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‘Spill Weekly Song Challenge *8808 – “Bang The Drums!”

"Dude...you're awesome.." "Thanks. I like to play."

Hi ‘Spillers, this week’s song challenge has a purpose in mind!

As I may have mentioned before, my eldest son Brodie (nearly 8 years old) has been taking drum lessons and is bloody loving it! What I need some help with is getting together some  of the bestest, most awesome, tremendous, just fantastic examples of the power of the drum and the drummer! I can then use these to inspire him to be the best drummer the world has ever seen.

Okay, here’s my pick – one that I have shown him and he liked. It’s Dave Grohl drumming for Queens Of The Stone Age on their track “No One Knows”, restrained only until the chorus

Rules are suspended for this week, so you can have more than one pick if you like!

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108 thoughts on “‘Spill Weekly Song Challenge *8808 – “Bang The Drums!””

  1. Well drumming isn’t just about beating the kit like a caterpillar on speed, so much as I love Neil Peart, I’m plumping for Bonzo. Perhaps one of the most frequently sampled beats in music, it’s just got a great groove, a nice reverby sound and propels the song along.

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    • Shoot, Llama, i just realized that i missed your birthday, so here’s wishing you a belated very happy. Hope you didn’t get carried away at the cerveza trough. Hope you had a good time in London.

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      • Hello chinhealer and welcome. I am amazed, nay ASTOUNDED that you have graced us with your presence. Evidently the power of lurve was too much for you to stay chaste and resist your Spill virginity. Much as I am flattered by your advances, I really only saw us as partners of the sparring variety, so while you’re here, why not treat Brodie to Take on The World or Nicko McBrain?

      • BTW, I ONLY wear natural fibres, so you pack that one up and go back to Ann summers for a refund (unless of course you tried it on yourself) ;-)

  2. He may not be ready for Lightning Bolt yet but it’s worth a try.

    Last night I saw Nisennenmondai and Battles, two more bands with tremendous drummers.

    And then there’s the Boredoms with the lovely Yoshimi of Pink Robots fame

    In total contrast, there’s Jim White of The Dirty Three (and on any number of recording by other bands), who sometimes seems to be playing slow motion.

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    • Hehehhe Brodie’s actually been listening to Lightning Bolt since he was 3. I did play some a couple of weeks ago too. to help him with the possibilities of the double kick drum. That and some Machine Head.

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  3. A good drummer should always be keeping the lads in line. Sometimes those fools up front would wander god knows where if given free reign. Charlie Watts is the all time champion in that regard. He sat back there with that Buddah smile for 40 years & never missed a beat. Here he takes the boys off on a merry chase & it’s all just great fun.

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  4. Masatoshi “Pierre” Nakano is the drummer for Ling Tosite Sigure. I nominated this teack as an earworm last week actually , but here is the video.

    He really drives this band a long and he is really skilful, with all the time signature changes and switches in tempo. For a three piece band these guys make a BIG noise ! ! !

    I am really running around like crazy now and so have not had any time for anything ! ! !

    I hope Brodie like this!!!

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  5. Open goal for me, right! Ridiculously spoiled for choice here, and Fintan and the Llama already got to my first obvious picks. So i’m going to pull a fast one on you here, and post a ridiculously underrated drummer. Suspend judgement.
    Unfortunately recording quality somewhat crappy on this one.

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  6. Well now, I’m going to give you two current faves rather than “classics” ( who would be Moe Tucker or Nick Knox from the Cramps, probably).

    First up Kegawa No Maries ( from Japan, where the nuts come from ) on account of being the coolest damn drummer I ever did see.

    and here’s the Blue Hearts, demonstrating all that is great about Japanese punk. The crucial bit, for me, comes at 3 mins when the “falling down the stairs” drumming kicks in.

    Drumsticks for goalposts, eh ? Bloomin’ marvelous !

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  8. Aw shucks, seeing as how rules ain’t rules this week, we better roll out Neil Peart and one of the great rock instrumentals.

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  10. The opening 38 seconds of this track offer no hint of what’s about to happen when the drum beat (if you can call it a beat) comes in. It’s so wrong and so out of place, that somehow, it works! If Brodie can master this rhythm, then nothing’s beyond him.

