This was the one album that I missed actually buying in the day that it came out. I was 16 and on a family holiday in Tenerife, knowing that the much anticipated new album was coming out on that Monday morning in March. I had read the reviews before we went away (remember of course that in those days there was only printed press) about the lead single With Or Without You and the subsequent album and that it had all the makings of being one of the classic albums. I think we got home on the Thursday and the first thing I did was to get down to the local shopping centre and bought the LP and my goodness me! I hadn't expected that. I couldn't believe the far reaching difference from the previous three albums. U2 had grown into this worldly entity and you could tell that this was something very very big. That was the only time to date (apart from Boy) that I haven't owned a U2 record on the day that it was released in the UK. Only happens to be the biggest one of all (so far ;-)

I first remember hearing "Where the Streets Have No Name" as a child attending a Baltimore Ravens football game. The Ravens play Edges guitar intro from the song when introducing the starting lineup. Standing next to my father listening to that song play over the public address system is a moment in time I will never forget. This moment ignited my love for U2, which has only grown as I have gotten older. To this day, my father and I make sure to arrive to games early in order to hear the Edge play. The song is one that I can listen to at anytime and reassures me that everything is alright. "Where the Streets Have No Name" will always be not just my favorite U2 song, but my favorite song ever recorded.

In 1987, I was 24 and it was my firts U2 tour. Since this date, U2 has been by my side and I never missed a tour. Your music saved my life when I was bad... Now, I come on tour with my son, niece, nephew.... 2 generations love U2. I can t imagine my life without Bono. Please, take care of you. We love you with ir without hair ! We love you, young, older. You re more than your image. You re love, the one that you always give and the one that you receive. See you in Paris

Since 1987 I listen every day to this album. But the best listening experience I had when we drove through Death Valley and the Joshua Tree National Park during our holiday in 2009. Seeing this scenery and The Joshua Tree playing in our car is mind blowing. If you've the chance try it, you don't regret it.

Been waiting for this since I was 12 years old! I'm now 42! Finally getting my chance to see you guys for the 1st time on your TJT tour at Bonnaroo. The Bonnaroovians are a wonderful group of diehard music fans. Living under extreme conditions for a long weekend of live music. I am beyond excited to feel all the feels of this show in my happy place! The first year I went to Bonnaroo the area we were camping did not have a street sign like all of the other camping areas. It was decided then that we lived on a street with no name. How fitting that when my sister and I return for our 10th Bonnaroo this year we get to hear that song!!!! TJT17 ♡

In 1987 I was a senior in college. To say this album was important to me is an understatement. At a time in my life when i was trying desperately to bridge the gap between being a Christian and not being square and uncool, out came the greatest album of all time to show me how.. Bono defines Christianity for me, love, compassion, giving to others, looking out for the downcast and all the while never claiming to be perfect.... The example for me that I've followed to this day... He saved me from a hypocritical fundamentalist church, the kind that talks down to you on Sundays and rarely practices what it preaches... He taught me that actions speak louder than words... There are very few people, yet alone rock stars, who have done more for Humanity than this man, Paul David Hewson.. My favorite song on the Joshua Tree by far, is One Tree Hill.. This song changed me. I had never noticed how beautiful words could be until I heard it.. This song sent me on a life long journey into poetry... It helped me realize that we can all contribute to the arts in some way. I can’t sing, I can’t play an instrument, but I CAN write...everyone can write! I've been writing poetry ever since. I doubt Bono reads these posts, there are just too many! But if anyone close to him does, please share my poem with him.. Its my way of saying thank you for 30 years of poetry.. Bono Vox Cathedral In this Cathedral you are a god, this outdoor arena beneath a blood red sky. You stand above a sea of melted faces with arms outstretched and upturned as reticent as a rood. When the stage goes dark the beat begins and you are one of us the wounded and resolute, you lead us into songs of hope and redemption, replacing doubt with words of truth. Truth as redolent as barb laden roses, and just as difficult to hold. A Savior that bled the moon turning red the darkness of night the black of the white the white gold and pearls the mysterious twirls your deepest desires the trip through her wires A house not a home the scars on the stones your horses in flight the drums in the night the butt of a gun the glare of the sun the un-deserved grace the dust cloud erased You sell what you sing like a preacher in pain We hold on tightly until we bleed In this Cathedral you are a god for Bono 2/25/2017

Hi When I listened With or without you for the first time I have the GOOSE SKIN !! what a song and I began to follow our four HEROES !!

