U2

The Joshua Tree (1987)

eatdogs

2017 marks the 30th anniversary of U2's fifth

album, The Joshua Tree. I am

currently 32…

I like to reminisce about certain times and places. I think back

on the past in a fuzziness that can be blinding to what actually happened then.

I have forgotten some of the bad as well as some of the good. Memories can

become twisted and interpreted wrongly. Music though… it never seems to have

been forgotten by me. Instead it lives on through me and at this time in my

life, is being passed on to my newly born son.

I distinctly remember a ski trip with my parents in either

89 or 90. We went to Red River, NM. What stands out the most about the trip,

other than my parents still being married then, is the long drive through the

mountains. We owned a Ford Bronco 2 and in the tape player was The Joshua Tree.

Swirling through snowy mountains and driving past desert

landscapes the music of this Irish band lingered in my young ears. There is

something special about hearing the song "Where the Streets Have No Name"and

seeing the amazing sunrise peek over the mountains while the rising guitar work

of The Edge angelically lifts you up and sets you on a journey. On the other

hand, maybe it was hearing "Red Hill Mining Town"while driving through actual

small mining mountain towns in the dusk. The little waterfalls and log cabins

setting the scene at an almost picture perfect perspective of dazzling imagery

told through the bands musicianship and lyrics.

However, there is also "In God's Country"with lyrics like

this:

Desert sky / Dream beneath a desert sky / The rivers run but soon run dry / We need new dreams tonight

Desert rose / Dreamed I saw a desert rose / Dress torn in ribbons and in bows / Like a siren she calls to me.

Sleep comes like a drug / In God's country / Sad eyes, crooked crosses / In God's country.

Set me alight / We'll punch a hole right through the night / Every day the dreamers die / See what's on the other side.

As a Christian, these lyrics always resonated with me

personally. The promised land in some ways that lays barren, but is full of

life if you think of it in another way. Maybe finding solace with one's

religion in a peaceful place, or as the song title states, "God's Country". As

a Native American, the lyrics also connected with me spiritually in a

traditional sense. Mother Earth, the sacred ground we walk on, the night sky

with its many stars, dreaming of dreams and such. But of course there's the

notion of the stealing of land from the first people of America, but I have to

look past that and still remember that no one owns the earth, no one can really

do that. This is bigger than you or me…

The Joshua Tree is about America, as stated by the band. The

ideals that came from those first colonists to the times of the Reagan era 80's.

But then you get a songs like "Bullet the Blue Sky"which was written

about the Salvadoran Civil War and "Mothers of the Disappeared",

written after Bono met members of COMADRES—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a

group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared"during the

civil war at the hands of the local government.

You also have something like "Running to Stand Still"which describes

a heroin-addicted couple living in Dublin's Ballymun flats. The lyrics were

Irish-based, but the musical arrangements for it have touches of Acoustic Blues,

Country Blues, Folk, and Gospel representing more of an American influence,

which was new for the band at the time. "Running to Stand Still"is an album highlight,

and it is nice to know that a character monologue from Wim Wenders' 1984 film Paris, Texas, was also a significant

influence on the lyrics among other ideals like helplessness, depression, and

escape from reality through a killing substance.

Religion is searched on this album, making it something of a

space between secular and Christian music. On "I Still Haven't Found What

I'm Looking For", Bono affirms his faith but sings of spiritual doubt

which is relatable to many.

I believe in the Kingdom Come / Then all the colors will bleed into one / Bleed into one / But yes, I'm still running.

You broke the bonds / And you loosed the chains / Carried the cross of my shame / Of my shame, you know I believe it.

But I still haven't found / What I'm looking for / But I still haven't found / What I'm looking for.

Same can be said of the song "Where the Streets Have No Name"

in which it is relating to Heaven perhaps and then scattered imagery such as "Standing

with the Sons of Cain""Jacob wrestled the angel", "Fire and Brimstone"

and "Thorn twist in your side"being notable.

Producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno are the real

masterminds behind the album as a whole. The band asked them to come back to produce

the Joshua Tree after the success of their previous and underrated album, The Unforgettable Fire. Lanois pushed

The Edge to a more full sound with his trademark guitars and the use of the "infinite

guitar"created by Michael Brook, which allows an electric guitar note to be

held with infinite sustain. When used correctly, the result is a continuous

sustained note that can be used as is, or treated to create new sounds or emulate

traditional instruments and was famously used on the track, "With or Without You".

You know that distinct sound that is

always mentioned in regards to U2? Well it was affirmed here with this album

and it reached its peak of potential.

The band wanted the album to be ambient, atmospheric, as

well as straightforward, focused and concise. Making a solid rock album with a

beginning, middle, and end, The Joshua Tree was recorded and arranged brilliantly,

and if it were not for the producers, plus engineering by Mark "Flood"Ellis,

the result would not be anywhere near as elegant or complete.

To fill out the entire package is the wonderful photography

of Anton Corbijin. Known for his work with acts like Depeche Mode, Joy Division,

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, and Bjork, his stark black and white pics are

substantial to the overall imagery the band wanted to portray. More now so than

ever, album artwork is an afterthought. However, Anton did fantastic here with

a three-day traveling shoot around the Mojave Desert by bus, with the iconic

cover image being a spontaneous find and 20 minutes of work.

The album was originally going to be titled The Desert Songs and The Two Americas, but the use and explanation

of what a Joshua tree was gave them inspiration to immediately change the name

to what we all now know. Anton later recounted that the main idea of the shoot

was to juxtapose "man and environment, the Irish in America". Don

McLeese of Chicago Sun-Times said: "The Joshua Tree takes its title from

the tree that somehow survives in the desert, and much of its material suggests

an attempt, within the aridity, to quench a profoundly spiritual thirst."

Here at the end though is the final part. The very last bit

to say of this album. It's one of those pieces that becomes a part of you. In

this instance, this one album is a part of me. I don't think it can be removed.

To take it away would be to take away the best parts of my early life. Those

fond memories that are now silent and with blurry images. Just like how you

used to adjust antennas on a tv to make the picture clear, this album when

being played makes those old times come back clear as day and I can remember

again 32 years later,