MERGED ----> Question for newer U2 fans. + I Love Old U2

[martha]

Question for newer U2 fans.

I was thinking about this on the road, and the Boy thread had some interesting comments in it.


So here's the question: For those of you who are relatively new to U2, let's say from Pop onward, what did you think when you went back and listened to the old albums for the first time? Where you pleasantly surprised? Or where you at first put off by the young, raw sound of the first two records? What did you think of UF when you heard it for the first time?

 

[Popmartijn]

*realises he's suddenly an OLD U2 fan *



Marty

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

*realises he's suddenly an OLD U2 fan *

haha, so am i, and i'm even young in age. i remember asking for achtung baby for christmas when it first came out.

 

[Popmartijn]

I remember buying Rattle And Hum before Achtung Baby came out. Although it was only 2 months or so before the release of AB (September/October 1991).

Actually, I still remember NOT liking U2 in 1987 (and sort of confusing the video for Pride with the video for Purple Rain and thus not liking Pride in 1984).

Still, I'm young in age.
And mind.

C ya!

Marty (remembers when Achtung Babies were the young fans... )

 

[Axver]

I'm a pretty new fan - I got Best Of 1980-1990 in either late 1998 or 1999 (I forget exactly when), ATYCLB when it was released, but only really became a fanatic when I got 1990-2000 for Christmas last year. When I got The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby for my birthday (which is in January), I decided I had to get as many U2 CDs as possible, and when I first got Boy (in March), I LOVED it. I still do - it's my favourite U2 studio CD. The newer CDs - Zooropa and Pop - took a bit of time to grow on me, but I liked Boy, October, War, and UABRS straight away.

And what did I think of The Unforgettable Fire when I first heard it? My friends will testify that A Sort Of Homecoming very quickly became one of my favourite songs and that I absolutely loved it. I instantly look a liking to tracks 1-3 and 7-8, Elvis Presley And America took a bit of time to grow on me, as did The Unforgettable Fire (which I used to always skip over on Best Of 1980-1990 but now like) and MLK. Promenade has only recently really started to appeal to me. TUF is probably my 4th or 5th favourite U2 CD.

 

[Popmartijn]

Marty (who had Boy and October before buying The Joshua Tree)

 

[The_acrobat]

I became a fan in 1995. HMTMKMKM actually turned me on to them. Then I saw the VH1 A-Z and they played like 12 U2 videos. I found myself fascinated with the band, and I began buying their albums. Dad already had Rattle and Hum, but I didn't like it. But when I bought JT and AB, I was hooked. War and UF were next, and I loved them, though I didn't listen to all the songs until much later. I was a bit apprehensive with Zooropa, but I grew to love it. I didn't like Boy or October for a few years. But on a family trip to Florida, I put Boy in my CD player and it didn't come out of there the whole trip, it seemed. I feel that had I not seen all those U2 videos in a row on VH1, I'd have not really become a U2 fan. Ever since then, VH1 has done nothing for me.

 

[martha]

Anyone else?

These are interesting answers.

 

[maro_chik]

Hmm... I guess I became big fan of U2 around 2000, but I've always taken a liking to them.

When I first listened to the old albums, I didn't really know what to expect. I listened to the cds, and instantly loved songs like Seconds, Gloria, and Twilight. It was very different from today's U2 sound; I wasn't put off at all. It was a pleasant surprise indeed. In retrospect, seeing the growth and acheivements of the band over so many years makes those albums so very important. As for the UF, I found it to be an interesting departure from the rawness of the first three albums. I really like the smoother songs of that album -- Promenade, 4th Of July, and MLK. There's alot of contrasts on that album, going from a song like Wire to The Unforgettable Fire and then to Promenade.

On a bit of a side note, I remember Bono saying in an interview that With Or Without You is a strange tune, that seems normal only because we've heard it so many times. I thought With Or Without you was a very strange tune when I first heard it. But now it's familiar to me, and I Edge's solo at the end.

 

[BonoBabe40]

*realises he's suddenly an OLD U2 fan *



Marty

Join the club....I hate bein asked...."You REALLY saw ZooTV live? I was too young"

Yep...and I remember the day Lennon was shot too....the year I graduated High School...


