Building The Sound They Would Have To Later Chop Down
March 12, 2017 9:33 AM   Subscribe

Thirty years ago, March 9, 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree [YouTube Playlist, mostly lyric videos, ~50m] and changed their lives and the world forever.

The first single from the album was released March 16, 1987. With Or Without You would become U2's first #1 in the US. (B-sides: Luminous Times (Hold On To Love), Walk To The Water)

April 27, 1987: U2 appears on the cover of Time Magazine.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For was released as a single on May 25, 1987. It was the band's second (and last) #1 in the US. (B-sides: Spanish Eyes [a rare actual video made for a b-side], Deep In The Heart)

Where The Streets Have No Name was the third single, released on August 31, 1987. (B-sides: Race Against Time, Silver And Gold [A remake of a song originally recorded with Keith Richards and Ron Wood], Sweetest Thing)

On November 17, 1987, the fourth single In God's Country was released. The B-sides were album tracks Bullet The Blue Sky and Running To Stand Still.

Ancillary material: Outside It's America, documenting U2's 1987 tour in the US. [37m]
posted by hippybear (108 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
"With or Without You" still makes me bawl like a baby. I hear those first few bars, know what's coming, and I'm gone.

I remember being in Las Vegas after a full day in the dentist's chair (I was my dentist test case when he took a course at LVI), and to my sister and I went to the Ye Olde Irishe Pubbe in the hotel. I was a wreck with the pain, which the medication wasn't even touching once the numbness wore off, so I went against doctor's orders and had a beer chaser.

And then the U2 cover band in the other section of the Pubbe went into the opening bars of "With Or Without You."

Reader, I lost it. I don't know if my face was swollen more from the novacaine or from the crying. I have rarely been more glad to be in a loud, dark place where nobody but my sister could see or hear me. S as they went to another song, she practically scooped me up and bundled me up to my room. I remember sobbing about how she didn't even get her deep fried dill pickle yet.

I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:59 AM on March 12, 2017 [17 favorites]


They're touring the album this year. And the documentary Classic Albums: U2—The Joshua Tree is interesting, especially when Brian Eno dryly corrects the record about supposedly threatening to erase the master tapes of "Where The Streets Have No Name."
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:03 AM on March 12, 2017


....Was that really 30 years ago?

My family went on a vacation to the southwest in the summer of '87; we started in Vegas, looped around through some of the national parks and ended in Vegas again. I was just 17 and still needed to get over myself a little, so I was snootily unintersted in Las Vegas and the casino scene; except I insisted that we find the corner where they shot the video for Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and take a picture. We spent fifteen minutes driving up and down Fremont Street, my father grumbling the whole time about why were we doing this, and me reminding him "but this will be a great thing for my friend in Ireland, dad", until finally I saw a familiar corner and hollered "HERE!" and my father double-parked, I ran out and posed against one of the palm trees, Mom got two pictures real fast and we piled back into the car to go back to the Strip for dinner.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:06 AM on March 12, 2017 [7 favorites]


I really hated U2 at that time, but can no longer recall why. I mean sure, they were overly pretentious and full of themselves (and probably still are) but the album is quite excellent.
posted by Slothrup at 10:10 AM on March 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


He was a little dog, named Snuggles.
posted by delfin at 10:11 AM on March 12, 2017 [25 favorites]


hmmm?

Joshua Tree remains problematic for me. I wouldn't for a moment question its overall accomplishment as a sonic document , but rather like other unquestioned classics of the rock genre (Dark Side of the Moon anyone?), prolonged overexposure has led to serious allergies for me.

And I really did love them for a while.

Snuggles.

Fortunately, there is an antidote.
posted by philip-random at 10:15 AM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oh, and I actually am of the opinion - and have tested this - that The Joshua Tree is some of the best driving music for the American Southwest. Especially when you are on a two-lane highway, you see that the speed limit has just climbed to 88 miles per hour, the road is flat and empty ahead of you, and the opening chords to "Where The Streets Have No Name" kick in.


Tested that in Utah, about an hour outside Moab, in 2000.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:18 AM on March 12, 2017 [10 favorites]


The Classic Albums documentary is cool. I remember footage of Bono singing vocals in Adam Clayton's bathroom or somewhere in his Georgian mansion.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:18 AM on March 12, 2017


Kudos to delfin for going with that and not "these guys are from England and who gives a shit".
posted by Slothrup at 10:19 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is good rock and roll, uh, music.

Although the first four tracks got so overplayed I would start the album on running to stand still back in the days when CDs were used for music.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:21 AM on March 12, 2017 [7 favorites]


Fortunately, there is an antidote

And while we're at it: Nobody Knows What I'm On About
posted by philip-random at 10:21 AM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


I remember some guy at work offering me a bootleg of The Joshua Tree before it came out, but I wasn't interested. I like it better now.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:22 AM on March 12, 2017


some of the best driving music for the American Southwest. Especially when you are on a two-lane highway

Let me introduce you to Gram Parsons.
posted by spitbull at 10:29 AM on March 12, 2017 [18 favorites]


Joshua Tree was the second CD I ever owned. The first was a Vivaldi Four Seasons disc that came with the CD player.
posted by srboisvert at 10:36 AM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


My girlfriend, soon to be ex, sent me the cd from Tempe and said this explained everything. I'm still baffled.
posted by vicusofrecirculation at 10:40 AM on March 12, 2017 [14 favorites]


Kudos to delfin for going with that and not "these guys are from England and who gives a shit".

