{"id":5205,"date":"2012-03-09T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T23:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2012-03-09T23:50:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-10T06:50:27","slug":"u2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/03\/u2\/","title":{"rendered":"U2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

U2<\/h1>\n

A look back at the making of The Joshua Tree<\/em> on its 25th birthday.<\/h3>\n

In the middle of the 19th century, members of the still-new Mormon religion found themselves under attack from theological opponents. By the time the church\u2019s founder, Joseph Smith, was killed by an angry mob in Illinois in 1844, his followers were already making their way westward in search of more tolerant climes. Their journeys brought them by the mid-1850s to the Mojave Desert, where they were struck by the appearance of a plant whose twisted but triumphant limbs reminded them of the Biblical leader Joshua raising his arms to God in prayer. They gave a name to the plant they hoped was leading them to the promised land: the Joshua tree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANGEL OR DEVIL?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the mid-\u201980s, the four young Irishmen who made up U2 were also a bit lost\u2014and also eager to make sense of the double-edged American dream. Formed in 1976, the group spent the first several years of its career forging a blunt, powerful sound from the tattered shreds of punk and New Wave. Singer Paul \u201cBono\u201d Hewson, guitarist David \u201cThe Edge\u201d Evans, bass player Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. began building a cult audience in the U.S. thanks to dogged touring and some college-radio airplay. By 1984 the group scored its first Top 40 hit in America with \u201cPride (In the Name of Love).\u201d The accompanying album, The Unforgettable Fire<\/em>, matched U2 for the first time with co-producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, who brought out a more abstract, expressionistic side of the group.<\/p>\n

In late 1985 the four gathered at a rental house in Dublin for a couple of weeks to work up the musical ideas they\u2019d been formulating while on tour. The group had in hand early versions of what would become the songs \u201cWith or Without You,\u201d \u201cRed Hill Mining Town\u201d and \u201cTrip Through Your Wires,\u201d as well as one that never got past the joke title \u201cWoman Fish.\u201d \u201cIt was a hard period, which it often is to begin with,\u201d Edge recalled. \u201cIt felt like we were going nowhere with the music. Bono, at least, had a strong sense of the tone and color of the lyrics. He wanted to get into America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bono and the Edge had fallen under the spell of American authors like Raymond Carver, Truman Capote, Flannery O\u2019Connor and Norman Mailer. Growing up in hardscrabble Dublin, America represented boundless opportunity and possibility. But there was also a dark side. \u201cI started to see two Americas: the mythic America and the real America,\u201d Bono said. \u201cIt was an age of greed, Wall Street, button-down, win, win, win, no time for losers. New York was bankrupt. There was a harsh reality to America as well as the dream.\u201d There were also the effects of U.S. foreign policy, which Bono saw for himself while traveling in Nicaragua. There he and wife Ali were literally caught in the crossfire of a civil war in which he felt America was supporting the wrong side. \u201cI\u2019d never been shot at before,\u201d he noted. \u201cI remember the really dull sound of bullets zipping over our heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

He resolved to put his feelings into words in a more concrete way than he had done in the past. Bono had previously employed a free-form, improvisational approach to lyric-writing, often coming up with phrases off the top of his head during rehearsals. \u201cI used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched,\u201d he said. \u201cI wrote words on the microphone.\u201d Edge was thinking along the same lines from a musical point of view. \u201cWe just wanted to leave the record less open-ended, atmospheric and impressionistic,\u201d he said. \u201cMake it more straightforward, focused and concise.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, the group was becoming acutely aware of its roots\u2014or its lack thereof. \u201cOur record collection began in 1976,\u201d Bono said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t there when rock \u2019n\u2019 roll began.\u201d Conversations with new friends like Bob Dylan and Keith Richards incited their curiosity about the history of American music. Crisscrossing the highways of America while listening to public radio, Edge recalled, \u201cFor the first time I heard the music of Robert Johnson, Howlin\u2019 Wolf, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and other seminal blues and country singers and players. I knew it was time to take another look.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE HANDS THAT BUILD\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1986 the group played a selection of its demos for Eno and Lanois: \u201cWith or Without You,\u201d \u201cRed Hill Mining Town\u201d and a more recent song, \u201cBullet the Blue Sky,\u201d which had grown from a jam at STS Studios in Dublin. The duo agreed to produce the album, commencing work in August. In the meantime, tragedy called. On July 3, trusted crew member Greg Carroll was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. \u201cHis death really rocked us,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cIt was the first time anyone in our working circle had been killed.\u201d The loss inspired a new song, named for a volcanic peak Bono and Carroll had visited in the latter\u2019s homeland of New Zealand: \u201cOne Tree Hill.\u201d The loss lent urgency and purpose to the band\u2019s new music. \u201cWe had to fill the hole in our heart with something very, very large indeed,\u201d Bono said. \u201cWe loved him so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

