Filmmaker Alex Courtes directed the song's music video, which featured footage of the band performing in front of a montage of political feminist imagery.

[7][8] 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.

[14] It was described by Q magazine as "demented electro grunge employs a proto-rock n'roll riff, but propelled into the future, before taking a sudden hip-hop twist midway through."

"[15] Hot Press described the song as "[...] a thoroughly contemporary, intense electro grunge exercise, with Adam Clayton's powerful bass to the fore, which mixes hip hop influences with shades of the Rolling Stones, Queen, Bob Dylan and the Beatles.

[18][19][20] A bootlegged, early version of the song was partly released to YouTube during the band's recording sessions at the French resort of Èze.

[24] The single received a physical release on 14 February[3] The B-side, "No Line on the Horizon 2," is an altered version of the album's title track.

The video features footage of the band performing the song in front of a background consisting of collages of military, astronomy, and female imagery.

The Edge stated that the video is about letting women take over because "men have fucked things up so badly, politically, economically, and socially.

"[30] Blender said "'Get On Your Boots' is a manic low-end rocker a la 'Vertigo,' with phased ’70s-style synths, buzzing guitar and a breathless vocal from Bono that brings back fond memories of the days when the Edge tried to rap.

[33] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Adam Clayton stated his thoughts as to why "Get On Your Boots" had such a mixed response: "Interestingly, it's going off live.

"[34] Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. disliked releasing "Get On Your Boots" as the album's lead single, saying that it was a "catastrophic choice" and that it was "the beginning of the end.

We never recovered from it," referring to the commercial disappointment of No Line on the Horizon and the band eventually playing fewer songs from the album.