Ireland, actually. Although I see two of them were born in England.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:41 AM on March 12, 2017


Don't you boys like any nice music?
posted by evilDoug at 10:44 AM on March 12, 2017


I loved this when it came out. I was a big fan of U2 since their first album and Joshua Tree was the album that I'd been waiting for them to produce. I played the heck out of my vinyl copy for at least a year and then somehow fell of love with it and the band and have never really found my way back. I haven't really liked anything that they've done since and while that LP is still in a milk crate in the garage, I don't think that it's been played since '98.
posted by octothorpe at 10:46 AM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Wow I'm old.

"With or Without You" still makes me bawl like a baby.


I have this problem with One Tree Hill (oh yeah, deep cuts, y'all).

I was completely obsessed with U2 for much of my middle and high school days, but I just couldn't get into anything post Achtung Baby. To preserve my fond memories, I just think of them as a band that made like 7 amazing albums and then broke up. (I even love all the weird stuff on Unforgettable Fire.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:51 AM on March 12, 2017 [9 favorites]


I don't think that it's been played since '98.

Missed my edit window, meant '88.
posted by octothorpe at 10:54 AM on March 12, 2017


Sometimes a band comes along that competently and confidently captures what is interesting in music at that moment. And then it isn't interesting anymore.
posted by sjswitzer at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


I have this problem with One Tree Hill

It was apparently pretty heavy for Bono too, being about the death of their roadie. The album cut is the only vocal take -- word is he was emotionally unable to do a second, and didn't perform the song live until later in the tour.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:59 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Tracks from this album can instantly take me back to being 20 years old. They also immediately invoke the American southwest. Overall, it's a really solid achievement, and whilst over-played it hasn't really worn out its welcome.
posted by maxwelton at 11:02 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


I really hated U2 at that time, but can no longer recall why.

I liked them for one album, War, which I remember thinking was satisfyingly aware and fairly interesting, and then I don't know what happened. Maybe I just moved out of that shared apartment and left that shared record collection behind. Maybe I just wasn't surprised they had trouble finding what they were looking for where the streets have no names. But one U2 album was enough for me. By the time that The Joshua Tree rolled around, I was immune to their jangles and snares.
posted by pracowity at 11:08 AM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love this album (and this post makes me feel incredibly fucking old, thanks a lot hippybear) but my all time favorite U2 sing is this cover from a Woody Guthrie tribute.
posted by jonmc at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Probably the biggest album in the world at the time (I was in Europe and it got played to death there) and the music fit the tenor of the time very well -- a sense of change in the air everywhere, but not cataclysmic change like today, more like reconciliatory change.

But that was 30 years ago. If I'm in a U2 mood now, I get a lot more emotional resonance (and in some cases a sense of prophecy, or history repeating itself) listening to most cuts on War and The Unforgettable Fire than I do The Joshua Tree.
posted by blucevalo at 11:17 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]



....Was that really 30 years ago?


Can't be, because that would make me...*counts on fingers*
Oh..Oh hell...
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 11:19 AM on March 12, 2017 [13 favorites]


She found what they were looking for.
posted by hortense at 11:22 AM on March 12, 2017


I find it fascinating that there are some musicians that people can get away with slagging in MF forums, but others have a holy chorus of angry angels descend on any ill-wishers.
posted by sutt at 11:27 AM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


some of the best driving music for the American Southwest. Especially when you are on a two-lane highway

eddie rabbit got me through the southwest

that was back when country didn't suck - good thing, because you sure as hell weren't going to get much of anything else out there
posted by pyramid termite at 11:30 AM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


In 1987 an acapella group came to my college and an extraordinary young woman sang "Running to Stand Still" in an absolutely astounding, shiver-me-timbers rendition. It's still my favorite song from that album, because it reminds of that night & that show.
posted by chavenet at 11:30 AM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


This was THE soundtrack to my Junior year in highschool. This album was being played by everyone all the time everywhere. I got too cool for it later, but it still evokes those teenage emotions. Red Hill Mining Town brings me right back to the emotional turmoil of my teenaged heart. Thinking of it, I can smell driving along the river road with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:32 AM on March 12, 2017 [5 favorites]


Before this album, I liked U2's albums. With this album, I loved U2's music for a season. I haven't enjoyed any of their work after The Joshua Tree.

Red Hill Mining Town is the one track from this album that returns unbidden to my mind with regularity, usually as background for a range of moods that were my emotional currency 30 years ago.
posted by Radiophonic Oddity at 11:44 AM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


Beyond their first few albums, I never cared much about U2. They did eventually cause me to disdain (along with Cold Play) some of Eno's production work, and that was pretty strange as I was and am an avid Enophile from way back (Before and After Science era.) Not a bad way to gain a little perspective on those we revere, I suppose. Still, I wish them all many productive years as you never know what may make its way out of the morass of commercial considerations to blow us all away one fine day.
posted by metagnathous at 11:56 AM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was going to say, I don't think U2 ever made me cry, but no, "One". I was drunk though.
posted by thelonius at 11:59 AM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


"some of the best driving music for the American Southwest"

I've always had this idea as well, although I've never tested it. I'm not sure where it came from. I feel like "In God's Country" had something to do with it.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:11 PM on March 12, 2017


The tour for JT introduced teenage me to ticket scalping. I had 4th row for the Unforgettable Fire tour at UIC Pavilion in Chicago and loved the show, and just knew the band was going to blow up next record. Come ticket sale time for JT tour, I was shut out on the phone (early Ticketmaster scalper phone bots?) and bummed I'd miss 'em. In swoops one of my Dad's co-worker's sons with an offer for U of I Assembly Hall tix. I bought 'em w/ hard-earned money only to find out they were nose bleed (me and a friend had fun anyways).
Queue forward the rest of my summers in H.S. and college - I'm first in line at a small town Sears for any big show to get in on the scalping action.
posted by mctsonic at 12:15 PM on March 12, 2017


I remember being a sophomore in high school and waking up to my clock radio for school one day to hear the local Richmond, VA DJs proclaiming U2 to be "the saviors of rock" because when The Joshua Tree became the number one album, they had dethroned the Beastie Boys.

