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The Joshua Tree

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The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released 9 March 1987 on Island Records. Recording sessions took place from July to November of 1986 at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. The album features the band's exploration of roots rock, with their music exhibiting influences from blues-rock, folk rock, country music, and gospel music. Lyrically, The Joshua Tree depicts the band's fascination with America and many of the ideas it stood for. The album was produced and engineered by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

Upon its release, The Joshua Tree became a critical and commercial success, increasing the band's stature "from heroes to superstars," according to Rolling Stone.[1] The album produced several hit singles, including "Where the Streets Have No Name", "With or Without You", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", all of which remain classic rock radio staples. The Joshua Tree won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Album of the Year in Grammy Awards of 1988. In 2003, the album was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album is one of the world's best-selling albums of all-time, having sold over 25 million copies.[2] In 2007, a remastered version of the album was released to mark the 20th anniversary of its original release.

History

Background

Following The Unforgettable Fire album, the band realised that "U2 had no tradition, we were from outer space", and they explored American blues, country and gospel music.[4] Since that album, they had spent time with fellow Irish bands The Waterboys and Hothouse Flowers, and felt a sense of indigenous Irish music being blended with American folk music.[5] Friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Keith Richards encouraged the band to look back to the roots of rock music, and focused Bono on his skills as a song and lyric writer.[6][7] The band wanted to build on The Unforgettable Fire's atmospherics, but also sought a more hard-hitting sound within the strict discipline of more conventional song structures, in contrast to The Unforgettable Fire's often out-of-focus experimentation.[8]

Conception

U2 interrupted their 1986 album sessions to serve as a headline act on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope Tour. Rather than being a distraction, the band found the tour added extra intensity and power to their new music, providing extra focus on what they wanted to say.[9] In his 1986 travels to San Salvador and Nicaragua, Bono saw first hand the distress of peasants bullied in internal conflicts, and this was a central influence on the album, most noticeably on "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared".[10]

The album juxtaposes antipathy towards the United States, including anger at United States foreign policy in Central America, against the band's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedom and what it stood for.[11] The band wanted music with a sense of location, a 'cinematic' quality; its music and lyrics drew on imagery created by American writers the band had been reading.[12] The band had toured in the United States extensively, which affected the band;[7] according to Bono, the album was inspired and influenced more by the country's geography, rather than its people.[7] Bono said he "...had to 'deal with' the United States and the way it was affecting me, because the United States' having such an effect on the world at the moment. On this record I had to deal with it on a political level for the first time, if in a subtle way."[7] Since Bono was trying to portray the both "mythic idea of America" and the "reality of America" on the album, the working title of the album was "The Two Americas".

The record was also influenced by the blues.[7] While in recording sessions for the b-side "Silver and Gold", working with Keith Richards, Bono and Richards listened to blues music, country music, American pop music from the 1950s, and other such influences.[7] These influences, combined with Bono's early influences, such as Patti Smith and Bob Dylan, had an effect on the song and the whole album.[7] "With or Without You", the album's first single and one of the band's most well-known songs, uses an effect called "infinite guitar", developed by Michael Brook, to infinitely sustain notes.

The album cover photo was taken by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn in December of 1986. Corbijn later recounted the photo shoot in Death Valley, California; "This is the most serious set of shots I have taken of U2 and they became my most well-known photographs at the time. It was taken with a panoramic camera to take more of the landscapes in which was the main idea of the shoot: man and environment, the Irish in America."[13]

Single releases

"With or Without You" and the rhythmic gospel "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" were released as singles internationally and quickly went to number one in the U.S. "Where the Streets Have No Name" was also successfully released. "In God's Country" was released as a fourth single in North America with modest success, and "One Tree Hill" was released as a fourth single in Australia and New Zealand.[14] Initially slated as a single release, "Red Hill Mining Town" was the track from the album not played on the tour. Bono has suggested that the song's high notes put too much strain on his voice.[15]

A number of songs that were released as B-sides are thought to have been considered for a double-album version of The Joshua Tree. Though Bono was the most vocal proponent of this extended version of the album, The Edge successfully argued for the 11-track version that was ultimately released.[citation needed] "Spanish Eyes" and "Deep in the Heart" were released as B-sides to the "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" single. "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water" were released as B-sides to the "With or Without You" single. "Sweetest Thing", "Silver and Gold", and "Race Against Time" were released as B-sides to the "Where the Streets Have No Name" single.

