It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll.
When it comes to “rock drummer” stereotypes, no one breaks the mold more than The Rolling Stones’ own Charlie Watts. He’s in one of the biggest rock bands in the world, yet he plays the smallest drum set you’ll ever seen in an arena. He’s never been banned from a hotel for inappropriate/illegal behaviour involving mud sharks. And I’m pretty sure he’s never choked on his own vomit.
Charlie is a master of simplicity, not only in his approach to grooves, but also in the sound he gets out of the drums. Both are natural, understated and serve the song to the fullest. While most rock drummers tend to bash as hard as they can, breaking sticks and blistering their hands, Charlie has gone years without having to change a snare head. Something to think about.
Loop #21
As my ‘one handed recording’ continues into day three, I figured it was the perfect time to approach something in the style of Charlie Watts. In many of his grooves, he plays all of the eighth notes on the hi hat EXCEPT for on 2 and 4 (which allowed me to play the hat and snare with one hand). You really don’t notice it on the recordings, but it’s there. Just listen. It’s very subtle, looks a little awkward, and is actually hard to duplicate, but that’s what makes Charlie different from the rest. That and his patented Panty Deflector™.
Preview Here:
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Download the Logic session here. (64MB)
Non-Logic fools, get your .wav files here.
106 BPM
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We like Meestar Charlie because he knows that real rock music, AKA Chuck Berry Music, is played not with straight 8ths from z right hand, but is SWUNG like Earl Palmer in a canary yellow 3 piece suit strolling on the promenade of Lake Pontchartrain on a sunny Spring day.
It’s the… umm..tension..between the old wrinkled pirate guy on riddim guitar playing straight 8 chugs and Mr C swangin’ it that gives the ancient Englishlander millionaires (who obviously have been schoolin’ Bono on tax relief…) the tip when they do, FE, “Carol”. Ref: Git (sic) yer (ibid) Ya’s Ya’s Out, et al.
In my not-so-illustrious “career” (for which I have never had the need to relocate my business offices to Nice, though I wanted to many times), I have played with a LOT of “drummers” (actually people who owned drums and hit them with sticks, sort of a distinction here Ryan)who never grasped this simple concept. “Umm, could you like, umm, SWING t’ riddim boss, not play it like the guy in Bad Company doing “Can’t Get Enough of Your Luff”? To which I would usually get..well this is still a family blog..
Why on earth does he think a “panty deflector” is a good idea?
The wav file is corrupted, I think. I opened the logic project and extracted the sound files. I use Live.
Nice work; good concept. I will be using this is something – maybe creating something around this. Thanks.