I’m assuming the following Captain Beefheart video features the drumming of John “Drumbo” French.
I love Beefheart and I have no qualms whatsoever with the drumming of John French. He’s perfect for those seminal Magic Band albums, led by Trout Mask Replica. I’m not remembering all the details about the guy’s role in the band, but beside playing drums and guitar in various formations of the Magic Band, I believe he was Beefheart’s envoy to the rest of his band. Isn’t that true? What I’m curious to know is, could the guy drum? Was it French’s chops that made this strange rhythmic magic come together, or was he an idiot savant, paired up with the right songwriter for his unholy skills?
“Electricity” (live excerpt)
Does French play on all of the more normal-sounding Safe as Milk lp? I’m never clear about who’s who on those albums. Here’s a live clip of an excerpt of “Electricity” from that album. This is probably French on drums. He’s obviously following a set pattern on this transitional (ie, to Trout Mask Replica other-worldlyness) number, but he plays with the abandon and lack of finesse I could imagine of myself or any number of other mediocre guitarists excited by the chance to shine behind the drum kit. Does anyone else feel that beginner’s joy in his playing?
By the time Beefheart had returned to mixing in normal-sounding songs (eg, the excellent Clear Spot), wasn’t French out of the band or shifted over to guitar? I used to own that album French did with Richard Thompson, Henry Kaiser, and Fred Frith, but I don’t recall whether his drumming was any less difficult to follow.
Is there a drummer in the house?
Here’s one of those videos with the “inappropriate-looking drummer” I mention in the Comments section. Come to think of it, the whole band and Beefheart’s stage presence seem equally out of place.
According to the info on beefheart.com. French is the drummer for all of the tracks on Safe As Milk. In interviews (some of them reprinted on that site) he says he originally thought he was joining a blues band, and he didn’t really want to go along with the experimental stuff that followed, though he eventually did.
Later French was not just an envoy, he is known to have transcribed Don’s ‘compositions’ into musical notation, so that they could be taught to the other band members. This is during the Trout Mask era. There is a lot of disagreement about how much of this music Don actually ‘wrote.’ Henry Kaiser’s opinion is that, since all of the recordings after the original band quit either sucked or consisted of rehashes of previous material, then Magic Band must have been the real composers of that classic material. French disagrees.
The band the Magic Band members formed after they quit, Mallard, has a couple of very nice French compositions on it. I’ve also heard the album he made called Crazy Backwards Alphabet, as well as the record with Kaiser, Thompson, and Frith. All of this work argues against the ‘idiot savant’ explanation. I think what happened was that he developed a very unique style under Don’s influence, one that doesn’t allow for much if any improvisation. Unfortunately for him, this style is not particularly adaptable for working with other musicians.
In the recent Magic Band reunion, French also did a very creditable job of singing and playing harmonica on the old songs. He played his old drumk parts on the instrumentals, and then someone else played them while he played frontman, and a very convincing one.
I didn’t look at the video until after I’d written the long-winded post above, but unless I’m mistaken the drummer in the video is actually Jeff Bruschele, also known as “the fake Drumbo.”
Shortly after Trout Mask Replica was recorded, John French was fired. Have you ever noticed that Drumbo was not listed in the album sleeve credits? That’s why. This guy Jeff Bruschele was brought in, and Don ordered everyone to refer to him as Drumbo. He didn’t last very long, and French was back in the band by the time Lick My Decals Off Baby was recorded. In the interim Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo) had assumed the position of musical director, a position he would retain until everyone quit after Clear Spot.
Aamzing stuff, BigSteve. Thanks.
Who was the long, blond-haired drummer from the mid-70s? Have you ever seen that guy? His Look is totally inappropriate for Beefheart.
If you’re talking about the Bluejeans & Moonbeams period, this is the personnel listed for the tour by what fans call The Tragic Band:
Fuzzy Fuscaldo – guitar
Ty Grimes – drums
Dean Smith – guitar
Michael ‘Bucky’ Smotherman – keyboards; vocals
Del Simmons – saxophone; flute
Paul Uhrig – bass
I have no idea what Ty Grimes looks like. The Magic Band’s final drummer (Ice Cream for Crow period) was Cliff Martinez, who played with the Red Hot Chili on their early records. Maybe you mean him…?
