February 19, 2004

The Drum Solo collection - From Steve Gadd to Dave Weckl.
posted by marx 20 years ago
  • I'm glad Keith Moon is on the list. Why would Townshend and Daltrey would want to continue without Moon and Entwistle is beyond me. That was the greatest rhythm section in the history of rock.
  • It's unfortunate that they don't have Dan Hickey's solo stylings (he's the drummer for They Might be Giants). Greatest- and funniest!- live drum solos I've ever heard. "To hear this drum solo in Spanish, please press or say two!" Hickey's solo appears on TMBG's 20th anniversary compilation "Dial-A-Song" during a live recording of "She's Actual Size," and I've also heard a version of it on the band's Dialasong site: www.dialasong.com.
  • Once you get to Clyde, the game's all over. The funky drummer changed things, and I'm not gonna say he revolutionized things, cause that sounds so damn trite when you hear the man play, but when people talk about finding their muse through music, you know they're talking about people like Clyde. He pours out music like Maya Angelou writing poetry, like Yo-yo Ma on the chello or Gould on the piano, and the fact that he's humping on public radio breaks my damn heart, when you consider that he's one of the most influential drummers and one of the most heavily sampled, gets no royalties from his ground breaking work, and needs the help of his fans. It's almost a dictionary definition of a "damn shame".
  • Call me silly, but I've always been amazed by John Bonham. Started the first time I heard "When the Levee Breaks". Simply amazing. In case there's anybody who hasn't heard the story of the "haunting sound" of the drum track -- Led Zeppelin was recording IV (or Symbols or Four, or Zoso, or whatever you want to call it) in an old house in England. They couldn't get the sound they wanted for the drum track in any of the rooms, so they put Bonzo and his drum set on a landing in the stairwell of the house, and suspended the mic from the second story above him. I broke out in goosebumps the first time I heard that song. It's still one of my two favorite Zep songs, along with "The Girl I Love", which was included on the recently released (4 years ago) BBC Sessions. They used to perform it on their concert tours, but didn't record it for an album release.
  • What Jim said. The Beasties sampled that beautiful opening break for the first beats of the first track of their first album, where it pretty much sets the tone for the rest of their output. Punchy, heavy stuff.
  • Dennis Chambers. Yass, yass.
  • goetter, that drum loop is all over the place. Enigma sampled it in two songs, "Return to Innocence" and "Gravity of Love," and Banco de Gaia used it in "887 (structure)," off "Last Train to Lhasa." You can find that loop, and many other infamously sampled ones, on this page (my personal favorite is the Synthetic Substitution one, which I shamelessly used in a GarageBand composition of mine (self link)). And while we're on the topic of drum loops, look here for a bunch of good ones, especially the "Mystery Loops" section.
  • Bozo is great on "When the Levee Breaks." However, I can't stand Robert Plant's voice. Too jive for me. I like his singing on his solo and Honeydrippers stuff better. Another great drum track is Charlie Watts on "Moonlight Mile."
  • Slightly off topic: I got introduced to Dave Weckl when a group I was playing with in High School got invited to the Wichita Jazz Festival. We were instantly taken in by his HUGE rocked-out and stunning mullet. We liked his name, too. We used it continuously for about two years to say things like "I think someone dropped a weckl into this piano" or "That dude over at the bar keeps trying to touch my weckl." (we played at a restaurant in the gay part of town)
  • rocked-out *drum set*
  • Oh, crap. I didn't see where you linked to, goetter. I suck. *nobly commits sepukku with a sharpened banana*
  • Chap I used to play with (still email buddies, but I don't get up to London much) has done several tours as Billy Cobham's guitar player. Got on at least one of the records, too.
  • Holy hell, I linked to that damn gum story as seen on Mefi. I meant to link over to here.
  • boo: i'm right there with you on Clyde. The fella who keeps the hardest working man in show business on th' beat gotta get some dap. But leave us not forget the inimitable Max Roach and superhype ?estlove.
  • Tony Williams is the greatest drummer who ever lived.