“With or Without You” is truly Bono at his vocal best, passionate and unafraid while emoting lyrics that show the singer as anything but. “With or Without You” is the absolute moment when Bono went from political frontman to ultimate sex symbol, singing lyrics about real true love (whether it’s the love of a man and woman or one with their God), and a love that has the singer completely at odds with himself. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen in performance and will forever remain with me. As Bono sings the last lines, “She will suffer the needle chill / She’s running to stand still,” he is doing a pantomime of someone preparing to shoot up, falling to his knees and injecting between the last two words, and then singing an “Alleluia” in a near euphoric state. To emphasize that fact, the live version that they have played since the song’s premiere has included an entirely new coda. “Running to Stand Still” is a song about heroin abuse, much like a couple of the songs on The Unforgettable Fire, but these lyrics were slightly more overt, and really captured the lure of drugs. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the two best songs on the album, and two of the best songs in U2’s long career. I still get chills when Mullen’s drums mimic the beating of the subject’s heart as he fingers the gun in his pocket. “Exit,” on the other hand, is more menacing, with Bono beginning with his vocals a mere whisper and building into a threatening gothic story. Bono’s mourning wails at the close of “raining in your heart,” followed by the short prayer, truly captured an incredibly emotional and powerful tribute. The former is a eulogy to a Maori friend who toured with the band through New Zealand and Australia, only to be killed when driving Bono’s motorcycle back to his residence. “One Tree Hill” and “Exit” are two of those songs that remain some of my favorites to this day. “Trip Through Your Wires” finds U2 at their most `American,’ as if Bono and company were playing harmonica at a local Southern dive bar. All three contain the allusions to deserts, sand and water that flow throughout The Joshua Tree, making it the theme album that wasn’t really meant as a theme album. “Red Hill Mining Town, “In God’s Country” and “Trip Through Your Wires” are three amazing and often underrated songs in U2’s arsenal. Bono expresses best the ‘chickens come home to roost’ idea of arming its eventual enemies and oppressors of its own people with the poetic line, “ You plant a demon seed / You raise a flower of fire.” The juxtaposition of imagery involving the Ku Klux Klan and John Coltrane’s music show the love/hate relationship that U2 had with America.
“Bullet the Blue Sky” is a raucous live staple, and one that is a rousing indictment of American politics and foreign policy. The second track, the gospel themed #1 hit, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” finds Bono even more unsure of himself and his faith. The opening lyrics say it all when Bono grits, “ I want to run / I want to hide.” Amazingly, the song almost didn’t make it to the final cut of the album, nor to finished tape, as producer Brian Eno was a hair trigger (and a smart engineer) away from erasing the track entirely. “ Where the Streets Have No Name,” with its haunted, rising organ lines and the Edge’s echoed arpeggio guitar seem to exude self-assurance, yet the lyrics belie that swagger. That’s not what most people tend to remember about the album, however, as so many of its songs became recognizable stadium anthems, but that’s what they’re about. While past albums explored injustices with confidence, religious themes with absolute faith and love with sincerity, The Joshua Tree found Bono, the Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton tinged with doubt and insecurity. All of these things educated what was to become U2’s biggest selling album of their careers, an album that would propel them past mere superstardom, and into the realms of icons.
They also delved deeper into what America meant for them, from its blues and folk music to its people, its landscapes and its leaders. In 1985, they played Live Aid, reached a worldwide audience, and became Rolling Stone’s “ Band of the ’80s.” They became more politically and socially conscious, reaching out on behalf of Amnesty International, and visiting such disparate places as Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. After the huge success of U2‘s 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire, and its huge hit, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” the band transcended the concept of a four-man rock band from Ireland. There must be some kind of saying out there (and if there isn’t, I’m taking credit) that the only way to come close to perfection is to admit imperfection.