The Edge’s Best Guitar Moments: Ranked

U2 guitarist The Edge’s biggest guitar moments on record are being celebrated by Guitar.com.

Topping the list is “The Fly” from U2’s 1991 album, Achtung Baby. Rounding out the top 3 were  “Bullet The Blue Sky” from the mega-platinum, The Joshua Tree, and that album’s opening track, “Where The Streets Have No Name.”

“At the heart of their sound, U2’s guitarist has undergone his own process of constant reinvention. But even as his gear stash has grown from a couple of guitars, a handful of pedals, a Vox and some gaffa tape to become a touring rig that looks like a Guitar Center warehouse, he’s stayed a step ahead of his imitators, managing to refine but never jettison the simplicity and directness of his playing,” the magazine wrote.

It continued: “The Edge has often referred to being ‘at odds’ with the guitar; and has characterized his playing as a “struggle or a fight” with the instrument. Here, we choose 20 battles he most definitely won, some against all the odds, among an exhaustive back catalogue of sonic explorations.”

The Edge’s Top 20 “Greatest Guitar Moments” as ranked by Guitar.com:

1. “The Fly” – Achtung Baby, 1991
2. “Bullet The Blue Sky” – The Joshua Tree, 1987
3. “Where The Streets Have No Name” – The Joshua Tree, 1987
4. “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” – The Unforgettable Fire, 1984
5. “Beautiful Day” – All That You Can’t Leave Behind, 2000
6. “Until The End Of The World” – Achtung Baby, 1991
7. “I Will Follow” – Boy, 1980
8. “Even Better Than The Real Thing” – Achtung Baby, 1991
9. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – War, 1983
10. “Bad” – The Unforgettable Fire, 1984
11. “New Year’s Day” – War, 1983
12. “Gone” – Pop, 1997
13. “Unknown Caller” – No Line On The Horizon, 2009
14. “Zooropa” – Zooropa, 1993
15. “Love Is Blindness” – Achtung Baby, 1991
16. “A Sort Of Homecoming” – The Unforgettable Fire, 1984
17. “Desire” – Rattle And Hum, 1988
18. “With Or Without You” – The Joshua Tree, 1987
19. “Mysterious Ways” – Achtung Baby, 1991
20. “One” – Achtung Baby, 1991