This started as an improvisation by U2 guitarist The Edge, with the others joining in. It was recorded in three takes at Slane Castle in Dublin. The castle on the cover of The Unforgettable Fire is not Slane, but Moydrum Castle.
The lyrics do not specifically mention heroin, but Bono has introduced the song at concerts by saying it is about heroin addiction. A friend of theirs, Phil Lynott from the group Thin Lizzy ("The Boys Are Back In Town"), died after years of heroin abuse in 1986. Bono watched a lot of teens fall victim to the heroin epidemic in Dublin in the late '70s and early '80s. "They gave up everything they held sacred to this drug," he explained in the band bio U2 by U2. "I tried to describe that with the song, 'Bad,' what it was like to feel that rush, to feel that elation, and then to go on to the nod, the awful sleep that comes with that drug, and then scream: 'I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake, I'm not sleeping!' I can see what's going on."
This is the second song on the album where Bono sings about a heroin addict. The first was "Wire."
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