U2 - New Year's Day (12" single)

My journey with U2 started with the band's second album October, and soon after I picked up a copy of Boy. I put both of those albums on a single cassette. My first car, purchased from my parents, was a giant green 1973 Mercury Marquis Brougham that only had an 8-track player, so I bought an adapter from Radio Shack. The cassette lived there for a long time.

When the 12" single dropped early in 1983 I eagerly snagged a copy, and then waited for the album. The title track was definitely U2, but it was different too. It was more like what we'd later know as U2, though it was hard to put your finger on exactly what at the time. Whatever it was, it was awesome. Then there was the very rough "Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)," which remains to this day a lost track for the band. I suppose this was a rough mix, and it was more reminiscent of their first two albums. Stylistically it would have been an odd duck going forward.

The second side contains live tracks taken from a Belgian television special from July 1982, and includes "Fire" and "I Threw a Brick Through a Window / A Day Without Me." These are wicked recordings and a snapshot of a band that was growing by leaps and bounds.

I was always sort of curious about the difference between the single version that was supposedly a "long version," coming in at 5:40, and the album version that was maybe a couple of seconds shorter. I do remember doing a rough A/B comparison back in the day, but as I had to change the speed for the 12" and then back for the album, by the time I'd played both they just sounded the same to me.

Regardless, this was a heady time to be a U2 fan. You could literally feel that something big was going to happen with their forthcoming album. If "New Year's Day" was any indication of what else was in store, it was going to be a hell of a ride.

As to my long-suffering vinyl copy, it's been through the wringer, so to speak. It survived the great '90s crawl space flood, and although there is some damage to the jacket, it's pretty intact, and the vinyl itself is still pristine.

I still find it strange that the performances here have never been preserved and made available again.

Truly a shame. The 12" single captures a band right on the verge (almost said edge, har de har har) of making it big.

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