I don’t know a shuffle from a kerfluffle, but damn, that is one great song.
mmm
Awright, here’s my entry: Shuffle?
(awaiting confirmation)
mmm
It’s definitely a shuffle but, like the “Rosanna” beat, it’s a half-time shuffle, so instead of the snare coming in on 2 & 4, it comes in the 3s. It seems like you’re looking for more swampy, bluesy shuffles with clear “DUM-duh-DUM-duh-DUM…etc.” type bass or kick drum lines.
It has a certain swing to it, but it’s not really a shuffle beat.
It’s also interesting in how the YouTube processing eliminates much of the information Jeff it trying to illustrate. YouTube reduces the frame rate so much that some stick movement, which is present in only an adjacent frame or two, is completely lost. I hear the sounds, but I can’t see how all of them are made and the instructional value is compromised.
Great clip anyway.
MMM – Take me to the River isn’t a shuffle, but an even-eights. Just because it’s slow doesn’t mean it’s a shuffle. The Tom Petty song is a shuffle (uneven eights, or dotted eighth/sixteenth), although many shuffles don’t have that heavy a backbeat.
You hear shuffle in the Tom Petty song? The melody has a shuffle to it, but the underlying rhythm is slow straight eighths, to, just like “Take Me to the River.”
FWIW, Rosanna sounds more like a modified Bo Diddley beat than a shuffle to me.
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Oh, that. How about Killer Queen and California Girls?
But subdividing the even-eights is a shuffle, with hits on 1 & 4 of a 4-pattern. I hear it mostly in the guitar pickup stroke (4) to the downbeats. Not prominent, but it’s there.
I guess if you require a shuffle to have a triplet subdivision, it wouldn’t qualify since it’s a 4 part pattern. I can take it either way.
Take me to the River doesn’t have a further subdivision that I can readily hear below the even 8ths.
That’s why I wasn’t sure if TMttR was a shuffle; I can fit the and-a in there but don’t know if it is the song naturally.
What about Cream’s “Spoonful”? Is that a shuffle?
I was just going to ask a question about this kind of beat. I thought about it earlier today. Is this really a shuffle? If you subdivide the beat (is that what the word is - basically increase the number of beats within each measure) you get a shuffle like the kind I’m talking about. But it’s more minimalist and less swing-sounding to me than a traditional shuffle.
Here is another song with this kind of beat: Indian Reservation.
I don’t think a shuffle has to be in triplets. 16ths are fine, too. See Purdie’s 16th note shuffle. Triplet shuffles are looser and 16th note shuffles are “harder” (as in “stronger” not “more difficult.”) This drum lesson is actually a very good explanation of what the most basic shuffle beat, for me, sounds like. Go to 0:51 in the video if you just want to hear the basic beat.
I definitely agree that the Tom Petty song has a shuffle feel in the guitars and vocal delivery, but the underlying drum groove is pretty straight. Similarly, while I find the drum groove for “Fool in the Rain” a typical half-time shuffle, the rest of the instrumentation doesn’t really have that typical swinging shuffle feel to it. A more typical “blues shuffle” that most people know is “Sweet Home Chicago.” That’s about as typical a shuffle rhythm as you can get–it’s pretty much the same beat as the blues shuffle beat link above.
ETA: I would definitely classify the beats of “Killer Queen” and “California Girls” as basically being shuffles.
The Carpenters’ version of “(They Long to Be) Close to You”. When Bacharach wrote it the song had a basic 4/4 beat, which is how Dionne Warwick recorded it. Richard Carpenter’s arrangement put in the shuffle, which made a huge difference.
I’ve been trying to think of something from the C&W side that might qualify. Not sure but I think Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight by Eddie Rabbit, the late country/crossover artist might work.
Also, more uptempo but similar;
I Love a Rainy Night by the same artist.
“Come Down Easy” by Spacemen3 is A fairly good example of this…although it is a cover of “In My Time of Dying.”
Yeah, there should be a zillion examples of country shuffles–the shuffle is a common rhythm in country. I just can’t think of any really slow ones off the top of my head that sound like the songs in the OP.
Happy Trails?
I am pretty sure Hayden’s Bad as They Seem fits the bill.
When I was in college, a friend pointed out to me that Pink Floyd is unique in that they’re a highly successful rock band, with almost no fast songs. Very few go above the pace of “Learning To Fly”.