U2 “The Joshua Tree” released 35 years ago today, March 9th, 1987. Island Records. I got this copy on April 19th, 1987: I generally do not record the exact day that an album comes into my collection but this was my “Easter basket” that year, hidden cleverly behind a large piece of artwork in my parents’ living room (I was just shy of 16 and found it in like 2 minutes) so that makes it easy to remember. This is also the last U2 album I was actually excited about; they have had plenty of great songs since but my interest in owning their records halted abruptly after my profound disappointment in Rattle and Hum.

The Joshua Tree marked U2′s ascension from “heroes to superstars” (Rolling Stone), generated their only #1 singles in the US (“With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”) and became one of the world’s best-selling albums of all-time, earning placement in the National Recording Registry by the US Library of Congress. It was their 5th LP and went to #1 virtually everywhere, including the US and the UK. It’s also tangled up in a lot of teenage angst, heartbreak and joy for me as being 15 almost 16 is super-complicated. Thirty-five years later, I still really love it – every single soaring, over-the-top jangled note. Besides the two #1 singles, I particularly love “Where the Streets Have No Name” (#4 UK, #13 US), “Running to Stand Still,” “In God’s Country” (#44 US) and “One Tree Hill.” “Mothers of the Disappeared” is also beautiful but so devastatingly sad that it’s difficult to listen to, especially knowing that it’s about the the Madres de Plaza de Mayo whose children were “forcibly disappeared” at the hands of the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships. (Wiki)