Wow, it's been 6 years.

[david]

I can't believe that at the end of this month it'll be six years since ATYCLB was released.

Does anyone remember what they were doing during the fall of 2000?

I registered here in the summer of 2000 when my interest in U2 came back simply due to not knowing what was up with them since the Popmart tour ended.

Then I read things about the band here and there and remember reading that lyrics for Beautiful Day were written on a wall or something by Bono? Does anyone remember this? I might be totally off. Or it could have been a poem or something.

I remember the clips were leaked then eventually the whole album was leaked to the net a few weeks before it's official release.

I remember thinking the album had a totally different feel than the other albums. I never got the sense that they were going backwards with this album though. The only thing that bothered me at the time was Bono's voice on some songs didn't seem as strong as it used to be.

Then I remember all the promotion they were doing.. Farmclub, TRL, SNL and the warm up gigs. I was suprised they were doing this since they never really did that before.

So the songs on the album became the soundtrack to my life at the time and I have some sort of weird attatchment to that album now. And then a year later 9/11 happened and that is a whole other story.

 

[MrBrau1]

I was helping clean out our summer house on Strong Island. The dj on the radio said BD would be on after the break. Took my MD boombox, and the only MD I had close by, "Perfect Circle", and recorded the tune when they played it.

Che & I listened to that song for the entire 3 hr ride back to the Bronx. Great memories.

 

[pgv]

It only feels like yesterday when I heard beautiful day for the first time, and was like 'wow u2 really have come back!'
That was back when I didn't understand pop. Ignorance isn't bliss!

 

[ultravioletluvv]

The album was released on Halloween that year. I remember I was in San Fransisco with my new boyfriend and I was excited to get home and buy the new disc. I was going on and on about how great U2 were and how they weren't just an 80's band. I could have easily scared the boyfriend away, but instead he became a huge fan and even surprised me with a trip to Ireland to see the boys at Slane. Of course I married him after that! But the whole time surrounding the release of that album is very special to me, because I relate quite a few songs to the early days of getting to know my hubby. Good times.

 

[Aygo]

Well, in 2000's fall I was not an internet board maniac, but U2 was already on my way.
I remember me already having the hype of "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" that was well promoted here in Portugal, contrastng with other countries, and then came "Beautiful Day" and the announce of a new album that was gonna be "back to basics". The rest is history...

 

[4215Andersson]

Sorry if I´m being offtopic.
I sat on a train last summer on my way home from my
share of the Vertigotour. On the seats behind me there were
two guys discussing the show. One of them said - I don´t
really like the new songs I prefer the old ones.
I thougth of turn my head round and ask
If the old songs were the 5 year old songs from ATYCLB, or
the 9 year old songs from Pop etc.
But I never did and I´m still curios about the answer I should had
got.

However best memory must be when I turned out from the
hospital after had been doing an X-ray examination. And had
found that were nothing to worry about, which I had done for months. On the radio in my car Beautiful day was played.

 

[Lancemc]

Wow! I've been in love with U2 with 6 years now.

 

[vaz02]

4 years for me



love , hate relationship.

 

[Hallucination]

It's weird how time flys. I remeber buying it the day it came out and driving in my brother's little Ford Ranger listening to it for the first time. It was a grower for me as I'd come to expect the 90's sound and here they were sounding new but old again. It's a great album but I think HTDAAB is better. It's weird though how there's an entire generation of casual fans who refer to this album as "Old" U2. That used to be reserved for 80's U2 so now 90's U2 must be ancient U2 and 80's U2 must not even exsist.

 

[martha]

I went to Zion that November. I remember BD was playing when I was waiting in the car line to get in. A deer was looking at me in the snow as I waited. I remember thinking, "Yeah, it is a Beautiful Day."

 

[Jeannieco]

However best memory must be when I turned out from the
hospital after had been doing an X-ray examination. And had
found that were nothing to worry about, which I had done for months. On the radio in my car Beautiful day was played.

A similar thing happened to me just this past July. The only difference between your story and mine was that before I went in for the exam I worried sick, praying in my car and then the last thing I heard was Beautiful Day on the radio ...and I knew I was going to be ok. It was like God winking at me! Awesome!
Wanna hear something else? After the ultra-sound test the doctor took me in to the conference room to look at the pictures and I though uh oh... here it comes..the news. And then through the office sound system they were playing that cheesey elevator music and just as the doctor walked in ( I'm not kidding) the Hallelujah Chorus came on, and it was July!! The Doc looked at me and both kinda laughed, and then he said it must be Christmas in July...you are ok!

 

[Michael Griffiths]

I remember I had been anticipating the album a LOT, and that's when I discovered interference.com. I had just moved to Vancouver -- I think it was June of 2000 -- and that summer I really got into checking for news and updates on the new album. The Blue Crack had begun its thing. I couldn't believe there were other U2 fans as obsessed as me in the world...and that I could connect with them all in this magical place called cyberspace! I think I used to post on something called U2Wire as well, which is where I met a really good U2 friend of mine who also used to post on interference...and sort of helped me through a time when I hadn't met too many new friends in a new city yet. Ah, memories....

