THE JOSHUA TREE

Memphis Mullen - My favorite album is Joshua Tree. It is the album that introduced me to U2 when I was a freshman in high school in 1987. My first memory of being a U2 fan is hearing With or Without You. I remember it was the fan favorite video on MTV in 1987.

But what really hooked me, besides Larry Mullen Jr., was I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. I remember blaring it from my boom box as I walked down the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. Coincidently, Larry is on the cover of the single for I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, which I have as a poster framed on a wall in my bedroom.

Besides I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, other favorites of mine off The Joshua Tree are Red Hill Mining Town, Running to Stand Still, Trip Through Your Wires, In God’s Country, and b-sides Luminous Times, Walk to the Water, Deep in the Heart and Spanish Eyes. I love the b-sides of The Joshua Tree as much as, if not more than, the songs that made it onto the album. I’ve only heard three of my favorite Joshua Tree songs in concert because I did not go to the Joshua Tree tour because my mom thought 14 was too young to go to a concert.

Even though I had all of U2’s albums, Joshua Tree was what I listened to constantly from 1987-1991 - along with Rattle and Hum, which I love almost as much because to me it is Joshua Tree part 2. The Joshua Tree was also all I watched for five years. I taped everything off MTV – the documentaries, the videos, the concerts, the award show appearances, and the interviews. My favorite is the documentary Outside It’s America – I know it by heart.

The Joshua Tree is truly a part of me. I think because it was my first U2 album and all I listened to and watched for five years. It’s just so ingrained in me. Its songs are second nature to me. Like being home, they are comforting.

This summer while I am On the Road with U2 driving to all 16 US shows, I am going to make the pilgrimage to The Joshua Tree. For 24 years, I have wanted to visit the actual Joshua Tree and the places U2 were filmed for the cover of my favorite album.