It was the 80's and the time when music was great. I remember watching the videos on a black and white TV in rural Cape Breton Island . My Dad who has since passed away would play air guitar ( Yes I said air guitar LOL) to I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For" .To this day the song brings tears to my eyes . I look forward to hearing it live in Toronto in June . Connie H

The Joshua Tree came out just after I got out of college. I was already a fan of U2 going back to the song New Years Day and when Joshua Tree album dropped I remember going to my local department store and getting the cassette. Within 2 weeks I had to buy another cassette from playing it so much. Each song is powerful. Every song you feel the emotion each of them put into it and flows through my soul filling my spirit up with good feelings that are like an religious feeling. Can't wait to share that experience in Chicago June 4th.

The Joshua Tree powerfully captures the heart of the struggle that comes with life-especially life lived in the desert(either literally or metaphorically). In many ways, it has become a "sound track" for treks into the Baja desert of Mexico some of us take annually to lead teams of volunteers in the building of homes for families caught in severe poverty. This is something we've done for nearly 30 years-something that can be traced back to our being at the Philadelphia Joshua Tree show in the old Memorial Stadium nearly 30 years ago. Each year right after we cross the border into the desert of Mexico, we have a tradition of turning up Streets With No Name as we drive through the streets (many with no names) of rural Tijuana to our base camp. Each time we go, the incredible lyrics of this iconic album help us re-think through why we do this. The lyrics have also inspired a few of us to write a daily devotional book using desert-related Bible passages. I'm grateful for The Joshua Tree which has encouraged so many of us through the years in our quest to impact the world for Good.

I was 33 years old when The Joshua Tree came out but I had been a fan for a while before that - ever since Live Aid. I was in a band of my own with my ex - good band, bad marriage (we divorced two years later). I saw the band on that tour at Madison Square Garden and in New Haven. Both shows were an amazing experience - Bono was in a sling from a fall at a previous show but it was an incredble concert nonetheless. The songs have remained very important to me ever since - "With Or Without You" was pretty much the theme song for my subsequent divorce, and it can still makes me tear up a little. To this very day the opening chords of "Where the Streets Have No Name" have an effect on me that I can barely describe - tears, goosebumps, just a complete physical and emotional rush and it never gets old and it never diminishes. When I see them in Boston in June this year, it will happen again and I'll love every minute of it, just as I did the first time. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". I finally did, but I listened to that song the whole time I was looking for it. In short, it seems The Joshua Tree ended up being the soundtrack for my entire life. In many ways I guess it still is.

I took a chance and bought this album (vinyl, of course) the day it came out. I was in college and was going through a difficult transition into adulthood. I played the album in my dorm room, full blast, while contemplating my future and my life. Each side was played in its entirety, repeatedly. It still is the most important album in my collection.

First time I listened to The Joshua Tree album was at the Orem Public Library. I'd walk there every Saturday to listen to U2 tapes, starting with Boy...they had it in '82. They wouldn't let you check them out, so you could only listen to them on their cassette stations. Was incredible...because of it, I walked there (only six miles round trip) twice a week. Got a lot of listening and studying done. M

I was 21 when The Joshua Tree landed. Fond memories slow dancing with then girlfriend Leanne to With or Without You at Vancouver's Luv Affair. (RIP!) Saw the Joshua Tree tour with friend Tom and a large posse of partying freaks. U2 managed to make the cavernous BC Place Stadium an intimate venue. Very special show, great album and can't wait to see it live again!

I was on a ski trip with my brother. When we came down out of the mountains to buy it on opening day. I know everyone says this, but I'll never forget that first listen. It was like nothing we'd ever heard before. It single-handedly changed the direction of 80's music and still sounds like it was written and recorded yesterday.

Growing up in a strict religious home, I was not allowed to listen to U2 because (according to someone who gave a seminar on rock music at our church) U2 had a song called "Sunday Bloody Sunday". I met my (now) husband at Bible College in the Fall of 1986. He was a "preacher's kid" who fell in love with U2 years before. When I heard that, I was ecstatic. Now that they were considered "OK" to listen to (LOL), I wanted to make up for lost time. The Joshua Tree was released a few days before our engagement. It's the very first CD that my husband ever bought (before he even had a CD player) and it's what we listened to in the car during long drives between Ohio and Wisconsin to visit each other. It made for a very memorable summer. Now, this year, we are celebrating our 30th anniversary which will include a trip to see U2 perform the Joshua Tree in Chicago! I couldn't imagine a 30th anniversary celebration without them!

