in 1987 you two released the Joshua Tree
which is such an incredible album one of
my favorites because it came out when I
was a child and I grew up with it we
played it all the time in my household
so it has a very special place in my
heart I know these songs very deeply so
this is definitely not my first listen
just want to clarify since people often
think I'm analyzing music that I've
never heard before let's break these
tracks down and try to understand a
little bit more about why they grip me
emotionally especially because most of
them are in a major key or with a very
strong major tonality which historically
does not uh really reach me emotionally
some of this could be Nostalgia but
maybe there's more to it maybe there's
just something about the way they're
crafting their harmonies and I also
definitely want to talk about the
production because Brian Eno and Daniel
Len lenois uh did an incredible job with
this so tasteful um the textures and
ambiance an atmosphere created and the
delay pedal that edge uses is just so
let's get started with the first track
where the streets have no name this
intro hopefully I don't actually weep
but I might
[Music]
Hold On The Edge I'm not quite ready for
you yet so these
chords they
sound Angelic to me there is something
so reverent and pure and it feels like
it encompasses so much of The Human
Experience just these chords but it's
not just the chords themselves it's the
production um I think for
the80s uh this is an incredibly tasteful
use of what I assume are synths um
probably Brian Eno you know influence um
or him actually playing
this um but every time I hear this it
just there's like this inner Stillness
that comes over me um and I can hear
that it is just purely in a major key in
fact it's using the most used core
progression in like all of pop music at
least Western pop music and
yet I to me it
is it does not feel like like everything
else I've heard so what's what's going
on
um okay so the tape has been maybe sped
up a little bit because it's a little
bit sharp of D so I'm going to play uh
it in D but if I try to play along to
the recording it might sound kind of bad
um a little Out Of Tune but starts with
this D major
chord this not's on top though
[Music]
beautiful dissonant passing tone that
leads us to a
suspension oh no no it's not a
suspension it's that it's this
achingly delicate
trone but it has the feeling of a
suspension where you're sort of like
above where you want to settle into you
know and there's like dissonance and
then
release so pretty and then it goes
[Music]
back I mean just that alone that's a
14 so beautifully executed and then my
favorite part of the progression was
when the minor chord comes in
um
and a B minor
chord but that quickly changes to
another suspension I think
[Music]
here
there so this is a true suspension this
is called a sus 4 and this note is right
above the the third of the chord and so
there's this half step tension created
but I don't think they resolve it
because I think it just goes right back
to
here what was it I already
forgot so that's the one and the four
and then this is the
six and then the five but suspended
Style
then so this repeats um and this is the
core progression of the
chorus or actually it's the whole song I
think um and then the edge comes in and
he is playing this kind of arpegio and
it sounds so intricate with the delay
but if you strip away the delay I
believe it's um so we're in the key Okay
so
I'm not sure maybe that little quick
note is actually a delay note possibly
maybe it's
just but I can't help it I I hear it
like
this and listen so he he carries this uh
this riff this Motif over all these
chords and they it means something
different against each
chord uh so the first chord being D
major I hear
um this
fourth or 11th creating a little bit of
tension that half step is so so
beautiful without
it you need this
one and then over the G
[Music]
chord huh now this creates a
dissonance and so does this
9 and this note on the top was the root
of this chord now it's the fifth of this
chord so those are both very
stable but with this A A B
chord now this top note is the minor
third of this chord and the minor third
is what makes the chord sound minor and
it's what makes it have that more
fragile um maybe heavier sound um this
feels deeply sad to me this part and
um and that that
note that's
tense and then this one almost feels
like it has the most tension with this
riff which is the
a very few of those notes
fit into this cord so it's That's So
Perfect Right it makes you feel like the
pressure is like building and it needs
to release and then it does um let's
listen to the intro though
because the way that the edge brings
this in um you know they they start
quiet they pull it up and then the way
he trans
transfers from
his into his strumming pattern
uh is so organic you know it feels like
he he just slowly it it
transmogrifies into the strumming
pattern and when that happens it's so
exciting because I feel like it happens
maybe before you would expect it to and
that's when the bass comes in and the
drums come in I think and
