Bad
by U2
- 96
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 27
- Danceability
- 3
- Acousticness
The Edge came up with the riff for "Bad" while improvising in a jam session at Slane Castle, where U2 were recording The Unforgettable Fire. The basic track took three takes. He pointed to one moment where drummer Larry Mullen Jr. puts down his brushes and picks up sticks, creating a dramatic pause. Brian Eno added the sequencer arpeggios.
Bono said at times that the song was about heroin and about a friend, and also about himself. A person can be addicted to anything. In Sweden in 1987 he named the friend as Andy Rowen, whom he called by his Lypton Village nickname, Guck Pants Delaney. The early 1980s recession had left many heroin addicts in inner city Dublin.
On July 13, 1985, U2 played a 12-minute version at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium. During it Bono jumped off the stage to dance with a fan. In 2005 she said she had been getting crushed in the crowd and that he saved her life after the ushers failed to understand his gestures. The long performance meant the band only played two of three songs. "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was dropped. All of U2's albums re-entered the UK Albums Chart afterward.
Bad runs at 96 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.5 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 625 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.