FTV: Drum Pros

 

     When drummers get together, what do you think they talk about?  Equipment?  Technique?  Cooking tips?  Nah.  Drummers like to talk about (wait for it….) other drummers!  I am not casting false rumors here because I am as guilty of it as well.  It turns out that talking about drummers with other drummers is easier than actually talking to drummers, at least for me.  Early on, when I found myself in the company of professional drummers (ie:  those who were making a living in touring bands), I was never one to walk up to them and strike up a conversation.  The turning point for me was talking to Bill Gordon, the drummer with Al Jaquez’s band Measured Chaos.  They spent two days setting up and rehearsing at the Ontonagon Theater of Performing Arts back in the early 2000s and during breaks in the action, Bill and I got to have an extended series of discussions about many topics, including drummers.  The lesson that finally sunk through my thick skull was a simple one:  “Drummers are people, too.”  Having previously discussed the drummers I got to know in my time growing up in Marquette through my time living in Ontonagon, it makes sense to take one more look.  This time it is all about the professional drummers I got to see even if I didn’t manage to talk to all of them.

      The first big name touring drummer I got to see in concert came to Northern Michigan University in the back up band for The Lettermen.  Paul Bush and I were pressed into service standing guard in our band uniforms at the bottom of the staircase his sister’s class had built for their Junior Prom.  It stretched from the high school sports deck to the gym floor and all we had to do was stand at attention at the bottom looking like a couple of characters from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker ballet.  For our efforts, Paul’s sister gifted us two tickets for the concert which was taking place the same night (though it seems she may have bought the tickets before the prom night was scheduled).  As soon as we were done with our Nutcracker Honor Guard duties, we hustled the four blocks over to NMU’s Hedgecock Fieldhouse.  If there was an opening act, we missed it as we found our seats just as The Lettermen were introduced.

     It was either a three or four piece band (I can’t remember) but three years into learning my way around my Ludwig drum kit, I was totally focused on what the drummer was doing.  He was very good, seemed to lean in a jazzier direction, and did a solo that was so good, I almost quit practicing.  This was also my first experience watching a flashy ‘show’ drummer.  Part way through his solo, the lights went down and blacklights illuminated the stage.  These in turn lit up his dayglo painted sticks.  This was impressive, to be sure, but then he began flipping them up to the rafters of the large gymnasium they were playing in.  He repeated this trick many times without dropping one stick or missing a beat.  Paul looked at me to see my reaction and all I could say was ‘Wow’!  It was an unexpected turn of events as I was not expecting a trio of folky singers like The Lettermen to have such a dynamic band backing them.

     The only thing I knew about Vanilla Fudge came from hearing their reworked version of You Keep Me Hanging On on the radio.  I can’t recall seeing them on the Ed Sullivan show back in the day.  Their first appearance on Ed Sullivan was January 14, 1968 performing their take on the Supreme’s hit. The second time they were on Sullivan on February 2, 1969, they did a spirited rendition of Shotgun.  These dates are important because between those nationally broadcast appearances, they performed in the same double wide gym at NMU’s Hedgecock Fieldhouse where I had seen The Letterman.  The occasion was NMU’s Fall Homecoming celebration and the concert was held on Tuesday, October 15, 1968.  I have seen footage of their first Sullivan appearance where  drummer Carmine Appice (‘Ah – piece’ if you are wondering) played a red sparkle kit.  Between the two Sullivan dates, Appice had traded in a standard red drum kit for a double bass drum, maple shelled Ludwig kit – this was the set he played when I saw them at Northern.

     My dad retired from the Michigan State Police in the summer of 1967 and then went to work for NMU Security for a couple of years.  Nick Gorski and I both had tickets for Vanilla Fudge and my dad was working security at that concert.  He let us in the back door of Hedgecock before the gates opened.  We had tickets to prove we weren’t gate crashing, but nobody gave the two of us a second look as we stood in the gym watching the roadies set up.  I had never seen a giant PA stack or a double bass drum set before so it was fascinating to watch all of the gear being set up.  About the time I asked Nick where we should sit, the drum tech started doing mic checks around the drum kit.  It was so loud, I had to read Nick’s lips when he said, “In the back!”

