U2 — The Joshua Tree

U2 -- The Joshua Tree

• Artist: U2
• Title: The Joshua Tree
• Year: 1987
• Format: Vinyl 12 in.
• Rating (1-10): 10
• Owner: Mary and Tracy, two copies
• Acquired: Mary? Tracy’s copy is a promo.

The Joshua Tree by U2 came out in 1987. That’s the same year I met my wife. Our 17th wedding anniversary was yesterday. Instead of doing something special with my lady I spent the entire day finishing a web project I had committed to do. Fortunately, to know me is to love me and she continues to put up with that kind of silliness. Of course, I love her completely. We’re just getting started.

In addition to my sentimentality about the year 1987, I have other reasons to really like The Joshua Tree. I didn’t enjoy the recent playing of The Unforgettable Fire that much. So, I was not expecting to love this one. And I was wrong. This album is incredible. I even like the hits despite hearing them thousands of times. I have to wonder if there was an inside joke around the first two songs being “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” My favorites are “Bullet the Blue Sky” and “Red Hill Mining Town.”

Another memory I have attached to this album is from the live tour. I didn’t go see the band this time, but I did sell tickets. I was working at a small chain called Mother’s Records in Hampton. We sold tickets there. U2 came to the Hampton Coliseum in December for two highly anticipated shows. People were coming at me from everywhere in an attempt to score tickets. I remember a guy from the shoe store down the way trying to bribe me with something like $50. The concert promoter made sure that kind of thing would not happen. They sent agents to stand watch over every ticket machine until the shows sold out. Even our employees at the store who wanted tickets ended up sleeping in the long line overnight. I had just recently been made Assistant Manager at this store and for some reason the higher-ups thought it was a good idea to let me be the manager to open the store the morning the tickets went on sale.

I got to work early and saw the fattest, longest line of would-be ticket holders line I have ever seen. As I walked closer to the store some people in line began to recognize me and started yelling and clapping. I felt like I was the rock star, but that didn’t last long. Once tickets went on sale and other stores opened it seemed every other store in the mall was complaining to mall security and the police about the chaos. I was only 21 years old and really had no clue what everyone expected me to do to solve the problem. In the meantime, every time the promoter’s watchdog turned his head or talked to someone the teenage staff at the ticket counter were printing extras and squirreling them away as fast as they could. I think it took about two hours to sell out, but it seemed like an eternity. The next year the mall wouldn’t renew the store’s lease, primarily because of that one day with the rowdy U2 fans.

A few weeks later Mary and I went on our first official date. It was not a rock concert.