The Joshua Tree
Encyclopedia
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 Award
s 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 remaster
ed edition of the record.
, 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."
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 The Waterboys
and fellow Irish band 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. 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 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 stricter 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 demo
s that would evolve into "With or Without You
", "Red Hill Mining Town
", "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.
and Daniel Lanois
on The Unforgettable Fire, U2 wanted the duo to produce their new album. Mullen was excited about working with them again, as he felt the pair, Lanois in particular, were the band's first producers who "really [took] an interest in the rhythm section". Mark "Flood" Ellis was engineer
for the sessions, marking the first time he worked with U2. The band was impressed by his work with Nick Cave
, and Bono's friend Gavin Friday
recommended Flood based on their work experiences together when Friday was a member of the Virgin Prunes
. The band asked Flood for a sound that was "very open... ambient... with a real sense of space of the environment you were in", which he thought was a very unusual request at that time.
Intending to release an album in late 1986, U2 set up a studio in January of that year in Danesmoate House, a Georgian
house in Rathfarnham
in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains
. Their plan was to create atmosphere and inspiration there, much like their use of Slane Castle
for The Unforgettable Fire sessions in 1984. A makeshift control room with tape machines, a mixing desk, and other outboard equipment
was set up in the dining room, with the adjacent drawing room used for recording and performing. The large doors separating the rooms were replaced with a glass screen, and to maintain a relaxed "non-studio" atmosphere for the sessions, the control room was dubbed the "lyric room" and the recording space was called the "band room". The band found the house to have a very creative atmosphere. The large drawing room, with tall ceiling and wooden floors, created an "ear-splitting" drum sound that while difficult to work with, produced takes that ended up on the finished album. Lanois said that it "was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical. In my opinion it was the most rock and roll room of the lot." He thought the room sounded better than Slane Castle, and he was particularly impressed with the room's "low mid-range ... where the music lives", a property that he believes was a major factor in the success of The Joshua Tree.
U2 began with their usual method of sorting through tapes from soundcheck jams, working through Bono's lyric book, and recording jam session
s. One aspect of their recording methods, however, changed after The Unforgettable Fire sessions; rather than recording each instrument separately and layering them into the mix, U2 recorded all but two of the songs "live". U2's songwriting methods were also developing; not all material was being worked out in band sessions, rather Bono and The Edge often brought basic song ideas to the rest of the group. Eno and Lanois intentionally worked with the band at alternate times—one producer for a week or two, followed by the other. Eno and Lanois encouraged an interest in older songs, especially American roots music. More contemporary references included the textural guitar work of The Smiths
and My Bloody Valentine. The band's musical vocabulary improved after their previous album, facilitating communication and collaboration with the production team. One of the first songs worked on was "Heartland", which originated during The Unforgettable Fire sessions and was later released on the band's 1988 album Rattle and Hum
. Supplementary recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of "With or Without You" and the genesis of "Bullet the Blue Sky
". The arrangements for "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
" were completed early in the Danesmoate sessions, giving the band the confidence to experiment.
U2 interrupted the sessions to join Amnesty International
's A Conspiracy of Hope Tour in June 1986. Rather than distract the band, the tour added extra intensity and power to their new music and provided extra focus on what they wanted to say. For bassist Adam Clayton
, the tour validated the "rawness of content" and their attempts to capture the "bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan
". In July, Bono travelled with his wife Ali to Nicaragua
and El Salvador
and saw firsthand the distress of peasants bullied by political conflicts and US military intervention, experiences which formed the basis of the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared
". The group experienced a tragedy in July when Bono's personal assistant and roadie Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. The 26-year-old's death overwhelmed the U2 organisation, and the band travelled to his native New Zealand to attend his traditional Māori
funeral.
On 1 August 1986, U2 regrouped at Windmill Lane Studios
in Dublin to resume work on the album. Writing and recording continued for the rest of the year, with the band also using Danesmoate House and The Edge's newly bought home, Melbeach. "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" were among the songs that the group made progress on at Melbeach. Lanois said "the bulk of the record was done at The Edge's house, even though the Danesmoate sessions were the backbone of the tonality of the record—we got a lot of the drums done in there." In August, Robbie Robertson
, the former guitarist and chief songwriter for The Band
, visited Dublin to complete an album that Lanois was producing; Robertson recorded two tracks with U2 that appear on his self-titled solo album
.
A creative spurt in October resulted in new song ideas. However, they were shelved at Eno's suggestion lest the band miss the deadline for the album's completion. Recording for The Joshua Tree wrapped up in November 1986. Rough mixes had been created throughout the sessions after each song was recorded to, in Lanois' words, take "snapshots along the way ... because sometimes you go too far". The Edge explained that the arrangement and production of each song was approached individually and that while there was a strong uniform direction, they were prepared to "sacrifice some continuity to get the rewards of following each song to a conclusion". The final weeks were a frantic rush to finish, with the band and production crew all suffering exhaustion. Lanois and Pat McCarthy
mixed songs at Melbeach on an AMEK 2500 mixing desk where, without console automation
, they needed three people to operate the console. Eno and Flood had minimal involvement with the final mixes. In late December, U2 hired Steve Lillywhite
, producer of their first three albums, to remix the potential singles. His job was to make the songs more appealing to commercial radio, and his eleventh-hour presence and changes caused discontent among the production crew, including Eno and Lanois. Lillywhite's remixing was done on an SLL desk and extended into the new year.
Following the completion of the album proper, U2 returned to the studio in January 1987 to complete the new material they shelved in October. These tracks, which included "Walk to the Water", "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", and "Spanish Eyes", were completed as B-sides for the planned singles. The song "Sweetest Thing" was left off the album and released as a B-side, as the band felt it was incomplete and did not fit with the other songs. They later expressed regret that it had not been completed for The Joshua Tree. The track was re-recorded as a single for the group's 1998 compilation The Best of 1980–1990. The band considered releasing The Joshua Tree as a double-album that would have included the B-sides. Bono was the most vocal proponent of the idea, whereas The Edge argued for the 11-track version that was ultimately released. U2 agreed that one track, "Birdland", was too strong for a B-side and they held it for a future album release. In 2007, a re-recorded version of the song, retitled "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", was included with the 20th anniversary edition of the album.
On completion of The Joshua Tree, Bono said that he was "as pleased with the record as I can ever be pleased with a record". Although he was "very rarely pleased" with their finished albums to that point, he thought the new record was their most complete since their first. Clayton bought Danesmoate House in 1987, and it remains his Dublin home.
" has strong gospel influences, with Bono singing of spiritual doubt in an upper register and Eno, Lanois, and The Edge providing choir-like backing vocals. The slow piano-based ballad "Running to Stand Still
" exhibits traits of folk music and acoustic blues in the track's slide
acoustic guitar and harmonica. "Trip Through Your Wires", another song on which Bono plays harmonica, was described by Niall Stokes as a "bluesy romp".
The Edge's guitar playing on The Joshua Tree demonstrates what came to be his trademark sound. His minimalist style sharply contrasted with the emphasis on virtuosity and speed during the heavy metal
era of the 1980s. The Edge views musical notes as "expensive", preferring to play as few of them as possible and instead focus on simpler parts that serve the moods of the songs. Much of this was achieved with a delay effect
, contributing to a chiming, echo-laden sound. For example, the riff
in the introduction
of the opening track "Where the Streets Have No Name
" is a repeated six-note arpeggio
, with delay used to repeat notes. The riffs to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "With or Without You
" also prominently use delay, with Bono likening the guitar hook from the former track to "chrome bells".
The Edge continued using ambient guitar playing techniques that he began with on The Unforgettable Fire; on "With or Without You", he used a prototype of the Infinite Guitar
to add layers of sustain
ed notes, an approach he first took on his 1986 solo album, the Captive soundtrack. On other songs, his guitar playing is more aggressive; "Exit
" was described by Colin Hogg as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage", while Andrew Mueller
said the guitar sounds from "Bullet the Blue Sky
" evoke fighter planes. The Edge developed the harsh, feedback
-charged guitar part for the latter song at Bono's instruction to "put El Salvador through an amplifier
", after Bono returned angry from a visit to the war-torn country. Bono also contributed to songwriting on guitar; the Spanish guitar melody in "Mothers of the Disappeared
" originated from a song that he composed in Ethiopia to teach children about basic hygiene.
Much like on past records, Bono exhibits an expressive, open-throated vocal delivery, which many critics labelled as "passionate". Spin
found that the group's exploration of roots music resulted in Bono's style expanding, saying he "commands the full whisper-to-shout range of blues mannerisms". Bono attributes this maturation to "loosening up" and "discover[ing] other voices", and to employing more restraint in his singing. His vocals became, in the words of Thom Duffy, more "dynamic" than they had been on previous records. On "Where the Streets Have No Name", his voice varies greatly in its timbre
(as writer Mark Butler describes, "he sighs; he moans; he grunts; he exhales audibly; he allows his voice to crack") and its timing by his usage of rubato
to slightly offset the sung notes from the beat. For author Susan Fast, "With or Without You" marks the first track on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way".
