"Get On Your Boots" | ||||||||||||||
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Single by U2 | ||||||||||||||
from the album No Line on the Horizon | ||||||||||||||
B-side | "No Line on the Horizon 2" | |||||||||||||
Released | 23 January 2009 | |||||||||||||
Genre | Alternative rock | |||||||||||||
Length | 3:24 | |||||||||||||
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U2 singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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"Get On Your Boots" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the sixth track from their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The song was released as the album's first single on 23 January 2009. The physical format was released on 16 February. The video received its premiere on 6 February 2009.
The lyrical delivery of the song's verses has been said to resemble Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," while the song has also been compared to "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello.
Originally known as "Four Letter Word" and later as "Sexy Boots," "Get On Your Boots" originated as a demo that guitarist the Edge recorded at his home with the software GarageBand. The song went through many iterations, and at one point the main guitar riff was dropped, leading producer Steve Lillywhite to describe it as "a Beck B side" that could have been cut from the album. Throughout the documentary It Might Get Loud, the Edge is shown working on the song's guitar riffs, while experimenting with their sounds and effects.
"Get On Your Boots" was one of several songs recorded by a fan outside of Bono's house during the No Line on the Horizon sessions. The clip was subsequently uploaded to YouTube, but removed at the request of Universal Music.
Thematically, the song is about Bono taking his family on vacation to France and witnessing warplanes flying overhead at the start of the Iraq War; some of the lyrics are from the perspective of a man writing a letter to his first love as he relates witnessing the same event. The "let me in the sound" chant was developed comparatively late in the recording sessions. It was also used in the opening section of "Fez – Being Born." "Get On Your Boots" was one of three songs that the band were considering to open the album with, along with "Fez – Being Born" and "No Line on the Horizon." "No Line on the Horizon" was eventually chosen.