BOY What a First Album! - U2's Debut Album Boy | MUSIC is not a GENRE - Episode #2

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Here’s another Top 5 band – I’m sure typical for people who came of age in the 1980s. Once again, I was introduced to U2 by a good high school friend of mine, and afterwards dug into their back catalog to devour everything I could. Like The Cure, like Joy Division/New Order, like The Jam, like PIL and so many others, U2 was post punk. Lots of definitions & subgenres for this, but for me the post punk I responded to most was rhythmic, ambient, crisp, sparse, melodic, emotional, both organic AND electronic, both pop AND experimental.

U2 was another band that showed me what’s possible. They had a reverence for what existed in the mid 1970s, and for what came before, but made their own rules about how to interpret all that and make it their own – which they did from the very beginning. It’s fascinating to me to see how, even when an artist is not yet fully formed, their earliest incarnations are still “them”. You can 100% hear the uniqueness of their take on music, their personality & quirks. You can hear where they come from, and get a strong sense of where they ended up going. ALL of the later U2 elements are present in their early work – all the elements at the end of the first paragraph above. They would emphasize some & de-emphasize others. They’d get better at some and leave behind others. They’d bring in some new elements here & there. But in general they are still U2, in the same way the Stones are still the Stones. Just like how we’re discovering together through my Song for Saturday retro posts that all the elements I have in my music have been present for decades. Life is ever-changing and ever-samey. So cool.

When I was in college, my friend Ralph Colombino had a band that almost got signed. They did some originals, and a bunch of covers from the likes of The Who and U2. I co-produced a music night, which also featured me doing an original and a cover on keys – my only proficient instrument at the time other than my voice. Ralph’s band played, and in their set was “I Will Follow”, one of my favorite songs from this album, from U2, and all-time. Their drummer did not bring his rug, or anything to keep his kit from sliding across the floor as he pounded the kick. So I volunteered on the spot to sit in front of the kick drum, hands on ears, and make sure they could get through their couple of songs unhindered. THAT’s what I’d do for music.

U2’s influence is all over my work. Here’s a song that a friend of mine immediately name checked U2 on, much to my delight:

REC - “Little White Lies” - (from the album Distance To Empty)

Favorites are: SIDE ONE tracks 1, 3/4 (they run together), 5; and SIDE TWO tracks 1, 3, 5. Discuss dammit!

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