With or without you.

I'm lying on the bed listening to really cheesy pop music with the intention to write a post about an Irish rock band. I wonder how that will end up...it seems that life has changed so much this past year that even the music needed a change. Not a permanent one guys don't worry, it's just temporary, I need some background music to shut down my mind and whats better for that then some stupid pop? But then I always loved Michael Jackson and he's the King of pop so... Anyways after I spent the entire Sunday morning driving my neighbours wild with my favorite albums, such as Skid row, Dr. Feelgood, Cherry pie, Hysteria etc, today I'm more into easier rock...

And you know what's the funny part? I was never a fan, probably never will be, I like them as people, mad respect to Bono for all he does, but this album? This album is perfect, really, no other words for it. Took them five tries to get it right no? Hah, come on light up I'm joking. They're great musicians just not for everyone's taste.

So Joshua tree came out in 1987, clearly it's very influenced by politics and literature and of course their tour experiences, not to mention a couple of events that went down during the recording process. Such as the benefit concert in the Conspiracy of Hope for Amnesty International *no it's not a rock band, don't ask me again*, the death of their roadie Greg *listen to the song One tree hill* and of course their American travels, which can also be shown in the photography done for the album, them in the American deserts, huge open spaces...if only minds in America were as open as their landscapes are.

Joshua tree though received critical acclaim *A7X pun* but yet topped all the charts in over 20 countries world wide not to mention became the fastest selling album in British history. Isn't it ironic? Here I am writing about all these albums that reached crazy sales, topped the charts, so on and these days, ''musicians'' such as Justin Bieber *did I even spell that right? Got so used of calling him beaver* and Katy Perry and One direction do the same. How? I will never understand it. Though One direction I can live with some of their lyrics are alright, and one of them is really cute but the rest, Nicky Minaj? Lord have mercy.

Course Joshua tree is U2's best, giving us the hits such as With or without you, Still haven't found what I'm looking for, Where the streets have no name, aparently or so at least our radio stations seem to think that's all they ever wrote, well maybe sometimes they play Angel of harlem by mistake which by the way is also a great song. With or without you and Still haven't found were their number ones in America, the only two if I'm not mistaking and they also got a Grammy for Album of the year and Best rock preformance, back in the day when Grammy actually made sense, these days when Bieber and Minaj are nominated? Let's just not have the awards no more huh? I'm serious, and why is there no category for heavy metal? Or any other type of metal? Give a chance to the bands such as Iron maiden? I'm just saying.

You often see these ''best albums of all time'' lists, most by the Rolling stones magazine and though lately I got the feeling they don't know what the hell they're doing, who makes a list of 100 best guitarists and the ONLY woman on is is Joni Mitchell? Is that a joke? How about Nita and Orianti? I mean those ladies kick ass. And best drummers with no Lars Ulrich? Is that a joke or...? My point, this album is often on those best - greatest albums of all time list and here I gotta agree. It's one of the best selling records with over 25 million copies sold, currently being 10 times platinum and they just ''honored'' that with a re release and a tour, which I actually wanted to see but didn't get the chance, never mind the price alone, getting tickets was worse then fucking Hunger games.

I think what I admire most is the fact that Bono wrote all the lyrics himself. These days bands, musicians have up to 10 lyricists and their music still sucks, *cough you dirty hoe cough* Bono writes about America, their freedom, nature, ideals, the greed of Ronald Reagan administration. He saw the truth if you put it that way, the actual America and the myth the lie if you will.

Here's a quote on the entire thing from the man himself; "I love being there, I love America, I love the feeling of the wide open spaces, I love the deserts, I love the mountain ranges, I even love the cities. So having fallen in love with America over the years that we've been there on tour, I then had to 'deal with' America and the way it was affecting me, because America's having such an effect on the world at the moment. On this record I had to deal with it on a political level for the first time, if in a subtle way."

Isn't desert really inspirational though? Look at it as a blank canvas. It's amazing. Like the Grand Canyon or Antelope canyon? Not exactly a blank canvas the last two but amazing none the less.

Several tracks are obviously very political and social, like Bullet in the blue sky, that one was written after a visit to El Salvador during their Civil war and the band seeing the rebels and a government backed up by the US and the civilians in between. He talks about Reagan in the middle of the song ''face red like a rose on a thorn bush'', he had no idea it can be worse did he? The song Mothers of the disappeared is also a song written in that time about the group of women that lost their children during said war. Bono said that 86' was a really bad year which is what reflects in this album. Personal issues, marriage problems, Greg dying, the media critisising them for their political involvment.

Cute story, the tree on the cover died in 2000. Natural causes mind you. I read an intreview once saying that they were driving somewhere near Death Valley looking for that perfect photo scene when they came across this tree, aparently it's amazing finding this tree growing alone because they're always growing in groups. Aparently they pulled over doing a quick 20 minute shoot and guess what? It was cold not hot as one would believe. The spontaneous nature of the shoot of course means that nobody knew the real location of the tree. Bono joked once in a magazine that it's best people don't know where it is or else he fears some fan might come to a show going ''Bono look I've got THE tree''. Hah.

He wasn't mistaking either, I read that those crazy hardcore fans actually did find the damn tree eventually. Which is why they knew it died in 2000 at the are around 200 years old and a very dedicated fan left a plaque next to the remains of the tree saying ''Have you found what you're looking for?'' I kinda feel like saying ''my god those crazy fans'' but then I remember I'm just as crazy if not more when it's about my own bands so I best sit down and shut up.

There's rock albums and then there's rock albums you know, albums that you listen to in your car on your way to work and you enjoy them no doubt but they're not albums that make you think, make you feel. And you know what a smart man once told me? If music makes you feel nothing you're just listening to the wrong kind. But this music will make you feel, if you close your eyes and listen to Bono's voice you can almost feel what he felt when he wrote those songs, it's amazing and it's powerful and it has a message. It's such a shame though that most people will never hear that message because they hear the notes but they don't hear the words.