Whenever I'm knocked down this album picks me back up. It truly refuels my soul.

The Joshua Tree for me, will always be synonymous with falling in love. From floor to ceiling, my bedroom was literally covered in all things Joshua Tree. I had managed to snaffle the entire display from Andromeda Records in Hindley Street, Adelaide: LP sleeves by the dozen, a polystyrene yellow cut-out and maybe even a Joshua Tree or two, adorned every inch of my room. I LOVED U2, and always will. For the first time I can recall, I actually wanted to go to school the day after its release, to discuss every track on the new album with my best friend, Karen. My school diary was meticulously covered - Bono on the front, Edge on the back (sorry Edge!!). If only "the study of U2" had been a subject at school, I would have passed with flying colours! I had been obsessed with U2 since I was 14, way back in '85. Obsessed. But when Julius entered my life, my attention shifted (ever-so-slightly). It got to the stage where making out in a room while the members of U2 were staring at you from the middle of the Mojave desert (well three out of four!) was a tad un-nerving for my poor new love interest. I held a dinner party one night to mark the occasion. The occasion where I would take down my adored U2 posters. It took great courage and strength but the man I would marry 6 years later, would hold me in his arms until the tears had ceased. That momentous occasion even made it into our wedding speech when the MC observed the occasion saying......."no longer was Rach down in her room listening to The Joshua Tree - Julius had entered her heart and the walls of the temple came crashing down." And so it is: I love U4 and always will. Even if at times I have run to stand still. From Streets - to Red Hill Mining Town, You picked me up when I was feeling down. Run to the ocean, Run to the Sea, You brought me alive and made me, me. So 30 years has flown by, And The Joshua Tree has been by my side. So thank you boys for the songs I adore, As I get ever closer, to what I am looking for.

I saw u2 play the joshua tree in edinburgh - murrayfield stadium , home of scottish rugby - the advertisement of the tour on tv of with or without you was amazing- could not wait till august to come around - my partner at the time was pregnant with my daughter when we were there and now shes a u2 fan also - so were all off to dublin in july to do it all again - this show will be something else

I was 12 when The Joshua Tree was released; the album set the tone for my musical tastes from there on out. I had a newspaper route and would wait until after my older brother got back from his paper deliveries, sneak into his room, steal his cassette tape, put it in my pink Walkman, go deliver my newspapers and then sneak the tape back into his room. Later, I did the same with a 90 minute audio tape of Rattle & Hum that his friend “dubbed” for him. I have ever word of the movie memorized. The Joshua Tree album has layers of depth which ground you with lyrics that resonate, ignite emotions and cut to the core. The composition of the music puts abundant power behind the words. Every song is meaningful and purposeful. The lyrics made me curious as to the meaning behind the songs. I went to the library to research topics germane to the lyrics. As a result The Joshua Tree exposed me to a world and global culture I wouldn't have found otherwise. The Joshua Tree has been a noteworthy element in my life for thirty years. During one moment or another, The Joshua Tree has brought me to places of comfort, familiarity and calm. The Joshua Tree has always been appropriate and it always will be. My journeys, heartbreaks, loves, lessons learned, sacrifices, triumphs, stolen moments and revelations can be seen in the words of the music. Yes, The Joshua Tree and its thematic songs have impacted, shaped, and contributed to my life. I want to take shelter from the poison rain. I believe in the kingdom come. You give it all but I want more. Outside it's America. Maybe run from the darkness in the night. We stoop so low to reach so high. Dream beneath a desert sky. You, I’m waiting for you. I'll see you again when the stars fall from the sky. See the hands that build can also pull down. We hear their heartbeat. And when I go there I go there with U2. June 3, 2017, I’ll be in Chicago. Me, my sister, my husband, my sister’s husband along with Bono, The Edge, Larry, Adam, and thousands of other fans will see, hear, experience and connect to every Joshua Tree song live, in one single evening. We will all be dreaming out loud.

