Phil O'Keefe Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/reverb-blog.aspx?feat=90725990-942e-44aa-a4ea-11b3a449eec7 I can't believe it's been 25 years since it was first released. It arguably made them one of the biggest bands in the world, and has some fantastic songs on it. A great recording IMHO... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beatpoet Posted March 13, 2012 Members Share Posted March 13, 2012 What an album, still one of my faves of all time. The Unforgettable Fire was the one though where they really found their sound. TJT has the better songwriting though and it hasn't aged at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cropduster Posted March 13, 2012 Members Share Posted March 13, 2012 Love them both. It shows how both song writing and recording technique are a must. Those albums had both, ESP TJT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted March 13, 2012 Members Share Posted March 13, 2012 funny i had it in the morning in my mp3 player running... was just time to listen to u2 again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members smorgdonkey Posted March 13, 2012 Members Share Posted March 13, 2012 Great album. One of my all time favs. Bullet the blue sku-aye!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 I am a huge U2 fan...and I was a fan before the Joshua Tree, so I remember the phenomenon and feeling like "my band" finally got some well deserved critical and popular success. It's definitely a milestone in many ways: For the 80's, For "alternative rock" For U2 the band, for me personally in my life and my musical life. That said, in the context of the band and in my own personal experiences, I rarely listen to that album. It was SO popular, I think it lost something through the repetition for me, even though it signaled the "arrival" of U2...U2 had already arrived for me with WAR, and I feel that Achtung Baby is, in many ways, a superior album, a more mature album. A classic in a different sense. But the Joshua Tree is still a DEFINITIVE U2 album, perhaps THE DEFINITIVE U2 album. If you haven't seen the "classic albums" making of... program for the Joshua Tree, I highly recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Both are amazing. I actually prefer "The Unforgettable Fire" even though it's more uneven, but both are classics, and beautifully recorded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Texas Noise Factory Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Bullet The Blue Sky = When The Levee Breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -Norge- Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Crazy that's it's 25 yrs old. I turn 25 in may and Joshua Tree is one of my favorite albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seifukusha Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 i love it, BTBS is amazing, but Achtung Baby will be the album for me. They just threw it all away then, and that was balls if I ever saw it... I remember WOWU being played everywhere.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fender&EHX4ever Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Both are amazing. I actually prefer "The Unforgettable Fire" even though it's more uneven, but both are classics, and beautifully recorded. Me too. But Unforgettable Fire was the right album at the right time in my life (age 14), so my preference for it has less to do with craft, and more to do with timing I suppose. Joshua Tree's songs were more fully realized. You could almost play all the songs on an acoustic guitar and the songs would not fall apart. Unforgettable Fire's songs relied on the interplay of the band, and the Edge's sonic pallette. But Joshua Tree was the first album to stray from U2's European core and begin moving into American Blues. It is the first album where Bono's lyrics became more literal, less emotionally impressionistic. And it is also the first album that did not have at least one fast paced rocker. Sure, "Bullet The Blue Sky" rocked, but it didnt surge, it sort of trudged. "Where The Streets Have No Name" surged at the beginning of the song, but then evolves into a sort of fast paced ballad. IMO, U2's best songs from the first 4 studio albums had the kind of angst-ridden energy, sonic artillery, propulsive drumming, and soaring melodies that almost made you feel like you could lift in flight... like "New Year's Day", "Gloria", "Another Time, Another Place", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", or "Wire." Joshua Tree sort of marked the end of that era IMO. I was 17 when that album was released, and I wasn't quite ready yet for U2 to lose the adolescent rush, but they arent to be blamed for that, again it was just a matter of timing. All that said, "With or Without You", "Red Hill Mining Town", and "One Tree Hill" are among my favorite U2 songs ever. The first 2 songs on the album are beautiful, but overplayed to the point where I almost don't feel them anymore. .02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members erksin Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was lucky enough to have been living in the UK when it came out. Was already a big U2 fan since 'October' and played a lot of their songs with my band in HS when talk of The Joshua Tree coming out started up in late '86. Typical of the time, there were only 4 channels in the UK so TV shows have enormous reach and U2 went on The Old Grey Whistle Test program in March of '87 to play a few new songs before the record was officially released: [video=youtube;GSwbXFJYGZo] [video=youtube;S50q5d5MMxo] [video=youtube;Iz7xEGLhRe8] [video=youtube;S50q5d5MMxo] I didn't really know what to think of it at first. I mean - U2 of old sure didn't sound anything like this, harmonicas and acoustic guitars, etc. But I was a faithful enough fan that I hung in there and by the end of the program was digging a few of the new songs but wasn't really blown away. The album gets released and honestly I was a bit blase about it until I listened all the way through and let it wash over me and sink in. Incredible. Especially this: [video=youtube;sQC8la3fVlU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQC8la3fVlU Lucky enough to score tickets to see them in London at Wembley Stadium later that summer. The one truly epic show of my life - tens of thousands of people in there, and I'm on the barrier the whole show in front of The Edge. As close to a 'Beatlemania' experience as I've ever been. Scared {censored}less 1/2 the time that I'm going to be crushed or pass out from the heat, the other 1/2 totally captivated by a killer live band at the height of their powers. If their Live Aid performance was uplifting and positive, this Wembley show aggressive and pissed off - Iran/Contra and Apartheid were brough up several times, employment issues in the UK/Thatcherism, etc. The place was very heavily charged but they managed to work the crowd in way that nothing ever got completely out of hand. I can't imagine what that must have felt like for them to have that kind of power over a huge mass of people like that. As incredible as the concert was, my strongest memory of the whole day is walking back to the train station and the ENTIRE crowd of people singing '40' at the top of their lungs as they boarded trains for home. They didn't stop the 1 1/2 ride north and as far as I know they may still be singing. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members userpatch Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Wow.................25 years old! A real great album, where the songs were allowed to "breathe " imo. I was surprised to hear that "where the streets have no name" consumed about half of the recording time of the whole album. Bono's best vocal era if u ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 It's a classic "greater than the sum of its parts" album for me. The Edge finally becomes completely happy with his very simple style in that there are just no solos that consist of more than a few notes, carefulyl chosen. Larry and Adam keep things very basic, mostly sticking to elemantal grooves and root notes, and Bono continues to be impressionistic, with lyrics that only hint at meaning and a performance that places the emphasis on the sheer emotions in the music. The songs themselves are hardly standout tracks taken in isolation - simple chord patterns, very basic ideas that have little to disguise the stark and bare nature of the work. And the result is incredible. It's one of the few records that isn't just a recording of a band playing songs, they seem to have captured the emotions in the music, the spirit of their art, even the ghosts of the people they sing of right onto the tape, right there with the songs. The whole album turns into one incredible mood piece. In terms of the recording and engineering, it's a great record despite having anything but a clear and defined production. Often the individual elements of the mix are buried and merge into one sound, layers of guitar chords mixing with Eno's synths, kick drum felt rather than heard behind the deep rumble of bass guitar that lacks most of the definition that we crave in music today. Massed backing vocals sound less like a group of people singing in a studio and more like the ghosts of the disappeared, the people who lost their lives in central america, the settlers who colonised the west of the USA... It all merges together into one incredible sound that you can't pick apart. It's not a group of musicians and a singer playing a song, they become subsumed until all that's left is the song. There are no egos in the Joshua Tree, amazing as that sounds. I once sent an email to Daniel Lanois asking how they got the drum sound on "In God's Country". A few weeks later I got a reply which was really amazing. He said that all the basic songs were recorded live, in a room, with a glass booth around the drums to reduce spill. And the most incredible and humble sentence for me - "It's always a struggle and we just got what we got". I have a sneaking suspicion that the quality of the finished album came as a surprise to the band more than anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tattoedsailor Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was lucky enough to see them on Joshua tree tour. I saw them at RFK stadium with my sister. They had so much energy. Epic show! