The Joshua Tree

Prior to The Joshua Tree, U2 had released four studio albums and were an internationally successful band, particularly as a live act having toured every year in the 1980s. Following a September–October 1985 humanitarian visit to Egypt and Ethiopia with his wife Ali, Bono said: "Spending time in Africa and seeing people in the pits of poverty, I still saw a very strong spirit in the people, a richness of spirit I didn't see when I came home... I saw the spoiled child of the Western world. I started thinking, 'They may have a physical desert, but we've got other kinds of deserts.' And that's what attracted me to the desert as a symbol of some sort." This inspired him to write the blues-influenced song "Silver and Gold", which he recorded with Richards and Ronnie Wood and convinced Van Zandt to add to Sun City. He explained: "I used to think that writing words was old-fashioned, so I sketched. I wrote words on the microphone. For The Joshua Tree, I felt the time had come to write words that meant something, out of my experience." Dylan told Bono about his own debt to Irish music, while Bono further demonstrated his interest in music traditions in his duet with Irish Celtic and folk group Clannad on the 1986 track "In a Lifetime". The group referred to this approach as working within the "primary colours" of rock music—guitar, bass, and drums. U2's guitarist the Edge was more interested in the European atmospherics of The Unforgettable Fire and was initially reluctant to follow Bono's lead to seek a more American sound. The Edge was eventually swayed after discovering blues and country artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell on American public radio stations during the Unforgettable Fire Tour. To work on material written during the Unforgettable Fire Tour, in November 1985, U2 moved into the home that their drummer Larry Mullen Jr. had newly purchased. This included demos that would evolve into "With or Without You", "Red Hill Mining Town", and "Trip Through Your Wires", as well as a song called "Womanfish". The Edge recalled it as a difficult period with a sense of "going nowhere", although Bono was set on America as a theme for the album. Additional recording sessions at STS Studios in Dublin with producer Paul Barrett saw the development of "With or Without You" and the genesis of "Bullet the Blue Sky". ==Recording and production==

and Daniel Lanois produced the album, their second time working with U2.|alt=Headshots of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Based on their success with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois on The Unforgettable Fire, U2 wanted the duo to produce their new album. Mullen was excited about working with them again, as he felt the pair, Lanois in particular, were the band's first producers who "really [took] an interest in the rhythm section". The Edge had viewed the residence months prior while househunting with his wife and convinced the owner to rent it to the band. the group first adopted this approach while making The Unforgettable Fire. To support the setup of all band members recording in a room together, Lanois eschewed having them wear headphones in favour of using monitor speakers due to their power; Mullen and U2's bassist Adam Clayton used two each. To aid in sound isolation, gobos were built in the drawing room, although the production staff still faced issues with audio spill from the monitor speakers. Lanois said that due to the setup, "you have to make a commitment to what you put down and either use it or throw it all away." This recording setup was duplicated at subsequent locations during the album sessions. They began with their usual songwriting methods of sorting through tapes from soundcheck jams, working through Bono's lyric book, and recording jam sessions. The group were first joined at Danesmoate by Eno, with Flood and fellow engineer Dave Meegan recording their jams. Meegan said of Eno's involvement: "Usually he was in first every morning and he'd start some dodgy sequence on his DX-7 [synthesiser]—it would be just like a cello line with no intentions of ever staying forever, just something to inspire people when they walked into the room." One of the first songs worked on was "Heartland", which originated during The Unforgettable Fire sessions and was later released on the band's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum. The producers encouraged an interest in older songs, especially American roots music. More contemporary references included the textural guitar work of the Smiths and My Bloody Valentine. The band's musical vocabulary had improved after their previous album, facilitating communication and collaboration with the production team. Lanois had a higher opinion of the house, saying: "It was loud, but it was really good loud, real dense, very musical. In my opinion it was the most rock and roll room of the lot." According to him, "the Danesmoate sessions were the backbone of the tonality of the record—we got a lot of the drums done in there." He thought that the house sounded better than Slane Castle, and he was particularly impressed with the drawing room's "low mid-range ... where the music lives", a property that he believes was a major factor in the success of The Joshua Tree. Intended to help alleviate Ireland's unemployment crisis by raising funds and job pledges, the event was harshly criticised in the media for taking pressure off the Irish government to resist Margaret Thatcher's economic policies. The band in particular were labelled hypocrites for their participation. Their appearance included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm", reinterpreted as a criticism of Thatcher. Rather than distract the band, the tour invigourated their new music and provided extra focus on what they wanted to say. For Clayton, the tour validated the "rawness of content" and their attempts to capture the "bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan". Meegan believed that U2's time with the other artists on the tour affected their own sound: "Their musical heroes were bleeding into the music and they weren't embarrassed by it, which gave them a lot of space to work in." After the funeral, Bono and his wife visited Nicaragua and El Salvador, where they saw firsthand the distress of peasants affected by political conflicts and US military intervention, experiences which formed the basis of the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared". On 1 August 1986, U2 regrouped in Dublin to resume work on the album and begin the recording stage proper. "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" were among the songs that evolved at Melbeach. Lanois said that most of the record was done there, Writing and recording alternated between the two houses and Windmill Lane Studios. During takes, Lanois used a pointer and a chalkboard to help walk the band through the song's changes. Lanois said the production team extensively screened Bono's lyrics and offered suggestions, as many lines did not sound as good when sang against a backing track as they did when written down. The Edge said: "There would have been two records, depending on which songs we decided to finish. There was this one album, the 'blues' album that Bono was talking about, and another, much more 'European', which is kind of the way I was led." Rough mixes had been created throughout the sessions after each song was recorded to, in Lanois' words, take "snapshots along the way ... because sometimes you go too far". His eleventh-hour presence and changes caused discontent among the production crew, including Eno and Lanois. Lillywhite mixed four songs with engineer Mark Wallis on an SSL desk at Windmill Lane Studios. As they worked at Melbeach, Around 2am, just seven hours before the album was due to Island for mastering, the Edge tried to convince Lillywhite to allow him to add backing vocals to "Where the Streets Have No Name", but he was denied. In the morning, Meegan and Lillywhite flew with the album's tapes to Island's offices in Hammersmith, London. These tracks, which included "Walk to the Water", "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", and "Spanish Eyes", were completed as B-sides for the planned singles. They later expressed regret that it had not been completed for The Joshua Tree. The track was re-recorded as a single for the group's 1998 compilation The Best of 1980–1990. U2 agreed that one track, "Birdland", was too strong for a B-side and they withheld it for a future album release. After completing The Joshua Tree, Bono said that he was "as pleased with the record as I can ever be pleased with a record", calling The Joshua Tree their most complete album since their debut. ==Composition==

