Originally titled "Tough", the song is lyrically about the relationship between the band's lead vocalist Bono and his father Bob Hewson, who died of cancer in 2001.

[4] During the recording of U2's 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, Bono was aware that his father, Bob Hewson, was in the terminal stages of a bout with cancer.

Irish, Dub, north side Dubliner, very cynical about the world and the people in it, but very charming and funny with it.

Bassist Adam Clayton said the song in its original form "had a very traditional feel", and that the group spent extensive time trying to change "the harmonic content" while still "retaining the strong melodies".

At Bono's suggestion, the bass in the verses was dropped a tone before the relative minor, a change the band believed had been a breakthrough.

[5] After what Clayton estimated to be about the third or fourth rewrite of the song,[4] producer Steve Lillywhite listened to it with Bono and the Edge.

He critiqued the track, telling them that it did not have a chorus and that each verse simply was followed by the line "sometimes you can't make it on your own".