Songfacts®:

• The lyrics refer to The Crucifixion of Christ. Band members Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen were members of a devout Christian group called the Shalom Fellowship, and were struggling between their music and their faith. Much of October, which is just their second album, alludes to the Bible.
• The Dublin group Some Kind Of Wonderful was brought in to play horns on this track.
• The October album was a challenge for the band because Bono lost a briefcase with notes and lyrics to the songs when the band played a show in Portland, Oregon in 1981. The contents of the briefcase were recovered, but not until 2004 when a U2 fan realized the notebooks her friend had stored in her garage were in fact the contents of the missing briefcase. It seems Bono left it behind and the crew member who found it couldn't contact the band, so it lived in his attic and was later transferred to the garage by the house's next occupant.