U2's most well-known symbol...

[BabyGrace]

The Joshua Tree. I never even thought about why they named their album this! Any ideas? Does it have to do with the Bible or the desert??

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"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice..."

 

[Achtung_Bebe]

Hey BabyGrace

Well, I've always seen the Joshua Tree as resembling a search for something.. This album is set in the desert, a bone-dry environment with little nourishment. A Joshua Tree is rooted in the middle of this desert, its roots somewhere beneath the ground, in search of water--a source of nourishment. There's something down there that can give life, but the real challenge is to actually find it (I think I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For sums it up!)

[This message has been edited by Achtung_Bebe (edited 12-23-2000).]

 

[BabyGrace]

That's a cool idea...better than anything I could come up with! Since you seem to have answers to everything I'll ask another question...lol!!
I don't know what the lyrics to Red Hill Mining Town are supposed to represent. Any ideas on this one?

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"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice..."

 

[drowning man]

About Red Hill Mining Town:

It has to do with Thatcher's politics of closing down "uneconomic mines", which brought many miner sto misery. Bono wrote this song from the pint of view of the miner that loses everything, and the chaos that his relationships become.

I take no credit for this, it's all in "Into The Heart" by niall Stokes

 

[AnCatDubh]

Red Hill Mining Town... basically like a lot of the JT songs, a search for God in a time of desperation. THe miners gave their lives for their work, to support their families, to make an honest living, and that was about to be taken away and they'd be left with nothing. The feeling of believing that God would take care of you and then not feeling secure in that belief anymore..."you're all that's left to hold on to.."

Is the Joshua Tree the most powerful symbol? I thought the boy on the War album was, but I could be an old fool!


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White flash come through my own life, telling me these things...
And I believe in them. And I believe in you.

 

[AnCatDubh]

Sorry Beal, now I see you've already mentioned that...

 

[BEAL]

Could be the Joshua Tree, could be that kid on the cover of boy/war. Those two I think are the tops.

 

[christiana]

The boy got my vote...

 

[BabyGrace]

...not necessarily the most powerful symbol, just the most well-known...ya know, you mention U2 and the response is always, "Oh yeah! Those JT guys..."
Thanks, all for clarifying...

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"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice..."

 

[BabyGrace]

Also, what about Streets?? I have some ideas but they're probably all wrong:
1)the American mid-west
2)heaven
3)world peace (or lack thereof)
4)a relationship


------------------
"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice..."

 

[Achtung_Bebe]

Hey BabyGrace,

I love "Where The Streets Have No Name" because you can really associate it with multiple things since the song leaves so much room for personal interpretation.. I'd say all of your ideas listed are valid. But in order to get an idea of Bono's inspiration (which is always fun to do

), I'm pretty sure this one was sparked after Bono and Ali's witness of the strong spirit in those impoverished in Ethiopia. Upon his return to home, he found himself looking around him and noticing the lack of spirit.. "I want to reach out and touch the flame where the streets have no name" -- I've always associated this flame with the spirit he found in the Ethiopian people.

Another interesting thing to think about is the idea of Bono wanting to become anonymous in a world of equal status.. of being out of the spotlight for a while, and just hanging around "where the streets have no name"

 

[BabyGrace]

Those are both great ideas that probably work better than mine...
BTBS is about Ethiopia, right? Funny, I never even though Streets might have to do with this...
Thanks

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"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice..."

 

[Alisaura]

I thought BTBS was about El Salvador or somewhere like that... I've got no real clue about the politics but I think Reagan did something bad there in the 80s... help?


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I'm not the only one, staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find
If you took a look inside...

NO FE++ S+$ N+ B- C~ L++ O++ CV(and a half-+) PO11
http://www.atu2.com/fanzone/code/

 

[NicaMom]

Great conversation going on here!
I don't come here often, I'm glad I did.