40 isn't old when ya act 20

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

sort of confusing the video for Pride with the video for Purple Rain and thus not liking Pride in 1984

omigor, that's hilarious!

ummm, i remember watching the zoo tv ppv concert when it aired. but anyway so i don't derail martha's thread (who's the coolest person on interference btw), i'll answer her questions. my first tour i did actually see was pop, so maybe i still count.

i remember right before pop came out, i finally started buying U2's back catalogue. i pretty much did it in order, but i do remember buying some of the essentials, like unforgettable fire and achtung baby first. but after that, it was boy through rattle and hum. thank god for those music clubs where you can buy 12 cds for a penny!

i remember i loved unforgettable fire when i first heard it. at the time, it was my favourite album. as for boy, that album scared the shit out of me! i know that sounds weird, but i think it had something to do with me listening to the album whilst home alone, at night, around halloween.

as for october, i liked it. once i found out the story behind the album (bono losing the lyrics, etc.) it made a lot more sense to me, though. i just pretty much liked all the albums straight off the bat, and joshua tree was easy to like since i already knew all of side a, practically. when i heard side b though, i loved it. most of the times now i only listen to side b only because the stuff on the other side is so over-played on the radio.

 

[beegee]

what a great idea for a thread, martha.
i've often wondered about this myself.

 

[Strato Edge]

I actually started liking them right before ATYCLB came out. I got the Joshua Tree first, and that day I'll always remember, that was the day I first heard REAL music. After that I was hooked, got every album after that.

 

[One Tree Still]

I remember confusing Pride (In the Name of Love) with Howard Jones' "What is Love?" back in the day.

How lame is that?

But I was a fan soon after that.

 

[Red Ships of Scalla-Festa]

i started liking u2 in 1998 for the most part.

i pretty much loved all of the stuff i heard, and now that still holds true, except for october which i have never liked to begin with.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

Join the club....I hate bein asked...."You REALLY saw ZooTV live? I was too young"

Yep...and I remember the day Lennon was shot too....the year I graduated High School...


40 isn't old when ya act 20

well i saw ZooTV live and remember when lennon was shot. and i am pushing 30 so i suppose i am one of the oldies too.

i had War and UF before JT came out.

 

[MrBrau1]

I bought Pride as a single back in 85, I was 11. And I've waited for every album since. It would be quite neat to discover this band in mid career and delve back into their work, very strange trip, but would AB and Zooropa have had the same impact if you weren't a fan waiting for those records?

 

[martha]

(who's the coolest person on interference btw)

*smokes cigarette while wearing sunglasses*

 

[martha]

I was thinking about all this because I was thinking how much fun it would be to discover that you loved a band's music, and then had a large back catalogue to dive into.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

I wasn't around when BOY first came out, but when I did buy it I have to see I really loved it (an especial early favourite was "An Cat Dubh").

It was one of the first albums I baught from the large U2 "back catalogue" but it encouraged me to invest in the likes of WAR and UF after it. I was already familiar with SBS and NYD (WAR's two best song in my opinion) so listening to that album, already extremely familiar with it's two best pieces, did change my perception of it a little bit. Of course also I knew PRIDE and BAD before buying UF but I was refreshed by the likes of HOMECOMING and PROMENADE.

The bottom line is anyway that discovering each old U2 album at my own pace was extremely refreshing and stimulating for me. The rawness of them didn't surprise me though. A lot can change over twenty odd years.

 

[Lemonchick]

I became a fan around 1998-99. My dad bought the best of 1980-1990, and then I told him that i wanted to listen to more things of U2, and he gave me the unforgetable fire...i played it night and day until ATYCLB came out, then the day I bought ATYCLB i bought the joshua tree and I fell in love with One Tree Hill!(it was hard to understand the lyrics though, my english was really bad.) I really liked the early albums and i hadn't heard much of their 90's stuff until the best of the 90's came out.

 

[macphistosmagic]

I became a big fan in 2001, so ATYCLB was my first U2 album. I bought Joshua Tree next because I was already familiar with some of the songs. I loved it. I knew after that, there was no going back. Unforgettable Fire was next, my first thought was "Bono sounds so young." lol. I liked Unforgettable Fire, but found it different from anything I was used to listening to. Then I got AB and Pop at the same time, for my birthday. Believe it or not, I actually liked Pop better than Achtung Baby at first! Now that Iv'e listened to the 2 many, many times I like AB better, but still think Pop is an excellent album. It wasn't until last Christmas that I bought U2's earlier stuff. I fell in love with it on first listen and still love it today. So I hope I helped answer your question...I guess you could say I worked my way backwards.

 

[Saracene]

I became a fan with ATYCLB and I don't really remember the order I got the rest of the back catalogue. With exception of ATYCLB, I didn't really "fall in love" with any U2 album straight away. I rarely do in general; almost all of my favourite albums were slow growers. Boy didn't impress me at first and I thought that UF was pure junk except for maybe three songs, but now I absolutely love both of them. Boy and October really make me smile at how young the band sounds,

POP and Zooropa are a bit of a reverse tale: I'm less impressed with them now than I was after the first listens when I was quite taken with how unusual they sounded compared to the U2 I knew. With the exception of "Running to Stand Still" (which I must have played fifteen times in a row after discovering it), JT didn't really impress me much from the first listens, I found Bono's vocals way too overbearing. It actually took me longer time to get used to Bono's JT-R&H singing than his earlier vocals on Boy. With AB, it also took me a while to appreciate it's lesser-known tracks because I guess its singles sort of overshadowed everything else for some time, and Bono's overly nasally vocals on some songs rubbed me wrong.

