Entertainment For Lively Minds
Drum Fills and Rhythms that make a song
I'm not a drummer, but there are drum fills that I love and to me make a certain song.
Like guitar licks, it could be that these are trademarks of certain drummers that they pull out to lift a track or give it that 'Je Ne Sais Quoi'
I was just posting in another thread and Earl Palmer's fills in the chorus of Tim Buckley's 'Tijuana Moon' came to mind. What Palmer plays stops the track dead whilst he plays a sort of syncopated fill, in time, before the rest of the band come back in. It oozes funk.
I haven't mined my memory completely, but another one that always slays me is the drum 'pickup' on Joe Ely's 'Cornbread Moon'. The song starts in a Train rhythm and then as the drum fill plays, lurches into a swingy shuffle - brilliant.
Sometimes it can be a part of the track - the drums on Ian Cutler's 'Azerie' play on the third beat of every bar for part of the song before coming back to 2/4 and it's just hypnotic. Not sure who's playing it - reminds me a bit of Dave Mattacks, talking of which, his Drums on Feast of Fiddles are majestic - particularly his cannon-like salvoes on 'Horses Brawl'
Vinnie Colaiuta is known for his sometimes off-kilter playing (most recently seen with Jeff Beck) - what he does on Robben Ford's 'Breakaway' (From 1988's 'Talk To Your Daughter') is awesome - playing with the beat, delaying it and building a great tension and funk (once again) into the song.
Steve Gadd's drum break on 'Aja' is relatively well-known - but is another good example.
Am I alone in this or do other readers notice this stuff?
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Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover..
IS Steve Gadd's drumline.
Speaking as a drummer, it is a thing of sublime beauty
and don't forget
Steve's amazing fill at the breakdown of Chuck E's In Love by Rickie Lee Jones. He re-ignites the song with his incredible touch.
It is. It is.
Stimps.. Is it one of those things which every drummer could do standing on his head but it took Steve Gadd to work it out in the first place or is it sodding impossibly complex so only a genius drummer can carry it off? Watching Steve Gadd do it, it looks so, so simple. But so it is with any genius that the impossibly complicated is made to look so, so easy.
he makes it look easy
but believe me, it isn't. For a start, most drummers are not comfortable to play with their left hand on the hi-hat as Gadd does here. Billy Cobham mostly plays that way, and Lenny White also used to. Steve Gadd has a background in army bands so was well schooled in percussion from an early age.
I can play it from the chart
but it comes out nothing like Gadd. He has that indefinable something that makes it all seem so effortless. The left hand hi-hat technique is something that a trained drummer should have been taught, but your average 'three chord' drummer might struggle with.
Any technically competent drummer could play the notes in the right order, in the same way that any guitarist could play (ummm...) Since I've Been Loving You but it won't sound like Jimmy Page.
Gadd is technically a master but has that deftness of touch that sets him apart from the shredders. Think Richard Thompson vs Steve Vai. He's in a different league to 99.9% of other drummers and is (musically) everything I'd suggest a young drummer should aspire to be.
I love
That final expression. An understated 'how good am I?'
If you want to learn to play it...
this is all you need to do :-)
Ye Gods...
...tha'ts just SO cool.
Vinnie Colaiuta
How good is he? Well, unbelievable as this may sound, I'd nominate the single snare drum crash with which he announces his presence on Jennifer Warnes's superb First We Take Manhattan. I can't describe why, but it just sounds like the drummer really knows what he's doing. It's a stunning record all round, with exquisite guitar fills from Stevie Ray Vaughan. Here it is.
Andy Williams' Drummer
Whoever it was, on Happy Heart -the choruses and the end, in particular.
Peter Gabriel's 'Intruder'...
just incredibly powerful and menacing.
Yep - Phil Collins on the drums, there
When Collins turned up at the studio to begin the sessions, Gabriel told him to put all his cymbals away. There isn't one cymbal on the whole of the "Peter Gabriel III" album, which gives the record its very particular drum sound. Good stuff.
Dave Grohl
Mr Grohl said that his approach to the drums for Nirvana was to play in a way that inspired other people to pick up a pair of sticks. I'd like to count myself amongst one of those he influenced. However, I'd say his best stuff is on Queens Of The Stone Age album Songs For The Deaf makes the album. Apparently he's said that he'd never been pushed so hard...the extra effort definitely paid off:
It will come as no surprise that I agree.
I've posted it before somewhere, but probably my favourite drum moment of DG's is the b'da-da-DAH-dada fill going into each chorus of "Dive". It's not mad technical skill, it just sounds right, and gives me the fackin orn. "Appropriate" would be the word that a rather fabulous drummer of my close acquaintance might use.
Eh up Roo. ;-)
Stewart Copeland
I couldn't decide which to pick, but went for this because the sixth comment down - "I stand outside of celebrities' houses and sing this song." - made me laugh.
