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"The Unforgettable Fire" was U2's "Revolver," "The Joshua Tree" is their "Sgt. Pepper's." Naturally, making the necessary comparisons. The Dublin-based band, led by the undisputed leader Paul Hewson, aka Bono Vox, surprises everyone and conquers the hot, very hot zones of the hit parade: "The Joshua Tree" will remain in the charts for nearly a year and will sell, overall, a figure very close to 12 million copies. For heaven's sake, nothing if compared to the success (yet deserved) of Jackson's "Thriller" (over 50 million copies sold), but we are still talking about crazy, dizzying numbers.
"The Joshua Tree" is the definitive U2 album, the one perhaps less genuine and more calculated, but certainly one of the most overwhelming. Thanks to the considerable help of old friends like Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, U2 becomes the lords of rock, or rather, the best advocates of that political and committed rock that sees the Dylanian turn (1965, "Highway 61 Revisited") as the true starting point for an entire generation of committed and slightly dark rockers.
In this "The Joshua Tree," there are perhaps fewer ideas, and also less courage, compared to the previous "The Unforgettable Fire," but the songs are stronger and better focused, definitely more incisive. The beginning of "Where The Streets Have No Name" would be enough to understand that we are witnessing something epoch-making: an almost understated start, pulled with the handbrake on, and a rock acceleration as powerful as it is vibrant. Clandestine tracks, sometimes even brilliant, intersect in this sparkling masterpiece: the disdainful rhythm of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the vaguely sugary melodies of "With Or Without You." Not to mention some high-chart pearls: "Exit", "Bullet The Blue Sky", "One Tree Hill" and the superb "Running To Stand Still".
But U2 are not just great musicians, they are also great creators of atmospheres and exquisite lyricists. "The Joshua Tree" is a reactionary album (not in the common sense of the term) and political, dark yet at times even sunny. Stage animals, storytellers of a language eternally suspended between the nostalgia of recognizing themselves in a people and the desire to escape towards less cumbersome paths, leads Bono Vox's band to create an album where every note and every syllable seem to intersect perfectly in a sort of visceral creative knot. Where the streets have no name (translation of "Where The Streets Have No Name"), U2 give them a name: courageous in seeking their own cultural identity, fascinating when they try to remodel, without however cutting with an axe, the mid-eighties rock without being either enticed or tempted by the dance fashion (rampant in those years). Theirs is a genuinely wholesome rock, perhaps a little classicist but undoubtedly effective and powerful, capable, with few notes, of giving body and soul to a sort of revolutionary musical poetry: it is no coincidence that the band is formed by just four elements and, essentially, only three instruments: drums, guitar, bass. Perhaps, even because of these musical restrictions, their tracks appear fluid and incandescent.
"The Joshua Tree" will not be the last great U2 album; "Achtung Baby" will come after, and in between, there's "Rattle and Hum," in short, strong stuff. Albums that, whether you like it or not, have made the history of a certain type of rock, less elaborate compared to the very early Rolling Stones but certainly gritty and (almost) devastatingly impactful. It's a shame that starting from 1993 with "Zooropa," even U2 felt compelled to give up and ridicule themselves with often banal, sometimes even terrible songs ("Discotheque" is the best example). But "The Joshua Tree," with its dark and icy cover, is still today an unmissable must for all rock lovers and for all who love the logical temporal connection between music and lyrics. A masterpiece, of course.
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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