Songfacts®:

• The Skids were a Scottish Punk Band, led by Richard Jobson, who wrote this song with guitarist Stuart Adamson. In the Sunday Post November 12, 2006, Jobson said that he wrote the lyrics about a friend who had recently joined the British Army and was killed in Northern Ireland.
• In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, U2 and Green Day recorded a new version of this song in 2006 to raise money for victims of the hurricane. The images of weather-related disaster made the song an appropriate choice, and The Saints are the name of the New Orleans professional football team. It was a big deal when The Saints played again in their home stadium, The Superdome, after it was used to shelter victims of the hurricane and nearly destroyed. On September 25, 2006, U2 and Green Day performed the song when The Saints played there for their season opener on Monday Night Football, which was a nationally televised event and symbolic of the resurgence of the city. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Matt - Salisbury, MD
• U2 and Green Day's version peaked at #2 in the UK and #51 in the US. It also topped the Canadian chart.