Episode 129: U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987) Part 1

As evidenced by the title of this episode, Brian and Sarah are taking a bit of a detour from their look back at the 1989 Queen album, "The Miracle." They're thrilled to be joined by Tom Austin-Morgan, who, among his many talents, is creator and host of the terrific podcast Banned Biographies. Banned Biographies is "an audio documentary series charting the careers of some of the most notorious bands ever to grace the world's stages."

Brian, Sarah and Tom wanted to discuss an album together, and after a few ideas were bounced back and forth, they decided to kind of meet in the middle, musically, and tackle an epic album-- not just of the 1980s, but of the entire rock 'n' roll era-- U2's 1987 opus, "The Joshua Tree." Brian and Sarah had to admit they weren't really familiar with the album much beyond the big singles. Tom had more of a history with it, but was still not intimately knowledgeable on it off the top of his head. The three hosts had their work cut out for them in the research department, but they prove worthy of the task by the amount of information they convey in this first episode.

The trio start off by talking about the recording of "The Joshua Tree", which took place over the course of a year, but was interrupted by some rather life-changing events, which in turn shaped the lyrical/thematic content and sound of the album. They then spend time talking about the worldwide chart and sales success of the record, both immediate and lasting, and its ranking on various lists of albums over the years. Brian and Sarah can't help but bring up the cover art as well, as it allows them the opportunity to mention Anton Corbijn, who of course also works with their favorite band, Depeche Mode.

After a very long lead-up, Tom, Brian and Sarah finally get around to the song discussion. But the first song of the album is so massive, and has such a memorable video, that the trio decide to end the episode after wrapping up their look at "Where The Streets Have No Name."

If you want to hear conversation on such diverse topics as Lou Reed, chalkboards, Mission: Impossible, the vocabulary of Smash Hits writers, and Where's Waldo/Where's Wally-- oh, and a band from Ireland called U2-- this is the episode for you!

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