{"id":560,"date":"2016-03-23T01:48:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=560"},"modified":"2016-03-23T01:48:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T01:48:30","slug":"ftv-bun-e-carlos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=560","title":{"rendered":"FTV; Bun E. Carlos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0His real name is Brad. \u00a0Brad Carlson. \u00a0His father owned a roofing business in Rockford, Illinois and by all accounts, he probably should have ended up working in the family business. \u00a0Back in 1927, his grandfather had helped put the roof on the building where Brad would eventually attend Junior High so it was certainly in his blood. \u00a0In Junior High, Brad played the French Horn and discovered that he liked playing music. \u00a0When he saw the Beatles on TV, he suddenly became obsessed with playing the drums.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMy mother went to the music store to buy me a snare drum,\u201d Brad said. \u00a0\u201cGod bless that salesman because he talked her into buying me a whole kit. \u00a0It was cheap and the cymbals sounded like trash can lids when you hit them, but it was a whole set. \u00a0We had a old jukebox in the basement so my brother and I turned the volume screw in the back all the way up and I am sure drove the rest of the family nuts learning to play the drums by playing along with records. \u00a0I can read music for the French Horn, but I never got around to learning how to read drum music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like many aspiring rock drummers in the mid-1960s, Brad played in a fair number of bands. \u00a0Eventually, the swapping musicians process landed Carlson, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, and Robin Zander in a band called Cheap Trick. \u00a0Petersson inadvertently provided the band\u2019s name when he and Nielsen attended a Slade concert and he commented that, \u201cthey used every cheap trick in the book\u201d in their live show. \u00a0\u00a0Nielsen dreamed up their iconic logo playing around with an old manual typewriter. \u00a0The band set a modest goal of writing enough songs to record an album. \u00a0Their star continued to rise in Japan and Europe but they were largely ignored by the American record buyers until their third LP was released (<\/span>Heaven Tonight <\/span><\/i>1978). \u00a0Although <\/span>Live at Budokan <\/span><\/i>(1979) was intended as a \u2018Japan only\u2019 release, demand for it in the states lead to Epic Records releasing it stateside spurring gold record sales of the first three albums. \u00a0A modest beginning which has stretched into a forty year career of constant touring and recording. \u00a0Carlson doesn\u2019t tour with the band anymore, but he is still involved with what he calls \u201cthe corporation\u201d . \u00a0Cheap Trick\u2019s latest album <\/span>Bang, Zoom, Crazy …Hello <\/span><\/i>was released April 1 of 2016 and the band will be inducted to \u00a0the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 16, 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How did Brad Carlson end up Bun E. Carlos? \u00a0\u201cWell, we had three \u2018sons\u2019 in the band so we didn\u2019t want to sound like a bunch of Swedes, so I changed my name to Carlos. \u00a0I was always called \u2018Bun\u2019 so I added the \u2018E\u2019 and became \u2018Bun E. Carlos\u2019.\u201d \u00a0This has worked for Carlos everywhere except in Japan. \u00a0Carlos went on to explain, \u201cThey don\u2019t have any middle names or initials in Japan, so when we landed there, they kept calling me \u2018BEW-knee\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are a couple of versions to the story of why Nielsen\u2019s son Daxx is now occupying the drum throne in Cheap Trick. \u00a0The part everyone agrees on is Carlos\u2019 back problems forced him to miss the 2010 tour and Daxx stepped in. \u00a0When Carlos had healed sufficiently to resume his duties, the band stiff armed him. \u00a0It had been rumored that lead singer Robin Zander did not get along with Carlos and had given the band a \u2018him or me\u2019 ultimatum. \u00a0After some legal wrangling, the band announced that Carlos retired from the road and recording, \u00a0yet retained his lucrative percentage of the Cheap Trick franchise. \u00a0It only seems right owing to his history as a founding member of the band and I, for one, am glad to see that they have settled their differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Carlson has made peace with the break. \u00a0In a presentation to band students at his old Junior High school, Carlos told the students that , \u201dafter 36 years of touring, it gets old. \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, being a \u2018rock star\u2019 is great, but the constant travel and living in hotel rooms gets old.\u201d \u00a0He has retired from touring with Cheap Trick, but he has recorded some special projects with them. \u00a0 As the long time band archivist, he is in the process of sorting through thousands of hours of concerts for future releases from the band\u2019s back catalog of work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In another interview, Carlos mentioned his other musical projects: \u00a0\u201cI have done some shows with Fountains of Wayne as a fill in drummer. \u00a0That has been pretty cool. \u00a0I also play with a Monday band. \u00a0There is a group of us that get together and play at a club every Monday. \u00a0Most musicians play the rest of the week so that is the only day everyone is open. \u00a0We kind of have the Monday gig market cornered.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Cheap Trick first ventured to Los Angeles to record, they were pitched various concepts to consider to market the band. \u00a0\u201cGold lame suits, costumes, stuff like that didn\u2019t make sense to us. \u00a0When we started, we all had long hair. \u00a0Rick eventually cut his hair and started wearing the Huntz Hall – Bowery Boys cap. \u00a0I cut my hair and my look was straight from the Goodwill \u00a0store because the white shirts were twenty five cents each and comfortable to wear when playing. \u00a0Robin and Tom were always the good looking, long haired rock and rollers, so it made more sense for us to stick with being us. \u00a0I don\u2019t think we would have lasted long trying to be like KISS.