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| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: what makes a good drummer? |
| Date | Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:03:51 -0400 |
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At 09:47 PM 9/16/2003 -0700, Ralph Alfonso wrote:
>as a front man.... to me a good drummer, first and foremost,
>is someone who "gets it" - who knows the bigger picture
>of what the band is trying to accomplish and can provide
>the motor to keep the machine running... someone who
>is a musician in that they can embellish/contribute to
>the sound ... who can play their kit with the melodic touch
>of a saxophonist or pianist, not over play or pound away, but
>with the heads up to add flourish when needed and kick butt
>when necessary...
I agree with all of this, with the caveat that there are times when
"overplaying" provides exactly the embellishment a song needs to put it
over. Naturally, the all-time champion example is Blondie's "Dreaming,"
which wouldn't be half as much fun if Clem Burke hadn't been told he was
getting paid by the pad hit, but I'm also reminded of some of Terry
Chambers' work in '79-'82 XTC ("Travels in Nihilon," for example, or the
bridge in "Senses Working Overtime") and Pete Thomas' utterly remarkable
cymbal work on Elvis Costello's "Beyond Belief." There's a difference
between that kind of overplaying and the overplaying of, say, Billy Cobham
in the '70s, when it's all about the paradiddles.
On the other hand, I'm also on record as saying that Meg White is the
perfect drummer for the White Stripes in the same way that Bobby Gillespie
was the perfect drummer in the early days of the Jesus and Mary Chain:
technical competence is so clearly beside the point that a "good" drummer
would just be distracting.
S
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