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‘Where The Streets Have No Name’
The fifth studio album by U2 was heavily influenced by their Irish roots and their time spent touring across the United States, ultimately choosing the cinematic-looking American desert for the album’s cover art. The opening track, “Where The Streets Have No Name” was the album’s third single. Inspired by a story about Belfast, Northern Ireland where a person’s religion and income are evident by where they live, Bono wrote the lyrics while on a humanitarian visit to Ethiopia. The song is U2’s most-played track from “The Joshua Tree” in concert.
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‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’
Heavily influenced by American Gospel music and Bono’s interest in the theme of spiritual doubt, the Irish rockers filmed the music video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” on Freemont Street in Las Vegas. Canadian-born music producer Daniel Lanois credits drummer Larry Mullen Jr.’s unusual and unique drumming pattern for creating the foundation of the critically-acclaimed track.
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‘With Or Without You’
Released as the first single off of “The Joshua Tree”, the band first began working on what would become “With Or Without You” in 1985 while on tour for “The Unforgettable Fire”. U2’s manager Paul McGuinness was against releasing the track, reportedly calling it “too sonically unusual.” At the time of release, Bono likened the song’s “And you give yourself away” line to feeling exposed in U2 with his openness to the press and public potentially damaging the group.
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‘Bullet The Blue Sky’
One of U2’s most overtly-political songs, Bono wrote the lyrics to “Bullet The Blue Sky” following a trip to Nicaragua and El Salvador, witnessing the distress of the local peoples by political conflicts and the intervention of the U.S. military. Bono has said that he had then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan (whose administration backed the military regimes in Central and South America) in mind while composing his lyrics.
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‘Running To Stand Still”
“The Joshua Tree” ballad tells the story of a heroin-addicted couple living in the rundown high-rises of Dublin’s Northside. TIME magazine singled the track out for its “trance-like melody” that “insinuates itself into your dreams.”
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‘Red Hill Mining Town’
“Red Hill Mining Town” was originally planned to be released as the album’s second single, but the band was reportedly unhappy with Irish director Neil Jordan’s music video for the song. In addition, Bono was unable to hit the tune’s high notes during tour rehearsal, ultimately ditching it in favour of releasing “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. It is the only song from “The Joshua Tree” to never have been played in concert. The band’s 2017 tour will mark the first time U2 has played the track live in front of an audience.
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‘In God’s Country’
While “In God’s Country” was released as a single off the album, the band isn’t exactly fond of it. U2 knew they needed a more up-tempo track for the album and the song was born out of Bono’s frustration to “get a bit of rock n’ roll out of The Edge,” according to the one of the band’s biographers.
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‘Trip Through Your Wires’
With Bono on harmonica, “Trip Through Your Wires” is a Rhythm and Blues-inspired track that U2 hasn’t played on tour since 1987. According to The Edge, the song was meant as a companion piece to “The Sweetest Thing”, originally released as a B-side to “Where The Streets have No Name” before the band re-recorded it in 1998 for their “Best Of 1980-1990” album.
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‘One Tree Hill’
“One Tree Hill” was written for Greg Carroll, a Maori man whom the band met in New Zealand while on tour in 1985. After becoming a roadie for U2, Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. After his traditional funeral in his native New Zealand, Bono wrote the lyrics as a reflection on his first night in Auckland when his friend took him to One Tree Hill, a Maori spiritual site. Three Toronto-based musicians recorded the strings section of the song at a studio in Hamilton, Ont. over the course of a six-hour phone call with The Edge and producer Daniel Lanois.
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‘Exit’
The 10th track on “The Joshua Tree” has its roots in an extended jam session that was recorded in a single take before being edited down to a shorter arrangement. Bono was inspired to write the lyrics to portray the mind of a serial killer, but the song took an ominous turn when a real-life murderer claimed “Exit” had influenced his actions. Robert John Bardo, an obsessed stalker who murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, used the song in his defense trial, claiming it held power over him.
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‘Mothers Of The Disappeared’
Bono once again drew upon his trip to Central and South America for musical inspiration. Written on Spanish guitar, “Mothers Of The Disappeared” pays tribute to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who were forcibly “disappeared” at the hands of Chilean and Argentine dictatorships. The song is often interpreted as an examination of the failures and contradictions by U.S. foreign policy under Ronald Reagan. The song’s guitar melody comes from an original piece Bono composed to help teach children about basic hygiene while in Ethiopia in 1985.
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Anton Corbijn/U2.com
Colm Henry/U2.com
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