Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
I'm laughing because I used to the be the same exact way. When everyone was into KISS in 1977, I was into Brand X, Return to Forever (with both Al and Bill), George Benson, Al DiMeola, Rush, Yes and later, Saga, because all of those guys could play their asses off, so I learned every guitar lick note for note.
I used to be into very technical drummers like Phil Collins, Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Alan White and Billy Cobham. All of the drummers I played with were into those guys as well, with two of them owning a Ludwig Octaplus and couple of them owning clear blue Sonor drums. But as I became older, I began to dislike "busy" drummers and found that groove and simplicity was more to my liking than anyone that could copy a Neil Peart drum solo note-for-note.
I still prefer schooled drummers versus non-schooled guys, with the Berkeley drummers as my personal fav's. I've played with a ton of players but the guys that were my favorites are Taylor Hawkins, Brian Tichy and Kevin Valentine, with the least favorite being Rikki Rocket (we jammed a few times at the old Palomino in NoHo and the guy just couldn't play in time).
PS-Mitch Mitchell used to play all the time at the old Coconut Teaser when I first arrived in LA back in 1993 and I was soooooooooooo incredibly stoked to see him play live and man, was I disappointed. Plus, the guy just couldn't hold a conversation, so it was a bummer.
The old adage of "Never meet your heroes" unfortunately applied in this case. |
You get it, for sure
.
I LOVED Taylor Hawkins when he was in Alanis' band - Taylor, Chris Chaney on bass and Jesse Tobias on guitar...they could shred AND knew how to lay back and play a three chord acoustic tune.
I saw Poison in 2012 with NY Dolls and Mötley Crüe and they surprised me - maybe the combination of low expectations, sobriety, and 20 years of actually learning how to play must've done them wonders.
And yeah, I was all about those "note guys" when I was a kid, I thought Steve Vai was awesome when he was the devil's guitar player in
Crossroads . I think it's a musical maturity thing, you know. I realized early on that I was never going to be the "fastest gun in the west", and then I switched to bass, because, let's face it, a decent bass player always has a gig. Because I like songs and just wanted to play music, so it didn't matter if I was playing all the licks. Playing music is like a football team, you know - not everyone gets to score the touchdown and be Patrick Mahomes. Bass players and drummers are the Oline of the band. The drummer shouldn't ever be the QB (but the drummer IS the QB of Rush and Tool)...
Poor Mitch Mitchell. Not only did his playing deteriorate, but so did his brain, from all accounts I've heard. Those interview segments on the Hendrix DVDs had to be edited to make any sense...and even then, just barely.
I remember one where he was describing a JHE tour, he pauses and goes 'it was...giant...craziness.'