BTBS was inspired during Bono's visit to El Salvador and Nicaragua in 1986.
It's about the Contra war and the Reagan administration involment in it.
Streets was definitively inspired by Bono's visit to Ethiopia but I believe there's also a connection with the Nicaragua and Salvador visit.
In Nicaragua the streets don't have names. The post men have a "fun" time finding addresses.

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"In Nicaragua it's...well, it's the sexiest revolution I ever saw.
Women in khaki uniforms standing on corners and...
well, I don't like anyone with an Armalite rifle,
but they were standing there smoking cigarettes and looking like Miss World."
(Bono-Mar 1987)

"The only leader I did not manage to have a proper
conversation with was Clinton. I was speaking and he was
looking at one of the walls, admiring the frescos and the
paintings. He was not listening to me."
(Pope John Paul II)

Check out the Interferencers!
http://www.geocities.com/u2j33_3/

 

[NicaMom]

I think the name Joshua Tree has one more meaning.
It's almost impossible to know how old is a Joshua tree, so in a way they're ageless.
Does any one else have any more info on this?

 

[Slane]

I think "Streets" has many meanings as well - one of which is that it is a description of Heaven. During the POPMart tour, Bono often ended "Streets" with the last lines from "Playboy Mansion" - "...then there will be no time for sorrow, then there will be no time for pain..." - a reference to Heaven. Probably the only solution he could fathom for the Ethiopian's terrible situation.

 

[scatteroflight]

I've really always felt that Streets is just about breaking free in some way, about leaving behind the baggage that society heaps on us, feeling completely free for the first time. But the other explanations fit just as well. Hey...if I'm right, that would make Streets fit very well with the "all that you can't (or can) leave behind" theme! I have this fear that this might be the first tour where U2 doesn't play Streets. I'm pretty sure they will--they must, they MUST! It's really my only demand. I'm trying not to think about it, because if I do I start to fret!

 

[Angell]

I've always seen Streets as a heaven ref. But recently, I heard another thing that makes sense (might have read it in Race of Angels? can't remember) In Eire,(at least when Bono was growing up) you could tell everything about a person's societal standing from what side of what street they lived on. Removing the names would put all on a level playing field, so to speak.
I know the name of the Joshua Tree does have biblical inference, but I can't remember exactly what (other than dealing with Joshua from the OT, duh). I know that they filmed the cover in the desert because of their personal feelings at the start of the album, and they summed up some of their inspiration in this tree that thrives in a supposedly unihabitable environment.
As for their most well-known symbol, at least among dedicated fans, who could forget Adam's willie?

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"Love is a verb..."

 

[TylerDurden]

Huh, it's funny, with all my U2 thinking, that I've never actually wondered why the album was called the Joshua Tree. Weird.
All of the above makes sense though.

 

[Consilio Bono]

I don't recognise that many meanings when I hear the song but now I do kinda hear them.
What I thought Streets is about is kinda the same as what scatteroflight thinks of it. Just escaping from everything and go to an unknown place where no one else has ever been and so it has no name.

 

[BabyGrace]

that's right, I think BTBS is about El Salvador...
I just mess places up really easily...

thanks for the great responses guys, I haven't checked back in a while, I'm sorry

 

[Bluegrass Bono -U2 to UK!]

the name Joshua is also a form of the name Jesus

 

[Surge]

There is an interesting little diddy on the naming of the Joshua Tree album in the video 'The making of the Joshua Tree'. Its a fantastic little video that has alot of great stories of the behind the scenes stuff. A deffinate must have for U2 fans.

any who...in the video, the photographer....what the hell's his name? ...blah blah blah- von blah blah blah or something, convinced Bono and the boys to visit the J-Tree national monument in California (I believe...dammit I've got mush for brains!)

Joshua Trees always grow in groups, but the photographer had meraculously found one all alone, so he thought that it would be 'a brilliant symbol' for the cover of the album. According to the video; Bono grabbed his Bible, found the meaning and relevance of the symbol and decided to name the entire album after the tree as well as put it on the cover with a shot of the band.(or was it on the back?...er...) great story...go check out the video.