The long blonde haired guy was NOT a drummer. That’s Zoot Horn Rollo, or Bill Harkleroad, I wouldn’t say his look was totally inappropriate. He has the same long hair on the Trout Mask Photos and the band looks like they are aliens from another planet, but somehow from the same planet. The drummer on Clear Spot was Art Tripp from the Mothers, who joined on drums and marimba on Decals and stayed in the band until the mid-70’s break. French came back in on Decals, did the tour, but ditched again before Spotlight Kid although I believe he is on some of that record. John French can definitely play, no question. He might not be as technically adept as Art Tripp, who was a classically trained percussionist, but he was no artless thumper.
French laid out his version of how Trout Mask was put together on the Radar Station web site, and it was an eye-opening read. French doesn’t in anyway minimize the role of Beefheart, but his story of transribing Beefheart’s extremely idiosyncratic fragments and somehow welding them into what became Tout Mask is one of the most inspirational odes to the concept of following the muse and brutally hard work that I’ve ever heard, right up there with Coltrane’s practice regimen and how his rhythmic concept was pushed by playing his chordal concepts and altering his delivery to accommodate the differing number of notes in the chords he chose. Really, you need to head over there and check it out. You’ve always expressed a desire to hear about how bands go about the work of putting material together. French’s tale is right up that alley and unlike the endless romantic malarkey that passes for such information, his story rings true.
It’s also not very likely that that version of Electricity features French. It doesn’t sound like the Zoot Horn Rollo/Jimmy Semens line up that would have featured French doing this number around the time of Strictly Personal. Beefheart didn’t start honking on the sax until later.
No I think that must be French, but Zoot didn’t join till after Strictly Personal. It’s probably the version of the band with Alex St Clair on the other guitar. It sounds kind of like The Mirror Man album.
I misspoke. I meant the Snoufer/Semens line up that is on the live stuff on the beach in France. I’m still don’t think it’s Drumbo, though, based on the sax and the thick sound of the slide guitar. The strictly Personal band had a weird, thin slippery guitar sound that this doesn’t. I think it’s one of the later line ups after the tragic band.
I’m loving this! Let me find those videos I saw with the long, blond-haired drummer. He and the whole band looked funny with Beefheart.
I’ll have to look up those French stories. Thanks, Geo.
OK, if you click on the “More” link you’ll see one of the videos I was talking about. At the 4:15 mark you begin to get a good look at the drummer. Is that Harklerod?
Sorry, Mr. Mod. Yeah, that’s “The Tragic Band”, the group that did the Unconditionally Guaranteed Tour after the other guys quit over some of Beefheart’s continued financial shenanigans. Really, the look of that whole band was inappropriate. Not to mention the sound. I saw them at the Main Point when I was at college. Damn, it was sad. It seemed like forever before Beefheart got himself back on track, but it was probably two years max. Shit, bands these days seem to take that long to release successive singles from a hit album.
Here’s a link to French replying to a number of questions. I’m having trouble finding a very long essay that he had written regarding the preparations for Trout Mask. I’ll keep fishing.
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo/
And check this one out.
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo.htm
Cool stuff, so far, Geo. I especially liked this page:
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/drumbo/robertcarey.htm
It includes a discussion of “Look,” Lou Reed-like revisionism, and the wearing of BLACKFACE, a triple play of some of my special concerns.
I’d totally forgotten about Cliff Martinez until this comment, so thanks for bringing him up. I’m fairly certain (without checking AMG or any other source) that he played with The Weirdos at some point as well, most likely when they put out their disappointing comeback album Condor in 1990. IIRC, Flea plays bass on that album, thus cementing the RHCP connection there.
Boy, that clip was hard to watch. A man desperately trying to sell out, but not getting many takers. The exhortations to the crowd to get up made me cringe. Several of the guys in the band, including the drummer, seem to be going for the Doug Henning Look. And the sax player’s ‘fro and leisure suit seem to perfectly match his playing abilities.
“The Doug Henning Look” is spot on! Then there’s that guy who looks like a character from That ’70s Show.
I’ll have to say, reading that stuff Geo pointed me toward after avoiding it for 2 years was a pleasant surprise. I was afraid it was going to get into drooling, poop-smeared idiot savant territory. The stories French tells are really interesting and believable. There is something to be learned from them.