HOW U2’s JOSHUA TREE FORETOLD THE FUTURE

In the summer of 1987, American pop music all sounded the same to me. Despite the endless possibilities of musical expression that could produce an infinite number of tonal sequences, most of the songs I heard on the radio at that time in history could be boiled down to the surface level, L.A.-based glam-rock sound being generated by groups like Van Halen, Poison, or Motley Crue.

But that summer, American top 40 radio began playing several tunes from a Dublin-based group who had formerly been pigeon-holed into punk and college formats. Their sound was unique… something immediately recognizable as all their own. There weren’t any self-indulgent drum solos. They weren’t singing about bubble gum teen crushes or hot cars. This sound was deep, haunting, and lyrically dripping with symbolic imagery.

In 2017, The Joshua Tree turns 30 years old. That’s mature adulthood for most people, but this record was mature from birth. It was U2’s breakout album, topping the charts in more than 20 countries. It launched the quartet into mega-stardom and was critically acclaimed by the pundits. As I reflect on its relevance 30 years on, I can’t help but think that the album was ahead of its time in so many ways.

From cinematic album photography by Anton Corbijn to Edge’s often-copied, groundbreaking six-string styles to Bono’s soaring vocals, this album caught the ears of the whole world, landing U2 on the cover of Time magazine in 1987. Most people agree that it was an instant classic. But little did they know it would hold up to 30 years of political, social, and musical history. The following is a track-by-track examination of the eleven cuts that took the world by storm in the late 80’s, and that still pack a powerful punch today.

Where The Streets Have No Name

“Where The Streets Have No Name” is a staple for the band’s incredible live shows, as anyone who has attended a U2 concert knows. Featuring Edge’s infinite sustain guitar, Adam’s pounding bass line and Larry’s unconventional percussive beats, the song sounds like nothing that has ever been produced before.

Lyrically, this track dives deep into religious, economic and political division, all converging into a world where peace, love and unity gather together in a small, unknown village in the developing world, where economic status and political backgrounds are irrelevant.

It would be hard to point to a more divisive time in recent American history, given our present struggles. The “haves” vs. the “have-nots”… red state vs. blue state… black lives vs. blue lives… Liberal vs. Conservative… it would seem that “Streets” was written for a turbulent twenty first century.

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

A spiritual anthem that takes an honest look at faith and doubt, this track may be the most heartfelt gospel song ever written. Featuring a unique rhythmic groove and an echoing chord progression, it certainly sounds nothing like gospel on the surface. But a deeper look reveals a rock solid faith as Bono proclaims, “I believe in the Kingdom Come, Then all the colors will bleed into one… You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains, carried the cross of my shame.”

Another live show staple, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” was a number one hit on American radio and was even re-recorded the next year, being accompanied this time by a gospel choir on 1988’s follow up album, “Rattle and Hum.”

Many Americans have lost faith in the systems that seemingly kept our society together. Evangelicals can no longer look to their political party’s candidate and find someone with integrity they can stand behind. Progressives are seeing cracks in their own candidate, marred by allegations of corruption and greed. In an uncertain world where nothing seems sacred anymore, “I Still Haven’t Found” speaks to 2016 as well as anything that gospel music has produced in the past 4 decades.

With Or Without You

Perhaps U2’s most well known song, “With Or Without You” is the standard live-show closer. This track was the vehicle that brought Edge’s infinite guitar sound to the world and established him as a musical force to be reckoned with. Along with Adam’s iconic 4-note bass line, Larry’s unassuming rhythms and Bono’s soaring vocals, “With Or Without You” is instantly recognizable and still prominent on the airwaves today.

At one point in the song, Bono’s voice seems to leap out of the recording and into the stratosphere, his raw passion breaking out like a pulsing echo through a deep canyon. I can’t help but sing along, remembering the first time I heard the song as a teenager.

Anyone who has survived an intimate relationship knows the depths of agony and ecstasy that love can bring. Bono’s timeless lyrics still speak to those of us who know what it’s like to feel the full range of human emotions when connecting with another human.

