"I Will Follow" is my favorite by them. It came out around 1980. The album "Boy" that this song came from is fantastic.

@martinmorris5997

7 ай бұрын

It’s one of their favs, as they still play it live throughout all of the decades since 1980 until the last time they toured.

The Sweetest Thing was a b-side from one of the singles from the Joshua Tree (too lazy too look up which one but I got "well actually'd" in the comments so I'm adding a little clarification). The song is an apology from Bono to his wife for missing her birthday. The vocals and some guitar parts were re-recorded by Bono and The Edge and this version was used a single to promote their first best of album in 1998.

@shannonn9575

7 ай бұрын

His wife Ali is in the video

@farrken

7 ай бұрын

That's Ali his wife at the very beginning. Bono is singing to her and trying to make up to her, so he's presenting all these gifts like the flowers, the marching band, the firefighter strippers, the dancers, etc.

I love how the angry, driving bass from the earlier tracks moves into this roomy, puffy, sensuous rhythm section in Sweetest Thing.

Nice selection! My recommendations: A Sort of Homecoming (1984), Please (1997), Original of the Species (2004) and Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (2004). 4 great songs!

@viddiot

7 ай бұрын

That is an awesome 4some right there!

"Staring at the Sun" is from my favorite, and underrated U2 album - POP. It's funny that you mentioned an acoustic performance of this song. They tried a full band version but it didn't work. So they decided to change it to an acoustic version for the tour. And yes! That era featured Edge without a beanie quite a bit. I definitely recommend any song from POP and check out the live concert from Mexico City. The song "Gone" from that album is about Michael Hutchence's passing.

@nianfiedler5291

7 ай бұрын

Been a fan for 37 years and POP is still the album I listen to the most from them. A messy masterpiece, completely lost on American critics.

You need to check out "All I Want Is You/Where The Streets Have No Name" Live at Slane Castle. You will be blown away.

@nimboestrato

7 ай бұрын

Indeed

Yes there is an acoustic version of SATS…they ended up playing it acoustic for most of that tour as they struggled to get the full band version together.. and yes it’s fantastic

Bonos mom died when he was like 14. She had an aneurysm while at her own father's funeral. 😢

Fun facts: - The pretty lady at the beginning of 'Sweetest Thing' is actually Bono's wife, Ali! So he is literally singing to her. :D They've known each other since they were 12 and been married for 41 years. - 'Celebration' is shot at the Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, which is a pretty political statement in itself, as it has housed many famous political prisoners and been a setting for executions of said political prisons that have both sparked rebellions and been results of them. Very beautiful building for a prison, but its history is pretty harrowing.

Great Selections Thanks for some Early U2. I really like I will follow

Cool réact as always 🎉 i Hope the ZooTV live concert will see the light of a react one day 😅😊

I think "Staring At The Sun" is most beautiful MV of U2.

They were BRAND new for this video! I believe Larry was just 17 still, and the others were 18 and 19. :o Talking about I Will Follow of course. This one is one of the several about Bono's mom who he lost when he was just 11 or 12.

Amazing lineup of videos for this episode,super early U2 with I Will Follow. I always find it interesting looking back to videos and performances like this,way before they became the most successfull band on the planet just years later. I have heard soo many stories,about people being kids and being with theyr parents at some local house,and this kid would hear the guys in U2 do band rehearsals in this same building,without even knowing until much later on who he heard. That was when they couldnt afford to even hire/get a place where they could have theyr band practices in. And relied on "friendly favors". It is always fascinating to me how someone can go from a passionate garageband with absolutely no income,to becoming the worlds most successfull band. All the artists start somewhere,Madonna had to take less then attractive photoshoot jobs just to have enough money to survive,and she did it also to get her name out there,with a dream that someone with connections would help her out. And now neither of them ever need to worry about not having enough money for survival. 8:15 then 9:44 then 10:25 has had male U2 fans say that "We cant compete with that!" This was something Bono had done for his wife,after he noticed a change in her appearance,her mood just seemed off. While he had been busy working on the upcoming album and such with the guys in U2. Then it finally hit him: "I forgot my babys birthday!" And thats why you see everything you see in this video,even male strippers as Firemen for her amusing entertainment. If that is not the most amazing kind of love declaration and im sorry,over such a "minor" thing in life,then i dont know what is. I also now came to the end where you came to this very conclusion yourself.😁 Staring At The Sun is soo underrated as a U2 song,i love listening to it. Ironicly its not the first song i will add to a playlist myself,not because i never planned to,but it sort of gets forgotten amongst all the other titles in my head. But whenever i hear it come on,i can never skip it,never lower the volume or stop the music. I always have to sit back and just listen to it. After The Edge started getting a thin hairline,his beanies has become a trademark alright. And i believe this video is perhaps the only one where you see him without one. I might have forgotten other occasions where The Edge is without his beanie,but i do think this is a very unique video with that in mind.