 

[martha]

These answers are great!

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

I became a fan in 2001. I first got into them by seeing the best of the 80s at the store and deciding to get it (best desicion I've ever made !). Another album that I got early on was War, so actually I became familiar with a lot of the 80s stuff first. For some reason I wasn't familiar at all with anything off of Zooropa or Pop, even though I had been watching mtv and listening to the radio at that point, so hearing the 90s stuff was shock for me. It was hard to believe it was the same band, I was THRILLED that it was the same band!

 

[womanfish]

I'm so glad that U2 is still bringing in new fans. It's great to see, and to hear these stories. Good thread!

I am an oldie too. I remember laying in the hallway with my head up against my oldest brother's door listening to the sounds of War eminating from his bedroom. Then I remember being in the store with him, while he was the first one to buy UF from straight out of the box.

Also remember driving in the car with both of my older brothers when they played "the brand new single from U2" (WOWY). We stopped in a parking lot and when it was over all just looked at eachother and went - WHOA.... At a loss for words, but you knew it was something very special.

It's cool to see that people still get that WHOA feeling from U2 today.

p.s. - Just so you know, I still get that wonderful Whoa feeling every time new U2 comes out. Just spine-tingling power that only they have with me.

 

[MrBrau1]

Womanfish-I have similar experiences w/ my siblings, both younger regarding U2. Buying AB, Pop, ATYCLB, seeing the Zoo, Pop, and Elevation tours, and I know just what you're speaking of when you mention the collective "Whoah" reaction to a new U2 song!

 

[MrBrau1]

well i saw ZooTV live and remember when lennon was shot. and i am pushing 30 so i suppose i am one of the oldies too.

i had War and UF before JT came out.

I just turned 30 and saw 3 Zoo shows, but have no memory of Lennon being shot, I'd have been around 7 at the time. How do you remember this?

 

[Popmartijn]

omigor, that's hilarious!

Hey! I was only 7 or 8 at that time. Please don't hold it against me, I've bettered my life since.

As for me discovering U2 just before the release of AB (as I told earlier) and then delving into their back catalog, that story is for another time. It's almost midnight here, a very special midnight I might add...

C ya!

Marty

 

[arw]

Here's my answer, or story I guess, and I'm sure it will be long but eventually there will be somewhat of an answer to the question...I was a huge music fan growing up. I listened to anything I could get my hands on, except U2. I couldn't stand them in 1987 when I was 13 and Def Leppard and all sorts of heavy metal bands ruled my world. I knew of U2 before then but once JT came out they were the band I hated. Still hated them when Achtung Baby came out. I don't even know why. I just never liked them. I had so many friends that thought U2 was so cool and I absolutely hated them. HATED them with everything I had.

Fast forward to the summer of 1997 and I hear this cool song on the radio called Staring at the Sun and I have no idea who sings it. I finally find out and I'm amazed that it's not only a U2 song, but that I liked it enough to buy Pop. I didn't listen to Pop past track 5 (SATS) and I eventually put the CD on my shelf and forgot all about it.

Skip to a few more years and I'm completely bored with music. I have nothing to listen to and a very long drive to school 3 days a week. It was a very depressing time for me not to have anything to listen to. In the spring of 2000 I decided to take a class called the History of Rock and Roll. Best decision I ever made because we watched a video in the class each week of the same name. Every week, there was Bono being interviewed with so many others about music. I was glued to the screen everytime he spoke and I just decided to throw out all the negativity towards U2, plus I did own one CD already. I bought Best Of 1980-1990 and was blown away. It's all I listened to from March until the following fall when ATYCLB came out. By the next summer I had everything on CD I could get my hands on. I've just never looked back once I bought the Best Of CD.

I think they are the most amazing band ever and I've gone back and forth with this a lot: would it have been better if I'd have just taken the time to listen to them in 1987 when all my friends did and have been a fan all these years, or am I better off having found them at this stage when I have everything to look back on? Sure I would have loved to have seen U2 in concert back then but I'm kind of happy that I found them with 20 years of history behind them.

I've never once, since I bought the Best Of CD thought U2 was anything less than amazing. I was pretty hysterical with excitement with each passing CD that I bought and just in a complete state of shock that they slipped under my radar because I had a huge tape/CD collection in jr high/high school and it really just amazes me that I didn't like U2. After over three years of obsession, U2 still amazes me. I was still a very newbie when Elevation came out so I didn't see them live. That's pretty much all I want in this world is to go to a U2 concert.

sorry for the long answer........