I remember on the day it was released 7 of us from school walked in to town at lunchtime and into our local record shop to buy TJT. Great memories.

Discovered U2 with "with or without you" single. Changed my life. Since then U2 is by very best friend. The one of worst and best moments in life. The one always travelling with me, in the car, in the planes I am taking every weeks for more than 20 years, when I cry, when I lought... all the time indeed. Their music is part of my genetics since then.

Im 52 now. I met my best freind Keith when I was 10. We have been lifelong besties ever since. We were both born in 64. He jumped on the U2 train @1982 and that was my first introduction to them. I really started paying attention when Unforgettable Fire came out. When he bought TJT he called me over, told me to sit and put the album on. From the first strains of WTSHNN to the last note of MOTD I was completely transfixed! I have loved music for as long as I can remember but nothing before or since has ever resonated with me emotionally or sonically as this album. It is U2 at their apex and IMO, the best album ever. RTSS is my favourite song of all time!

To try and explain what The Joshua Tree means to me, frightens me a little. It frightens me a little because it is asking me to put into words and articulate how this seminal album has impacted my life, and I just don't think that I can do it justice. Having to explain the enormity of how this album shaped an earnest and idealistic 14 year old girl, and continues to shape this almost 44 year old woman, is quite confronting because basically, when I analyse it, it means everything to me. It set me on a path that has defined many of the choices I have made in my life, the relationships I have established, the places I have travelled and the career that I have chosen. U2 were on my radar before The Joshua Tree came out, but when the needle on my turntable struck the newly unwrapped vinyl a couple of days after it had been released, and the strains of Streets filled my living room, everything changed. The goosebumps it gave me back in 1987 continue to involuntarily appear every time I hear it play. The stories within each song on TJT struck a chord inside me and gripped me like a clenched fist which has never unclenched, despite the passage of time. Soaring, inspirational, joyful, angry, bitter, sombre, melancholic, heartbreaking - The Joshua Tree contains a whole gamut of emotions. Teenage years can be a tumultuous time, but for me, The Joshua Tree provided a symbolic anchor that allowed me to explore the volatility of these emotions whilst also giving me something to hold onto. It opened up the world in many ways and sent me on a lifelong musical journey that has been so enriching and defining. It is part of the tapestry of my life and is so deeply interwoven in my memories. I love so many of U2's albums but this is the one that really started it all for me, and I thank the band from the bottom of my heart for this gift.

I was born November 10, 1990, 3 years after this album came out. When I was little I remember driving around in my mom's car, this album would be playing almost every time. This is the first album I have ever known every song on, and its the first album I have ever loved every song on. In fact it is probably the only album where both of those things are true. The Joshua Tree is my favorite album of all time. This album is what I turn on when I'm sad, I get in my car and drive around, bonus points if its raining. This album is what I listen to when I'm happy. This album is perfect, I remember as a young child felling like this album had almost magical properties to it, at the very least I knew it was and always would be a VERY important album, to me, but also somehow I recognized it as a force, something for everyone. When I was 16 my parents were in a motorcycle accident and unfortunately my mother suffered severe head injuries, when she was in recovery I couldn't think of what to do, the only thing I could think was to buy this album and play it in her room for her, I didn't know what else to do for her, and I felt helpless. Time passed and she recovered but unfortunately the damage was done and she would never return to her old self, among other things suffering from extreme paranoia, she soon divorced my father, she has been on her own and struggling since. She found out that U2 was coming to Seattle (which is roughly 280 miles from where we live in Spokane) and asked if I would enter to win tickets on the radio for her, to my surprise I won. My father (although now divorced from her) graciously agreed to drive us there and sit in the car while we listened and then drove us home through the night. While I love U2 and I love their other songs and albums as well, The Joshua Tree is THE album, for me it is special, unmatched, so naturally I was so excited for them to play a couple of songs from TJT. They played two songs from TJT towards the end, my mother decided she needed a smoke break and took off. She had no cell phone and there were thousands of people, I either followed her or lost her in a sea of people in a city that I would be leaving in less than an hour. So I followed her. She got mad at me and took off, I eventually found her again but I missed both Joshua Tree songs, the whole experience was horrifying. I was devastated. My first and only time seeing U2 and I missed the songs. I silently cried all the way home while listening to the album. The one pleasant thing that I think of when I think of my mom is listening to this album in her car. When I heard that U2 was going to be touring The Joshua Tree I cried all the way to work that morning. This is my dream tour. This album, I still believe has magical properties to it, even now as a 26 year old woman. This album has the power to bring me to tears, or bring a smile to my face, and no matter how many times I listen to it, it never gets old. So, Thank you U2, for creating, perhaps my favorite piece of art of all time. Thank you for being something comfortable for me. Thank you for being such a positive light in such a dim world. When things start looking especially bad, I listen to this album.

