1987 is in that sweet spot of the cassette tape format, and in fact that era will soon be over as CDs arrive. My Joshua Tree tape is long gone, replaced by a CD, naturally, but I wanted to listen to 87's top-seller in the appropriate format, and along comes a tape for $1 to save the day!
It's a trap to try and pin down the number one of all time in any category, but I don't mind making a list of contenders - and Where the Streets Have No Name fits that bill for best album opening track. The rest of the album features all-time winners, some that found their way into my Grade 8 music vocal class (With or Without You, because our teacher was hip), some that became personal favourites (Trip Through Your Wires), and some that became lullabies for my kids (Running to Stand Still).
Of course, I won't say that it sounds great on tape, but it sounds just like I remember it.
I knew nothing of The Band before becoming enamoured by Somewhere Down the Crazy River, watching the video routinely on MuchMusic. For whatever reason, it was one of those times where I loved the song but never picked up the album. I didn't even really get to know the other single, Showdown at Big Sky, until years later through a CD anthology of Canadian Music called Oh What a Feeling, and as far as I knew, Broken Arrow was a Rod Stewart song.
I certainly never knew how closely linked The Joshua Tree was to this album, through production by Daniel Lanois on both records and a shared session between Robertson and U2 that led to two collaborative songs (Sweet Fire of Love and Testimony, both on Robertson's).
Well, I've now happily rectified the oversight and enjoyed this album immensely.
It was awarded Album of the Year at the 1989 Junos, because there were no Juno Awards in 1988 as they re-scheduled the eligibility window, and because there was nothing better that came along in 1988, I guess?
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