Maps of Music

Boy (1980)

Where the lyrics of Boy take you, and where it was really made.

The drums on this debut were recorded in a stairwell, and the producer first slated to make the album had already been dropped by the band.

Key places

Where Boy was recorded (1980)

Recording site Windmill Lane Studios — Boy was recorded here from July to September 1980. Lillywhite recorded the drums in the stairwell and changed how the band was captured on this album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Boy: debut studio album by the Irish rock band U2
• Produced by Steve Lillywhite
• Released 20 October 1980 by Island Records
• Songs drawn from the band's 40-song repertoire at the time
• Includes two tracks re-recorded from the group's earlier EP Three
• Lyrics reflect on adolescence, innocence and the passage into adulthood
• Cover shows a young boy's face, matching these themes

Background

• Martin Hannett was originally slated to produce the album
• Hannett had produced U2's first Island single, '11 O'Clock Tick Tock'
• The band did not enjoy working with Hannett, and Island dropped the plan after their objections
• Hannett was severely affected by the May 1980 suicide of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis
• Island sent Lillywhite a copy of the EP Three to gauge his interest
• Lillywhite agreed to produce a single, 'A Day Without Me', which failed to chart
• U2 found they could work amicably with Lillywhite and asked him to produce the album

Recording

• Boy was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin from July to September 1980
• Lillywhite found the studio very dead sounding and changed his approach for the album
• Drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s kit was recorded in the stairwell, with microphones hung from the ceiling
• Smashed bottles and silverware were skimmed against a spinning bicycle wheel for sound effects
• Lillywhite and engineer Kevin Moloney spliced tape at night to create in-time drum loops
• Bono often finished his lyrics in the studio, singing into a handheld microphone in the control room
• Lillywhite speculated he had more influence over Boy than any other producer of a U2 album

Cover

• The model boy is Peter Rowen, younger brother of Guggi, Bono's friend
• Photographer Hugo McGuinness and designer Steve Averill later worked on more U2 covers
• The American release and other international markets got a different cover, after Island feared it could be perceived as pedophilic
• Sandy Porter designed the new cover from distorted images of the band from a prior shoot
• Porter's process included photocopying, enlarging, long-exposure photography and scalpel cutting

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Generally positive reviews on release
• NME's Paul Morley called it 'honest, direct and distinctive'
• Sounds' Betty Page said the album achieved 'a rare mixture of innocence and aggression'
• Melody Maker's Lyndyn Barber hailed it as a 'rich' record
• The Guardian's Robin Denselow called it a 'strong debut album'
• Time Out's Ian Birch hailed Boy as a 'timely' album
• Musician's David Fricke called it a 'brilliant, exhilarating record'
• Rolling Stone's Dave Marsh called U2 'easily the best Irish rock band since Van Morrison's original Them troupe'
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau dismissed the album in his Consumer Guide column

Reappraisal

• Entertainment Weekly's Bill Wyman found it 'heady' but 'erratic'
• Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot described it as 'callow post-punk'
• Spin Alternative Record Guide (1995) by Ann Powers said it mostly communicates 'confusion of the adolescent variety'
• Uncut's David Quantick felt 'shock at how bad it is' on hearing the 2008 reissue

Records

• UK Albums Chart: number 52 (August 1981)
• US Billboard 200: number 63
• Ireland: number 13
• Canada: number 12
• Original releases sold nearly 200,000 copies
• Rolling Stone's 2003 list of 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time': number 417
• Uncut's 2006 list of '100 Greatest Debut Albums': number 59
• The Village Voice's 1981 Pazz & Jop poll: 18th place

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Early vinyl and some cassette copies have an unlisted 30-second sample of 'Saturday Night', which later became 'Fire' on the 1981 record October
• Some North American pressings indexed 'An Cat Dubh' and 'Into the Heart' at 6:21 and 1:53, while the 2008 remaster restored the original European lengths
• Bono's briefcase holding in-progress lyrics and musical ideas was lost backstage during a March 1981 performance at a nightclub in Portland, Oregon
• Boy is one of only three U2 albums from which every song has been performed live at least once
• The 2008 remastered edition was released on 21 July 2008 in the UK, with the cover standardised to the original UK release

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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