U2: "The Fly"

30 October 1991

"Wooh!!!!! And it deserves exclamation marks!!!! As many as possible!!!!!!!!!!!! Blimey."

— Sian Pattenden

2 Unlimited, 808 State, Paula Abdul, Bryan Adams, Oleta Adams, Marc Almond, Anthrax, Kim Appleby, Arnee & The Terminaters, B.E.F. featuring Lalah Hathaway, Big Country, Bizarre Inc, The Black Crows, Blur, Marc Bolon & T-Rex, Michael Bolton, Bomb the Bass, Billy Bragg, Bros, Brothers in Rhythm, C&C Music Factory, Mariah Carey, Belinda Carlisle, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Cher, Marc Cohn, Cola Boy, Natalie Cole, Color Me Badd, Congress, Alice Cooper, Beverley Craven, Cubic 22, The Cult, DJ Carl Cox, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, DJH featuring Stefy, Deacon Blue, De La Soul, Cathy Dennis, Dire Straits, Divinyls, Jason Donovan, Driza Bone, EMF, Electronic, Enya, Erasure, Gloria Estefan, Extreme, The Farm, Fish, Flowered Up, Amy Grant, Guns N’ Roses, Heavy D & The Boyz, Whitney Houston, Human Resource, INXS, Incognito, Infiltrate 202, Jesus Jones, Jesus Loves You, Sabrina Johnston, Kiri Te Kanawa, Frankie Knuckles, Lenny Kravitz, Latour, Sophie Lawrence, Julian Lennon, Level 42, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Little Angels, Londonbeat, MC Hammer, Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, Martika, Don McLean, Metallica, Bette Midler, Dannii Minogue, Kylie Minogue, Moby, Monty Python, Morrissey, Mötley Crüe, Alison Moyet, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Stevie Nicks, Oceanic, Omar, OMD, Ozzy Osbourne, PJB featuring Hannah & Her Sisters, P.M. Dawn, Ce Ce Peniston, Pet Shop Boys, Prince & The New Power Generation, The Prodigy, Public Enemy, Queen, Queensrÿche, R.E.M., Shabba Ranks featuring Maxi Priest, Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff, Cliff Richard, Right Said Fred, Roxette, Rozalla, Runrig, Saint Etienne, Salt-N-Pepa, The Scorpions, Seal, The Shamen, Simple Minds, Simply Red, Slade, Sonia, The Sound of Eden, Lisa Stansfield, Status Quo, Rod Stewart, The Stone Roses, T99, Technotronic, Kenny Thomas, Tin Machine, Tina Turner, Union featuring England World Cup Rugby Squad, Midge Ure, Utah Saints, Vanilla Ice, Voice of the Beehive, Crystal Waters, Wet Wet Wet, Karyn White, Young Disciples, Paul Young, Zoë

The one hundred and forty-two acts listed above all share one thing in common: they all occupied spots between numbers two and forty on the UK charts while Bryan Adams' immovable "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" sat at number one. A total of a hundred and sixty-seven singles took spots in sixteen weeks' worth of singles charts and all came up short of dethroning that mawkish power ballad from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves that refused to die. Following along from abroad back in Adams' native Canada, it was a site to see: it ruled the charts there for the bulk of the summer just as it did everywhere else but we all moved on. Except the British who just couldn't seem to tire of the bloody thing. 

The above list is an impressive one. At least fourteen of these groups and singers are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with a few more surely to follow (possibly even Bryan himself, despite what his many detractors might have to say on the matter, though it should be said he doesn't seem to be getting much support so far). There are acts that people revere to this day and others that have mercifully been forgotten about (and quite a few I've never heard of). Some I'm surprised to see appearing this late, others coming in earlier than I would've expected (I would never have anticipated encountering Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and Moby as chart contemporaries).

