It's the week you've all been waiting for (or dreading - lol) - U2 Week! I wanted to wait until I saw them on tour to post songs, because I wanted to see if I would be inspired in a certain way, and, indeed, I was.
I'm starting with the greatest live song in the history of music. You have not lived until you are in a room with 20,004 of your closest friends (the 4 are U2), and the house lights go up. It is the best feeling in the world. I always look around at the entire room to see the look of joy of everyone's face, just taking in all of the love and sense of community.
I also will briefly give the story of how I became a U2 fan. I didn't know who they were until The Joshua Tree, when they blew up, but I was too young at the time to appreciate their music. I remember reading about Rattle & Hum in Seventeen magazine, and I thought it was a cool title, but that was the extent of my knowledge of who this band was. I was a teeny bopper and loved Madonna and Janet, and later, the New Kids. I didn't like them during the Achtung Baby/Zoo TV era, which is funny because now that's my favorite album and favorite tour-that-I-never-saw. I thought they were weird and I didn't get the joke.
Then, in December of 1996, I was a 20-year-old sophomore in college, and over holiday break, I was at home watching TV on a Friday night. I flipped through the channels on the little TV in my room, and I got to VH1. There was a commercial on, and for some reason, I decided to not change the channel and waited to see what was on. Then, after the commercial break, this performance of "Streets" came on (hardcore fans just call it "Streets"), with the "Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona" title screen. I saw these figures walk out on stage, and the song started. It took a minute (we didn't have those digital cable guides to see what was on), but I realized "Oh, this must be that Rattle & Hum movie." And I decided to watch it. The song comes on about halfway through the film, so I only saw the second half, but it was interesting. Then, I think about a week later, it was on again, and I saw a little bit more. And I was fascinated by these young men who seemed so genuine. It was originally panned by critics who misunderstood their intent. They were showing an appreciation of American music, but critics thought they were being phony or trying to pretend that they were as good as BB King and Elvis. Since I got to see it so many years later, I just watched it from a pure place, and immediately understood who they were. It was a pretty intense reaction.
Not long after that, in I think February of 1997, I started hearing their new single, Discotheque, on the radio. I had been in rock land, after years of loving pop and dance and rap, so it took me a little while to reconcile the dance-y U2 with the rock/folk/blues hybrid I had just heard in Rattle & Hum. They were all over MTV promoting Pop, and I bought the album and forced myself to listen to it until I "got" it. And I learned as much as I could about them (not easy to do when the Internet was still relatively new). And then I saw them on tour that year. And it's been love ever since. I've always thought the intro to this song was like a sunrise. It was the start of a new adventure that's lasted 18 years. So far.
So this week, I will be focusing on mostly less well-known songs, except for "Streets," because I want you to experience the full awesomeness that is this band. I promise I'll try to behave - I could do a U2 Month and it wouldn't be enough - but I'll keep it to 10 songs or less in the next 5 days :)
Going up!
#YearlongMixtape
#U2Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkPkXSoS0Y
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