I had seen U2 before. They played a tiny venue called "Club Foot" in Austin, TX in the early early 80's when I was a student at The University of Texas. I believe they played "I Will Follow" twice since they didn't have a lot of material then. I thought they were OK. I then saw them at an outdoor venue called "The Meadows" in Austin, TX on their White Flag tour, in June of 1983. I once again thought they were OK. Although this time, the crowd got unruly with the white flag and I remember Bono stopped singing, said "White Flag, fighting, stupid"...The thugs that had taken it and played around with it dutifully gave it back to Bono. That was the first time I thought, "he has some cajones" MTV came out with the New Year's Day video and I liked the material, the video and the song although I had many other favorite bands. I moved to England in 1984 to go to school at the University of Bristol. I was taking French lessons in a small studio on Queen's Road next to a small record store. After class, I wandered in there just by happenstance, as I had never set foot in their. At the front were a bunch on cassettes and chalk boards that read, "New Release Today" for the band U2. Never having purchased a U2 album, I thought, what the heck, I'll buy it since it's a first day release. I took it back to my dorm/flat, put it on and that first listen will stick in my mind FOREVER. The 'A' side had me completely and utterly floored. I had never heard such wonderful music in my life. I went from being luke warm about U2 to mega fan in less that 30 minutes. Then I played the 'B' side and after hearing songs as good as or better than the 'A' side, I knew within the hour this was, BY FAR, the best album ever made. I was simply in a stupor. That summer, I saw them in Cardiff Arms with a little English chick. She was cute as hell and we had drove my motorbike to Temple Meads train station in Bristol to take the train from Bristol to Cardiff. I was cursing because we had to carry our motor bike helmets to Cardiff but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The Pretenders opened for U2 and some hooligan blokes started tossing empty, pint of whiskey, bottles from far behind us as we stood on the pitch. It became so dangerous that we put our motorbike helmets on. So there we are, listening to the best live concert I had ever been to, dancing our ass off with motor bike helmets on. The bloke next to me turned around to see what was going on and got hit smack in the gob. He was bleeding all over the place as he fell to the ground. The concert was so great, I just lent him a hand to get up after he came to...and kept jamming!! Since that evening I bought the cassette and I bought the vinyl LP. Then a year later I bought the cassette again because I wore it out. Then I bought the cassette a third time after I wore it out again, before the CD came out. Then I bought the CD and I bought the entire album on iTunes when the iPhone came out. I bought the digitally remastered version on CD and then bought an iPod that was the special U2 addition. I bought The Joshua Tree in cassette, vinyl, CD's and digital over a dozen times!! My son, of course, is named Joshua. Joshua and myself will go to the concert together this summer and close the loop that was opened when he was born on December 7th, 1995. He loves U2 as well and we are both looking forward to the event that changed my life forever. On several occasions, I have had a recurring dream about Bono. I am always on a beach, just near dusk and I see a shadowy figure approaching me in a black, long jacket with a black Fedora. I know it is Bono but and I look and I say, "Bono?" and then I wake up. Always disappointed that it was a dream. This band stands for love, solidarity and mutual respect. The love that Bono has for Edge, Larry and Adam is always apparent. The fact that they have stayed together this long and not added or subtracted members is a testament to the endurance of man. The fact that there is no scandal and these guys just represent good is so inspirational. Some criticize them for their wealth. Bono has tried his best to defeat some of the World's greatest problems so I always disagree and tell any nay sayers..."they have earnhed every single penny they have" I want them to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I love you guys, may you always make another Beautiful Day, for you me and the World. Cheers!! DAVID

Heard JT first during the summer of 87' when I was working in a dive resort in Cozumel Mexico and a Mexican kid name Andreas had a copy on cassette. We listened to it repeatedly that summer working on boats and in between dives. I had been familiar with U2 from the early 80's mostly from MTV and live shows in New Orleans but when I first heard this I was blown away and revert back to it all the time.

