"The Joshua Tree seemed to in some ways to mirror the changes that were happening in the world during the Thatcher/Reagan period," says Adam in the new edition of MOJO, which hits the streets next week. "It seems like we've kind of come full circle and we're back there with a different cast of characters."
In a lengthy cover story for MOJO's April issue, band members talk about the songs and circumstances of their 30-year-old masterpiece, an album that grappled with the myths and realities of an America they were just beginning to discover.
"The trips to Salvador and Nicaragua were really eye-opening," recalls Bono. "I went with this sort of leftist Christian group who were smuggling people out. But we also went into rebel-backed territory and got a fright when we witnessed, I guess from a distance, the firebombing of rebel territory."
As well as talking to the band about "dark parallels between 1987 and 2017", the new issue comes with a 15-track CD 'Desert Songs': 15 tracks of cosmic roots music, the perfect companion to a drive out to Joshua Tree in search of the American Dream... The Gun Club, Meat Puppets, Howe Gelb, Victoria Williams, Lift To Experience.'
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