Zootlesque said:
... which one was it?
1. What was the very first U2 song you heard?
2. If that one's hard, what were the first few songs you heard?
3. When was it and what were you doing at the time?
4. Which song/album made you a hardcore fan?
First of all, most of you people are so young! After reading a lot of these I feel old at 24!
Anyway....
1. I can't remember. U2 has been around since before I was born and I feel that certain songs have always been in the background of my life, even if I was only a little bit aware.
2. The Joshua Trio, Pride, New Years Day seem to have always been with me.
3. I remember the first time I heard Sunday Bloody Sunday, I was about 13 and in my brother's bedroom listening to the radio. I also remember the first time I heard All I Want is You, I was around the same age, in a free period in school. I borrowed someone's Reality Bites Soundtrack CD (
) and I immediately listened to AIWIY because I knew that every U2 song I had ever heard I loved. After hearing both these songs for the first time I was filled with a sense of euphoria, as silly as that sounds. I couldn't believe that music could be that good. A year or so later, HMTMKMKM came out and I felt a similar sensation. I also considered U2 to be these incredible, untouchable rock gods at that time (1995) --it was such a big deal that they released a song as they had not been heard from in a while, plus the fact that they didn't even appear in the video, in human form at least, made them seem even more mythic to my teenage self. There are other instances, but these are the ones that stick out the most.
4. AB. It often takes me a few listens to really get into an album, be it by U2 or someone else. I know that I found a lot of the Joshua Tree boring the first few times I heard it. After hearing Achtung Baby for the very first time I immediatley thought to myself "this is the Best Album I have ever heard." I'm glad that I became a hardcore fan around the time of Pop, before the Best Of came out, before Napster, because I might have not gone out and bought all the albums like I did and really immerse myself...though that seems not to have been a problem of a lot of people here.