Totally agree. If U2 had ended in 1986 after The Unforgettable Fire and the Wide Awake live album, their reputation with certain folks would be a lot higher, but their later success and everything that came with it resulted in a lot of people resenting them. I get why Bono turns off a lot of people, but that doesn't change how good the music is.
lol if I was going to get rid of music because some musician annoyed me, was a bad person, or perceived as anything like that in a negative way ... I might have ten albums left LOL
As a big U2 fan I'm looking forward to this musical journey. I might tell my story how I became a U2 fan when the appropriate album comes up (hint, that will take awhile) though I might also reveal a bit with the upcoming Boy album. Now, on to U2 Three. I have the 7" single. I believe it is one of the '80s re-releases, not sure anymore. It certainly isn't the original numbered 12". I'm a collector of U2 songs, preferably on CD, and not of their records. So owning that 7" and later the expanded Boy reissue when that one came out in 2008 is sufficient for me. I have no desire to find an original 12", or even last year's RSD release. As for the songs themselves, they sound charming but certainly not world-changing. The Edge hadn't discovered delay yet, so Out Of Control and Stories For Boys do not sound that striking yet. I do not want to jump too much ahead, but the improvement is very striking with the versions recorded only 12 months later. As stated above, there was plenty of promotion in Ireland for the single, with the vote for the A-side on Dave Fanning's show on national radio. It made the single a national success and gave the band a small foothold to try to get an international contract and further success. P.S. Though it was maybe appropriate as an introduction to the thread, but can we leave behind the Dave "The Edge" Evans and Paul "Bono" Hewson stuff. Their (artist) names are The Edge and Bono.
It's also interesting, when talking about names, that it was U-2, sometimes, and later was U2. later -1
Well, I guess that had more to do with everyone getting used to the name. Thus, some venues/promoters/publications used different spellings (U2, U-2, The U2s, etc.) until it became known to all that the proper name was U2.
With all that name confusion maybe they should have stuck with The Hype or Feedback. Pretty hard to screw those up!
I think what happened with U2 was, and it peed me off too was Bono broke the fourth wall with his "save the world" antics. But I still like their music, even their recent stuff. What I am also becoming increasingly aware of is that with their early albums, we have a 20 year old's voice, mentality and ethos coming out of a middle aged blokes (my) speakers. Doesn't impress me as much these days.
Love Three. I first heard the band with the War singles and subsequent Under A Blood Red Sky, but fully dived into collecting earlier works around the time of Unforgettable Fire. I have a later-issue, black sleeve die-cut 12" for the Three EP. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 tracks were included as bonuses on the 2008 Boy deluxe 2-CD, but Stories For Boys has an alternate mix on that deluxe - one that was used for a various-artists compilation LP called Just For Kicks, circa 1979. The true Three version of Stories For Boys remains vinyl-only to this day, available on the various Three releases or "4U2Play" package.
Great thread! I have an early CBS 12" repressing of Three. I'm not sure exactly which one it is. I'll have to dig it out. I remember "Ireland" being misspelled on the label. At this very early stage, you could tell that they had a cool sound.
U2: The Preamble I've got to put this right out there from the start...I'm a huge fan of the band, and they've probably been my favorite current recording and touring band for the past couple of decades. I liked their early stuff, but wouldn't have called myself a fan. That changed with The Unforgettable Fire, and my interest in the band has steadily grown since then. I still consider them to be the best band to see live these days. I have to say that my opinions here are generally going to fall into the more positive side of things, and yes, that includes both Pop and Bono. This should be interesting...
Yeah, I agree. If people are going to bag on Bono and his politics already, I’m out. I look at music much like this pandemic; it’s not about a side; it’s about survival. This thread is about the music of a great band; if you cannot stop yourself from bloviating about Bono and concentrate on the music, this going to be a very short thread. Someone else with more patience and dispassion can take it up. This was supposed to be fun for me.
I live in Boston now, and this was a big market for them in early phase. Had I lived here back then I would have had WBCN on and exposure to them much sooner. I will spin Three EP tonight!
Love the thread idea. Thanks for starting it. I'm an 'everything up to and including Zooropa' U2 fan, but that doesn't mean I have any negative feeling towards them afterwards. I totally respect what they've achieved. It's astonishing and admirable that it's the same four people as on the charming and naive Three EP. I'm looking forward to following this thread and might even follow and listen to the post Zooropa stuff when we get to it. As for what to call them, it's your thread, call them what you want, but considering they've never used those names on a record in a 40 year career, you must understand why people think it's wrong. Bono has never said "I'm Paul 'Bono' Hewson" or "This is Dave 'The Edge' Evans" onstage!
OK I'm definitely in for this. Way back when I remember that I had heard some tracks from War, and kind of liked what I heard, but they didn't really catch my interest until The Unforgettable Fire came out. So I worked my way backward, Really liked what I heard, and would consider myself to have been a pretty big fan by the time The Joshua Tree was released. I saw them twice on the Joshua Tree Tour, and for the next few years after that I would say they were absolutely my favorite band. I loved Achtung Baby, but I would guess like a lot of people they started to lose me around Zooropa. I did get to see them again on the Vertigo tour, great show, and I liked the new material, but I would say my interest and knowledge of post-Achtung Baby U2 is minimal at best. So that's what I'm looking forward the most with this thread, the opportunity to take a dive into the music I may have overlooked or even completely missed. Great idea for a thread, Thanks OP.
If I recall correctly, their named came from the "U-2" spy plane. So the way it was presented seemed to be ambiguous until they specifically settled on the "U2" version.
I thought seeing it on the 11 o' Clock Tick Tock single label was just an early misprint from someone who wasn't familiar with the correct way. That explains it and makes more sense.
Listening to Three for the first time now. Not bad, but I definitely prefer the later version of "Stories for Boys". Surprised at how good the drumming was this early on, as I've heard a lot of people comment on how much Larry had improved by around the time of War.
Just listened to the songs on the bonus disc of the Boy deluxe for the first time in probably a decade. Definitely like the polished Lillywhite versions better.
aren't they on record as saying they just wanted to sound like siouxsie and the banshees at first? i mean the signatures are there. it's pretty impressive where they went from this release. bono was bono from the get-go, for better or worse.