Man, that was a long time ago.
posted by 4ster at 12:16 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


They were my favorite band, from Boy until The Joshua Tree. After that, meh. As for them as driving music, was cruising from El Paso, little traffic and amazing views of desert, and mountains in the distance. U2's "Bad" came on (Sirius XM's First Wave station is A-1 amazingly great, and about 90 percent of what they played while I had it on was perfect for me), which was my favorite song on The Unforgettable Fire when it came out (I hooted when Bono announced the name of the song before they did it on The Unforgettable Fire tour and the pink polo with popped collar guy in front of me turned around to glare because the song was not yet a hit at that point and he had never heard it before).

I started to sing along with it and my heart was all of a sudden full to bursting and I nearly started crying with joy while doing 90 on the interstate. It was my Spalding Gray Impossible Vacation Perfect Moment.
posted by old_growler at 12:26 PM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


Also, my favorite song on the album may be "Exit," especially live.
posted by 4ster at 12:27 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


some of the best driving music for the American Southwest. Especially when you are on a two-lane highway

Let me introduce you to Gram Parsons.


I believe you are looking for Chris Whitley's "Living With the Law".
posted by bongo_x at 12:37 PM on March 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


I do remember maybe five or ten years ago hearing U2 on a "classic rock" station and thinking, man, I'm getting old.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:42 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


We spent fifteen minutes driving up and down Fremont Street,

Well, there was your problem. You should have been looking where the streets have no name. That was why you still hadn't found what you were looking for.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:43 PM on March 12, 2017 [11 favorites]


I find it fascinating that there are some musicians that people can get away with slagging in MF forums, but others have a holy chorus of angry angels descend on any ill-wishers.

I would have broadened it to "subjects" instead of "musicians", but yeah, it's confusing sometimes, like you're decoding a puzzle.

I was just looking up the U2 discography and had a getting old moment. I've never been the biggest fan, but generally liked the early albums, hated the mid period, liked the later stuff, lost interest again. But when I look at the songs I like The Joshua Tree more than I remembered, it's really just Rattle and Hum that I couldn't stand, and then Achtung Baby was came out and I thought they'd found they're way again.

So putting the dates together it seems the long middle period when I couldn't stand them was about 2 years. Things really seemed to change faster back then.
posted by bongo_x at 12:49 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Achtung Baby is one of the great albums. When the Fly came out it felt like the dirtiest thing that had ever been on the radio.
posted by Sebmojo at 1:15 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


>best driving music

funny you mention that, when I came home from college once my parents let me borrow their new '88 Camaro for a quick test drive a bit after dusk and I popped this tape in as I took off down the highway.

First two songs on the album were quite the religious experience, with that V8 pulling me down the road.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 1:22 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


"some of the best driving music for the American Southwest"

you are thinking of the meat puppets
posted by j_curiouser at 1:34 PM on March 12, 2017 [12 favorites]


U2's first 3 albums were a religious experience to me as a pre-teen. Loved them in the way only a 14 yr old can. Unforgettable Fire I grew to like but wasn't as passionate about. Didn't listen to Joshua Tree until a couple of years after it was released because there was something about it which turned me off. The growing sense of U2 as being something corporate and plastic. I was heavily into the Smiths and Sonic Youth and Husker Du at the time, and U2 was feeling much more shallow by comparison.

Ended up listening to it anyways and it was a constant replay for a while. Though Rattle & Hum confirmed my suspicions, and Negativland stripped away what little respect was left.

For the desert, the best listening is vintage Art Bell. Cruising through the Virgin River Gorge, on that road from SLC to Las Vegas, late at night under a full moon, and the conspiracies can feel real. All of them, at once. All real. UFO's are floating overhead, full of ghosts, driven by mad pilots from Area 51.
posted by honestcoyote at 1:45 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Well, I'm here to say that I loved The Joshua Tree then and love it now. While I've only ever liked the first 3 songs plus In God's Country, they have stood the test of time and there really is something special about them. I remember the evening after my grandmother's funeral In God's Country came on the radio and the song just hit me on a whole other level. I've continued appreciating most of their music, except the last couple of albums they have about completely tailed off for me. (Don't get either why it's cool to dis some music and subjects while others are sacrosanct.)
posted by blue shadows at 1:49 PM on March 12, 2017


It was their Bon Jovi album, the one meant to make them rich. Not my cuppa, but it wasn't supposed to be.
posted by Beholder at 2:00 PM on March 12, 2017


Forgot to mention, meanwhile, that "Bad (Live)" is the best U2 song evar.
posted by chavenet at 2:00 PM on March 12, 2017 [11 favorites]


Seeing them in November 1987 was an entirely amazing quasi-religious experience. Also was the first in a long line of surprising opening acts I've seen during U2 tours. B.B. King opened that night (I had NO idea who he was, at the ripe age of 19). Later I would see The Sugarcubes, Public Enemy, Rage Against The Machine, No Doubt, Kanye West, Pearl Jam, Black Eyed Peas, Lenny Kravitz... They certainly are eclectic with who they provide major crowd exposure to.