Music U2 is credited with composing all of The Joshua Trees music. Summarising the stylistic direction, Chicago Tribune journalist Joshua Klein said that the album "showed how U2's obsession with American roots flavored its art-rock". Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that "U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences." Much of this was achieved with a delay effect, contributing to a chiming, echo-laden sound. For example, the riff in the introduction of the opening track "Where the Streets Have No Name" is a repeated six-note arpeggio, with delay used to repeat notes. The Edge continued to employ the ambient techniques of guitar playing that he used on The Unforgettable Fire; for "With or Without You", he used a prototype of the Infinite Guitar to add layers of sustained notes, an approach he first took on his 1986 solo album, the Captive soundtrack. On other songs, his guitar playing is more aggressive; "Exit" was described by Colin Hogg as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage", The Edge developed the harsh, feedback-charged guitar part for the latter song at Bono's instruction to "put El Salvador through an amplifier", after Bono returned angry from a visit to the war-torn country. Bono also contributed to songwriting on guitar; the Spanish guitar melody in "Mothers of the Disappeared" originated from a song that he wrote in Ethiopia to teach children about basic hygiene. which many critics described as "passionate". Spin found that the group's exploration of roots music resulted in Bono's style expanding, saying that he "commands the full whisper-to-shout range of blues mannerisms". For author Susan Fast, "With or Without You" marks the first track on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way". Lyrics Bono is credited as the album's sole lyricist. Bono said, "I started to see two Americas, the mythic America and the real America", hence the album's working title, The Two Americas. In many cases, the desert is used as a metaphor for "spiritual drought". Clayton explained the impact of the desert imagery: "The desert was immensely inspirational to us as a mental image for this record. Most people would take the desert on face value and think it's some kind of barren place, which of course is true. But in the right frame of mind, it's also a very positive image, because you can actually do something with blank canvas, which is effectively what the desert is." Political and social concerns were the basis for several tracks. Bono wrote the lyrics for "Bullet the Blue Sky" after visiting El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War and witnessing how the conflict between rebels and the US-backed government affected local civilians. Bono's trip also inspired "Mothers of the Disappeared", after he met members of COMADRES—the Mothers of the Disappeared—a group of women whose children were killed or "disappeared" during the civil war at the hands of the local government. For "Where the Streets Have No Name", he wrote the lyrics in response to the idea that, in Belfast, a person's religion and income can be deduced based on the street they live on. Bono described 1986 as "an incredibly bad year" for him, Bono said, "That's why the desert attracted me as an image. That year was really a desert for us." Some critics surmised that the place Bono is referring to on "Where the Streets Have No Name" is heaven. These two songs were singled out by some critics as demonstrating that the band was on a "spiritual quest". Biblical references are made on other songs like "Bullet the Blue Sky" ("Jacob wrestled the angel", images of fire and brimstone) and "In God's Country" ("I stand with the sons of Cain"). Thom Duffy interpreted the album as an exploration of the "uncertainty and pain of a spiritual pilgrimage through a bleak and harsh world". ==Packaging and title==

