U2-Joshua Tree

Last night, I dialed up this album on my MP3 player and the memories flowed in yet again. So, I thought I would put some ideas down.

According to 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 

Joshua Tree marks the point in U2's long and gloriously inconsistent career at which they woke up to the possibilities of studio technology, expanded their sound from a post-punk chug, and found grandeur, abstraction, and finesse.

In the spring of 1987, I was about to finish my 2nd year of college. I'm not calling it my sophomore year because of certain reasons.The band-U2 and their worldwide success were slowly bubbling up from underground status to ubiquitous superstardom. MTV was 5-6 years old at the time and the band had been in solid rotation with songs from their albums War and The Unforgettable Fire.  They definitely had a raw feel in their sound in those early years. They had grown up out of the punk movement of the late 70's to become the most well-known band to come out of Dublin since Thin Lizzy.  I have memories of my friends Mick and John coming back from Denver to see U2 during their Unforgettable Fire tour. They had nothing but great things to say about it. Even Modern Drummer magazine had a feature in their Style and Analysis column on the playing style of drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

I became more and more interested and slowly became a fan....but not a "Fanatic". Of course, my college years were filled with lots of great music and great memories to go along with them.

I remember there being a distinctive buzz about Joshua Tree.  Obviously, technology was different then. You couldn't get an online sampler for an album or "full album streaming".  My roommate Brian and I lived on the 2nd floor of Men's Hall at UNK(formerly Kearney State College).  I think Brian may have had a subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine.  But, I distinctly remember having the RS issue with the band (circa 1987) in my hand and reading it while listening to the album. That was part of the excitement of new music in those days. There would be a buzz about the album and then you would buy the album and either be blown away or really disappointed.

We found out that one of the guys on the 1st floor had a copy of Joshua Tree.  He let us either borrow the album or a cassette copy of it. We dropped the needle(love that antiquated term) on my little stereo and just let it soak in. This was in late April/early May. So, it was early Spring and it seems like the weather was just beautiful and the music was in harmony with each other.  For me, the description of this music was and is still intangible to put into words.  This was U2. But, it wasn't as raw as their earlier works. The music wasn't "IN-YOUR-FACE". It wasn't abrasive at all. But, it was very (simply) musical.

As I look back, the first 3 or 4 songs off the album were in some pretty heavy rotation on MTV. But, the opening with Where the Streets have No Name then into I Still haven't Found What I'm looking for then the first single Without or Without You! establishes a strong foundation and the rest of the album just flowed from there. I believe I actually ended up buying the album at Record Town in the Conestoga Mall(I hadn't started working for Dusty yet).  I used to have many conversations about music with my friend John G in Hastings NE.  I believe that summer I took my LP copy to his house to dub it onto a cassette because my tape deck just didn't have the greatest fidelity when it came to cassette replication. He had obtained a bunch of U2 singles with unreleased B-sides and we tacked them onto the end of the cassette. This is because this was the beginning of bands recording albums that were longer than 45 minutes. It was always nice to put one album on one side of a 90 minute cassette and then another side on the other. John put the B-sides and then some live tracks from Unforgettable Fire.  It was really cool! But, what should I call the 90 minute creation? He had a cassette single box with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For .  Since we couldn't find a title for the 90 minute experiment, that's what we called it. So, now I had a cassette copy to listen to for mobile purposes in the car and on my walkman.
In the various music news stories about this album in 1987, the band used to refer to the recording of this album as a discovery of American music styles.

 

 

As a music fan and kid from Nebraska, I had already digested a lot of different music. But, even in 1987, I still had a lot of styles that I had yet to discover. The first 3 songs play out. They are great songs and ended up making great singles as well. It was exciting to see those original videos of the band playing on the rooftops of LA for Where the Streets Have No Name and walking the streets of Vegas in I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. But, when Bullet the Blue Sky kicks in with Larry's drumming, It's alive and moving. The band is now creating a musical landscape as opposed to a pop record with snappy catchy tunes. Bullet the Blue Sky also features the lyric that would be the title for their next album/live project/full length movie-Rattle and Hum.  As I listen to the songs after Bullet the Blue Sky, the songs run together.  They are well crafted songs. As I listen to the guitars of the Edge and then musical landscape he creates from the music.  In Red Hill Mining Town and In God's Country, I am taken on a cross country trip with the sounds of the Edge's pulsating driving guitar sounds.  The triplet rhythm of Trip Through Your Wire has always been a favorite. It's as if the band is exploring the musical sounds of American Country music and the Blues of the Mississippi Delta all in one.

