{"id":931,"date":"2017-04-03T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T16:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=931"},"modified":"2017-04-03T16:53:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T16:53:28","slug":"ftv-woody-the-spider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=931","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Woody the Spider"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Contrary to an urban musical myth I am about to burst, not all rock drummers hailing from across the pond are named Mick. \u00a0\u00a0Listening to Jeff Beck\u2019s <\/span>Truth<\/span><\/i> recently (with that relatively unknown vocalist named Rod Stewart out front), I noted the exceptional drumming done by Mick Waller. \u00a0This got me to thinking about Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac. \u00a0I had the good fortune to see him with the pre-Stevie Nicks \/ Lindsey Buckingham version of the band. \u00a0Fleetwood became very famous as the drummer in the pop oriented band that brought us many years of great music and interband drama. \u00a0\u00a0Seeing him live when Fleetwood Mac was still heavily influenced by the blues was a bigger thrill for me (than the pop version of the band) as I was just beginning to get acquainted with their music from their <\/span>Rattlesnake Shake<\/span><\/i> era. \u00a0Then there is Mick Woodmansey who is probably more well known as Woody, the drummer from David Bowie\u2019s infamous Spiders from Mars. \u00a0Until recently, I would not have know him from Woody Herman (who wasn\u2019t a drummer, just for the record).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Obviously, it was impossible to escape David Bowie\u2019s alter ego Ziggy Stardust in print, on TV or on the airwaves back in the day. \u00a0As interested as I have always been in music, Ziggy and the Spiders from Mars didn\u2019t spend much time on my musical radar. \u00a0At the time Ziggy landed on Earth, I could not have told you who the drummer was as the musical press were fixated on Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson (another Mick who may have started as a drummer for all I know, but I digress). \u00a0By the time Lee, the bass player in my band Knockdown, brought Bowie\u2019s <\/span>Diamond Dogs<\/span><\/i> album to a rehearsal and suggested that we learn <\/span>Rebel Rebel<\/span><\/i>, The Spiders from Mars were already history. \u00a0For the record, I love the guitar riff and the song, but we never did get beyond a couple of furtive takes on the tune before deciding that we weren\u2019t going to be able to do it justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I began managing WOAS-FM in 1997, we had Bowie\u2019s <\/span>Sound + Vision<\/span><\/i> box set on hand so I decided it was time to reacquaint myself with the the Thin White Duke (or whichever moniker the chameleon like Bowie was known as in the late 1990s). \u00a0The more I played it, the more I began to appreciate what he had been up to during all those years of rebranding himself into the next new thing. \u00a0At that juncture, I got to know Bowie better, but Woodmansey was still an unknown quantity for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flash forward to 2015 or so when WOAS began receiving CDs from Day Storm Records owner and producer Gary Tanin who turned us onto artists he had produced records with like Sam Llanas (<\/span>The Whole Nite Through<\/span><\/i>), The Young Revelators (<\/span>All I See<\/span><\/i>), and Jack Spann (<\/span>Time, Time, Time, Time, Time<\/span><\/i>). \u00a0Gary relayed to us the tale of how he got involved working with Jack Spann on a recommendation of his (Tanin\u2019s) good friend, Tony Visconti. \u00a0Visconti is known for his work with David Bowie, all the way back to the Spiders from Mars days. \u00a0Back in 2016, I jokingly applied this information to the parlor game <\/span>Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon<\/span><\/i> reasoning that I corresponded with Gary Tanin who knows Tony Visconti who produced David Bowie – meaning I am only 3 or 4 degrees (depending on how you score the game) from knowing David Bowie! \u00a0Yes, this is a bit of a stretch, but it opened my eyes to Tony Visconti\u2019s work and suddenly, I began seeing his name everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A short piece in the Milwaukee Journal – Sentinel caught my eye last summer. \u00a0It said that Tony Visconti and former Spiders from Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey would be bringing their Bowie tribute band Holy Holy to Milwaukee. \u00a0After responding affirmatively when I asked him if he would be attending the show (\u201cI already have my ticket\u201d), Gary Tanin followed up by sending me photos he took at the after show party. \u00a0Forty plus years after The Spiders from Mars ceased to exist, I finally caught up with their drummer and I have a sneaking feeling that I will have ordered his new book <\/span>Spider from Mars: \u00a0My Life With Bowie <\/span><\/i>by the time this article goes to print. \u00a0If I mention my 3 or 4 degrees of separation from Bowie when I order the book, maybe he will inscribe it to me like we actually know each other! \u00a0Then again, how on Earth would I make sense of all this to a former Spider from Mars?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1970, I was a high school senior gigging around the central U.P. in my band The Twig. \u00a0At that same time, \u00a0Woodmansey was offered a job at the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull. \u00a0According to an interview he did recently with <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine<\/span><\/i>, \u00a0he was given the weekend to mull over the offer but on Saturday, a \u2018one-hit wonder folk singer\u2019 named David Bowie called and asked him to join his band. \u00a0Woodmansey became a Spider from Mars and they set about stamping Bowie\u2019s ticket to fame by recording the classic albums <\/span>The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> Ziggy Stardust.