     Comments I have read about this show always mention it was ‘hot’ and ‘loud’.  Even though we were in the top row of the bleachers on the back wall (heat rises, right?), the sight line we had to the stage made the heat bearable.  Carmine attacked his drums as much as he played them.  When he choked a cymbal crash (hitting the cymbal and then grabbing it to stop it from  ringing), he would lay his entire forearm across the cymbal.  His playing was wild, but not out of control.  Appice managed to throw in stick twirls and a lot of dramatic arm motions without missing a beat.  At some point keyboardist Mark Stein left the stage saying, “Man, it is too hot to keep playing,” but apparently a threat to not get their paycheck brought them back.  Had I never seen another concert, I could say the first two featured the best drummers on the planet even though they didn’t play the same style of music.

     Through a fortunate set of circumstances, I got to see a lot of drummers and a lot of great bands during my high school and college years.  First, I lived in sight of Hedgecock as our house was right across the street from the NMU campus.   Second, a promoter saw a chance to get a lot of bands additional gigs in the midwest when they came through Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee.  It took some effort, but Marquette would have been too far off the beaten path if this promotional group had not seized the opportunity.  Following is a list of the drummers I got to see with a few take-aways that I remember.  I apologize for not being able to put accurate dates on all of them (I should have kept a diary) or the names for some of the drummers.

      The first year I attended an annual event at NMU known as ‘Greek Week’, they held a concert / dance.  The opening act was Marquette’s own The French Church (with classmate Warren MacDonald on drums).  The featured act was The McCoys – yes, the Hang On Sloopy McCoys.  Guitarist Rick Derringer’s brother Randy Z was on the drums (he still went by their given name of Zherenger).  He had great footspeed and a thunderous playing style that shook the stage.  This was just a couple of years before they hooked up with Johnny Winter.  The McCoys shared the same manager as Winter and thus became his backing band when he recorded the live album Johnny Winter And (the McCoys being the ‘And’).

      The second GW I attended featured a well known former NMU student named Cub Koda.  This first version of Brownsville Station featured drummer T.J. Conley and bassist Tony Driggens.  The second time I saw Brownsville, they had a new drummer in Henry ‘H-Bomb’ Weck and second guitarist Mike Lutz had moved over to bass in their new trio format.  Both Conley and Weck were powerful drummers who kept it simple.  A third GW brought Bob Seger to town as a solo acoustic act who then joined up with a drum / organ duo called Teegarden & Van Winkle.  Dave Teegarden was a vocalist and drummer in the duo.  Together with organist / vocalist Van Winkle, they played some serviceable rock.  They played their last set as a trio with Seger playing a Gibson Les Paul.  While he was playing with this outfit, Seger wrote many songs that would lay the foundation of the Silver Bullet Band phase of his prolific career

     The double headliner show of Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac provided me with an opportunity to see two drummers with contrasting styles.  Savoy Brown’s stickman at that time was Dave Bidwell.  He had departed Chicken Shack not long after Christine Perfect had left that band to join Fleetwood Mac.  Bidwill was anything but flashy – he was a solid time keeper who used few fills and even fewer facial expressions.  I saw this Savoy Brown line up in 1972 before Bidwell left the band.  He did return to the band in 1974-1976 but sadly died in 1977, reportedly of a heroin overdose.  Mick Fleetwood (with Bidwell’s old Chicken Shack bandmate Christine Perfect – McVay in the band) was much more emotive than Bidwell.  The show was good but I was disappointed in Mick’s drum solo.  Apparently he had gotten into electronic triggers and had rigged what looked like a fisherman’s vest (the kind with  many pockets) with pads.  It looked rather odd when he left the back of the stage part way into his solo slot and began slapping the various pockets on his vest to continue his (now electronic) drum solo.  He smiled broadly throughout, but it seemed a bit too gimmicky to me.  Then again, if one is on the road doing many shows, maybe it was another way to distract him from the touring routine.

     Nobody printed programs about bands in those days so you will forgive me if I can’t put a name on all of them.  Some were very good like the drummers from Little Anthony and the Imperials and BB King’s band.  Some were passable like Dennis Thompson from the MC5, Ted Nugent Band’s Cliff Davies, and SCR’s E.G. Clawson (real name Scott Williamson).  John Siomos from the Frampton Comes Alive era of Peter Frampton’s career was not flashy but he provided a solid backing when they played at Hedgecock.  Second guitarist and keyboard player Bob Mayo was not at that gig (no explanation given) so there was room to fill as they played as a trio.  Siomos was the first drummer I ever saw that had a full PA set up of his own behind his kit.  These were not just floor wedge monitors, but PA columns and a mixing board – apparently he mixed the band’s sound he heard to his own liking.  I thought he was ‘another British drummer’ until I recently learned he was from Chicago, got out of the music business after touring with Frampton and became an EMT.

