The Joshua Tree new lineup

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ozeeko

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I was bored so I started making an alternative album track list for The Joshua Tree, incorporating some B-sides into the mix. Quite hard to do, trying to keep a balance and flow, but this was the end result:

1) Where The Streets Have No Name
2) In God's Country
3) The Sweetest Thing (original version)
4) Walk To The Water
5) With Or Without You
6) Red Hill Mining Town
7) Bullet The Blue Sky
8) Running To Stand Still
9) Spanish Eyes
10) Trip Through Your Wires
11) One Tree Hill
12) Deep In The Heart
13) Exit
14) Mothers Of The Disappeared
15) I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

sorry, but "Luminous Times" gets the axe. Not distinctive enough and too many ballads already. "Race Against Time" I have yet to hear. "Silver and Gold" is awful in my opinion. So there you have it. Anyone have a better idea?
 
Beautiful Ghost / Introduction to Songs of Experience (From The Joshua Tree Sessions)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Silver And Gold
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Deep In The Heart
Spanish Eyes
With Or Without You
Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
Walk To The Water
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
Sweetest Thing
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers Of The Disappeared
 
Bury Sweetest Thing somewhere deeper in the album or toss it all together, having it 3rd just kills the intro.

Keep Mothers as the end, ISHFWILF isn't a closer.

Luminous Times is by far one of their best b-sides and should be included before many of the others that made the cut.
 
You cannot take out walk to the water, aight buddy? Maybe Sweetest Thing, but I'd leave it in just for variety. I think ISHFWILF would be a decent closer, or maybe something right before Mothers. It's got a feeling of closure to it that you want near the end of an album. Ironically it's a feeling of closure from a song about not having closure. Luminous Times would be and is a great b-side. For an album it seems too over the top for me. I'd rather have Deep In The Heart, a song that's undercooked like 4th of July and sounds like a productive jam session. Not too many U2 albums have that! Not to mention i like the way it would segue into Exit.
 
ozeeko said:
Luminous Times would be and is a great b-side. For an album it seems too over the top for me. I'd rather have Deep In The Heart, a song that's undercooked like 4th of July and sounds like a productive jam session. Not too many U2 albums have that! Not to mention i like the way it would segue into Exit.

First it's not distinctive enough, now it's over the top?:huh: OK
 
Yes, and for a third reason, you already have the big ballad "With Or Without You", so I think you should cancel out the other big ballad and make room for songs that cover other terrains. "Heartland" is a great song but I like the way it sits on "Rattle And Hum" as a nice atmospheric escape from the other more straightforward material. I'm actually starting to dislike my "Sweetest Thing" position on the album. So I'm withdrawing it from the album. The Joshua Tree is a great album without the B-sides and I think they chose it to be that way because it has a great flow. Adding the B-sides would maybe make for an interesting album, but it's tough figuring out where these songs would go flow-wise.
 
I made this tracklisting a few weeks ago and I really dig it:

1 // Where the Streets Have No Name
2 // In God's Country
3 // I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
4 // With or Without You
5 // Running to Stand Still
6 // Heartland
7 // Red Hill Mining Town
8 // Bullet the Blue Sky
9 // Silver and Gold
10 // Exit
11 // One Tree Hill
12 // Mothers of the Disappeared
 
Great Idea! Placing ISHFWILF at #3. Here's my revised line-up:

1) Streets
2) God's Country
3) ISHFWILF
4) Walk To The Water
5) With Or Without You
6) Red Hill Mining Town
7) Bullet The Blue Sky
8) Running To Stand Still
9) Spanish Eyes
10) Trip Through Your Wires
11) Sweetest Thing
12) One Tree Hill
13) Deep In The Heart
14) Exit
15) Mothers Of The Disappeared

I think this really holds up. And Sweetest Thing is in a pretty good spot, after Trip..the lighthearted section of the album.
 