everything I have so many memories of my
mom and I listening to this and just
either crying or just going God it's so
beautiful this
guitar my mom always says it blisses me
out always remember
[Music]
that that
[Music]
[Applause]
this
[Music]
cord I foolishly thought that I would be
able to like make one video about this
whole album but so the edge kind of he
he changes from this
to he he does some other pattern which
he pulls into the outro of the song as
well maybe it's just a
uh it's maybe just an arpegio like that
but then he moves into the the strumming
J it's just so excellent um it's so
bright the tone is special to me it's
feels very uh like it literally looks
like a glowing like
golden bar or something when I hear it
um the the drums in this whole album
actually I think are they are not
virtuosic they are serving the song so
perfectly um creating you know for this
one it's this four on the floor and the
base is uh mimicking that right
and so this creates this like driving
feeling um so much energy behind the
edge is you know picking in his delay
and uh the sort of overall like
evolution of the intro it's just getting
bigger and bigger and growing and
growing I also love the use of the
toms um more than snares in this song he
does hit a snare at some point but even
then it's kind of a soft sounding snare
but the fills here are all done with
well actually they could be the snare
without the snares on but it has that
sort of hollow instead of the you know
of a snare and I I just I love that
style I I've always loved Tom's um and
maybe this is part of why honestly
absolutely love the surprise chord at
the end of this phrase um which I think
is the flat
7 this chord yeah so it's a c chord but
the edge is I think
playing he's play
he's got this note in it I think let's
see I got to actually find out
[Music]
[Applause]
oh yeah okay so he's he's playing this
like as a suspension a lot of
suspensions in here it's probably why I
like those so much too honestly
and then but then he goes to like a
different voicing of the chord for the
second half and the base goes from the
low C to the high C so there's this
whole like they both like project
upwards together it's
[Applause]
[Music]
perfect this also might be the origin
story of my obsession with a chord
called an ad nine um so this is The Edge
goes like this
but then he adds maybe some more notes
and he ends up with the what does this
C he adds
um this third of the chord and that
creat I not a guitarist I can't tell you
ex actually how it's voiced but uh this
chord doesn't have a third in it so it's
kind of missing it's like it's it's
heart almost um and it's like the most
gooiest part of the chord is missing and
then he adds it at the end I think it's
right up next to this one though I I do
think like that and so it feels like a
there's like a sense of relief like we
got a little bit of what we were wanting
but he kept the dissonant note in there
the D so it's just a it's beautiful um I
just think that moment is excellent
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I and that chord by the way is this flat
seven chord is what you could call like
a borrowed chord it doesn't belong in
the key of D major um it comes from D
Minor um but this is definitely like
what you would hear in gospel folk music
for sure Blues um so but it's it does
kind of come out of nowhere in a way
because everything else does fit into
that like like pop sound and then you
know
um then
sorry right it's so different oh it's
fantastic and they play with that this
ninth tension with the melody in a
second
[Music]
so I want r
I want
you no snares oh that what is the edge
doing I am obsessed with that part
this it it sounds so
percussive and the way the way it
happened in this particular take I don't
know is that you know it like gets
louder and then it goes down so it has
this beautiful like it's like
going past you
[Applause]
[Music]
feeling
[Music]
incredible listen to
him so much Dynamics in his
playing the seets have no name
yeah so I love I love that about the
edge is just the way uh that he's sort
of I mean I'm guessing he's muting is he
muting strings but then he seems to like
let off of that in a very like
expressive way of
like so that the notes start to like
swell in and out it's it's it's mushy
you know none of this it's well
rhythmically it's incredibly precise and
sharp like the attack is so but the but
his
expressiveness has that push and pull of
waves it's just absolutely beautiful
these little details just send me um or
my mom said blisses me out this melody
is is really beautiful too I love the
space in
it a lot of it is at before the downbeat
happens this is in the during the pickup
I
wna right I want want to
run space so much so so many rests I
want to
run and then I love that I want to H
very syncopated on the offbeats I want
[Music]
to and
this let's play it all in the piano
honestly
very nice kind of uh
almost just going up going
down and that what's make that's what
makes this more
exciting cuz that's a new note we
haven't heard yet and it's this half
step from the third it's so