", which critics interpreted as addressing America's role as the "promised land". Clayton explained the impact of the desert imagery: "The desert was immensely inspirational to us as a mental image for this record. Most people would take the desert on face value and think it's some kind of barren place, which of course is true. But in the right frame of mind, it's also a very positive image, because you can actually do something with blank canvas, which is effectively what the desert is."
Political and social concerns were the basis for several tracks. Bono wrote the lyrics to "Bullet the Blue Sky" after visiting El Salvador and witnessing how US military intervention in the country's civil war hurt the local people. This trip also inspired "Mothers of the Disappeared", after Bono met members of COMADRES
—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared" during the Salvadoran Civil War at the hands of the local government. The 1984 UK mining strike
inspired the lyrics to "Red Hill Mining Town
", which Bono wrote from the perspective of a couple affected by the strike. The story of a heroin-addicted couple was the basis for "Running to Stand Still", which Bono set in Dublin's Ballymun Flats
. For "Where the Streets Have No Name", he wrote the lyrics in response to the idea that, in Belfast
, a person's religion and income can be deduced based on the street they live on. "Exit" portrays a psychotic killer, although Clayton suggests the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" is also a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations.
Bono described 1986 as "an incredibly bad year" for him, which was reflected in the lyrics. His marriage was under strain, in part due to the album's long gestation period, the band were criticised by the Irish media for their involvement in the Self Aid
event, and his personal assistant Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. Bono said, "That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us." "With or Without You" was written while he was struggling to reconcile his wanderlust as a musician with his domestic responsibilities. "One Tree Hill
", named after a volcanic peak in Carroll's native New Zealand, describes how Bono felt at Carroll's funeral. The album is dedicated to his memory.
The group's religious faith was a source of inspiration for many lyrics. On "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", Bono affirms this faith but sings of spiritual doubt ("I believe in Kingdom Come"... "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"). Some critics surmised that the place Bono is referring to on "Where the Streets Have No Name" is Heaven. These two songs were singled out by some critics as demonstrating that the band was on a "spiritual quest". Hot Press
editor Niall Stokes
and Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
interpreted "With or Without You" in both romantic and spiritual manners. Biblical references are made on other songs like "Bullet the Blue Sky" ("Jacob wrestled the angel
", images of fire and brimstone
) and "In God's Country" ("I stand with the sons of Cain"). Thom Duffy interpreted the album as an exploration of the "uncertainty and pain of a spiritual pilgrimage through a bleak and harsh world".
to search for locations in the United States that would capture this. From 14–16 December 1986, the band travelled with Corbijn and Averill on a bus around the Mojave Desert
in California
for a three-day photo shoot. The group stayed in small hotels and shot in the desert landscape, beginning at the ghost town
of Bodie
before moving to locations such as Zabriskie Point
and other sites in Death Valley
. For the shoot, Corbijn rented a panoramic camera to capture more of the desert landscapes, but having no prior experience with the camera, he was unfamiliar with how to focus it. This led to him focusing on the background and leaving the band slightly out of focus. Corbijn said, "Fortunately there was a lot of light." He later recounted that the main idea of the shoot was to juxtapose "man and environment, the Irish in America".
On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn told the band about Joshua tree
s (Yucca brevifolia), hardy and twisted plants in the deserts of the American Southwest, and he suggested their use on the sleeve. Bono was pleased to discover the religious significance of the plant's etymology; early settlers, according to Mormon
legend, named the plant after the Old Testament
prophet Joshua
, as the tree's stretching branches reminded them of Joshua raising his hands in prayer. The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree. That day, while driving on Route 190
, they spotted a lone-standing tree in the desert, unusual since the plant is usually found in groups. Corbijn had been hoping to find a single tree, as he thought it would result in better photographs than if he shot the band amongst a group of trees. They stopped the bus and photographed with the lone plant for about 20 minutes, something The Edge called "fairly spontaneous". Despite shooting in the desert, the group dealt with cold weather. Bono explained, "it was freezing and we had to take our coats off so it would at least look like a desert. That's one of the reasons we look so grim." The final day of shooting was spent in snow-covered ghost towns.
Corbijn's original idea for the sleeve was to have a shot of the Joshua tree on the front, with the band in a continuation of the photograph on the back. Ultimately, separate photographs were used for each side of the sleeve; an image of the group at Zabriskie Point was placed on the front, while an image of them with the tree appears on the reverse side. Rolling Stone believes the title and the images of the tree befit an album concerned with "resilience in the face of utter social and political desolation, a record steeped in religious imagery". In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 97 on its list of the "100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time". The tree photographed for the sleeve fell around 2000, yet the site remains a popular attraction for U2 fans to pay tribute to the group. One person inserted a plaque into the ground reading, "Have you found what you're looking for?", in reference to the album's track "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". It is a common misconception that the site is within Joshua Tree National Park
, over 200 miles away. In 2011, the director of Dutch club 013
and his girlfriend died of heat exhaustion in a remote part of that park, allegedly searching for the site.
spent over $100,000 on store displays advertising the album; president Lou Maglia called it "the most complete merchandising effort ever assembled". The Joshua Tree was released on 9 March 1987, the first new release to be made available on the compact disc
, vinyl record, and cassette tape
formats on the same date. Record stores in Britain and Ireland opened at midnight to accommodate the large amount of fans who had queued outside to buy the album.
The Joshua Tree became, at the time, the fastest-selling album in British history, selling over 300,000 copies in two days. On 21 March 1987, it debuted on the UK Albums Chart
at number one, spending two weeks at the top position, and it remained on the chart for 163 weeks. On the US Billboard Top Pop Albums
chart, the album debuted on 4 April 1987 at number seven, the highest debut for a studio album in the US in almost seven years. Within three weeks, it topped the chart, where it remained for nine consecutive weeks. The album spent a total of 101 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums, 35 of them in the top 10. On 13 May 1987, the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) certified
the album triple-platinum. All of the group's previous albums re-entered the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1987. In Canada, the album debuted at number 51 on the RPM Top 100 Albums
chart on 21 March 1987, and climbed to number one just two weeks later. Within 14 days of release, it sold 300,000 units in Canada and was certified triple-platinum. The Joshua Tree topped the albums charts in 19 other countries, including Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Rolling Stone declared that the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It was the first album by any artist to sell one million copies on CD in the US. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time
(following The Beatles
, The Band, and The Who
), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket".
"With or Without You" was released as the lead single on 21 March 1987, with the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water". The single quickly topped the Billboard Hot 100
, becoming the band's first number-one hit in America. The song topped the singles chart in Canada, while reaching number four in the UK and number two in the Netherlands. The group originally planned to use "Red Hill Mining Town" as the second single. However, the group were unhappy with the music video filmed by Neil Jordan
, and Bono and Mullen had difficulty performing the song during rehearsals. Ultimately, the group canceled the single. Instead, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was chosen as the second single, and it was released in May 1987 with the tracks "Spanish Eyes" and "Deep in the Heart" as B-sides. Like its predecessor, it topped the Hot 100, giving U2 consecutive number-one singles in the US. The single peaked at number six in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. By May, sales of the album surpassed 7 million copies worldwide.
"Where the Streets Have No Name" was released in August 1987 as the third single, with "Sweetest Thing", "Silver and Gold", and "Race Against Time" as B-sides. The single reached number one in the Netherlands, number four on the UK Singles Chart
, and number 13 in the US. The album's first three singles all topped the Irish Singles Charts, while charting within the top 20 of the singles charts in the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. "In God's Country" was released as a fourth single exclusively in North America in November 1987, peaking at number 44 on the Hot 100, and charting at number 48 as an import single in the UK. "One Tree Hill" was released as a fourth single in Australia and New Zealand in March 1988, and having been written for the New Zealand-native Carroll, it reached number one in his home country. By the end of 1988, The Joshua Tree had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.
In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
remaster
ed the album and released it as a special gold CD. This edition rectified the incorrect track splitting between "One Tree Hill" and "Exit" that affected some CD releases; the quiet coda
that concludes "One Tree Hill" had previously been included in the same track as "Exit".
wrote, "For a band that's always specialized in inspirational, larger-than-life gestures—a band utterly determined to be Important—The Joshua Tree could be the big one, and that's precisely what it sounds like." The review described the album's sound as "wed[ding] the diverse textures of The Unforgettable Fire to fully formed songs, many of them as aggressive as the hits on War". Steve Morse of The Boston Globe
echoed these sentiments in his review, stating, "It's another spiritual progress report, enwrapped in music that strikes a healthy balance between the lushness of their last album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, and the more volcanic rock of their early years." Morse called it "their most challenging work to date" and the "most rewarding rock record of the new year". Q
gave the album a rating of five stars, noting that "their reinvention of stadium rock sounds as impassioned as ever" and that the album strikes "a finely balanced mix of intimacy and power". NME
praised the album as "a better and braver record than anything else that's likely to appear in 1987... It's the sound of people still trying, still looking..." In a five-star review, Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel
said the songs have "exultant power" that, "like the Joshua Tree's branches, stretch upward in stark contrast to their barren musical surroundings on rock radio". He praised the musicianship of the group members, calling Bono's vocals "wrenching", the rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton "razor-sharp", and The Edge's guitar playing "never... better".
