The day before a family vacation in upstate New York, I bought "Boy," the debut disc from a new Irish band called U2. In those pre-iPod days, I had to rush to tape it so I could listen to it on my Walkman -- ad nauseum -- during the trip. When I got home, I fired up the Ampeg and the Ibanez delay pedal (I know, I shoulda had a Vox AC30 and a Memory Man) and taught myself all the guitar parts.
A year later, when my friend Mark -- a chocolate milk fiend -- spilled his beverage of choice all over my copy of The Circle Jerks' debut, we went to Bonaparte (now Bleecker Bob's) on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village to get me a new one. Plans changed when, in the window, we saw import copies of U2's just-released "October." He bought me that instead.
A year and a half later, in late February 1983, my parents had moved to Milwaukee, leaving me to finish high school in Brooklyn, and I scraped up the dough to buy "War," which I loved for its raw drum sound. On May 11 of that year I marked the second anniversary of the death of Bob Marley by seeing U2 at The Palladium.
This is a long way of saying that U2's first three records meant a lot to me at one point.
News that "Boy," "October" and "War" were due out in deluxe editions piqued my interest. Now that they're here, I'm reminded how much I loved these records and how I likely played them until the needle sheared through to the other side.
And the bonus tracks -- mostly b-sides -- bring back memories, too. I remember hours spent working out "Things to Make and Do" on my guitar.
Each of these discs is packaged in a CD-sized hardcover book in a slipcase. The booklets contain an essay by a music journalist, lots of photos, lyrics and The Edge explaining the bonus tracks on the bonus disc. Disc one is the remastered original LP.
The bonus discs have anywhere from 12 songs ("War") to 17 ("October"). "War" has an outtake called "Angels Too Tied to the Ground" and two unreleased mixes of "New Year's Day."
"October" has three tracks recorded for a BBC studio session and five more live tracks broadcast by the Beeb.
Among the 14 tracks on the "Boy" bonus disc there are four previously unreleased recordings (two studio songs: "Speed of Life" and "Saturday Night" -- and live recordings of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" and "Cartoon World") and the original, unreleased mix of "I Will Follow."
All three also include all the b-sides from the relevant singles, and it is great to have them in one place. I'm now considering eBaying the original U.K. singles.
Although U2 has appeared to morph so much over time, going back to these early records reminds us just how fresh the band sounded back then and how much the sound -- driven mainly by The Edge's distinctive guitar shapes and effects -- has endured.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
