"The First Time" Appreciation Thread

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melon

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I really love this song, and I think it's a vastly underestimated song.

I love the lyrics, the soft sonicness to it, and I find to be incredibly intimate and powerful. I've loved it since "Zooropa," and was happy when U2 revived it in the "Million Dollar Hotel."

What do you think of it?

Melon

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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time
 
I love it after I watched that opening scene in MDH...
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I agree!!!!!! Best when played LOUD
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~*Mona*~
Bono Representative of the Ambassadorship of the World for L.E.A.T.H.E.R.

"Bono doesn't often sing without the shades. When he does, you know he means Business." ~Matt McGee~

"What you don't have, you don't need it now. What you don't know, you can feel it somehow."~U2~
 
I love it too--the way the music comes in so softly, and then builds as he throws away the key... it gets to me!
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"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up." -- Jesse Jackson
 
Definately an underrated song!
It's really rather nice... I have to say my favourite version is from ZOOTV dublin. "And for the first time... do you feel..." the song is totally ripped to shreds be Edge's guitar and the beginning of bullet "Looooooooove"
'tis great
 
The First Time is in my top 5 U2 songs of all time, although as far as Zooropa goes, the song "Zooropa" is better, but only because it's my favorite U2 song of all time. But the First Time is a truly beautiful song, one that is very underapreciated (Zooropa as a whole is). It's kind of weird that it's my favorite album since apparently they went into the studio with the objective being to sound the least like U2.

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Peace out and take care!
-Jason

P.S. "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no-one is watching." - U2
 
Originally posted by brettig:
Soul...

The twist towards the end is brilliant, certainly enjoyed reading about it in Flanigan's book.

What does Flanagan say about it in his book? Is it possible to type it out here, please? Thanks muchly!

foray
 
"The First Time" is a gospel song U2 comes up with very quickly and satarts to put aside as inappropriate. Eno surprises them by saying, "I love that song; it must go on the album." Bono figures the song- about a prodigal son who wanders off into a life of sin and then returns to his father's forgiveness- seems more like something from Rattle and Hum than this project. But the band trusts Eno's instincts, so they try playing it in a real disjointed way that disguises its gospel form. Bono sings about a lover who teaches him to sing, a brother who is always there for him, and then a father who "gave me the keys to his kingdom coming, gave me a cup of gold. He said I have many mansions, and there are many rooms to see..." Suddenly Bono cannot bring himself to sing the lines he has written about returning to his father's house. Instead he finishes the verse, "I left by the back door and i threw away the key."
From U2 At The End of the World

I really thought that was interesting, cos those final lines really brought the song into a thematic line with the rest of the album, and helped it to feel as cohesive as it does...
 
I AM SO FRUSTRATED!

I love that song nad I know the Flanagan story. However... Around the time of the release of Zooropa I read an interview with Bono somewhere. He talked about the song and sung some lines which did not end up on the Zooropa version. Those lines were transcribed in the interview. I CANNOT FIND THE INTERVIEW ANYMORE!!! For years I'm searching in my 'archive' and still I cannot find the interview. I don't know in which magazine it was, I don't know what those lines were, I don't know anything! AAARRGGHHH!

Nevertheless, The First Time is a great song.

C ya!

Marty


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People criticize me but I know it's not the end
I try to kick the truth, not just to make friends

Spearhead - People In Tha Middle
 
Melon,

The First Time have always been one of my faves from Zooropa, what a marvelous, haunting song. And it was the perfect choice for the opening sequence of Million Dolar Hotel, breathtaking is the best word to describe it IMO.
 
I love the song! I love the acoustic version with just Bono and Edge on some radio show. It's got a funky hard rock feel to it! Anyone know when and where that version was recorded?

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This place is too addicting.
 
Well, considering the space-out psychic-disintegration kinda record that is Zooropa (and assuming anyone who listens to it more than once digs it for precisely that), I really thought I'd be alone in loving that song. Thanks for typing the Flanagan quote. Yeah, it's a straight gospel song -- then there's that bitterness, almost weepy, when he repeats "Yeah, I threw away the key..." Which indeed makes it a perfect Zooropa song. Haven't heard it live, though.
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Damn straight this place is addictive. I've been lurking for weeks...

Deb D

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***the goal is Soul***
 
I've always liked this song. It's lovely, and I actually like that it's not commercially well known.
 
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