I was mere months from my employment at Dustys Records in the summer of 1987.  Which meant it would be months before I would discover a kindred spirit in my friend and Dustys employee Forrest.  I would still say that Forrest became (to me) the biggest U2 fan I would ever know.  Forrest was known as the Dustys employee with the taste for college underground/alternative bands. Still, to this day, when I hear (early) U2, REM, and the Replacements I automatically think of my "misfit" brother in music.  To put it in MTV speak of the day, He was the "120 minutes" guy and I was the "Headbangers Ball" guy. We never were at each other's throats about each other's music likes. But, U2's Joshua Tree was a common fave between the two of us. My college radio friend Bob started hanging out at Dustys a little more often. He and I became quick friends. After 23 years, I would venture to say that Bob is still one of my best friends.  After enough time, Bob managed to talk to Dusty and secure himself a part-time job at the store. Shortly thereafter, the 3 of us became great friends.  We did many things together. Most of it was done heavily intoxicated. But, we had a good time and still have our lasting friendships.  One of the things we all did together (in 1988)was go to the movie theater and see U2's concert film Rattle and Hum.  We didn't just go see it once. We saw it multiple times. I remember reading and hearing that movie was considered a bit of a box office disappointment. I couldn't see why.  All the music fans I knew had seen and generally liked it. But, there are some great compelling moments in the movie. From the Beginning where the movie is all in black and white to where it slowly comes into color at SunDevil stadium in Tempe AZ.

 
As I started writing this blog, I found it hard to sit and analyze this album.  When I listened more of it today on my way home from work, I came to two conclusions.
1) This album was more about the memories and the connections I made with friends than about the "historical" aspect of it.
2) This album was released at a time when I started to realize that good music(in my mind) was more than up-tempo rockers. There was music that was melodic and musical and engaging that resonated deep within myself.

U2 seemed simple then. The movie Rattle and Hum painted a picture of fun loving guys that toured the USA and discovered the music of America that most of us take for granted.  I thought today how engaging and lighthearted Larry Mullen Jr. was in the movie. But, as time went by, the band I knew as U2 became even bigger than I guess I ever wanted them to be. This is 1987 and before the band entered their 90's/over the top stage. Which is a point of discussion and disgust for me and perhaps other fans of this era.

Somehow, in the 90's, U2 lost their credibility with me. They stopped seeming like a band for the (certain) people and more for....well ...everybody.  When I see anything related to U2 in a current sense I usually refer to them as "The band formerly known as U2".  I enjoyed bits of Achtung Baby but never felt like I did for the band in the 90's.  Brian Klosterman says in his book Fargo Rock City

Serious U2 fans tend to be completely humorless(at least when they talk about early U2 records), and they award Bono an almost religious respect. This is because they feel Bono "stands for something" Even when U2 decided to become the '90s version of KISS and evolved into a bloated commercial monster, U2 fans insisted this was "camp."  To rational outsiders, it seemed like U2 was ripping off blind old fans who refused to judge them as a mortal rock band.  And maybe they were. But-if that was truly the case-I give Bono well-deserved kudos for his ability to sell himself as a messianic figure during the 1980s and then reap the capitalistic rewards for that performance ten years later.

Now, it seems like people still praise U2 for who they were. They want to go see U2 live because it's

U2!!!!!

I just don't think their current stuff has the longevity and the creativity of anything from War, Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree.  ....and I have great memories to go along with them.  Yet, I’ve watched some of the live performances of some of the songs of this album and WOW!  The band still does deliver in a magical way onstage.