voiceover: Welcome to U2 Anonymous. Why don't you give us your name and tell us a little about your addiction?
HI. MY NAME IS RIVERGOAT AND I AM A U2 ADDICT.
Polite applause
Ahem..
U2 has been my favorite music since I first heard New Year's Day on the radio back when it debuted - I was 11 years old. I got all of their albums and copied them to cassette (I still have those cassettes, my ex destroyed all my vinyl). I've since copied those cassettes onto my computer because I got so used to hearing certain pops and clicks from the records that the songs don't seem the same without them!
Shortly after I became a fan, I went through some truly awful experiences (when I was 12-13) and I remember just listening to their albums over and over and over and over again. I feel like I owe them my life, or at least my sanity. U2 became welded to my soul in that time period, and have been an integral part of my life ever since. Sorry, a bit heavy there...
Moonlit_Angel said:
A question to those of you who've been fans since the early days: did you have any idea that they'd become as big as they are now?
It's funny, I'll never forget my older brother (who was into bands like Rush, Ozzy Osborne, Styx, etc) saying things like "They can't play music! There's no real guitar playing! There's no real drums! Etc etc".. and my older sister laughing at me because I listened to "that crap - they're just like every other one-hit wonder out there" while she was listening to bands like Duran Duran and some other teeny-boppers whose names I forget.. hee hee.. Nowadays my sister gives me U2 CDs and DVDs - from her own collection.. Sorry, petty childhood triumphs, but I still laugh over all that stuff when I listen to them.
I can still get that 'new fan' feeling digging up old tunes like the Twilight single (O. My. God. that song is awful! No wonder I never kept a copy of it!) and catching hold of early concert boots. I had serious flashbacks watching the Slane documentary off the DVD - I haven't had a copy of that tape since my ex trashed it, sometime in the early 90s. U2 have been around so long (and my collection just keeps growing so much) that I seem to always discovering something new - or rediscovering it.
I guess I'm not your 'normal' U2 addict - I don't get into all the little details. I received all the books written about them over the years (my family seems to feel they're safe Christmas presents), but I never read them (they trade well at the bookstore though). I am into the music - I love the MUSIC. They say if you know how the magician does his tricks, it's not magic anymore - and I love the magic. }
~ That's why I'll never pick up the Salome outtakes, for example. And maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just believe their private life is none of my business. I don't even think I'd ask for an autograph if I ever met them - I don't really know what the point would be. Maybe I'm just weird. }
~
So I'll just listen to them in my car, have their songs running through my head while I'm working, listen to them on my headphones full blast while I'm at my computer (like right now).. forget the ice, forget the fruit juice, just give it to me straight up!
Okay okay, I'll admit it... I can't control my addiction.. y'all have a 12-step program or something?
goat
}8D~
voiceover: Thank you! A round of applause for rivergoat!
Polite applause