As a drummer, I hold “feel” a bit above time keeping in the heirarchy of rhythm section priorities. The shuffle beat has, to me, one of the best feels of any other style, and is in IMO, often underused.
The best current example I could come up with was from Death Cab for Cutie. It’s indicative of the style I’m talking about, but not my favorite.
Jeff Porcaro of Toto fame, was a fan of the shuffle beat it seems. Rosanna was a great example, and Hold the Line even had a few tasty shuffle style kick patterns in it.
My all time favorite has to be Fool In the Rain by Led Zeppelin. John Bonham demonstrates both playing behind the beat, and ahead of it, in the same damn song. He was a natural.
So, what are your favorite shufle beats? I find them quite tasty.
He’s playing a Purdie Shuffle, a special sub-category of shuffle perfected by the Perfect Bernard Purdie, the self-proclaimed Greatest of All Time - and I ain’t gonna argue with him! (ETA: simul-post with acetylene!)
My favorite - or at least a favorite that jumped immediately to mind when I saw your OP - is Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughn. It represents another specific sub-category: the Texas Shuffle. What’s even cooler is that SRV made it his own with his cyclical strum pattern - without geeking out too much, he plays the main riff with downstrokes while kinda pushing his pick hand forward; when he circles it below the strings to bring it back, he hits the open, high E and B strings with a sharp, raking upstroke which just fills out the sound and is amazing. 99% of the players I see covering that song get it completely wrong and don’t even know it. Learning to play that circular shuffle was a big deal for me…