The New Zealand Herald
published a five-star review that called it "the most compelling collection of music yet from a band that has cut its career with passionate, exciting slashes". It judged that the record's "power lies in its restraint" and that there is an "urgency underlying virtually all of the 11 songs". In Times cover story on U2, Jay Cocks
called the album the band's best, commenting that it had both commercial and thematic depth. Spin called The Joshua Tree their "first wholly successful album because it finally breaks free from the seductive but limiting chant-and-drone approach of earlier material". The review stated, "There isn't a bad song on the record" and that "every one has a hook". The magazine praised U2 for eschewing ambient experimentation in favour of uncomplicated but layered arrangements. Robert Hilburn
of the Los Angeles Times
said the album "confirms on record what this band has been slowly asserting for three years now on stage: U2 is what the Rolling Stones ceased being years ago—the greatest rock and roll band in the world". Hilburn noted that the band expanded on the "sketches" from The Unforgettable Fire with "sometimes breathtaking signs of growth", playing more "tailored and assured" music. Hot Press
editor and longtime U2 supporter Bill Graham said that "The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions," and that U2 "must be taken very seriously indeed after this revaluation of rock".
John Rockwell
of The New York Times
was complimentary of the band for expanding its musical range, singling out their exploration of other genres and the combination of The Edge's "obsessive, repetitive guitar textures" with Eno's "eerie synthesizer coloration". Rockwell was more critical, though, of Bono's vocals, which he said were "marred throughout by sobbing affectation" and sounded too much like other singers, resulting in a "curious loss of individuality". The Houston Chronicle
gave the album a three-and-a-half star review, calling it "music that both soothes and inspires, music that is anthemic, music with style". The publication called it a "natural sequel" to The Unforgettable Fire that "build[s] on the band's new-found sense of dynamics". The reviewer, however, believed the group took itself too seriously, resulting in a record that is "not a whole lot of fun, bordering on the pretentious", and he noted that he lost interest by its second side. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic rated the album a perfect five stars, saying, "their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier". Erlewine found it ironic the band achieved its greatest success with an album filled with such dark lyrical content. His review concluded, "Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal."
Anthony DeCurtis
of Rolling Stone compared the album to Bruce Springsteen
's Born in the U.S.A.
, stating that both records "lifted a populist artist to mega-stardom", and that the musicians' uplifting live shows and the "sheer aural pleasure" of the two records obscured their foreboding nature. DeCurtis summarized The Joshua Trees examination of America both lyrically and musically as such:
The album placed fourth on the "Best Albums" list from The Village Voice
s 1987 Pazz & Jop
critics' poll. At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, U2 earned their first two Grammy Awards, winning honors for Album of the Year
and Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal
for The Joshua Tree.
Like their previous tours, The Joshua Tree Tour was a minimalistic, austere production, and U2 used this outlet for addressing political and social concerns. One such issue was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham
's canceling the state's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Throughout the tour, the group continued to explore American roots music: they collaborated with folk artist Bob Dylan
, blues musician B. B. King
, and Harlem
's New Voices of Freedom gospel choir; U2 also visited Graceland
and Sun Studios in Memphis, where they recorded new material. These new songs and the band's experiences on tour were documented for the 1988 Rattle and Hum
album and Phil Joanou
-directed motion picture.
The tour grossed $40 million, but despite its commercial success and positive reviews, U2 were dissatisfied creatively, and Bono believed they were musically unprepared for their success. Mullen said, "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best", and for Bono the tour was "one of the worst times of [their] musical life". On the road, the group dealt with death threats, along with injuries that Bono sustained from performing. The band hinted that the stresses of touring led them to enjoy the "rock and roll lifestyle" they previously avoided.
certified the album diamond in Canada. In the UK, it is certified 6× platinum, with an additional silver certification for the 20th anniversary edition. In the Pacific, it is certified 5× platinum and 14× platinum in Australia and New Zealand, respectively.
Writer Derek White conducted a mathematical study of The Edge's rhythmic delay guitar effect in an attempt to explain why his playing style on the record sounded so appealing to him. For a given song, White found that by dividing the number of repeated delay notes per minute by the song's tempo
in beats per minute, he arrived at e
, an important mathematical constant that is used to explain many natural phenomena.
The Joshua Tree is acclaimed as one of the greatest albums in rock history, and many publications have placed it among their rankings of the best records, including Hot Press
, Time, Q
, and Entertainment Weekly
. In 1997, The Guardian
collated worldwide data in 1997 from a range of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 57 in the list of the "100 Best Albums Ever". Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 26 on their 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
", writing that U2 "immerse[d] itself in the mythology of the United States" and that "[w]hile many of these songs are about spiritual quests... U2 fortify the solemnity with the outright joys of rock & roll". It was U2's best position on the list. In 2010, the album appeared at number 62 on Spin
s list of the 125 most influential albums in the 25 years since the magazine launched. The publication said, "The band's fifth album spit out hits like crazy, and they were unusually searching hits, each with a pointed political edge."
The band's penchant for addressing political and social issues, as well as their staid depiction in Corbijn's black-and-white sleeve photographs, contributed to the group's earnest and serious image as "stone-faced pilgrim[s]". This image became a target for derision after the band's critically maligned Rattle and Hum project in 1988. Various critics called them "po-faced", "pompous bores", and "humourless". The group's continued exploration of American music for the project was labelled "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". After Bono told fans on the 1989 Lovetown Tour
that U2 would "dream it all up again", the band reinvented themselves in the 1990s. The group incorporated alternative rock
, industrial
, and electronic dance music
into their sound, and adopted a more self-deprecating, flippant image by which they embraced the "rock star" identity they struggled with in the 1980s. The band referred to their 1991 album Achtung Baby
as "chopping down the Joshua Tree". Bill Flanagan summarised the impact of The Joshua Tree on the group's career in his liner notes to the album's 20th anniversary release: "The Joshua Tree made U2 into international rock stars and established both a standard they would always have to live up to and an image they would forever try to live down."
ed from the original analogue recordings under the direction of The Edge. The release was made available in four formats: a single CD; a two-disc deluxe edition with a bonus audio CD; a three-disc box set with bonus audio CD and DVD, photograph prints, and hardcover book; and a double vinyl edition. All editions included a booklet with liner notes
by author Bill Flanagan
and "previously unseen" photographs by Anton Corbijn.
Manager Paul McGuinness explained, "There has been continuous demand from U2 fans to have The Joshua Tree properly re-mastered. As always, the band had to make sure it was right, and now it is." The bonus CD that was included with two of the remastered formats contains B-sides and rarities/demos from The Joshua Tree. Some formats include expanded liner notes from the band members, the production team, and Anton Corbijn. In an otherwise favourable review of the remastered album, Andrew Mueller of Uncut said that "any casual listener who can perceive a meaningful difference between this and the original has i) ears like a bat and/or ii) needs to get out more".
album, with Keith Richards and Ron Wood. The edited single version of "Where the Streets Have No Name" appears on the bonus CD. "Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience" features lyrics from the introduction of William Blake
's Songs of Experience, and was previously released in The Complete U2
digital box set in 2004. "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", "Desert of Our Love", "Rise Up", and "Drunk Chicken/America" are all previously unreleased recordings from The Joshua Tree sessions. "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)" is a completed version of the demo "Birdland", and "Drunk Chicken/America" features an excerpt of Allen Ginsberg
's recitation of his poem, "America
".
in July 2008; three cover songs are excluded from both releases of the concert. The documentary, titled Outside It's America, was a 1987 MTV
production about The Joshua Tree Tour. The two music videos are an alternate version "With or Without You" and the previously unreleased video for "Red Hill Mining Town". Footage of U2's alter ego
country band, The Dalton Brothers
, is included on the disc as an Easter egg
.
, volunteered to set the running order for the album. The band told her to put "Where the Streets Have No Name" first and "Mothers of the Disappeared" last, with the rest sequenced according to her preference.
Additional performers
Technical
*The 20th anniversary edition was certified Silver.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. It was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
and Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
. In contrast to the ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire
The Unforgettable Fire
U2 feared that following the overt rock of their 1983 War album and War Tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band". The success of the 1983 Under a Blood Red Sky live album and the Live at Red Rocks video, however, had given them artistic—and for the...
, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua Tree within the limitation of strict song structures. The album is influenced by American
American Roots Music
American Roots Music is a 2001 multi-part documentary film that explores the historical roots of American Roots music through footage and performances by the creators of the movement: Folk, Country, Blues, Gospel, Bluegrass, and many others....
and Irish roots music
Folk music of Ireland
The folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres in Ireland.-History:...
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
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
'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
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It produced the hit singles "With or Without You
With or Without You
"With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, and was released as the album's first single on 21 March 1987...
", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's second single in May 1987...
", and "Where the Streets Have No Name
Where the Streets Have No Name
"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and...
". The album won Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...
in 1988
Grammy Awards of 1988
The 30th Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1988. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.- Award winners :*Record of the Year**Paul Simon for "Graceland"*Album of the Year...
. The group supported the record with the successful Joshua Tree Tour
Joshua Tree Tour
The Joshua Tree Tour was a concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, which took place during 1987, in support of their album The Joshua Tree. The tour was depicted by the video and live album Live from Paris.-Itinerary:...
. 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 remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed edition of the record.
Background
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 FireThe Unforgettable Fire
U2 feared that following the overt rock of their 1983 War album and War Tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band". The success of the 1983 Under a Blood Red Sky live album and the Live at Red Rocks video, however, had given them artistic—and for the...
, their subsequent tour, and their participation in Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
in 1985. U2 began writing new material in mid-1985 following the Unforgettable Fire Tour.
Band manager Paul McGuinness
Paul McGuinness
Paul McGuinness is the main shareholder and founder of Principle Management Limited: an artist management company based in Dublin, Ireland, which has managed U2 from the start of their successful career...
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
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
had been reading the works of American writers such as Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
, and Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
so as to understand, in the words of Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
editor Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes is the award-winning editor of the long-running fortnightly Ireland music and political magazine Hot Press based in Dublin. He has edited the magazine since 1977. He has been a longstanding champion of Irish music, most famously U2 in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s...
, "those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream". Following a 1985 humanitarian visit to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
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."
In 1985, Bono participated in Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
's anti-apartheid Sun City
Sun City (album)
Sun City was a 1985 album that contained several versions of the Steven Van Zandt-led Artists United Against Apartheid's "Sun City" protest song against apartheid in South Africa as well as other selections in the same vein from that project.-History:...
project and spent time with Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
and Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
. When Richards and Jagger played blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genre, as most of U2's musical knowledge began with punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s 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 The Waterboys
The Waterboys
The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
and fellow Irish band Hothouse Flowers
Hothouse Flowers
The Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock group that combines traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel and rock.-Career:The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin began performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin,Ireland as "The...
, they felt a sense of indigenous Irish music
Folk music of Ireland
The folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres in Ireland.-History:...
blending with American folk music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
. Nascent friendships with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
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. 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
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
and folk group Clannad
Clannad
Clannad are an Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age, often incorporating elements of an even broader spectrum of smooth jazz and Gregorian chant...
on the track "In a Lifetime
In a Lifetime
In 1989, to promote Clannad's 'best-of' compilation, "Pastpresent", "In A lifetime" was re-released. The song was the first single from the compilation...
".
The band wanted to build on the textures
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
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 stricter song structures. The group referred to this approach as working within the "primary colours" of rock music—guitar, bass, and drums. Guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
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
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
and New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
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 demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
s that would evolve into "With or Without You
With or Without You
"With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, and was released as the album's first single on 21 March 1987...
", "Red Hill Mining Town
Red Hill Mining Town
"Red Hill Mining Town" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the sixth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree.-Background and recording:...
", "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.
Recording and production
Based on their success with producers Brian EnoBrian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
on The Unforgettable Fire, U2 wanted the duo to produce their new album. Mullen was excited about working with them again, as he felt the pair, Lanois in particular, were the band's first producers who "really [took] an interest in the rhythm section". Mark "Flood" Ellis was engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
for the sessions, marking the first time he worked with U2. The band was impressed by his work with Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, and Bono's friend Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
recommended Flood based on their work experiences together when Friday was a member of the Virgin Prunes
Virgin Prunes
Virgin Prunes was an Irish gothic rock band formed in 1977. They disbanded in 1986 after the departure of Gavin Friday. The other members continued under the name The Prunes until they split up in 1990.-Career:...
. The band asked Flood for a sound that was "very open... ambient... with a real sense of space of the environment you were in", which he thought was a very unusual request at that time.
Intending to release an album in late 1986, U2 set up a studio in January of that year in Danesmoate House, a Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
house in Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham
Rathfarnham or Rathfarnam is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin County Councils.The area of Rathfarnham...
in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains
Wicklow Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into Counties Carlow, Wexford and Dublin. Where the mountains extend into County Dublin, they are known locally as the Dublin Mountains...
. Their plan was to create atmosphere and inspiration there, much like their use of Slane Castle
Slane Castle
Slane Castle is located in the town of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family home of the Conyngham Marquessate since the 18th century....
for The Unforgettable Fire sessions in 1984. A makeshift control room with tape machines, a mixing desk, and other outboard equipment
Outboard gear
Musical "outboard equipment" or "gear" alter how an musical instrument sounds. Outboard, can be used either during a live performance or in the recording studio. These are separate from the effects that may be applied by using a mixing console or a digital audio workstation...
was set up in the dining room, with the adjacent drawing room used for recording and performing. The large doors separating the rooms were replaced with a glass screen, and to maintain a relaxed "non-studio" atmosphere for the sessions, the control room was dubbed the "lyric room" and the recording space was called the "band room". The band found the house to have a very creative atmosphere. The large drawing room, with tall ceiling and wooden floors, created an "ear-splitting" drum sound that while difficult to work with, produced takes that ended up on the finished album. Lanois said that it "was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical. In my opinion it was the most rock and roll room of the lot." He thought the room sounded better than Slane Castle, and he was particularly impressed with the room's "low mid-range ... where the music lives", a property that he believes was a major factor in the success of The Joshua Tree.
U2 began with their usual method of sorting through tapes from soundcheck jams, working through Bono's lyric book, and recording jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s. One aspect of their recording methods, however, changed after The Unforgettable Fire sessions; rather than recording each instrument separately and layering them into the mix, U2 recorded all but two of the songs "live". U2's songwriting methods were also developing; not all material was being worked out in band sessions, rather Bono and The Edge often brought basic song ideas to the rest of the group. Eno and Lanois intentionally worked with the band at alternate times—one producer for a week or two, followed by the other. Eno and Lanois encouraged an interest in older songs, especially American roots music. More contemporary references included the textural guitar work of The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
and My Bloody Valentine. The band's musical vocabulary improved after their previous album, facilitating communication and collaboration with the production team. One of the first songs worked on was "Heartland", which originated during The Unforgettable Fire sessions and was later released on the band's 1988 album Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
. Supplementary recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of "With or Without You" and the genesis of "Bullet the Blue Sky
Bullet the Blue Sky
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is the fourth track from U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. The song is one of the band's most overtly politically toned songs, with live performances often being heavily critical of political conflicts and violence....
". The arrangements for "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's second single in May 1987...
" were completed early in the Danesmoate sessions, giving the band the confidence to experiment.
U2 interrupted the sessions to join Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
's A Conspiracy of Hope Tour in June 1986. Rather than distract the band, the tour added extra intensity and power to their new music and provided extra focus on what they wanted to say. For bassist Adam Clayton
Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965...
, the tour validated the "rawness of content" and their attempts to capture the "bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
". In July, Bono travelled with his wife Ali to Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and saw firsthand the distress of peasants bullied by political conflicts and US military intervention, experiences which formed the basis of the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared
Mothers of the Disappeared
"Mothers of the Disappeared" is a song by rock band U2. It is the eleventh and final track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. The song was inspired by lead singer Bono's experiences in Nicaragua and El Salvador in July 1986, following U2's involvement on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of...
". The group experienced a tragedy in July when Bono's personal assistant and roadie Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. The 26-year-old's death overwhelmed the U2 organisation, and the band travelled to his native New Zealand to attend his traditional Māori
Maori religion
Māori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...
funeral.
On 1 August 1986, U2 regrouped at Windmill Lane Studios
Windmill Lane Studios
Windmill Lane Studios, also known as the "U2 studio", is a three-storey music recording studio located in Dublin, Ireland. It is located on Windmill Lane, a small street just south of City Quay and the River Liffey and a little north of Pearse Station. It was opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson who...
in Dublin to resume work on the album. Writing and recording continued for the rest of the year, with the band also using Danesmoate House and The Edge's newly bought home, Melbeach. "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" were among the songs that the group made progress on at Melbeach. Lanois said "the bulk of the record was done at The Edge's house, even though the Danesmoate sessions were the backbone of the tonality of the record—we got a lot of the drums done in there." In August, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
, the former guitarist and chief songwriter for The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, visited Dublin to complete an album that Lanois was producing; Robertson recorded two tracks with U2 that appear on his self-titled solo album
Robbie Robertson (album)
Robbie Robertson is the self-titled solo debut by Robbie Robertson, released in 1987. The album won the Juno Award for "Album of the Year", and producers Lanois and Robertson won the "Producer of the Year" Juno award, both in 1989 as there were no Juno Awards held in 1988.The album is notable for...
.
