Don Brewer

[aydee]

Listening to this guy,I learned to play my Bass Drum on the off beat . 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND..
What a revelation it was when I was 15!

I was coming off of playing straight 4 Rolling Stone covers and this self-confessed garage drummer blew me away with his boom ta pa ta boom ta pa ta .

Decades later, having traversed many other musical horizons, and maturing to other tastes, I decided to youtube the man, and I found this live version of ' flight of the phoenix/ footstompin music'.

The only thing that seems to have faded is the color of the footage.
The music remains as vibrant as it was.. something about rock n roll never dies, I guess..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLE4w43g_Ak

( looked for a thread.. didnt find one.. apologies if there is one )

[intooder]

Glad you brought it up, aydee. He's another one of those hundreds of under-recognized great drummers. I remember seeing them live a few years ago when they came into town and his playing was rock solid. That track exemplifies this very well - not too flashy but his playing essentially drives the entire song which rocks and swings hard.

[Davey]

The first record I ever got was Grand Funk's "Shinin' On." It was 1974, I was 8 years old and had already raided my parents' record collection and appropriated the Beatles albums. Then I heard Grand Funk's version of "The Loco-Motion" on the radio and asked my mom to buy me the album. It's the one with the trippy 3-D album cover that came with the 3-D glasses. So there I was, this 8-year old listening to druggy hard rock, staring at this crazy album cover.

Brewer's groove got the hook in me (I loved how ballsy his drums sounded - the Grand Funk Rundgren albums are my favorites because of how the drums sounded) and I promptly built a drumset out of various household items so I could play along. Haven't stopped yet.

And I still love that album and Brewer's groove.

[harryconway]

All the earlier albums rocked. My personal fav. was "Survival", the song "all you've got is money"....yeah, Don Brewer, one of my personal influences also, I musta been 14 when "Survival" came out.

[ludwigvondrumcrazy]

Living in Don's Hometown, where everyone calls him Donny, I can safely say that when I first picked up a set of sticks back in 1969 that he was my major influence. My Brother still likes to tell the story of when his band, the Cobras, beat out the group Donny was in, The Jazz Masters, in our County's Battle of the Bands back in the 60's.........

Everyone around here has at least one, usually more, Grand Funk Story to tell so it should come as no surprise that most of young "Rockers" had a full collection of Grand Funk "records," making sure we got our grubby little hands on them as soon as they hit the record stores. Gotta support our Hometown Bands, especially the ones that hit the Big Time........

LVDC

[KarlCrafton]

Don Brewer is so awesome.
It was a proud day when I was able to do the "We're An American Band" intro...

There's a cool solo featured on the new Classic Drum Solos DVD that just came out.
Don's solo is a stand out on it.

Very cool, entertaining and LOTS of energy.

[Smashin Jack]

I think most of us should pay tribute to Don just on the intro to american band not to mention so many other classic tunes.

[iwilliams]

Fellows,

I watched the video song T.N.U.C played by GFR with Don Brewer playing the drums, his drum-solo is surprisingly and astonishing, great bass drum work, very emotional. I really liked it.
While John Bonham plays with his hands on the snare in Moby Dick, Don hits the snare with his forehead...What do you think?

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Don_Brewer.html

Cheers,

[mikeybbdrummin]

I think most of us should pay tribute to Don just on the intro to american band not to mention so many other classic tunes.

I do. Once a week w/my band. I have got it note for note. And most people seem to be surprised and excited at the same time when I start the song.