"Drummer Boy" (2010)
Demo Song
Background Information
“Drummer Boy” was an early working title for “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)”. The title was revealed in a Rolling Stone magazine feature titled “U2: Trying to Throw Their Arms Around the World“ published in the May 15, 2015 issue of the magazine by author Brian Hiatt. In that article the song is discussed:
They’re working up a live arrangement of their current single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).” The Edge’s jagged “big sound” isn’t quite working, even though it’s exactly what he used on the version from their new album, Songs of Innocence. “Songs are never finished,” Bono says. Like almost all of their music, “Miracle” crawled out from a relentless process of forced, hot-house evolution — in this case, over four years, with three different producers. It started as a drum-loop-and-acoustic-guitar-based tune called “Drummer Boy,” from 2010 sessions with the producer Danger Mouse. Then it turned into a rock-ier larval-stage thing called “Siren” (one line compared the Ramones’ music to a siren song) with heavy input from One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder and Adele producer Paul Epworth, before developing its definitive melody and lyric over two months of sessions with Epworth. But even now, it hasn’t quite settled into a final shape.
“The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)” was released on the Songs of Innocence album in September 2014.