As I explained in my essay on Achtung Baby I missed out on U2 during the early 1990s. About the time this came out, I saw Bono in an interview on MTV where he was wearing that black suit and glasses, sitting backwards in a chair smoking a cigarette. I didn't get it at the time that perhaps this was something of an act. I took it literally and could not relate.

From what I understand, U2 wrote this record while on the Achtung Baby tour. Pretty amazing. I did not get a good chance to hear it when it came out. There was no radio to speak of other than some good shows on local college radio. And MTV was becoming unwatchable as it totally lost its purpose of providing innovative new stuff. I think I caught the video for "Lemon" one time in the 1990s and liked it. I saw Edge do "Numb" during some performance thing on TV. But that's pretty much all I heard of it in the mid-1990s.

By the time Pop came around, I was back and catching up. When I finally did get Zooropa, I couldn't play it enough. I have never gotten tired of it. One of my all-time favorite lines is from "Some Days are Better Than Others" (a song with a rather mundane title but great hooks). It seems like most of my days "have bouncers that won't let me in."

I do have a copy of the Zoo TV tour on video. Another missed opportunity for me. Did not see that one live.

-- May 8, 2005 (DD)