They almost called theĪlbum “The Two Americas,” after “the mythic America and the realĪmerica,” Bono recently told NPR. Joshua Tree” was about America, in part it sounded big and Western,įrom the point of view of a thoughtful skeptic. On this album that pictured the four band members glowering in theĭesert, that guitar seemed to evoke big skies and wide-open spaces. Something like dawn, and then the Edge’s familiar rolling spikes here, Opening notes of “Where the Streets Have No Name” gave us the sound of U2: there was a sense of fruition in that weird, spiky-treed desert.

“The Joshua Tree” came out in 1987, and it felt new, an evolving form of Wrong-an error he sometimes corrects in live performances.) (Especially because Bono gets the time of day With “free at last” and “they could not take your pride” in a way thatĬould break your young heart-and in a way that can make you cringe a bit Luther King, Jr., assassination, pairs “shot rings out in a Memphis sky” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” whose emotional climax is the Martin Invoked the drama of violence to heighten a message of eradicating it. (Two years later, Bender sang the sameĬlub,” with a similar spirit of ironic menace.) In those days, U2 often To be an airborne ranger / I want to live a life of danger”-to thrillingĮffect. “Seconds,” from 1983, sampled a recording of a military cadence-“I want Soulful singing pleaded strenuously against violence. Larry Mullen, Jr.,’s drumming landed like artillery, while Bono’s Like an alarm bell, Adam Clayton’s bass had propulsive gravitas, and The Edge’s guitar, high and needling, sounded U2’s inspired early albums had the confidence to be stark. Race U2, with forthright urgency, seemed to be singing about all of it.Īnd they had ridiculous names like Bono and the Edge.

Studies, we learned about the I.R.A., apartheid, and the nuclear-arms Made pop feel essential, global, elevated. U2 made the political sound physical they To “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Seconds” and “I Will Follow,” thinkingĪbout the Troubles and nuclear war and devotion, feeling riled up, Sophisticated eighth and ninth graders with puffy young-Bono haircutsĪnd long wool coats with U2 buttons on the lapels. Thoughtful sixth and seventh grader at my school, inspired by the When I was in middle school, circa “War” (1983)Īnd “The Unforgettable Fire” (1984), I adored U2, as did every Rarely, in my experience, do you love a band with your whole heart for aĭecade and then turn away sharply, never to return, but that’s what Love for a band, like love for a person, can move in mysterious ways.

U2 the joshua tree