Everytime I heard a new music video come out that summer, I would be thinking that the new U2 video would be coming out soon. I remember Madonna's big hit 'Hey Mr. DJ' (or whatever it was called) and thinking how much better U2's new song would be! I started getting these premonitions about what the new U2 would sound like. I imagined an uplifting, ecstatic version of, say, Radiohead -- with all the sounds of the band coming together into one, joyous U2 frenzy. And when U2 released the last 40 seconds of 'Beautiful Day' as a free streaming sample on U2.com, that's exactly what it sounded like! The way Bono was singing -- "Beauuuutifuuuul Daaaay!" and Edge's classic guitar....people were ecstatic. And then an interferencer hacked the website that was storing the rest of the samples, and we got to hear all of them! Such good times. Everyone was in love with the new music -- at first. 'Kite' and 'Elevation' got the biggest ovations out of all the clips....and if I remember 'When I Look at the World' got the lowest ratings. Clips are very deceiving, however, and opinions changed once we got the full songs. I believe the album leaked from someone from Iceland of all places! Can anyone confirm this?

Anyway, I went to Virgin Records with another U2 fan at a midnight release. We each bought a copy, and stayed in the store a while since they were playing the album there. We'd already heard the leaked version, but it's always fun to listen with other U2 fans and partake in their first time experience. ATYCLB will forever have those couple years in Vancouver imbedded in my psyche -- that city will always be linked to that album, and the experiences I had as that album played as the soundtrack to that part of my life. Like Vancouver, ATYCLB was fresh, alive, uplifting despite the rain, and even more sunny than anywhere else when the rain went away.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Then I read things about the band here and there and remember reading that lyrics for Beautiful Day were written on a wall or something by Bono? Does anyone remember this? I might be totally off. Or it could have been a poem or something.

I remember Bono had written them down onto a wall or something as well! But like you, I'm hazy on the details. Maybe someone else can help us out? I think Bono also read them out during an interview or something. It was the first verse, I think.

I also thought that ATYCLB didn't sound like anything they'd ever done before. It was the first time U2 sounded polished to me....like they had become very good at writing pop rock songs. Before, they sounded a little "dirty" or "muddy." This was a clean sounding U2.

 

[tuwie]

i love nostalgia

 

[Lancemc]

The first time I saw the Beautiful Day video literally changed my life in a semi-indirect way.

It was an amazing experience truly falling in love with an album for the first time. ATYCLB did that for me. After that the U2 explosion of my life began, and I got the unique opportunity to discover U2's entire career within the span of a year. It was an unforgettable journey, and a journey that led me to other artists and an exponentially branching musical experience.

It's because of U2, ATYCLB and Beautiful Day in particular that I'm currently studing Audio Produciton in search of a career producing music. How strange it is to think "what if". What if U2 never released Beautiful Day, and the album bombed on the charts, or just didn't do as well as it did. Maybe I would have never explored them like I did. Maybe I'd be majoring in Business or Economics now!

 

[Sicy]

I was on a hiatus from U2 for a few years as I was entering high school. I fell in love with them when I was 14, saw them on the Joshua Tree tour and was a HUGE fan, totally in love with them. I dont know what happened but after Rattle and Hum I lost interest in U2 (I regreat that now, trust me). The friends I made in high school were into rap, reggae, crap like that. Anyway, one day Beautiful Day came on MTV or something and it just hit me. The love just came flooding back and I was instantly wanting to go buy the album, and go see them on tour. I cant even describe the feeling I felt falling in love with them again. It was the same way I felt back when I was 14. I then went out and bought all the albums I missed. I was listening to it all for the first time and it was just amazing.

 

[JCOSTER]

Even though I wasn't a member here yet, I've always followed them through what ever media I could.

I remember hearing Beautiful Day for the first time and loved it instantly, it is still to this day one of my top 3 favs.

Then I saw the video and literally dropped to my knees when MTV/VH1 first aired it. I thought Bono looked better than ever and the guys sound incredible. Its hard to believe its been that long, I think its a song that stands the test of time.

 

[tuwie]

The first time I saw the Beautiful Day video literally changed my life in a semi-indirect way.

It was an amazing experience truly falling in love with an album for the first time. ATYCLB did that for me. After that the U2 explosion of my life began, and I got the unique opportunity to discover U2's entire career within the span of a year. It was an unforgettable journey, and a journey that led me to other artists and an exponentially branching musical experience.

It's because of U2, ATYCLB and Beautiful Day in particular that I'm currently studing Audio Produciton in search of a career producing music. How strange it is to think "what if". What if U2 never released Beautiful Day, and the album bombed on the charts, or just didn't do as well as it did. Maybe I would have never explored them like I did. Maybe I'd be majoring in Business or Economics now!

wow i'm so glad to hear that you're doing something you love and it's U2 that inspired you to do so! =) YAY.

