# The drum fill **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 24, 2017, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002 "2017-07-24T03:14:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/61 "2017-07-29T05:43:16Z")
Damn, I love this thread. Gimme more fill-filled songs! The Ian Pace and Rey Washam cites get gold stars from me! > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > That’s my absolute FAVORITE Primus song. The guitar and bass work are legendary, and as you note, the drumming is FANTASTIC! Hehehe, Primus songs are all a fill-o-rama. My fave is the opening roll (and pretty much every other fill in) [Tommy The Cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4OhIU-PmB8) From around the same time, [The River](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIU85B3MDTM) by NOMEANSNO. Through the last half, he fills all over the place without it actually becoming showy. He’s all over the kit, but works it into the song. Pure joy. Another from the same era that I think of when I think of fills is [Trip Away](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmK3VVGD6tk) from Jane’s Addiction’s first record. The intro is huge, every run through the chorus you get a new fill, and he goes pretty wild in the outro from the bridge and solo. And yet a third is [Not You Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrT54rUCCc) by Dinosaur Jr. Murph stubbed his toe on that one. And this is kind of cheating, but it’s my new love from my drive into work this morning. [La Palma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7IT1RY0NRE) by Ezequiel Peña is gorgeous (seriously, this song made me shout with joy while on my way to work), and the drum parts are ALL fills, but I think everyone is playing a single drum. So, it kind of doesn’t count. But dammit, it sounds amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/62 "2017-07-29T09:58:15Z")
> [@mack](#): > > That fill has a bit of a provenance - Chester Thompson brought it over from his Zappa days - [More Trouble Every Day](https://youtu.be/TTkNxr7z7ao). First one is at 0:25 and recurs throughout the song. I recognize the Zappa fill you referred to as coming close to the end of Afterglow. The one I meant is the very last fill in the song that takes two drummers. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/63 "2017-07-29T20:06:58Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Damn, I love this thread. Gimme more fill-filled songs! 🙂 I like how the common reggae song has an opening fill with a crisp roll on the timbale and then (usually) into splash cymbal hit. Here, Elvis Costello’s drummer throws a [floor tom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPDoXl9ZPs) into the mix, and later plays a [fine fill](https://youtu.be/snPDoXl9ZPs?t=202). Bowie’s “Young Americans”, along with the opening fill, have a few [classic](https://youtu.be/ScVi_L817ec?t=140) [ones](https://youtu.be/ScVi_L817ec?t=164). Another iconic one, this from Bill Ward in [“Paranoid”](https://youtu.be/6OmGBkBP5_0?t=85). The [longest floor tom fill](https://youtu.be/6OmGBkBP5_0?t=280) ever?\*😛 \*Well ok there’s a rack tom or two in there at the beginning and crash accents. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/64 "2017-07-29T20:25:14Z")
Just heard **ZZ Top’s LaGrange** on the radio. Lots of great fills by Frank Beard as they break into the rockin’ parts. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/65 "2017-07-29T21:50:32Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Just heard **ZZ Top’s LaGrange** on the radio. Lots of great fills by Frank Beard as they break into the rockin’ parts. Thank-you! THAT one I kept forgetting to post. Your quintessential [triplets fill](https://youtu.be/Vppbdf-qtGU?t=67). Some more [Bruford-y fills](https://youtu.be/TyoVrVGeqOU?t=18) in “One More Red Nightmare” off KC’s _Red_. Actually there’s quite a number of jazzy fills in this one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/66 "2017-07-30T01:21:55Z")
Speaking of triplet fills, Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” is chock full of triplet fill goodness. Kurt Dahle (formerly) of the New Pornographers is one of my favorite contemporary drummers. He’s got some wonderful sequence of fills in the pre-chorus of [“Electric Version”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9VrPH4BMtU&feature=youtu.be&t=40). ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/67 "2017-07-30T18:41:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Speaking of triplet fills, Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” is chock full of triplet fill goodness. Yes [indeed!](https://youtu.be/LdNiT3xDDhA?t=294) (might have to crank up the volume to hear these ones) In “Day Tripper” Ringo plays a nice [floor tom fill](https://youtu.be/yyPCKgzoiVk?t=10) before every verse, and closes out with [a buncha fills](https://youtu.be/yyPCKgzoiVk?t=146). Before Kieth Emerson was in ELP, he was in a very cool band called The Nice\*, whose drummer, Brian Davison, was a total cracker of a player, doing some fine crescendoing snare rolls in the cover of Bernstien’s “America” [here](https://youtu.be/DP6VkivcpxA?t=2362) and [here](https://youtu.be/DP6VkivcpxA?t=2603) In the second fill, a couple things: the song was performed as what they viewed as a protest to America’s increasingly violent foreign policy, especially IRT Viet Nam (and even more so - their gun laws), prompting their burning of the American Flag onstage at The Royal Albert Hall (with the US Ambassador in the audience! :eek:), which resulted in being banned from there, and also gave inspiration for the kid’s comment “America is pregnant with promise and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable”**, appearing near the end of that second fill. And right after the kid’s comment, the snare roll sounds almost like it’s played on an unclamped snare**\*, giving it more of a timbale sound. \*According to wiki, they reunited for a four-date reuinion tour in '02! I would’ve paid _handsomely_ to see that. \*\*Almost some very prophetic resonance, there. \*\*\*That’s always always fuckin bugged me how I never knew exactly what to call those squiggly wires under the snare. Sure, they’re snares, but when someone says “snare”, people (or google) think it’s the snare _drum_, and the only way to bring up a google images page of those thingies is if you look for “replacement snares”, but it doesn’t feel right calling them that. Oh well…I’ll still carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/68 "2017-08-29T03:54:39Z")
