When U2 Got Me Unstuck From A Moment
It’s just a moment; this time will pass…
I couldn’t have been more than 10 or 11 years old during this story. I think it was before I turned 11 because U2 had just released All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and I remember not liking “Beautiful Day” that much during its release, though that has since changed a lot.
So there I was, at home with my parents, feeling a bit nauseous due to some reasons I can’t even begin to remember when my sister came home with a borrowed cassette tape of the aforementioned album.
I liked U2 a fair amount before this album was released. I was familiar with some of their songs then, but I wasn’t prepared for the impact that the second song off the record would have on me…
So there I was, lying on the couch, watching something on TV and trying not to throw up when the album started playing. I was familiar with “Beautiful Day,” as I have already said, so there were no surprises there.
But then, “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” started playing. And I knew right there and then that the song would remain with me forever.
I remember vividly that for that brief moment when the song played on the stereo, I was better. The 4 minutes and 32 seconds the song lasted felt like I was in a different world altogether. My nausea disappeared, I felt way better, and everything was alright.
I don’t remember exactly what I did after the song was over, but the feeling before? It’s still there to this day.
I would go on a bit of a hiatus with the band for a few years until 2004 rolled around and, once again feeling a bit tired and nauseous, I would discover them again on a mixtape (ah, the days before Spotify and YouTube were unbelievably wild…) and I once again started to feel better.
With a minor twist this time…I vowed to myself that I would learn everything I could about this band and listen to as much music of theirs as I could, given the time I had to do it.
The next year and a half saw me become one of the biggest U2 fans in existence, specifically because of these two moments. It’s funny how it works, though, because many times after that, when I felt a bit down, sick, or nauseous, I would instantly feel better when listening to their music.
“Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” will always be my favorite song from U2. Nothing they’ve ever written before or after this one even comes close, at least in my mind.
Album-wise, it’s always a toss-up between The Joshua Tree or All That You Can’t Leave Behind regarding what compilation is better, but song-wise? There can be no debate…
I am Andrew Milner. I am signing out. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. See you in the next one!
And since you’re down here, why not take the time to check out my music on Spotify? We have punk, rock, symphonic, new-age (earth, space, shoegaze, and post-rock, to be precise), and a bit of industrial metal music for good measure.