Thirty years after its release, Irish rock band U2 and its fans will be celebrating the anniversary of “The Joshua Tree” with a stadium tour starting in May in which Bono and the lads will play the album from start to finish for the first time.
• Related story: U2’s ‘The Joshua Tree’ draws fans to national park for album’s 30th anniversary
As you cue up opening track, “Where the Streets Have No Names,” here are five things you may not know about the landmark album.
1. By any other name
“The Joshua Tree” almost wasn’t.
Its working title was “The Two Americas,” Bono wrote in an essay in the liner notes of the album’s 20th anniversary edition.
As the band recorded in its native Dublin, they took inspiration from the “mythic and real America,” Bono wrote. They set out to examine the promise of the American Dream and U.S. foreign policy in Central America of the 1980s that’s criticized in songs such as “Bullet the Blue Sky.”
The idea of using a Joshua Tree photo came from photographer Anton Corbijn, who suggested a trip through the Mojave Desert to take pictures. Bono liked the name so much it became the album title. Corbijn recounts that Bono consulted a Bible and was taken by how the tree got its name from Mormon settlers who thought its limbs reminded them of a Biblical story of Joshua lifting his hands in prayer.
2. Not Joshua Tree’s tree
Despite its title, the album’s cover photo wasn’t shot in Joshua Tree National Park in San Bernardino County.
It was taken at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park in Inyo County — more than 200 miles from Joshua Tree — according to “U2 by U2,” an official oral history by the group.
The band, joined by Corbijn and album art designer Steve Averill, took a roadtrip from Reno to Joshua Tree in December 1986 after finishing the album. On that trip, Corbijn spotted the lone Joshua Tree off Route 190 in the Mojave desert, an unusual sight because the trees were usually seen in clusters, Averill recalled in an essay published with the album’s 20th anniversary edition.
3. Music may stand, but tree doesn’t
Winds felled the famous tree in 2000.
But it remains on the ground and has been visited by many fans, according to accounts on the fan website atu2.com, which has been posting a series on fan visits to the site to mark the album’s 30 years. Fans have left memorabilia, including a plaque stating “HAVE YOU FOUND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR?”
Another popular spot for fan pilgrimages is the Harmony Hotel in Twentynine Palms, where U2 stopped to take photos during its roadtrip. Some photos made it into the deluxe edition of the album.
4. Band’s bestseller
U2 has put out eight albums since “The Joshua Tree,” but it remains the band’s best-selling album with more than 20 million sold, according to U2’s website.
It entered the Billboard charts at No. 7 and rocketed to the top three weeks later, where it reigned nine weeks at No. 1, according to Billboard. The album also spawned two No. 1 singles: “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
5. No concert by the Tree
U2 has never performed near Joshua Tree or in any desert near the iconic tree from the album cover.
Fans have long speculated that they’d be a natural for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio because of its proximity to the park. But the band has yet to join the festival’s lineup.
The closest U2 got to the area was a few years before the album’s release. In 1983, as an up- and- coming band, they played at the US Festival in Devore in San Bernardino County. U2 was among the many bands supporting headliners such as The Clash and David Bowie.
