Rate the Song: The Fly

[Niceman]

Dat solo

Woah!

 

[The Panther]

I'll never forget watching the video when it first aired on Canadian TV in fall 1991. At the time, I wasn't yet much of a U2 fan (this, despite having had The Joshua Tree for a couple of years), but my best friend Keith was. We waited to see the familiar U2 hats and hear a stirring anthemic tune... and at the end of the video, we were thinking: "What... the f***?"

Hard to appreciate how weird this was back in those days.

This track has only gotten better with age. If we could strip away the vocal, the bass, and the drums, I might still give this a 10 just for Edge's guitar work, in particular the incredible solo. That might be the best guitar solo I've ever heard!

 

[Nick66]

I'll never forget watching the video when it first aired on Canadian TV in fall 1991. At the time, I wasn't yet much of a U2 fan (this, despite having had The Joshua Tree for a couple of years), but my best friend Keith was. We waited to see the familiar U2 hats and hear a stirring anthemic tune... and at the end of the video, we were thinking: "What... the f***?"

Hard to appreciate how weird this was back in those days.

Isn't this the truth. This side of U2 is such an ingrained part of their image now that it's difficult to overstate just what shock to the system this "new U2" was a the time. And it wasn't just the music that had changed...it was their attitude, image, everything. Huge gamble on their part and it's easy to forget that they did lose some fans along the way (but obviously picked up a lot more).

I'm glad they did what they did, of course, and would not change a thing. But sometimes I think I'd of like to have seen what the band would have done had they continue on the same path as TUF/JT/R&H.

 

[Niceman]

Hard to appreciate how weird this was back in those days.

Completely true. They couldn't have sounded less like U2.