Songs With Bored Drummers

philrudd said:
Some of the best advice I've ever received: 'You're only as BORED as you are BORING'.

If you're bored with a performance, it's convenient to blame the performer...but it's more likely saying something about you.
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This is exactly my sentiment too on this subject.
 
Bonham did a great job on All of My Love. If you think you can do better, I for one would like to hear you, whomever you are, play the song and see what you can come up with.

I've been playing Come Together for 12 years straight. My last cover band played it, and now my current one does too. I don't play it exactly like Ringo or Joey Kramer, I've played it my own way consistently. I wouldn't say I'm bored with it, but it is time to change it up a bit because we have a washboard player also doing percussion during the song.

We have 3 songs in the beginning of our first set that all have the same beat. It's usually our first, second and fourth song: Going down the Road, I Know You Rider and Me & My Uncle. When I first started in this band, I didn't like this beat very much and it felt a little boring. I complained a little bit to the band, but they don't speak drummer.

Now, after playing these songs about 8 months, I've come to really like that beat and now those are some of the funnest songs to play because I'm past the bored uninspired part. It was all about my attitude and reluctance to step up and make it more interesting (at least to myself). It can be as simple or as funky as I want it to be.

Funny thing, but it's the simple songs that get the girls dancing. When you can play it tight and just right, it makes people move on a primal level. Now how can that be boring?
 
All drummers use the same words, but each puts them together in different ways.

Sometimes you understand what a drummer is saying and sometimes you don't.

And sometimes a drummer says something that bypasses your brain and goes right to your heart.
 
Tommy_D said:
I find most Zepplin songs boring, so your example doesnt surprise me.

Pretty much all songs that go nowhere I find quite boring. This is what draws me to progressive music, for drumming at least. I enjoy rock music and music that has a good driving beat, but I just am not inspired to play Zepplin, even the great "fool in the rain". Boring... It has three beats throughout its entirety. Shuffle, 3 over 4, and samba. But it goes back and forth between shuffle and 3 over 4 over and over again for minutes. Finally, a break and you get this samba beat for about 20 seconds. Yay, something different! Then you are thrown right back to the original shuffle again to finish the song. Ugg.... Enough with the damn shuffle!

I was listening to Mangini playing on the latest Dream Theater album tonight and I lose count of how many different beats he plays in each and every song. Every verse, bridge and chorus are different. Timing signatures change constantly, there is never a single fill repeated. Every song is like this. Nothing is phoned in. Are some songs simpler than others? Of course, but even the simplest of songs he plays is far more musically complex than anything from the great "Bonzo".

This is probably a generational thing, like how old people say "back in my day, we didnt have all this fancy hulla-baloo." Maybe progressive music is a lot of fancy hulla-baloo, but the old classic stuff is just not doing it for me. Its simple, straight forward and mostly boring to me.

So if I had to pick out bored drummer songs I would pick many classic rock songs, and lots of Beatles music.
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The other possibility is that you're just pretentious.
 
PQleyR said:
I think he might just be trying to play for the song...

I know he didn't like playing D'yer Mak'er very much though.
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I have always heard Bonzo did not like to play "The Ocean" or "Black Dog"

Charlie Watts (a legend) sounds bored on several Stones songs, not mentioning names. Other times he sounds brilliant, just like a Ringo drummer, playing what the song needs, not trying to show off.
 
tamadrm said:
Millions would disagree.Charlie Watts is an excellent drummer,because he listens,and plays for the song.The Stones have made tons of money with Charlie on the kit.so he must be doing something right,and Stones fans love him

This isn't one of those silly more will always be more,and less will always be less is it?Good drummers play for the song,....period.If thats 2 and 4 or 17/8 polyrythms,then so be it.One is not better than the other,by sheer virtue of it existance.It's simply a matter of opinion and taste,not right ,wrong , good or bad.

Steve B
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However, while he's perfect for the band, he's fairly open about not being thrilled by the music he's playing.

There was an interview with him in 1987 on the BBC for the Stones 25th anniversary, discussing his career in the Stones and his, self-confessed, greater love of jazz and big band music/playing. The interview started something like this;

'So, Charlie, you're the drummer in the greatest rock band of all time, you've sold millions of records, played all over the world in front of millions of people; what's it like being the drummer in the Rolling Stones?'

'Pauses for a second .......It's a job, innit?'

'What's your favourite Rolling Stones album?'

'Dunno, haven't listened to one for years....'