Bullet The Blue Sky

The ultimate protest song, “Bullet The Blue Sky” is the framework for Bono’s commentary on many issues of social justice. With lyrics inspired by a 20th century U.S. intervention in the Salvadoran Civil War, the tune has been used to put a spotlight on everything from gun control to the war on terror.

Most recently, Bono used the song to voice his disapproval of the Republican nominee for U.S. President in a rant that was anything but subtle. Larry’s pounding drums intermixing with Edge’s anxious guitar solo produce a soundtrack that screams of injustice. As long as dictators sell out their nations for personal gain… as long as politicians take bribes for looking the other way… as long as human beings are traded like livestock, there will always be a need for “Bullet.”

Running To Stand Still

Rooted in the heroin epidemic of early 1980’s Dublin, “Running To Stand Still” is a depressing tale of addiction and hopelessness. With a twangy folk sound that produces images of the barren American West, this track gives voice to a world looking to numb the pain of loss and despair.

One can only think that “Running” could be dedicated to artists we have lost recently, including Prince, Scott Weiland and Amy Winehouse. But beyond the celebrities are the regular folks who lost their jobs in the 2008 recession, or the farmer who can’t raise a crop in a crushing drought brought on by El Niño.

The emergence of cheap drugs, including heroin, has infected American society like a flu virus that gets spread around a middle school drinking fountain. Meth can be cooked up in a back room of a mobile home using household cleaners. It seems that mankind has been searching for painkillers since the beginning of time, and this track exposes the dark path that many take after they’ve been knocked down and lose the will to get back up.

Red Hill Mining Town

“A link is lost… a chain undone.”

These are powerful lyrics from a 27-year old Irish singer/songwriter who is unafraid to address tough issues. In “Red Hill Mining Town,” Bono writes of the strain on relationships caused by job loss, hard times, or anything else, for that matter.

In my opinion, one of the most underrated and underplayed songs in U2’s library, “Red Hill” re-opens a wound in the hearts of fathers who mourn broken relationships with their sons. With the imagery of a closed mine in the background, we get a vivid picture of human struggle from the lens of a man who admittedly struggled in his relationship with his own father.

As the subject of clean, sustainable energy comes to the forefront of the 2016 American election cycle, mining safety and operations again come in to focus. Some want to shut American coalmines down. Some depend on them for their livelihood. Where is the balance? Our country looks for a potential leader who can unify a divided nation. But I can’t help but hear Bono’s voice in my head, singing, “Our labor day has come and gone.”

But beyond the issue itself, America searches for a healer of relationships — someone who can unify a weary, injured, divided land.

“We’re wounded by fear, injured in doubt.”

In my opinion, “Red Hill” paints a picture of 2016 America in ways that no one could have imagined in 1987.

In God’s Country

America- “Land of Opportunity”… a place where immigrants come to start over. But many are disillusioned when they arrive, only to find the same old problems they were dealing with before.

“I thought this was God’s country?” they ask.

“In God’s Country” exposes some of the hypocrisy we find in the U.S. in the late 1980’s. Dishonesty. Immorality. Corruption. There was plenty to go around.

Critics pointed the finger back at Bono’s war-torn Northern Ireland in response.

“What about your country? Things are pretty bad there, too.”

But that wasn’t the point. America, in many ways, seemed like an illusion to many of the immigrants who decided to make the leap of faith and move. Advertised as a place for the displaced to come and make a new life, they were often greeted with prejudice, violence, and hatred.

Sound familiar? The immigration debate in America has been raging on for decades now. Should we allow refugees to enter our country if some originate from sketchy places? Many have been treated as less than human, in a knee-jerk reaction to fear. Could our great nation, the melting pot, be capable of this type of treatment? Should children of illegal aliens be deported to a land they’ve never seen? Again, a divided nation debates a deeply emotional issue as both sides dig their heels in.

Trip Through Your Wires

“I was thirsty and you wet my lips.”