I saw U2 in Concert in 1984 in a basketball stadium here in Adelaide, from memory I think the tour was called "Under a blood red sky" It was the most epic concert ever!!

I love early U2 like I Will Follow and A Celebration! They were so full of energy. Underrated!

The lady who sits down at the beginning of The Sweetest Thing is actually Bono’s wife & he’s looking at her 😬

Larry in i Will follow, looks like very young

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

I think he was 17 even thought he looks 12 lol!

I Will Follow and The Sweetest Thing are 2 of my favorites. "blue eyed boy meets a brown eyed girl"

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

Have you hear the original of Sweetest Thing? It's called a B-side for whatever reason, but I think it's better than this version.

@wboyd4330

7 ай бұрын

@@lauraallen55 I like that version better too!

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

Most people don't seem to know it! It's the original. I wonder how it ended up a B-side.@@wboyd4330

I'd long forgotten about A Celebration! It holds up much better than I remember! Wow, they were so young and almost Cure like in that song. A direction they didn't follow much after that song. Can I recommend a live U2 reaction list? Elevation live from Milan 2005, Ultraviolet 2009 live at the Rose Bowl, Raised by Wolves 2015 live from Paris and Acrobat live from Berlin 2018 with the McPhisto intro! Merry Christmas!

My favorite reactioner! I Will Follow is the first of many songs about Bono’s mother who died when he was 14, suffering an aneurysm while at his grandfather’s funeral. Others: Mofo, Iris, Lemon

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

7 ай бұрын

I’ve already reacted to Lemon 😊

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

I think they meant that Mofo, Iris, and Lemon are also songs written about Bono's mother (all of which are worth hearing/seeing). :) Tomorrow and Out of Control are two others that are about his mother.@@PancakeMarshmallowDude

@nianfiedler5291

7 ай бұрын

@@lauraallen55yes! Thank you. Both of which are incredible songs. Actually songs about his mom and dad are some of their best.

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

I just love the introspective songs by them. The lyrics to all of Achtung Baby are just phenomenal, I think, too. But then, I also love Pop far more than most as well. :)@@nianfiedler5291

A good selection spanning several albums over a few decades. Staring At The Sun really showcases how intricate and layered Edge's guitar playing is. Maybe to mix things up, react to the audio version of a song, then how the band interpreted it for that tour? I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight from the No Line On The Horizon album, then the 360 Tour live version.

they actually did staring at the sun live acoustic when they played it live because of the strange time signiture larry couldnt quite get it down live so they just did a acoustic versions

That clanking noise is things hitting glass bottles, I believe.

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

Bono was smashing bottles and cutlery was used in bicycle wheel spokes.

Just an interesting fact (in sync with what you said at the end) : Bono abandoned the electric performance of Staring At The Sun just after a few performances as they struggled to manage it live! Since then, there have been only acoustic performances of this song.

A Celebration has a video! That's not even on an album as far as I know. I'm quite familiar with their early albums. I recommend the live album Under A Blood Red Sky!

