If you twist and turn away

If you tear yourself in two again; If I could, you know I would If I could, I would Let it go

I came to U2 in a way that was probably pretty unusual for a person of my generation.

When I was in 7th grade, my favorite vocalist was Frank Sinatra. I would listen to it all the time, turned up as loud as I thought I could get away with, and sing along.

I have no idea where I even heard Frank to start loving his music - it's not as if my parents were listening to it. My dad couldn't stand it - he used to get so upset at me for liking the kind of music his dad had listened to - and I couldn't even guess what kind of music my mother enjoys…I don't recall her ever singing along to anything, or even really showing any particular interest in music.

So here I am, a 13 year old kid who loves Frank Sinatra; one day at school while trying to convince a friend that they should also be listening to Frank Sinatra, they mentioned in passing that I should check out U2, as they often cited Frank Sinatra as influencing them musically. So I went down to the Music Castle (the only real record store in town at that point) and asked the guy if I could listen to some U2 music. He went and got a record (which was really odd at the time - this was the height of the casette tape era, and before the "vinyl revolution") and played "Bad" for me.

I was hooked. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember who it was that I was having that conversation with, so I can't even properly thank them here. It's been more than 25 years since they made that off-hand comment, and it's been a wonderfully rich 25 years of music from this incredible band. Thanks, whoever you were.

Listen to it on on Spotify.

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