U2 rented Danesmoate, an old Georgian house in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains near Dublin, and set up a studio with Mark \u201cFlood\u201d Ellis acting as engineer. The main room, Lanois recalled, gave the album\u2019s sound a jolt. \u201cIt has this big rectangular room with a tall ceiling and wooden floors,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical.\u201d Lanois and Eno took turns with the group in the studio, working for a week or two at a time each.<\/p>\n

The makeshift control room was dubbed the \u201clyric room,\u201d and was used for vocals and guitar overdubs. Among the key guitar parts captured in the room was one for \u201cWith or Without You,\u201d using a new invention dreamed up by Edge\u2019s friend Michael Brook. The \u201cInfinite Guitar\u201d allowed a guitar sound to sustain indefinitely by continuously feeding back into its own pickups. Bono and pal Gavin Friday were listening to the bare-bones backing track of bass (Clayton playing an Ibanez owned by Eno) and Yamaha drum machine that had been applied to Bono\u2019s chord sequence when through an open door they heard Edge fiddling with his new acquisition. The two sounds melded in the air, and inspiration struck. \u201cWe brought in Edge and started recording immediately,\u201d Bono remembered. The result sounded like a potential hit, giving spirits a much-needed boost. Bono conjured a lyric that matched the track\u2019s sense of tension and longing. \u201cThat song is about torment\u2014sexual, but also psychological, about how repressing desires makes them stronger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another early victory in the recording process came with a gospel-infused number built atop a stop-and-start drum part rescued from a discarded jam dubbed \u201cUnder the Weather Girls.\u201d \u201cAt first I wasn\u2019t so convinced,\u201d Edge said. \u201cIt sounded to me a little like \u2018Eye of the Tiger\u2019 played by a reggae band.\u201d But as the track filled the studio and Bono began singing nonsense syllables in search of a melody, Edge recalled a phrase he\u2019d scribbled down in a notebook earlier. He wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it to Bono, who duly began singing: \u201cI still haven\u2019t found what I\u2019m looking for.\u201d Immediately, Mullen said, \u201cWe knew it was going to be our trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HEAR THEIR HEARTBEAT\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

U2 and its production team began splitting time between Danesmoate and Edge\u2019s house on Dublin Bay, called Melbeach. While most of the basic tracks were captured at the former, Lanois recalled the latter as the locale where the album was fleshed out and largely mixed (further recording took place at the more professional environs of Dublin\u2019s Windmill Lane Studios). A key track captured at Melbeach was \u201cBullet the Blue Sky,\u201d the album\u2019s most aggressive song and one whose lyric harkened back to Bono\u2019s experiences in Nicaragua. \u201cI wanted it to feel like hell on earth,\u201d Bono said. Toward that end he hung up photos of the violence in Central America, asking Edge to make his guitar work as brutal as what he saw in the pictures. \u201cThe sound of \u2018Bullet\u2019 is the sound of U2 playing in a room,\u201d Edge said. \u201cIt is essential for that song that we have that feeling. It\u2019s the same for a lot of the other tracks, too, like \u2018Running to Stand Still.\u2019\u201d Much quieter but no less haunted, \u201cRunning\u201d was inspired by the epidemic of heroin addiction in Dublin at the time. The song was born when Edge began idly playing piano and Lanois joined in on guitar. \u201cThere was just a wonderful communication happening in the room at that time,\u201d Lanois said.<\/p>\n

Capote\u2019s In Cold Blood<\/em> and Mailer\u2019s The Executioner\u2019s Song<\/em> inspired the brooding \u201cExit.\u201d Like its sources, the song attempted to dig into the motivations of a murderer. \u201cI have a side of me which, in a corner, can be very violent,\u201d Bono said. \u201cIt\u2019s the least attractive thing in anyone, and I wanted to own up to that.\u201d The track was propelled by Clayton\u2019s relentless bass. \u201cIt was quite a long piece originally,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cWe played it just once and then Eno cut it down into that shape.\u201d Bono composed what would become the album\u2019s closing song, \u201cMothers of the Disappeared,\u201d on his mother-in-law\u2019s Spanish guitar. Lyrical inspiration came from the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of outspoken Argentinean women whose children had been euphemistically \u201cdisappeared\u201d\u2014kidnapped, and likely tortured and murdered\u2014for political reasons. \u201cThat song means as much to me as any of the songs on that album,\u201d Bono said.<\/p>\n