A creative spurt in October resulted in new song ideas. However, they were shelved at Eno's suggestion lest the band miss the deadline for the album's completion. Recording for The Joshua Tree wrapped up in November 1986. Rough mixes had been created throughout the sessions after each song was recorded to, in Lanois' words, take "snapshots along the way ... because sometimes you go too far". The Edge explained that the arrangement and production of each song was approached individually and that while there was a strong uniform direction, they were prepared to "sacrifice some continuity to get the rewards of following each song to a conclusion". The final weeks were a frantic rush to finish, with the band and production crew all suffering exhaustion. Lanois and Pat McCarthy
Patrick McCarthy (record producer)
Patrick McCarthy is a record producer from Dublin, Ireland who has worked for several rock and alternative rock artists, including The Waterboys, Counting Crows, R.E.M., and U2. In 1998, he replaced Scott Litt as R.E.M.'s in-house producer, co-producing three of their albums Up, Reveal and Around...
mixed songs at Melbeach on an AMEK 2500 mixing desk where, without console automation
Console automation
Modern digital audio consoles or mixers use automation. Automation allows the console to remember the audio engineer's adjustment of faders during the post-production editing process. A timecode is necessary for synchronization of automation.- Types of Automation :...
, they needed three people to operate the console. Eno and Flood had minimal involvement with the final mixes. In late December, U2 hired Steve Lillywhite
Steve Lillywhite
Steve Lillywhite is an English Grammy Award winning record producer. Since he began his career in 1977, Lillywhite has been credited for working on over 500 records and has collaborated with a variety of musicians including XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Peter Gabriel,...
, producer of their first three albums, to remix the potential singles. His job was to make the songs more appealing to commercial radio, and his eleventh-hour presence and changes caused discontent among the production crew, including Eno and Lanois. Lillywhite's remixing was done on an SLL desk and extended into the new year.
Following the completion of the album proper, U2 returned to the studio in January 1987 to complete the new material they shelved in October. These tracks, which included "Walk to the Water", "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", and "Spanish Eyes", were completed as B-sides for the planned singles. The song "Sweetest Thing" was left off the album and released as a B-side, as the band felt it was incomplete and did not fit with the other songs. They later expressed regret that it had not been completed for The Joshua Tree. The track was re-recorded as a single for the group's 1998 compilation The Best of 1980–1990. The band considered releasing The Joshua Tree as a double-album that would have included the B-sides. Bono was the most vocal proponent of the idea, whereas The Edge argued for the 11-track version that was ultimately released. U2 agreed that one track, "Birdland", was too strong for a B-side and they held it for a future album release. In 2007, a re-recorded version of the song, retitled "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", was included with the 20th anniversary edition of the album.
On completion of The Joshua Tree, Bono said that he was "as pleased with the record as I can ever be pleased with a record". Although he was "very rarely pleased" with their finished albums to that point, he thought the new record was their most complete since their first. Clayton bought Danesmoate House in 1987, and it remains his Dublin home.
Music
U2 is credited with composing all of The Joshua Trees music. The group's sound on the album draws from American and Irish roots music more than previous albums, following the counsel and influence of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking ForI Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song by rock band U2. It is the second track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's second single in May 1987...
" has strong gospel influences, with Bono singing of spiritual doubt in an upper register and Eno, Lanois, and The Edge providing choir-like backing vocals. The slow piano-based ballad "Running to Stand Still
Running to Stand Still
"Running to Stand Still" is a song by rock band U2, and it is the fifth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. A slow ballad based on piano and guitar, it describes a heroin-addicted couple living in Dublin's Ballymun flats; the towers have since become associated with the song...
" exhibits traits of folk music and acoustic blues in the track's slide
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
acoustic guitar and harmonica. "Trip Through Your Wires", another song on which Bono plays harmonica, was described by Niall Stokes as a "bluesy romp".
The Edge's guitar playing on The Joshua Tree demonstrates what came to be his trademark sound. His minimalist style sharply contrasted with the emphasis on virtuosity and speed during the heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
era of the 1980s. The Edge views musical notes as "expensive", preferring to play as few of them as possible and instead focus on simpler parts that serve the moods of the songs. Much of this was achieved with a delay effect
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, contributing to a chiming, echo-laden sound. For example, the riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
in the introduction
Introduction (music)
In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...
of the opening track "Where the Streets Have No Name
Where the Streets Have No Name
"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and...
" is a repeated six-note arpeggio
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
, with delay used to repeat notes. The riffs to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "With or Without You
With or Without You
"With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, and was released as the album's first single on 21 March 1987...
" also prominently use delay, with Bono likening the guitar hook from the former track to "chrome bells".
The Edge continued using ambient guitar playing techniques that he began with on The Unforgettable Fire; on "With or Without You", he used a prototype of the Infinite Guitar
Infinite Guitar
The Infinite Guitar was created by Michael Brook, as a way of allowing an electric guitar note to be held with infinite sustain . It consists of an electronic circuit that takes the signal from a standard guitar pickup, amplifies it, and feeds it back into a separate pickup coil...
to add layers of sustain
Sustain
In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...
ed notes, an approach he first took on his 1986 solo album, the Captive soundtrack. On other songs, his guitar playing is more aggressive; "Exit
Exit (song)
"Exit" is a song by rock band U2. It is the tenth track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. "Exit" originated as a lengthy jam in The Joshua Tree sessions, which was edited from a single take. The lyrics, which portray the mind of a serial killer, were inspired by lead singer Bono's reading of...
" was described by Colin Hogg as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage", while Andrew Mueller
Andrew Mueller
Andrew Mueller is an Australian-born, London-based journalist and author. He is a contributing editor at Monocle, and also regularly writes for The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Financial Times, Esquire, The Guardian, Arena, The Times, Uncut, High Life, Harper's Bazaar, New Humanist,...
said the guitar sounds from "Bullet the Blue Sky
Bullet the Blue Sky
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is the fourth track from U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. The song is one of the band's most overtly politically toned songs, with live performances often being heavily critical of political conflicts and violence....
" evoke fighter planes. The Edge developed the harsh, feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
-charged guitar part for the latter song at Bono's instruction to "put El Salvador through an amplifier
Guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
", after Bono returned angry from a visit to the war-torn country. Bono also contributed to songwriting on guitar; the Spanish guitar melody in "Mothers of the Disappeared
Mothers of the Disappeared
"Mothers of the Disappeared" is a song by rock band U2. It is the eleventh and final track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. The song was inspired by lead singer Bono's experiences in Nicaragua and El Salvador in July 1986, following U2's involvement on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of...
" originated from a song that he composed in Ethiopia to teach children about basic hygiene.
Much like on past records, Bono exhibits an expressive, open-throated vocal delivery, which many critics labelled as "passionate". Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
found that the group's exploration of roots music resulted in Bono's style expanding, saying he "commands the full whisper-to-shout range of blues mannerisms". Bono attributes this maturation to "loosening up" and "discover[ing] other voices", and to employing more restraint in his singing. His vocals became, in the words of Thom Duffy, more "dynamic" than they had been on previous records. On "Where the Streets Have No Name", his voice varies greatly in its timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
(as writer Mark Butler describes, "he sighs; he moans; he grunts; he exhales audibly; he allows his voice to crack") and its timing by his usage of rubato
Tempo rubato
Tempo rubato is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor...
to slightly offset the sung notes from the beat. For author Susan Fast, "With or Without You" marks the first track on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way".
Lyrics
Bono is credited as the album's sole lyricist. Thematically, the album juxtaposes antipathy towards the United States against the band's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedoms, and ideals. Anger is directed particularly at the perceived greed of the Ronald Reagan administration and its foreign policy in Central America. Bono said, "I started to see two Americas, the mythic America and the real America", hence the album's working title, The Two Americas. The band wanted music with a sense of location and a "cinematic" quality, and the album consequently drew on imagery created by American writers whose works the band read. Having toured the United States extensively in the past, the group were inspired by the country's geography. As such, the desert, rain, dust, and water appear as lyrical motifs throughout the record. In many cases, the desert is used as a metaphor for "spiritual drought". One track that chiefly represents these themes is "In God's CountryIn God's Country
"In God's Country" was a difficult song for the band to record, which they put down to not being trained musicians, and they do not speak overly highly of it. During The Joshua Tree sessions, they knew it was not going be one of their best songs but they needed more up-tempo songs...
", which critics interpreted as addressing America's role as the "promised land". Clayton explained the impact of the desert imagery: "The desert was immensely inspirational to us as a mental image for this record. Most people would take the desert on face value and think it's some kind of barren place, which of course is true. But in the right frame of mind, it's also a very positive image, because you can actually do something with blank canvas, which is effectively what the desert is."
Political and social concerns were the basis for several tracks. Bono wrote the lyrics to "Bullet the Blue Sky" after visiting El Salvador and witnessing how US military intervention in the country's civil war hurt the local people. This trip also inspired "Mothers of the Disappeared", after Bono met members of COMADRES
COMADRES
COMADRES is the committee of mothers and relatives of prisoners, the disappeared and the politically assassinated of El Salvador. It was established in December, 1977, with the help of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador and the Archbishop Óscar Romero, to discover the truth behind the...
