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  1. Remember buying the CD from Penny Lane Records,Bold Street,Liverpool on the Saturday before it’s official release on the 5th,which was the Monday.They had a special offer on with it taped to the 12 inch of Mysterious Ways.Couldn’t believe what I was seeing tbh Don’t think I ever played that 12 inch as I had the cassette single version anyway.Totally love the opening sequence to Zooropa,the build up is on a par with Streets...and Stay remains one of my favourite songs to this day.25 years ago,a lifetime for some but feels like 5 minutes for me.I have a friend who claims this is the album that he stopped listening to U2,his claim is that they ‘sold out’ on this record.He has never been able to qualify that statement whenever asked.His friend status was questionable from then on lol
  3. Originally posted by gmc:Remember buying the CD from Penny Lane Records,Bold Street,Liverpool on the Saturday before it’s official release on the 5th,which was the Monday.They had a special offer on with it taped to the 12 inch of Mysterious Ways.Couldn’t believe what I was seeing tbh Don’t think I ever played that 12 inch as I had the cassette single version anyway.Totally love the opening sequence to Zooropa,the build up is on a par with Streets...and Stay remains one of my favourite songs to this day.25 years ago,a lifetime for some but feels like 5 minutes for me.I have a friend who claims this is the album that he stopped listening to U2,his claim is that they ‘sold out’ on this record.He has never been able to qualify that statement whenever asked.His friend status was questionable from then on lol
    I have a friend that was the same way from TJT onwards. It's crazy really and their loss at the end of the day as they're denying themselves some quality music.

    I think sometimes it's an elitism thing, as the band got so successful some people just can't bear to share the band that was once their own personal pride and joy with the likes of Joe Bloggs the loud-mouthed builder who lives up the street, or Wilma Flintstone, the middle-aged housewife across the road who only knows and likes With Or Without You. I think there's been a lot of that that's gone on from the point they became mega-famous.

    Yet the same old U2 we've always known and loved are still there - to this very day. Yeah, they've changed a little of course, who hasn't? Wiser, older and all that, and yeah you couldn't help but be changed by money, fame / celebrity etc., but the heart and essence of U2 is still there to this day.
  4. Happy Birthday Zooropa, I remember welling up on first listen on release day and couldn't believe my ears - unlike anything else they'd ever done - some serious envelope pushing. And the last three songs in particular hit me like a truck and still resonate strongly all these years later.
  5. Originally posted by Caledonia:[..]
    I have a friend that was the same way from TJT onwards. It's crazy really and their loss at the end of the day as they're denying themselves some quality music.

    I think sometimes it's an elitism thing, as the band got so successful some people just can't bear to share the band that was once their own personal pride and joy with the likes of Joe Bloggs the loud-mouthed builder who lives up the street, or Wilma Flintstone, the middle-aged housewife across the road who only knows and likes With Or Without You. I think there's been a lot of that that's gone on from the point they became mega-famous.

    Yet the same old U2 we've always known and loved are still there - to this very day. Yeah, they've changed a little of course, who hasn't? Wiser, older and all that, and yeah you couldn't help but be changed by money, fame / celebrity etc., but the heart and essence of U2 is still there to this day.
    Exactly that.I am a firm believer that 'good' quality artists release that one record that crosses them from being a cult band with a cult following into the mainstream,and with (back in the day) a lot of airplay on radio,a lot of people just go buy the record to look cool and liking them.One classic example is a friend of mine was into REM from day 1,a bit strange,not your run of the mill tunes from what was around in the 80's.Then when Automatic For The People came out with all those fantastic singles for radio,your middle aged men at the time thought they were the biggest fans of REM,buy the record.He used a company vehicle once and found the CD of said album in this sales guys car,the most unlikeliest person ever to understand REM.That was him,out.He couldn't cope with the fact that 'his' band was being listened to by a much more wider audience.Which is in fact the objective.

    I personally would have loved to have been around when the Beatles released 'Sgt Peppers...' to try and gauge the severity of the change from the mop top Beatles sound from 62-66 then 66-70.But then again,those old enough to remember the change and approach from the U2 sound from RH to AB at the time,could probably relate.On my first hearing AB on 18th Nov 91 was...'...well that's no Joshua Tree...' lol The Beatles 'dreamed it all up again' in 1967,with only staying in the studio,no live work.U2 have 'dreamed it all up again' on several projects,including massive tours,and I think Zooropa was the album you can definitely stick in the middle of their body of work.I think Zooropa is a fantastic record.
  6. Zooropa vorsprung durch technik
  7. I drive to Tower Records in Greenwich Village, NYC for the midnight release of this album.

    I remember listening to it on the way home and waiting for the music to start, well we all know it had a long opening to Zooropa. So I skipped to Babyface, then Numb, then Lemon and finally Stay, which was the first song in the album I listened to the entire way through. That song made me fall in love with the album.

    This album is probably one of my most listened to albums in the bands catalog. Wish some of the other songs were used more in recent tours.
  8. This album has really grown on me in the past couple of years or so. I think I'd have to put it #3 behind JT and AB.

    U2 really under-appreciates this album. I've been listening to the podcast "U Talkin' U2 2 Me?" recently (it's very entertaining) and I think they nailed why U2 neglects this album (among many others like Pop, NLOTH, etc.).

    They say that if a U2 release isn't the biggest thing in the world (e.g. JT, AB, ATYCLB), then they act like they forgot about it or like they didn't really mean for it to be a hit and it was just an afterthought. Which is really a shame. Zooropa, Stay, Lemon, and The Wanderer are some of the greatest songs they've ever written as a band.
  9. The best.

    Happy birthday.
  11. Great album and it pissed my aunt every time I played it, ("you and your damn weird CD!") so double points!