U2 Caricature

U2 Caricature, illustrated here in December 1986 of the band on the Joshua Tree album cover photo at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley with Larry Mullen Jr, Adam Clayton, The Edge and Bono.

The Joshua Tree album’s working title was “The Desert Songs” and “The Two Americas” and recorded in Dublin; the band chose to shoot in the U.S., not in Ireland as they had in all previous albums.

The idea of using a Joshua Tree photo came from photographer Anton Corbijn, who suggested the band should travel through the Mojave Desert to take pictures.
Corbijn recounts that Bono consulted a Bible and was taken by how the tree got its name from Mormon settlers who thought its limbs reminded them of the Old Testament story of Joshua lifting his hands in prayer. Bono liked the name so much it became the album title.

On the second day of the shoot, Corbijn spotted the lone Joshua Tree off Route 190 near Darwin in the Mojave desert, an unusual sight because the trees were usually seen in clusters.
They stopped the bus and photographed with the lone plant for about 20 minutes, something the Edge called “fairly spontaneous”.
Winds felled the famous tree in 2000.

Despite its title, the album’s cover photo wasn’t shot in Joshua Tree National Park in San Bernardino County.
It was taken at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park in Inyo County – more than 200 miles from Joshua Tree.

Corbijn rented a panoramic camera to capture more of the desert landscapes, but having no prior experience with the camera, he was unfamiliar with how to focus it. This led to him focusing on the background and leaving the band slightly out of focus.

U2 has put out eight albums since “The Joshua Tree,” but it remains the band’s best-selling album with more than 20 million sold.
The album produced the hit singles “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The Edge’s guitar playing on The Joshua Tree is characteristic of what came to be his trademark sound.

The Joshua Tree tour was the first time the band performed in stadiums.
The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988.

Even though the tree is no longer there, but on the Lee Flat plain, in northwest Death Valley, many more have been planted. A local biologist, James Cornett, has embraced the positivist vision of the Native American tribes. The Lee Flat trees are healthier than the ones in Joshua Tree park. In a hundred years, they will be the most numerous and important tree species in California.