Music / Boy

"A boy tries hard to be a man."
^{Click here for the North American cover art}

Boy is the first studio album recorded by Irish rock band U2. It was released through Island Records on 20 October 1980.

Working with producer Steve Lillywhite, U2 recorded their first album. They used a number of nonstandard techniques, recording separately and incorporating unusual sounds in the recording. U2 had a collection of songs from previous performances, several of these were chosen for the album. The album sold moderately well when first released, as U2 grew more famous it sold many more copies over time.

The album spawned 2 singles, "A Day Without Me" and "I Will Follow".

Tracklist

Side One

1. "I will Follow" (3:40)
2. "Twilight" (4:22)
3. "An Cat Dubh" (4:46)
4. "Into The Heart" (3:27)
5. "Out of Control" (4:12)

Side Two

6. "Stories for Boys" (3:04)
7. "The Ocean" (1:34)
8. "A Day Without Me" (3:12)
9. "Another time, Another Place" (4:31)
10. "The Electric Co" (4:47)
11. "Shadows and Tall Trees" (5:13)

"In the Shadow, Boy meets Trope"

• Album Title Drop: The word "boy" shows up in a number of songs.
• Alternate Album Cover: The European release depicts a headshot of a shirtless little boy (portrayed by Peter Rowen, who would go on to model for several of the band's other album and single covers over the years). Due to concerns that the cover might be construed as pedophilic in America, Island Records replaced the original photo with a new one depicting distorted portraits of the band members for the US release.
• Ambiguously Gay: "Twilight" was meant to be about the transition involved in growing up, but many gay fans caught a different meaning.
  "In The Shadow, Boy meets Man"
• Grief Song: "I Will Follow" is about Bono's mother.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: "The Electric Co" is about this.
• Intercourse with You: "An Cat Dubh"
• Ode to Youth: As the title suggests, it is about being teenagers, which the 19-20 year old band members were close to being at the time.

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