{"id":1447,"date":"2008-05-24T00:44:08","date_gmt":"2008-05-24T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-02-12T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T18:59:00","slug":"rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock&#8217;s Most Valuable Drum Parts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sZZLLYEzKE8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nThere are different schools of thought about the awarding of a <strong>Most Valuable Player<\/strong> in any sport. Some think the MVP should go to the &#8220;best&#8221; player. Some think it should only be awarded to a player who led his or her team to the playoffs. Some believe there are cases where the MVP can come from a team that didn&#8217;t make the postseason, provided that the player accounted for an inordinately large percentage of the team&#8217;s relative success. I&#8217;m going to apply this last line of thinking to what I consider <strong>Rock&#8217;s Most Valuable Drum Part (MVDP)<\/strong> of its time, <strong>Steve Gadd<\/strong>&#8216;s distinctive, highly technical march rhythm that is the key to the success of <strong>Paul Simon<\/strong>&#8216;s catchy but otherwise slight <strong>&#8220;50 Ways to Leave Your Lover&#8221;<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to break down how much the success of that song depends on Gadd&#8217;s part, but I&#8217;m willing to say that it accounts for 70% of the song&#8217;s success. The &#8220;make a new plan Stan&#8221; lyrical device accounts for most of the rest of the appeal of the song, say 25%, with Simon&#8217;s delivery and the bass guitar accounting for the remaining 5%. That&#8217;s a lot of weight supported by a drum beat!<\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b5&#8211;Sje98jI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nI do not mean to discount other MVDPs, the more or less no-brainers that lead a killer, rocking song to victory or a MVDPs that push the boundaries of what we consider the gold standard in drum beats. I&#8217;m singling out Gadd&#8217;s &#8220;50 Ways&#8230;&#8221; beat as perhaps the MVDP of the entire decade of the &#8217;70s based on how I imagine the song might sound without it.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a version without drums that falls flat, despite the singer&#8217;s efforts a working his <strong>Doug E. Fresh<\/strong>-style beatbox skillz.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30YT25I0YwA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a version lacking not only drums but a shirt and pants.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eXcJ_l5HmwA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Critics of the MVDP vote for Gadd will cite the following version in their defense of Simon&#8217;s input as a lead vocalist. The drum beat is included, these critics will note, but it lacks <strong>balls<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_el9Bprqr4Y?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This performance makes it clear that Simon&#8217;s role as lead vocalist,&#8221; wrote a critic, referring to this performance by a <strong>Lesser Jackson<\/strong>, &#8220;accounts for at least 20% of the song&#8217;s success. The drum beat, although complex and catchy, was known for playing up to the media.&#8221; It is true that Gadd&#8217;s drum beat, toweling off every nut and bolt of its hardware after performances, made itself more available to the rock press than the bass part or even the song&#8217;s introspective lead vocal.<\/p>\n<p>I say that no gimmick or strength of performance by any other musician on that song makes up for the loss of Gadd&#8217;s MVDP.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j9Zaxzc9m3w?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s your take on the MVDP for Gadd&#8217;s part on this song, and what are other drum beats that you feel are worthy of MVDP consideration based on their vital contribution to otherwise slight songs?<\/em><\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are different schools of thought about the awarding of a Most Valuable Player in any sport. Some think the MVP should go to the &#8220;best&#8221; player. Some think it should only be awarded to a player who led his or her team to the playoffs. Some believe there are cases where the MVP can <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rock-s-most-valuable-drum-parts\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}