Reception

Named The Joshua Tree as a "tribute" to (rather than a "metaphor" for) America,[11] the album was released in March 1987. It debuted at number one in the UK and also quickly reached the top of the charts in the U.S. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket".[16] The Joshua Tree is often cited as one of the greatest albums in rock history.[17] The album brought U2 to a new level of mega-stardom, as the worldwide Joshua Tree Tour sold out arenas and stadiums around the world, the first time the band had consistently played venues of that size.[17]

Awards and accolades

The Joshua Tree won U2 their first two Grammy Awards, with the band receiving honors for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal.[18][19] In 1989, it was rated #3 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's, as well as appearing at #26 on the magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The Joshua Tree was selected as #6 on CCM Magazine's 2001 list of the greatest Contemporary Christian music albums of all time (see CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music). It came second place in Channel 4's 100 Greatest albums.[20] It came in at #10 in ABC-TV's My Favourite Album, which aired in Australia in December 2006.

According to U.S. Recording Industry sales figures, as of January 2005, The Joshua Tree ranks as the 89th best-selling album of all-time in the U.S.[21] and, as of 2006, the 26th best-selling album in the U.K..[22] The album has sold 10 million copies in the United States alone[23] and more than 25 million copies worldwide. It remains the band's best-selling album[2].

Track listing

All tracks are written by U2, with lyrics by Bono

No.TitleLength
1."Where the Streets Have No Name"5:38
2."I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"4:38
3."With or Without You"4:56
4."Bullet the Blue Sky"4:32
5."Running to Stand Still"4:18
6."Red Hill Mining Town"4:54
7."In God's Country"2:57
8."Trip Through Your Wires"3:33
9."One Tree Hill"5:23
10."Exit"4:13
11."Mothers of the Disappeared"5:12
Total length:50:14

According to Bono in a BBC TV documentary, the track order for the album was devised by singer Kirsty MacColl. She put her favorite song first, then her second favorite, and so on.[24]

The original CD pressings of the album by BMG Music Club incorrectly indexed the ending of "One Tree Hill" at 4:43 and the beginning of "Exit" at 4:53. This is because a final, quieter stanza of "One Tree Hill" ("Oh, great ocean...") occurs once the song has died down and apparently ended and when BMG Music Club produced their own glass master, they incorrectly shifted the start of "Exit" back. (BMG Music Club, like other CD clubs, produces their own glass master of the album after they've licensed it from the record company and thus the reason for them producing their own master with an incorrect track listing [25]). As a result, owners of a BMG Music Club release of The Joshua Tree thought the stanza was the beginning of "Exit", even though it completely contrasts in tone with "Exit" and features lyrics similar to the chorus of "One Tree Hill". This error has been corrected on BMG's later editions of the album.

In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab remastered the album and released it as a special gold CD. This edition has slightly different running times from the Island CD editions, and features an alternate edit of "Mothers of the Disappeared" in which the repeating synthesizer rhythm pattern briefly rises in volume just before the song fades out completely; this recurrence is not audible on the Island CDs. (The 2007 re-issue CD remastered under the supervision of The Edge also features this edit, suggesting that it may represent the band's original intent.)

20th anniversary edition

On 19 September 2007, various U2 fan sites began reporting that Universal Austria had confirmed the release of three special 20th Anniversary Editions of The Joshua Tree with a tentative release date of 23 November 2007, continuing U2's streak of releasing an album, compilation, or DVD in November of every year since 2001's Elevation 2001: Live from Boston DVD.

On October 16, 2007 (2007-10-16), Billboard confirmed the US release date as November 20, 2007 (2007-11-20).[26] The release date everywhere else in the world was December 3, 2007 (2007-12-03).

The album was released in four different formats:[27]

  • CD format: remastered album on CD
  • Deluxe format: remastered album on CD, bonus CD with b-sides and rarities from The Joshua Tree sessions, and a 36-page booklet
  • Box set edition: remastered album on CD, bonus CD with b-sides and rarities from The Joshua Tree sessions, bonus DVD with a concert from the Joshua Tree Tour and other videos, and a 56-page hardback book. DVD also has easter egg section, which contains a Dalton Brothers performance from Los Angeles, 18 November 1987.
  • Double vinyl edition: remastered album on two 180 Gram virgin vinyl gramophone records and pressed at Nashville's historic United Record Pressing. It includes a 16-page booklet.

