Friday Night Cage Match/Fondue Party/Evolving Conversation/Dancing About Architecture Vol.6

Pribek wrote,

Flipping through the mental file cabinet, I think back to when I first met Jake the drummer who, remains one of the most musical players I’ve ever made noise with; despite the tremendous volume of brackish water that has flowed under the bridge.
I was 20 and playing in a dysfunctional steamroller of a rock and roll band with Jake (who had previously played with Molly Hatchet and Jesse Johnson), and Bruce Carr (who had a background as an L.A. studio rat and a stint as bass player/band leader for Leon’s wife Mary Russell on his resume).
We put together four hours of cover material over a three week period of 10 hour+ daily rehearsals. It was a process of trial and error; some stuff worked, some stuff didn’t.
Jake had the ability to play anything we threw at him. He seemed to have total recall of the groove, tempo and fills of whatever rock and roll, r&b, blues chestnut we pulled from the archives. Not only that, he knew exactly how to alter those songs to fit the players in the room.
We were trying to cover all bases so, at some point we figured we needed a song by The Who (we already had several Beatles songs in the bag, btw) because, everyone involved had roots there.
Jake, who had no problem tackling anything else was opposed to playing The Who. He said; I don’t want to mess with Keith Moon’s groove, nobody can play like Kieth Moon, not even close. Keith Moon is sporadic. He is great and it works for him but, when anyone else tries, it sounds dumb.”
We put it to a vote and settled on “Pinball Wizard”. Jake played it and it rocked, for sure. Here’s the thing though, Jake could take Bonham, Simon Kirke, Ginger Baker and play note for note then, take it to another level while retaining the integrity. He could take it and make it his own with any of the hallowed drummers except for Keith Moon.
Funny thing though, Jake wasn’t his real name. When he registered at a fleabag, he would sign “Jake Starkey”. When asked where he came up with “Starkey” he told me it was a tribute to Ringo who was really Richard Starkey. He just liked the sound of “Jake”.
So, Moonie or Ringo?
You can’t make a fair assessment of either without addressing their work within the context of the bands. Rock and roll is a collective experience.
It’s hard to imagine either band developing the same way with a different drummer. That being said, I think the Beatles could have been a great band with a number of different guys; different but great. For instance, if Russ Kunkel was born in Liverpool and crossed paths with those guys; that would be a damn good band-John, Paul, George and Russ.
The Who though, I don’t know, it’s hard to fathom a similar scenario. Take any ingredient away and it’s not even in the same ball yard-no “Substitutes” on that menu. Pete’s manic composition doesn’t come off without Moonie’s frenzy. Enwistle is the only bass player that could keep the Magic Bus between the ditches. And, the whole thing is an utter mess without an Adonis with a Napoleon complex that can let loose a scream that could frighten a famished Panther off a meat wagon.
Ringo has had more #1 hits than any other Beatle as a solo artist. Ringo, has this thing where he leaves out an eighth note on the hi-hat in order to bring his left hand above the hi-hat and crash down on the snare with more force. I thought this was purely for show until my brother, Jim, pointed out that it grew of necessity; “they didn’t have monitors and they couldn’t hear the snare.”
Interesting that when Townshend and Daltrey drag out the brand name these days, the drummer of choice is the spawn of Ringo. And, Zak seems to get it better than any I’ve heard try.
Ringo is “Ringo” and Moon is “Moonie”; best buds, rock and roll court jesters of the highest order. It’s a tough task for a drummer to homestead a parcel of unique, stylistic ground and these are two who succeeded.
At the end of the rambling paradiddle and, contrary to the field so far, I have a soft spot for genuine madness and my nod goes to Moonie.

Link | April 26th, 2008 at 8:53 am

Pribek wrote,

Didn’t catch that on the first run through either J. I thought it was merely a clever use of “shuffle” pertaining to drummers but, Python is quite suitable in this dialog.

Link | April 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am