1. The song that closes U2's debut album is a hidden gem. With less than 20 known performances, it's by far the least performed song off Boy. It, nevertheless, encompasses all the themes about which Boy gravitates (innocence, boyhood, struggle, loss) in 4 and a half beautiful minutes. Musically it features The Ocean's atmospherics together with the rest of Boy's hallmarks like Edge's delay and intricate basslines. It's an incredible song for a band that was yet trying to find their sound, their identity.


    Lyrics:

    Spoiler (click to toggle)
    Back to the cold restless streets at night
    Talk to myself about tomorrow night.
    Walls of white protest
    A gravestone in name
    Who is it now?
    It's always the same.

    Who is it now? Who calls me inside?
    Are the leaves on the trees just a living disguise?
    I walk the street rain tragicomedy
    I'll walk home again to the street melody.

    But I know, oh no
    But I know, oh no
    But I know.

    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees.

    Life through a window
    Discoloured pain
    Mrs Brown's washing is always the same
    I walk the street rain tragicomedy
    I'll walk home again to the street melody.

    But I know, oh no
    But I know, oh no
    But I know.

    Do you feel in me
    Anything redeeming,
    Any worthwhile feeling?
    Is love like a tightrope
    Hanging on my ceiling?

    But I know, oh no
    But I know, oh no
    But I know.

    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees
    Shadows and tall trees.

    Shadows, shadows, shadows.
    Shadows, shadows, shadows.
    Shadows and tall trees.





    Any love for Shadows And Tall Trees?
  2. Have to say I haven't listen for a while to this song until I saw this post. Must admit I forgot a bit about this one, but have to say that I really like this song. Listened to along with reading the lyrics, I never really had them in my head. Listening it for the second time now, thanks for reminding me again of the existence of this great song!
  3. This was always my least-favourite track off Boy - and still is, probably. However, I have to say with recent listenings, I've come to appreciate it a lot more.

    It's quite an unusual U2 song. There's not really any other song they've done similar to it. It's an interesting little oddity from their early years, and I've only just now come to realise how interesting the lyrics are. After a good couple of years not liking it much, I have now come to see that it really is a very very good closer thematically and musically to the unique world of Boy.
  4. This is such a great song. One of my favourites off Boy.
  5. The pre-Boy tour live versions are rockier and much better than the album version. I don't know why it was dropped in the Boy tour.
  6. I have to say one of my favourites from their first 3 albums,and along with Electic Co my favourite from Boy. Not sure what it is, but as CMIPalaeo said, its unsual , in my opinion in a refreshing way.
  7. It tells a story, it starts in a very different way than what it becomes later, it has a tonal bump towards the end. Several things that weren't found that often in their earlier songs, maybe that's why it stands out as different, refreshing.

    Good to see some appreciation for this underrated and forgotten gem
  8. +1

    I like the live versions
  9. Great song

    IMO, it sounds much more mature than the rest of Boy, musically speaking.
  10. Another raised hand here that loves this track.

    B.B. King said to Bono 'you're mighty young to be writing such tender lyrics" back in 1987. But Bono was what, 20, or something when this was released? Perhaps even younger when this and the rest of the lyrics on that album was written. I suppose much of it comes down to Bono having to grow up much quicker than most of us do so with the passing of his mother, and then the raw years that must have followed.

    And not just the lyrics, the music is way ahead of the band members ages of the time too imho. The vocal melody lines from Bono & Edge show just how good a grasp they had even then at the start of this epic journey. It's quite something for a bunch of 20 year old lads, who were technically men, but essentially boys still.

    Steve Lillywhite has to take some credit too I think, because the production and mixing on this album is top notch imho. I think Steve was pretty young then too, maybe early / mid 20's?
  11. Originally posted by Caledonia:Another raised hand here that loves this track.

    B.B. King said to Bono 'you're mighty young to be writing such tender lyrics" back in 1987. But Bono was what, 20, or something when this was released? Perhaps even younger when this and the rest of the lyrics on that album was written. I suppose much of it comes down to Bono having to grow up much quicker than most of us do so with the passing of his mother, and then the raw years that must have followed.

    And not just the lyrics, the music is way ahead of the band members ages of the time too imho. The vocal melody lines from Bono & Edge show just how good a grasp they had even then at the start of this epic journey. It's quite something for a bunch of 20 year old lads, who were technically men, but essentially boys still.

    Steve Lillywhite has to take some credit too I think, because the production and mixing on this album is top notch imho. I think Steve was pretty young then too, maybe early / mid 20's?
    THIS.
    ALL THIS.


    PS: Lillywhite is 5 years older than Bono so yeah he was around 23-25 when producing Boy.
  12. Originally posted by Caledonia:Another raised hand here that loves this track.

    B.B. King said to Bono 'you're mighty young to be writing such tender lyrics" back in 1987. But Bono was what, 20, or something when this was released? Perhaps even younger when this and the rest of the lyrics on that album was written. I suppose much of it comes down to Bono having to grow up much quicker than most of us do so with the passing of his mother, and then the raw years that must have followed.

    And not just the lyrics, the music is way ahead of the band members ages of the time too imho. The vocal melody lines from Bono & Edge show just how good a grasp they had even then at the start of this epic journey. It's quite something for a bunch of 20 year old lads, who were technically men, but essentially boys still.

    Steve Lillywhite has to take some credit too I think, because the production and mixing on this album is top notch imho. I think Steve was pretty young then too, maybe early / mid 20's?
    I'm confused... BB King was talking about "When Love Comes To Town" when he made that comment to Bono.

    Remember, he was 20 when Boy was released, so he actually probably wrote these lyrics when he was 18 or 19!