A few albums have changed my life. This was the first. At a time when I was coming of age and was strugging with spirituality and its role in my life, these songs of mystery, hope and waiting... both defined where I was and helped me get where I was going. For all the open-endedness, it was the opposite of nebulous.

While on my 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. I found myself in a record store in Union Station. Instead of purchasing some sort of trinket to commemorate my trip, I took the last of my play money and purchased a cassette of "The Joshua Tree." I played it non-stop from that moment forward. Three years later, I remember popping the tape (with its track list well worn away from use) into my Walkman as my plane began its taxi at Shannon Airport in Ireland. I pushed "play" just before we started hurdling down the runway. The crescendo in the opening of Streets reached is peak as we raised toward the sky, leaving the Emerald Isle below. It's a moment that will forever give me goosebumps at the thought. For 30 years, the album has influenced the way I experience and connect with music. And it's still one of my absolute favorite albums.

I bought the LP for a friend when it first came out (for his birthday, I think), but he was traveling, so I couldn't give it to him immediately; so it sat with the rest of my LPs for a while until one day I decided to play it, and it took just one play for me to say, "hell no, I'll get him something else, this is mine now." The A side is great, with all the hits and all, but the flip side is simply spectacular and I'm glad that I will finally listen to it live for the first time (after playing it -LP, CD, and MP3, at least, 75847573498 times; no exaggeration) :) Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle!

My Dad had been killed in an accident a couple of years prior and my Mom and I were alone. I was a soon to be 12 year old girl with rebellion at the front of all my thoughts and decisions. My Mom was a single mother trying to hold everything together with next to no resources. We clashed over and over and both of us were to blame. We were in a constant flux between feelings of guilt and anger toward each other. We had one solid uniting solace... the U2 Joshua Tree tape turned up to, as my mother called it, "warp 99" on the house stereo...in the car (when we had one)...in my room. Often times we'd just shut up and dance. That was the only peace we had for a few years and the only times we came together. That album was our magnet. Now, 30 years later we have a solid relationship and are looking forward to going to the Vancouver show together (and at 65 years old, my mother insisted on floor tickets so we could dance).

I was first introduced to the Joshua Tree when I was about 18 years old, actually when the album turned 10 years old. It was one of the first CDs I had ever listened to and since I was obsessed at that time with another band, I found it difficult to follow all through the album. The first three tracks and basically that was it, my favourite track was I still haven't found what I'm looking for...ironic, right? Anyway, my passion for U2 came later, and my journey was little by little. I guess I needed to see more of life, to know more about others in all things related, so that I could come back to The Joshua Tree around 2002. It was then when I felt the emotions and understood what these guys were trying to express. Needless to say, Where the Streets Have no Name became a hymn to so many things in my life....not because it's an iconic song in U2's concerts and career, but because it became something so powerful in me that it moved me. Now, all its tracks hold a special place in my mind and my heart. I am a proud owner of the special edition from some years back, but now, I will be saving up in order to get this new gem. And as usual, always, I love all the work these lads do...this is passion, this is professionalism...this is music!

I was visiting home from college on spring break. My best friend Arthur got Long Island radio station WLIR to dedicate their first ever play of With or Without You to us. "This goes out to Neil and Arthur from Brooklyn"

I was 18. A classmate gave me a copied tape to listen to. I had no idea what I got myself into. A sound I had never heard before, a feeling in my guts that made me nervous. Raw emotion. It scared me a bit to go there at first. But I took a peek, and never stopped. It was like I had dived into my sould to fight my demons - and won. The taped cassette lived with me until it fell apart from power play. I could tell you of countless times when I felt down and out and someone up there sent me a shoulder to cry on and put "With or without you" on the radio exactly that moment - to let me know "I'm here. It's alright, I see you. You're not alone in this."

Although I'm only a fan in the middle of this vast universe of U2 fans and a very private person, I feel like sharing a bit of what Joshua Tree album means to me as a form of gratitude. I was only 11 years old and few days away from my 12th birthday, my parents were going through a very bitter divorce, and music was always for me a sort of this warm and loving energy that makes me feel alive. When I've heard for the first time "With or Without You", I feel like the strings of Adam's bass was the strings of my own arteries, the always powerful Bono's vocals hit me like a wave in a hot day at the beach, I remember that I have to literally stop and listen that voice that felt like home, and eventually changed my life forever. Many years has passed, living in many different countries, continents, but my passion for music and U2 never faded, because this is my home wherever I live or go. Thank you.

