![]() The tour in support of the record made them even bigger. And its songs rank among the greatest of U2's long career: "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "With or Without You," "Bullet the Blue Sly," "In God's Country." (It was the first record to be released on LP, CD and cassette on the same day.) Hit singles piled up well into the next year. The question was just how big? Turns out massively big. There really was no doubt The Joshua Tree would be big. From the shimmering intro of the Edge's guitar on "Where the Streets Have No Name," which opens the album, to the mournful hum that ends the closing "Mothers of the Disappeared," the LP unravels like a natural classic. The Joshua Tree took U2 to a whole new level. (As with their earlier albums, The Joshua Tree is filled with Biblical imagery and references.)Ī year after they started work on the album, they finally – after some location changes and reworking of a handful of the songs – emerged with their tour de force. It was about America, but it was bigger than that too. Increased political and social involvement, as well as the death of a close friend, helped shape the album's themes. Other times, they were uplifting, spiritual and hopeful. The new songs were sad, desolate and heartbroken at times. ![]() It was the best of both worlds, in a sense: anthem-sized audience pleasers paired with the moody art-rock that got them tons of critical acclaim. The songs bathed War's rousing exuberance in the atmospheric haze of The Unforgettable Fire. The shows invigorated U2, who now had enough songs to stitch together a double album, something they briefly considered until they narrowed it down to the 11-track version that was released. And they took a break to join the Amnesty International tour with Sting, Lou Reed and Peter Gabriel. They hashed things out with jam sessions. Recording continued throughout the year, with Lanois working with the band for a couple weeks at a time, and then Eno working with the band for a couple weeks at a time. Watch U2's Video for 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' They had also hoped to have the project wrapped up by mid-year and to have the album in stores by the end of 1986. Just like last time, they had hoped to channel the influence and ambience from their working environment – The Unforgettable Fire was partly recorded in a castle – onto their new album. Even though the 90-second Bono-read poem was written in 1956 by Allen Ginsberg, it's more pointed than almost anything the band wrote for the record. An outtake, "Drunk Chicken/America," found on the 20th-anniversary edition of the album, also explores the band's relationship with the country. The famous cover photo, shot in the California desert, is a pretty neat summation of the record's contents. (The album was even called The Two Americas at one point, reflecting the divide the band saw between what they were told to believe about the country and what they actually saw.) They also wanted to capture the nation's vast landscapes in music. But they went deeper this time, uncovering some of the darker spaces. Like with their previous album, The Joshua Tree was inspired by the band's obsession with America, which they were becoming increasingly more familiar with thanks to their extended tours across the nation, as well as their growing interest in roots music. Sessions began in early 1986 at a massive house in their hometown of Dublin with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, both returning from The Unforgettable Fire, once again behind the boards. They wasted almost no time getting back into the studio after the world tour in support of The Unforgettable Fire. By the end of the year, U2 were the biggest band in the world. chart) so did the first two singles – "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" – pulled from the record. The band quickly graduated from theaters to sold-out stadiums. And what a statement The Joshua Tree made.
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