Scattered Thoughts: Get On Your …

As the anticipation for the moment when we actually get to hear the first single builds, it’s sort of amusing to me how tempting it is to decide whether or not the song is any good based solely on a few lyrics we’ve seen and the descriptions we’ve read. The above is from Q magazine about Get On Your Boots.

Also from Q about Get On Your Boots:

“Among other instantly striking tracks are Get Your Boots On, a heaving electro-rocker that may mark the destination point the band had been seeking on Pop”

Note: (not sure if the fact that Q alternately calls the song Get On your Boots and Get Your Boots On says more about Q’s editing ability or U2′s song-naming ability)

And from Rolling Stone, about Get On Your Boots:

“Get On Your Boots”
The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up where “Vertigo” left off. “It started just with me playing and Larry drumming,” the Edge recalls. “And we took it from there.”

My first hope was that I would avoid reading these types of descriptions altogether. To make the album a surprise out of nowhere. Yeah, right. That lasted about zero seconds. Once the information is out there, it’s hard not to read it. But even after reading the above, I still have no clue what to expect even from just this one song. (Are we even *sure* that this song is the first single? Like, 99 percent sure?)

I would guess that not everyone who reads the above descriptions will be struck by the same words. For me, the most powerful description used in the above snippets is the word “demented.” But what my imagination expects from demented U2 is probably a lot different than what this writer expects, I’m guessing. I mean, some fans seem to think eyeliner is demented! WTF? My demented is a lot more “out there” than that. Plus, the description of Boots taking off where Vertigo left off? Well that sounds possibly not so great to me. But who knows if that’s what I’ll think when I hear it.

When the heck will we hear it, anyway? (Bono?)

In the meantime … for comparison’s sake, here is what Q magazine wrote about the last lead-off single, Vertigo, in a similar preview article from October, 2004:

Vertigo
U2 as garage band. Over power chords, Bono sings about boys who play rock ‘n’ roll. Adam Clayton: “It was originally called Native Son and had a very different feel. Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there — a nice wink to where we came from.”

-This post brought to you by Scatter O’ Light.

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