beautiful and it gives you that Holy
suspended sound the
alond down
theall I love this hold me
[Music]
inside just gorgeous run down lands on
the third of the chord the gooey
part now to my favorite
[Music]
cord now listen I wna run same Melody
that was over this chord I want to run
but now it's
[Music]
now there's a
[Music]
variation
sorry where the streets have no
name oh okay so this is again playing
with that sound this suspension this is
called a sus two this note is suspended
instead of this one ss four SS two 1 2 3
5 uh what did you do I already
forgot the streets no name okay so he's
[Music]
singing I love that I love coming from
the major 3D crunching into that t nth
and stay hang
there no
name right he's not doing the third
streets have no name that's what most
people would do theyd go the other way
and they'd go tension resolution but he
goes and then he
[Music]
just uh drums I think the snare might
come in now I want to
feel sunl on my
face I see the dust cloud disappear
where
[Music]
the I want to take
shelter the PO sometimes isn't
[Applause]
[Music]
it well the streets have no name
still
building buring
down and when I go
there I go there with
you it's all I can
do
stop okay um so another little detail
that the edges doing it's so gorgeous
yeah this definitely can't be one video
okay hi welcome to my video I'm going to
be analyzing and breaking down where the
streets have no name from the Joshua
Tree this is one of 10
videos okay
um so uh the melody where the streets
have no name where the streets have no
name but the edge is doing
and then he does this thing again he
holds it over the other
chord and lets it
interact and once again Exquisite over
the minor
chord tense over the five
chord and then we're back oh then we I
think we just go here they skipped the
surprise flat 7 chord um let's talk
about um still building
andn let's talk about this still
building and burning down love
this is that at all similar to the
[Music]
um it feels reminiscent like you know
maybe intuitively it was like this
pattern that that he repeated in a
different part of the scale but has that
similar feeling um
burning down love okay so that note is
that's the ninth
again just a very prominent sound a lot
of these chords have a ninth
um and when I and very syncopated and
when I go there all in the Off
beats go there I love that I go there
with
you it's all I can do I love the way he
kind of Scoops into that and especially
how he sings this a little differently
um the second time so I did mention like
the snares come in but they are very
almost like sporadic in the second verse
but then the chorus you can actually
hear them on every two and four
but yeah I just man it's just so good um
this
time uh I don't know if there's any
difference in the instrumentation but we
definitely got to get to the next
[Music]
chorus and I of to
R we beating blown by the wind
tramping
dust I'll show you
on oh
this where streets have no
[Applause]
name where the streets have no
name well the streets have no
name we're still building
them I love that note being so
high down
and when I go
there I go there with
you
[Music]
all wind variation
here
wind see love see I love
to I will be in blown by the wind blown
by the wind oh when I go
there I go there with
you it's all I can do
[Music]
I don't know a major cord has never
sounded that Exquisite in my life life
nobody not in front of the camera so
yeah this is like bookended with the
intro essentially and what the edge does
with breaking out of
this he just starts doing this like poly
Rhythm and you feel the
tension um here
this is the this is the chord
actually so these notes are very
unresolved sounding with this chord and
it just is the right amount of harmonic
tension to make it feel
incredible when it
goes like it's really you know it's it's
a very satisfying ending it meets your
expectations instead of subverting them
um very emotional performance from Bono
you know he's a very expressive singer
um I I love the way he sings his last
all I can do cuz he puts that off by
repeating the chorus like three times at
the end right it keeps building and
building um you can feel that wheel like
like when is it going to real when is it
going to throw me off cuz I'm just I'm
I'm in the wheel and I can't escape this
this Loop
and then finally he goes you know um
it's all I can do feels like he
completely breaks down there's even some
vocal fry there you know
oh maybe that's actually not the right
term but he kind of he's not singing a
note anymore
oh right and it's just almost like um
someone you know crying or like wincing
with
like uh overwhelming in love or or
desire or something you know it's all I
can do it's so it sounds so desperate
and I think it's just so perfect these
little touches man they really make a
difference
so um how long was that oh my
God half an hour later all right well
that's the end of this video then thank
you so much for watching me completely
fawn over this beautiful song where the
streets have no name next is I Still
Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and
it'll be just as long and just as
passionate