I still remember the very first time I heard TJT, and the very first time I heard Streets. I knew immediately that was going to be my favorite song ever. And every time I've heard it since I get goosebumps, no matter whether it's live, or the album version. That song is just perfect.

I want to run , I want to hide. The Joshua Tree pushed me to carry on. It spoke to me in so many ways. My brother took his life a couple of years before the release. I managed to finish college and move. The Joshua Tree was a calling card. Every song and every lyric. It's about survival . The haunting music of with or without you still takes me back to 1987 . 30 years later. The Joshua Tree is still around and stronger than ever and so am I .

Me too. I didn't get it. I love the Beatles, I loved Elvis. I didn't get the crying girls. I didn't get it right until Where the Streets Have No Name started to play and as they walked on to the stage I burst into tears and didn't stop crying until the song was over. I had loved U2 since MTV was added to our push button cable box. I waited so long to see them in person that the emotions were just overwhelming. Nothing could have stopped the tears. It's a memory I will never forget.

I was a boy, in 5th grade rummaging through the dumpster when I happened upon my my first not 1 but 2 U2 cassettes. I was hungry, and excited about life. I had a cassette player with a taped cord I would listen to U2 in the corner of the school during recess. U2 gave me the ability to look at the world with the window open and smell the fresh air. They Guided my journey to music. I remember War and the Joshua tree as a sound, light, and sense I never new. I am truely grateful to all of you and the unconditional time you've spent creating and making music. Flashing forward you lead me to a path to help others. I am a clinical Specialist and I want to thank all of you for your music and who you are. I believe in U2

I remember driving home from school in the afternoon. The radio station 91X was saying they would play the new single from the upcoming album.....when I pulled into my driveway, they started playing With or Without You. I remember running into the house and turning on the "good" stereo and hearing the first song from the Joshua Tree album. I was already a fan and had all previous albums,so I new getting the album was inevitable. Can't wait for May !!! Rose Bowl, two shows! Thanks U2 for letting us get tickets early!!

