Who remembers....

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RobH

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The day "With or Without You" was first released? Sometime around late February 1987...friends and I listening around the stereo...thinking this a "weird" U2 song, huh? Remember wondering where the rauckus guitar was...that strange break and the outro...sounded kinda 'top 40' yet maybe the public wouldn't go for it...comparisons to The Police's 'Every Breath You Take'...being SO excited to get the album when it came out in a couple of weeks...anyone else with their recollections?
 
unfortunately, i was only six. so i was more concerned about the next episode of Thundercats.

but i've heard a lot of stories about how weird "With Or Without You" was when it came out. i can only imagine that i would have felt the same way considering what came before The Joshua Tree.

actually, the only time in life i ever wish i was 10 years older is when i'm celebrating U2's 80's catalog.
 
It was my freshman year at college and I taped off the radio and listened to it - repeatedly - on my walkman. Then I had to stake out the only TV in the student lounge and wait for MTV to show the video.

I liked the song, but it was a huge change for them and it really took listening to the whole album to get a better grip on that song [at least for me]. When we did see the video, there were a lot of jokes about how now that Bono finally has a guitar, all he is allowed to do is swing it around and dance with it.

This might also be around the time Jordan was born and Bono started really making these more political movements. It inspired me to get involved with my college's Amnesty International chapter. I was secretary the next year and our prisoner was released that next year and came to speak with a friend of Steven Biko's [who was a huge name cause for AI at the time]. That was very moving.

Thank god for iTunes and the internet. I have no patience for waiting around with my two fingers - one on play and the other on record - to catch a copy of a song [and a REALLY bad copy at that!] with a DJ talking over and into it.

Edit: Oh yeah, that was around the time that Larry first developed his carpal tunnel stuff and there were HUGE rumors that the band would break up. Statments like U2 is these four guys and without one we are no longer U2. That was pretty intense considering at the same time they were on the cover of Time and RollingStone.
 
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I was 16 and remember it like it was yesterday. I waited for it to come on the radio to tape it, then listened to it over and over. When they released the video my friends and I thought it was too blurry, we couldn't see Bono well enough :) That album was life changing.
 
Along those lines, I also remember taking the Police comparison one step further...thought this would be the last U2 album before Bono went solo...how wrong was that? (!) It did seem like Bono was becoming bigger than the band...who knew they would rise up to the challenge and stick together this long?
 
I didn't like the song when I first heard it. It didn't take long to grow on me.

When the JT album came out...we drove 45 minutes to the nearest record store to get it. My buddy bought the cassette and I bought the LP. We listened to the tape on the way back to school and I was screaming "where's the Edge?!?!?!" I thought the album was crap until "In God's Country." It didn't take many listens for the entire album to grow on me and I laugh now when I remember that I hated the album the first time I heard it.
 
i was 11, and i absolutely fell in love with it. i remember saving my allowance for what felt like an eternity so i could buy my very own copy of the joshua tree tape.
 
I was in uni then, having a generally crap time with life stuff, and I was waiting, waiting, waiting for U2 to release their next record. I looooved WOWY when I heard it and then had to wait to see the video on telly so I could record it on my new VCR :wink:

I remember the day the Joshua Tree was released was the first day of term. I rushed from uni, went to the record store in town, bought it and rushed home to play it over and over on the stereo. I remember being so overwhelmed by side 1, I'm sure I cried - Bono was so emotional, it felt like he was expressing what I felt at the time.