—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared" during the Salvadoran Civil War at the hands of the local government. The 1984 UK mining strike
UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
inspired the lyrics to "Red Hill Mining Town
Red Hill Mining Town
"Red Hill Mining Town" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the sixth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree.-Background and recording:...
", which Bono wrote from the perspective of a couple affected by the strike. The story of a heroin-addicted couple was the basis for "Running to Stand Still", which Bono set in Dublin's Ballymun Flats
Ballymun Flats
The Ballymun Flats refers to a number of flats - and often the tower block complex - in Ballymun, Dublin which is currently undergoing demolition.-History:...
. For "Where the Streets Have No Name", he wrote the lyrics in response to the idea that, in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, a person's religion and income can be deduced based on the street they live on. "Exit" portrays a psychotic killer, although Clayton suggests the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" is also a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations.
Bono described 1986 as "an incredibly bad year" for him, which was reflected in the lyrics. His marriage was under strain, in part due to the album's long gestation period, the band were criticised by the Irish media for their involvement in the Self Aid
Self Aid
Self Aid was a benefit concert held in Dublin, Ireland on 17 May 1986. The concert performances were primarily by Irish musicians, although Elvis Costello and Chris Rea were designated "honorary Irishmen" for the day; the event was promoted by Jim Aiken...
event, and his personal assistant Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. Bono said, "That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us." "With or Without You" was written while he was struggling to reconcile his wanderlust as a musician with his domestic responsibilities. "One Tree Hill
One Tree Hill (song)
"One Tree Hill" is a song by rock band U2. It is the ninth track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. It was released as the fourth single from the album in New Zealand and Australia in March 1988, while "In God's Country" was released as the fourth single in North America...
", named after a volcanic peak in Carroll's native New Zealand, describes how Bono felt at Carroll's funeral. The album is dedicated to his memory.
The group's religious faith was a source of inspiration for many lyrics. On "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", Bono affirms this faith but sings of spiritual doubt ("I believe in Kingdom Come"... "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"). Some critics surmised that the place Bono is referring to on "Where the Streets Have No Name" is Heaven. These two songs were singled out by some critics as demonstrating that the band was on a "spiritual quest". Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
editor Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes is the award-winning editor of the long-running fortnightly Ireland music and political magazine Hot Press based in Dublin. He has edited the magazine since 1977. He has been a longstanding champion of Irish music, most famously U2 in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s...
and Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
interpreted "With or Without You" in both romantic and spiritual manners. Biblical references are made on other songs like "Bullet the Blue Sky" ("Jacob wrestled the angel
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is a biblical story commonly depicted in art. The story appears in chapter 32 of Genesis, and chapter 12 of the Book of Hosea...
", images of fire and brimstone
Fire and brimstone
Fire and brimstone is an idiomatic expression of signs of God's wrath in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. In the Bible, they often appear in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. "Brimstone," possibly the ancient name for sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of volcanic activity...
) and "In God's Country" ("I stand with the sons of Cain"). Thom Duffy interpreted the album as an exploration of the "uncertainty and pain of a spiritual pilgrimage through a bleak and harsh world".
Packaging and title
The album sleeve was designed by Steve Averill, based on the band's idea to depict the record's "imagery, and cinematic location" in the desert. The initial concept for the sleeve was to represent where the desert met civilisation, and accordingly, one of the provisional titles for the album was The Desert Songs. They asked their photographer Anton CorbijnAnton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...
to search for locations in the United States that would capture this. From 14–16 December 1986, the band travelled with Corbijn and Averill on a bus around the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for a three-day photo shoot. The group stayed in small hotels and shot in the desert landscape, beginning at the ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Bodie
Bodie, California
Bodie is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe. It is located east-southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of 8379 feet . As Bodie Historic District, the U.S. Department of the...
before moving to locations such as Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point is a part of Amargosa Range located in east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in the United States noted for its erosional landscape...
and other sites in Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
. For the shoot, Corbijn rented a panoramic camera to capture more of the desert landscapes, but having no prior experience with the camera, he was unfamiliar with how to focus it. This led to him focusing on the background and leaving the band slightly out of focus. Corbijn said, "Fortunately there was a lot of light." He later recounted that the main idea of the shoot was to juxtapose "man and environment, the Irish in America".
On the evening after the first day's shooting, Corbijn told the band about Joshua tree
Joshua tree
Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, Yucca palm, Tree yucca, and Palm tree yucca....
s (Yucca brevifolia), hardy and twisted plants in the deserts of the American Southwest, and he suggested their use on the sleeve. Bono was pleased to discover the religious significance of the plant's etymology; early settlers, according to Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
legend, named the plant after the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophet Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
, as the tree's stretching branches reminded them of Joshua raising his hands in prayer. The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree. That day, while driving on Route 190
California State Route 190
State Route 190 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that is split into two parts by the Sierra Nevada. The western portion of begins at Tipton at a junction with State Route 99 and heads east towards Porterville before ending at Quaking Aspen in the Sequoia National Forest...
, they spotted a lone-standing tree in the desert, unusual since the plant is usually found in groups. Corbijn had been hoping to find a single tree, as he thought it would result in better photographs than if he shot the band amongst a group of trees. They stopped the bus and photographed with the lone plant for about 20 minutes, something The Edge called "fairly spontaneous". Despite shooting in the desert, the group dealt with cold weather. Bono explained, "it was freezing and we had to take our coats off so it would at least look like a desert. That's one of the reasons we look so grim." The final day of shooting was spent in snow-covered ghost towns.
Corbijn's original idea for the sleeve was to have a shot of the Joshua tree on the front, with the band in a continuation of the photograph on the back. Ultimately, separate photographs were used for each side of the sleeve; an image of the group at Zabriskie Point was placed on the front, while an image of them with the tree appears on the reverse side. Rolling Stone believes the title and the images of the tree befit an album concerned with "resilience in the face of utter social and political desolation, a record steeped in religious imagery". In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 97 on its list of the "100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time". The tree photographed for the sleeve fell around 2000, yet the site remains a popular attraction for U2 fans to pay tribute to the group. One person inserted a plaque into the ground reading, "Have you found what you're looking for?", in reference to the album's track "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". It is a common misconception that the site is within Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act , it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua tree forests native to the park...
, over 200 miles away. In 2011, the director of Dutch club 013
013
013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the Noorderligt, the Bat Cave and the MuziekKantenWinkel...
and his girlfriend died of heat exhaustion in a remote part of that park, allegedly searching for the site.
Release
Just prior to the release of The Joshua Tree, Bono was stricken with a sudden panic that the completed album was not good enough. He contemplated calling the production plants to order a halt of the record's pressing, but he ultimately held off. Island RecordsIsland Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
spent over $100,000 on store displays advertising the album; president Lou Maglia called it "the most complete merchandising effort ever assembled". The Joshua Tree was released on 9 March 1987, the first new release to be made available on the compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, vinyl record, and cassette tape
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
formats on the same date. Record stores in Britain and Ireland opened at midnight to accommodate the large amount of fans who had queued outside to buy the album.
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
at number one, spending two weeks at the top position, and it remained on the chart for 163 weeks. On the US Billboard Top Pop Albums
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, the album debuted on 4 April 1987 at number seven, the highest debut for a studio album in the US in almost seven years. Within three weeks, it topped the chart, where it remained for nine consecutive weeks. The album spent a total of 101 weeks on the Billboard Top Pop Albums, 35 of them in the top 10. On 13 May 1987, the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) certified
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
the album triple-platinum. All of the group's previous albums re-entered the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1987. In Canada, the album debuted at number 51 on the RPM Top 100 Albums
RPM (magazine)
RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...
chart on 21 March 1987, and climbed to number one just two weeks later. Within 14 days of release, it sold 300,000 units in Canada and was certified triple-platinum. The Joshua Tree topped the albums charts in 19 other countries, including Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Rolling Stone declared that the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It was the first album by any artist to sell one million copies on CD in the US. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
(following The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Band, and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket".
"With or Without You" was released as the lead single on 21 March 1987, with the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water". The single quickly topped the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, becoming the band's first number-one hit in America. The song topped the singles chart in Canada, while reaching number four in the UK and number two in the Netherlands. The group originally planned to use "Red Hill Mining Town" as the second single. However, the group were unhappy with the music video filmed by Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan
Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
, and Bono and Mullen had difficulty performing the song during rehearsals. Ultimately, the group canceled the single. Instead, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was chosen as the second single, and it was released in May 1987 with the tracks "Spanish Eyes" and "Deep in the Heart" as B-sides. Like its predecessor, it topped the Hot 100, giving U2 consecutive number-one singles in the US. The single peaked at number six in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. By May, sales of the album surpassed 7 million copies worldwide.
"Where the Streets Have No Name" was released in August 1987 as the third single, with "Sweetest Thing", "Silver and Gold", and "Race Against Time" as B-sides. The single reached number one in the Netherlands, number four on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, and number 13 in the US. The album's first three singles all topped the Irish Singles Charts, while charting within the top 20 of the singles charts in the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. "In God's Country" was released as a fourth single exclusively in North America in November 1987, peaking at number 44 on the Hot 100, and charting at number 48 as an import single in the UK. "One Tree Hill" was released as a fourth single in Australia and New Zealand in March 1988, and having been written for the New Zealand-native Carroll, it reached number one in his home country. By the end of 1988, The Joshua Tree had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.