Anyway, the journey I took with U2 moving from The Joshua Tree through Rattle And Hum (saw it 4 times in the theater the ONE WEEK it was out, a bit meh on the actual album) into... Achtung Baby. Holy crap!
posted by hippybear at 2:13 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


My girlfriend, soon to be ex, sent me the cd from Tempe and said this explained everything. I'm still baffled.
posted by vicusofrecirculation


Either she still hadn't found what she was looking for, or "without you" won the coin toss.
posted by spitbull at 2:14 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


My high school sold magazines for some fundraising whatever, and this was the prize I chose. On vinyl. Which I then recorded on cassette so I could listen on the family Aerostar's stereo.
posted by RakDaddy at 2:15 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Chris Ledoux made good road music too.
posted by spitbull at 2:15 PM on March 12, 2017


Either she still hadn't found what she was looking for, or "without you" won the coin toss.

Or she had a heroin addiction so Running To Stand Still was the real message.
posted by hippybear at 2:17 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Or she was recommitting to vinyl.
posted by spitbull at 2:19 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Or maybe it's an album length metaphor, she's saying that like the run order of The Joshua Tree, the relationship had begun with a dawning of wonder and joy and then passed through some dark times before finally winding up feeling lonely and lost.

(Ever played the album in reverse run-order? Do it!)
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Forgot to mention, meanwhile, that "Bad (Live)" yt is the best U2 song evar.

This is a good opinion and you should feel good about it.

I'm really going to need to get to the library and get digital versions of all this shit I only ever had on cassette.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:50 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


There really is nothing like driving on a two-lane highway in the American southwest, nothing but blue sky and road and desert ahead of you, your car's speakers sounding out those first perfect strains of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

I came to U2 later, having been too young to have been over-exposed to this album, so it was all fresh and new to me. U2's newer albums have yielded rapidly diminishing returns for me, but this one and Achtung Baby are still something close to perfect.
posted by yasaman at 3:02 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was in the dying days of my high school career when that album came out, and while I liked most of it, as the U2 mania went from in the red to off the charts I started to get over it. Quickly. They became fairly well inescapable (pre-internet don't forget) and people started talking about their live shows, as hippybear mentioned, as like a religious experience and I could barely contain my frustration at the endless hyperbole.

Then my brother got tickets to see the show in Vancouver B.C. and, well... it really was something spectacular. I'm not sure I got as far as religious experience, but boy howdy was it an amazing and memorable show.

Not for nothing, but the BoDeans were one of the openers, which I was quite excited about, and they more than held their own...
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 3:17 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oh man. I just revisited Luminous Times (Hold on to Love) and seriously do yourself the favor if you've never had the pleasure. I did actually have that single on vinyl back in the day and I've just been transported back to overwrought 15 year old puppy love like whoa.

And now I'm debating how much I would conceivably spend on seeing the tour this summer. I haven't seen a stadium or even arena show in...decades? A long time. The prices are giving me a heart attack but...I never got to see them the first time around because I was briefly not living in the US at that particular time. I'm giving it serious consideration.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:22 PM on March 12, 2017


I just dug out the whole album and played it while starting a stew for dinner tonight (Dublin Coddle, which I was going to be making anyway but have decided I'll be dedicating it to these particular Dubliners).

Oh hey - I was actually at the New York City premiere of Rattle and Hum! Some friends from my dorm scored an extra ticket and I went with them - it was at a movie house somewhere on 125th Street. We were in the nosebleed seats, crammed in with a shit-ton of other fans. We were all craning our necks trying to see where They Were Sitting, and then the lights came down and the movie started, opening with the band covering "Helter Skelter" in concert somewhere. Then towards the end of that, suddenly some side doors to the theater opened and a couple people started sneaking in - but then everyone by the door stood up and started screaming, and then everyone else stood up and was screaming, and I just barely made out four people pushing their way through the crowd to the front, and saw that one had a cowboy hat on. They sat down, the crowd sat down, and the movie went on. About five minutes before the end, the same four people stood up, the people around them stood up and screamed, everyone elses stood up and screamed, and I saw them pushing their way to the side exit again.

The crowd was pretty much bursting out into screams the whole time - when one of the band members said something funny on screen, they screamed. When someone said something profound, they screamed. If someone in the theater spontaneously remembered "holy shit I'm sitting in the same room with Bono" they screamed. I ended up going to see the movie a second time in a regular theater just so I could HEAR the damn thing. I most loved the bits where the band is taking the piss out of themselves - like this failed interview (watch Larry's hands), or a blown take while recording "Angel of Harlem". (I still love that exchange - "If I had feet like yours, Laurence, I wouldn't want them on camera." "Well, if I had a head like yours, I'd bleedin' bury it!")

And the performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday from the film was recorded the same day as a bombing in Enniskillen, and the band was pissed right the hell off, and it is blistering.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:26 PM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


And now I'm debating how much I would conceivably spend on seeing the tour this summer.

I bought them the day they went on sale, I think $70 for GA tickets. So the price I'm paying isn't so much hitting my wallet as much as it's going to hit my stamina and lower body joint endurance as I will get in line early and likely be standing for 12 hours.

Keep checking back. U2 will guaranteed be releasing tickets from the box office up until right before the show, but you have to be on top of it to catch them. Good luck!

(Also, I'd say up to $200 is what I would pay to see this tour. You can use that as a yardstick for your own purchase.)
posted by hippybear at 3:26 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


The funny thing is that The Joshua Tree was the first CD I bought, not because I really knew who U2 were or was familiar with the music, but because my little brother's name is Joshua and I couldn't decide on anything else. U2 was the most important music in the soundtrack of my life for the next decade.

I was at one of the same concerts hippybear went to. It was amazing to see them live, even if I had no idea who the Sugarcubes were and didn't appreciate Public Enemy at the time.