in the Mojave Desert during the album's 1986 photo shoot The album sleeve was designed by Steve Averill, Since the album's provisional titles were The Desert Songs and The Two Americas, , the location at which the cover photograph was shot Over several days in December 1986, U2 travelled with Corbijn and Averill on a bus around the Mojave Desert for a photo shoot. Corbijn rented a panoramic camera to capture more of the desert landscapes, but having no prior experience with the camera, he was unfamiliar with how to focus it. This led to him focusing on the background and leaving the band slightly out of focus. Corbijn said, "Fortunately there was a lot of light." Averill said of their photographic approach, "What I was trying to do with the way we shot the pictures and framed the cover was to suggest the landscape vision and cinematic approach that was taken to the recording" of the album. The following day, Bono declared that the album should be titled The Joshua Tree. Regarding the serious tone of the images, Corbijn said, "I guess people felt they took themselves too seriously. It was definitely the most serious, I think, that you can photograph a band. You couldn't go any further down that line unless you start photographing graves." Rolling Stone said that the album's title and the images of the tree befit a record concerned with "resilience in the face of utter social and political desolation, a record steeped in religious imagery". Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed created a parody of the album cover for the back of his book Billy and the Boingers Bootleg, released in August 1987. The tree photographed for the sleeve fell around 2000, yet the site remains a popular tourist attraction for U2 fans. It is a common misconception that the site is within Joshua Tree National Park, when in fact it is over away from the park. ==Release==

Just prior to the release of The Joshua Tree, Bono was stricken with a sudden panic about the quality of the completed album. He said that he contemplated calling the production plants to order a halt of the record's pressing, but he ultimately held off. Island Records spent over $100,000 on store displays advertising the album; president Lou Maglia called it "the most complete merchandising effort ever assembled". The Joshua Tree was released on 9 March 1987, It was the first new release to be made available on the compact disc, vinyl record, and cassette tape formats on the same date. "With or Without You" was released as the lead single on 21 March 1987, with the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water". The single quickly topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's first number-one hit in America. while reaching number four in the UK However, the group were unhappy with the music video filmed by Neil Jordan, and Bono had difficulty singing the song. Ultimately, the group canceled the single. Instead, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was chosen as the second single, and it was released in May 1987 with the tracks "Spanish Eyes" and "Deep in the Heart" as B-sides. Like its predecessor, it topped the Hot 100, giving U2 consecutive number-one singles in the US. The single reached number seven in the Netherlands, while charting within the top 20 of the singles charts in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. peaking at number 44 on the Hot 100 and having been written for the New Zealand-native Carroll, it reached number one in his home country. Following its 30th anniversary reissue, The Joshua Tree re-entered the Billboard 200 chart the week of 8 June 2017, climbing to number 16—its highest position on the chart since 13 February 1988. That week, it shifted 27,000 album-equivalent units, 23,000 of which were sales, making it the album's highest-selling week in the US since 3 January 1993. ==Reception==