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Growing up in Rockford, Carlos was a train ride away from seeing a lot of his musical idols perform in Chicago. \u00a0\u201cWhen I started seeing shows in Chicago at sixteen, \u00a0I started getting a lot of my drummer questions answered. \u00a0I could not figure out how drummers got that \u2018swishy\u2019 cymbal sound that I heard on records. \u00a0Seeing Ringo play his hi-hat, \u00a0it finally clicked: \u00a0 So THAT is how they get that sound.\u201d \u00a0As he often says at drum workshops, \u201cHey, I didn\u2019t invent any of these licks. \u00a0I heard someone else use them and I nicked them, or appropriated them, or however you want to say it. \u00a0The opening drum line to <\/span>I Want You to Want Me<\/span><\/i> is just a slightly different take on something I heard from The Ventures.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The presentation Carlos did for the school kids in Rockford was fascinating for a couple of reasons. \u00a0First of all, Carlos is decked out in baggy jeans and his ever present baseball cap. \u00a0He runs down a long list of his career highlights (and he is not bragging here, he is just stating the facts) and he certainly does not remind one of a \u2018rock star\u2019. \u00a0He even describes the rabid greeting they were given by 4,000 screaming girls at the airport in Japan on their first tour as a, \u201cWhoa, what is this?\u201d moment. \u00a0When their <\/span>Live at Budokan<\/span><\/i> album flew up the charts, they were in Europe. \u00a0They had no idea that when they left the states to open for another band in Europe that they would \u00a0came home to find out they were suddenly \u2018rock stars\u2019. \u00a0His message was also one of encouragement. \u00a0Carlos told the kids that starting to play music at their level is hard work, but if they find they love music, they can make a living at it. \u00a0\u201cEven if you are not the greatest musician, there are a lot of ways to make a living in music,\u201d he told them. \u00a0He ran down a long list of people who work in the music business and are vital to a touring band like Cheap Trick. \u00a0Managers, roadies, truck drivers, and right on down to the venue ushers and light riggers were listed as people who \u201cwork in the music business\u201d. \u00a0When asked, \u201cWhat would you be doing if you weren\u2019t a musician?\u201d, Carlos replied, \u201cI would probably be working for the family roofing business, but I would still have found a way to do something with music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other Rockford-Chicago connection evident in the Bun E. Carlos story is Ludwig Drums. \u00a0Based in Chicago, the Wm. F. Ludwig Company was practically in his neighborhood. \u00a0Having Ringo play Ludwig drums (rather than the Premier brand prefered by most English drummers) sold a lot of drums for Ludwig. \u00a0Ringo was the first drummer to put a LUDWIG logo on his bass drum because he wanted everyone to see he could afford \u2018American\u2019 drums. \u00a0In the spring of 1966, I didn\u2019t make the connection that the shiny new drum set sitting in my living room was the same as Ringo\u2019s kit (but with a silver sparkle finish and not \u00a0oyster shell). \u00a0Fifty years later, I am still in awe of what a fine line of drums Ludwig has manufactured all these years. \u00a0Carlos takes this a bit farther in that he is an avid collector of all things Ludwig and has amassed a large collection that he stores in what he calls \u201cBun E.\u2019s Bunker\u201d. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Bunker has shelves of drums of just about every \u00a0model and finish that Ludwig has produced back to the early days of the 1900s. \u00a0Single snares, full sets, and even clusters of cowbells and bass drum muffle pads are arranged in neat rows on custom made shelves. \u00a0Many are \u2018one off\u2019 models that were produced as demonstrators. \u00a0 The drums that were never put into mass production are rarities that collectors covet. \u00a0My favorite set is the \u2018salesman kit\u2019 – so called because Ludwig made a complete drum set that has strips of every sparkle finish they sold banded about every drum. \u00a0If you can picture a rainbow covered drum set only in sparkle colors, then you get the idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had always wondered why the video of Cheap Trick\u2019s version of <\/span>Don\u2019t Be Cruel<\/span><\/i> (from <\/span>Lap of Luxury <\/span><\/i>1988) had Carlos playing left handed on a gold sparkle kit set up for lefties. \u00a0It turns out that like one of his idols, Ringo Starr, Carlos is a born lefty who learned to play drums right handed. \u00a0No doubt this little homage to his natural left handedness was also a way to take some of the drudge out of making yet another video for yet another chart topping single. \u00a0One will also note that Carlos was still chain smoking behind the kit, a habit he eventually dropped for health reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The most remarkable thing that I have found out of meeting professional musicians is that the vast majority of them are down-to-earth people. \u00a0By the nature of the business they are in, they get boxed into a certain image or label, but for the most part, they enjoy their job and the perks that come from wide spread acceptance of what they do. \u00a0They also have cringe-worthy moments that they can look back at and laugh about; \u00a0\u201cWhat were we thinking?\u201d \u00a0All things considered, Bun E. Carlos is still Brad Carlson. \u00a0\u00a0Carlson is two years older than I am so our early drum influences (right down to the Ludwig drums and tolerant family parts) are very similar. \u00a0Watching the grey bearded, older him talking to Junior High students about life and music makes a good matching bookend to what I do for a living. \u00a0The forty \u00a0year career arc we each experienced in between the bookends are not comparable in any way, shape or form, but there is a common thread: \u00a0like Brad Carlson, I have spent forty years doing what I enjoy and being involved in music. \u00a0\u00a0Who could ask for more than that?<\/span><\/p>\n

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