If the tour was going to be of new stuff as intended, I probably wouldn't have been interested. But The Joshua Tree is the first CD I bought, and U2 is still part of my playlist. My mom likes them too and has not seen them live, and they're going to be here near her birthday. The price is worth it to see them perform these songs.
posted by monopas at 3:45 PM on March 12, 2017


Bought the vinyl the day it came out. I think I was 16. I had fallen in love with U2 at War and went back through Boy and October and was heavy into them, had had religious experiences at 2 of their concerts by the time JT dropped. Listening to it the first time, as a huge fan already, was amazing because it was obvious this was their best most mature work yet. Saw them their first time through the Bay Area on the Joshua Tree tour and still felt mesmerized.

Then, they came through town again. This was the time they played a surprise outdoor show at Embarcadero Center and Bono spray painted on the Villancourt fountain. I went to the show at the Oakland Coliseum the next day and something changed for me. For the first time I realized how full of himself Bono was. The graffiti on the fountain was a big local story and the mayor of SF (it might have been Diane Feinstein then still) was threatening to prosecute Bono for defacing public art. Bono interrupted the show with a rant directed at the mayor -- "Don't they know who we are? We're the Batman and Robin of rock and roll!" -- whatever that means. Bono's "charisma" has morphed into this phoney self important savior pose as he strutted on stage in front of 70,000 fans. My idol, my icon for what Serious Music about Serious Stuff was all about was collapsing under his own weight just as I was going out and discovering DIY punk bands at little dive clubs.

Then Rattle and Hum came out which just disgusted me.

Years later, I'm over it. U2 is just another arena rock band like Springsteen or Guns N Roses or whatever. Viewed through that lens, and not over exposing myself, they're somewhere between meh and entertaining and good for them. A few years ago I was able to listen to Joshua Tree again and I still think it's a pretty great album and I'm happy for them to be handsomely paid rock stars, I just choose to spend my rock and roll dollars elsewhere.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:32 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Rattle and Hum is an underrated album imo, though it's hard to argue with criticisms of its bloated self-importance. All I Want is You, Desire and God Pt 2 are all great tracks.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:08 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


All I Want Is You is utterly devastating. I didn't know this until I was learning it for an acoustic guitar coffee house duo I was doing in the early 90s, and we picked this song because it worked with our flow, and then you start to dig into the lyrics and their structure and holy jeebus!

Yeah, great song.
posted by hippybear at 5:22 PM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


Yeah, Rattle and Hum w/o the insisting-upon-itself promotion would have been even better. I remember B.B. King during the film saying something like "I thought it was a very deep song for him, being such a young man" which I took to mean "These guys are from England and who gives a shit"
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:24 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


See, I actually liked the B.B. King bit of Rattle and Hum because you see Bono turn into a nervous little fanboy in his presence and it's kinda cute.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:07 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Okay, so the 17-year-old in me just came out and wants to play a little by geeking out over U2 so I'm going to let her.

* The link in this thread of The Sweetest Thing is one I hadn't heard before; I only heard the remixed version from 1998. The video for the remixed version alludes to the history of the song a bit - they put it together as a hasty apology/birthday present for Bono's wife Ali because he'd been caught up in the studio with the band all day and was about to go home when he realized "shit, I missed my wife's birthday." That's why the remix video has all those signs with people saying "I'm sorry" mixed in. (In real life Ali just asked that any profits from the single be donated to her favorite charity.)

* The original version of Silver and Gold was done for the album that accompanied Steven Van Zandt's anti-apartheid song Sun City. They already had a bunch of spoken-word and jazz and rap stuff to go on the album, and Bono was only supposed to come in and sing that one line solo towards the end and then appear in the video and that was it. But apparently, at the afterparty for the video shoot, Bono ended up talking to Peter Wolf from the J. Geils band, and when Wolf made a reference to an old blues artist, Bono looked clueless. Wolf named some other blues artists and Bono hadn't heard of them either. So Wolf apparently dragged Bono back to his hotel room and played a bunch of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker at him for a couple hours, and blew Bono's mind. Then Bono went back to his hotel room, but was too wired to go to sleep, and started writing. And "Silver and Gold" is what came out. The demo tape was just him singing and playing guitar and stamping his foot. He ran to the studio first thing in the morning, demo tape in hand, and practically begged them to put in on the album; they almost didn't, because the album cover was already gone to press, but then they heard it and thought "yeah, we should put this on there." The Rolling Stones were working on something in the studio next door, and that's how they got Ron Wood and Keith Richards on that; and the percussion was apparently some guy whapping a cardboard box with a 2x4.

I had the "Sun City" album when I was a girl, and this was sort of the "bonus track" at the end. It's not listed on the playlist.

I also remember playing this once when I was at home; I was in my room listening to it, and my blues-loving father was clear at the other end of the house. I think I'd played it through a couple times when suddenly my father banged open the door to my room - but he was looking at me with awe, and asking "who IS this???"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:35 PM on March 12, 2017 [6 favorites]


U2 found me when they released "War." It was 1983. I was 15 and was taken in totally by The Edge's jangle and Bono's earnestness. I loved "The Unforgettable Fire" ("Bad (live)" from the "Wide Awake In America" ep is indeed the best song ever) and got to see them live (with Lone Justice) in Hartford around December in 1984. It was a remarkable, moving concert experience.

By the time I went to college in the fall of 85, I was already starting to become a bona-fide music snob. U2 wad what high school me listened too. College me was having none of that. While my friends were falling in love with The Joshua Tree, I was spinning The Replacements and sniffing the air at top 40 stuff.