Critical reaction The Joshua Tree received widespread critical acclaim, and the best reviews of U2's career to that point. Steve Pond of Rolling Stone wrote, "For a band that's always specialized in inspirational, larger-than-life gestures—a band utterly determined to be Important—The Joshua Tree could be the big one, and that's precisely what it sounds like." The review described the album's sound as "wed[ding] the diverse textures of The Unforgettable Fire to fully formed songs, many of them as aggressive as the hits on War". John McCready of NME praised the album as "a better and braver record than anything else that's likely to appear in 1987... It's the sound of people still trying, still looking..." Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel said the songs have "exultant power" that, "like the Joshua Tree's branches, stretch upward in stark contrast to their barren musical surroundings on rock radio". He praised the musicianship of the group members, calling Bono's vocals "wrenching", the rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton "razor-sharp", and the Edge's guitar playing "never... better". Colin Hogg of The New Zealand Herald called The Joshua Tree "the most compelling collection of music yet from a band that has cut its career with passionate, exciting slashes". It judged that the record's "power lies in its restraint" and that there is an "urgency underlying virtually all of the 11 songs". Robin Denselow of The Guardian called the album "epic", saying "what U2 have achieved is an exhilarating and varied blend of controlled power and subtelty". The review praised U2 for maturing and expanding their musical range, yet "retain[ing] their sense of power" and the "brave passion and emotion" of Bono's vocals. Qs Paul Du Noyer said that the source of The Joshua Trees "potency lies in a kind of spiritual frustration – a sense of hunger and tension which roams its every track in search of some climactic moment of release, of fulfilment, that never arrives." He concluded his review by writing that the music "has the one thing vital to worthwhile rock, a thing so often absent: the urge to exist". Spin hailed the record as U2's "first wholly successful album because it finally breaks free from the seductive but limiting chant-and-drone approach of earlier material". The review stated, "There isn't a bad song on the record" and that "every one has a hook". The magazine praised U2 for eschewing ambient experimentation in favour of uncomplicated but layered arrangements. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times said the album "confirms on record what this band has been slowly asserting for three years now on stage: U2 is what the Rolling Stones ceased being years ago—the greatest rock and roll band in the world". Hilburn noted that the band showed "sometimes breathtaking signs of growth" and played more "tailored and assured" music. Hot Press editor and longtime U2 supporter Bill Graham said that "The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions," and that U2 "must be taken very seriously indeed after this revaluation of rock". John Rockwell of The New York Times was complimentary of the band for expanding its musical range but said Bono's vocals were "marred throughout by sobbing affectation" and sounded too much like other singers, resulting in a "curious loss of individuality". The Houston Chronicles Marty Racine felt it has "music that both soothes and inspires, music that is anthemic, music with style". Racine, however, believed the group took itself too seriously, resulting in a record that is "not a whole lot of fun, bordering on the pretentious", which caused him to lose interest by the second side. Robert Christgau from The Village Voice found the lyrics tasteful and the music "mournful and passionate, stately and involved", but lamented what he felt was pompous singing by Bono, calling it "one of the worst cases of significance ever to afflict a deserving candidate for superstardom". The album placed fourth on the "Best Albums" list from The Village Voices 1987 Pazz & Jop critics' poll, and sixth on NMEs end-of-year albums list. At the Juno Awards of 1987, The Joshua Tree was nominated for International Album of the Year. In 1988, U2 received four Grammy Award nominations for the album and its songs, winning honours for Album of the Year (to beat artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Whitney Houston) and Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal for The Joshua Tree. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, but lost in both categories. U2 were the only act that year to be nominated in each of the "Big Three" categories (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year). At the American Music Awards of 1988, The Joshua Tree was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album and the band for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group. ==Commercial performance==

The Joshua Tree debuted on the UK Albums Chart on 21 March 1987 at number one with 235,000 copies sold in its opening week, making it the fastest-selling album in UK history to that point. It received a platinum certification in the UK within 48 hours of being released. The album spent two weeks atop the UK Albums Chart and spent its first 28 weeks within the top ten. In total, it charted in the UK for 201 weeks, ranking it among the longest-charting albums in the nation's history. the highest debut for a studio album in the US in almost seven years. Three weeks later, it reached number one, It remained at that position for nine consecutive weeks, the band's longest number-one reign on the chart and the second-longest reign in the US that year. 35 of them in the top ten. In Canada, the album debuted at number 51 on the RPM Top 100 Albums chart on 21 March 1987, and climbed to number one just two weeks later. The Joshua Tree also topped the charts in Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Sweden. In total, the album reached number one in over 20 countries. Rolling Stone said that the album increased the band's stature "from heroes to superstars". It was the first album by any artist to sell one million copies on CD in the US. they were just the fourth rock band to appear on the magazine's cover, following the Beatles, the Band, and the Who. By the end of 1988, The Joshua Tree had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. It was the ninth-best-selling album in the UK during the 1980s. The Joshua Tree is the band's highest-selling album, and with 25 million copies sold worldwide, it is among the highest-selling albums of all time. It ranks as one of the best-selling albums in the US; in 1995, the RIAA certified it 10× platinum for shipping 10 million units. and in 2023 it was certified 10× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. ==The Joshua Tree Tour==

