Greetings my Metal and Geek-minded friends, I just wanted to take a minute out of the regularly scheduled presentations to let you know that as of the other day, the PiercingMetal branding has been using the Instagram photo-sharing social media platform for five years. It’s been a relatively cool ride so far and given me a place to let loose with more photography from the assorted conventions and of course some mind-crushing Metal shows and more. I began using this network for “The Chronicles” website first and then adopted it for PiercingMetal and as you might recall got stuck with the username of “PiercingMetalNYC” as opposed to the standard PiercingMetal. That ID is being squatted on for some reason and does not respond to inquiries about my taking it over. Too bad as I would have sent that party a bunch of CD’s for their trouble. At first I thought I might have used a different email address to sign up but nothing comes back to me on “reset password” which means someone else has it. There are no photos, no following or followers so its just being squatted on which does suck since its my trademarked brand. If I can offer any advise to those doing similar stuff to myself, make sure you have your own distinct brand identity on all the networks even if you barely plan on using them since it protects you. So moving on, I did place a photo from around the actual anniversary date and shared it with you below. This is from the recent show at Madison Square Garden by the Scorpions who are always excellent in concert. This was taken with the real rig and shared to social which is why its on the Instagram account.
While it’s not exactly St. Patrick’s Day yet, today is surely a great day to get your Irish up because it is the thirtieth anniversary of the blockbuster album by U2 called “The Joshua Tree”. Yep. You fans of a certain age are probably shaking your head at the fact that is was on this day thirty years ago that you had added this one to your LP collection but its indeed true. The album was a hit almost immediately if I am remembering correctly and I remember hitting my local music seller shop to get a copy on CD. I had moved on from vinyl and was preferring this medium. Yes, I was a tried and true bleed for the Metal sort of guy but I really enjoyed the tunes that were playing on so many of the radio stations of the day. Back during this time, it was an album that EVERYONE I knew owned and it was easy to find this being the case since MTV was behind this album with a force that isn’t seen all that often in today’s media world. It came out on Island Records and was produced by both Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno and according to research has sold over 25 million copies since its release. That is some kind of accomplishment for sure.
Before I get any further I should stress how this is a toast and not a line by line overview of the release because that stuff is already well documented on its Wikipedia entry (provided at the close). I’m here to offer up some personal insight about what it meant to me as a fan. So in 1987 I was not only a fan of Metal stuff but I was also regularly playing my areas “circuit” but that didn’t deter my appreciation for this release. I had been a fan of U2 for a few years by then so I had some anticipation for this album and what it was going to bring to the table for their fans. There was no Internet yet so it was all traditional interviews in magazines like Rolling Stone or Billboard and the occasional news item on MTV. I mentioned hearing it everywhere and that extended into the seeing it everywhere since the MTV videos were numerous for this one. I think my favorite clips were “With Or Without You” and “Where The Streets Have No Name”. Below is the full original track listing so let’s review that and then I will line out the songs that were my favorites. Continue reading U2’s “The Joshua Tree” Still Thriving @ 30 Years (1987-2017)→
