Is There a Drummer in the House: What’s It Worth for You to Play Country Music or Dylan Tunes?

 Posted by
May 062009
 


Drummers,

Although we often make fun of you, I hope you know you hold a pretty glamorous, enviable spot in a band. Despite your anxieties over the clarity of your snare, you are always heard. You get to burn off more physical energy than anyone else. Although it’s sometimes tough to see you bashing away behind a drum kit, a singer, and a few other musicians, your equipment is cool and what goes into your playing is worth the effort necessary to watch you at work.

Even when you’re playing a mellow, jazzy number, it’s cool to watch you work the brushes around the snare and coax a pulse out of the ride cymbal. However, there’s one part of your job that doesn’t jibe with our expectations: watching you accompany a country artist or Bob Dylan. That can’t be a lot of fun, can it? Name the greatest drum fill or drum part in a country song. You can’t really distinguish one country beat from another, can you? There are about three options for you and your equally bored bassist. At least the bassist gets some accompanying Bob Dylan, but for as much as I love Dylan’s best music, I never say to myself, That’s a great drum part! That must have been a blast to play!

I feel like, with a little practice, I could play drums for a country artist or Bob Dylan. As a hard-working drummer, who might have spent a year taking lessons on nothing but a practice pad until you mastered your paradiddles, what goes through your mind when playing a country number or a Dylan tune? Do you “lie back and think of England,” focusing on the content of the song itself, the lyrics, the performance of the singer? Do you ever feel like you’re “getting yours?”

If I’ve got it all wrong, let me know. That’s the point of the Is there a drummer in the house? series. I love drummers, everybody loves drummers, and we know we’re putting your through a lot of heavy stuff that you hold in for the good of the band. Lean on me. I care about what you’re going through.

I should note that partial credit – or blame – for this thread goes to Townsman jungleland2, I believe, who made mention of the difficulty in getting his drummer to cover Dylan songs.

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JAMuary, Days 15-17: Give the Drummer Some!

 Posted by
Jan 262009
 

UPDATED. All bets are off. Listen to the full solos in all their jamtastic glory!

Today JAMuary honors the drummers, beginning with an Identify the Drummer game. Following are a dozen roughly 30-second clips of well-known rock (and one soul) drummer…on his own…unencumbered by his bandmates…soloing! See how many drummers you can identify. Following identification of each drummer, we’ll let that drummer cut loose with his full solo. Is there a drummer in the house? This promises to be an All-Star Jam that’s only fitting for this special month-long celebration.

Let’s flip over the rest of the cards…

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Is There a Drummer in the House: Earl Palmer Has Left the Building

 Posted by
Sep 222008
 

Little Richard, “Keep a Knockin'”

From The Times-Picayune:

Earl Palmer, the New Orleans drummer who largely defined the beat of rock ‘n’ roll on thousands of recordings from the late 1940s on, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 83.

Dapper and outspoken, Mr. Palmer may well have been the most recorded drummer in the history of popular music. He stamped his sound on everything from early Fats Domino and Little Richard hits to classic movie soundtracks to music for “The Flintstones” cartoon.

“He was my right hand,” said Dave Bartholomew, the producer and co-writer of Domino’s catalog. “He was a professor of music. (With Mr. Palmer’s passing,) it’s like I died myself.”

Here’s a cool multi-part piece on the drumming of Earl Palmer: Part 1, Part 2.

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Is There a Drummer in the House: What’s the Deal with Jellyfish Drummer Andy Sturmer Playing Standing Up?

 Posted by
Jun 182008
 

Is there a drummer in the house?


What’s the deal with Jellyfish drummer Andy Sturmer playing standing up? It’s not a drummer standing up in itself that nags at me, but a power pop drummer. What’s going to supply the POWER if not a drummer’s haunches coiled on a drum throne?
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Is There a Drummer in the House: Ralph Molina

 Posted by
Dec 102007
 


Disregard, if you are able, the greatness of the above Neil Young song and the even greater audience shots of passionate mandancing. Certainly, there’s been a whole heap of Mandom shaken over this crowd! For now, however, I ask you to focus on drummer Ralph Molina.

Is there a drummer in the house to help me answer the following questions? But first, as always, I ask of our drummers to cast their well-trained, dispassionate eyes toward these questions, not getting hung up on cliched responses, like “It’s only rock ‘n roll, man!” or “What do you want, every drummer to play like Neil Peart?” Those of you who’ve kept a close eye on this feature can verify that for every Rick Buckler who goes under the microscope there’s a Billy Cobham. In the name of musicology, we will examine today’s puzzling drummer.

  • Does Ralph Molina have any special chops and/or signature move?
  • Is there anyone in the Halls of Rock who feels he or she would not be able to hold down Ralph Molina’s job?
  • Why is it that Neil Young’s music is usually better when backed by Molina rather than a slumming chops maven, such as Steve Jordan?
  • Does any young drummer want to grow up to be like Ralph? Why?
  • What’s your favorite Ralph Molina moment?

I look forward to your analysis.

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Is There a Drummer in the House: Ginger Baker

 Posted by
Oct 302007
 

You might be thinking this is yet another excuse for Mr. Mod to dig Clapton’s Look, especially in contrast with his ugly bandmates, but I’d really like to learn more – from a drummer’s perspective – about what exactly highly touted drummer Ginger Baker brought to the table. Here’s one of the first songs I ever heard by Cream.

For the 37 or so years I’ve been conscious of (and liked) this song, all I’ve ever thought about when considering the drum part is the monstrous, clodhopper fill that Baker seems to play in an endless loop. Is there a drummer in the house who can explain the degree of difficulty of this one fill? Are you drummers hearing anything else from the drums that impresses you in any way? Is Baker’s part supporting the song in a manner you could help me better understand?

Here’s another well-known Cream track, but this time with Baker leading his own band, Ginger Baker’s Airforce.

With the horns punching out the key beats, does it even matter that Baker sounds like he’s doing nothing more than rolling around the toms while keeping that counter-rhythm pulse? He does open things up a bit during the first horn solo, but then, with the clock counting down to 10:28 and the the chorus part of the music coming back in, Baker reverts to those thunderous paradiddles that seem to be what he lives for. Go to the 5:03-mark, when the band is into its next song, for some more of the intense tom-tom fills that give Baker’s life meaning!

Drummers, when you were young and learning your craft, did you take anything special out of the lessons set by Mr. Baker?
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