I had been playing Negativeland's U2 pretty regularly on my radio show when U2 released the first single from Achtung Baby (the aforementioned "The Fly") and thought it works be funny to play whatever lame song U2 had just released back to back with the Negativeland track. I expected it to be a good laugh but it turned out to be a great song - the first of several frim their best album.

That single and album kicked my ass and made me realize I was a snob and furthermore helped me realize that liking songs just because they weren't hits is just as silly as only liking sings that are hits. You've got to just embrace what you like and forget what other people think.

U2 is still one of my favorite bands. I've enjoyed at least three (and almost always more) songs off of every album since. Hippiebear (who I thank for this great FPP) shared an amazing set of U2 rarities with me and to this day that is the best thing that ever came my way thanks to metafilter (and thanks of course to Hippiebear!).

Anyhow, I finally downloaded and listened to The Joshua Tree just this paat year and it was glorious. Red Hill Mining town has got to be the most heartbreaking song I can think of right now.

30 years, wow. I'm glad I only really sucked for five of them. We don't so much let our heroes down and our heroes don't do much let us down as we just let ourselves down.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:14 PM on March 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


I saw U2 on the Joshua Tree Tour. I don't think I owned the album; someone else wanted to go and I said sure, sounds like fun. And despite the rain and the lousy sound in RFK Stadium, it was fun, and then Bono slipped and fell. He was clearly in pain (we could see it from the cheap seats) but he finished the show. He told us at the encore that his shoulder had dislocated and he had to go to a hospital. I have a really clear memory of leaving the show: thousands of people filing out of RFK singing, "How long to sing this song?" and the ambulance siren wailing above us.
posted by swerve at 7:34 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


I have a really clear memory of leaving the show: thousands of people filing out of RFK singing, "How long to sing this song?" and the ambulance siren wailing above us.

Oh daaaaaang, you just triggered a similar memory -

New Haven, CT, a couple weeks later. They're winding down at the end of "40" and the lights go out and thousands of people are still all singing "How looooooong to sing this sooooong....how loooooong to sing this soooooong...." in the darkness for several seconds until they turn the lights on. Then we all start getting our stuff and starting to leave.

About ten minutes later I'm in the lobby of the New Haven Colisseum, shuffling along with the crowd; there are a couple hundred of us packed into the lobby trying to get out through the door. Someone in the crowd starts singing again - "how looooong to sing this soooong...." the people around them pick it up: "How loooooong to sing this sooooooong...." and soon the couple hundred people in the lobby are all singing in unison again: "how looooong to sing this soooooong...." and we sing it through for a minute or two, in unison, until it breaks down a little.

A few minutes later, I'm finally out on the street and making my way to meet my friends at the parking garage two blocks off. Other people have scattered up and down the street, finding their own various cars or buses home. And I suddenly hear that two blocks away, another group of people has once again started singing: "How looooong to sing this soooooong...." and up and down the street other people start joining in, me included, until about five blocks of downtown New Haven is all singing "How Looooooong to sing this soooooong....how loooooong to sing this sooooong...."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:05 PM on March 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


That's exactly what happened for me when I saw them in Ft. Worth, walking up the steps out of the arena singing, getting into the garage walking toward our cars singing, with echoes all around us of "how I long to sing this song"....

It gives me goosebumps just typing this today. 30 years of concerts, I've never experienced anything like that.
posted by hippybear at 8:12 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


Sorry if I missed this linked somewhere above: U2’s ‘The Joshua Tree': The Story Behind Every Song
posted by Chrysostom at 8:17 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]


This came out when I was in eighth grade. Hard to believe it's been 30 years. I feel ancient now.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:24 PM on March 12, 2017


Love the gospel version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from Rattle and Hum. 2013 interview with the founder of The New Voices of Freedom choir.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:38 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


I liked the songs on Rattle and Hum much more than I liked the movie itself; it smacked of the band, and particularly Bono, starting to believe their own press. I mean, right from the beginning: it was a nice cover of "Helter Skelter", but Bono yammering about how Charles Manson stole the song from the Beatles and they're going to steal it back--sure, dude, Paul McCartney had been waiting two decades for a little savior. Sheesh.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:39 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


I saw U2 on the Joshua Tree tour at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. We had seats about 15 rows back on the football field, and the lighters of all the people in the stadium seats looked like stars. One of the best concerts I've ever seen.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:40 PM on March 12, 2017


I was also at RFK for that tour. It was extraordinary how they manage to make the stadium experience work. Though my signal memory of them will always be Tower Theater in Philly during the Unforgettable Fire tour, where by the end of the show I wasn't just standing, I wasn't even just standing my seat, I was balanced on top of my seat. My god that was an intense show.
posted by tavella at 10:47 PM on March 12, 2017


Some of the lesser-known tracks on JT are still superb. I remember still very clearly studying to them in college often (where I likely overlapped with mctsonic, though I wasn't at that CU show). They were an important band for those of us born in the early 70s. I just put it on and I can feel the frustration of calculus problems I couldn't solve flooding back.

They were insufferable by the mid 80s: "Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles..."But JT still is a great album. As is AB. Zooropa ain't bad either.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:26 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


Pop, too. That's a great album.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:28 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


Alex descends into hell was the B-side to the Fly, neat track.

Also I liked how the edge learnt the Hendrix solo in All Along the Watchtower, for the Rattle/Hum tour, felt respectful.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:28 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Thanks for the post, hippybear!
posted by persona au gratin at 12:29 AM on March 13, 2017


Sebmojo: the b-side wasn't on the LP with the Fly?
posted by persona au gratin at 12:36 AM on March 13, 2017


"With or Without You" still makes me bawl like a baby.

