Classic Albums: U2 The Joshua Tree

U2 The Joshua Tree is an album that's taken root since its 1987 release.
The band's fifth album has sold an impressive 25 million copies. (For fun, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and Phil Collins' No Jacket Required also sold the same number of copies.)
The Joshua Tree earned U2 two Grammy Awards, album of the year and best rock performance by a duo or group.
Two singles from the album, With or Without You and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, hit No. 1 in the United States.
2017 marks the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree's release.
Beat the rush and watch Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree now.
This film fan is also a huge lover of music. The Classic Albums series has explored how more than 40 albums, including Peter Gabriel's So, Steely Dan's Aja and The Doors' self-titled 1967 album were created.
The approach is the same with each album. Give some background about the band before said album came out. Interview the musicians and producers associated with the album. Include snippets of a contemporary performance of some of the album's songs, cut in music video and live concert footage. Voila, an hour-long episode of Classic Albums.
Too bad my DVD copy of Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree included no bonus footage.
But you do get to see Daniel Lanois and Bono sitting side-by-side at a mixing board talking about the album's songs (Bono on I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: "It's a very odd sounding song."), The Edge sharing his favorite guitar solo from The Joshua Tree. Hint - it's "the most chilled non-dramatic guitar part," who came up with the drum loop to start Mothers of the Disappeared and how many versions of Bullet the Blue Sky were brought together.
Adam Clayton gets one of the doc's best lines when he describes The Edge's demo of Where the Streets Have No Name: "It just seemed like a way of f------ the band up."
Co-producer Brian Eno makes a neat observation about "the creative collision" that helped create The Joshua Tree near the episode's end.
Don't recall previous Classic Albums' episodes delving into B sides, but Sweetest Thing gets some love here. A good chunk of the video for the flip side of Where the Streets Have No Name rounds out this doc.
RATING: 8/10
FUN FACTS: U2 became the third rock band to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine following the release of Where the Streets Have No Name. The Beatles and The Who were first and second.