    PS. If I didn’t know better, I would suspect that Animal from the Muppets was the ‘man’ behind the kit here …

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  11. More reckless, over-the-top tub-thumping in unlikely places – and by a strange coincidence (or is it?) (Yes, Ed.) it’s the opening 38 seconds of this track that feature the stick work in question ….

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  12. I don’t wish to diss the superb suggestions made so far, but given that Brodie IS only 8, won’t he be listening for something catchy rather than technically brilliant?
    So – *puts on tin hat and ducks down into his one-man shelter* – what about some double-drumming (Terry Lee Miall / Chris Hughes)-era Adam And The Ants? Antmusic or Stand And Deliver, maybe?

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  13. Gone are the days when I could listen to a long drum solo (memories of Jon Hiseman, Greg Lake and many others); I’m even skipping the short ones on my European odyssey.
    The main thing that Bill Kreutzmann brought to the Dead was his jazz sensibility. Here’s the original version of Garcia’s song The Wheel which illustrates how Billy’s selection of which beats to play and his use of the tom-toms slowly changes the nature of the song; a technique/talent he employed during jams, to similar effect. I hope you can hear what I mean.

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  15. I have always really liked Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Creatures drumming, it changes and moves about in ways I don’t expect, I don’t really know much about techniques, but I always enjoy his performances

    Two examples:
    Arabian Knights

    The Creatures- Weathercade

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  16. The Savages, who backed Lord Sutch had many great musicians in their ranks over the years. The drummer here is the late Carlo Little. Carlo left Dave Sutch to join the fledgling Rolling Stones. He decided they had no futrure and rejoined Sutch.
    This track was the b-side of their first release. Nicky Hopkins was on piano and the bass player, Ricky Fenson-Brown, was my biggest influence. He later joined Brian Auger Trinity and was on “Wheels On Fire”. This particular line-up of Savages became Cyril Davis’s Rhythm & Blues Allstars, Sutch replacing them with Ritchie Blackmore and Chas Hodges, amongst others.

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    • Damn, I was going to suggest some Han Bennink as well – possibly the record he did in the Black Forest with Peter Broetzmann, playing on rocks, logs, streams and the like. Need Plan B…

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    • WHAT?!?!?!? I feel cheated. I just listened to all 9m55s of that, spending the most part of it wondering whether it indicated serious musical discipline or if it would be slightly different every time it was played. I decided I’d get a feel for the answer by how the guys “resolved” the piece at the end . . . but the bloomin’ vid just cuts off with them still hard at it! GRRRRR.

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  28. Those of us of a certain age, who can still actually remember at least some of the sixties, have a fondness for In-a-gadda-da-vida. There was a fashion for interminable drum solos, which could have been an olympic sport, but were not a musical highlight in my view (I’m looking at you, Ginger). The solo by Iron Butterfly’s Ron Bushy is one exception, and is only about three minutes, tho’ he drums brilliantly and prominently throughout. This live video show the whole 17 minutes of the song, with the solo kicking in at about 6.24. Bedroom drummers love posting their emulation efforts on UTube, and I look forward to seeing Brodie’s before long…

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  29. My first thought – though I do dond DsD’s Antmusic suggestion and the reasoning behind it (having once been told my eldest had a brass lip and therefore fronting for a trumpet and a Freddie Hubbard CD for him, the former of which rarely and the latter never saw the light of day) – was Milford Graves, a drummer who worked with Albert Ayler, Anthony Braxton and other free jazzers but who retired from full-time musicianship to study and teach the links between percussion and biology at university. He plays the music plants dance to, in other words. I found this short clip, which introduces me to a new (to me) name, Toshi Tsuchitori:

    Milford Graves & Toshi Tsuchitori

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  33. Drummers eh ? If I ignore jazz ( Blakey, Roach, Williams, Jones ) then I would have either, appreciated….

    or unappreciated…….

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  36. I know Steen has mentioned him already – but the insane octopus Tony Allen and his playing of rhythm with right and left sticks is a joy to behold and the backbone of afrobeat.

