Talk:The Joshua Tree

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I was wondering if anybody knows much about the inspiration and motivation that the Joshua Tree area in CA provided the band during or around the recording of the album.

I believe the US release date of "The Joshua Tree" was March 16, 1987. Can someone confirm?

RIAA says March 9. Walmart says March 16, but I can't see anywhere else that does. --Fantailfan

Contents

[edit] Individual song articles

I added articles for every song on the album, according to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs guidelines. They could use some work, though. --Kristbg 20:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Eulogy, not Elegy

I think. Maybe someone should fix this?

Elegy is correct, as it is here "used for a poem of mourning," see Elegy. --Fantailfan 18:06, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cover art

The "US" cover art isn't really specific to the US; it was used for the CD edition everywhere (including the UK, until 2000, when it was re-released with the undistorted cover). The "UK" cover art was used for the vinyl edition everywhere (including the US).

I think the vinyl cover is the canonical one (the CD and cassette covers are variants on it, after all), so let's use that in the infobox.

--typhoon 17:57, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

No, seriously. --typhoon 06:41, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
By the vinyl and UK covers, you mean the wider, undistorted image? I'd support you on that one. It was on my 1987 cassette verion of JT. It's an icon. THe distorted one is, well, just muck. The expressions, mood and landscape are just obliterated. But currently with the distorted one at the bottom is good, right? --Merbabu 06:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
Oh, i see what you mean - the distorted one isn't just US? I have seen the distorted cover in Australia, but the "widescreen" has made a comeback. --Merbabu 06:48, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

This main image is not the original UK LP cover, where the typography ran along the top, although at least it's the right photograph. It seems to be from a CD reissue.

LP was still the dominant format in 1987 - the main image should therefore be of the original LP.

[edit] Sources

I've tagged this article for not having sources- it's not anything super major, although this statement sets off a red light for me:

It is considered by many their commercial and critical breakthrough.

I have heard it said before too, but others would argue that The Unforgettable Fire was the breakthrough album. Either way, statements like that need to be sourced. There's also a lot of history on the album, and information on the meanings of the songs. That's good, but unfortunately almost all of it is unsourced too. We shouldn't be able to go and infer what the artists meant and felt unless we have a source where they say it themselves, or a reputable music publication makes the assertion.

While it could be a challenge, it shouldn't be too hard to get citations for an album of this magnitude.--Wafulz 22:52, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

I found them. You can find teh information on the DVD The Joshua Tree, a documentary about the album.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.134.85.142 (talk • contribs)

[edit] Death of the tree

How terrible. That image was an icon. It looks great in the colour photo in the link i added. [1] Merbabu 13:54, 11 April 2007 (UTC) -I contributed most of the "Themes" section, and much of the information is from the "Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree" DVD (2000). -Pearsong, October 6, 2006.

[edit] GA

Considering how well-written and sourced this article seems to be, I'm very surprised that it hasn't had a GA nomination up to this point. If nobody objects, I would like to nominate it for GA. Thoughts? MelicansMatkin (talk) 22:46, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

No objections before I submit? MelicansMatkin (talk) 20:48, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Working title

It's been mentioned many times by the band (most recently in the Deluxe Edition of the 20th anniversary re-release) that the original working title for the album was "The Two America's", taken from the fact that the band was trying to balance the "mythic idea of America" and the "realty of America". I can't help but feel that this should be added into the article (maybe under History?), but I'm not sure where in that section to place it, or how to phrase it. Could anybody give some help on this? MelicansMatkin (talk) 23:02, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

A number of songs from this album have been tagged for merging here. These articles fail WP:MUSIC:

Most songs do not merit an article and should redirect to another relevant article, such as for a prominent album or for the artist who wrote or prominently performed the song. Songs that have been ranked on national or significant music charts, that have won significant awards or honors or that have been performed independently by several notable artists, bands or groups are probably notable. A separate article is only appropriate when there is enough verifiable material to warrant a reasonably detailed article; permanent stubs should be merged to articles about an artist or album.

If any of these songs have charted, received any awards, been featured in major films or TV shows or anything else that makes them notable according to WP:MUSIC, please update these articles (with references) and remove the {{tl:mergeto}} tag. Otherwise, please merge them into this article for the album.

Could you please list the songs from this album that you would like to see merged? MelicansMatkin (talk) 16:25, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
Red Hill Mining Town --Rtphokie (talk) 17:05, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ref problem

While looking for something else I clicked on some of the ref links here and #24 comes up as a 404 error. It's site is still there just the direct link is dead, so the ref needs to be updated. How are the rest of these on-line refs? Kresock (talk) 05:22, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

What I have done another case like this is (no crap) to look at the history back to when it was first added and put the accessdate= flag to that date in the cite. Since it's a php page it is ephemeral and should not have been used as the cite url. Fantailfan (talk) 18:00, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
This from WP:CITE may help. Essentially it says that a ref should not be removed simply because it's link has gone dead. (assuming of course that it was suitable in the first place). --Merbabu (talk) 01:30, 27 April 2008 (UTC)