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Classic album appreciation thread: The Joshua Tree (1987) by U2


GivenToFly

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I'm not even that big of a fan but, Jesus!, this album!

The first three songs, still great, even after I've heard them a million times. The rest of the album though, I've only familiarized with recently, and WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MY LIFE?

Bullet the Blue Sky, Running to Stand Still, Red Hill Mining Town, One Tree Hill absolutely tremendous songs.

The rest, though not at the same level, still not a single bad song there.

And the sound is just gorgeous. Beautiful, haunting, inspiring.

A real masterpiece.

Edited by GivenToFly
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Well, my mother works for his lawyer (same as bono) near Geneva. When I'm on holidays I sometimes come down and help her. One day, one week after the oscars exactly (the Mandela thing), Adam was coming with his family. And they knew how I liked classic rock music, so they were asking me if I wanted to come and meet him. So we talked a bit on guitars, the 360 tour... I did not want to talk about the oscars or the new album lol. He was really down to earth, cool guy :)

Then I was playing at "jump in the empty jacuzzi filled with mattresses" with his son.

Edited by Silent Jay
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There's a "Classic Albums" DVD, the "Rattle and Hum" DVD, the "Outside It's America" documentary (some people liked it better than Rattle and Hum - might have to search for it though) a Deluxe Edition of the album with the b-sides (you can hear them on Spotify but has the two versions of Silver and Gold), and tons of pro shot and bootleg tour footage on You Tube (and you can probably find the Rattle and Hum outtakes, the full version is 4 hours long), and the Lovetown Tour (touring for the Rattle and Hum movie, which was basically Joshua Tree Tour II).

Basically - a ton of tour footage, which frustrates GNR fans because they have hours of UYI footage.

I think the Paris show was the one on the Joshua Tree box set but should have put the full Tempe concert out because it was filmed for the movie.

The album cover is at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, the other photos Anton shot were at the Joshua Tree park near Palm Springs. Desert gets cold..

They started off being part of the "new wave" but by that point they were definitely a household name and an arena/stadium rock act, and that album won a Grammy for album of the year (which deserved it). In the late 80s, the biggest in the world. Pink Floyd was the only "rival" as far as big concerts went, Metallica had just started headlining, the Stones hadn't reunited yet. Being the top band in the world also meant backlash, so that's where "Achtung Baby" comes in and the documentary goes into what they had to do to survive as a band.

They were not quite rich yet, they got very little in royalties and it was all roadwork because Chris Blackwell told them at the end of the contract, they'd own the masters (unheard of for a band). At that point they had a piece of Island Records because Blackwell was short on money he owed them. So when Island was sold off, they hit a huge financial windfall that no other band has ever had.

In the late 80s, Bono referred Lanois to Bob Dylan and he had his comeback with "Oh Mercy", but Bono got to know Dylan during the Unforgettable Fire tour and he was interested in American roots music back then. UF is a hit and miss album but you wouldn't have had Joshua Tree without it, and it would have been more War (which some fans would have been happy with).

Edited by dalsh327
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