Your reaction to seeing a U2 video for the first time?

[Larry Mullen]

The New Years Day-vid is filmed in northen Sweden. This I know for sure.
/*Proud*

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-"I think it's all about drums"

[tiny dancer]

My first video was Desire. and that's all it took!

[scatteroflight]

Originally posted by tiny dancer:
My first video was Desire. and that's all it took!

Given what Bono looks like in that video, I don't blame you!

I really don't remember my first U2 video. Earliest ones for me included NYD and One. The first time I ever heard The Unforgettable Fire was also when I saw the video. I love that video and I always see it in my mind's eye when I hear the song.



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You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold

[Zooman91]

(Me at about 6 years old):
"Hey, they're good, but not as good as the Police."

[truecoloursfly]

This thread makes me laugh at myself, a "veteran" since Gloria ... first video I watched of the lads was on June 21, 2001, when I got the Best Of collection.

I've told variations on this story before, but the bizarre truth is that I never subscribed to Muchmusic, I didn't go much to bars after 1984, and still don't even have basic cable. Rattle & Hum is the obvious exception to my video-less condition, and I had the luxury of seeing several showings in a fine old theatre before resorting to the VCR. But even that film is in its way as iconic as the photos I drew from all those years... I will say, though, that R&H plugged me into Bad like no song before or since.
The two ZooTV shows I saw touched me with their -- you know the feeling, their humanness *L* -- but didn't "prove it" to me like Elevation did... before that, it was mostly just me and the albums. The songs. Audio, baby...

I took the following from my notes to a friend after watching the Best Of for the first time. [I WAS in awe. As I've declared before, they were always a band of angels to me, singin' my soul, not a band of men. Actually SEEING them is a sort of religious experience...]

It's so funny... it ain't like I never watched videos in the Eighties; while in art school I did, and prior to that there was always the technological novelty of the "videotheque" uptown. LOL But really, from '86 on, I didn't have them around. I think I saw The Unforgettable Fire once, and the last part of Pride I recognize. So what I get is a sort of (homecoming...) flashback on my U2 life, in some parallel world -- Bono wasn't really a "real guy" to me 'cause I never really saw him, that's all! Yes, there was R&H of course, fixing JT-era U2 iconically forever in my imagination. But I didn't watch them grow up.
Last night, I did. *s* [The '98 clip, in contrast, for Sweetest Thing helped.]
Some purely aesthetic observations: of course I did see a ton of photos of the boys. In Bono's face I saw all the fire and intelligence I knew of his conversation and performances. I never found him attractive, nor even beautiful in that all-lit-up sort of way, mostly 'cause I wasn't looking, I guess. [--A lean, lanky, SHIRTLESS Adam in the Streets clip, however...!] ...he wasn't pretty, he was just Bono. He WAS astonishing, he WAS a flaming Spirit --"attraction" was irrelevant. Like asking if your guru's good-looking, you know? It ain't right! *L*
But gee, now...*snerk*
Plus, as i'm painting him (for the first time in years), I'm really looking at him, studying the soul of him in the face.
Sunday Bloody Sunday, live at Red Rocks (mighta seen that once, too) yanked me back to being a 21-year-old who was looking at a riveting, glowing, beautiful 24-year-old Bono afire with spiritual desire and a shaman's authority. His eyes, in those earliest clips especially, were big and dark, wild and humble at the same time.
And then I look at him in With or Without You. I HAD NO IDEA! It does look an awful lot like the treatment in R&H, which I furthermore never did like to look at; the lighting is too harsh on him. But they got it right for the original video!

I really love the I Still Haven't Found... video, even though I "shouldn't." That is such an earnest, pious song, and the video is rock-star playful. But it works. Because it's candid...Larry and Adam actually sing, and laugh! Bono smiling... utterly changes him, softness and light where we are accustomed to seeing deep intensity. I love where he seems to be taunting Edge, trying to make him crack a smile -- while Edge just turns his eyes the other way, his mouth fixed, smile-less. Edge's hair so long and loose (Bono's hair in Desire is, um, PLEBA material...) is a rush...meanwhile, Bono pulling the rock-star, just-got-out-of-bed scuzzy look doesn't do anything for me. I forgive him, though, after watching him hug and kiss those women, and do the twist on the sidewalk, and roll on top of the hood of that car...gee, do ya think there was any drink involved that day? He's so sweet and silly. Bono, come on over for some whisky, hon...

Only the last few weeks, I've been catching up on them ALL. (if it ain't out on videocassette, I haven't seen it, though) It is glorious, it's surreal, it's a blessing.

That's the long answer to the short question.

Deb D

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He set my feet upon a rock
made my footsteps firm

the greatest frontman in the world -- by truecoloursfly: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575

[This message has been edited by truecoloursfly (edited 01-02-2002).]

[CrashedCarDriver]

ahem
radiohead, tool, smashing pumpkins and even madonna (though i am biased here ) are better at making videos

u2 usually makes viddys for the sake they have to make a viddy

though its interesting thing to note that a lot of their videos they focus on larry alot, purely for the fact he's the best looking member of the group

[B0N0]

The first u2 video I saw was "Even better than the real thing" and I thought:
Just cool!
But it finally hits me when I saw: Where the streets have no name

[spinninghead77]

Originally posted by CrashedCarDriver:

though its interesting thing to note that a lot of their videos they focus on larry alot, purely for the fact he's the best looking member of the group

Making a comment like this can be dangerous for your health!!!

BONO GIRLS!!! Let's get him!!!!

[u2sangel]

When I saw the I Will Follow video in 1981 it was after I had bought the Boy record and i thought wow!These guys already had me but they have me as a fan for life!!!!

[david]

maybe U2 make videos for the sake of having to make them, and not many of their videos are revolutionary groundbreaking videos, but they've come up with some good ones in the past. even better.. was great and innovative. the video for "stay" directed by wim wenders is great because it's modeled after wings of desire.


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The more of these I drink the more Bono makes sense.. - Bean from the KROQ Breakfast with U2.

[travu2]

Originally posted by truecoloursfly:
This thread makes me laugh at myself, a "veteran" since Gloria ... first video I watched of the lads was on June 21, 2001, when I got the Best Of collection.

I've told variations on this story before, but the bizarre truth is that I never subscribed to Muchmusic, I didn't go much to bars after 1984, and still don't even have basic cable.

How did you manage to avoid their videos all these years?! You have either shown some amazing self-restraint, or... a grand madness?

I guess now you have the opportunity to discover a whole other side of the band pretty much all at once.

The longest I have gone without tv is about 3 months, and I really didn't miss it at all. It was a great feeling knowing that the time I would have spent planted in front of those pretty pixels was instead spent doing something constructive. Of course, now it's these pixels that are becoming a problem.

Originally posted by truecoloursfly:
That's the long answer to the short question.

Thank you for sharing that. I really enjoyed this insight into your unique manifestation of U2 mania.

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"I love to watch things on ZooTV."

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

WOWY when I was 9...Bono scared the hell out of me with his ponytail, hairy chest (I was 9!) and swinging that guitar around. lol That was my first viewing of U2.

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I know your garden's full
But is there sweetness at all?

[OzAurora]

First clip that I saw of U2 was With or without you in 87 and I didnt really think anything much of it, but in 89 when I was discovering the band I remember watching a music documentary on the guys and they played 'Gloria' and I rmember thinking how bad Adam's hair looked, but that clip sucked me in and I loved the song too,,,,,anyway my fave clip is ISHFWILF- I just love the stupid, kinda drunk feel that this clip has and Bono just looks so fine