Bonus CD

No.TitleNotesLength
1."Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)"B-side from "With or Without You" single4:35
2."Walk to the Water"B-side from "With or Without You" single4:49
3."Spanish Eyes"B-side from "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" single3:16
4."Deep in the Heart"B-side from "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" single4:31
5."Silver and Gold"B-side from "Where the Streets Have No Name" single4:38
6."Sweetest Thing"B-side from "Where the Streets Have No Name" single3:05
7."Race Against Time"B-side from "Where the Streets Have No Name" single4:03
8."Where the Streets Have No Name" (Single edit)A-side from "Where the Streets Have No Name" single4:50
9."Silver and Gold" (Sun City)From Sun City compilation album4:43
10."Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience"From Unreleased & Rare compilation from The Complete U2 digital box set3:56
11."Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)"Unfinished song from The Joshua Tree sessions; rewritten and recorded in 20074:06
12."Desert of Our Love"Demo from The Joshua Tree sessions4:59
13."Rise Up"Demo from The Joshua Tree sessions4:08
14."Drunk Chicken/America"Demo from The Joshua Tree sessions1:31
Total length:57:04

Bonus DVD

Chart positions and sales

Country Peak position Certification Sales
Australia 3 5x Platinum[28] 350,000+
Austria 3x Gold[29] 45,000+
Canada Diamond[30] 1,000,000+
Finland Gold[31] 27,965
France 1 2x Diamond

[32]

2,072,100
Germany 2x Platinum/3x Gold[33] 700,000+
Mexico Gold[34] 100,000+
Netherlands 1 Platinum[35] 80,000+
United Kingdom 1 6x Platinum[36] 1,800,000+
United States 1 Diamond[23] 10,000,000+
Year Single Chart Position
1987 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" Billboard Adult Contemporary 16
1987 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" The Billboard Hot 100 1
1987 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
1987 "Where the Streets Have No Name" The Billboard Hot 100 13
1987 "Where the Streets Have No Name" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 11
1987 "With or Without You" The Billboard Hot 100 1
1987 "With or Without You" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 1
1987 "Bullet the Blue Sky" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 14
1987 "In God's Country" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 8
1987 "In God's Country" The Billboard Hot 100 53
1988 "In God's Country" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 6
1988 "In God's Country" The Billboard Hot 100 44
1988 "One Tree Hill" RIA New Zealand Singles Chart 1

Personnel

Musicians

Additional personnel

See also

References

  • McCormick, Neil (ed), (2006). U2 by U2. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-719668-7

Notes

  1. ^ Gardner, Elysa (1994). U2: The Rolling Stone Files. New York: Rolling Stone Magazine. pp. xx. ISBN ISBN 0-283-06239-8. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  2. ^ a b "The Joshua Tree". Virgin. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  3. ^ My Two Visits to U2's Joshua Tree
  4. ^ Bono in McCormick (2006), p.169
  5. ^ McCormick (2006), p.172
  6. ^ McCormick (2006), p.179
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "The Joshua Tree". Propaganda, issue 5. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  8. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony (27 March 1987). "U2 Releases The Joshua Tree". Rolling Stone. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) cited in Gardner, Elysa (ed) (1994), U2: The Rolling Stone Files, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-06239-8 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  9. ^ McCormick (2006), p.174
  10. ^ McCormick (2006)
  11. ^ a b McCormick (2006), p.186
  12. ^ Graham, Bill (2004). U2: the Complete Guide to their Music. Omnibus Press. pp. 27–30. ISBN 0-7119-9886-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "Corbijn_U2". anton corbijn. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  14. ^ "One Tree Hill". U2 Wanderer. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  15. ^ U2 FAQs.com, Song/Lyrics FAQ
  16. ^ "Rock's Hottest Ticket" Time Magazine Archive, April 1987. Retrieved on 20 January 2007.
  17. ^ a b The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 15 October 2006.
  18. ^ GRAMMY Winners List grammy.com. Retrieved 4 December 2006.
  19. ^ Pond, Steve (9 April 1987). "The Joshua Tree Album Review". Rolling Stone. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  20. ^ "The 100 Greatest Albums". Channel 4. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  21. ^ "Best-selling records_US". ClassicBands.com. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  22. ^ "Best Selling Albums Ever - UK". Phil Brodie Band. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  23. ^ a b Top 100 Albums. RIAA.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-15
  24. ^ Kirsty: The Life and Music of Kirsty MacColl, BBC2, 3 March 2001
  25. ^ http://www99.epinions.com/content_58014469764
  26. ^ U2's 'Joshua Tree' Blooms Again
  27. ^ The Joshua Tree 2007. U2.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
  28. ^ ARIA Australia
  29. ^ IFPI Austria
  30. ^ CRIA
  31. ^ IFPI Finland
  32. ^ InfoDisc: Les Ventes Réelles des Albums depuis 1968
  33. ^ IFPI Germany
  34. ^ AMPROFON
  35. ^ NVPI
  36. ^ BPI
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
25 April - 26 June 1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UK number one album
21 March 1987 – 3 April 1987 		Succeeded by


Template:Grammy Award Album of the Year (1971-1990)

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