With a striking similarity to New Testament scripture, the heavy lyrical content of “Trip Through Your Wires” takes us to another arid landscape. An illustration of human struggle and a search for faith, this track emerges from the American blues genre, featuring Bono on the harmonica.

America is still “calling out” for someone or something to put us back together again. With parched lips and a dry throat, we are thirsty for solutions in this turbulent time in our history.

One Tree Hill

Shortly before The Joshua Tree was recorded, one of the band’s assistants was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. Bono penned the lyrics of “One Tree Hill” in memory of his fallen friend, Greg Carroll. Life is fragile, and we never know when our time on earth could end. This seems to be the underlying theme of the track.

When our loved ones die, we often think of the deeper meanings of life. Inevitably, we all lose someone close to us. In those times, some of us cling to faith in a higher power, and the thought of seeing them in the afterlife. On a tour date in 2010 in New Zealand, Bono dedicated this song to the lost miners of the Pike River Mine disaster.

“I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky, and the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill.”

Blood moons and falling stars are both signs of the biblical end of days, referenced in the book of Revelation. After 9/11, much of America began to wonder if the world was coming to an end. The image of people leaping from the towers to their deaths was burned into the minds of a fearful nation, like stars falling from the heavens.

In 2016, some began to wonder if the increasing occurrence of “blood moons” or lunar eclipses were signs of the end of the world. And though the world still turns, our country seems to have lost an innocence and optimism that it had pre- 9/11.

Exit

Another pounding rhythmic tune, “Exit” is the personification of the battle between good and evil inside the mind of someone who seems to have committed a horrible crime. And there is no way out.

“He used to stay awake to drive the dreams he had away.”

Criminal or not, we can all relate to the inner battles of the mind. Some of us deal with obsessive thoughts that simply won’t leave, like a bad dream that doesn’t end. What you want the most is to wake up from the dream — if you could only stay awake so as to not allow the bad thoughts to enter your head. Twenty-first century medicine offers pharmaceutical band-aids to these mental conditions, but whether they completely cure the condition is debatable. Mental health issues account for much of the violence in our society, but is there a cure?

“He wanted to believe in the hands of love.”

Most of us want to believe that love will win in the end, but down deep, we’re not really sure. We’ve all had that certain someone we let into our lives with the power to build us up or tear us down. When you do that, there is always the risk of getting hurt. On a broader scale, we want to believe that love in our world will win out. But racial tensions, cultural differences, and political divisiveness have taken a foothold in 2016. If we could just find a leader with “the healing hands of love,” maybe things would get better.

Mothers Of The Disappeared

In this placid tune of retrospection, one can’t help but picture victims of war and violence. Most likely inspired by those unjustly imprisoned or killed for political reasons, this track laments those we lost to machine guns, tanks and bombs.

As war in the Middle East seems to linger and offer no signs of ending, “Mothers” is a fitting tribute to those we lost to IED’s, car bombs and sniper fire in our modern day war on terror.

“In the trees our sons stand naked. Through the walls our daughters cry. See their tears in the rainfall.”

When I hear these haunting lyrics, I picture the boy who drowned crossing the Aegean Sea with his family, fleeing the madness of Syria. In the past two years, thousands have died in an attempt to flee the violence and find a better life. Could these lyrics have been written in a prophetic attempt to warn us in 2016 about a humanitarian crisis, the likes of which we’ve never seen before? Probably not, but it’s not that much of a stretch.

Conclusion

I’ve been a U2 fan since the 1980’s, and I’ve lived long enough to see the circle of life bring both joy and pain in cyclical patterns. This is the essence of what it means to be human. The Joshua Tree brilliantly paints a picture of humanity that stands the test of time and is universally relatable.

The true sign of a great album is its ability to stay relevant. For me, The Joshua Tree is even more relevant today. I’m not sure any album has ever, or could ever measure up to the innovative sound, soul-wrenching lyrics, and prophetic imagery depicted in this musical masterpiece. And though the tree itself no longer stands in the California desert wilderness, the music still penetrates the souls of those who hear it.