I had been listening to U2 for years before TJT - so it felt when the album came out. It was immediately like "ok, here it is, the success album, now they are grownup men everyone can see" from the cover 1st sight, the 1st listening, then the concert ticket and traveling there and the era of 1987. U2 was however for me more fresh later - and earlier. The Joshua Tree was the gold medal stand.

Joshua Trees were symbolic in my life of searching for meaning in the world. Just a year before, I had taken a drive to see Joshua Tree, the funky boulder outcrop in the middle of the desert not far from my home in Riverside. I loved it! I loved the silence. I loved the dry heat. And the strange form of the Joshua Trees that made me appreciate the immense biodiversity of our little planet. I was two years out of high school lost in a world of materialism that didn't suit me at all. I was a pretty big U2 fan already, having been blown away by A Sort of Homecoming and seen the band in Los Angeles at an indoor arena I don't recall the name of. But Joshua Tree sunk its claws into me. My favorite band was traipsing around my country and even closer in my backyard. That impressed the sh#* out of me. Another super solid album I could listen to over and over. Went to see the tour at the L.A. Coliseum and was moved to tears. U2 is special because you have a way of addressing things that matter, that mean something. The Mothers of the Disappeared? Who writes songs about that? Heart and soul and music that evokes feelings and reflection. What more can I ask for? Thanks for being you!

Memories of crying my eyes out, listening, singing to 'With or Without You' over heartbreak; my guy yanking the chain of my heart...(still one of my favs and a song has new universal meaning now...I don't think of HIM;) I had just returned from the first adventure abroad out of U.S. w/ my best friend...we had the ultimate experience; two college gals, age 20, on our own first time and experiencing life after being from broken, unstable homes, neive and beginning to question society, humanity, at large...Joshua Tree songs felt liberating...still do tapping into my core!!!!

... outside Tower Records, Kensington High Street, London. Got home and listened to it twice, declaring "I Still Haven't Found" as the successor to Bad, a decision I would revise back later that year! Nonetheless, The Joshua Tree became the soundtrack to change, via the Wembley Stadium date, a summer tour of the US (searching for but not finding the actual tree) and my first year in college halls. Where I would argue with many of my new friends as to why U2 were now the greatest band of all time. However, a few of them agreed and we would go on to the Lovetown, Zoo TV and other tours together! Looking forward to Twickenham 08/07 with some of those friends and hoping to hear some of those great B-sides!

I was living in Paris, France when Joshua Tree, one of my most favorite albums of all time, arrived. I vividly remember taking the train from Paris to Deauville, a city on the northern shore of France. That journey was like watching a movie with the train window perfectly framing the beautiful french countryside as it passed by. The soundtrack to the movie blaring through my headphones was, of course, The Joshua Tree album. The rhythm of 'Where the streets have no name' and the rhythm of the train seemed to match perfectly. The Edge's distinctive guitar seemed to move in perfect timing with the sounds of the train. It is a vivid memory due to the beauty of that place, the beauty of that album and of course those lyrics that invoke a deep emotion. Of course, I wore that album out during my time living in Paris and was fortunate to be able to see the Joshua Tree concert with many thousands of U2 fans in Paris that year. That concert was a memory like no other. Standing in the midst of a sea of fans hearing that 'soundtrack' live. I am looking forward to hearing it all again in Miami this year! I may not be on the floor as I was at the concert in Paris, but I will be standing there in the upper deck belting out those lyrics and perhaps reliving that train ride to Deauville.

I had moved 3000 miles away from my family and friends and I was 19 years old. In the Fall of 1986, my good friend Mike and I had driven to Toronto with plans of making it big in rock band (I'm a drummer). Truth be told, I missed my family and friends big time. The Joshua Tree came out the following March. I recall listening to the cassette tape on my yellow Sony Walkman on the patio of the restaurant I worked for. It was a warm early spring day and the sun felt so good after a long Toronto winter. With my eyes closed and the opening of "Where the Streets Have No Name" - listening to those majestic cords, I was transported out of Toronto to the Southwest desert. Joshua Tree was (and is) such a huge sounding and transportive album. Thirty years later and it still takes me somewhere else. At the time, that was so vital to be taken somewhere when I was honestly quite lonely. I was also searching for something more - a very philosophical kid, and Bono's poetic lyrics supported and encouraged those leanings. It's been my favourite album ever since - I keep returning to Joshua Tree. I am so looking forward to hear it live in June!