On that date, I recall that U2 killed it during Live Aid at Wembley on that date. I had tickets to JFK but I had an early bout with sudden heat exhaustion and I laid down for a quick recovery near the entrance and my ticket was stolen by a young lady in a red tanktop and blue shorts who'd expressed feigned concern over my condition in that moment. Drove home and watched it on TV instead. Won tickets to Amnesty International at Giants Stadium on June 15, 1986 -- seemed like a make good for the aforementioned ticket theft. Was ASTONISHED at all the U2 Flags and banners, and U2 killed it there as well. Started studying for CPA exam in January 1987. Was kicking relative tail in that quest, as the test was 4 months hence. The Joshua Tree is released on 9 March 1987. I stopped studying for the CPA exam. Flunked all 4 parts in May 1987. I couldn't get enough of this CD. That persists to this day. January 1990: Won a jukebox from the same radio station I won Amnesty International tickets from, by sending in my favourite song from the 1980's, which was "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Moving the jukebox became cumbersome -- it was a Wurlitzer with the bubbles and all of the multi-coloured lights, etc. I go to advertise the jukebox within a local publication -- discovered they also had personal ads, for women seeking men, etc. I respond to one of the ads, and eventually I advertise the jukebox for sale. My wife-to-be calls me back in October 1992, and we married in April 1993. 2006: My wife works for a company that's affiliated with Las Vegas. She and her boss get invited to see Bono speak at the Hilton in Washington on February 3rd. Because of the Las Vegas affiliation, we get to go backstage and meet Bono. All I could do was say thank you, as he gave me one of the most gracious handshakes I've ever received. And he gave my wife a very robust hug, and that was a really cool moment for both of us. If not for The Joshua Tree, I'm not sure I would have led this incredibly charmed life, as my wife and I will celebrate our 24th anniversary on 30 April. U2 has comprised much of the soundtrack of my adult life. Their brilliant song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was a direct conduit to me meeting my wife. Sawr The Joshua Tree tour at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on September 25, 1987. As The Edge was leading into the guitar solo during "Bullet The Blue Sky", a 737 plane (by my estimate) flew very low over the top of the stadium, and the collective crowd reaction was a combination of "whoa!" and "holy sh*t" -- one of THE very coolest moments I've ever been part of. Thank you, U2, and I'm looking forward to seeing you on tour later this year!

I was a college junior in 1987. Music was my savior. But nothing hit me like the Joshua Tree. I remember driving 1/2 hour and skipping class to be at the record store and one of the first to buy the album. Getting it on vinyl meant I could not listen to it in my car. I returned to my dorm - put up a sign "u2 listening party 6pm". - and I patiently waited. At 6, 15-20 people gathered in my dorm room. And we listened. In silence. In awe. The sounds of the opening of Where the Streets have no name brought tears. Heads nodded. People rocked. When it ended? We played it again. And again. And again. In Gods County was my immediate favorite. 30 years later - I'm a 50 year old mom with two college aged sons. But I still remember the excact deep gut feelings those 11 songs meant to me that night. Can't wait to relive them in June... with my son. Catrin

*It means so many things to me. All rolled up into grainy, black and white images and chiming guitars of endless vistas, the JT opens with that organ from Where The Streets Have No Name and just kicks your ass for four straight songs. Streets, then I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With or Without You, and the crashing sonic thunder of Bullet The Blue Sky. It ends side one with the gorgeous ballad Running To Stand Still that lingers in the air long after it's time to flip to side two. I was dazed. What was this? I have to hear it again. On March 9 of 1987 I was eight days from turning 16 years old. I had been a U2 fan for awhile at that point, probably triggered mostly by the War album in 1983. But when this thing hit, (and it hit big even in podunk Indiana), I was gone, done for. Here it was, things my teenage, Christian, searching self couldn't put a finger on but that screamed from every pore. Injustice, redemption, hope, loss, fear, resurrection and salvation all set to glistening guitars, sweeping drums, steady bass and soaring vocals. I didn't know then what a landmark record JT would be; I don't think most people did. I just knew it was for the here and now, relevant and powerful as anything I was listening to, which was a lot of stuff. When I first heard Achtung Baby some 4 years later, I knew right then, pow, that record was a game changer, no doubt in my mind. I knew it from the first bars of The Fly. But not Joshua Tree. It spoke quieter and with less brazenness. It snuck up on you more and more after each listen, twined its way into your bones and didn't smack you in the face like AB. The roots that the Joshua Tree record laid down became a foundation in other aspects of my life. It led me to research Amnesty International and America's role in Central American politics and justice. It gave me a conscience about things I'd not thought much about before. It gave me purpose, strange as that may sound. The purpose was to be a beacon of light in as many ways as possible in the world. Even a small light could brighten the darkness around it. I once got marked down on an English paper for quoting a lyric from In God's Country, the second song on the second side. In that standard red teacher's pen, Chuck Avery wrote the lyric was "pretentious and unnecessary." I still don't know if he meant my writing on the paper or Bono's lyric. I remember being so annoyed when people a couple grades older than me went to the JT your and came back to school with their black and white t-shirts emblazoned w tour dates. I had not asked to go, fearful the tickets would be too much and afraid to ask since my Mom was dealing with an MS diagnoses at the time. I was indignant at the new fans who bought a ticket and never heard of Refugee or Party Girl or anything pre 1987. How dare they take my band so lightly. I was thinking about rainbows last night and posted the lyric from NLOTH- "She's a rainbow and she loves the peaceful life". I just walked outside to a stunning rainbow as I paused writing this little piece. Gorgeous. That's all I needed to see today. Thank our boys. Thank you for this record. You will never know*