I hear you and I try to avoid exposure. I wish those in charge would remove "With or Without You" from background music playlists. I can't tell you how many times I've been trapped in a checkout line when this song comes on, drags my heart back 30 years, overrules my rational mind, and makes me truly regret that I did "the right thing" when I could have ruined my life for love.
posted by she's not there at 2:12 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


This performance of Bad has been a recurring track on my jogging/running playlists for a long time. Maybe the first place I'd go with a time machine.

Achtung Baby was my real introduction to U2. I was born in 1978 so it was the first one that was relevant to me. From there I discovered how amazing Joshua Tree was and then quickly bought up everything they had put out and I loved it all. There was a time period where I was so protective of a few bands that after I introduced a girl I liked to Depeche Mode's Violator, Joshua Tree and October Project's self titled debut and she told me she didn't like any of them, I never talked to her again.

After Pop I started to lose interest in their newer releases although How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was pretty great, City of Blinding Lights is outstanding.

Anyway I basically wore out copies of a few CDs in my car CD changer, 3 of which were U2. The CDs were OK Computer, Violator, Zooropa, Achtung Baby, The Joshua Tree and October Project's self-titled debut (so much promise...sigh). Sometimes I would just drive around and listen to them at night and I can say from experience that they all work fine for long drives home at night on desolate roads after chasing thunderstorms in the plains. Well, actually OP I had to be careful about. Fahl's voice is both relaxing and enormously distracting.

I don't listen to U2 that much anymore mostly because I am always trying to find new music I like, but I still can listen to several of their albums at any time without being tired of them. I guess they will likely be my favorite band forever, just because of the intense time of my life that I fell in love with their music and the fact that I can still listen to the CDs, bootlegs, etc and still love them.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 3:22 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


r B.B. King during the film saying something ...which I took to mean "These guys are from England and who gives a shit"

Pretty much how I feel on the subject and why I bristle at the idea that they provide any sort of unique soundrrack for driving through the American west. Maybe driving through County Galway. But for my western road trip music I'll take American country and rock and roll, thanks.

I'm one of those "bored by U2 since the beginning" sorts, but you have to understand that in the early to mid-80s I worked as a bass player. Zzzz. Wake me up when there's a groove.
posted by spitbull at 5:45 AM on March 13, 2017


Great, thanks for that.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:07 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


If you're driving north on I-25 between Las Cruces and Albuquerque, there's an internal border patrol station that you have to stop at, and if you put on Genesis' live version of Fading Lights from The Way We Walk Vol. II: The Longs right as you leave that checkpoint, you'll find that right as the music opens up you start driving through these canyons and the whole experience is exquisite. #musictodrivetointheWest

Also, U2 is not from and never has been from England.
posted by hippybear at 7:20 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


You get where the England reference comes from, right?
posted by Chrysostom at 7:28 AM on March 13, 2017


Apparently I don't!
posted by hippybear at 7:32 AM on March 13, 2017


It's from a famous time Casey Kasem went off the rails talking about U2. It's sampled on the Negativland U2 EP.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:50 AM on March 13, 2017


Oh, yes, I'm familiar with that work, just didn't make the connection. Thanks!
posted by hippybear at 7:53 AM on March 13, 2017


I came to U2 late – my parents weren’t interested in music at all, and I spent my formative years catching up on the Beatles and Dylan, learning about classic rock – I wasn’t ready for U2 until later.

Going to see them live is amazing – still – and doing so General Admission is more so. I have more than a dozen friends from all over the country, and a handful of international friends, who really only get together for shows, for The Line. It’s really a community. We’re all in it together. It’s kind of an ordeal.

And the band is extremely generous with their fans. If you put in some effort, it’s not that hard to meet them and get photos and autographs. For a band of their stature, it’s impressive. You can tell they know how much it takes to do GA, how much effort we’re putting in, and they appreciate it and give back.

A couple of years ago we were waiting around to meet the band as they arrived for soundcheck, and while Bono was shaking hands and saying hi, a child’s voice cried from the back, “Can you give this letter to Mr. Larry for me?” A chuckle ran through the crowd, and Bono, who hadn’t quite heard, looked around and saw the kid on his father’s shoulders. The crowd passed the note up and Bono gave it to his bodyguard – “he’s more reliable than I am” – to give Larry. We spoke with the kid and his father and found out that the boy – a slim little guy of perhaps ten – was a drummer.

At the show we saw the lad in the crowd with his dad, not quite at the edge of the stage. And saw Larry spot him, and go over with drumsticks for the kid, with instructions to pass them over, and stay there until he saw that the boy actually received them. I took a picture of the kid with his drumsticks afterward, beaming.

This is why I don’t understand when people say they’re pretentious, or believe their own press, or whatever. To us, they’re fairly down to earth (considering), and very appreciative and considerate of us. I’ll be there this summer, and next.
posted by Occula at 10:33 AM on March 13, 2017 [7 favorites]


Here's a question that I might as well ask here:

A former boss of mine claimed that he loved U2 until Bono was a guest on The 700 Club, around the time that The Unforgettable Fire was released. I've done internet searches for this and haven't found it, but this could be something that gets taken down as soon as someone uploads it. Does this exist or was my boss being belligerent?
posted by pxe2000 at 10:33 AM on March 13, 2017


Like with Whedon, I've fallen off in my U2 fandom, but goddamn Joshua Tree is a classic through and through. (Though my favorite U2 is still the 90s trilogy.) I wanted to get tickets for this tour but they clashed with an out of state trip we'd planned months ago.