In Time by Sly
Andy Newmark on drums. Whenever I hear this track I only focus on the incredible drumming.
I like the drummer's little fills on...
... The Selector's "On My Radio."
It goes "rat-a-tat-a-tat-a, boom boom, tsch!!" Sort of.
brilliant
-you are absolutely right, sir.
you mean this!
Charley 'H' Bembridge on the drums
Listening back to that..
Gosh. How tight? You couldn't get a fagpaper in there, could you?
Quality.
I suppose these don't count
but I like 'em anyway:
Curtis Mayfield
Surely the grooviest man imaginable - Curtis Mayfield's bingo player, who must have the hardest thumbs in the business.
bingo player?
'The midnight hour - Number 12'
Curtis Mayfield's Bingo Player
You have to have strong thumbs to use the dabber deftly across six books at the Mecca.
Not the most obvious John Bonham beat....
and they don't come in until about a minute and a half.... but I love the drums on Led Zeppelin's "Black Country Woman". He doesn't hold back, he just takes over the song.
Obviously this...
Much repeated and sampled -
and more recently, I like this. Without the drums, it becomes a bit too shoe-gazey indie for my liking....
As usual
Speed of Life from Low. Recorded 34 years ago and still sounding like the thumping heart of tomorrow. Dennis Davis and synthetic friends - take a bow.
Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) - OMD
The drumming is very impressive in a live setting - but to see that you also have to see McCluskey flailing around inelegantly, so I will spare you that.
The drums seem mis-timed and strangely paced. Yet it works.
Sometimes the drums are the record
(if you see what I mean) :-
What goes around and all that.
Great clip.
Lone Justice were brought to my attention by a certain M. Ellen of this parish. On a telly show involving aged whistles of a distinctly grisian hue and the analysis thereinsofar.
The fact that they - Lone Justice - subsequently failed to trouble chart compilers should not be held against him. That is Mr M. Ellen.
Lone Justice were a great, great band.
And Maria McKee still wants me. Massive.
Where was I?
O/T Lenny, The Lone Justice 1st Album
was never off my tape deck(!) in the car in 1985-86 - drove my wife mad, but the trio of 'East of Eden', 'After The Flood' and 'Ways To Be Wicked' are as powerful a set of anthems as you could ask for driving down the road.
I literally played it until the tape stretched and wore out. Side 2 wasn't so shabby either - 'Wait Till We Get Home', 'You Are The Light' and Maria doing her Little Miss Dynamite on 'Soul, Soup And Salvation' being standouts.
And when it wasn't Lone Justice, I was playing 'Til Tuesday's 'Welcome Home' to death.
My C90..
Had 'Will The Wolf Survive?' by Los Lobos on the other side. It was played a lot.
Topper Headon
Unsung hero..
John Robinson knew how to lay it down in Rufus. For instance, here..
Rosanna
the Toto song has a distinctive drum track by Jeff Porcaro, who Steely Dan fans will know from his playing on the Katy Lied album.
Here Jeff shows how he stole the Rosanna rhythm from Bernard Purdie and John Bonham
Little Deuce Coupe
From the first second Dennis Wilson's drumming just pulls this glorious tune along. Not least because his style was not to cross his arms and it gave huge depth to his sound.
According to...
...David Leaf's sleeve notes for the Beach Boys reissues, on Little Deuce Coupe Brian Wilson 'had to replace Dennis' drumming on the record with Hal Blaine's. It made him sad to have to tell Dennis.'
Sometimes the drums are the record - part II
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Drum solo
Blumm-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-buddle-buddle-blumm-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum, etc.
Starts about 5 mins in.
Can I get an Amen?
Boring & predictable I know.
I think ringo's drumming on the fabs "A day in the life" is rather special.
the drumming in "Come together" isnt too shabby either.
Daytripper
Rain, and Tomorrow Never Knows are songs where the drumming just drives the thing along.
Not exactly a fill, but Bonzo on Rock n'Roll just IS rock and roll for me (other than that I don't particularly like Led Zep - I prefer Robert Plant's last 2 albums).
Fills? FILLS?
No other drummer could haul this juggernaut along in his wake so. In particular, the explosive ten seconds from 3.55 onward remain simply draw dropping.
Juggernaut? How about a steamroller?
There's no other way to describe Bonzo's roll around the kit at 5:13
Rick Buckler
the opening roll - magnificent.
Mr Barry White
At the start of his epic tribute to Disco "Let the Music Play". It just drives the song along. People forget he was a top-notch drummer as well as everything else.
Sammy Davis - man of many talents
I just saw this. Swingin, man
The National's Bryan Devendorf
I only discovered the National a year ago, but one of the many things I love about them is their beats. They're not ostenatious or fancy, just interesting, different, and right...