“The Wild Boys” – A Drum Beat Story

Ask Katy

The question is to Roger Taylor: How did Roger come up with the drum beat for Wild Boys.Thanks, Robert

"Hi Robert,

The basic four and the floor tempo was inspired by none other than Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax' - John and I heard the song in a dance club in Germany and thought is was a such great groove, so used it as a template for the basic rhythm of the track.

The 'ra ta ta ta ta' - 'ra ta ta ta ta' tom pattern at the top of the song was inspired by the David Bowie song "V2 Schneider" on the Heroes album ...if you listen to the beginning of the song you will hear this pattern played very faintly on the snare drum, always one of my favourite drum parts!

I wanted the big chorus toms on the chorus to sound like something from a Peter Gabriel record (who I love), you could say 'tribal' in some way. The legendary Nile Rodgers helped me a lot with the pattern, actually banging it out on a piano to finesse the part, and to make it very much part of the musicality of the song.

So there we go!

Thnx,
Roger"