Your comment about recognising boyzone and getting the Irish connection (plus your RIP to Gately comment) puts you head and shoulders above most mindless YT reactors

If you want to hear some fantastic bass, react to An Cat Dubh and follow it with Into the Heart, both from Boy (the one I Will Follow is from and their first). Yes, the lyrics and music sounding as they do was intentional as always is the case with them. I look at Bono's lyrics as sort of a stream of consciousness as his lyrics are always about so many things at the same time. The one song that they all act coy about discussing what the lyrics are about is Mysterious Ways haha! I love watching earlier videos and performances by them because of so much power in the vocals (for one reason). Watching performances up until about the mid-2000s is always fun too, particularly the earlier ones because of all the interaction and connection between Bono and the audience. He's said before that the audience is not there for him, but his feelings are that he is there for them. I love them too because they're so close across their entire lives and into their 60s now. After seeing them in Las Vegas earlier this month, I can tell that they won't be doing performing (likely) for very much longer. Or, maybe they will keep going and become a legacy act of sorts. Either way, my favorite band of all time (well not counting the Bealtes of course lol!). If you get the time, check out their best of 1980-1990 B-sides. They sold a double CD of that and had a very limited edition that had a third CD of their B-sides. I was first at the store to buy that naturally :D In any case, someone has uploaded the entire third CD and it has the original version of Sweetest Thing, which I find to be much better than the one they released as a single that became popular later on (that you watched). This version with the video is very pop sounding. I love the song, but the other one is somehow edgier and I just love it! I think you would like it. :) Check out the entire B-sides CD while you're at it. There is a nice cover of Everlasting Love, one of Patti Smith's Dancing Barefoot, and a brilliant cover of Unchained Melody too! Ali, Bono's wife since they were kids and he was in the band agreed to appear in the video (at the very beginning) if the band agreed to donate proceeds to her favorite charity. So, she has a cameo too. :) Love U2 and your reactions of course.

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

7 ай бұрын

Thank you!

good stuff, but surely sweetest thing was the best?? wat da!! it was no 1 and everything!!

You need to start reacting to the Police's videos. They were the biggest band in the world in 1983 until they split in March 1984. They reformed for 3 gigs for Amnesty in June 1986, where U2 was also co-headlining. The Police passed the baton over to U2 at the last of the 3 reunion gigs as the next biggest band in the world.

Please check out Stay! One of their greatest ballads and videos

You heve recogniceg Boyzone in a U2 Video. Merry Christmas from Germany❤

Good selection. Two "when-Edge-had-hair" videos, a video apology, and gorgeous Staring at the Sun. Also, they used to do the acoustic version of Staring in the Zoo TV Tour, you should watch that one =)

One song I keep coming back to is "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own." If you check that music video out, do the official one, not the "one take" one. The one take video, the sound is not half as good as the official and you won't get the full effect of the song. Yes the first one is VERY early. It's one of their first releases in 1980 from the album "Boy" (Bono was only 20 years old at the time). It's a tribute to Bono's mother, Iris, who died when he was 14. The base really is great in this. They talked about how Adam Clayton had a sort of musical dyslexia where he could do complicated baselines but tripped over more simple ones. The second came out in 1981 from their second album "October." By this time we all knew these guys were going to go into legendary status some day. And they certainly did at that! Sweetest thing was actually written in 1986 but didn't get released until years later. Bono had missed his wife's birthday in all the chaos of recording a new album (Joshua Tree). One day he realized that she wasn't speaking to him. when he figured out why, he wrote "the sweetest thing" and presented it to her as an apology. She asked if she would also get the proceeds from it and he said she would. So she set all the proceeds to go to her favorite charity. The woman who sat down right at the start, btw IS his wife. We see her sit down and from then on, the perspective is hers as she sits across from him on this ride. Beautiful, isn't she? No wonder they had such beautiful children between the two of them lol. There were SO many cameos in the music video. The whole thing is just offering her this and that and the other as an apology, none of which was working until he finally just said "I'm sorry" in the end.

U need to do U2 song "please" but live version from MTV awards....its epic!

@nianfiedler5291

7 ай бұрын

Just make sure you find the full version. The most watched ones on KZread cut off right as the best part begins.

Ouch, that's Kilmainham, yeah? I had a distant relative imprisoned and executed from that jail...

