I am pretty sure it was the second one. Another story was that Steve Howe was sitting down recording a track and wanted a different guitar. He wanted it handed to him by his tech, and the guitar tech wasn’t around, so Howe got up, wandered around the studio, hunted down the tech and got him back so the tech could hand him the guitar…
…which was three feet away on a guitar stand. :rolleyes:
Apparently Howe was as brilliant up close in the studio as his reputation, so that is reassuring - but apparently he’d have his tech change his strings between takes - for non players, strings should last much longer than that, even in a studio where you want them fresh. This wrecked havoc on my friend doing the engineering - fresh strings are very ringy and require a bit of EQ to get the bitey treble into line; you actually want the strings a bit more broken in than that for recording…
I’m not sure if this is age-related or if these guys were NEVER particularly good drummers to begin with…
But the last time I saw Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues, it was painfully clear that Nick Mason and Graeme Edge can’t really play any more. The bands actually had younger drummers on stage alongside the older ones. The young guys were clearly doing most of the real work.
As for Carl Palmer, I’ve seen him in concert twice: once in 1983, once here in Austin last fall. In 1983, I thought his drumming was superb. Last fall, his solo was still great, but his technique during songs was VERY sloppy. So sloppy even a non-musician like myself couldn’t miss it.
I recently read bios of Ray and Dave Davies, and both mentioned that they used studio drummers on a lot of their early tracks. So that can’t be good… I do think they said he eventually got better and played in the studio on later albums.
Some guys I never noticed until I was a deejay and tried to sync up beats - CCR’s Doug Clifford, and Bill Berry of REM, were never the same tempo throughout a song. Then again, you’re allowed to change tempo during a song, and I never really noticed just listening to them. I guess it fits sometimes with grass-roots southern rock.
Hal Blaine, the session man who played the drums on most of the Carpenters’ records, says Karen was a very good drummer, but that Herb Alpert and Blaine himself both told her she should be out in front in a pretty dress, rather than behind a set of drums.
For what it’s worth, Blaine thought the world of Karen but thought her brother Richard was an arrogant jerk.
In a recent Cafe Society thread someone posted a YouTube link of Karen Carpenter playing. She was pretty damn good. This was the first time I’d ever heard of her playing drums at all, let alone being very talented, so I was quite surprised.
I’d have to vote for Dave Clark (of the Dave Clark Five for you young’uns) for that dubious honor, bup. Okay at playing time, but not one to turn loose with a solo.
Some local performers were jamming. The only place to squeeze in the drummer was the closet. Turns out that was the best possible place for him, given his ability.
Another piece of Monkee trivia: both Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith auditioned for the show under stage names - as Mickey Braddock and Mike Blessing. The producers decided to have them use their real last names instead. But not their first names - they are actually George Dolenz and Robert Nesmith.
IF I remember correctly, “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” was Mickey’s first appearance as drummer on a Monkees record. Supposedly they had to splice a dozen fragments together for the final tape.
No matter. The finished product sounded good enough to me, and he did get better. I wasn’t big on the Monkees, but watched it sometimes and had a couple of their records. Mike and (especially) Pete were obviously the real musicians in the cast, but Mickey was the guy I watched. Funny, comfortable in front of the camera, and not a bad singer considering he was an actor playing a musician.
Dolenz was a good singer. He’s the only reason the Monkees could be an actual band. Many people at the time thought Newsmith was doing the singing. I can’t say whether he was a good drummer or not, but that really wasn’t his contribution, he just wasn’t good at guitar, or pretty. What do you call a guy who hangs around with musicians?