JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Bass and Drum Forum The human rhythm section: Man vs machine.

Fascinating thread, folks. Here's another two cents for the Beer Fund:

After the Dodson Drifters broke up, our bass player went to work for a country-rock band. 4 pieces--lead, rhythm, bass, and Sam The Electric Drummer. Sam was cool. Always kept time, always followed directions, never had to be sobered up--all those things you wish you could find in a live drummer (sorry)--plus Sam never complained when the rest of the band split the take 3 ways.

I figured Sam was the wave of the future--being able to split the take 3 ways instead of 4 was a powerful motivator--but I still missed the drummer being a Real Human Bean. There's a creativity and an intuitive interaction I can't describe but can *feel* that you just can't get out of a machine--even if you do have to live with them not being able to keep time and having occasionally to sober 'em up.

When I was a freshly-landed-in-Oregon hippie, one of our roommates was a rock 'n' roll drummer just starting to get noticed and in demand. He couldn't keep time worth [expletive deleted], but he was the only drummer I ever heard who wasn't making tons of money who could play a drum solo for 15 minutes straight that was actually interesting to listen to for the entire 15 minutes. Sam The Electric Drummer could never do that. Sam may have been predictable, but he was also damn boring.

These days, I play mostly acoustic music on Fridays, and with a rock 'n' roll band Sunday nights at the local tavern. The Sunday night drummer is a person, and he's not bad, and if I stand 20 or 30 feet away, I can even sometimes hear myself think. (That's the other problem I see with live drummers. They're waydam loud.)

The Friday Night Group mostly doesn't have a drummer; oh, a couple have showed up to play with the group on occasion, but most of 'em will lose most of the percussion section pretty quick if they're smart--as an acoustic group, nearly any drumming will drown everybody out, unless it's the real quiet, kinda swishy jazz stuff. One drummer who came down quite a bit eventually ended up bringing only a set of spoons--and that was really all the percussion we needed.

Anyway. I mostly don't have any use for a drummer (sorry, all drummers)--but when I want one, I'd rather have the human kind, even with all their human limitations. (And I know Sam ain't gonna have any feelings hurt by my saying that, 'cause he ain't *got* any feelings.)

Joe