It's a Beautiful Day!

U2 are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of "The Joshua Tree", arguably their strongest collection of songs ever, with special CD, DVD and vinyl releases.

"The Joshua Tree" recalls a vacation in St. Thomas in 1987. With my friend Zena in my rented Jeep, she drove the "backside" of St. Thomas at night, "The Joshua Tree" provided the [loud] soundtrack for the blur of tropical plants and their overpowering scents as we zoomed past. We'd had a ton of martini's at Blackbeard's Castle at dinner, and I threw my head back against the headrest, singing along: "Outside, it's America! Outside it's America!"

A couple weeks later, back in LA for work, I ran into Bono and Larry Mullen, Jr. (crush!) in the elevator at 3 one morning at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. Too stunned to make sense, I mumbled some admiration of their music which was duly acknowledged with smiles, and the shared ride was concluded.

A few years later, U2 released Achtung Baby, an album born in Berlin. Photographer Anton Corbjin's photos and videos from those months feature the boys in DRAG, hanging out in all-night clubs, cavorting with Todd Rundrgen and all-around begging questions about their, well, which side of the fence they were on.

For What's Beautiful, we decided on a newer U2 classic, "Beautiful Day". The video was shot on location at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport outside Paris -- a video that could never be made today for "security" reasons. The song, Bono says, is about "a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has."

UPDATE: How could I forget "One' with Mary J Blige on vocals with Bono? And the super-psychadelic Middle Eastern joint, "Mysterious Ways". The best of the best.

And finally, a sorta chronologic series of pics of the boys from DOOBlin.













Because they started out as lousy musicians and eventually learned to play, write and sing songs that give us goosbumps, U2 is What's Beautiful #009.