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Woodmansey would seem to have made the correct vocational choice and was on top of the music mountain right up until July 3, 1973 when Bowie announced the retirement of Ziggy and the Spiders from the stage of the Hammersmith Odeon. \u00a0To make matters worse, Bowie’s manager Tony DeFries called Woodmansey on his wedding day to inform him that he was no longer going to be drumming for Bowie. \u00a0From the top of the mountain to unemployed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Woodmansey would have every right to look back at this turn of events with bitter feelings but he doesn\u2019t. \u00a0When asked if he has any regrets from his career, he doesn\u2019t mention being fired from Bowie\u2019s band. \u00a0What he does regret, he said, \u201cWas not turning up for an audition with Paul McCartney. \u00a0I regretted it, but it\u2019s a decision I can\u2019t take back, so why worry about it?\u201d \u00a0What he does remember about the end of Ziggy and the Spiders is that Bowie got lost in his own creation. \u00a0While Ziggy was a role to play on stage, it became harder and harder for Bowie to take off the mask at the end of the show. \u00a0The press and public wanted Ziggy Stardust so that is who he gave him and not the normal guy who used to interact with his bandmates when they weren\u2019t on stage. \u00a0Had his management team kept some buffer between the press and Ziggy-Bowie, it may have allowed them to continue creating music for at least a little longer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Woodmansey also could resent that The Spiders never shared writing credits with Bowie. \u00a0According to Woody, \u201cIt was just taken for granted that we wouldn\u2019t (share writing credits). \u00a0Even on <\/span>The Man Who Sold the World<\/span><\/i>, where Tony Visconti, Mick Ronson, and myself jammed the material into songs, David didn\u2019t have complete songs or even completed chord sequences that joined up at that time, but we understood.\u201d \u00a0This statement also satisfied my curiosity about what lead Visconti and Woodmansey to form Holy Holy – if they helped Bowie develop the arrangements Bowie recorded, then they certainly had a common musical thread that pulled them back to performing together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Asked when his parents realized that he had made the correct choice when he joined Bowie\u2019s band, Woodmansey replied, \u201cWe played Bridlington Spa and my mum and dad came for the first time. \u00a0It was the second UK tour, so it was pretty big by then, and my dad said: \u2018By, lad, you can play them drums,\u2019 and that was the only comment I ever got.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The book review I read hints that Woodmansey asking for a pay raise prior to the Hammersmith Odeon swan song may have contributed to the demise of The Spiders from Mars. \u00a0Bowie\u2019s career long habit of reinventing himself belies this notion. \u00a0If Ziggy was indeed pushing Bowie aside, the argument could be made that Bowie himself realized it was time to move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For his part, Woodmansey puts his pride in his marriage and family ahead of the time he spent with Bowie, yet he is proud that he was there when Bowie \u201cfinally grasped what he was supposed to be doing.\u201d \u00a0Woodmansey, Ronson, and bassist Trevor Bolder taught Bowie how to rock and they became rock stars, even if it was only for three years. These are the just the facts of the matter and there are many less well balanced musicians who would have let these events consume them. \u00a0Sure, there could have been bitter feelings lingering long after his dismissal from the band, but for his part, Woodmansey \u00a0moved on. \u00a0Looking back with pride at what they accomplished in three short years points to this being the healthiest path he could have taken. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Randal Marsh, the drummer in Tom Petty\u2019s pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch (and obviously not British since he isn\u2019t named Mick), was not asked to hang around when Petty\u2019s new record label pushed TP into becoming a solo artist. \u00a0Petty found not being in a band disquieting so he borrowed former Mudcrutch members Benmont Tench (keyboards) and Mike Campbell (guitar) (along with a band they were trying to put together) for a recording session. \u00a0These recordings laid the foundation of the Heartbreakers with Stan Lynch moving into the slot that Marsh would have filled if he had still been in the mix. \u00a0Marsh freely admits he found himself watching the meteoric rise of the Heartbreakers while thinking, \u201cThat should have been me up there.\u201d \u00a0Thirty years down the road, he found satisfaction and redemption when Petty reformed Mudcrutch and recorded two new albums with the original line up.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair about it, Marsh could still moan and groan that he missed the ticket for a long and lucrative career, but he was satisfied that the Mudcrutch reunion proved that he could have been there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last book I read written by a drummer was by John Densmore of The Doors. \u00a0If Ginger Baker from Cream ever writes a book, I will probably read that, too, but right now I am going to pull the pin and order Woody the Spider\u2019s book. \u00a0Now that I know a little more about him, I am anxious to learn about all that glamorous stuff I missed when I didn\u2019t know who he was!<\/span><\/p>\n

TOP PIECE VIDEO: \u00a0Ziggy, Trevor, Mick and Woody at their prime in 1972!<\/p>\n