“Mercy” is a song that U2 wrote and recorded in 2004. It was originally intended for release as the final song in that year’s How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album, but was cut at the last minute due to concerns about the length of the album.

Shortly after the album was released, a low-quality version of the song surfaced online. I believe that “Mercy” found its way onto the internet when an early demo pressing of the album was stolen from a video shoot in France. Fans who heard the song began clamoring for the song to see an official release. “Mercy” is a great song, but it seems that the outpouring of love for the song would not have been as fervent if U2 had actually released the song as part of the album. It’s as though fans loved the rarity and the unreleased status of the song as much as if not more than they loved the song itself.

Blender Magazine called “Mercy” “a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibited U2-ish” and I can’t think of a better descriptor. The song is full of everything that made us into fans in the first place. An impassioned vocal delivery from Bono, poignant thought-provoking and heart-stirring lyrics, a pounding, driving rhythm and chiming guitars, all of which build to a stunning climax that leaves the listener breathless. The one thing working against the original studio version is the song’s length. I think that U2 were focused on releasing an album full of songs that could all be radio hits, and six and a half minutes is simply too long  to be played on the radio. The ebb and flow of the song is such that any substantial editing, such as what would be necessary to shorten the song to an acceptable length for radio, would diminish the power and majesty of the work, rendering it impotent when compared to the original. Like a lot of great U2 songs (“Bad”, “Moment of Surrender” and “Hawkmoon 269” all come to mind) the power of the song lies in the way it swells, rising from a relatively sedate beginning to a powerful height near the end of the song. It’s about the journey to the high point – if you start at the peak, you lose the perspective that makes the pinnacle so inspiring.

Oddly enough, “Mercy” has actually been played live, even though there’s never been an officially released studio version. The song was performed ten times in 2009, starting with a performance in Switzerland on the third leg of the 360 Tour. The song as it appeared in its live iteration was pretty drastically different from the leaked studio version, with an entirely new chorus and shortened bridges. Due to these changes, the live arrangement was not received as enthusiastically as one might have thought it would be, even when the song finally received an official release when the live performance from Brussels was included on the Wide Awake in Europe EP. With so much time having passed now since the song was originally conceived, I believe that this live version is the only official version we fans are likely to get – at least until the inevitable career spanning boxed set is released at some point in the distant future. Maybe the studio version of the song will be included when the How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album is re-released in a special edition for its twentieth anniversary, which will roll around in 2024, just eight short years from now.