In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is a company known as an innovator in the production of audiophile-quality sound recordings. All releases are advertised as being produced from the first-generation analog master recordings, and using proprietary technology, which MFSL claims allows for improved sound...
remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed the album and released it as a special gold CD. This edition rectified the incorrect track splitting between "One Tree Hill" and "Exit" that affected some CD releases; the quiet coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
that concludes "One Tree Hill" had previously been included in the same track as "Exit".
Critical reception
The Joshua Tree received almost universally positive reviews, the best of U2's career to that point. Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
wrote, "For a band that's always specialized in inspirational, larger-than-life gestures—a band utterly determined to be Important—The Joshua Tree could be the big one, and that's precisely what it sounds like." The review described the album's sound as "wed[ding] the diverse textures of The Unforgettable Fire to fully formed songs, many of them as aggressive as the hits on War". Steve Morse of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
echoed these sentiments in his review, stating, "It's another spiritual progress report, enwrapped in music that strikes a healthy balance between the lushness of their last album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, and the more volcanic rock of their early years." Morse called it "their most challenging work to date" and the "most rewarding rock record of the new year". Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album a rating of five stars, noting that "their reinvention of stadium rock sounds as impassioned as ever" and that the album strikes "a finely balanced mix of intimacy and power". NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
praised the album as "a better and braver record than anything else that's likely to appear in 1987... It's the sound of people still trying, still looking..." In a five-star review, Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
said the songs have "exultant power" that, "like the Joshua Tree's branches, stretch upward in stark contrast to their barren musical surroundings on rock radio". He praised the musicianship of the group members, calling Bono's vocals "wrenching", the rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton "razor-sharp", and The Edge's guitar playing "never... better".
The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
published a five-star review that called it "the most compelling collection of music yet from a band that has cut its career with passionate, exciting slashes". It judged that the record's "power lies in its restraint" and that there is an "urgency underlying virtually all of the 11 songs". In Times cover story on U2, Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks
Jay Cocks is a film critic and motion picture screenwriter.He is a graduate of Kenyon College. He was a critic for Time, Newsweek, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines, before moving into film writing....
called the album the band's best, commenting that it had both commercial and thematic depth. Spin called The Joshua Tree their "first wholly successful album because it finally breaks free from the seductive but limiting chant-and-drone approach of earlier material". The review stated, "There isn't a bad song on the record" and that "every one has a hook". The magazine praised U2 for eschewing ambient experimentation in favour of uncomplicated but layered arrangements. Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world...
of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said the album "confirms on record what this band has been slowly asserting for three years now on stage: U2 is what the Rolling Stones ceased being years ago—the greatest rock and roll band in the world". Hilburn noted that the band expanded on the "sketches" from The Unforgettable Fire with "sometimes breathtaking signs of growth", playing more "tailored and assured" music. Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
editor and longtime U2 supporter Bill Graham said that "The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions," and that U2 "must be taken very seriously indeed after this revaluation of rock".
John Rockwell
John Rockwell
John Rockwell is a music critic, editor, and dance critic. He studied at Phillips Academy, Harvard, the University of Munich, and the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in German culture....
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was complimentary of the band for expanding its musical range, singling out their exploration of other genres and the combination of The Edge's "obsessive, repetitive guitar textures" with Eno's "eerie synthesizer coloration". Rockwell was more critical, though, of Bono's vocals, which he said were "marred throughout by sobbing affectation" and sounded too much like other singers, resulting in a "curious loss of individuality". The Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
gave the album a three-and-a-half star review, calling it "music that both soothes and inspires, music that is anthemic, music with style". The publication called it a "natural sequel" to The Unforgettable Fire that "build[s] on the band's new-found sense of dynamics". The reviewer, however, believed the group took itself too seriously, resulting in a record that is "not a whole lot of fun, bordering on the pretentious", and he noted that he lost interest by its second side. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic rated the album a perfect five stars, saying, "their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier". Erlewine found it ironic the band achieved its greatest success with an album filled with such dark lyrical content. His review concluded, "Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal."
Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis
Anthony DeCurtis is an American author and music critic, who has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Relix and other publications.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone compared the album to Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound...
, stating that both records "lifted a populist artist to mega-stardom", and that the musicians' uplifting live shows and the "sheer aural pleasure" of the two records obscured their foreboding nature. DeCurtis summarized The Joshua Trees examination of America both lyrically and musically as such:
The album placed fourth on the "Best Albums" list from The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
s 1987 Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics' poll. At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, U2 earned their first two Grammy Awards, winning honors for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
and Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...
for The Joshua Tree.
The Joshua Tree Tour
Following the release of The Joshua Tree, U2 staged the worldwide Joshua Tree Tour. It began in April 1987, and comprising 109 shows over three legs, it continued through December. The first and third legs visited the US, while the second leg toured Europe. The band had previously been more successful as a live act than as record-sellers, but The Joshua Tree elevated them to a new level of popularity. The tour sold out arenas and stadiums around the world—the first time they consistently performed at venues of that size—and it played to over 3 million people. Songs from the album became staples of the tour's setlists, as the group regularly performed eight of the record's eleven tracks, and the only song not to be played was "Red Hill Mining Town".Like their previous tours, The Joshua Tree Tour was a minimalistic, austere production, and U2 used this outlet for addressing political and social concerns. One such issue was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham
Evan Mecham was the 17th Governor of Arizona. A decorated veteran of World War II, Mecham earned his living as an automotive dealership owner and occasional newspaper publisher...
's canceling the state's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Throughout the tour, the group continued to explore American roots music: they collaborated with folk artist Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, blues musician B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
, and Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
's New Voices of Freedom gospel choir; U2 also visited Graceland
Graceland
Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles from Downtown and less than four miles north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as...
and Sun Studios in Memphis, where they recorded new material. These new songs and the band's experiences on tour were documented for the 1988 Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
album and Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou is an American film director. He is also well known for his work with Irish rock band U2, having directed their rockumentary/live tape Rattle and Hum, one of three videos filmed for "One", and the video for "All Because of You"...
-directed motion picture.
The tour grossed $40 million, but despite its commercial success and positive reviews, U2 were dissatisfied creatively, and Bono believed they were musically unprepared for their success. Mullen said, "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best", and for Bono the tour was "one of the worst times of [their] musical life". On the road, the group dealt with death threats, along with injuries that Bono sustained from performing. The band hinted that the stresses of touring led them to enjoy the "rock and roll lifestyle" they previously avoided.
Legacy
The Joshua Tree is the band's best-selling album, and with 25 million copies sold worldwide, it is among the best-selling albums worldwide. It ranks as one of the best-selling albums in the US. In 1995, the RIAA certified it 10× platinum for shipping 10 million units, and the album subsequently received the Diamond Award for reaching this level. Similarly, the Canadian Recording Industry AssociationCanadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
certified the album diamond in Canada. In the UK, it is certified 6× platinum, with an additional silver certification for the 20th anniversary edition. In the Pacific, it is certified 5× platinum and 14× platinum in Australia and New Zealand, respectively.
Writer Derek White conducted a mathematical study of The Edge's rhythmic delay guitar effect in an attempt to explain why his playing style on the record sounded so appealing to him. For a given song, White found that by dividing the number of repeated delay notes per minute by the song's tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
in beats per minute, he arrived at e
E (mathematical constant)
The mathematical constant ' is the unique real number such that the value of the derivative of the function at the point is equal to 1. The function so defined is called the exponential function, and its inverse is the natural logarithm, or logarithm to base...
, an important mathematical constant that is used to explain many natural phenomena.
The Joshua Tree is acclaimed as one of the greatest albums in rock history, and many publications have placed it among their rankings of the best records, including Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
, Time, Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
, and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
. In 1997, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
collated worldwide data in 1997 from a range of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 57 in the list of the "100 Best Albums Ever". Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 26 on their 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
", writing that U2 "immerse[d] itself in the mythology of the United States" and that "[w]hile many of these songs are about spiritual quests... U2 fortify the solemnity with the outright joys of rock & roll". It was U2's best position on the list. In 2010, the album appeared at number 62 on Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
s list of the 125 most influential albums in the 25 years since the magazine launched. The publication said, "The band's fifth album spit out hits like crazy, and they were unusually searching hits, each with a pointed political edge."
