"Treason" (2002)
Demo Song
Background Information
The song “Treason” started out as a song that Bono had worked on with David A. Stewart. It later was worked on with U2 for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but at this point remains unreleased.
David A. Stewart discusses the song in his book Sweet Dreams Are Made of This: A Life in Music:
That evening we went to visit Dr. Dre at his studio in the Valley and an amazing new song got started that at the time was called “Treason.” We ended up recording it with the Gateway Ambassador singers, a group of young musicians from Ghana. Those talented kids were all orphans and about to go on the road with Bono for the Heartland of America Tour, generating support in the fight against AIDS.
At the same time Bono was developing the song “American Prayer,” which also shows up on lists of U2 demos. It is likely that Bono was working with these with Stewart for other projects initially, but both would be developed further with U2.
The song “Treason” also appears in 2006 when U2 published the book U2 by U2. The book provided many images out of the studio, and one of the images showed a piece of equipment with notes attached labeling different song settings. We see notes about “Xanax,” “Spiderman Slide Solo,” “Treason,” “Original,” “Neanderthal,” “All Because,” and “Shark Soup”. Many of these songs were in development for tracks on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and this photograph was taken during the development of that album. The note says “Treason Slide” and is dated November 5, 2003 in the photo.
