U2, The #17 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

U2 sought to build on the experimentation of The Unforgettable Fire, but with a harder edge.  Bono explored blues, folk and gospel music and honed his skills as a lyricist and songwriter.  He saw first-hand the internal conflicts of El Salvador and Nicaragua and gained inspiration from U2's spot as the headliner of the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope tour.  Impressed by what Eno and Lanois had done on the previous album, the group gladly welcomed them back for this effort.

  

The United States has always been a fascination of the group, with its wide open spaces, its freedom and ideals of the Founding Fathers, but the group has also criticized its foreign policy of recent years.  These themes are evident on the 1987 album The Joshua Tree.  According to Bono, the desert was a mental image that inspired many of the songs as well.

The line "you give yourself away" had special meaning to the group members.  "It's about how I feel in U2 at times - exposed.  I'm not going to do many interviews this year," Bono said.  "Because there's a cost to my personal life, and a cost to the group as well."  The group generated excitement with the lead single "With Or Without You", #1 in the U.S., Canada and Ireland.

  

The Joshua Tree quickly rose to #1 in the United States, where it topped the chart for nine weeks, and in the U.K.   The album was #1 in every major country in the world except Australia, where it peaked at #3.  Time magazine featured U2 with the caption "Rock's Hottest Ticket".  "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is about a search for deeper faith and enlightenment, about believing in God but wanting more.  The song also jumped to #1 in the U.S. and Ireland.

  

U2 earned Album of the Year and was awarded Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their work on The Joshua Tree and they were nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (both for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For") at the Grammy Awards.  The album has gone over 10 million in U.S. sales and 25 million worldwide.

The arrangement for this song was so complex that it had to be written on a blackboard, and Eno estimated that the track took 40% of the studio work on the album.  "It was a bit of a tongue-twister for the rhythm section with strange bar lengths," co-producer Daniel Lanois said to Mojo magazine in January, 2008, "I can remember pointing at a blackboard, walking everybody through the changes like a science teacher."

U2 rode the wave with "Where The Streets Have No Name", #1 in Ireland and New Zealand and #4 in the U.K.

  

The band scored a Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video for "Where The Streets Have No Name".  The Joshua Tree Tour drew three million fans, a significant uptick for the group over previous efforts.  Inspired by the Statue of Liberty, another worthy track is "In God's Country".  Bono both believed in the ideals of America while also calling out the shady politics of Republicans who were out to undo those ideals.

 

U2 were nominated for a total of 15 MTV Video Music Awards for videos from their amazing album, including Video of the Year, Best Group Video and Best Overall Performance in a Video for "With Or Without You", winning a Viewer's Choice Award, Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Concept Video and Viewer's Choice (for "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For") and Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Stage Performance in a Video and Viewer's Choice (for "Where The Streets Have No Name"). 

Bono's trip to Central America in 1985 with Amnesty International both bothered and inspired him.  He stayed with a group of guerilla fighters in El Salvador.  The group wrote the music and Bono wrote his lyrics condemning U.S. President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy to fit that music.   What an outstanding track--"Bullet The Blue Sky".

 

"Red Hill Mining Town" is about the mining policy of U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who ruled that unprofitable mines were shut down during the 1984 miners' strike.  Bono set out to research the impact the strike had on the miners and their families.  "I was interested in the miners' strike politically, but I wanted to write about it on a more personal level," he said to NME in 1987.  "A cold statistic about a pit closure and redundancies that follow is drastic enough on one level, but it never tells the full human story.  I wanted to follow the miner home and write about that situation in the song."

 "Running To Stand Still" is about a couple addicted to heroin living in a seven-story run-down tenement called Ballymun Flats in Dublin.  Bono sings the powerful words, "I see seven towers, but only one way out."

 Another song on this masterpiece album is "One Tree Hill", named after a landmark in Auckland but also inspired by the death of a friend.  Bono recalled in U2 by U2 seeing One Tree Hill for the first time while on tour with the group:  

     They took me up to the top of a place called One

     Tree Hill, where a single tree stands at the top of 

     the mount, like some stark Japanese painting. 

     And we looked around at this city that’s made by

     craters of volcanoes. I remember it so vividly, I

     think because it meant something to me about my

     own freedom.

A young Maori man named Greg Carroll was also there for the tour.  Carroll made a strong impression on the band and was hired as a stagehand for the rest of the tour.  He also became a good friend of Bono as well as the rest of the group.  However, in July of 1986, Carroll was riding a motorcycle through the streets of Dublin when a car cut him off.  Unable to stop, the 26-year-old Carroll slammed into the side of the car and died instantly.  Devastated by the loss, Bono made another trip to One Trip Hill, then put his feelings of heartache into words.

 

The Joshua Tree was recorded at a studio in Danesmoate House in Rathfarnham, Ireland, in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains.  A makeshift control room was set up with tape machines, a mixing console, and other equipment in the dining room, while an adjacent drawing room was used for recording and performing.  Lanois wanted to capture the essence of a live band as much as possible.  "Spanish Eyes" is another solid track.

 

Bono wrote this song during his trip to El Salvador.  In San Salvador, he met with the Comadres, a group of women also known as the "mothers of the disappeared".  The women's children were taken in the night by death squads, leaving the mothers not sure if their children were dead or alive.

Towards the end of this song, there is a twist, and what the listener thought the song was about may not be the case.  Bono starts to sing about a baby ("God has given me your hand, it holds me in a tiny fist"), and not his, as the song preceded the birth of his child by two years.  It is then that we realize that the subject of the song is not romantical love, but rather the love of a child, and the wildness that a parent experiences.  Enjoy "Luminous Times (Hold Onto Love". 

U2 was recognized around the world for The Joshua Tree, and they had become superstars by this time.  The amazing thing about this group though is that they have continued to write and record relevant, super material to this day.  Join us for Part Three and beyond!