3-2-1 - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Three Songs - Two Albums - One Question
I saw this concept somewhere else recently and thought it was kinda cool, so I co-opted it. I wish I could recall where I saw it, it was in relation to books, I think. If you’re reading this, sorry, and let me know who you are so I can give credit.
And if you wanna submit your own 3-2-1 email or dm me. Just follow the concept, three songs, two albums, and one question to throw out into the universe. You can choose to answer
Three Songs
“So This Is Love” - Van Halen - Fair Warning
“Bastards of Young” - The Replacements - Tim (Ed Stasium mix ONLY)
“Zoo Station” - U2 - Achtung Baby
Two Albums
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love
John Cougar Mellencamp - Big Daddy
One Question
Consider the first time you heard “Zoo Station” - what was your reaction? (feel free to reply in the comments if you want - no presh).
When I first heard “The Fly” I HATED it. But that didn’t stop me from buying Achtung Baby, at midnight, on a Tuesday… with 30+ other fans.
And once I heard “Zoo Station” I was all in. It seems when a band that successful pivots, it’s usually horrible (and U2 would prove that rule at least twice more - to date).
Taken as a whole, Achtung Baby is pure art.
We’re used to the songs now, but back then? There was nothing else like it. And I don’t think the band has been as good, or creative, since then. Okay, they’ve been pretty creative, it’s just a bunch of it has been shite.
I still hate “The Fly.”
See you next week!
In 1988 U2 were MTV super star darlings. The band came packaged with a rhythm section decked out in a crew cut, black leather motorcycle jacket, slim t-shirts and European flair, an unconventional guitarist sporting long locks protruding from under a cool derby hat and an ever present vest popped over a half buttoned shirt, while the wordsmith of the band sported boots, unstructured suit jackets and tank tops. We knew the band from their ever popular protest song, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", a trip down the strip in Vegas and making the requisite pilgrimage to Graceland and Sun Studios in Memphis to record on the hallowed ground where Elvis got his start. The band was huge. The concerts electric. Bono personally connected with every person in the building and long before Rage Against The Machine, U2 had a political message.
Then on December 30, 1989 Bono said the band was going to "go away for a while and dream it all up again", and they did just that. U2 disappeared. Easier to do in those days without constant internet access and social media accounts.
When they surfaced in 1991 the world was suddenly confronted with their dream, and what a fantastic dream it was! I heard the first single, "The Fly", in October 1991 and I had to have the album. From the opening guitar riff of "The Fly" I was hooked! There were layers here that the band had never given us before.
Achtung, Baby! was a lush album that demanded attention, offering up amazingly rich sounds, exotic rhythms and a brand new rock star uniform. It was fresh, and just like seeing things in movies you had not seen initially after watching them again for a fifth or sixth time, you discovered things in Achtung, Baby! - after listening to it for the 10th time - that you had not heard before. This was something totally different. A new band. A new direction. It was mind blowingly good. It was a turning point and a pinnacle. Could it get any better than Achtung, Baby!?
The tour came and it did get better. A new era of visual overload was ushered in. Sure, the Stones had been playing on massive stages for years, but U2 took it to another level. It was two hours of mind blowing sensory overload. This wasn't a concert as much as it was a performance art installment that blew the audience away night after night. U2 changed the touring business and while the recent run of shows at the Sphere have been amazing, it still does not deliver what Zoo TV and Achtung, Baby! gave us in 1991/1992.
The band was always great, but Achtung Baby! made U2 iconic.
As much as everyone loved U2 in the 80s, their music didn't completely speak to me (with the exception of Where the Streets Have No Name.) When I first heard Zoo Station I thought it was unlike anything I'd heard before. It tickled my interest in new sounds and approaches to music that I felt radio had abandoned in the post-New Wave era. I love the experimentation on the song and the whole album!