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The Joshua Tree is an evocative name, powerful, strongly recognizable everywhere. Few other albums have titles (and symbols) so evocative supported by such profound content, consider: "Dark Side Of The Moon," "Exile on Main Street," "Nevermind," "Born to Run," etc...
"The Joshua Tree" represents an era and a milestone in Rock music to become synonymous with it, evoking in U2 fans a feeling of well-being that is difficult to describe; for all other people not part of the fan circle, it nonetheless conveys admiration and respect.
The Joshua Tree was supposed to be called "The Two Americas" and was meant to be a double album, with two faces, like America, the good and the bad, the rich and the poor.
A term also in the common imagination that represents and symbolizes something mythical, unattainable, a destination to reach so much that the expression "you found America" does not exist by chance.
Yet America, as it is understood by many, has always had a dual face.
Side A and Side B, which Bono and company realized in their travels and decided to put into music, and which still exists today.
The same cover is white or black, it's a tree in the middle of the desert.
Water and desert, life and death, black and white, darkness and light, this is The Joshua Tree, this is the most evocative album of this two-letter band, two, like the faces of America, two opposites here as well: a letter and a number.
And yet extremely tied and connected to each other that they cannot be separated and especially cannot live one without the other: With or Without You.
The Joshua Tree from the cover is an album of "extremes," so far yet so close. A lone tree, in the middle of the Death Valley desert, not a tree among many, but a tree in the middle of the desert... what is more opposite than a tree that usually sinks its roots into fertile ground with a desert where there is little that is fertile?
Yet The Joshua Tree talks about this, of white (Where the Streets Have No Name) and black (Exit), of the good and the bad...
And here returns the inseparable dichotomy of this wonderful album: in The Joshua Tree, we talk about rain, water, ocean, rivers, and floods but at the same time, we also talk about deserts, aridness, mountains, and plains, life and death... water in the desert. Is there anything more opposite than water in a desert? A bullet in the blue sky, the stunning image of a blue sky contrasted by the terror of bombs and warplanes.
And it's not just the alternation of landscapes and contrasting nature, but also of attitudes: talking with angels and shaking hands with the devil, a "warm hand in the night" (usually colder than the day), cold as a stone (when the human body is warm): life and death, light and darkness, contradiction makes The Joshua Tree the rarest pearl.
Yet division is not a limit, it is an advantage and this advantage becomes clearer as we think about it. There can be no day without night, no darkness without light and light without darkness, no good without evil, yin and yang, on and off, zero and one, life and death.
With or Without You, this is what U2 teaches us with The Joshua Tree, that yes, there are extremes, but in between there are billions of nuances and we are this and we cannot choose one extreme or another; U2 is this, a band of contradictions, a band that initially may divide but in the end unites because in the history of U2 there is the entire range of the universe's nuances, and yes, we are included too.
Angel or devil
I was thirsty
And you wet my lips
Happy Birthday to The Joshua Tree
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (04:38)
I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you.
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her finger tips
It burned like fire
(I was) burning inside her.
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one.
But yes, I'm still running.
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for.
03 With or Without You (04:56)
See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side.
I wait for you.
Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you
With or without you
With or without you.
Through the storm, we reach the shore
You gave it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you
With or without you
With or without you.
I can't live with or without you.
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give, and you give
And you give yourself away.
My hands are tied, my body bruised
She got me with nothing to win
And nothing else to lose.
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give, and you give
And you give yourself away.
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you.
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you.
04 Bullet the Blue Sky (04:32)
In the howlin' wind
Comes a stingin' rain
See it drivin' nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain.
From the firefly
A red orange glow
See the face of fear
Runnin' scared in the valley below.
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue.
In the locust wind
Comes a rattle and hum.
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome.
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire.
We see them burnin' crosses
See the flames, higher and higher.
Woh, woh, bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue.
Suit and tie comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colours of a royal flush
And he's peelin' off those dollar bills
(Slappin' 'em down)
One hundred, two hundred.
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the tin huts as children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street.
Up the staircase to the first floor
We turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into his saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan.
Outside, is America
Outside, is America
America.
See across the field
See the sky ripped open
See the rain comin' through the gapin' wound
Howlin' the women and children
Who run into the arms
Of America.
05 Running to Stand Still (04:17)
And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lyin' still.
