"Exit" is a song by rock band U2. It is the tenth track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. "Exit" was developed from a lengthy jam that was recorded in a single take and edited down to a shorter arrangement. The lyrics, which portray the mind of a serial killer, were inspired by lead singer Bono's reading of Norman Mailer's 1980 novel The Executioner's Song, and other related works. In his trial for the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer, Robert John Bardo used "Exit" as part of his defence, claiming the song had influenced his actions.

"Exit" was frequently played live on The Joshua Tree Tour, but has been performed on just one occasion since then. Live performances are depicted in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum and the 2007 video and live album Live from Paris.

"If you try and dissect a jam and then reconstruct a jam, you can get to the point where you've killed it. But if you can capture the moment and edit it into some kind of a shape where people overlook any timing or tuning discrepancies, then you don't lose the inspiration and momentum and you kind of capture the pearl."

"Exit" was created on the final day of recording for The Joshua Tree. It developed from a lengthy jam that the band recorded in a single take. Producer Brian Eno edited the jam down to the end length. Guitarist the Edge said "it started off as an exercise in playing together with a kind of mood and a place in mind. And it really, for me, it brought me there, it really did succeed as an experiment." Producer Daniel Lanois said "There's something that happens when U2 bash it out in the band room... and sometimes things get out of control, sonically, in a good way. Out of control in the sense that you don't know what it is anymore, it just takes on a life of its own, and it makes people do things." Speaking of the jam, he noted "it was a long jam, and there was just this one section of it that had some kind of magic to it, and we just decided to turn it into something."

...
Wikipedia