A former boss of mine claimed that he loved U2 until Bono was a guest on The 700 Club, around the time that The Unforgettable Fire was released. I've done internet searches for this and haven't found it, but this could be something that gets taken down as soon as someone uploads it. Does this exist or was my boss being belligerent?

Looks like it did happen, though this is not from The Unforgettable Fire era. They were more nakedly Christian in the early 80s so I suppose it's possible they were on then as well, though they were a much different brand than Robertson.

Bono's never exactly been super politically savvy though. The early 2000s was when Bono was buds with Jesse Helms because he was helping out with aid to Africa or something. He recently said some super dumb shit about Mike Pence too.
posted by kmz at 10:47 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


One of my favorite U2 songs even though it's a cover, Night and Day is from the period between Rattle & Hum and Achtung Baby and it's magnificent.
posted by kmz at 10:49 AM on March 13, 2017


My relationship with this album is weird. I like individual songs from it, but bought the album on cassette and then never actually sat and listened to it.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:09 AM on March 13, 2017


Even though my New Mexico desert driving memories involve Achtung Baby rather than Joshua Tree, "Red Hill Mining Town" is my favorite U2 song. Not far from my house, there is a farm that was once called Red Hill Plantation, and the street leading to it is Red Hill Rd. The county is building a new high school nearby, where my now-third-graders will eventually go, and they are taking naming suggestions. I submitted Red Hill High School, and in recent years they have gone for geographic names over people, so I've got my fingers crossed.

They have never sung it live. I read somewhere that they are rewriting it in a different key for the Joshua Tree tour.
posted by candyland at 11:38 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


My relationship with this album is weird. I like individual songs from it, but bought the album on cassette and then never actually sat and listened to it.

That's sort of my feeling about the band as a whole. I can name several songs that I absolutely love, and many I like, but never really connected with the band that much. Who knows.
posted by bongo_x at 11:47 AM on March 13, 2017


They were more nakedly Christian in the early 80s so I suppose it's possible they were on then as well, though they were a much different brand than Robertson.

Bono's never exactly been super politically savvy though. The early 2000s was when Bono was buds with Jesse Helms because he was helping out with aid to Africa or something.


On the contrary, I think that that was politically savvy, albeit in a very narrow way. Bono was actually trying to be bipartisan, after a fashion - he was trying to win over the GOP insiders on AIDS relief, because he knew that winning them over would break a logjam.

The difference was that everyone else on the left was trying to harangue them into changing sides, which was serving only to make them double-down on their religious-right perspective. So Bono tried actually appealing to their Christianity and come at them that way. I've read somewhere that there was a meeting where Bono was supposed to meet with some other GOP insider about this issue, and he actually asked the limo to circle the block a couple times because he was frantically flipping through his Bible trying to find the exact passage from Scripture that would illustrate the point he was trying to make. His usual schtick would be to point out the bit about Jesus taking care of the lepers - he would point that out and then make the case that AIDS was the leprosy of Today, or something like that.

The thing of it is, it has been working. He has gotten politicians to filp on certain issues, because he was (and possibly still is?) of a charismatic Christian denomination and he knows how to speak that language and how to reach them in it, and so he's decided that's what he's going to try to do. To us outsiders it may look like "cozying up", but it's actually working.

(I think the band's actual opinion of this administration is pretty clear.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:10 PM on March 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


it was a nice cover of "Helter Skelter", but Bono yammering about how Charles Manson stole the song from the Beatles and they're going to steal it back-

Siouxsie and the Banshees already beat them to it anyway.

Actually saw U2 on the original JT tour at the Oakland Coliseum during high school. Don't remember the BoDeans, but the Pretenders (the other opener) had Johnny Marr playing with them so at least I can say I saw him at least once in my lifetime. And yeah U2 were good as well.
posted by gtrwolf at 12:41 PM on March 13, 2017


I put on the Joshua Tree last night at dinner and my husband--who's the same age as me but never cared that much about U2 one way or another, though he's passingly familiar with their work--asked, "So, are basically all their songs about Jesus?" U2 is the only good Christian rock.

I never really understood the huge disdain for Bono mainly because he's always been like that and also because I am super super earnest and sometimes people bagging on Bono sounds a lot to me like "how dare this person be so earnest in public" and it feels a little personal.

And now I'm going to go rip the CDs I got from the library today. I haven't listened to Unforgettable Fire in forever. I have a date with Elvis Presley and America.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:08 PM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Sebmojo: the b-side wasn't on the LP with the Fly?

The LP was Achtung Baby, Alex descends into hell was on the (lol) cassingle iirc. It's from their soundtrack to the musical Clockwork Orange.

While researching this post: 20 Insanely Great U2 Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know
posted by Sebmojo at 9:24 PM on March 13, 2017



The thing of it is, it has been working. He has gotten politicians to filp on certain issues, because he was (and possibly still is?) of a charismatic Christian denomination and he knows how to speak that language and how to reach them in it, and so he's decided that's what he's going to try to do. To us outsiders it may look like "cozying up", but it's actually working.


I think it is pretty important to keep in mind that U2 are Irish. Americans really shouldn't lecture Irish people on how to deal with religious conflict, contradictions and politics. They practically breathed Catholicism growing up during a time when Ireland was awash with religious sectarian strife. Complaining about Irish people singing about religion would be like complaining about Americans singing about cars.
posted by srboisvert at 10:08 AM on March 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


....Not sure why you were directing that at me, srboisvert, since I was responding to someone criticizing Bono's outreach to religious right folk in the US. I was pointing out that he wasn't cozying up to the religious right so much as he was exploiting the fact that he could speak their language to them.

And FYI, Bono was raised Protestant.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on March 14, 2017


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