Bono's lyric was inspired by his mother, who died in 1974 when he was 14. Bono calls it "a song about unconditional love."
The love he refers to is between a mother and a child, how no matter what the child does, the mother will still love him. There is a biblical component to the song as well, as it's an analog to the love of God as expressed in Romans 8:39: "In neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God."
This is the first song on the first U2 album, Boy. It was released as a single at the same time as the album.
It took a few albums for the band to catch on outside their native Ireland, so "I Will Follow" didn't get much attention when it was first released. The song was always a concert favorite, and many heard it for the first time on the 1983 live album Under A Blood Red Sky, which far outsold the Boy album. This version, which was released as a single and charted in the US at #81, came from the band's appearance at the Rockpalast festival in Germany that year.
This song is an example of what would become The Edge's distinctive guitar style. He felt he could play only a few notes, but make it work by finding the right ones.
The spiritual themes in the lyrics are typical of early U2. Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen were members of a devout Christian group.
U2's first music video was for this song. Directed by Meiert Avis, is shows the band performing the song in front of a giant image of the album cover. It's one of those unfortunate early '80s videos that used green screen before it could produce a clean key, so there are some ugly edges on the band, who are superimposed in front of the image.
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For sound effects, bottles were thrown on the floor and bicycle wheels were spun and hit with bottles and knives.
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Suggestion credit:
Bill - Johnstown, PA
That bell-like percussion in the song is a glockenspiel, which is similar to a xylophone. Bono played it.
Bono sings the lyrics from a mother's point of view. "I know that's mad but I have done it a few times," he says. "But if you step out of that for a second and think it's a song about my own mother, it becomes a suicide note - 'If you leave me, I'm coming after you.' This is mind-blowing to me looking back. What drugs were we on? None!"
"'I Will Follow' came out of a screaming argument in the rehearsal room," Bono recalls in the book U2 by U2. "I remember trying to make a sound I heard in my head, and taking Edge's guitar from him and hammering away. It was literally coming out of a kind of rage, the sound of a nail being hammered into your frontal lobe."
What happened to the boy on the album cover? His name is Peter Rowen and he is the younger brother of Bono's friend, Guggi, a one-time member of the goth/post-punk band The Virgin Prunes. Peter also appeared on several other of U2's release covers, including the "I Will Follow" single, and became a renowned Irish photographer.
Steve Lillywhite produced this track. After making a name for himself working with Siouxsie And The Banshees and XTC, he entered the '80s as one of the hottest UK producers. In 1980, he produced the debut albums for both U2 and The Psychedelic Furs.
After misinterpreting this song as an anthem of conformity, Paul Westerberg of The Replacements wrote an answer song called "
Kids Don't Follow" that appeared on the group's 1982 album
Stink.
Collective Soul played this at Woodstock '99. Other groups who played it from time to time include Third Eye Blind and Hootie & the Blowfish.
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Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
In his book Surrender, Bono offered some insight for guitarists trying to figure out how to play it. He says for the lower drone, the Edge played, "a ringing E and D string, fretting on the second and third strings to make the chords E over D followed by D added ninth."