"Bad" | ||||||||||
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Song by U2 from the album The Unforgettable Fire | ||||||||||
Released | 1 October 1984 | |||||||||
Genre | Rock | |||||||||
Length | 6:09 | |||||||||
Label | Island | |||||||||
Writer(s) | U2 (music), Bono (lyrics) | |||||||||
Producer(s) | Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois | |||||||||
The Unforgettable Fire track listing | ||||||||||
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"Bad" is a song by rock band U2 and the seventh track from their 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A song about heroin addiction, it is considered a fan favourite, and is one of U2's most frequently performed songs in concert.
A performance of the song at 1985's Live Aid was a career breakthrough for the band.
The live version included as the opening track of the Wide Awake in America EP is frequently chosen for airplay by radio DJs ahead of the studio version. The song is featured on the trailer of Brothers and in the opening and closing sequences of Taking Lives.
"Bad" began with an improvised guitar riff during a jam session at Slane Castle where U2 were recording The Unforgettable Fire. The basic track was completed in three takes. Of its immediate and live nature, U2 guitarist the Edge said "There's one moment where Larry puts down brushes and takes up the sticks and it creates this pause which has an incredibly dramatic effect." Producer Brian Eno added the sequencer arpeggios that accompany the song.
The early 1980s recession had led to high number of heroin addicts in inner city Dublin. In concert, lead vocalist Bono frequently introduced the song as a song about Dublin. The Edge and the album's producers, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, were focused on the music and less interested in the lyrics. Bono left the song unfinished.
During a July 26, 2011 concert in Pittsburgh, Bono explained before a performance of "Bad" that the song was written for "very special man, who is here in your city, who grew up on Cedarwood Road. We wrote this song about him and we play it for him tonight." He was referring to Andy Rowen, whom the song was originally written about in 1984 and who was present at the show. Rowen is brother of Bono's Lypton Village friend Guggi and Peter Rowen, who is featured on the sleeve artwork for the band's albums Boy and War.