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I’ve been to two U2 concerts, and everyone can sing the words to the songs and moves to the music, but no one was pouring their heart out in the same way they do in the privacy and solitude of the open desert. The experience was fascinating and poignant, it was like watching culture unfold right in front of us. However, sifting through the tributes, there was a sense that for some people, the music had been life-changing. We are fans of U2, of course, and we always seek out places with musical connections on our travels, like Muscle Shoals, Motown and the Woodstock site.
U2 the joshua tree cover install#
What brings a bunch of strangers to the same dead tree in the desert? Why did someone seemingly leave a relative’s remains at the site? What possessed a small group of devoted fans led by an LA guitar designer to install a plaque – a proper concrete and engraved bronze plaque to permanently mark the spot where the tree will one day turn to dust? My husband holding a tattered copy of the Joshua Tree album sleeve Bones, presumably, human with small plaque remembering the deceased Bronze plaque reading “Have you found what you’re looking for?” Looking northeast across the desert to the Sierra Nevadas with a next-generation of Joshua Tree in the foreground I could have spent all day reading the guest book and contemplating the profound impact of music on people’s lives. Meaning in the musicįor years they have searched the desert, album covers in hand, looking for the right scenery, the distinctive form of one tree on a landscape – for what? What did this tree symbolize to each of these pilgrims? Yet people were still seeking out its desolate resting place. Looking around us, the decaying yucca is literally in the middle of a windy nowhere with a view of the white-peaked Sierra Nevada in the distance.
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Guitars, symbols, signs and even human bones surround the fallen tree trunk. The protective case was filled with treasures left by pilgrims past, among more sizeable tributes to the band. That reflection came from a metal case marked “U2” inside the outline of a heart. It could have been rubbish, but as we followed a dry creek bed into the expansive plain, we knew it had to be the spot. A sharp reflection that could not come from anything natural in the desert. Yet, scanning the horizon we saw an unnatural glint. The scraggly centenarian blew over in 2000, complicating the hunt for its location. Thirty-three years later, armed with GPS coordinates and vague instructions we went in search of the old Tree. One of those images became the centrefold of The Joshua Tree album sleeve, a record that has sold in excess of 25 million copies. The band trekked a quarter-mile from the roadside to snap a few quick photos before filing back onto their LA-bound bus. As The Edge described in the autobiographical U2 by U2, “It felt right to follow the music and lyrics into the landscape we had tried to conjure up and shoot our cover in the desert.”įollowing California Route 190, Corbijn spotted this lonely Joshua with its chaotic limbs.