Said I gotta do something
About where we're goin'.
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night.
Singing ah, ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day.
Sweet the sin, bitter the taste in my mouth.
I see seven towers, but I only see one way out.
You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice.
You know I took the poison, from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here, singing
Ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day.
She walks through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under black belly of cloud in the rain.
In through a doorway
She brings me white golden pearls
Stolen from the sea.
She is ragin'
She is ragin'
And the storm blows up in her eyes.
She will suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand still.
07 In God's Country (02:57)
Desert sky, dream beneath the desert sky.
The rivers run but soon run dry.
We need new dreams tonight.
Desert rose, dreamed I saw a desert rose
Dress torn in ribbons and bows
Like a siren she calls (to me).
Sleep comes like a drug in God's country
Sad eyes, crooked crosses, in God's country
Set me alight, we'll punch a hole right through the night.
Every day the dreamers die to see what's on the other side.
She is liberty, and she comes to rescue me.
Hope, faith, her vanity
The greatest gift is gold.
Sleep comes like a drug in God's country
Sad eyes, crooked crosses, in God's country
Naked flame, she stands with a naked flame
I stand with the sons of Cain
Burned by the fire of love
Burned by the fire of love.
08 Trip Through Your Wires (03:32)
In the distance, she saw me comin' round
I was callin' out, I was callin' out.
Still shakin', still in pain
You put me back together again.
I was cold and you clothed me, honey
I was down, and you lifted me, honey.
Angel, angel or devil?
I was thirsty
And you wet my lips.
You, I'm waiting for you
You, you set my desire
I trip through your wires.
I was broken, bent out of shape
I was naked in the clothes you made.
Lips were dry, throat like rust
You gave me shelter from the heat and the dust.
No more water in the well
No more water, water.
Angel, angel or devil?
I was thirsty
And you wet my lips.
You, I'm waiting for you
You, you set my desire
I trip through your wires.
Oh I need, oh I need
Oh I need, oh I need it.
Oh I need, oh I need
All I need, yeah, yeah!
Thunder, thunder on the mountain
There's a raincloud
In the desert sky.
In the distance
She saw me comin' round
I was callin' out
I was callin' out.
10 Exit (04:13)
You know he got the cure
But then he went astray
He used to stay awake
To drive the dreams he had away.
He wanted to believe
In the hands of love.
His head it felt heavy
As he came across the land
A dog started cryin'
Like a broken-hearted man
At the howling wind
At the howling wind.
He went deeper into black
Deeper into white.
He could see the stars shine
Like nails in the night.
He felt the healing
Healing, healing, healing hands of love
Like the stars shiny, shiny from above.
A hand in the pocket
Fingering the steel
The pistol weighed heavy
And his heart he could feel was beating
Beating, beating, beating,
Oh my love, oh my love
Oh my love, oh my love.
So hands that build
Can also pull down
The hands of love.
11 Mothers of the Disappeared (05:11)
Midnight, our sons and daughters
Were cut down and taken from us.
Hear their heartbeat
We hear their heartbeat.
In the wind we hear their laughter
In the rain we see their tears.
Hear their heartbeat, we hear their heartbeat.
Night hangs like a prisoner
Stretched over black and blue.
Hear their heartbeats
We hear their heartbeats.
In the trees our sons stand naked
Through the walls our daughter cry
See their tears in the rainfall.
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By Mr. Jak//Vandiemen
'Where the Streets Have No Name' symbolizes an era, the sacred language of rock and blues.
The soul of rock here is not about smashing guitars, sex, or drugs — it’s about essence and poetry.
By Viva Lì
"The Joshua Tree is their Sgt. Pepper’s."
"An album where every note and every syllable seem to intersect perfectly in a sort of visceral creative knot."
By umb
"The Joshua Tree is a masterpiece of an album, dark yet full of life, sacred yet profane."
"A full, deep, highly inspired album, pushes you to unthinkable reflections but immediately after to moments of pure joy."
By Il Tarantiniano
What on first listen might seem almost trivial, but it has an almost magical touch and is not overrated at all.
U2 remain always... U2!!
By Rax
It’s a miracle that an album with songs sometimes so devoid of ideas manages to be so enchanting and cohesive.
From a certain point of view, 'The Joshua Tree' is the 'Sgt. Pepper' of U2.
