Sunday, July 15, 2007
Enough with the Drums Already
And, following on from this, Roger Scruton in his book on Culture remarks on the way rock and pop music separates out the rhythm. In classical music, the rhythm tends to be at one with the music. In rock and pop, the drums accompany the music. This point is in the air. It is also made by a character in Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach. Perhaps the depressing sounds of electronic drum beats have started to get on people's nerves. Certainly, I have begun to notice the excessive presence of drums in both recorded and live music and, once noticed, it can never be unnoticed. But could The Beatles have managed without Ringo, The Who without Keith Moon or The Velvet Underground without Mo Tucker? I think we should be told.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Dancing doesn't work without drums, especially for men. Either too floaty and ethereal, or too Jane Austen ball-y.
ReplyDeleteI say let's just be thankful that nobody does drum solos anymore. Remember Ginger Baker's 'Toad'? Enough to taste the patience of a saint - even a stoned one.
There is, however, a superb drum solo by Brady Blade on Emmylou Harris's The Maker on Spyboy. Check it out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you but in my 20s I wouldn't have. i think it's more than the blandness of modern, repetitive electronic beats and thump, thump, thump, thump.
ReplyDeleteI once lent a cassette to a clsssical music teacher of German electronic music and she hated it. Loved the music but why the drums?
To make it relevant to youth.
But why can't youth just appreciate the music?
Because they can't.
And where would the Dave Clark Five have been without Dave Clark? Not even the Five.
ReplyDeleteThere's been plenty great use of electronic drums...just a tool in the right or wrong hands after all. Like Riche Hawtin, a very fine, close on genius, manipulator of the famous Roland TB 303 & other electronic goodieshere, where the rhythm & the music very much of one, & I'd suggest Hawtin here as fine a drummer of any traditional drummer. As with all the best music, turn it up & if one can't feel the groove of this then one has probably been taking the wrong drugs.
ReplyDeleteas any traditional drummer
ReplyDeleteBeware of the drums! I used to wear headphones to listen to Ginger, Ringo, Roger, Dave, Keith, oh, and the BBC Phil in Shostakovich. I now say "pardon" a lot; deaf, but very polite.
ReplyDeletei think drums should be low in the mix if they're not particularly good. Spiritualized did this, on their first 3 albums, to prevent the listener having any simple anchor. When i saw them playing live, the drums were much more noticeable. When drumming is good it's worth noticing (e.g. the opening to U2's 'Please' or Led Zep's 'When the Levee Breaks'), but it seems so often functional at best.
ReplyDeleteIs this drum thing anything to do with our sense of time, of urgency? i had to fill in a time-keeping sheet accounting for every 15 minutes of my day at one job. Nasty. Suddenly i don't like drums anymore.
The general point is right & one of the reasons most rock/pop music so uninteresting. This kind of music should have a groove as an integral part of itself like in that incredible landmark in spiritual evolution, The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows. Mani, the Stone Roses drummer injected this groove into their stuff, where comparably stuff like Radiohead so leaden footed, witht he drums being an accompaniment as opposed to integral. Which is why electronic music at its best like Kraftwerk's Numbers, or dub music are so much cooler tahn earnest rockers...the drums & bass groove as the foundation, rather than a plodding afterthought.
ReplyDeleteYou mention Spiritualised, El; I presume you know My Bloody Valentine's magnificent Loveless album where generally these components turned down very low? One of their finest meltdown moments here.
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ReplyDeleteThis is getting ridiculous & Reni was The Stone Roses drummer, not Mani, the bassist.
ReplyDeleteit's the old joke, what do you call someone who hangs around musicians?
ReplyDeletethe shift happened when jazz handed over to rock & roll. drumming became more essential but drummers far less important.
keith moon was the exception that proves the rule. I read he broke the kit he borrowed for his audition and that was his M.O. thereafter. It was said he could keep perfect rhythm, he just didn't bother.
Enough with the drums?:( I've just started learning how to play drums and I really wanted to learn more. A drum is a very important percussion instrument.
ReplyDelete