Bradley Morgan - U2s The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America

1. Foreword: The Fire This Time
   Gregor Meyer

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to use both published and unpublished materials:

Apple Inc.: Quotes from Bono from the July 20, 2017, Beats 1 Radio interview U2: Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary Interview | Apple Music at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsKZ3YrF_3Q. Courtesy Beats 1, Apple Music.

Penguin Random House, LLC: Excerpts from Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas by Michka Assayas, Riverhead Books. Reprinted with permission.

Mother Jones : Excerpts from Bono Bites Back, by Adam Block, from Mother Jones magazine, May 1989. Reprinted with permission.

National Public Radio: Quote from Bono from the March 20, 2017, interview with Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition , NPR, U2 on The Joshua Tree , a Lasting Ode to a Divided America, at https://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520443744/u2-on-the-joshua-tree-a-lasting-ode-to-a-divided-america. Courtesy NPR.

Smithsonian Enterprises: Excerpts from The Original Meanings of the American Dream and America First Were Starkly Different from How We Use Them Today, by Anna Diamond, from Smithsonian magazine. Copyright 2018 Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Smithsonian Enterprises. Any reproduction in any medium is strictly prohibited without permission from Smithsonian magazine.

An imprint of Globe Pequot, the trade division of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Blvd., Ste. 200
Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2021 by Bradley Morgan

Text permissions can be found on , which constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Morgan, Bradley, author.

Title: U2s the Joshua tree : planting roots in mythic America / Bradley Morgan.

Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Backbeat, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: The book is an examination of the social and political origins of U2s 1987 album The Joshua Tree, contextualized amid our current political climate Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021023882 (print) | LCCN 2021023883 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493061174 (cloth) | ISBN 9781493061181 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: U2 (Musical group). Joshua tree. | Rock musicPolitical aspectsHistory20th century. | Rock musicPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory21st century. | Rock music19811990History and criticism.

Classification: LCC ML421.U2 M67 2021 (print) | LCC ML421.U2 (ebook) | DDC 782.42166092/2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023882

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023883

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

T HERE ARE MOVIES THAT IN ESSENCE YOUVE SEEN WITHOUT HAVING actually seen. At least, thats what you tell yourself. You catch scenes here and there when channel surfing, or maybe its on TV behind the bar or in the background somewhere. If youre the kind of cinephile that pays attention to these sort of things, you actually keep track of the bits youve caught over time, even when they only register in your periphery. You mentally file these clips away like stray puzzle pieces or spare parts, someday connecting them to other bits and either solving the title you couldnt figure out and/or checking another off your list. In some cases, these splinters may be the only relationship you have with a particular movie.

In fact, though, youve only frankenseen these movies: you caught bloody chunks out of sequence, some sections repeated, others missing, some with the volume muted, and so on. Youve preconstructed the plot based on what youve picked up over time, but in fact, youre robbing the film of the contexts in which those portions were designed to live. And as most narratives are constructed with clues and hints in one scene paying off in another, fragmentary viewing does nobody any favors. And yet at some point, we all fall into the trap of determining that what youve seen is enough to know that it isnt worth investing serious time and energy. Weve all done it; no shame to be had.

Over the years I had heard most of the songs from The Joshua Tree but never actually played the album from start to finish. Now, it would be one thing if it were one of the thousands of albums I was born too late to be there for originally, but as a high school senior when it came out, I have no excuse. The album was everywhere, bleeding from almost every pair of headphones within earshot. At that point in my life, I was only a part-time U2 fan. I liked songs here and there, wasnt moved by others, and essentially didnt mind them being around but never dove into their catalog like I did with the artists I was really into. My musical path at the time had me down more off-beat roads, and it was easy, too easy, to write off U2 as too mainstream for me (not that theres anything wrong with that).

Fast forward four years and the band dropped The Fly single from Achtung Baby . Suddenly, I heard a dark and mysterious U2 Id never heard of before, one conjuring a postmodern vibe and infusing electron-ica into their sound. Some U2 purists decried this new direction as U2 2.0, but it seduced me head over heels, and suddenly I couldnt wait for the next single and the sundry of remixes that came with them.

That said, it never occurred to me to catch up with their catalog like I would for other artists, searching for hints in their formative years of the later magic that ultimately roped me in. No, as far as I was concerned, this new sound was miles if not planets away from Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For, and others. Eno or no Eno, what could those albums possibly do for me?

Or so I convinced myself.

As with those movies only frankenseen, context and continuity matter when it comes to albums. Singles are chosen to both stand on their own and offer a glimpse into the larger work from which they were born. And like movies, albums are conceived (and usually delivered) as complete experiences if not actual statements. No one would dream of looking at a 6" 6" cutout of Pablo Picassos Guernica and conclude that they get the entire painting; but its a slippery slope when it comes to movies and music. And in a culture that seems determined to compartmentalize both statements and experiences, it becomes a challenge to process and appreciate the greater artistic intent of works demanding time and attention.

With all that baggage, I sat down with The Joshua Tree now, 33 years after the world was first enchanted by it, and expected that, at best, itd be better than I thought and I would realize my folly in blowing it off all these years. What I didnt expect was to really like the album I heard. I assumed that its holy trinity of singles (With or Without You, I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For, and Where the Streets Have No Name) was the best the album had to offer. Giving it the proper listen it deserved, it became a private time warp and a connection to something timeless all at once.