U2's March 1987

U2's fifth studio album was about to be released, produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno on Island Records.  What a year. 

After many years of research, a new drug as discovered for the treatment of AIDS. The stock market did a nose dive around the world. Baby M case. A New Jersey court declares the First Case in an American court ruling on the validity of Surrogacy over custody rights of "Baby M" re a surrogacy agreement with Mary Beth Whitehead.

Terry Waite Kidnapping, FOX network born, creating the 4th network on U.S airwaves and the Simpsons appeared on TV for the first time.  Prozac debuts, Regan Years, Wall Street, Dirty Dancing and yet in all of that noise a band for Dublin awakens the American spirit to drive hate into the darkness. 

“I love being there, I love America, I love the feeling of the wide open spaces, I love the deserts, I love the mountain ranges, I even love the cities. So having fallen in love with America over the years that we’ve been there on tour, I then had to ‘deal with’ America and the way it was affecting me, because America’s having such an effect on the world at the moment. On this record I had to deal with it on a political level for the first time, if in a subtle way.”

— Bono

1987 was a year filled with promise, despair, tears and joy and U2 took over the airwaves of Rock, Pop stations across America with the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree.

The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and depicts the band's love–hate relationship with the United States, using socially and politically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery. The album received critical acclaim with chart-topping songs:
 "With or Without You," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "Where the Streets Have No Name," the first two of which became the group's only number-one singles in the US.

The Boys won a few Grammy's for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988.   Hitting the road in 1987 with a record breaking tour, selling out venues around the world.

Critics could no longer ignore the boys from Dublin, placing them on the list of one of the greatest albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold.

The boys released a remastered edition to push the album forward into a digital age, and in 2014 it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the US Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

"Outside its America"

U2 Album Receives Ultimate Honor

U2/ The Joshua Tree

AP WIRE: U2's classic album "The Joshua Tree," Linda Ronstadt's "Heart Like a Wheel" and an early, influential Christian rock album will play on forever, or at least as long as the Library of Congress is around.

These albums from the 1970s and 1980s are among 25 recordings selected for long-term preservation in the library's National Recording Registry, chosen for their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance. Among the seminal sounds of the 20th century announced Wednesday are Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" and the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown."

Librarian of Congress James Billington said the recordings represent part of America's culture and history.

"As technology continually changes and formats become obsolete, we must ensure that our nation's aural legacy is protected," he said.

U2's 1987 album with hits like "Where the Streets Have no Name" and "With or Without You" was chosen after the library received many public nominations. Its inclusion coincides with the addition of Larry Norman's Christian 1972 album "Only Visiting this Planet."

Curator Matthew Barton said U2's sound, though not explicitly religious, has influenced and been combined with Christian rock in some churches, including the song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

25 Years Later The Joshua Tree

U2 Studios / The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua Tree within the limitation of strict song structures.

The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music and depicts the band’s love-hate relationship with the United States, with socially and politically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery.

Inspired by American tour experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the record. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group recorded in two houses, in addition to two professional studios. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band’s participation in A Conspiracy of Hope tour, the death of roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono’s travels to Central America.

Recording was completed in November and additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a “cinematic” quality for the record that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of America. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.

The album received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and sold in record-breaking numbers. According to Rolling Stone, the album increased the band’s stature “from heroes to superstars”.

It produced the hit singles “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988.

The group supported the record with the successful Joshua Tree Tour. Frequently cited as one of the greatest albums in rock history, The Joshua Tree is one of the world’s all-time best-selling albums, with over 25 million copies sold. In 2007, U2 released a 20th anniversary remastered edition of the record.

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.



Happy Anniversary The Joshua Tree

U2, The Joshua Tree

Before The Joshua Tree, U2 had released four studio albums and were an internationally successful band, particularly as a live act having toured every year in the 1980s. The group’s stature and the public’s anticipation for a new album grew following their 1984 record, The Unforgettable Fire, their subsequent tour, and their participation in Live Aid in 1985. U2 began writing new material in mid-1985 following the Unforgettable Fire Tour.

Band manager Paul McGuinness recounted that The Joshua Tree originated from the band’s “great romance” with the United States, as the group had toured the country for up to five months per year in the first half of the 1980s.

