It's COLD Outside, It Gets So HOT in Here...

[spanisheyes]

May 23, 1980: '11 O'Clock Tick Tock' released

U2 releases first single under new contract, "11 O'Clock Tick Tock/Touch,"
produced by Joy Division's Martin Hannett; "11 O'Clock" is the song formerly
called "Silver Lining" and the B side "Touch" is previously known as
"Trevor." The single fails to make the charts.

I've always loved '11 O' Clock Tick Tock' and I remember first seeing U2 live in 1984, and they opened the show that night with this song. It was a cold, rainy December evening, and the opening words seemed so appropriate, "It's cold outside, it gets so hot in here, and the boys and girls collide, to the music in my ear." The arena erupted into one communal mass of raw energy and primal passion for U2 as a band that stood on the verge of greatness.

I've also had a fondness for 'Touch', especially Bono's tongue rolling shrill toward the end...it just seemed to be a song that showed a glimpse of the promise that U2 held as a band who were coming together to make music that mattered.

Anyone else share in your love for '11 O' Clock Tick Tock, and maybe even has had the privilege of hearing it live as well. Let's give it up for a song that still rocks after 20 plus years.

Chris

[This message has been edited by spanisheyes (edited 05-23-2002).]

 

[ouizy]

I like the song but have to admit the I only really started to listen to it and get excited about it after I herd them play it at Irving Plaza NYC...

 

[oliveu2cm]

Irving Plaza turned me on to this jewel.. I especially Love the ending!!

Supposedly the title of the song comes from a note Bono's friend Gavin stuck to his door when he was late. The note said "11 O'Clock, Tick Tock" lol

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trysomebuysomefiefivefoursome
*Take Me Take Me Higher*

 

[spanisheyes]

Originally posted by ouizy:
I like the song but have to admit the I only really started to listen to it and get excited about it after I herd them play it at Irving Plaza NYC...

Originally posted by oliveu2cm:
Irving Plaza turned me on to this jewel.. I especially Love the ending!!

Supposedly the title of the song comes from a note Bono's friend Gavin stuck to his door when he was late. The note said "11 O'Clock, Tick Tock" lol

How awesome to think that after 20 years that fans were still finding out about this gem of a song. I would encourage anyone to get a boot of early U2 shows when '11 O' Clock Tick Tock' opened their shows...you won't regret the power of the Edge's guitar you will hear...just like the Elevation Tour, and the song 'Elevation' opening up each show.

Chris

 

[camiloj]

Ah Chris you hit it on the head once again! God you know I love that song and especially the 1984 performances they did of that song, especially on tnat tour in December of 84. The energy, the excitement, the enthusiasm was so intoxicating!

 

[SkeeK]

I always liked the song, but it was never a standout from the rest of U2's catalogue (which isn't a sleight in any way!). I remember when Camillo found out it would likely be played at Irving Plaza and how excited he was, and that got me really excited, too. And then when they played it, I was blown away. I love the song a lot now, and I really wish they'd played it more on the tour.

 

[follower]

Yeah SkeeK, I remember that too, Camilo kinda predicted that they would play 11 O?Clock...or maybe they heard of his request

That performance is fantastic, the greatest surprise from the Irving Plaza show IMO.

I could say I discovered 11 O?Clock with the Under a Blood Red Sky album, that one and Party Girl were the new ones for me, I didn?t have the 11 O?Clock single, in fact I don?t have it. The song became my fave from UABRS, along with The Electric Co.

 

[scatteroflight]

I have a hard time describing how much I love that song. It takes me back to when I was 15. And I was 15 in 1994, not in 1981. It may be an old song, but it has always touched me very deeply. The Blood Red Sky version has always sounded perfect to me--probably partly because it was the first I heard--but I've heard other versions I like, including the original. It's one of the top three songs I would most like to hear U2 play live some day.



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See the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out

 

[spanisheyes]

According to the U2 source, Pimm Jal de la Parra's book, U2 Live: A Concert Documentary, 11 0' Clock Tick Tock's early rendition/title 'Silver Lining' makes possibly it's first opening of a U2 show on February 03, 1980 at Tullamoore, Ireland on the U2-3 Tour. I say probably, because up until this point, many U2 shows setlist are unknown. The 11 0' Clock Tick Tock Tour starts on May 22, 1980, and even though the setlist is unknown, it is with all probability that U2 started with and ended as an encore with 11 0' Clock Tick Tock. The song would open many U2 shows from this tour, as well as the Boy Tour. The song would continue as an encore on the October and War tour. Then from October 19, 1984 through April 16, 1985 and April 19, 1985 through July 7, 1985, the end of the UF Tour, 11 0' Clock Tick Tock opens each U2 show on the Unforgettable Fire Tour. A true testament to the power of this song in the canon of U2's live songs.

Here is an early review of U2 shows the following night on May 23, 1980, U2's second Brit tour date.

