A More Bluesy Joshua Tree

[Screwtape2]

So Bono was pushing the band towards a blues direction on the Joshua Tree. Re-examing the songs on the remaster I think it paints that picture. This is the tracklist I came up with. A reviewer on a listen might very well use the word blues to describe it.

1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. Deep In The Heart
3. With Or Without You
4. Bullet The Blue Sky
5. Running To Stand Still
6. Red Hill Mining Town
7. In God's Country
8. Spanish Eyes
9. Trip Through Your Wires
10. Desert Of Our Love
11. Rise Up
12. One Tree Hill
13. Exit
14. Mothers Of The Disappeared
15. Wave Of Sorrow (Birdland)
16. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
17. Walk To The Water

Enjoy what could have been.

 

[Visiongfx]

I'd like to enjoy what Rattle and Hum could of been too!

 

[gareth brown]

I don't like Mothers Of The Disappeared where it is plus Deep In The Heart just makes the whole thing hit a brick wall after Streets, great song but it really doesn't work there!! i see what you mean about it being more bluesy though

 

[Chill Mike D]

That album has always struck me as leaning more towards country than blues, but that's just me.

 

[luna_lovegood]

I don't like Mothers Of The Disappeared where it is plus Deep In The Heart just makes the whole thing hit a brick wall after Streets, great song but it really doesn't work there!! i see what you mean about it being more bluesy though

Agreed. Keep the holy trinity to open it.(Streets, ISHFWILF, WOWY) After that, go crazy with the tracklist! I still can't understand why Luminous Times didn't make it onto Josh or R&H. Its such an incredible song. It deserved to see the light of day. It would be so incredible live.

 

[65980]

Right

That album has always struck me as leaning more towards country than blues, but that's just me.

It's not just you -- there's very little, if any, blues to be found in U2's canon of music. That's the mark of a post-punk band. Bono discovered the blues in 1986, but U2 as a whole never really took it up (which is a good thing, probably). They played Maggie's Farm in 1986, Bono wrote Silver & Gold... that's about it.

I did like the country/folk/blues style of U2 in 1986 to 1989, and it obviously appealed a lot to the American audience, but it probably wasn't the most challenging thing for them to attempt, as they later tacitly acknowledged.

Basically, I think U2 songs are U2 songs although they sometimes dress them up in different clothes.

 

[gareth brown]

Agreed. Keep the holy trinity to open it.(Streets, ISHFWILF, WOWY) After that, go crazy with the tracklist! I still can't understand why Luminous Times didn't make it onto Josh or R&H. Its such an incredible song. It deserved to see the light of day. It would be so incredible live.

i've got a cassette version of Rattle and Hum with Luminous Times on it, bought it simply because it had that extra track on it think it's somewhere on side three (or side 2 of this tape since they appear to have sold 2 seperately)