UFF, you're probably right about Chicago. When they took out the jazzy and edgy bits they poured out the beer and only offered up froth. I don't think losing the personality of Danny's drumming helped either.
But I can't find the "ba-doomp" lick you're referring to in those links. Can you help out an old lady and give me the times when it's done?
DED, I always thought Jon played those things as one track rather than overdubbed. It's all do-able (which of course doesn't mean it was done
. But yeah, some of the quirks that really made the song for me were missing live (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_yeVpAVDXs). That ultra-staccato sound in the studio is very unforgiving - your timing has to be spot on (eg.
I Send A Message). Michael Urbano was perhaps one of the best drummers of the 80s bands. Tight as a fish's behind but he was never an influence on me.
80s drumming is the style that caused me to quit playing - having to play fat monster backbeats super-clean and to strip out so much of the ghosting and little musical interactions that I pretty well live for when I play. I never played more tightly than I did back then - every note was scripted - and I never found drumming to be such a chore. Once I realised I couldn't "make it" and avoid the dreaded
normal 9-to-5 existence and all the family crap there was nothing to hold me.
I consider myself a 60s/70s kind of drummer influenced by people of those times, so every time I play someone a track of my old bands and someone says it sounds 80s I die a little lol