Possibly a dieing art form that ranges from tasteful to overblown, depending on how well it fits in with whatever musical context it’s in. (So, for example, doing Niel Peart-like fills on a six-tom kit for your basic MOR band…just a tad overblown).
Feel free to post any that’re off the top of your head.
Two of my favourites are actually in the same song - the title track off King Crimson’s Court of the Crimson King album.
The first fill, at 7:54, is just awesome, plodding bombast, and the other one, at 9:03, is spiffy as all get out, especially with it ending on that floor tom flourish.
Unfortunately, because it’s not a youtube video (vimeo), I wasn’t able to “left-click-copy at the current time”, hence the manual cueing directions.
*Small gripe - the COTCK that youtube did have was not a complete recording, so, as I, Milt Trugood…well, a word or two was in order at the top of the comments section.
I hope drum fills don’t die as art form! As a bass player, I’d never know where I was in the song without them.
Pretty much anything with Ty Segall involved has what I think of as tasteful drum work, with what I feel are suitable fills. Fuzz’s Fourth Dream has him channeling Bill Ward, and throwing a nice fill in whenever he can. Charles Moothart plays on his latest, record, and I love his playing on it. The Only One lets him show off.
King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard currently has a two drummer setup that has lent itself to both of them to throw in fills when the situation fits. Melting is probably my favorite drum work by them at the moment.
Of course, my favorite might be Nick Mason, One Of These Days. Most of the first half of the song is fills, and he smoothly transitions to a fill when he drops a stick at 4:31.
I was interested to learn that you can detect Ringo Starr’s left-handedness by how he rolls into his fills, with toms early in the fill rather than snare.
Two fills I like: one toward the end of the Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” (Stewart Copeland), and another toward the end of Elvis Costello’s “Peace, Love, and Understanding” (don’t know the drummer).
Not long enough, or single-drum enough, to be called “rolls,” but this thread seems to be about fills, too.
I would add a shout out to the band Jet, a little band that I seem to mention a lot here. Listen to the drummer Chris Cester on Cold Hard Bitch: Jet - Cold Hard Bitch - YouTube he does a Phil Rudd (AC/DC) simple beat, but slips in fills throughout that just work. I like the one around 2:30, I think.
Can a repeated element be a right and proper fill? Or does it have to be a one-off?
For instance, Steve Gadd’s snare work in Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”? Or Alex Van Halen’s iconic fill in “Jamie’s Cryin” (the part sampled by Tone Loc for his “Wild Thing”)?
Hmm, I’ve never really though about this, but one that immediately comes to mind is that little paradiddle fill (or whatever it is exactly) from “Sultans of Swing”.
Yeah, I guess we should define “fill” by the OP. I would call Steve Gadd’s part simply the main groove/beat of the song. Alex Van Halen’s tom roll is definitely a fill. Purdie’s “Rock Steady” part is more a “break” to me (a la the break in “Funky Drummer” or “Amen, Brother.”)
Rock Steady is so fucking elemental and good. As Obama has said “You can’t do any better than starting a party with Rock Steady.” True, that. Glad you enjoy it.
ETA: puly, the minute you said is was after the word “ring” the fill popped into my head. Yeah, perfect.
As for break vs fill, can’t argue. I’m not up on my drum lingo - heck, the first “fill” I cited from Radar Love isn’t a fill at all, but I love when it shows up in the song.
Can we include the drum break from Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend”? Although that’s perhaps more a solo, but it’s not really a solo. I’d say it functions essentially in the same way a break does. But, anywho, I guess that’s hair splitting.
I’ve also always loved the drum fills at the end of phrases in “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure, particularly the one with the toms leading into the snare & crash on two. Subtle, understated, but I just love the displacement of the crash there and the way the toms & kick roll into it. (Actually, rather than explaining it, it’s the one that kicks off the song, and is sprinkled throughout.)
I never really thought about that line that much, but I kind of like how it gives an edge to an otherwise joyful happy tune. After all, from what I understand, Matthew Sweet was not in particularly great spirits when he wrote and recorded this album. IIRC, the original title of the album was supposed to be “Nothing Lasts.”
Ah - interesting. Yeah, it’s so fun; that last lyric (“and I’m never gonna set you free”) I simply choose to believe it doesn’t exist
Isamu - I know, right? Purdie is just so good. I know **pulykamell **sings the praises of Zep’s Fool in the Rain because Bonham is using Purdie’s Shuffle.
Yeah, I just looked it up, and the album was written right after his divorce. And I did remember correctly that it was originally titled Nothing Lasts, but,apparently, it was retitled due to the objections of Tuesday Weld, the actress/model on the cover of the album. That I did not know. I thought it was the record label who urged him to retitle it. Relevant bits here.
The other thing I didn’t know is that apparently Tuesday was only 13 or 14 in that photo, at least according to Sweet.
I also like the ending of “Down To The Waterline”, a little fill at the 3:34 mark and then a bigger one 12 seconds later. Helps the song go out on a nice flourish.
Another Keith Moon one (or five, really): the opening minute and a half of Young Man Blues.
