderstuck by the song. It definitely started me on the road to becoming a hardcore fan.

 

[U2girl]

1. My older brother would listen to his albums in his room so I'd get to hear music (Queen, U2). I remember liking - before I ever knew anything about English, so I had no clue about the lyrics - a song that had the marching beat, unusual guitar and the unique voice singing. Sunday bloody sunday. I just thought "who is that?" Also I think I liked New Year's day. I remember noticing their videos from JT album too - at the time thinking Edge is the name of the bass player and Adam is the guitar player - and later AB era.
2. -
3. I don't know, about the time I was in primary school. I was probaby about 12, 13. As said earlier, I would walk into my brother's room and listen to the music he played on his stereo.
4. I don't know, Achtung Baby songs - and the first 3 JT songs and Running to stand still - was the thirst U2 sound I recorded on my tape cassette. I guess around the time between Pop and ATYCLB I started to follow up on U2 articles in the media, and ATYCLB was the first U2 album I bought. (only because my brother had the rest). A bit later I found interference and started hearing B-sides and I found a whole new U2 world of bootlegs. Also, about this time - after ATYCLB - I started being interested in buying U2 singles.

 

[-macphisto-]

1- SBS
2- I was 8 or 9 and we were on a family trip driving to california, my brother was a hardcore U2 fan, and he had his headphones on singing SBS to the family, and my mom got psst because she didnt like the title or the words. So my brother had to tell her what the song was about, and then he made me listen to the song on his headphones.
3- I always liked U2, my brother would listen to them all the time, but the album that made me a hardcore fan was AB, when I was 13, and the rest is history.

 

[U2DMfan]

... 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. Wow, probably Gloria on MTV back in '82

2. Well, I remember seeing U2 during the earliest days of MTV, so Gloria, SBS and New Years Day. Maybe I Will Follow, but I don't remember seeing it.

3. Well we got cable TV when MTV started because my dad is a huge music nut, and me and my brother watched it religously. I remember a lot of Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, Billy Squier, the first few years of MTV were pretty lean, not many videos to go around, but at least they PLAYED them.
I was 7 or 8 years old. I distinctly remember seeing U2 and liking them, but back then I liked all kinds of crap, so I don't consider it 'making me a fan'.

4.
Tough to say, I went in stages I guess.
I saw them and liked them as a kid, but that was nothing new.

then I fell in love with TJT at age 12, but I liked a lot of stuff at the time. Later got R&H, still loved the band, probably not quite my favorite band at the time.

Then Achtung Baby came out, I bought the whole catalgoue, all the movies, and started getting imports by 1992. By the time Zooropa came out, I was long gone. I really love that album, that sent me over the top, that and the whole ZooTv process.

So I was a pretty big fan at 12 and an insane fan by 17.


I really don't have any other favorite band.
I mean I own all of the albums of several other bands, bands that I adore like Pearl Jam or REM or Radiohead, but I don't go to a single fan board of theirs, or read daily news about any of those bands. U2 always really transcended for me. You have to appreciate the love I have for this band to understand what it means when I criticize them. I am only being honest.

 

[Meghan]

Elephant Bono

if by creepy you mean so adorable that it's creepy, than yes.

No, just plain old creepy.