London, England
May 23, 1980
Moonlight Club

Sense of Ireland
Record Mirror, 04/30/1980

by Chris Westwood

I just had a letter from the Virgin Prunes and I just caught U-2 bopping in the moonlight spotlight, the sense of Ireland is creeping under my skin, so I'm feeling happy and excited for the moment.

Springing from behind a dormant, buzzy house PA into graceful full-tilt, U-2's second Brit tourdate was the kind of remonstration I'd hoped for, all loose wires and sound swamps, flawed and gorgeous.

The fact that this was bulging with faults, humorous little cock-ups, mikes falling over, cigarettes refusing to light, etc., won't bother U-2, because that's what they're all about. Line them up with The Fall and you've two examples of people attacking pop with vengeance, thriving on all they leave askew or out of place, forcefully questioning all the myths, rules, and plastic regulations of rock and roll "discipline," and conversely making the most valuable rock and roll there is.

Th Edge (guitar) always appears pretty vacant, often stationary and blank; he also uses the guitar -- as opposed to playing it -- with numbing agility and spontaneity, never slipping into the kind of indulgence U-2's looseness could allow. Bono (vocals / arms / energy) never stops. He's the manifestation of all thigs good about U-2, writhing, striving, reaching, jumping, dipping, virtually the visible outlet for all that should be seen and felt and understood about U-2.

And they're not hard to understand, they're writing about you and me, the people around us, the people inside us -- they're writing about, and for, young people in the only way I, or they, could understand.

Tag on Adam (bass) and Larry (drums), a tight, insidious rhythm section, U-2 could be playing instrumentals; their music laps into so many cracks and crevices it's almost solely responsible for drawing me back toward pop music. Now I see bands like The Teardrop Explodes, The Distractions, Pink Military, and so on and so on. And I wonder why our charts aren't bulging with these people.

"11 O'Clock Tick Tock" mightn't be chart fodder, but it's a gem, cutting and cruising along, a sort of instrumental with lyrics. "Twilight" sticks out, too, tangle-torn and viciously sensitive. Or "Stories for Boys," or "Another Time, Another Place," or....

I could list a set and it wouldn't make much difference. I could tell you that this was probably a poor U-2 set ... and that should make a difference.

The PR in me tells me to tell you to see U2 if at all possible. The journalist in me agrees wholeheartedly. Those who care will see; that's enough from me.

? Record Mirror. All Rights Reserved.

11 0' Clock Tick Tock is played several times on the second leg of the Lovetown Tour. And then I believe, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, does not appear live again until December 5, 2001 at the Irving Plaza show. Several times it is played on the Elevation Tour, beginning with May 15, 2001 in Chicago, to the delight of many hardcore fans who have for quite sometime known the magic of this song in many live performances down through the years.

Chris

 

[Tizer]

Nothing gets me as transcendental as the Red Rocks Video version towars the end.. 'Call out, you'd better call out'... Being 15ish and seeing that video was a turning point when I realised the depth of my own emotions and wanting to rise above the mundane. Still makes me want to scream...

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Lately I'm sure, words won't implore you to stay

 

[Tip Top Prince]

I used to have a really rocking version of it on a bootleg tape I've long since lost.

Instead of "2-3-4", like he did on the Red Rocks version, he would scream his head off. Rockin!

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I'm on the road, but I've got no destination

 

[wertsie]

I LOVE 11 O'Clock Tick Tock and I was really disappointed when they didn't play it in Detroit last year!

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"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[scatteroflight]

Originally posted by Tizer:
Nothing gets me as transcendental as the Red Rocks Video version towars the end.. 'Call out, you'd better call out'... Being 15ish and seeing that video was a turning point when I realised the depth of my own emotions and wanting to rise above the mundane. Still makes me want to scream...

That and the "clock" guitar part right before give me the most major chills. I'm getting chills right now just thinking about it!



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See the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out

 

[MixingBliss]

The big mystery of this beautiful song, to me, has always been why it was it not included on "Boy."
"Tick Tock" has for a long time been in my top two or three songs from that era (Twilight, Out of Control). Its slightly dark tone and youth-oriented yearning would have been a perfect fit on "Boy" (as Track 3, between "Twilight" and "An Cat").
I've read several U2 books and articles, and none have ever explained it. Any insights anyone?

 

[spanisheyes]

The big mystery of this beautiful song, to me, has always been why it was it not included on "Boy."
"Tick Tock" has for a long time been in my top two or three songs from that era (Twilight, Out of Control). Its slightly dark tone and youth-oriented yearning would have been a perfect fit on "Boy" (as Track 3, between "Twilight" and "An Cat").
I've read several U2 books and articles, and none have ever explained it. Any insights anyone?

I think that your right that the song would have fit between the above mentioned songs, but I think in this case, the song was seen as a single that would open up more opportunities for U2...unfortunately, it just didn't do as well as expected. Looking back then, you wonder if U2 just didn't sense the song flowing with the rest of the songs on Boy.

Chris

 

[Tip Top Prince]

and it contributes to the 'crazed' U2 fan syndrome.

Co-worker during winter: "It's cold outside"
TTP: "It gets so hot in here"
Co-worker: "huh?"