Songfacts®:

• Bono appeals for a more humane world amidst the turmoil of the Syrian Civil War:
  
  I've been thinking about the West Coast
  Not the one that everyone knows
  In the rubble of Aleppo
  Flowers blooming in the shadows
  For a summer of love
  
  The Edge explained to Rolling Stone: "There was a lot that went into that, but one of the jumping-off points was a CNN story about the gardener of Aleppo. It's about this guy who ran a garden in Aleppo that he kept going through the entire war. It was a political statement to the entire world that he kept this garden going. He was this deeply philosophical character and to him it was an act of defiance to grow flowers in the middle of Aleppo. He actually wound up getting killed in an air raid, so it was a very sad ending, but Bono was really inspired by his defiance. When were looking at that song, we decided that should be the focus geographically."
• The song features backing vocals by Lady Gaga and Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic. The latter also co-produced the track.
• Bono told Q Magazine that U2 weren't trying to write a war story song. "We just wanted to write a romantic song with really dark clouds overhead," he explained.
• Ryan Tedder served as co-producer on Songs of Experience while also working on OneRepublic's Oh My My record. One song Tedder developed, "West Coast," didn't make it onto his project, but he shared it during the recording sessions with U2. The Irish band borrowed its "I've been dreamin' about the West Coast" line for this song, changing it to "I've been thinking about the West Coast." While The OneRepublic song is an ode to California, U2 took it in a different direction.