The decisive journey

Already crowned by Rolling Stone as the “best band of the Eighties“, U2, riding high in 1987, found themselves at a crucial crossroads. It was a clash born from the opposing visions of the band's two guiding spirits: Bono Vox and The Edge. The leader-frontman, fresh from a stirring encounter with Bob Dylan, was eager to explore the roots of American rock, while his guitarist counterpart would have preferred to consolidate the wave expressionism of their previous album, “The Unforgettable Fire“, which had first propelled them into the Billboard Top 10. In the end, the former would somehow prevail. But not entirely. The Irish band's new album would in fact retain significant traces of their classic style, settling into one of those magical middle grounds that, throughout rock history, has so often been the fertile soil of masterpieces.

The title would also contribute to the project's overall impact. But the choice wasn't immediate. In an early stage, ideas like “The Two Americas” or “Desert Songs” were floated, then dropped. The final choice took shape in December 1986, when the Irish band, together with photographer Anton Corbijn, crossed the Californian deserts to shoot the booklet. In that barren landscape, U2 were struck by the presence of certain trees (Yucca brevifolia), typical of the deserts of the southwestern United States, known for surviving long periods in extreme conditions and recognisable by their sculptural shape. Their name, “The Joshua Tree”, stems from a symbolic association: some religious pioneers saw in them a resemblance to the raised arms of the biblical Joshua in prayer. The plant is found chiefly in the area that today makes up Joshua Tree National Park, established in 1994 and, over time, a hugely popular destination. The park covers part of the Mojave Desert and lies not far from Indio, home of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

That solitary presence struck the musicians deeply, eventually becoming the visual and conceptual essence of the album. From that moment on, the image of the tree became inseparably tied to the album, also boosting the area's popularity as a tourist destination. Even though the tree pictured on the cover isn't actually located within the park of the same name. It stood in a more remote part of Death Valley, hundreds of miles away. It collapsed in 2000, but the site has continued to draw visitors and fans. In 2015 an act of vandalism damaged one of its branches; a few months later, an anonymous effort attempted to restore its appearance, giving back at least some of its integrity to a symbol that had by then become part of rock history.

The rest is history: propelled up the charts by a trio of hits like “Where The Streets Have No Name”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With Or Without You”, “The Joshua Tree” would triumphantly seal U2's pilgrimage toward the eldorado of rock: “Outside it’s America”, Bono declares programmatically on “Bullet The Blue Sky”. A journey brimming with youthful wonder. Under the expert guidance of two studio gurus, Brian Eno and his protégé Daniel Lanois, U2 didn't disown their European sensibilities — if anything, they crowned a coherent trajectory that, from the post-adolescent urgency of “Boy” and “War” and the live consecration under the blood-red Colorado sky (the epochal “Under A Blood Red Sky“) and on the London stage of Live Aid (1985), had steered them toward a more complex kind of rock, one that partly set aside the guitar frenzy of their early days in favour of more calibrated, experimental songs, with lyrics increasingly steeped in social and political engagement. Built around The Edge's “rhythmic” guitar phrasing, the songs shine through the sharpness of their arrangements and melodic power, achieving an epic charge that nonetheless keeps a safe distance from the rhetorical excesses of years to come. A compendium of reflections, stories and invectives that redirects the sacred fire of their early years toward a more nuanced kind of songwriting, one able to blend the raw-nerve essentiality of post-punk with blues and roots-rock textures, all without giving up a pop instinct that translates into a handful of irresistible choruses.

A collection of unforgettable songs framed by Anton Corbijn's striking black-and-white booklet, where the desert between Nevada and California becomes the definitive icon of an album that would send U2 to the top of charts worldwide, selling over 20 million copies and setting a rock standard for the decade.

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28/04/2026