Not since The Who defined itself with "I Can't
Explain" did a band map its career as early as U2 did with "I Will Follow," the
first track on its staggering 1980 debut, Boy. Incredibly, four Irish
lads barely out of their teens already had a distinctive, fully formed sound so
massive that it took over the world. That sound—by now an over-familiar
amalgam of Bono's messianic wailing, The Edge's epically echoing guitar, Adam
Clayton's insistently murmuring bass, and Larry Mullen's no-frills
drums—explodes out of Boy with the confidence of guileless prodigies relying
on instinct and verve to make up for youthful inexperience and shallowness.
The handsomely packaged "deluxe edition" two-disc
re-issues of Boy and
U2's second and third albums, 1981's October and 1983's War, trace the band's maturation
process as it grew into its outsized music, with B-sides, outtakes, remixes,
and live cuts providing context (and illuminating, though occasionally flat
rough drafts) for records that set the stage for U2's rapid ascent to the top
of the stadium-rock heap. Boy showed U2 had a strong enough musical identity to
command the world's attention from the very beginning, but the
flawed-yet-fascinating October is about the struggle to find something to say
once you have an audience. But for all their lyrical vagueness, songs like "I
Threw A Brick Through A Window" and "Tomorrow" are never less than riveting,
and—perhaps in ways he didn't intend, given how muddled his words
are—Bono captures the feeling of early twentysomething spiritual
confusion pretty much perfectly.
Fortunately, that confusion didn't carry over to
the stage, judging by October's bonus disc, which collects live tracks from
early tours where U2 learned how to make big emotions seem intimate. By War, Bono
mastered the art of the grand symbolic gesture—his inspirational
iconography on anthems like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" is
still covering up for his lyrical shortcomings 25 years later. Greater triumphs
were on the horizon, but U2 had already found what it was looking for just three
years into its storied career.