Someone Who Hangs Out with Musicians
Given the generally chaotic state of my life, I have one good twenty minute window for listening to music each day: my morning walk to the office. (By the time of my afternoon walk home, I’m usually so fried that I just want quiet). This morning, for the first time in several years I revisited SAPPUKEI (2000), the brilliant album by the great Japanese postpunk band, Number Girl.
As usually happens when I listen to Number Girl, I became fixated on Inazawa Ahito’s drumming. He’s just astonishing, unleashing a complex array of beats, rhythms, and flourishes. A typical number has him playing a rock back beat with stress on the second and fourth beats in the main section, only to switch over to an anthemic on-the-one pounding for the middle bridge, and spicing it all up with tasty accents and fills. Check out, for example, “Urban Guitar Sayonara”:
On another song, he’ll do a semi-reggae thing, highlighting the third beat, then switch over to a funky rhythm where the upbeat is everything. Just amazing. The producers knew enough to move him forward in the mix.
I think I have drummers on the mind lately. Bobby Graham just passed away. You’ve probably never heard of him, but he’s proof that a single drum stroke can change the world, or at least your mind. Graham was the session musician brought in for the Kinks’ original studio recording of “You Really Got Me” in 1964. Mick Avory, the Kinks’ regular drummer, was a terrific player with strong jazz chops, but the producer lacked confidence in him and so brought in the ringer. It is Graham who played that wonderful offbeat snap on the snare drum at the opening, just after the second repetition of the guitar riff, that catches your attention in the song (Mick supposedly plays the tambourine on the recording).
In the Western music tradition, we’re predisposed to disrespect drummers.
Q: What do you call a drummer?
A: (See the title of this blog post)
But a good drummer can make or break a song, as Number Girl and the Kinks both knew. Even the composer Hector Berlioz knew it–I was just listening to “Symphonie Fantastique” on the radio last night, and as always those damn chimes from hell in the last movement brought goosebumps to my flesh.
Rest in peace, Bobby Graham. And keep rockin’ on, Inazawa Ahito and Mick Avory. You should be aware that I’m typing these words on my laptop with a dandy little touch of syncopation.
on September 18th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Drummers rule. Thank you for the excellent post–and education.
on September 19th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Kudos for the drummers!
And, I meant to tell you earlier, but I’m enrolled in EAS at U of T from this Sept. And apparently we’re reading your book in class…
on September 19th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
It’s good to see drummers get some love here in the comments. Good luck in grad school, Yusei!
on September 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I can’t believe I had never heard of Number Girl before, thanks for turning me on to some great music!