In the lead up to the album sessions, lead vocalist Bono had been reading the works of American writers such as Norman Mailer, Flannery O’Connor, and Raymond Carver so as to understand, in the words of Hot Press editor Niall Stokes, “those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream”. Following a 1985 humanitarian visit to Ethiopia with his wife Ali, Bono said, “Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn’t see when I came home… I saw the spoiled child of the Western world. I started thinking, ‘They may have a physical desert, but we’ve got other kinds of deserts.’ And that’s what attracted me to the desert as a symbol of some sort.”

The Joshua Tree Back CD Cover In 1985, Bono participated in Steven Van Zandt’s anti-apartheid Sun City project and spent time with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. When Richards and Jagger played blues, Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genre, as most of U2’s musical knowledge began with punk rock in their youth in the mid-1970s. Bono realised that U2 “had no tradition”, and he felt as if they “were from outer space”. This inspired him to write the blues-influenced song “Silver and Gold”, which he recorded with Richards and Ronnie Wood. Until that time, U2 had been antipathetic towards roots music, but after spending time with fellow Irish bands The Waterboys and Hothouse Flowers, they felt a sense of indigenous Irish music blending with American folk music. Nascent friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Richards encouraged U2 to look back to rock’s roots and focused Bono on his skills as a songwriter and lyricist. He explained, “I used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched.2 I wrote words on the microphone. For The Joshua Tree, I felt the time had come to write words that meant something, out of my experience.” Dylan told Bono of his own debt to Irish music, while Bono further demonstrated his interest in music traditions in his duet with Irish Celtic and folk group Clannad on the track “In a Lifetime”.

The Joshua Tree Tour Set ListThe band wanted to build on the textures of The Unforgettable Fire, but in contrast to that record’s often out-of-focus experimentation, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the limitations of more strict song structures.

The group referred to this approach as working within the “primary colours” of rock music—guitar, bass, and drums. Guitarist The Edge was more interested in the European atmospherics of The Unforgettable Fire and was initially reluctant to follow the lead of Bono, who, inspired by Dylan’s instruction to “go back”, sought a more American, bluesy sound.

Despite not having a consensus on musical direction, the group members agreed that they felt disconnected from the dominant synthpop and New Wave music of the time, and they wanted to continue making music that contrasted with these genres.

In late 1985, U2 moved to drummer Larry Mullen, Jr.’s newly-purchased home to work on material written during The Unforgettable Fire Tour. This included demos that would evolve into “With or Without You”, “Red Hill Mining Town”, and “Trip Through Your Wires”, and a song called “Womanfish”. The Edge recalled it as a difficult period with a sense of “going nowhere”, although Bono was set on America as a theme for the album.

24 Years Later "The Joshua Tree"

Wednesday marks the 24th anniversary of “The Joshua Tree” Most will agree that in addition to being one of the most culturally significant rock ‘n’ roll albums ever recorded which managed to sell over 25M copies and made U2 ” The Worlds Greatest” Band and the title remains. Greatest does not start with a plan or a road map as to where your heading. You can pick up your own copy here

The Joshua Tree (Deluxe Edition) [Remastered]

Today some would say who cares about U2? They have past their time and that the music may not relate to the masses today. However what does a pre-teen Justin lover really know about the world? U2’s message is clearly directed towards the college crowd to guide them to making a difference in the world. Becoming something more than a pay check collecting person.

The idea that one is no greater than another is not a new concept, what’s different is the idea of main streaming the thoughts of being good to each other and looking for ways to help one another.  24 years later and the message still matters. The only difference today is that we may have to tweet it, or shoot a video to get the message out.

The bio is not provided for the dedicated U2 fan rather the possible new U2 fan. Music moves you beyond your space and time.

The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua Tree within the limitation of strict song structures. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music and depicts the band’s love-hate relationship with the United States, with socially- and politically-conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery.

Inspired by American tour experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the record. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group recorded in two houses, in addition to two professional studios. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band’s participation in A Conspiracy of Hope tour, the death of roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono’s travels to Central America. Recording was completed in November and additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a “cinematic” quality for the record that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of America. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.

Joshua Tree narrowly beats out Achtung Baby

U2 Fans yesterday woke up around the world to the question of the day on Facebook. If you could only have one U2 ablum with you what ablum would that be. Of course we had some differences. War, Best of, How to Build, but for the most part it was neck neck these two ablums. For us we think its Joshua tree. A defining period for all of us.

The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2, released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. Written and recorded in Dublin throughout 1986, it was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. The album is dedicated to lead singer Bono’s assistant, Greg Carroll, who was killed in a motorcycle accident during the album’s recording.