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members erksin Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 I once sent an email to Daniel Lanois asking how they got the drum sound on "In God's Country". A few weeks later I got a reply which was really amazing. He said that all the basic songs were recorded live, in a room, with a glass booth around the drums to reduce spill. And the most incredible and humble sentence for me - "It's always a struggle and we just got what we got". I have a sneaking suspicion that the quality of the finished album came as a surprise to the band more than anyone else. That's really cool that he took the time to respond to you. I bet he gets asked a ton of questions about this album everyday since it was released. The solo on that song just fricking levitates - simple and soaring. Really powerful. [video=youtube;FCCeaOSbE7Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCeaOSbE7Q&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members beatpoet Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Amazingly I remember the Joshua Tree era, despite only being 3, as my mum was a huge fan. I knew Achtung Baby inside out when it came out as well, when I was 7. It's sad that most of the TJT songs have disappeared from their setlists, I think I Still Haven't Found, With Or Without You and Streets are the only ones we got in Cardiff in 2009. In 2005 in London we got those plus Running To Stand Still and Bullet The Blue Sky, which segued into Sunday Bloody Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kirs Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 Yeah man. 1987 was a big year in my life. Had my heart ripped out and naturally "With or Without You" is the song that will always remind me of that. Still, TJT is a huge part of my life. So many memories around it, every song on the album. I always liked U2 since I saw "I Will Follow" on MTV's early days. I remember listening to "New Year's Day" on New Years Day 1984. TJT was better than anything before and anything since. Definitely on my top 10 albums list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 Their progression was rather interesting. I was aware of them from the release of Boy, and while I like Boy and October, it wasn't until War that I was really hooked. To me, War was their real breakout album. That's what made them stars, and I really like Lillywhite's production on that record a lot. War speaks to me in a lot of ways, and remains one of my favorite U2 records. Unforgettable Fire was an artistic breakout for them. At least that's kind of how I saw it. It was pretty successful too, but it stretched out (experimentally) more than War did. Joshua Tree was that rare combination of both - the artistic and the commercial. And a lot of my favorite songs actually aren't the big singles from the record - as good as they are. IOW, it's definitely not an album with a few big singles and nothing else but a bunch of "filler" - it's a strong record all the way through. At least IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was lucky enough to see them on Joshua tree tour. I saw them at RFK stadium with my sister. They had so much energy. Epic show! I've actually seen them live several times... but I missed the Joshua Tree tour. Still, I consider them to be one of the best live bands I've ever seen. They do indeed put on a great show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 IBut the Joshua Tree is still a DEFINITIVE U2 album, perhaps THE DEFINITIVE U2 album. If you haven't seen the "classic albums" making of... program for the Joshua Tree, I highly recommend it. [video=youtube;ltToUkuI-Ko] [video=youtube;03vmHSHLkCM] [video=youtube;iHIWjvQTlzA] [video=youtube;yLoZ6cfegGg] [video=youtube;1HdJLy_p2ls] [video=youtube;eQD4jqve95Y] [video=youtube;4rzxva6q3eo] If you want to watch the rest of it (and I agree with the recommendation - there's some really good stuff in it), you'll need to either track down the rest of it off of YouTube or buy the DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members arthurdent'd Posted March 18, 2012 Members Share Posted March 18, 2012 I saw them in '86 at the Syracuse Carrier Dome, my freshman year of college, good times. I had been a fan since Boy, I wasn't into the new sound of the Joshua Tree album, I still don't care for it......seemed a ham-fisted attempt at sounding more "American" to tap into that market more than they had. They absolutely blew me away with Achtung Baby, that showed their protean greatness as a band, I still love listening to that record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 I saw them in '86 at the Syracuse Carrier Dome, my freshman year of college, good times. I had been a fan since Boy, I wasn't into the new sound of the Joshua Tree album, I still don't care for it......seemed a ham-fisted attempt at sounding more "American" to tap into that market more than they had. They absolutely blew me away with Achtung Baby, that showed their protean greatness as a band, I still love listening to that record. I agree that The Joshua Tree was a definite effort to embrace America musical genres more openly - especially blues and gospel. I also agree about how good Achtung Baby is, but it in some ways it seemed kind of a forced effort to sound more "Euro" as opposed to Irish. Both are great records IMO. The most "Irish sounding" record of their discography to me is War. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members panthalassa Posted March 22, 2012 Members Share Posted March 22, 2012 I've actually seen them live several times... but I missed the Joshua Tree tour. Still, I consider them to be one of the best live bands I've ever seen. They do indeed put on a great show. I remember taking the BART across the bay, along with a friend and my youngest brother, and seeing them in Oakland on that tour. Pretenders (featuring Johnny Marr) supported. Along with Iggy Pop and the Jesus And Mary Chain, it was one of my first concerts. Now I perform mostly jazz and practice mostly classical, but I'd like to think my critical listening skills were shaped by this album, which I wore out! I hardly listen to it except when it pops up randomly on iTunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.