Now that I’ve counted down my woefully incomplete list of favorite 1980 albums, I’ll turn my attention to the records from that year I haven’t heard. I’ll highlight songs from the most critically-acclaimed 1980 albums over the next several weeks.
U2’s debut album, Boy, came out that year, kicking off one of the most storied careers in rock history. It would be three years and two more albums before they earned their first gold record (with War) but this album was praised as a promising start for a brash Irish band led by a charismatic 20-year-old.
Listening to ‘I Will Follow,’ the band’s first single, you hear Edge’s distinctive guitar sound right out of the gate. But the song feels more like something from The Cure or The Smiths, or at least something bearing their influence, than the arena rock sound the band would later embrace.
I was on the outside when you said
You needed me
I was looking at myself
I was blind, I could not see
A boy tries hard to be a man
His mother takes him by the hand
If he stops to think, he starts to cry
Oh why?
[Chorus]
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
I will follow
[Verse 2]
I was on the inside
When they pulled the four walls down
I was looking through the window
I was lost, I am found
[Chorus]
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
I will follow
[Bridge]
Your eyes make a circle
I see you when I go in there
Your eyes, your eyes
Your eyes, your eyes
[Chorus]
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow
I will follow
Pretty much couldn’t stand them from the beginning.😅