U2 - OUT OF CONTROL

OUT OF CONTROL

U2

SONGWRITERS: CLAYTON ADAM; EVANS DAVID; MULLEN LAURENCE & HEWSON PAUL DAVID

COUNTRY: IRELAND

ALBUM: BOY

LABEL: ISLAND RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1980

 

          U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin, formed in 1976. The group consists of Bono(lead vocals and rhythm guitar), the Edge(lead guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals), Adam Clayton(bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr.(drums and percussion). Initially rooted in post-punk, U2's musical style has evolved throughout their career, yet has maintained an anthemic quality built on Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's chiming, effects-based guitar sounds. Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal and sociopolitical themes. Popular for their live performances, the group have staged several ambitious and elaborate tours over their career.

        The band was formed when the members were teenaged pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School and had limited musical proficiency. Within four years, they signed with Island Records and released their debut album, Boy(1980). Subsequent work such as their first UK number-one album, War(1983), and the singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" helped establish U2's reputation as a politically and socially conscious group. By the mid-1980s, they had become renowned globally for their live act, highlighted by their performance at Live Aid in 1985. The group's fifth album, The Joshua Tree(1987), made them international superstars and was their greatest critical and commercial success. Topping music charts around the world, it produced their only number-one singles in the US to date: "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

          Boy is the debut studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 20 October 1980 by Island Records and was produced by Steve Lillywhite. Boy contains songs from the band's 40-song repertoire at the time, including two tracks that were re-recorded from their original versions on the group's debut release, the EP Three.

          Boy was recorded from July to September 1980 at Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios, which became U2's chosen recording location during the 1980s. It was their first time working with Lillywhite, who suggested recording drummer Larry Mullen Jr. playing in a stairwell, and recording smashed bottles and forks played against a spinning bicycle wheel. The band found Lillywhite to be very encouraging and creative, and he subsequently became a frequent producer of their recorded work. Thematically, the album's lyrics reflect on adolescence, innocence, and the passage into adulthood, themes represented on its cover artwork through the photo of a young boy's face.

        Boy received generally positive reviews and included one of U2's first singles to receive airplay on US radio, "I Will Follow". The release was followed by the band's first tour of continental Europe and the US, the Boy Tour. The album peaked on the UK chart at number 52 in August 1981 and in the US at number 63. In 2003, Boy was ranked 417th on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2008, a remastered edition of Boy was released.

Monday morning

Eighteen years of dawning

I said how long?

You say how long?

 

It was one dull morning

I woke the world with bawling

I was so sad (so sad)

They were so glad

 

I was of the feeling it was out of control

I had the opinion it was out of control

 

Boys and girls

Go to school

And girls

They make children

Not like this one

 

I was of the feeling it was out of control

I had the opinion it was out of control

 

I was of the feeling it was out of control

I had the opinion it was out of control

 

I fought fate

There's blood at the garden gate

The man said childhood

It's in his childhood

 

One day I'll die

The choice will not be mine

Will it be too late?

You can't fight fate

 

I was of the feeling it was out of control

I had the opinion it was out of control.