     Another outstanding concert held at Hedgecock that featured a great drummer was Chicago.  It seems everybody remembers Robert Lamm taking a hatchet to a poorly tuned piano (which they did pay for) but I remember Danny Seraphine’s chrome shell kit and what great chops he had.  He was so good I am pretty sure I totally ignored my date for that show.  Billy Hinds from Pure Prairie League was one of those players who played just the right stuff for their countrified rock.  Seraphine and Hinds may have come from different directions but their playing styles fit perfectly in their respectful genres. 

     Steven Jo Bladd from the J. Geils Band was an excellent vocalist and drummer but the highlight of his drum solo was the duet he did with keyboard player Seth Justman.  During the solo spot, Bladd came forward and played two concert toms next to Justman’s tymbalies.  They were a fine tuned rhythm machine and at times matched each other’s beats and crossed over to play each other’s drums flawlessly.  They must have liked the response they got because a few months later, the band appeared on The Johnny Carson Show.  When Carson asked if they had any memorable gigs recently, it was either guitarist J.Geils or singer Peter Wolf who said, “Yeah, we played at a college in Marquette, Michigan a while ago and we can’t wait to go back.”

     When Bachman Turner Overdrive was first topping the charts, they visited Marquette with a new guitar player.  Blair Thornton had recently replaced Tim Bachman but brother Robbie Bachman was still drumming behind his big brother Randy.  His thundering style really matched B.T.O.’s heavy sound.  B.T.O. is touring again but Robbie passed away in 2023 at the age of 69. Before this reunion, he was leading his own version of B.T.O. in which he was the only original member.  

     After I graduated from college in 1975, s hows at Lakeview Arena brought even more great drummers to the great white north.  Roger Earl from Foghat (who are still recording and touring to this day with Earl being the sole remaining member) was great.  I read a comment from a local who said he talked to Roger years later at a show in Florida.  Earl remembered fishing on Lake Superior when they were in Marquette.  Blue Oyster Cult appeared at Lakeview twice, both times with original drummer Albert Bouchard.  He was front and center playing guitar when BOC did their ‘guitar army’ thing (when the whole band lined up across the stage while trading guitar licks).  The second show featured his drum solo wearing a large Godzilla head as he bobbed and weaved in the strobe lights – a real ‘horror movie’ like experience.  The solo came in the middle of Godzilla (naturally) and I can still see it in my mind when I hear the song.  It was a solo that was as much fun to watch as to hear.

     Harold Ray Brown from War was perhaps the funkiest drummer I got to see live.  When my wife and I saw them as The Low Rider Band at the Calumet Theater a few years back (they were prohibited from using the name War for a number of years), he was still the heartbeat of the band.  Drummer Gil Moore from Triumph is a good singer and time keeper, but I was a little disappointed in his reliance on electronics for his drum solo the second time I saw them.  He did a series of tom rolls that were filtered through a flanger and the effect turned it into a mush of swooshing sounds.  I love Triumph and they are a great band (and they are also on tour again) but I won’t let one wonky solo ruin the memories of their live shows.  REO Speedwagon came through Marquette a couple of times.  Once when Terry Luttrell was the lead singer and again after Kevin Cronin had returned to the band.  Drummer Alan Gratzer really added a lot to their sound and I remember thinking, “His roady must polish his cymbals for every show – they really gleamed in the spotlights.”  Gratzer was the first drummer I saw who wore what looked like golf gloves on both hands when he played.  I had my share of blisters and dropped sticks due to sweaty palms, so there is nothing wrong with him finding a solution to both problems.

     Have I exhausted my list of professional drummers yet?  Not by a long shot.  I don’t have room here to get to Savage Grace, Measured Chaos, The Turtles, and a bunch of other bands.   I will have to revisit the topic in the future but let me depart with one final thought.  For all the famous and not so famous professional drummers I have had the pleasure to see live, Don Kuhli from Marquette’s own Walrus rates up there with the best.  Don’s foot speed, quick hands, and overall technique puts him in good company – there isn’t one band out there that would not have been better if he had joined their ranks.

Top Piece Video:  Carmine Appice doesn’t get the credit he deserves for inspiring a lot of heavy rock drummers and pioneering double bass drum work – here they are on the Ed Sullivan Show around the time they appeared at Northern Michigan University.