Sums up Charlie for me, and in a good way, I'm not in any way criticising him. Great player, perfect for the band and, if not bored, certainly not thrilled by what he's playing.
 
Lots of us have been into the hotshot players in our youth. If you're not getting off on high energy players when you're young, I don't know when you would. I was always listening to the great drummers of Mahavishnu, Crimson, Zappa, Steely Dan etc.

I'd jam along with the records and learned some cool beats, licks and fills, but my time and dynamic control were lacking. When I found myself in a band in the mid 80s that demanded total tightness I found that most of the cool stuff I'd learned wasn't tight enough to use. In other words, I'd only half-learned a lot of things in my rush to expand my vocabulary.

Talk about a reality check. I ended up having to strip back and play super basic and build from that very simple base. It actually boosted my confidence because I learned that I was capable of playing really tightly, even if it was "cat sat on the mat" level of complexity.
 
mpthomson said:
However, while he's perfect for the band, he's fairly open about not being thrilled by the music he's playing.

There was an interview with him in 1987 on the BBC for the Stones 25th anniversary, discussing his career in the Stones and his, self-confessed, greater love of jazz and big band music/playing. The interview started something like this;

'So, Charlie, you're the drummer in the greatest rock band of all time, you've sold millions of records, played all over the world in front of millions of people; what's it like being the drummer in the Rolling Stones?'

'Pauses for a second .......It's a job, innit?'

'What's your favourite Rolling Stones album?'

'Dunno, haven't listened to one for years....'

Sums up Charlie for me, and in a good way, I'm not in any way criticising him. Great player, perfect for the band and, if not bored, certainly not thrilled by what he's playing.
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He's a funny one Charlie. I've never made much of him talking the gig down to be honest. He's an understated character anyway. He's got nothing left to prove and he certainly doesn't need the money. Does anyone really believe that he'd subject himself to those massive tours if it was just a "job" that really didn't inspire him anymore? Nup, he still loves it. I'd bet my last dollar on it....despite him being prone to having a good old public whinge about it. He may look bored, but clearly the passion is still there or else he'd have followed his mate Wyman into retirement long before now........regardless of what he may tell a journo when answering a question for the several thousandth time.
 
Pocket-full-of-gold said:
He's a funny one Charlie. I've never made much of him talking the gig down to be honest. He's an understated character anyway. He's got nothing left to prove and he certainly doesn't need the money. Does anyone really believe that he'd subject himself to those massive tours if it was just a "job" that really didn't inspire him anymore? Nup, he still loves it. I'd bet my last dollar on it....despite him being prone to having a good old public whinge about it. He may look bored, but clearly the passion is still there or else he'd have followed his mate Wyman into retirement long before now........regardless of what he may tell a journo when answering a question for the several thousandth time.
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+1. See this interview with Charlie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1_6z9oqet8#t=5m34s. He says straight out that he loves playing both rock and jazz.

The only bored drummer I've noticed was at a leagues club when I was young, where some club band must have been playing those poxy standards badly for years to pay the bills. It was limp and lame. Everyone else I've seen gigging behind a kit has seemed into it.
 
Yawn!!!! This thread was boring to a drummer till I read.
"Lots of us have been into the hotshot players in our youth. If you're not getting off on high energy players when you're young, I don't know when you would. I was always listening to the great drummers of Mahavishnu, Crimson, Zappa, Steely Dan etc.

I'd jam along with the records and learned some cool beats, licks and fills, but my time and dynamic control were lacking. When I found myself in a band in the mid 80s that demanded total tightness I found that most of the cool stuff I'd learned wasn't tight enough to use. In other words, I'd only half-learned a lot of things in my rush to expand my vocabulary.

Talk about a reality check. I ended up having to strip back and play super basic and build from that very simple base. It actually boosted my confidence because I learned that I was capable of playing really tightly, even if it was "cat sat on the mat" level of complexity."

That is so true. I did the same working on increasing my chops, play more fills, and trying to expand my abilities by mimicking great drummers by ear. However when I started playing with local groups. and a civic orchestra, the last thing they want is you to stand out and not blend in-be in the pocket. I am having to go back to basics with a metronome and work on my timing. They also don't want to have to put you in a plastic bubble because you only play full out and have no range of quiet to build to loud that the conductor can orchestrate. Unless you are in a band that is prefaced by the drummer-like Buddy Rich Band, Chick Webb Band you aren't usually the major focus or force. Drummers are a part of the rhythm section.
 
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