The Fly(the song) Appreciation Thead

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

namkcuR

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
Sep 7, 2004
Messages
10,770
Location
Kettering, Ohio
THE FLY

This song is the aural embodiment of perfection.

Live on Vertigo Tour > AB Version > Live on ZooTV Tour >Live On Elevation Tour

:rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: X INFINITY
 
Absolutely :love: The Fly !! ... Classic tune !! :applaud:


"It's no secret that a friend ... is someone who lets you help"
"It's no secret that a liar ... won't believe anyone else"
 
Any ideas what the new lyrics are in the verses this tour? I don't know if Bono is giving it an updated feel or if he is just making words up on the spot. I have a bootleg of SD1 and Bono is singing about "The eye of a hurricane, I will feel no pain".....
 
Numb1075 said:
Any ideas what the new lyrics are in the verses this tour? I don't know if Bono is giving it an updated feel or if he is just making words up on the spot. I have a bootleg of SD1 and Bono is singing about "The eye of a hurricane, I will feel no pain".....

It was like that early on, but more recently he's singing the normal lyrics.
 
namkcuR said:
THE FLY

This song is the aural embodiment of perfection.

Live on Vertigo Tour > AB Version > Live on ZooTV Tour >Live On Elevation Tour

:rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: X INFINITY

i agree the fly is one of my favorite songs evvvvvver

but elevation tour is your worst version???

i just watched this on the boston dvd last night and it made me think how it was the greatest version ever

but any version is :drool:
 
:drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: my 2nd song in AB

it's probably one of the best lyrics ever...

It's no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest.
It's no secret that ambition bites the nails of success.
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief;
All kill their inspiration and sing about the grief.

:drool:
 
The Fly... :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

And also a :drool:

And a :heart:

Love this song. Love it live. Zoo TV version is still the best, but I'm really happy with the Vertigo version as well.
 
namkcuR said:
THE FLY

This song is the aural embodiment of perfection.

Live on Vertigo Tour > AB Version > Live on ZooTV Tour >Live On Elevation Tour

:rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: :rockon: :drool: :bow: X INFINITY

Absolutely agree with everything you said.
 
The opening to the Elevation version is heaven. The actualy song "The Fly" on Elevation isn't as good as ZooTV or the studio, but the opening...
:drool:
 
The Fly is one of the best songs in history. From the fucking chaos and bad-ass-ness of the intro and verse to the amazing chorus, with Edge's falsetto, giving a sense of reason to the whole thing, while Bono comes back with his lines. The two offset vocal lines in the chorus are just magical. And Edge's solo that goes through the same process: dark and bad-ass to a higher state at the last chorus. its so good!
 
I always love to think of the visuals around this song, going by Bono's explanation of the phone call from hell. You think of the fly character there in the reception room for hell, and he's making his one last call, to his partner. The world is collapsing around him, walls shaking and falling down revealing all the fire and brimstone of hell, and he's trying to quickly unleash all these scattered thoughts and advice. It's all over the place, but still all makes sense. Some of it's cocky, some of it's repentive, some of it's really, really harsh and fits right in with all of Achtungs themes ("They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by the moon. You know I don't see you when she walks in the room" - ouch). As the world is collapsing around him and time is running out, the call becomes more urgent and Edge's guitar keeps kicking it up a notch right until the end, particularly from the start of the solo on. Fucking brilliant. Great, great song.
 
i remember when this song first hit the radio in sept of '91. the station had made a big deal about how they were going to be playing the new U2 single, so i had my tape all cued up and ready to record. i was expecting more of the joshua tree/rattle & hum-type stuff, and was really excited. so the announcer's like, 'and here it is, the new single from U2, the fly...' i hit 'record' and this noise starts coming out of the radio. it was all fuzzy and distorted and i was like, 'wtf???' i thought something might be wrong with my radio. then, i *thought* i heard bono whisper 'oh baby child' and realized that this was the song! i'm sure i sat there with my jaw dropped for the entire song. after it ended, i spent the next three hours rewinding and listening to it. it took me that long to finally hear the 'song' inside all the choas and those random-sounding sounds. and when i did, it was just :drool:

even today when i hear the fly, i still remember how flabbergasted i was when i heard it for the first time. this song is sheer brilliance, fucking genius. in a word, it is stunning.

definitely one of my favourite songs. ever.
 
i remember the day very well when THE FLY was on the radio for the first time. my initial reaction was WOOOOW! what a bastard of a song, U2 going underground, breatheless. it was september 1991 then, but this song as a herold to the best album ever was a catapult to the future and to the past as well. timeless, classic. i love THE FLY
:rockon::applaud::bow::rockon::rockon::rockon:
 
I bet if we did a poll around here we'd find that 98% of those who are less than excited about HTDAAB and ATYCLB are those who fell in love with U2 at Achtung.

Those who are younger, or simply weren't into U2 in the early-mid 90's, and are going back to those albums, not having lived with them as they were happening, probably don't understand their full meaning at the time. The Fly sounded like nothing else on the radio. Popular rock in 91 meant Guns'n'Roses, Bon Jovi and other left overs from the 80's hair band thing. It was another year till Nirvana/Pearl Jam etc would hit with their take. In the middle was Achtung and The Fly was a sonic boom across the radio. This was followed by Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways etc all full of sounds that couldn't be compared to much else that was out there. And on top of that, the whole thing was such an extreme and massive about turn for the band. The last the world had heard was All I Want Is You, and after a decade, everyone thought they knew the band, their sound and their image. Then, bang, Achtung hits. Bono's in shades and leather. The band are a completely, totally different animal. The whole Zoo thing takes flight.

A couple of years later we are handed another complete turn around, and the lead single off Zooropa is the guitarist mumbling a bunch of life-lessons over the top of this sampled, looped track that again sounds nothing like the album before.
Followed by Lemon, Stay etc and we're on a whole other journey. Discotheque lacked the same punch, but imagine if they'd used Mofo as the lead single.....

You can see how for those of us who were part of this journey, the last couple of albums can seem.... rather dull, middle of the road, safe etc. There is none of the creativity. None of the boundary pushing. None of the depth musically, lyrically, not in any way.

The Fly sparked a wildfire that I wish was still burning.
 
discothequeLP said:
The Fly is one of the best songs in history. From the fucking chaos and bad-ass-ness of the intro and verse to the amazing chorus, with Edge's falsetto, giving a sense of reason to the whole thing, while Bono comes back with his lines. The two offset vocal lines in the chorus are just magical. And Edge's solo that goes through the same process: dark and bad-ass to a higher state at the last chorus. its so good!

In the studio version, Bono sings the falsetto.
 
Earnie Shavers wrote: You can see how for those of us who were part of this journey, the last couple of albums can seem.... rather dull, middle of the road, safe etc. There is none of the creativity. None of the boundary pushing. None of the depth musically, lyrically, not in any way.
i second that. U2 at the height of their creativity: 1991-1993
 
The Fly is just so unbelievably cool, and so was the character.
 
Go Earnie! :rockon:

Yes I remember waiting with bated breath for the new U2 single and being stunned when I heard The Fly, tho' I loved it on the spot. And I'm sure I bought the single the first day of release - remember it was a limited release? Was it a month, can't remember.

Then when I saw the video for the first time, that was another mindfuck! :drool:
 
in my top 5 u2 songs of all time. Was listening to a live version when i came across this thread. Perfection.
 
Back
Top Bottom