In 75 days, I will be watching U2 in Singapore. For a band that I swear as among my favorites of all time, it sounds uncanny that I have never seen them before. And I have all their records having bought them from the time that their debut album, Boy, came out in 1980.
Even having lived abroad, if they passed by wherever I was staying at that time, I either wasn’t able to get a ticket or I was out of town. On the eve of their 30thanniversary as the world’s biggest band, now I am going to see them on their celebration of the anniversary of the Joshua Tree album.
Over the next few weeks and months leading up to the show in Singapore, I will write my thoughts about each and every album.
So let’s lead off with Boy.
This sounds weird but I will always associate Boy with that bench outside my classroom in the first year wing of the Ateneo High School. It was there where some of my best friends and I listened to cassette tapes of Boy during recess and lunch.
Boy sounded like no other band at that time. It took a few years down the road when I realized the influence that Joy Division had on the band.
U2’s debut album, Boy, was released in October 1980, and I read about the band in a short article in Rolling Stone magazine and the Irish band opened for this other band. The audience was so impressed with U2 that they played several encores.
That intrigued me and no one was playing them on local radio. Not even DZRJ, Manila’s one and only rock station at that time. I got it while on a trip abroad except it was about six months after the album came out. There were two versions of Boy – the British version that had a young Peter Rowan on the cover, and the distorted image of the band that appeared on the North American release.
Strangely even if I got my record in Hong Kong, it was the American version (strange because Hong Kong was still under the United Kingdom at that time).
I remember the excitement that I felt coursing through my body. I was in first year high school at that time. There were very few true music fans amongst my friends at that time. I mean there were lots, but those who bought records, listened to the radio, and went to concerts, and bought the merch – nah, there were few.
The guitar riff that opened the album and “I Will Follow” was so bad ass. I thought it was one of the best guitar opening riffs along with Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla”, “Satisfaction” from the Stones, and “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zep at that point in my young life. I felt they were all blown out of the water years later by Guns ‘n Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” but that is altogether another story.
I didn’t know it at that time, but the song was about Bono’s mother.
When I got to third year high school, some other friends started getting into U2 and were playing “I Will Follow.” I secretly snickered along with my other friends. Ha. Call it snobbish but there it is. We liked getting ahead of the curve in the manner we were listening to the Cocteau Twins, The Railway Children, and Cactus World News.
The album followed a theme about adolescence and it came out at a time when I was discovering all these different things and learning to spread my wings. In fact, by the time U2’s live album, Under A Blood Red Sky that blew me away, I began wearing black that was so different from the pastel colors of New Wave. Bono was wearing black in Under A Blood Red Sky and the photography on both Boy and War had me rethinking my wardrobe.
And speaking of the color of black, the third song on the album, “An Cat Dubh” was a moniker I adopted. In English, it meant, “the black cat.” And since this was a time when I started wearing black, I sort of adopted the song title as an unofficial moniker. I even labeled my floppy disks “The Black Cat.” The song is also one of my favorites on the album.
I loved how it segued into “Into the Heart” that is of the more pensive songs that prepares you for the controlled chaos that is “Out of Control.”
“Another Time Another Place” and that part where Bono showcases his vocal range and sings in Gaelic. I thought it was awesome. Like Luciano Pavarotti cutting loose.
And the closing song… “Electric Co.” At that time, I wondered if it was about the television show, The Electric Company. Foolish me. Years later, I only learned that it was short for “electric convulsion therapy” which is the electric shock that is used sometimes as part of psychiatric therapy. The song grew on me when it was used in Under A Blood Red Sky.
There were two signature parts of the band’s music that would be evident in all their work – it was the Edge’s chiming guitars and his high-pitched back-up vocals.
Even a track like “The Ocean” that did not really appeal to me intrigued me. Who was Dorian Gray? I had to look up Dorian Gray in the encyclopedia (no there was no internet at that time.
I was enthralled by the album at that time. As I got older, I felt that at times, the music – in fact this is an accusation labeled at the band throughout many points in their career -- was pretentious. But when I think about everything... not they aren't. It is the way they are. And I am glad.
However, listening to it all over again and playing it loud while writing this, my mind raced back to those days on the bench outside my classroom and playing an air guitar to the Edge’s riffs. To those days when a boy was growing up and music was shaking me to my very core. Not all the songs date well, but it doesn’t matter. These are the songs I loved only as a kid can. I can see what turned me into a U2 fan back then and why I remain a massive one to this day.
NEXT WEEK: October.
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