Following the album's release, U2 embarked on a worldwide concert tour, the Joshua Tree Tour. Lasting from April to December 1987, it comprised 109 shows over three legs. The first and third legs visited the US, while the second leg toured Europe. and U2 used this outlet for addressing political and social concerns. One such issue was Arizona Governor Evan Mecham's canceling the state's observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Overall, the tour grossed US$56 million and sold 3.17 million tickets, but despite its commercial success and positive reviews, U2 were dissatisfied creatively, and Bono believed they were musically unprepared for their success. Mullen said, "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best", and for Bono the tour was "one of the worst times of [their] musical life". On the road, the group dealt with death threats, along with injuries that Bono sustained from performing. The band hinted that the stresses of touring led them to enjoy the "rock and roll lifestyle" they previously avoided. ==Legacy==

In a retrospective review of The Joshua Tree, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said "their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier". His review concluded, "Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal." Entertainment Weeklys Bill Wyman wrote that the album combined "easy-to-grasp themes – alienation and an outsider’s ambivalent view of America – with an extremely focused musical attack". The Joshua Tree has been acclaimed by writers and music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1997, The Guardian collated worldwide data from a range of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs, who placed the record at number 57 on the list of the "100 Best Albums Ever". It was ranked 25th in Colin Larkin's 2000 book All Time Top 1000 Albums. In a poll of VH1 viewers the following year, The Joshua Tree was voted the greatest pop album of all time, based on responses from over 250,000 people. Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 26 on their 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Subsequent updates to the list re-ranked the album; the 2012 version ranked it 27th, writing that the album "turn[ed] spiritual quests and political struggles into uplifting stadium singalongs", and the 2020 version of the list ranked it 135th. In 2006, Time named The Joshua Tree one of the magazine's 100 best albums, while Hot Press ranked it 11th on a similar list. Q named it the best record of the 1980s, while Entertainment Weekly included the album on its list of the 100 best records released between 1983 and 2008. In 2010, the album appeared at number 62 on Spins list of the 125 most influential albums in the 25 years since the magazine launched. The publication said, "The band's fifth album spit out hits like crazy, and they were unusually searching hits, each with a pointed political edge." The same year, Consequence of Sound ranked The Joshua Tree 34th on its list of "The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time", calling it "Arguably the biggest album of the 1980s" and "proof that lightning can be captured in a bottle". In 2012, Slant Magazine ranked it 24th on its list of the "Best Albums of the 1980s", saying that The Joshua Trees opening trio of songs helped "the band became lords and emperors of anthemic '80s rock" and that "U2 no longer belonged to Dublin, but the world." In 2018, Pitchfork ranked the record 47th on its list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s", writing that the album's "brilliant tension" and continued resonance was the result of Eno and Lanois "steer[ing] U2 toward a moody impressionism where slide guitars and three chord progressions sound cavernous, even ominous". In 2024, Apple Music ranked The Joshua Tree 49th on its 100 Best Albums list. The Buffalo News said the record "made [U2] the first mainstream band since the Beatles to capture the spirit of the age in a manner that was both populist and artistically, politically and socially incisive", while humanities scholar Henry Vyverberg considered it among the minority of attempts at "serious art" during a decade in which the rock genre largely "remained musical junk-food". From Josh Tyrangiel's perspective, The Joshua Tree began a "towering period" of U2's history lasting through 1993's Zooropa when they "made stadium-size art rock with huge melodies that allowed Bono to throw his arms around the world while bending its ear about social justice". WYMS journalist Mitchell Kreitzman credited it with exposing "alternative music to the masses", and Kevin J. H. Dettmar cited it as the most commercially and critically successful album "yet to emerge from alternative or college rock". In 2014, The Joshua Tree was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for becoming "part of our musical, social, and cultural history". That same year, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the US Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is the only Irish work to be so honoured. The band's penchant for addressing political and social issues, as well as their staid depiction in Corbijn's black-and-white sleeve photographs, contributed to the group's earnest and serious image as "stone-faced pilgrim[s]". This image became a target for derision after the band's critically maligned Rattle and Hum project in 1988. "pompous bores", The group's continued exploration of American music for the project was labelled "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". After Bono told fans on the 1989 Lovetown Tour that U2 would "dream it all up again", the band reinvented themselves in the 1990s. They incorporated alternative rock, electronic dance music, and industrial music into their sound, and adopted a more ironic, flippant image by which they embraced the "rock star" identity they struggled with in the 1980s. Bono referred to their 1991 album Achtung Baby as "the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree". ==20th anniversary remastered edition==