Remember the record shop in my hometown loud playing Bullet, the owner kept my copie behind the desk. played the record for 20 hours, quickly found the cords of all the songs on my piano and my guitar and played them 1000 times. Went to The Kuip Rotterdam July 10th 1987 and experienced my first U2 concert age 17 went to seen dozens after. Since then everything changed, now 30 years later will experience it again in Amsterdam July 30th with my wife and two daughters. What a story, what a band and what a record!!

In 1987 I was 16 and I remember stopping at a record store on my way to my drawing class. The Joshua Tree was the first U2 album I bought. In fact, I bought a tape cassette that was always on my walkman. The Joshua Tree was my soundtrack on the way to high school, on the way to my drawing classes and all my ways through the streets of Sao Paulo. One day I decided that I wanted to play a guitar, so I went to a music school and on my way to music school I listened to The Joshua Tree. After some guitar lessons and some bass lessons. I realized that I was in love with the bass. Aaahhhh the bass ... and I have to say: Adam, this is your fault too.

I was halfway through my first year of nursing school and fully in love with a young Nova Scotia man named James. But although I liked the radio hits from this album, sadly, I wasn't "into" U2 yet. I didn't understand why they were so famous or sold out stadiums. I was sooo into Dead or Alive and Bananarama and Boy George and WHAM! Little did I know that in 1992 I would be living in Hershey, Pennsylvania and be catapulted, blast wave style, into Zoo world, backtracking through time to savor what I missed (as I'm currently doing in "Goo world"...the Goo Goo Dolls just blasted me into their universe. First time it's happened SINCE my maiden U2 voyage! Love it when I find such passion!!). But this anniversary is very important for me even though I wasn't around for the 1987 tour. I'll make up for it this spring!!!

In Dec 1986 I found out two things that changed my life, my sister had been murdered and I was pregnant (I was 14). After the initial chaos I went into a state of numbness until the day I heard the most beautiful, haunting and aching song coming from my television. I didn't know who you or what the story behind your song was but I knew that the person singing knew pain and I felt it. My brother bought me the cassette tape and I listened to it over and over every day. It gave my brain a safe outlet and made me feel a little less alone and I'm grateful to you for that. Fourteen years after, an arrest was made and I was in my car, stopped in rush hour with my brain racing wanting to move but couldn't. I turned on the radio and I kid you not beautiful day started. The traffic's stuck and you're not moving anywhere...are you kidding me! It made me laugh. Thirty years after I go and get a tattoo of U2 lyrics that commemorate my struggle and triumph in grief and then you announce this tour. I'm so happy I finally will get to see it and with my 30 year old daughter in Seattle. She loves you too xoxo

A spiritual melody begins with an organ and crescendos until the faint guitar begins to play. As the journey begins, the notes take shape until they explode and escape. Motion is set in play as you are set on a path to somewhere, no where at the same time. You want to reach out and touch the flame on your way to a place, high on a desert plain. A place where the earth crashes into the sky alone soul scraped by the wind, dust, and moon bright as fire. Are you at the beginning? Are you at the end? You don't know. You are where the streets have no name... This is poetry wrapped into 5 minutes and 36 seconds of a song. A song that cleanses the spirit. It allows us to break out from our doldrums and go to a place free of worry, free of shame, where the streets have no name... Songs that touch our soul will remain with us forever, played as a funeral procession. As we make that final journey from life to beyond. Because one thing is for sure, we all will end up where the streets have no name... Happy 30th Birthday to "The Joshua Tree" Not an album or mere songs but an experience which can transform. Rarely humanity can give us glimpses of perfection encapsulated. "The Joshua Tree" is one such window. It had to be hard for the band to create such an achievement and continue. U2 has managed but hasn't quite got there with subsequent efforts though "Achtung Baby" tried hard. U2 gave us such an album that belongs in the company of the greats in musical history. It is more than music, it is art, it is soul pounding. "The Joshua Tree" will be with us, with us as the moon is up over One Tree Hill. We see the sun go down in your eyes...