Released 23 November 2004 Length 3:54 | Genre Rock Label Island Records | |
Recorded Hanover Quay Studios, Dublin Writer(s) U2 (music)
Bono and the Edge (lyrics) | ||
"Miracle Drug" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and is the second track on their 2004 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. It was written about the late Irish writer Christopher Nolan, with whom the band attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Bono said of Nolan:
Contents
Composition
The song shares a similar chord progression with their 1987 song "With or Without You", and features a rare background vocal appearance by U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jr. Indeed, it is one of only two U2 songs to feature three members of U2 on vocals – Bono, the Edge, and Mullen. The only other is "Numb" from the Zooropa album.
Performance
"Miracle Drug" was played live at every show of the first and second legs of the Vertigo Tour, with Bono using the song (and the story of Nolan) as a means of expressing his appreciation for doctors, nurses, and others in the medical field. Towards the end of the third leg of the tour, it was dropped and did not reappear on any of the fourth or fifth leg shows. Its last performance on the Vertigo Tour was 28 November 2005 in Montreal.
The song made a brief return to the live stage in a new, reworked format on the first leg of U2's Innocence + Experience Tour. It opened the first encore in what was meant to be a rotational spot with "City of Blinding Lights". However, it was short lived and dropped from the setlist after just 2 performances.