This is a de-zombie-ing, but a justified de-zombie-ing, because I forgot a really important [fill](https://youtu.be/jQqK1CjE9bA?t=61). ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/69 "2017-08-29T10:43:45Z")
When I think of great drumming, the first song that comes to mind is Zappa’s [Camarillo Brillo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nllWDc8_9lw). The drummer was a guy named Ralph Humphrey. He doesn’t even have a wiki page. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2017, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/70 "2017-08-29T10:45:08Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > Almost. The original was by [Sonny Curtis with the Crickets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hw846vx_uk), released in 1959 – after Buddy Holly’s death. And it contains the six hard drum shots. (Around the 1:15 mark.) > [@WordMan](#): > > Damn! I had no idea! Me neither! The guy who wrote and sang, “Love Is All Around” (the theme from ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’). ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/71 "2017-08-31T03:49:13Z")
Ringo. Lots of good fills and turnarounds in A Day in the Life. I know you think you know it but please listen again for the fills: [The Beatles - A Day In The Life - YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usNsCeOV4GM) ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/72 "2017-08-31T13:17:04Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Ringo. > Lots of good fills and turnarounds in A Day in the Life. I know you think you know it but please listen again for the fills: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usNsCeOV4GM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usNsCeOV4GM) Indeed. Very nice, loose playing. Lots of great bass playing, as well. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/73 "2017-08-31T15:47:03Z")
Is anything in Edgar Winter’s, “Frankenstein,” considered a fill? Because that’s some good drumming, there. The 45RPM I have is much shorter than the studio version, so some fills might actually be longer non-fills. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/74 "2017-08-31T21:16:14Z")
I’m partial to Rush’s best show-offy song, _Malignant Narcissism_. [Here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeUWJbs9Q5E) Neil and Geddy start trading fills around 1:45, but give the whole thing a listen, it’s only a 2:25 long. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/75 "2017-08-31T21:49:18Z")
Lately I’ve just happened to be compulsively watching a [video of a live performance (of the song “Woody” by the 77s)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YnnjGjoJz4) where the first comment is “some wicked fills there!” (Also the drum-propelled [“Outskirts”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dvKebVKuyc) from the same set) ---
**Author:** ![Miles\_Standoffish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/54ee81/32.png) [@Miles\_Standoffish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miles_Standoffish)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/76 "2017-09-01T12:16:01Z")
Charles Connor’s iconic intro to Little Richard’s "Keep a Knockin’’ was monstrous for its time, and reproduced lovingly by John Bonham years later almost note for note on LZ’s “Rock and Roll.” LR: [Little Richard - Keep a Knockin' - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcJrExewkYA) LZ: [Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll HQ - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bv_ALKkTjQ) ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/77 "2017-09-01T13:08:52Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > I’m partial to Rush’s best show-offy song, _Malignant Narcissism_. [Here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeUWJbs9Q5E) Neil and Geddy start trading fills around 1:45, but give the whole thing a listen, it’s only a 2:25 long. I had kinda forgotten about that song. Here is a live version. Wow. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03E1OU9nHG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03E1OU9nHG0) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/78 "2017-09-01T19:43:31Z")
My current favorite one-hit fill is in [The Machine’s _5 & 4_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOYe-PFKIj0). It comes [at about 1:31](https://youtu.be/lYI0fLQ83UI?t=1m26s) and again [at about 2:28](https://youtu.be/lYI0fLQ83UI?t=2m23s). Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it and makes me go “huuuuah!” a little bit; I just love it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/79 "2017-09-01T19:50:31Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > When I think of great drumming, the first song that comes to mind is Zappa’s [Camarillo Brillo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nllWDc8_9lw). The drummer was a guy named Ralph Humphrey. He doesn’t even have a wiki page. ☹ To be fair, he’s a very well-known and sought-after session musician and teacher. He’s had a fantastic and lauded career, playing with some of the most talented artists and composers of the 20th century. And he continues to be active and influential after something like 60 years in the business. But yeah, that’s one helluva drum part! ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002/80 "2017-09-02T03:16:05Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Is anything in Edgar Winter’s, “Frankenstein,” considered a fill? Because that’s some good drumming, there. > > The 45RPM I have is much shorter than the studio version, so some fills might actually be longer non-fills. I was starting to link fills, and after the third one (in only the first 20 seconds) I realised - ok, wait a minute - how about I listen to this song in its entirety, first, to get an idea of how much linking was ahead, and discovered a bunch more in the next twenty seconds, so, I’ll just go with, yeah, there’s fills in that song. Anyway here’s the first one, at [:09](https://youtu.be/65XSHM3jlAY?t=7) This link could be possibly longer than your 45, but I’m pretty sure all your 45 is deleting is the twerpy\* moog solo. Sorry, Ed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-drum-fill/792002.md?page=5)