Izdavač: Ostalo
Žanr: Pop, Rok
Poreklo: Strani izvođač

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Studio album by U2
Released 9 March 1987
Recorded January 1986 – January 1987
Studio
STSDanesmoate HouseMelbeachWindmill Lane[nb 1]
Genre Rock
Length 50:11
Label Island
Producer
Daniel LanoisBrian Eno
U2 chronology
Wide Awake in America
(1985) The Joshua Tree
(1987) Rattle and Hum
(1988)

The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group`s antipathy for the `real America` with their fascination with the `mythical America`.

Inspired by American experiences, literature, and politics, U2 chose America as a theme for the album. Recording began in January 1986 in Ireland, and to foster a relaxed, creative atmosphere, the group primarily recorded in two houses. Several events during the sessions helped shape the conscious tone of the album, including the band`s participation in the Conspiracy of Hope benefit concerts for Amnesty International, the death of roadie Greg Carroll, and lead vocalist Bono`s travels to Central America. Recording was completed in November 1986; additional production continued into January 1987. Throughout the sessions, U2 sought a `cinematic` quality for the record, one that would evoke a sense of location, in particular, the open spaces of the United States. They represented this in the sleeve photography depicting them in American desert landscapes.

The Joshua Tree received critical acclaim, topped the charts in over 20 countries, and became the fastest-selling album in British history. According to Rolling Stone, the album increased the band`s stature `from heroes to superstars`. It produced the hit singles `With or Without You`, `I Still Haven`t Found What I`m Looking For`, and `Where the Streets Have No Name`, the first two of which became the group`s only number-one singles in the US. The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988. The group supported the record with the Joshua Tree Tour throughout 1987, during which they began to perform in stadiums for the first time in their career.

Frequently listed among the greatest albums of all time, The Joshua Tree is one of the world`s best-selling albums, with over 25 million copies sold. U2 commemorated the record`s 20th anniversary with a remastered re-release, and its 30th anniversary with concert tours and a reissue. In 2014, The Joshua Tree was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry for being deemed `culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant` by the Library of Congress.

Background
Prior to The Joshua Tree, U2 had released four studio albums and were an internationally successful band, particularly as a live act having toured every year in the 1980s.[1] The group`s stature and the public`s anticipation for a new album grew following their 1984 record The Unforgettable Fire, their subsequent tour, and their participation in Live Aid in 1985. U2 began writing new material in mid-1985 following the Unforgettable Fire Tour.[1][2]

U2`s manager Paul McGuinness recounted that The Joshua Tree originated from the band`s `great romance` with the United States, as the group had toured the country for up to five months per year in the first half of the 1980s.[1] Leading up to the album sessions, lead vocalist Bono read the works of American writers such as Norman Mailer, Flannery O`Connor, and Raymond Carver so as to understand, in the words of Hot Press editor Niall Stokes, `those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream`.[3] Following a September–October 1985 humanitarian visit to Egypt and Ethiopia with his wife Ali,[4] Bono said: `Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn`t see when I came home... I saw the spoiled child of the Western world. I started thinking, `They may have a physical desert, but we`ve got other kinds of deserts.` And that`s what attracted me to the desert as a symbol of some sort.`[5]

After recording vocals for Steven Van Zandt`s anti-apartheid project Sun City in August 1985, Bono made an additional contribution to the album in October that was inspired by his burgeoning interest in roots music.[4] While in New York, he spent time with musicians Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who played him blues and country music. Bono was embarrassed by his lack of familiarity with the genres, as most of U2`s musical knowledge began with punk rock in their youth in the mid-1970s. He realised that U2 `had no tradition` and felt as if they `were from outer space`.[6] This inspired him to write the blues-influenced song `Silver and Gold`, which he recorded with Richards and Ronnie Wood and convinced Van Zandt to add to Sun City.[4] Until that time, U2 had been apathetic towards roots music, but after spending time with the Waterboys and fellow Irish band Hothouse Flowers, they felt a sense of indigenous Irish music blending with American folk music.[2] Nascent friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Richards encouraged Bono to look back to rock`s roots and to focus on building his skills as a songwriter and lyricist.[7][8] He explained: `I used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched. I wrote words on the microphone. For The Joshua Tree, I felt the time had come to write words that meant something, out of my experience.`[9] Dylan told Bono about his own debt to Irish music,[10] while Bono further demonstrated his interest in music traditions in his duet with Irish Celtic and folk group Clannad on the track `In a Lifetime`.[10]