Plenty of these people appear more than once as well. Cher, Extreme and R.E.M. all had singles on the charts when Bryan took the top spot, had follow-ups appear in the midst of his reign and then each had a third crack at it with "Everything I Do" still in the top spot. Bryan himself even had follow-up single "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" go in and out during this time. It was at number one for so long that it must've seemed like it would never fall off. Clearly, something special was going to have to emerge in order to dethrone it.

If "The Fly" itself wasn't terribly special then the return of U2 was reason enough for Adams' reign to end at just shy of four months. Ver 2's fanbase couldn't have been happier that they were back, those of us who thought they were okay were fine with them being back and those that hated them were probably just grateful that someone had finally turfed Bryan Adams from the top spot. For perhaps the first and only time, U2 weren't the divisive ones.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen were big enough and still young enough at the time that they could easily have come out with more of the same and still claimed the number one for the first week of November, 1991. In fact, this hypothetical reworking of "Pride" or "With or Without You" or "Bad" might have even managed an extra week or two on top. The fact that they went to number one with such a radical departure seems all the more remarkable.

The first inkling that things were changing for U2 was in August of 1989 when Clayton was busted for carrying some weed into Dublin Airport. This was clearly for his own use but that didn't stop self-righteous types from stepping onto their soapboxes. MuchMusic's Erica Ehm expressed her disappointment in a very hectoring tone but it's significant that his bandmates stood by him. Very little was said about it after the shock wore off and everyone moved on. Among those moving on were the members of U2. (In retrospect, the other sign of changes afoot was the track "God Part 2" on the otherwise rootsy Rattle & Hum album. Though clumsy lyrically, its rhythm is groovy and even sexy with a bit of an industrial beat. It also features some of The Edge's fiercest guitar work; Bono was going to have to up his game though)

Still, nothing could have prepared the public for what was to come. "What the hell was that?", we all cried the first time "The Fly" came on the radio. What had U2 done with themselves? Adam Clayton started dating supermodel Naomi Campbell and suddenly they're the most glamourous band on Earth? Pop kids such as myself assumed they'd been listening to nothing but the likes of Happy Mondays, Primal Scream and The Stone Roses for the past couple years while critics decided that their new sound was the product of Nine Inch Nails (as Brian Eno once said, only 10,000 people bought the first NIN album but everyone who did was already in a band who just happened to be looking for a change of direction) but I wonder if it was mostly a case of U2 rediscovering their non-American musical roots. Bowie's Berlin period, Krautrock, The Associates, Gang of Four, Joy Division and the post-punk/new wave scenes in general inform nineties' U2 at least as much as bloody Trent Reznor or Shaun Ryder. No wonder this new approach seemed to suit them so well: it had always been there.

"The Fly" gave them just their second UK number one but it lacks the legacy of much of the material from their peak period. Notably, it got left off the North American edition of The Best of 1990-2000 compilation. Subsequent singles from coming album Achtung Baby — "Mysterious Ways", "One", "Even Better Than the Real Thing", even the inferior and thoroughly unnecessary "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" — are all better remembered today. If it's recalled at all these days, it's as the song that finally toppled that damn Bryan Adams from the top of the UK charts. But it deserves better. Not many people return from a layover with something so startling — not even U2 themselves when they emerged from their so-called ironic period in 2000 sounding even more painfully U2 than anyone could have ever imagined.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Genesis: "No Son of Mine"

By 1991, Phil Collins had balanced his commitments to longtime band Genesis with his solo career so deftly that it was difficult to tell the difference. Would anyone have noticed had "No Son of Mine", "I Can't Dance" and those other two been released under his own name? U2 would soon unveil their own much more considered account of inter-generational familial hardship with "One", a song that rapidly exposed this as the load of old nonsense that it always was. It's supposed to be about the man of the house beating either his wife or child but the narrative sure seems to side with the bastard of the story. Yeah, a boy who's been traumatized by a violent POS really ought to be the bigger person and reach out to daddy, am I right? How about "No Dad of Mine" instead, Phil? And yet, it went to number one in Canada for five weeks. I ought to think twice about making fun of the British for "Everything I Do", huh?