The extent of changes across versions make it a highlight of any show. Snippets are frequent appearances too, Jimi Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner was an intro in the early days, while later versions have included old gospel songs, The Hands that Built America, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, War (What is it good for?) and more. Lyrically its topic changes with most tours - from Nazism in the Zoo TV tour, through a blistering indictment of gun violence in America on the Elevation tour and sectarian conflict on Vertigo, to an introspective look at the corruption of money and fame on the Innocence + Experience tour. Edge's solos get longer and more intricate, Adam occasionally brings the bass to the forefront and makes it a funkier version, and even Sunday Bloody Sunday's drumbeat shows up every now and then. The songs lyrics were inspired by a trip Bono and his wife, Ali, took to Central America. The politically charged nature of the song has left it to be reworked frequently in live performances. Bullet the Blue Sky represents U2 at perhaps their most caustic. As the story goes, the guitar came about when Bono put up photos from his trip to El Salvador and told Edge to 'put it through his amplifier'. America's involvement as a whole was under scrutiny, and this song was a response to the impact their role in the war was having on the local population.
It's all about the civil war in El Salvador at the time, which like most during the Cold War was equally a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union.
Bullet is a monster of a song, and is definitely the most overtly political song off The Joshua Tree. Last week I covered a song that was never played live, so this week we're doing the complete opposite and having one which has been on almost every tour since its inception. So this guy comes up to me, his face red like the rose on a thorn bush.