    (here with the Norwegian nutter Jimi Tenor)

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  37. if you can find some old skool metal hubcaps of varying sizes – bash them flat and shove a nail through the middle – that makes a great sound to knock out a beat*

    *obviously I’m not condoning theft from classic cars.
    (but if you have to… them they are gas guzzling relics – make some noise – save the planet)

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  39. Going to chip in with another, if I may. Blimpy, if you’re also splashing out on a wristwatch for Brodie, he might like to set it by Mr Al Jackson</b< (with Booker T and the MGs on a track which may recall another pretty amazing drummer, Mitch Mitchell, not of course the one of this parish):


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  40. Right, I think this is sufficiently obscure and free that no one else is likely to go for it apart from May, and he’s had about four goes already… The great Max Roach, whose career took in bebop, hard bop with Clifford Brown, lots of exploration of African drumming traditions, and this fabulous record, a classic of 1960s radical jazz, with his then wife Abby Lincoln on vocals:

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  41. I just remembered Rina Suzuki.

    She is the drummer for Scandal, and no one will ever say she is the best drummer, but she certainly is one of the drummers that have most fun.

    Scandal started as a group of high school girls that wanted to be in a Rock band and I think it is so cool that they have achieved this dream. They really love playing live and tour most of time and always seem to really have fun.

    Rina Suzuki was a trained classical pianist, but never played the drums. When her friends formed Scandal she joined and started to play the drums as they did not have a drummer, but she had many hard times because she was so inexperienced and it was hard for her to keep up with the others. She only started playing when she was 15 but when she was 17 she was a professional drummer in a successful rock group ! ! !

    Well done Rina ! ! !

    In the interview she says that she wanted to stop many times and quit the group because she feel she was holding them back. But the Scandal girls always said that Scandal could not work without her and this gave her inspiration to carry on. And eventually she became a good drummer.

    Here is the interview

    I think she always look so much like she is really having fun so that is why I have shared this video of Rina Suzuki playing Everybody Say Yeah! by Scandal.

    She proves that hard work and support from your friends can lead to success ! ! !

    I think she is a good example to Brodie ! ! ! (even if she is girl)

    Everybody Say Yeah – Scandal

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  42. As you may know, I’ve never been a great admirer of musical technique other than in a cold, clinical, yes-that’s-very-impressive sort of way. People showing off, whether on guitar, bass, drum, keyboard or indeed ukelele, is not something that toasts my muffins.

    But every now and then I hear something that makes me question whether a human being could really have been capable of producing it. Some of Jan Akkerman’s guitar work on Focus III (particularly Questions? Answers! Answers! Questions) makes me catch my breath but when it comes to drumming, no one (in my book) is quite as mind-blowingly technically gifted as session-man and friend of the stars, Steve Gadd. He’s probably most famous for providing the subtle, breathy beats of Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover but for me, his finest moment is this …

    … which, by-the-by, also features a fine Wayne Shorter saxaphone solo. Nice …

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    • I always thought it was deeply unfair that Paul Simon gets all the royalties for Fifty Ways…: that song is nothing without the drum riff.

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    • dond, I did consider Einstürzende Neubauten’s found percussion experiments (water towers, shopping trollies and angle grinders), but not sure whether they’d find favour with an 8 year old. My nine year old isn’t overly keen, he prefers Gong.

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  46. Well seeing how we’re doing multiples I’d like to throw in Jim Gordon who played with everyone from the Everly Brothers to Little Richard. Here’s a few other stops.
    He was a Beach Boy on this one

    Got to be a quasi Beatle on this (sorry for the video delay)

    http://vimeo.com/20035977

    And was the heart of a rhythm section so tight some wanker stole the whole shebang (including Duane) for Derek & The Dominoes. Here’s Delaney & Bonnie doing up Dave Mason’s Only You Know & I Know just fine. Great picture & some famous friends sittin’ in.

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  48. I’ll verbally armwrestle DsD for uncool now of the week for this challenge:

    I’m not much of a Disney fan and I can take Phil Collin’s voice in small doses only. But when he sets his mind to it he’s a very creative drummer; I love the way the percussion runs this song.

    Unfortunately drumming is kind of a guy thing and it usually takes more testosterone than Phil’s to get noticed.