There is within music an ability to tap into the raw, revelatory power of beauty; music can give itself to the unknown whisper of the eternal in ways that other forms of art only hint at. The collage of sounds communicates something deep to the heart and, when combined with the presence of the voice, can be downright liberating. Few individuals, let alone bands, ever really reach a point where they are that open to the Unknown that it can give itself so freely through their music. U2 has done so time and again, but never with the level of directness and sincerity as they accomplished on the Joshua Tree.

A joshua tree is a real tree that thrives despite the dry environment it lives in. The image - the icon - of life amidst its seeming absence, embodied in the joshua tree, is one that is fully appropriate to U2 - particularly at the end of their first decade. U2, like the joshua tree, stood in stark contrast to its environment: ascetic, prophetic and disarmingly (some would say “naively”, but let the tension stand) sincere. (Their foray into the realm of post-modern sampling, irony and sarcasm was an identity crisis fully in line with where they stood in the 80s: cynicism is frustrated optimism.)

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, the second song, really expresses the kernel of The Joshua Tree; every other song fleshes it out in some way or another. The album is, in the end, about distance: “I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls only to be with you: But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” While one may take this to be an admission of defeat - and distance whispers of despair as much as consummation - doing so is incorrect: “I’m still running,” Bono sings. The song is an expression of hope more than anything.

Faith is a raw and disarmingly rough beauty; it looks within and it looks without. “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Mothers of the Disappeared” give full expression to U2’s long-time political engagement, while “With or Without You” gives a glimpse into U2’s more tender side. “With or Without You” may very well be the best love song of the 80s. “One Tree Hill”, a deeply personal song about the death of a friend, moves with passion and rugged grace - and, again, with hope: “I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky and the moon has turned red over one tree hill.”

The album received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and sold in record-breaking numbers. According to Rolling Stone, the album increased the band’s stature “from heroes to superstars”. It produced the hit singles “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “With or Without You”, and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988. The Joshua Tree is frequently cited as one of the greatest albums in rock history, and it is one of the world’s all-time best-selling albums, selling 25 million copies. In 2007, a remastered version of the album was released to mark the 20th anniversary of its original release.

Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by rock band U2. Produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, it was released on 19 November 1991 on Island Records. Stung by the criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate alternative rock, industrial, and electronic dance music influences into their sound. Thematically, the album is darker, more introspective, and at times more flippant than the band’s previous work. Achtung Baby and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to the group’s 1990s reinvention, as U2 replaced their earnest public image with a more lighthearted and self-deprecating one.

Seeking inspiration on the eve of German reunification, U2 began recording Achtung Baby in Berlin’s Hansa Studios in October 1990. The sessions were fraught with conflict, as the band argued over their musical direction and the quality of their material. After weeks of tension and slow progress, the group made a breakthrough with the improvised writing of the song “One”. They returned to Dublin in 1991, where the majority of recordings were completed. The album’s title and colourful multi-image sleeve were chosen to confound expectations of U2 and their music.

One of U2’s most successful records, Achtung Baby earned favourable reviews and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, while topping the charts in many other countries. It spawned the hit singles “One”, “Mysterious Ways”, and “The Fly”. The album has sold 18 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award in 1993 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. One of the most acclaimed records of the 1990s, Achtung Baby is regularly featured on lists of the greatest albums of all-time.



Who Rescued U2's 1st US 1# Song?

Bono and GavinAccording to guitarist The Edge, the band were struggling to complete ‘With Or Without You’ and had considered abandoning the 1987 track before Bono’s childhood friend arrived at the studio.

“We were making The Joshua Tree album and were having trouble with one of the songs,” The Edge told RTE documentary Ladies and Gentlemen, Gavin Friday. “It just wasn’t coming together. I’d just received a new guitar, the Infinite Guitar, so I was in the room playing with the guitar, oblivious to the fact that the others were in the other room listening to a raw blend of ‘With Or Without You’.

“I think they just had the bass and the drums up. Gavin and Bono could hear this guitar and Gavin said, ‘What’s that? That’s it!’”

With the addition of the understated guitar part, the song was chosen to be the album’s lead single and went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and reached number four in the UK charts.

In an interview for the Arts Lives documentary, Friday, real name Fionán Hanvey, said of his relationship with U2: “I’m a cross between their mother, their father, their schoolteacher, their midwife, their communicator.”