Joshua Tree is instant transportation to high school graduation and first year in college. It is a cassette tape playing over and over on a boom box in the dorm. It is the Minnesota Twins winning the World Series for the first time in 1987. It is seeing my first U2 concert in St. Paul, Mn in November with a couple of sketchy guys who had extra tickets. U2 is the soundtrack of my life. Every huge moment has an album attached to it but Joshua Tree was independence and freedom. Thank you for dreaming out loud and taking risks. I appreciate it so much more as I've gotten older. Can't wait for Vancouver and Seattle!

I opened the gatefold album and pulled the record out. Played it. And played it again. And again. And again. Already a U2 fan... this album took the love higher. Greater. I was young and it became a cornerstone in my life. "With or Without You" to "Running to Standstill" to the painful "One Tree Hill." From start to finish. A glorious anthem. Epic. Eternal.

This album helped me go thru tough times, and guess what it still does, so thanks guys for this amazing album.

when this album came out. I will never forget the first time I heard this album. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to find out what this music was. Flash forward to college and it was the only album my friends and I could all agree on (we had some pretty divergent tastes). It was always in the car whenever we took a road trip (and we took a lot 'em!) Today it is still one of my all-time favorite albums. Nobody else ever created anything quite like this.

On the 9th of March 1987 I too was only just being brought into this world, not only was this astounding collection of songs a gift to the world, but it has been a most precious gift and lifeline to me. I very clearly remember as a little girl, pinching my parents JT cassette, and what I felt upon hearing the opening notes of Streets stays with me to this day. This album even now transcends place, time, labels and borders, it is not often that a whole album come along that means so many different things to so many different people, but has the unique power to make the stranger standing next to you feel like your brother, when you don't even speak the same language. The Joshua Tree has been my safe space, my release, a healer, my expression of joy, my escape, my bond to so many others, my teacher, the arms of comfort, backdrop to precious memories, the soundtrack to so many significant events in my life and so much more. In the same way that it is difficult to articulate the significance of this very special album, because it is still unlike any other, sonically, spiritually, lyrically (I could go on), it is also difficult to express it's personal meaning, because how does one put into simple words a lifetime of precious emotion, experience and humanity. For me what the band achieved in the Joshua Tree is something that is BIG, in sound, spirit, emotion, space, inclusion and soul, but is so individually personal and intimate it could have been written by your lover. I too cannot imagine my life, indeed a world, without this album, in each song I am a child hearing it for the first time, heart soaring, I am the woman it has helped to grow and the woman I will be in the future, when I came into this world, on the same day as my favourite album, it was written into the fabric of my life and is inseparable from it.

I was 13 years old when Joshua Tree entered my life. It was 2007, I had just picked up the guitar and was looking for trouble in my Dad's CD collection. I didn't find it in Joshua Tree--40 whole seconds before a guitar comes in? Nope. I turned to War, where I found the kinetic fury I was looking for in songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "New Years Day," and "Like A Song..." I was learning what it meant to put anger and frustration into art through listening to War and eventually I came to wonder: where does this anger go? It was from this question that Joshua Tree began to make sense to me. The wide open spaces of a record like Joshua Tree--the desert spirit of yearning, satiation and more yearning-- showed me what it looks like what careful attention to the earth around us can mean to art. It showed me that the human experience is desolate, doomed and beautiful all at once and warrants cries of anger, cries for help and cries of rejoicing. It showed me that to be human is to bend and break with fellow humans, and above all it showed me what hope is. It still shows me that