`We had experimented a lot in the making of [The Unforgettable Fire]. We had done quite revolutionary things... So we felt, going into The Joshua Tree, that maybe options were not a good thing, that limitations might be positive. And so we decided to work within the limitations of the song as a starting point. We thought: let`s actually write songs. We wanted the record to be less vague, open-ended, atmospheric and impressionistic. To make it more straightforward, focused and concise.`

—The Edge, on the band`s approach to The Joshua Tree[11]

U2 wanted to build on the textures of The Unforgettable Fire, but in contrast to that record`s often out-of-focus experimentation, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the limitations of conventional song structures.[12] The group referred to this approach as working within the `primary colours` of rock music—guitar, bass, and drums.[13] Guitarist the Edge was more interested in the European atmospherics of The Unforgettable Fire and was initially reluctant to follow Bono`s lead to seek a more American sound.[14] The Edge was eventually convinced otherwise after discovering blues and country artists such as Howlin` Wolf, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell on American public radio stations during the Unforgettable Fire Tour.[2] Despite lacking a consensus on their musical direction, the group members agreed that they felt disconnected from the dominant synthpop and new wave music of the time, and they wanted to continue making music that contrasted with these genres.[1]

In November 1985,[15] U2 moved into drummer Larry Mullen Jr.`s newly purchased home to work on material written during the Unforgettable Fire Tour. This included demos that would evolve into `With or Without You`, `Red Hill Mining Town`, and `Trip Through Your Wires`, as well as a song called `Womanfish`. The Edge recalled it as a difficult period with a sense of `going nowhere`, although Bono was set on America as a theme for the album. Supplementary recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of `With or Without You` and the genesis of `Bullet the Blue Sky`.[

Track listing
All lyrics are written by Bono; all music is composed by U2

Side one
No. Title Length
1. `Where the Streets Have No Name` 5:38
2. `I Still Haven`t Found What I`m Looking For` 4:38
3. `With or Without You` 4:56
4. `Bullet the Blue Sky` 4:32
5. `Running to Stand Still` 4:18
Side two
No. Title Length
1. `Red Hill Mining Town` 4:52
2. `In God`s Country` 2:57
3. `Trip Through Your Wires` 3:33
4. `One Tree Hill` 5:23
5. `Exit` 4:13
6. `Mothers of the Disappeared` 5:12
Total length: 50:11

Personnel
U2[51][nb 2]

Bono – lead vocals, harmonica, guitars
The Edge – guitars, backing vocals, piano
Adam Clayton – bass guitar
Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion
Additional performers[51]

Brian Eno – keyboards, DX7 programming, backing vocals
Daniel Lanois – tambourine, Omnichord, additional rhythm guitar (`I Still Haven`t Found What I`m Looking For`, `Running to Stand Still`), backing vocals
The Armin Family – strings (`One Tree Hill`)
The Arklow Silver Band – brass (`Red Hill Mining Town`)
Paul Barrett – brass arrangement and conducting
Technical[51]

Daniel Lanois – production
Brian Eno – production
Flood – recording
Dave Meegan – additional engineering
Pat McCarthy – additional engineering
Steve Lillywhite – mixing (`Where the Streets Have No Name`, `With or Without You`, `Bullet the Blue Sky`, `Red Hill Mining Town`)
Mark Wallis – mix engineering
Mary Kettle – assistant mix engineering
Bob Doidge – string recording
Joe O`Herlihy – studio crew
Des Broadberry – studio crew
Tom Mullally – studio crew
Tim Buckley – studio crew
Marc Coleman – studio crew
Mary Gough – studio crew
Marion Smyth – studio crew
Kirsty MacColl – album track sequencing