1. INSIDE ITS AMERICA
A road trip across the United States

Where The Streets Have No Name

In God's Country (Last November an Interferencer suggested IGC in the second spot. I never thought of that before. Yep, it does break up the original opening trilogy which is sacrilege for many! But, hey, the whole idea of a different track order is not a criticism of JT or an attempted improvement of JT but rather simply a new and fresh approach. Something in order to further appreciate JT. IGC propels the energy coming out of Streets and it focuses the spotlight on the original opening trilogy’s theme – America)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Heartland (It was dropped from JT at the last minute in favour of Trip. Here it continues to center the attention on the original opening trilogy’s subject matter – America. Many find it to be a “love letter” to /about America. Yet, a portion of the lyrics and the vocals particularly near the end of the song appear to be just as scathing and critical of America as Bullet is. Sounds like the word and the meaning of heartland is transformed into hardland and one of hardened hearts.)

With Or Without You (Many see it only as an anguished love song. However, in the context of the whole album and in the original opening trilogy I find it to be more like a modern day psalm about America and God. It appears to me that all of the You(s) in Streets, Still Haven’t, and WOWY stand for God, or Lord, or Yahweh, or whatever name one prefers. Adam said that it surprised him that WOWY was such a hit on the radio for he found it more suited for church.)

2. OUTSIDE ITS AMERIKA
“And in our world a heart of darkness. A firezone…while bullets rape the night”

Silver And Gold (Many have commented on the harshness of the transition between WOWY into Bullet. S & G here may possibly be a worthy bridge between the two?)

Bullet The Blue Sky

Exit (Plenty of boiling rage here and complimentary to the seething fury in Bullet. Imagine what Bono felt, the turmoil inside of him, after he witnessed, experienced, heard, saw [and read about] the oppression, injustice, violence in Central America [and South America and South Africa]. The temptation and struggle between a peace pursuit of social justice and a violent resistance.)

One Tree Hill (Many see it as only a heartfelt eulogy to friend and crew member tragically killed. However, it appears to be about much more and much darker. A broader song about grieving and mourning. Who is this Victor Jara and what happened to him?)

Mothers Of The Disappeared

3. WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA

Running To Stand Still (“and so she woke up. Woke up from where she was… Said I got to do something. About where we're going.”)

Red Hill Mining Town (and he can’t sleep, up all night, for he “see the lights go down on. I'm hanging on.”

The album ends with the question - What are we going to do? In a culture and in society where “we turn away to NOT face the cold, enduring chill” of what’s going on inside and outside of Reagan’s America. Instead, turning to a silence [indifference or despair]; turning to drugs [illegal or prescribed] – Running To Stand Still, booze – Red Hill Mining Town, 5 hours of TV per evening, consumerism, material obsession, an all-consuming career, etc. where we are always “running” around but never standing “still.” What are we going to do about being in a culture where “love [is] slowly stripped away” and “love runs cold”; a culture which encourages being “wounded by fear, injured in doubt”; that promotes “you to cry with out weeping. Talk without speaking. Scream without raising your voice.” Are we just “hanging on”? What are we “holding on to”? Are we “wide awake in America” and prepared to do something about it?

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. In God's Country
3. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
4. Heartland
5. With Or Without You
6. Silver And Gold
7. Bullet The Blue Sky
8. Exit
9. One Tree Hill
10. Mothers Of The Disappeared
11. Running To Stand Still
12. Red Hill Mining Town

A second album of the rest:

1. Spanish Eyes
2. Trip Through Your Wires
3. Womanfish
4. Sweetest Thing
5. Deep In The Heart
6. Race Against Time
7. Beautiful Ghost
8. Walk To The Water
9. Heroine (The Edge, Larry, and Sinead)
10. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
 
U2Soar said:
1. INSIDE ITS AMERICA
A road trip across the United States

Where The Streets Have No Name

In God's Country (Last November an Interferencer suggested IGC in the second spot. I never thought of that before. Yep, it does break up the original opening trilogy which is sacrilege for many! But, hey, the whole idea of a different track order is not a criticism of JT or an attempted improvement of JT but rather simply a new and fresh approach. Something in order to further appreciate JT. IGC propels the energy coming out of Streets and it focuses the spotlight on the original opening trilogy’s theme – America)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Heartland (It was dropped from JT at the last minute in favour of Trip. Here it continues to center the attention on the original opening trilogy’s subject matter – America. Many find it to be a “love letter” to /about America. Yet, a portion of the lyrics and the vocals particularly near the end of the song appear to be just as scathing and critical of America as Bullet is. Sounds like the word and the meaning of heartland is transformed into hardland and one of hardened hearts.)

