Happy 18th Birthday JT!
Excellent review Axver
I’d be interested in hearing how you see WOWY as conversation between Jesus and the Father.
You write: “The Joshua Tree opens with the 'holy trinity' It is for some a life-changing moment, for others a spiritual experience, and for many the very epitome of live U2. Streets tears down the walls, it reaches out and touches the flame high on desert plain, and it takes you where there is no sorrow and no shame, where the streets have no name.
But Streets is just the first third of The Joshua Tree's holy trinity. Next is the ringing guitar and rich singing of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, a song with some beautiful, searching lyrics, longing for the heaven that some feel is described in Streets. It wanders, but with purpose and direction, striving for something higher, something sacred, acknowledging the truth and affirming that it's never enough, not a substitute for the heights we won't reach in this life. And then the album slips into an intensely personal mode through With Or Without You, a song that some, like myself, see in a religious context, as a conversation perhaps between the Father and Jesus, or between a struggling believer and God, while others find an extremely powerful personal context through which to relate to a song that doubtfully has a fixed meaning. With Or Without You is universal U2 at its best, demonstrating the power of creating a song that many people can take and apply to their own lives without sacrificing the song's value.”
Have you considered a lyrical interpretation of “the JT trilogy”? The spirituality, theology, the faith relationship between the character and the “You” in Streets, the “You” in Still Haven’t Found, and the “You” in WOWY. I think it would be interesting to see if and how all 3 songs form one story, a single journey between a person and God.
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