Shannon’s Perspective:

“And a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

When Larry and I first started dating U2’s Achtung Baby was one of the CDs we listened to a lot, for one it is just one of those good from first song to last song CDs.  For years we had the Achtung Baby cd in our Sony Dream Machine CD alarm clock, yes, we are so old we had a cd alarm clock.  Larry had specifically chosen this song to wake up to but because it was a CD alarm clock the sound of the cd spinning would wake you up long before the sound of the music would. So that’s what we laugh about whenever we hear this song now, the sound of the CD spinning before the song starts.

Larry’s Pick: Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World

I am not a U2 fanboy. I have appreciated a lot of their music over the years - and basically, I grew up with them as they grew up.

But to me, Achtung Baby is a masterpiece. I love every single song on that album. And that is a rare thing. The Zoo TV tour was so cutting edge and ahead of its time - to me, the hype was real.

But why did this song make the cut?

I spoke earlier about quitting college and deciding I needed to go all in at work. Achtung Baby was released in 1991, so these two things were happening at the same time. Since my "career" was in logistics, the higher you went, the crazier your schedule became.

Shannon and I aligned very early on in our marriage that I would do whatever I needed to do in order for her to work part-time and raise our sons. I can proudly say that even though we had kids at 23 years old, we never once had our sons in day-care.

This decision drove us to work opposite shifts...a lot. When I had to work early AM shifts, I obviously needed an alarm. I hate clock alarm sounds. So what does a music lover do? He buys a Sony CD Clock and decides what song he wants to wake up to - that will accomplish its purpose, but isn't too loud that it wakes Shannon and the boys up.

This is that song.

At least in the beginning.

I say that, because when it was time for the alarm to go off, the motor would kick on and make a very distinctive sound as the CD was spooling up for the laser to read it. After a while, that sound alone would wake me up - enabling me to shut off the alarm before any U2 could start my day.

To this day, I still have that clock. And it sits faithfully on my nightstand.

And Achtung Baby sits there quietly, waiting to spool up one more time.

My vibrating watch wakes me up now...