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  49. You’ve probably got more than enough but I remembered a couple that might well impress the younger audience

    Carl Palmer and his unfeasibly large drum kit

    and those lovable scamps The Butthole Surfers from the time when they had not one but two ( count them !) drummers

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  51. when I think of drummers, I always think of Yoshida Tatsuya.

    He used to be in a great Japanese noise band called Ruins, then started drumming alone. What did he call himself? Ruins Alone of course!

    I saw him a while back and he was incredible. Severely intense with the ability to make his drums sound like several different instruments.

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  52. I thought we were suggesting stuff that an 8-year-old could have a stab at, rather than simply be gobsmacked by. I can’t think of a better rhythm to get into easily and then muck around with than Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away. The Dead played it somewhat more slowly than either Buddy or the Stones. And had much more fun with it, usually making it a sandwich around Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad with all the rhythmic changes that involves. Just one slice of bread and the filling here:

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    • “What I need some help with is getting together some of the bestest, most awesome, tremendous, just fantastic examples of the power of the drum and the drummer! I can then use these to inspire him to be the best drummer the world has ever seen.”

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      • Oh. Note to self: read rubric properly…..

        How about two drummers playing in 7/8 time:


        (The live version on From The Vault 1 is even better.)

  53. I can’t see everyone’s picks because the number of video stills on the page is slowing things down on this computer, but quite right that Bonzo is top of the page, and donds to may1366 for bringing Al Jackson in, and to Abahachi for reference to Steve Gadd’s one-handed drum rolls on Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover. That’s one-handed drum rolls, but one doesn’t want to depress young Brodie at such a tender age.

    Instead, here are two fantastic examples of very simple drumming with just 1 or maybe 2 drums, sometimes enforced by the recording studio being too small for a proper kit.

    The Isley Brothers – This Old Heart Of Mine the drummer starts this off and drives it along, whilst being entirely sympathetic to the singer, including the way the fills fit perfectly with the lyrics. One snare drum is all you need !

    And on Little Richard – Lucille, his drummer keeps it plain and simple until a syncopated fill on the turn-round to the last verse (at 1’59″), which sends a thrill up and down my spine and lifts the song to power on to the finish.

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    • You probably already know this, but the drummer on Richard’s records was Earl Palmer. He had an incredible track record, playing on many of Fats Domino’s hits, most of Little Richard’s, also on “Summertime Blues”, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”, was a member of B. Bumble & The Stingers and The Piltdown Men, apart from appearing on countless other hit records. The other drummer with a similar CV was Hal Blaine, who played on many of Elvis’s hits from the 60s.

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      • Donds for Earl Palmer. I am a latecomer to Little Richard having stumbled upon a couple of live lps at a car boot sale – fantastic fun!

      • Mitch – donds to Hal Blaine who I meant to mention when I was going on about Jim Gordon & forgot. Most of Pet Sounds has Hall behind the kit including Wouldn’t It Be Nice which is just sweet, sweet, sweet.

      • Also, not forgetting Sandy Nelson who played many sessions in cluding Gene Vincent;s “Crazy Times” album and as part of the Hollywood Argyles on “Alley Oop”. He went on to have solo hits with “Teenbeat” and “Let There Be Drums”. Sandy had lost a leg in a car accident and sadly in 1965, he was again involved in a car smash and lost the other leg.
        This was the b-side of “Let There Be Drums”

  54. Thanks for that Mitch, I did know Earl Palmer’s name but middle-aged memory was failing me – disgraceful with such a man deserving credit. Now I just need to check the Funk Brother behind the Isleys.

    Further donds to Tinny for mentioning Phil Collins, who is just fantastic in both his talent and perennial unfashionableness (at least in his own country); and a correction to credit ToffeeBoy with introducing Steve Gadd into the conversation.

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  55. Wow guys! Thanks for joining in, I can’t wait to start showing all these to B and finding out what he makes of it all!

    I will report back once we’ve had the time to watch & listen to them!!

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  57. Doubt you’ll be able to find anything to watch/hear from Sal Ferraras, but he’s amazing and versatile. I saw him many times in Vancouver playing with different types of bands – jazz, rock, Latin… I’d call him more of a percussionist than a drummer ’cause he can bang or shake pretty much anything and make the music sound better.
    http://www.salferreras.com

    Reply

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