What a great record!!!! :heart:
 
My best friend bought that album for me (it was actually a cassette) for my 16th birthday that year. I just remember playing it through the first time & being pissed that I didn't have a continually looping cassette player so I could have the thing going 24/7! :madspit: There wasn't a note on the album that I disliked. Matter of fact, I ruined 3 cassettes of The Joshua Tree by playing them soooo much. :yes: Thank heavens that CD's finally came along! :up:

:love: :love: :love: The Joshua Tree :love: :love: :love:
 
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I remember when the radio station made a big deal about the broadcast premiere on the radio. I loved it the first time I heard it. The cool thing about buying the record was when my friend and I went to our local Sam the Record Man, they did not have it yet. But the manager who was this cool dude with a big bushy beard told us that A&A records downstairs in the mall had the record. He even went with us when we went to buy it. Needless to say we were very grateful to him. I purchased quite a few records from his store after this great customer service. I still have that record, and cassette, and cd. :wink:
 
rastacruz said:
I thought the album was crap until "In God's Country."
Click to expand...

Funny... I distinctly remember my friend saying "This is the song that sounds the most like old U2" about "In God's Country". We all agreed. The Bono swinging the guitar thing was funny too.
 
Oh Yeah! I was on a roadtrip (from MN to GA) with my then- husband. I cranked it...he scowled and said EWWW that high-pitched geetar hurts my ears...

Needless to say, he is an EX-husband now!!!

BTW - we made this trip every spring and it seemed that when U2 was on tour in the midwest, we weren't there.
 
I was born a year and a half later...the first time I heard it I really liked it, I think I was 8.
 
I was about one and a half when it was released. Fortunately three older brothers meant I grew up listening to U2!

My first memories of WOWY are sitting in the car heading to France on holiday when I was about 4 I guess - I liked it cause I could wail along with it which annoyed my bother :)

Incidentally, one of my earliest memories is of running round my house singing "where the streets have no name" and "helter skelter d-d-d-d-d-d-duh again!" Just those two lines, over and over again.

When I listen to Helter Skelter these days, I still do my impression of Edge's guitar...
 
Great thread idea! I'm having memories of things I hadn't thought about for years.

In 1987 I had already been a U2 fan for over five years. I had seen them two years before on the 'Unforgettable Fire' tour and was anxiously awaiting the new album and tour. I first heard 'With or Without You' on MTV and I can remember my first impressions of the video far more clearly than my impressions of the song itself. My thoughts ran something like this:

"This is different for U2"
"Black & white? A little artsy but okay."
"Yowza, Bono's looking buff!"
"But what's with the ponytail?"
"Edge's hair got long"
"Adam looks bored"
"What's Edge doing with that guitar?"
"Hey, was that a nipple?"
"Wow, it's over already? Glad I recorded it. (rewind)"


YellowKite said:
This might also be around the time Jordan was born and Bono started really making these more political movements.
Click to expand...
No. Jordan was born in 1989. She turned 16 yesterday.
 
I was 16 and already a huge U2 fan. I loved the song from my first listen on, to be honest. I loved the guitar work very much. Yeah, it sounded like a "different" U2, but, I had been privy to the October-War-UF stretch, so, I was prepared for a different direction.

I was not prepared for that album to become my all-time favorite and be a constant companion form then on.
 
I was a junior in high school...I remember it and liked it instantly, even with its differences from previous songs. I still remember wishing my parents would let me go to the concert. No dice. I was so sheltered.

Remembering the days of requesting music---waiting hours for a song to be played-- and eventually recording it off the radio. When I got a dual cassette player to record a cassette to another tape was high tech. Interesting thoughts considering I am typing to people all over the world while listening to my ipod's hundreds of songs...

With Or Without is one of the many. ;)

Life is good.
 
ree5669 said:
I was a junior in high school... I still remember wishing my parents would let me go to the concert. No dice. I was so sheltered.
Click to expand...

Same story here, girl.... I feel your pain. :sad: I think the closest they came to NC on the JT tour was Virginia & I wanted to go sooo badly. But I knew better than to ask my parents if myself & a couple other 16/17 year olds could drive 200+ miles to go to a rock concert - in another state!!! :ohmy:

( :reject: I've never forgiven them!!) :giggle:
 
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i was born a month after the release. so no, i don't remember it, heh. but 7 years later, when i heard it for the first time, it hooked me as a U2 fan for life.

first song i ever really considered myself a "fan" of. and it's still my favorite.
 
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