U2's pre-Boy album

[The_acrobat]

I was just going through some old youtube clips, and I never realized U2 had a pretty decent album's worth of songs prior to Boy. Also some pretty rudimentary songs. I'm glad they released the album they did first, but these are songs that never even made it onto Boy.

The dream is over / King's new clothes
Speed of life
Jack in a box
Father is an elephant
The Magic Carpet / Life on a distant planet
Cartoon World
Street Missions
Inside-Out
Tonight
Alone in the light
The Fool
False Prophet
Another Day
Boy/Girl
Trevor / Touch
11:00 Tick Tock

Does anybody know if a recording exists of "Concentration Camp?"

 

[Axver]

I've always found it slightly absurd that they professed a shortfall of material for October. A lot of these pre-Boy songs are really good and, with a proper studio treatment rather than bootleg or demo recordings, would sound excellent. I'm particularly fond of The Dream Is Over, a lost Boy-era classic if there ever was one. I understand that by 1981 they had left behind a lot of this material and were looking to the future, but some of these songs deserved to be dug up and put on an album, especially since they were struggling to flesh out new ideas.

Does anybody know if a recording exists of "Concentration Camp?"

Unfortunately I've never come across one.

 

[dan_smee]

False Prophet was always my favourite of these. And Street Mission. Those two really should have been developed.

 

[Vlaco]

Meh, I don't think they're (that) good. 11 O'clock Tick Tock is one of my favourite live songs, but none of the others are a pleasure to listen to. Everything on Boy is so much better than anything on this list.

 

[Celticfc]

I think there was a list somewhere that had all the songs they recorded for Boy and some of those songs were on the list I think.

 

[The Panther]

Good topic. I'm kind of with Vlaco, where I don't think too much of most of these songs. There are a few entertaining moments, but not much really floats my boat.

Then again, the Boy songs sounded a lot better after the boys met Lillywhite and a professional recording studio, so I suppose several of these early sketches would have sounded a lot better had they laid 'em down in 1980, too.

 

[Axver]

Then again, the Boy songs sounded a lot better after the boys met Lillywhite and a professional recording studio, so I suppose several of these early sketches would have sounded a lot better had they laid 'em down in 1980, too.

Yeah, absolutely. Twilight is a great example. The February 1979 version is quite simply a trainwreck; the album version is on a different planet entirely. I think it's the second best song on Boy.

So judging by that, songs like The Dream Is Over, Life on a Distant Planet, Cartoon World, False Prophet, etc. could've been incredible as they come across very well just in live/demo form. I've always wondered if they would've sorted out the issues with studio 11 O'clock Tick Tock had they done it anew for Boy.

 

[Axver]

Oh and I hate to be too much of a pedant, but from the original post's list, Father Is An Elephant is post-Boy. It didn't appear until November 1980, near the end of the first leg of the Boy Tour.

 

[cobl04]

Another Day is the best. Horrifically underrated here. Great riff from Edge.

 

[The_acrobat]

Oh and I hate to be too much of a pedant, but from the original post's list, Father Is An Elephant is post-Boy. It didn't appear until November 1980, near the end of the first leg of the Boy Tour.

Ah but of course!! And you brought up a good point about the lack of material for October. Street Missions, Magic Carpet, The Fool and The dream is over are very good songs that are of pretty high quality compared to some of the other old songs. I heard once that The dream is over was supposed to be the b-side of Another Day, but instead they put a really crappy version of Twilight on there.

I've always been very partial to "Alone in the light". I think Lillywhite could've helped make that a great song, as is the case with many of these.

I'm sure somebody somewhere has a recording of "Concentration Cramp". If nothing else, Edge or Larry probably has one somewhere! Somebody ask them!

 

[dismantlemyfly]

That British accent on Street Mission sucks some serious nuts, but that guitar solo?

 

[The Panther]

The problem with a pre-Boy album is that it would have had to have been called Toddler.

 

[Blue Room]

Another Day is the best. Horrifically underrated here. Great riff from Edge.

Bono's vocal is just horrendous though. I played it for my daughter who is 8 and she thinks it is funny because it is so awful. It is hard to disagree with her on that.

Most of the early stuff is interesting to listen to just to see where they started and how far they have come. But very little or none of it is worth more than an occassional listen and even then not the entire song to me.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Twilight is a great example. The February 1979 version is quite simply a trainwreck

 

[ryanu23]

...and there was the song "Pete the Chop" too...I think that's the right time frame and I seem to recall reading somewhere that that was U2/Paul M.'s ace-in-the-hole, that they were holding it back in case things ever got desperate they could release it as a sure-fire single. I could be wrong about the timeline though.

 

[Axver]

I heard once that The dream is over was supposed to be the b-side of Another Day, but instead they put a really crappy version of Twilight on there.

Correct. Another Day and The Dream Is Over were recorded at the same session in London in December 1979, U2's first outside Ireland. I have never understood the decision to ditch TDIO. Not only does it shit all over that Twilight demo, but it's superior to Another Day too! Bono holds his vocals better, for one. That leads me to Blue Room's point about the subpar vocals on a lot of these demos. Bono clearly mastered his voice a lot in early 1980. There's a surprising gulf between his lack of vocal control in 1979 and his ability in 1980, especially as I don't think he had any training or anything during this period.

So this furthers my interest in how good some of these songs could've been if U2 had bothered to revisit them in mid-1980, or for October. I'm very fond of some of these tracks (I've put The Dream Is Over and Life on a Distant Planet in my U2 top forty before) and the failure to revisit them strikes me a big lost opportunity.

 

[Niceman]

Then again, the Boy songs sounded a lot better after the boys met Lillywhite and a professional recording studio, so I suppose several of these early sketches would have sounded a lot better had they laid 'em down in 1980, too.

Exactly. Don't judge a book by the first draft. These are starting points. Who knows what Sillywhite would have done to these?

 

[Tranquilfire]

Where can I find these songs so I can download them gleefully?

 

[The_acrobat]

...and there was the song "Pete the Chop" too...I think that's the right time frame and I seem to recall reading somewhere that that was U2/Paul M.'s ace-in-the-hole, that they were holding it back in case things ever got desperate they could release it as a sure-fire single. I could be wrong about the timeline though.

Right on, I forgot about this one! Eventually the song did become "Treasure", a b-side to one of the War singles (NYD? SBS? 2H? Can't remember.) Seems strange to me that if they believed in the song so much that they didn't just put it on Boy and have it be one of the singles. They had a lot of trouble getting enough songs together in time to release October. Why not include this "surefire hit" that they'd been holding back?

What is Lillywhite's take on the October album? I've never really heard much about that.

Also, they should've put "Saturday Night" on Boy, as I think it's much better than "Fire".

 

[moiph]

I'm not a fan of the pre-boy music of U2. It would have been cool for them to make an album from it either way, though. It's cool to see a band progress from beginning to, well, where U2 is these days

 

[The Panther]

My understanding of "Pete the Chop"/"Treasure" is that McGuinness was frothing at the mouth, thinking it could be a radio hit, whereas Bono and Edge (correctly) judged it to be a piece of crap and were embarrassed by it. Luckily, when 'New Year's Day' and War became hits, the band didn't have to promote that tacky tune.

 

[cobl04]

They fucked it in the ear. Treasure rules.

 

[Axver]

Yeah, Pete the Chop really isn't much, but Treasure is legit top ten U2 material.