Bullet the Blue Sky
Lyrically, the song was inspired by a trip that lead vocalist Bono made to Nicaragua and El Salvador, where he saw firsthand how local peasants were affected by United States military intervention in the region.
[2] While listening to a song by English rock band the Fall, U2 guitarist the Edge tried to emulate its guitar riff, but instead came up with his own part that was, in his approximation, "uptempo, like real hard-hitting".
[5] Still, the song was discarded for some time until producer Brian Eno, who described it as a "homeless riff", convinced the band it was worth working on.
[6] In July 1986,[7] Bono and his wife Ali Hewson travelled to Nicaragua and El Salvador, where they saw firsthand the distress of peasants bullied by political conflicts and United States military intervention.
"[9][10] In August, after reconvening with his bandmates in Dublin to resume work on The Joshua Tree,[11] Bono instructed the Edge to "put El Salvador through an amplifier", resulting in the song's feedback-based guitar part.
[5] Producer Daniel Lanois says that the most progress on "Bullet the Blue Sky" was made at Melbeach, the Edge's newly purchased home in seaside Monkstown.
"[19] During a spoken word passage of the song, Bono speaks of being approached by a man, "his face red like a rose on a thorn bush, like all the colours of a royal flush, and he's peeling off those dollar bills, slapping them down, 100, 200".
The lyrics were partially inspired by Bono seeing a mural in El Salvador of Reagan in a chariot depicted as the Pharaoh, with Salvadorans as "the children of Israel running away".
During the Joshua Tree Tour, Bono would frequently grab a large spotlight and shine into peoples' faces in the audience, and would also make numerous political references to figures such as Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell.
U2's following album, Rattle and Hum, featured a live performance of this song, with a pre-recorded intro of Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
On the Elevation Tour, it became an indictment against handgun violence, illustrated by references to John Lennon's assassination and an ironic intro video clip featuring Charlton Heston, who was at that time the president of the National Rifle Association, while on the Vertigo Tour, it was about religious violence and the final lyrics were replaced by a snippet of "The Hands That Built America".
[20] On the Innocence + Experience Tour, the song was about corruption of money, which was emphasized with images of Wall Street and Las Vegas on the video screen, as well as Bono discussing a scenario where he meets a teenage version of himself who criticizes the wealthy man he has become.