With Or Without You (Many see it only as an anguished love song. However, in the context of the whole album and in the original opening trilogy I find it to be more like a modern day psalm about America and God. It appears to me that all of the You(s) in Streets, Still Haven’t, and WOWY stand for God, or Lord, or Yahweh, or whatever name one prefers. Adam said that it surprised him that WOWY was such a hit on the radio for he found it more suited for church.)

2. OUTSIDE ITS AMERIKA
“And in our world a heart of darkness. A firezone…while bullets rape the night”

Silver And Gold (Many have commented on the harshness of the transition between WOWY into Bullet. S & G here may possibly be a worthy bridge between the two?)

Bullet The Blue Sky

Exit (Plenty of boiling rage here and complimentary to the seething fury in Bullet. Imagine what Bono felt, the turmoil inside of him, after he witnessed, experienced, heard, saw [and read about] the oppression, injustice, violence in Central America [and South America and South Africa]. The temptation and struggle between a peace pursuit of social justice and a violent resistance.)

One Tree Hill (Many see it as only a heartfelt eulogy to friend and crew member tragically killed. However, it appears to be about much more and much darker. A broader song about grieving and mourning. Who is this Victor Jara and what happened to him?)

Mothers Of The Disappeared

3. WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA

Running To Stand Still (“and so she woke up. Woke up from where she was… Said I got to do something. About where we're going.”)

Red Hill Mining Town (and he can’t sleep, up all night, for he “see the lights go down on. I'm hanging on.”

The album ends with the question - What are we going to do? In a culture and in society where “we turn away to NOT face the cold, enduring chill” of what’s going on inside and outside of Reagan’s America. Instead, turning to a silence [indifference or despair]; turning to drugs [illegal or prescribed] – Running To Stand Still, booze – Red Hill Mining Town, 5 hours of TV per evening, consumerism, material obsession, an all-consuming career, etc. where we are always “running” around but never standing “still.” What are we going to do about being in a culture where “love [is] slowly stripped away” and “love runs cold”; a culture which encourages being “wounded by fear, injured in doubt”; that promotes “you to cry with out weeping. Talk without speaking. Scream without raising your voice.” Are we just “hanging on”? What are we “holding on to”? Are we “wide awake in America” and prepared to do something about it?

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. In God's Country
3. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
4. Heartland
5. With Or Without You
6. Silver And Gold
7. Bullet The Blue Sky
8. Exit
9. One Tree Hill
10. Mothers Of The Disappeared
11. Running To Stand Still
12. Red Hill Mining Town

A second album of the rest:

1. Spanish Eyes
2. Trip Through Your Wires
3. Womanfish
4. Sweetest Thing
5. Deep In The Heart
6. Race Against Time
7. Beautiful Ghost
8. Walk To The Water
9. Heroine (The Edge, Larry, and Sinead)
10. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)



I tried this and I like it:up:
 
MrBrau1 said:
Beautiful Ghost / Introduction to Songs of Experience (From The Joshua Tree Sessions)

I can't imagine that opening The Joshua Tree - for me, the Streets organ is the only thing that could open the album.

And I can't take Beautiful Ghost seriously anyway. When I got the iTunes B-Sides I thought it was some sort of joke track. Ever see This is Spinal Tap? It's exactly like the Stonehenge bit!
 
Keep in mind that in 1987 most people bought JT as a vinyl album. Clocking in at 50 minutes already, any additional songs would have required that JT be released as a double album.
A moot point in the age of 80 min CDs, but you can understand why some really great songs got relegated to B-sides or R&H.

Interesting thread.
 
Chrisedge said:
http://www.tiede.com/joshuatree/

That is my preferred track listing.

wow! that's an awesome link. i recommend everyone try this out.

my only complaint is that i wish they would have added "Beautiful Ghost" as track 1. but it wouldn't fit on an 80 minute CD-R anyway.

thanks for the heads up Chrisedge!
 
INDY500 said:
Keep in mind that in 1987 most people bought JT as a vinyl album.

Actually casette was the biggest medium then.






To all those that want 'Beutiful Ghost', it makes for a good b-side. I would never want a "cover" on a U2 album. On R&H it works because it's live, but otherwise I don't want it.
 
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