Numb video. What. the. hell.

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cobl04

cobl04

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I bought the 90/00 DVD the other day, and after skipping all the Pop/Zooropa tracks (cos I don't have the albums) I decided to just watch Numb.The song was weird enough as it is, but the video just made me sit there with my mouth open going what the...

Whoever came up with the idea must have been high. Now I watch it again and again and I see that it's purely 'fun', but it shocked me the first time. Bondage. Water. Crazy guitar. Falsettos. Feet. 'There's someone I'd like you to meet.'

Did it shock anyone else first up?
 
I love that video


and my non=u2 fan friends love that video if that isn't saying something for it I dont' know what does
 
That video probably sums up 90's U2. Different and daring.
 
I love that video. I remember seeing it when it was first made and loving it.. and I wasn't even a huge U2 fanatic back then. As for who came up with it, Edge says he did and it seemed better on paper than when it came to actually filming it :lol:
 
Well... the first time, I was only eight years old, but I remember rather liking it :p I just thought it was absolutely hilarious that they were all doing all this crazy bizarre stuff to this guy, and he was just ignoring it all.
You know, I was young, and it was the first U2 video I ever saw (actually I saw the One video, with the buffalos before that, but I didn't realize that that was even U2 until many, many years later, when I became a real fan, as I remembered the imagery in it, but not the song), but sometimes I wish I hadn't liked it so much way back then, because I never got to experience the WTF factor as a U2 fan. I imagine it can bear a pretty strong WTF factor to a first time viewer.
But I guess I got my taste of the WTF factor the first time I watched the Mofo video. At that point I knew nothing of Pop or PopMart, so diving into that video was probably a mistake. I had no clue what the hell I was witnessing. Bono's hair was gone, Edge had become a pornstar cowboy, there was a giant mirrorball lemon, and I couldn't understand one word of the song. Of course, Pop is now my favourite album/look/tour, so go figure :wink:
Anyway, back to the Numb video. Strange indeed, but perfectly fitting for the song. Reading about the making of the video in U2 at the End of the World was also pretty fun. Some of the ideas they didn't end up using were even wackier.
Don't let it throw you off of Zooropa or Pop either, and I've said it before, but I shall say it again: GO BUY BOTH ALBUMS.

:D I ramble too much :D
 
I love this video, and I remember that the first time I saw it (also when I bought the 90-00 best of DVD) I was just smiling widely and shaking my head, thinking that they were just as weird as I had thought :lol:

I also like the video, because it's the only video, and song, that my brother remembers when it comes to U2. Everytime I put it on, he asks if it's the video with the guy with feet in his face :laugh:
 
It's a great video, I remember watching it when I was younger and just thinking what the hell, and then laughing cos of the craziness of it all :wink: .
 
COBL_04 said:
I bought the 90/00 DVD the other day, and after skipping all the Pop/Zooropa tracks (cos I don't have the albums) I decided to just watch Numb.The song was weird enough as it is, but the video just made me sit there with my mouth open going what the...
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right, it's one of the worst videos ever made. It's brutal. Definitely a period of U2 that I wish never happened.
 
:eyebrow: What, exactly, is so shocking about it? I think it's a good video for a great song. It's interesting, but I wouldn't say shocking.
 
i remember watching the premier in the summer of 93 on MTV. it was interesting. a lot different from all the other stuff that was heavily being rotated on MTV (grunge.)
 
I read all about it in Bill Flanagan's book before having ever seen it. Once I heard the details, I HAD to see it--and it met every expectation.
 
It just remembers me when Numb and Zooropa went to the top in Portugal and the video started to be aired on TV... I was a kid and didn't understand much of who were U2 in fact, but me and my sister we used to vibrate with the video...:drool:
 
The first time I heard Numb, I hated it and thought it was the worst U2 song that I'd ever heard.

Eventually it grew on me, though. And now Zooropa's one of my favorite U2 albums.

I always liked the video, though. It rules. :rockon:
 
I could have done without Bono in that. It would have been cooler if the only background was Larry saying "I feel numb" over and over again, IMO.
 
Definately a "WTF" video, but one that you always remember, right? :yes:

As for the song, I didn't think it was the greatest or the worst the first time I heard it, but I eventually came to like it. Although the Gimme Some More Dignity mix blows the original out of the water. :up: :cool:
 
i was going to open a new thread, but since this one is open, here it goes:

was Numb written for The Edge, knowing he was going to sing it, or did he just end up doing it?
 
Time to quote from The Orange Bible (also known as U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan :wink:)

The same sort of juxtaposition turns out to be the salvation of "Numb," a Kraftwerk-style track Edge has been keeping alive since the Achtung Baby sessions in Berlin. Bono had tried to find a way into "Numb" by singing in the high Eartha Kitt voice he used for the background vocals of "The Fly," but it didn't lead anywhere, no one could come up with a strong enough melody to carry the song, and "Numb" was almost put aside again. Then Edge suggested that maybe it didn't need a melody as much as it needed a rhythm. Maybe the words of the song could be used like percussion, like a conga. So he came up with a list of orders ("Don't grab. Don't clutch. Don't hope for too much. Don't breathe. Don't achieve. Don't grieve without leave.") and delivered them in a monotone while Bono's Fat Black Lady voice was dropped in behind it, and the two contrary approaches together created something weird and interesting. Larry came up with a melody for a hook line ("I feel numb") and sang as a puncuation. "Numb" is the first U2 track with three different members of the band singing different parts. Bono's assessment: "I can't believe it works!"
Click to expand...
 
I didn't think it was too shocking. Weird, but not shocking. Great video.
 
Shocking? Why?
I would rather say very hilarious and humouristic, but shocking...........................there are so many other things out there you can find more than shocking, but the Numb video is one of the most likeable videos U2 has ever done
 
martha said:
There are parts of it I enjoy more than others.

Those would be the parts where Bono is touching Edge's bare skin. :shifty:
Click to expand...


:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:


Amen, sista!:drool: :evil:
 
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