 

[RickFly]

i was recuperating from reconstructive ankle surgery, finishing college, and was down in the dumps. u2 brought me out of that.

 

[RobH]

Hate to bring down the party...but...I also had been on somewhat of a U2 hiatus since the debacle of Pop and the crappy Batman song. Trust me, this is from a hardcore U2 fan since the early days. I remember hearing about how U2 was going to get back to some "straight ahead rock and roll" next time out, but wasn't really following a release date or anything like that. Then heard "Beautiful Day' in my car driving over the Bay Bridge. Honestly, I thought it was elevator music. It actually saddened me to hear this song. If this was the best they could do after all the years of shite, I held little hope for the future. "Bomb" did little to reassure me, other than recycle some riffs and themes from the past.

It's funny, though, reading this thread and many others like it, how this song and album seemed to be the introduction to a whole new generation of U2 fans, much like "War" was 17 years earlier. So go figure.

I know everybody has their own special relationship with certain U2 songs/eras, but this just isn't it for me.

 

[tonyhotland]

oddly, it was the first time i got completely strung out on the boys...
never left the camp since then

 

[MrPryck2U]

Wow, what a difference 6 years makes. When ATYCLB came out in 2000, my boys, the New York Yankees, had just won their 3rd World Championship in a row and 26th overall. I couldn't be happier. My friend had dowloaded all the songs a month before the album came out, so I'd known all of the songs by heart. When I heard Walk On, I loved it so much I nearly cried.( Which is pretty tough when you're Mr Pryck)Then in 2001, 9/11 happened and ATYCLB seemed like the perfect album to help us cope with that fateful day. Then in Oct. 2001, I saw U2 at MSG and The Meadowlands in NJ and it felt like U2 were the perfect band to not only help the US, but the world heal from that horrible day in September.

 

[Mogi]

I was teaching in Japan at the time. The anticipation of both U2 and Radiohead releasing albums at the same time made those unbearable Japanese winters much warmer.

Many of my friends had heard BD before it came out, but I hadn´t had the change yet.

So when I went to buy the cd, they had a listening station with ATYCLB.

I will never forget the feeling of hearing BD´s quiet beginning in my ears. I was thinking, ok, ok, ok, this is ready to take off, then "It´s a beautiful day.." blasts into my ears and through my body like an electrical current.
Track 2-Hell yes
Track 3-Hell yes
Track 4-Hell yes
Track 5-hell yes

Well, at that point I figured I should buy the damn thing, you know?

I had loved the 90´s and loved Pop. But, honestly, I was getting a little fatigued with the whole irony thing.
That is why ATYCLB was such fresh air at the time.
Especially when rap-metal was at its height. God, it was so nice to have something so straightforward and clear like this album.

My take on this album now is that after a decade of self-exploration, U2 had to move into a new territory.
I feel with this and their last album, they decided to make an album focussed soley on the songs and not the concept.
To make mainstream music that had such integrity and quality to it.

 

[SpaceOddity]

I was insanely excited waiting to buy this album (especially after seeing the Beautiful Day video on TV). I had become a fan in 97/98 (after Pop was released), so technically, this was the first new U2 album I went out and bought.

 

[Irvine511]

i was living in Europe at the time and was traveling through Eastern Europe -- i had just come from Berlin and arrived in Krakow, Poland, where i purchased the album (and left the price sticker on). i popped it into my discman and walked around the old city listening to the album, kind of in a daze, and i remember being floored by the music twice -- first by the "voices," or whatever, at the end of the first chorus in "stuck" (i still think that part is extraordinary) and by the opening moments of "walk on," especially right after, "is all that you can't leave behind," and i remember thinking, "oh, god, yes, just, yes, this is what i've been waiting for, oh yes, yes yes yes yes, thank you, yes, and oh god, thank you, yes."

or something like that.

i was sitting in the middle of a park listening to "new york" when some gypsy lady came up to me and started asking me about my headphones in Polish and i had no idea what she was talking about, but then she asked for money, and so i walked away.

i associate the album with grey, grey european winters and coming to terms with several overarching narratives in my life that the album helped me through, especially "kite" and "stuck."

i love that album. if i ever go back to Poland, and i hope i do, i'll listen to it over and over.

in fact, i'm going to listen to it right now.

 

[Bonochick]

I had gone off to a university in a small town. I was pretty isolated and knew nothing of the new album, except for seeing the video for "Beautiful Day" while in the dining hall (no sound though). I also started going to the library on campus to read some stuff online, which was how I found this site. I was a broke college student, and I realized I was going to have no money to buy the CD. My parents had come up to visit me the weekend before it came out, and I asked them if they would buy it for me for Christmas. Before my folks left, my dad handed me a $20 and told me to go buy the album when it came out. He said something along the lines of, "Far be it from me to deny you of Bono."

 

[Numb1075]

i listened to it on the bus to and from work in manhattan...non stop. I just bought an engagement ring for my wife a few weeks prior and i would listen to the new cd on the bus and think of how i was going to ask her parents for permission to marry their daughter.