The anthemic \u201cWhere the Streets Have No Name\u201d appeared late in the album\u2019s recording, as the group began to imagine playing its new material live. \u201cIt dawned on us that we were short a certain kind of song,\u201d said Edge, who responded by setting up keyboards, guitar and a drum machine in one room at Melbeach and attempting to fill that need. \u201cI imagined being at a U2 show and tried to dream up what I would want to hear,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was my attempt to conjure up the ultimate U2 live song.\u201d When the demo was complete, he knew that was what he had. \u201cI remember listening to the complete silence of the house for a few seconds after the music had stopped,\u201d he said, \u201cand then doing a dance around the room punching the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

As good as Edge\u2019s demo was, U2 had trouble committing \u201cStreets\u201d to tape\u2014so much, in fact, that at one point Eno wanted to erase everything the group had recorded and start from scratch. At one point, tape operator Pat McCarthy returned from getting a cup of tea to find the producer preparing to record over \u201cStreets.\u201d \u201cPat had to drop the tea, run up and grab Brian physically and hold him back,\u201d Flood recalled. \u201cIn the end, the version we\u2019ve got was cobbled together from a few different takes,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cThe third verse is probably the best section, where it really works.\u201d \u201cWhere the Streets Have No Name\u201d only found its full potential when it became what it was always designed to be: the first song of the set on U2\u2019s upcoming tour. \u201cIt only became a truly great song through playing live,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cOn the record, musically, it\u2019s not half the song it is live.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE ARMS OF AMERICA\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recording continued through the end of 1986, and mixing commenced in January 1987. Lanois and Eno were annoyed to discover that the band wanted to bring in Steve Lillywhite, who had produced its first three albums, to mix several of the tracks. \u201cNeither of them really understood rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u2014or, more importantly, how to get rock \u2019n\u2019 roll on the radio,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cWe needed<\/em> to be on the radio. We had always wanted that. Steve has \u2018pop ears\u2019 and understands what\u2019s necessary to get songs on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lillywhite\u2019s wife, singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, was on hand and asked for something to keep her occupied. The band put her to work sorting out a running order for the album, indicating only that they wanted \u201cStreets\u201d as the opening cut and \u201cMothers\u201d as the closer. The rest of the songs remained in order formulated by MacColl, who died in a boating accident in 2000. The album found its title during a December 1986 photo shoot in the U.S., where the group encountered the titular plant and learned the origin of its name. \u201cCalling the album The Joshua Tree<\/em> was in some ways an acknowledgment of the influence that American culture had on U2,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cAmerica was having a bigger impact on us than we would ever have on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joshua Tree<\/em> was released on March 9, 1987. The first two singles, \u201cWith or Without You\u201d and \u201cI Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For,\u201d topped the U.S. pop charts. U2 immediately found itself selling millions of albums and filling arenas and stadiums across America. The Joshua Tree<\/em> eventually sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, reaching No. 1 in 22 countries. \u201cOne moment you are on one side of the fence, the next moment you are catapulted to the other,\u201d Mullen said. \u201cThis was something most bands only dream about. We were the<\/em> band.\u201d The group was both thrilled with its success and anxious about meeting its potential. \u201cWe were always running to catch up\u2014that was the sense,\u201d Edge said. \u201cIt had taken us way out of our comfort zone in terms of the size of venues we played and what was expected of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 1988 concert film and soundtrack, Rattle and Hum<\/em>, further explored U2\u2019s fascination with American music. By the end of 1989 the members were exhausted from touring and ready to put The Joshua Tree<\/em> well behind them. The group reemerged in late 1991 with the grinding, industrial-tinged Achtung Baby<\/em>, which Bono famously called \u201cthe sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree.<\/em>\u201d Yet 25 years later, the album still looms large in U2\u2019s long and impressive career. \u201cI think Joshua Tree<\/em> captures a spirit that maybe hadn\u2019t been paid much attention to in music\u2014a spirit of yearning, of searching for something real,\u201d Clayton said upon its release in 1987. \u201cI certainly hope its effects will be felt for a very long time.\u201d \u00a0 M<\/p>\n

– Chris Neal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U2 A look back at the making of The Joshua Tree on its 25th birthday. In the middle of the 19th century, members of the still-new Mormon religion found themselves under attack from theological opponents. By the time the church\u2019s founder, Joseph Smith, was killed by an angry mob in Illinois in 1844, his followers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[3185,3184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5205"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5219,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions\/5219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}