The band's penchant for addressing political and social issues, as well as their staid depiction in Corbijn's black-and-white sleeve photographs, contributed to the group's earnest and serious image as "stone-faced pilgrim[s]". This image became a target for derision after the band's critically maligned Rattle and Hum project in 1988. Various critics called them "po-faced", "pompous bores", and "humourless". The group's continued exploration of American music for the project was labelled "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". After Bono told fans on the 1989 Lovetown Tour
Lovetown Tour
The Lovetown Tour was a concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, which took place in late 1989 and early 1990.-Itinerary:It was limited in scope, but did try to reach places that their 1987 Joshua Tree Tour had missed, all the while avoiding the United States entirely.The tour's opening night was on...
that U2 would "dream it all up again", the band reinvented themselves in the 1990s. The group incorporated alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, and electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
into their sound, and adopted a more self-deprecating, flippant image by which they embraced the "rock star" identity they struggled with in the 1980s. The band referred to their 1991 album Achtung Baby
Achtung Baby
Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and 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...
as "chopping down the Joshua Tree". Bill Flanagan summarised the impact of The Joshua Tree on the group's career in his liner notes to the album's 20th anniversary release: "The Joshua Tree made U2 into international rock stars and established both a standard they would always have to live up to and an image they would forever try to live down."
20th anniversary remastered edition
On 20 November 2007, a 20th anniversary edition of The Joshua Tree was released. The album was remasterRemaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed from the original analogue recordings under the direction of The Edge. The release was made available in four formats: a single CD; a two-disc deluxe edition with a bonus audio CD; a three-disc box set with bonus audio CD and DVD, photograph prints, and hardcover book; and a double vinyl edition. All editions included a booklet with liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
by author Bill Flanagan
Bill Flanagan
Bill Flanagan is an American author and television executive. He was born in Rhode Island in 1955 and graduated from Brown University in 1977. His books include Written in My Soul , Last of the Moe Haircuts , U2 at the End of the World , and the novels A&R , New Bedlam and Evening's Empire .As...
and "previously unseen" photographs by Anton Corbijn.
Manager Paul McGuinness explained, "There has been continuous demand from U2 fans to have The Joshua Tree properly re-mastered. As always, the band had to make sure it was right, and now it is." The bonus CD that was included with two of the remastered formats contains B-sides and rarities/demos from The Joshua Tree. Some formats include expanded liner notes from the band members, the production team, and Anton Corbijn. In an otherwise favourable review of the remastered album, Andrew Mueller of Uncut said that "any casual listener who can perceive a meaningful difference between this and the original has i) ears like a bat and/or ii) needs to get out more".
Bonus audio CD
The bonus audio CD features 14 additional tracks, including the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", "Walk to the Water", "Spanish Eyes", "Deep in the Heart", "Silver and Gold", "Sweetest Thing", and "Race Against Time". Two versions of "Silver and Gold" are included—the B-side version, and the original recording from the Sun CitySun City (album)
Sun City was a 1985 album that contained several versions of the Steven Van Zandt-led Artists United Against Apartheid's "Sun City" protest song against apartheid in South Africa as well as other selections in the same vein from that project.-History:...
album, with Keith Richards and Ron Wood. The edited single version of "Where the Streets Have No Name" appears on the bonus CD. "Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience" features lyrics from the introduction of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
's Songs of Experience, and was previously released in The Complete U2
The Complete U2
-Live from Boston 1981:Live from Boston 1981 is a live album recorded during U2's Boy Tour at Boston's Paradise Rock Club on . Some of the tracks on this album have been originally released on other singles previous to the release of this album....
digital box set in 2004. "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", "Desert of Our Love", "Rise Up", and "Drunk Chicken/America" are all previously unreleased recordings from The Joshua Tree sessions. "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)" is a completed version of the demo "Birdland", and "Drunk Chicken/America" features an excerpt of Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
's recitation of his poem, "America
America (poem)
"America" is a poem by Allen Ginsberg, written in 1956. It appears in his collection Howl and Other Poems.The poem is in the first person and reads much like a monologue...
".
Bonus DVD
The bonus DVD features live concert footage, a documentary, and two music videos. The disc includes Live from Paris, an 85-minute concert from 4 July 1987 that was originally broadcast on British television in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Island Records. It was later released as a live album through the iTunes StoreITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
in July 2008; three cover songs are excluded from both releases of the concert. The documentary, titled Outside It's America, was a 1987 MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
production about The Joshua Tree Tour. The two music videos are an alternate version "With or Without You" and the previously unreleased video for "Red Hill Mining Town". Footage of U2's alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
country band, The Dalton Brothers
The Dalton Brothers (band)
The Dalton Brothers were a short-lived fictional, spoof country band, created and performed by U2, as their own opening act, on three dates of their Joshua Tree tour - "fictional" only in that they did not exist separately from U2...
, is included on the disc as an Easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
.
Track listing
While the band and crew were working on the album's mixing, Lillywhite's wife, singer Kirsty MacCollKirsty MacColl
Kirsty Anna MacColl was an English singer-songwriter.MacColl scored several pop hits from the early 1980s to the early 1990s...
, volunteered to set the running order for the album. The band told her to put "Where the Streets Have No Name" first and "Mothers of the Disappeared" last, with the rest sequenced according to her preference.
Personnel
U2The band members' instruments are not credited on the album's liner notes, aside from The Edge's backing vocals and Bono's harmonica. Their primary instruments are listed based on their accounts of the album's recording and their de facto primary roles in the group.- BonoBonoPaul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
– lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - The EdgeThe EdgeDavid Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
– guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Adam ClaytonAdam ClaytonAdam Charles Clayton is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Larry Mullen, Jr. – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Additional performers
- Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
– keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, DX7Yamaha DX7The Yamaha DX7 is an FM Digital Synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1986. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer. Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially Pop music from the 1980s...
programmingProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
, backing vocals - Daniel LanoisDaniel LanoisDaniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
– tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, OmnichordOmnichordThe Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument, introduced in 1981 and manufactured by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate, and buttons for major, minor, and diminished chords...
, additional guitar, backing vocals - The Armin Family – stringsString sectionThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
(track 9) - The Arklow Silver Band – brassBrass instrumentA brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
(track 6)
Technical
- ProductionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
– Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno - RecordingSound recording and reproductionSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
– Flood - Additional engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
– Dave MeeganDave MeeganDave Meegan is a record producer. He trained under Trevor Horn and is best known for his work with the band Marillion. He is also heavily associated with the band U2 and worked with the band as an engineer during the sessions for The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum.With Marillion he notably produced...
with Pat McCarthyPatrick McCarthy (record producer)Patrick McCarthy is a record producer from Dublin, Ireland who has worked for several rock and alternative rock artists, including The Waterboys, Counting Crows, R.E.M., and U2. In 1998, he replaced Scott Litt as R.E.M.'s in-house producer, co-producing three of their albums Up, Reveal and Around... - MixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
– Steve LillywhiteSteve LillywhiteSteve Lillywhite is an English Grammy Award winning record producer. Since he began his career in 1977, Lillywhite has been credited for working on over 500 records and has collaborated with a variety of musicians including XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Peter Gabriel,...
(tracks 1, 3, 4, and 6) - Mix engineering – Mark Wallis
- Mix engineering assistance – Mary Kettle
- Studio crew – Joe O'Herlihy, Des Broadberry, Tom Mullally, Tim Buckley, Marc Coleman, Mary Gough, Marion Smyth
Charting and certifications
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
3 |
| Austrian Top 30 Albums Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
1 |
| Canadian RPM 100 Albums RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... |
1 |
| Dutch LP Top 75 | 1 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
1 |
| German Top 100 Albums Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
1 |
| New Zealand Top 40 Albums Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Swedish Albums Top 60 Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| US Billboard Top Pop Albums Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| Chart (1987) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 5 |
| Austrian Top 30 Albums | 1 |
| German Top 100 Albums | 1 |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 1 |
| US Billboard Top Pop Albums | 6 |
| Country (Provider) | Certification Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... ) |
5× Platinum |
| Austria (IFPI) | 3× Gold |
| Canada (Music Canada Music Canada Music Canada was a Canadian music television miniseries which aired approximately monthly on CBC Television from 1966 to 1967.-Premise:This series featured various special productions of music and dance, from classical to modern styles.-Scheduling:... ) |
Diamond |
| Finland (Musiikkituottajat) | Gold |
| France (SNEP Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... ) |
2× Platinum |
| Germany (BVMI Bundesverband Musikindustrie The Bundesverband Musikindustrie or simply BVMI represents the music industry in Germany. The association represents the interests of nearly 350 labels and music industry related enterprises.... ) |
2× Platinum |
| Netherlands (NVPI NVPI The NVPI is the Dutch tradeassociation of the entertainment industry... ) |
Platinum |
| New Zealand (RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... ) |
14× Platinum |
| United Kingdom (BPI British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... ) |
6× Platinum* |
| United States (RIAA Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... ) |
Diamond |
*The 20th anniversary edition was certified Silver.
| Year | Title | Chart peak positions | Certifications | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRE Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
CAN RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... |
NL MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
|||
| 1987 | "With or Without You" | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
|
| "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" | 1 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
|
|
| "Where the Streets Have No Name" | 1 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 13 | ||
| "Exit" | — | — | 46 | — | — | — | ||
| "In God's Country" | — | — | — | — | 48 | 44 | ||
| 1988 | — | 25 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "One Tree Hill" | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | ||||||||