Let's just say U2 was my band in the 80's. I know my first exposure to them came from Red Rocks.
No I wasn't there but I've lived it vicariously more times than I can count. I'm talking about the Sunday Bloody Sunday video that was filmed at the Red Rocks concert in Colorado. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ
Since Twin Falls radio stations really stunk, everything music in my life came from MTV. (I want my MTV...) This video at Red Rocks was definitely the coolest thing I had ever seen. The song of course was incredible but with Bono marching up and down, then hoisting the white flag and chanting with the audience "no more war", wow, it just stirred the emotions. It was very moving to an impressionable teenager. I can still watch it 27 years later and feel everything I felt then.
Like most teenagers I was into all kinds of music but I slowly started adding U2 to my collection. We copied cassette's a lot in those days. Don't judge me, music was pretty expensive and everyone had dual tape players so that's just what we did. I got copies of War, Boy, October, Wide Awake in America, Under a Blood Red Sky and The Unforgettable Fire.
The Unforgettable Fire became my favorite and basically got me hopelessly hooked on the boys from Dublin. In those days when you liked a band you got their album and listened to all of the songs over and over. This is where it might get a little weird but I would put the Unforgettable Fire on, lay in the middle of the floor of my room and just let the music seep into me. The songs on this album seemed to soak into my very soul.
OK shake that off and lets move on to the Joshua Tree. Released in 1987, I'm 17 now. This is when the rest of the world discovers my boys. I loved the album honestly and completely but I distinctly remember feelings of disappointment when the pop stations started playing U2. Hearing With or Without You played on Z103 or worse played at a stake dance just made it a bit less cool to me. I guess I was a U2 snob in that way but it's true. I still loved them and absorbed every word. I loved the lyrics and I loved that there was meaning behind their songs. Bono's political activism was becoming more apparent through these years with his involvement in Live Aid, Artists Against Apartheid and Amnesty International to name a few. I have to admit that it opened my eyes to things going on in the world that teenagers usually wouldn't know of or care about. This only added to my admiration.
Skipping ahead another year or two brings us to Rattle and Hum. For some reason I don't remember details about when Rattle and Hum came out and I don't remember if the album was released before the movie or after. The movie though I remember. I was a freshman in college when it rolled around to the dollar theater in Provo. Movies 8 with Front Row Joe but it might be Movies 12 or 13 by now. I saw Rattle and Hum the movie at least 4 times. Here is my journal where I saved my ticket stubs.
Every time I could scrounge up a dollar and a couple of hours I would run down to see it. It was great, just like seeing the red rocks video, seeing Bono perform was just amazing. What I also liked about it was the personal look at the band. I liked hearing the interviews and seeing them interact with each other. Little did I know then that Rattle and Hum was the beginning of the end for me and my band.
I found this out later but I guess that the movie drew criticism for being too self promoting and seemingly insincere. From a movie stand point yeah I guess I can see that it wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't really a movie to me. It was an inside look at my favorite band and that was priceless. Since I didn't know about the bad reviews I didn't worry about it. About this time in my life a certain missionary was returning home and my attention was diverted away from music and pop culture for a time. Had I been paying closer attention maybe I would have had a head's up about Achtung Baby but I just didn't see it coming. When it was released I bought it with my normal anticipation and expectations. Boy was I surprised! I didn't know that U2 had been "re-inventing" themselves since the negativity over Rattle and Hum. The album cover itself should have been a dead giveaway.
Everything about the album, the cover, the lyrics, the sound, was significantly different than everything I was used to and I didn't really like it. The ironic thing at least for my story is that the re-invention worked. Achtung Baby took off and U2 was on it's way to superstardom.
I know this is a really long story for it to just end but that's pretty much what happened for me. I just didn't like the new U2. I never bought another U2 album, I never cared for any of their new songs which I still heard on the radio and I never had any interest to go to a concert when they came around. Even the current 360 tour, no interest, didn't even know it was coming. And I certainly never anticipated what would happen to me once I saw the boys again. You see Tuesday I attended the U2 concert in Salt Lake. How it happened is nothing spectacular. Thanks to a good friend Glenn was offered tickets and he accepted. I know he expected me to be excited to hear that he had tickets but I was pretty ho hum about it. Not only are we not concert goers but U2 just wasn't my thing anymore. I knew their shows were flashy and showy and downright odd.
What I know now though is that my husband knows me better than I know myself. This is a guy who I once asked to stop singing along to Pride because he was interrupting something akin to a spiritual experience for me. He stopped and didn't even get mad or laugh. More recently he steered me quickly out of a wedding reception because a really bad band was doing a really bad cover of With or Without You. When I mentioned how bad the band sucked he said "yeah I knew the U2 song would bother you." He may not have understood my strange U2 feelings at least on the surface but it was those very things that gave him a deeper understanding. He knew I was connected to U2 no matter what. He is such a great guy. He knew I would love seeing U2 when I didn't even know it. Yes I LOVED seeing U2. Bono ever the showman was amazing. Everyone and everything was amazing and I am hooked on U2 again.
Their music has definitely changed but it is still brilliant. They still write songs with meaning and beautiful lyrics and I hadn't been listening. I now have about 20 years of U2 to absorb so if you need me I'll be on the floor of my room.
(Stay tuned for a full concert report.)
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