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The secret history of 'The Joshua Tree'

For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.

Colm O Hare, 21 Nov 2007

The Joshua Tree,/i> was released in Britain and Ireland on March 9, 1987. In a clever marketing tactic, that hadn’t been overused at the time, it was made available in some record shops in Britain and Ireland at midnight. The fans responded in droves with hundreds queuing out in the cold to get their hands on the hugely anticipated new album.

The effect was almost instant – within two weeks of its release The Joshua Tree,/i> hit Number One in the US, Britain and twenty-one other countries worldwide. Within months of its release U2 made the cover of Time Magazine with the headline “U2 – ROCK’S HOTTEST TICKET”, confirming their new-found status in the premier league of rock acts. The reviews for The Joshua Tree were universally ecstatic and in U2’s case unprecedented.

In Hot Press, Bill Graham waxed even more lyrical than usual in his extended review: “The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions,” he wrote. “…with its skill, and the diversity of issues it touches, one thing is absolutely clear: U2 can no longer be patronised with faint and glib praise. They must be taken very seriously indeed after this revaluation of rock.”

Steve Lillywhite is under no illusions as to what made it popular with a mainstream audience. “I think what made The Joshua Tree the big seller that it was, was the fact that they had the radio songs, the hits, and it was all stuff that they could play live.”

Lanois’ reputation also soared into the stratosphere in the wake of his production triumph on Joshua Tree. By now considered one of the most important producers to have emerged in the 1980s, he went on to midwife hugely acclaimed albums for Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, The Neville Brothers and many others. He has maintained his connection with U2, working on their most recent albums All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.



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Colm O Hare

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