(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Tue 21 April 2026 14:00, UK
No one gets to the top of the charts the same way Bono has without having a few skeletons in the closet.
Even though there are plenty of times where he shamefully made U2 look like one of the biggest bands in the world, it’s nice to know that even he realises when the band screws up, like when they tried to forcefully shove their album onto everyone’s phone. But even if that’s still one of the most regrettable pieces of the band’s history, Bono felt that he would rather have that than listen to some of the band’s early work.
The whole point of U2 was about pushing themselves on every single record, and while that did lead to some of the greatest albums in their discography, there are more than a few times where it’s a step too far. Rattle and Hum already made them look like one of the most pretentious bands on the planet, and while they did end up correcting themselves nicely on Achtung Baby, it’s not like Pop is necessarily the band’s favourite album whenever they started performing the tunes live.
But you really want to know the most embarrassing parts of a rock star’s life, it always comes when looking at their musical baby pictures. You have to remember that the band were still trying to carry on the punk tradition when they first started, and while they did eventually start singing some of the most militant songs of their career on records like War, Boy was the first time where they were trying to get a bit more suggestive.
Bono had already said that he tried to spend most of the first record writing about sex, but when he listened to the record, all he could hear was the naive little kid who was trying his hardest not to screw up. All of their signature sounds were already in place to a degree, but even if ‘I Will Follow’ is one of the best songs of their early career, Bono felt that there was no way that he was going to sing those songs like he used to.
Even years after making the record, Bono says that he has a hard time going back to those songs because of how embarrassing he sounds on the record, saying, “I’m just embarrassed. And yeah, I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot. And maybe that’s the place to be as an artist, is right at the edge of your level of pain, for embarrassment, your level of embarrassment. And the lyrics as well. I feel that on Boy and other albums, it was sketched out, very unique and original material. But I don’t think I filled in the details.”
He does have a point in some of the songs being rough sketches, but that doesn’t make them bad by any stretch. Every single debut is going to be a little bit rough around the edges, and while fans weren’t expecting them to make the kinds of songs that they would hit on with The Joshua Tree, the sound of Bono’s booming voice and The Edge’s guitar at least helped them stand out amid all the other post-punk bands out at the time.
And, really, all great U2 songs are never fully fleshed out until they have a chance to play them live. There are some fantastic tunes on here, and while you are hearing them at a bit of a distance on the record, Under A Blood Red Sky brought new life to some of these tunes, whether that’s turning ‘I Will Follow’ into an arena rocker or feeding off the crowd on some of their early singles like ‘11 O’Clock Tick Tock’.
It’s only natural for bands not to like going back to their roots, but there’s a nostalgic charm when going back to Boy over the years. The band weren’t exactly the best in the world yet by any stretch, but knowing where they would be going in the future, it’s nice to see them at a point where they were a little more scrappy.
