Some days you just need to watch a drum solo or three. I have been known to get out the music DVDs and watch the Prairie Prince solo from the Tubes Wild West Show, the John Bonham Moby Dick solo from the Led Zep DVD, Neil Peart from Rush Live in Rio and then wrap it up with Santana doing Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock.
Today I couldn’t be having with all that disc-juggling to just YouTubed a few drum solos…
Prairie Prince in London.
Neil Peart playing on a smaller kit than usual and in more of a Buddy Rich style
And again on his more typical enormous kit
Phil Collins & Chester Thompson
And, of course, Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock.
Also enjoyed some Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Cozy Powell and Bill Bruford…. now where did the evening go?
For your delight and delectation, I offer you Bill Bruford’s solo on the ABWH 1989 tour – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXdn1c-R1kU – solo starts at 3:18.
Christ! It’s 20 years since I saw this gig at Wembley Arena.
Didn’t really do it for me I’m afraid – I think he can be so much better than that, and I’m not a big fan of syndrums in that sort of quantity.
Fascinating stuff though. Bruford’s trousers were even more typically 80s than the drum kit. Do you know who was playing bass for those shows? It is a prominent part of their sound but the bass player was tucked away in the shadows somewhere.
If you look on Youtube thre is also a clip of a drum duet with Bruford and Alan White from the Union tour – unfortunately Bruford still had the naff electronic kit then so its not as good as it sounds on paper.
The bass was being played by on that tour by Tony Levin – since Chris Squire was not on speakers with the rest of them at that point. Tony Levin I’ve seen a few times since with King Crimson.
He was good on that. A shame he was, effectively, uncredited and lurking out of the limelight.
BTW – it is 31 years since I saw Yes play live. It was Anderson, Wakeman, Howe, Squires & White on the Tormato tour…. how time flies.