On 20 November 2007, a 20th anniversary edition of The Joshua Tree was released. The album was remastered from the original analogue recordings under the direction of the Edge, with the original vinyl album artwork restored. In an otherwise favourable review of the remastered album, Andrew Mueller of Uncut said that "any casual listener who can perceive a meaningful difference between this and the original has i) ears like a bat and/or ii) needs to get out more". including the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)", "Walk to the Water", "Spanish Eyes", "Deep in the Heart", "Silver and Gold", "Sweetest Thing", and "Race Against Time". The edited single version of "Where the Streets Have No Name" appears on the bonus CD. "Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience" contains lyrics from the introduction to William Blake's Songs of Experience, "Wave of Sorrow (Birdland)", "Desert of Our Love", "Rise Up", and "Drunk Chicken/America" are all previously unreleased recordings from The Joshua Tree sessions. The bonus DVD includes live concert footage, a documentary, and two music videos. The disc includes Live from Paris, an 85-minute concert from 4 July 1987 that was originally broadcast on British television in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Island Records. The documentary, titled ''Outside It's America'', was a 1987 MTV production about The Joshua Tree Tour. The two music videos are an alternate version "With or Without You" and the previously unreleased video for "Red Hill Mining Town". Footage of U2's alter ego country band, the Dalton Brothers, is included on the disc as an Easter egg. ==30th anniversary tour and reissue==

For the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree, U2 staged a 2017 concert tour in North America, Europe, and Latin America, on which they played the album in its entirety at each show. It was the first time the group toured in promotion of an album from their back catalogue, rather than a new release. As part of the tour, U2 headlined the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, in June. In rationalising the tour, the Edge cited the 2016 US presidential election and other world events for what he judged to be renewed resonance of The Joshua Trees subject matter: The 2017 tour grossed more than $316 million from over 2.7 million tickets sold, making it the highest-grossing tour of the year. Additional tour dates were added for Oceania and Asia in 2019, which included the band's first ever performances in South Korea, Singapore, India, and the Philippines. The 2019 shows grossed $73.8 million and sold 567,000 tickets, bringing the cumulative totals for the group's Joshua Tree anniversary tours to $390.8 million grossed and 3.3 million tickets sold. On 2 June 2017, the album was reissued in several formats in commemoration of its 30th anniversary. Standard editions of the album were released on CD, vinyl record, and via digital download. Deluxe editions, available on CD and digitally, include a concert recording of a 1987 show at Madison Square Garden from the Joshua Tree Tour. In addition to the concert, the super deluxe editions, available on CD, vinyl record, and digitally, include: B-sides and rarities; and remixes of the album's songs made in 2017 by Daniel Lanois, St Francis Hotel, Jacknife Lee, Steve Lillywhite, and Flood. The physical copies of the super deluxe edition include eight folio prints and an 84-page book of photography shot by the Edge during the album cover's 1986 photoshoot in the Mojave Desert. ==Track listing==

Personnel taken from The Joshua Tree liner notes, except where noted. U2 • Bono – vocals, harmonica • The Edge – guitars, backing vocals, piano • Adam Clayton – bass guitar • Larry Mullen Jr. – drums Additional performers • Brian Eno – keyboards, DX7 programming, backing vocals • Daniel Lanois – tambourine, Omnichord, additional guitar, backing vocals • The Armin Family –  • Dick Armin – Raad cello • Paul Armin – Raad viola • Adele Armin – Raad violin • The Arklow Silver Band – brass • Paul Barrett – brass arrangement and conducting Technical • Daniel Lanois – production • Brian Eno – production • Flood – recording • Dave Meegan – additional engineering • Pat McCarthy – additional engineering • Steve Lillywhite – mixing • Mark Wallis – mix engineering • Mary Kettle – assistant mix engineering • Bob Doidge – string recording • Joe O'Herlihy – studio crew • Des Broadberry – studio crew • Tom Mullally – studio crew • Tim Buckley – studio crew • Marc Coleman – studio crew • Mary Gough – studio crew • Marion Smyth – studio crew • Kirsty MacColl – album track sequencing • Anton Corbijn – photography • Steve Averill – design, layout ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==