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U2 - I Will Follow
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Featured: https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2023/04/05/u2-i-will-follow-shan-phearon/81079

"A boy tries hard to be a man" - Bono

Micro music video / 60 sec spot (official) for U2's 1980 classic 'I Will Follow' from their debut LP 'Boy'.

Re-imagined through a modern European inner-city Drill culture and emerging UK Sturdy sub-culture lens for 'Songs of Surrender' (2023).

Wikipedia: "'I Will Follow' is a song by rock band U2. It is the opening track from their debut album, Boy, and it was released as the album's second single in October 1980. 'I Will Follow' is the only song that U2 have performed on every tour since they released their first album. The song was U2's first music video, directed by Meiert Avis in Dublin, Ireland. Bono has said that he wrote the lyrics from the perspective of his mother Iris, who died in 1974 when he was 14 years old, and that they were about the unconditional love a mother has for her child."

Genius: "Bono remembers his adolescence as a time of psychological violence and ‘I Will Follow’ captures some of the drama of that era, the four walls coming down on top of the song’s narrator in an image that captures well the suburban claustrophobia that was returned to, almost obsessively, throughout the first album. But there is something else going on here: a sense of terror and confusion which runs deeper than the common crises of identity from which teenagers suffer." – Into the Heart, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1997, p."

Bono's Revised Lyrics 2023 Version: "A boy tries hard to be a man, His mother lets go of his hand, A gift of grief will bring a voice to life."

Interview with Director: "UK Drill has been one of the most influential youth music movements in the world. It’s born from teen nihilism, disenfranchisement, low income areas, violence, trauma, alienation. Like rebellious Punk and Grime before, UK Drill is a response to broken British politics. UK Drill culture has codes: mythos, uniform, language, hand gestures, environment, dance. The Drill dance style - like Hip-Hop adjacent 'conflict styles' Breakdancing or Krump battling in eras past - is known as Sturdy.

I was thinking about themes behind U2’s debut ‘Boy’ LP... Adolescence, teen angst, coming of age, etc. Let’s reframe these through a modern European inner-city youth lens. Worlds crossing. It felt visually unexpected from U2 and uncommon in Rock / Alternative. UK Drill, integrated into the thematic universe of one of the great universal bands of all time, in an organic crossover moment - we hadn’t seen this cross-pollination done yet.

I saw natural connections between U2's early themes and alienation, parenting, childhood trauma, teen behavioural issues, other deeper ideas around UK Drill and modern street culture youth.

More than anything though, I think it’s cool to see modern Rap and Rock n’ Roll ideas find common ground."

Director: Shan Phearon

Exec Prod: Simon Oxley
Producer: Jordan Rowley
Prod: Greatcoat Films

Label: Interscope Records
Commissioner: Kevin Kloecker
CD: Terrence O'Connor

Dedicated to Dad.
Category
Rock
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