@mattjohn4731

7 ай бұрын

Damn. Very sorry to hear that

FAR AWAY SO CLOSE is Stellar!

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

7 ай бұрын

I already did that one in a previous episode 😊

ABC- 80’s EURO POP. Shoot that poison arrow, how to become a millionaire, the look of love. Our three songs that did well on the radio!

Where is "Gloria"? and "Bullet The Blue Sky"? Gotta make a part 7

Great reactions. Great songs. They clearly still had one foot in their Joy Division-era with "I Will Follow" (1980). It's a fun enough song for the Indie Dance party or honestly, even a Goth Night. But it's also a bit one-note. Joy Division did that better. "A Celebration" (1982) is a much more interesting and accomplished composition and recording than "I Will Follow", but it's not particularly catchy, is it? Neither song was a hit. From the early '80s to the late 90s, "The Sweetest Thing" (1998) is one of my personal favorites by them. It's rare that they do Pure Pop. Unlike the singles from POP, the song's production sounded very "right now" at the time, and it's catchier than COVID. (too soon?) It was a major hit outside the US, and it got a lot of love from MTV at the time. I know a lot of folks will disagree, but that was their last great song for me. "It's a Beautiful Day" (2000) was their next single. It did very well, but it always felt generic to me. I think my favorite surprise from these picks is "Staring at the Sun", though. It's really underrated and its parent album, POP, wasn't as bad as folks made it out to be. It was meant to be their "Electronica" album, but this song always felt like a Radiohead song with an Oasis chorus. Bono's vocals channel several of Thom Yorke's tiks and tendencies, while the chorus was nursery rhyme simple, but wholly infectious, like the Gallagher Bros. It sounded like U2's attempt at Britpop. But by 1997, Britpop was on the downswing. Oasis had become a bit of a punchline with their third album, and Radiohead (who weren't really Britpop, themselves) had *actually* gone Electronic by then. It's hard to explain how much U2 sounding two years out of step felt at the time. But I always loved the song. I was also distracted by the lead guitar (the "organ-like" effect is a Phaser pedal) on this one, but I always listened to it on a cheap FM radio when it was new. I'm not sure I've ever heard it, otherwise. I didn't have MTV at the time, so I never saw the video. So, this is like hearing a different mix. You should check out the more notorious hit from the album, "Discotheque". I've always loved Electronic Music and U2 had been dabbling since 1991, themselves. But this was supposed to be them really going for it. I dunno. I think "Discotheque" is a turkey. I wanted to like it. I assumed I liked it at first, even. Probably because I loved the idea of U2 making a club banger, and Bono stepping off his soapbox for a jiff. The song is really stapled together and underwhelming if I recall correctly. I didn't really listen to POP all the way through more than once, but it's probably not bad. But I think it made them come off as a little bit sweaty and desperate, which nobody wanted from one of the biggest acts in the world. Their career recovered, but my own fandom for their new stuff waned quite a bit. As a U2 fan and Postpunk nerd, I'm weird, though. I'm actually more into their 90s stuff like Achtung Baby and Zooropa than I am their classic early stuff or their huge late 80s hits like The Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum.

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

6 ай бұрын

I covered Discotheque in episode one: kzread.info/dash/bejne/a6xlkrdyd73Nebw.html

If God will send his angels or MOFO off of POP both amazing

Could you upload more Girls aloud please

I can't find your reaction to Bad at LiveAid? where is it?

@lauraallen55

7 ай бұрын

May have been blocked because that one is not owned by U2

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

7 ай бұрын

The video was blocked and had to be taken down

@ThePelagicHermit

7 ай бұрын

​​@@PancakeMarshmallowDudeThanks Dude At least I remembered it right. Saw U2 at the Sphere and Lady Gaga was a surprise guest that night. Made me think of you for some unknown reason. Easily the best show we had ever seen. I am confident you would enjoy her live rendition of "what's up". You have identical taste in music as my wife. Thanks for being who you are

@PancakeMarshmallowDude

7 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I watched her surprise appearance on KZread. I’m glad you had a great time!

adam bassman clayton