How old were you, and what was the first drumming you did where you got paid?
I was 13, and my first thing was a bigger deal than I knew at the time. One day during the summer of 1970, I was hanging around Al Casey's Music Room in Hollywood where my brother taught guitar. Al Casey was a guitar player in the Wrecking Crew and played on a ton of hits (look him up.) Al wanted to cut a demo for a song of his, and was going to play a simple drum part himself, but asked if I'd like to do it. Of course I said yes! So we piled guitars, a snare and hi-hat into his Cadillac and headed over to Dimension Recorders nearby.
It was my first experience with a metronome (recorded onto one track as a click) and the part was super simple, literally a little marching beat for the intro & outro and occasional fill, and straight 2&4 in-between. No kick needed, the bass guitar covered that well enough. Sax was overdubbed later by Steve Douglas, also a Wrecking Crew guy, and my brother also played guitar (Richard Bennett, look him up.) That was my first recording session, and my first paid gig at $25 - a nice chunk of change for a 13-year-old in 1970 - and I take great pride that my first pro gig involved such heavyweight players. Probably 20 years later, I finally got a cassette copy from Casey of the only acetate made of the track. I had certainly come a long way as drummer by then, and while I wasn't too bad, I dare say Al Casey could have played it better and saved the $25!
On a side note, it was his store where my parents bought my first new kit a year earlier, a Ludwig Standard 5-pc with Ludwig/Paiste cymbals. He gave them a 35% discount, which was unheard-of in those days unless you 'knew' somebody. The $532 kit ended up being $346. How nice it would be to have a time machine and a fistful of 100s!
Bermuda
I was 13, and my first thing was a bigger deal than I knew at the time. One day during the summer of 1970, I was hanging around Al Casey's Music Room in Hollywood where my brother taught guitar. Al Casey was a guitar player in the Wrecking Crew and played on a ton of hits (look him up.) Al wanted to cut a demo for a song of his, and was going to play a simple drum part himself, but asked if I'd like to do it. Of course I said yes! So we piled guitars, a snare and hi-hat into his Cadillac and headed over to Dimension Recorders nearby.
It was my first experience with a metronome (recorded onto one track as a click) and the part was super simple, literally a little marching beat for the intro & outro and occasional fill, and straight 2&4 in-between. No kick needed, the bass guitar covered that well enough. Sax was overdubbed later by Steve Douglas, also a Wrecking Crew guy, and my brother also played guitar (Richard Bennett, look him up.) That was my first recording session, and my first paid gig at $25 - a nice chunk of change for a 13-year-old in 1970 - and I take great pride that my first pro gig involved such heavyweight players. Probably 20 years later, I finally got a cassette copy from Casey of the only acetate made of the track. I had certainly come a long way as drummer by then, and while I wasn't too bad, I dare say Al Casey could have played it better and saved the $25!
On a side note, it was his store where my parents bought my first new kit a year earlier, a Ludwig Standard 5-pc with Ludwig/Paiste cymbals. He gave them a 35% discount, which was unheard-of in those days unless you 'knew' somebody. The $532 kit ended up being $346. How nice it would be to have a time machine and a fistful of 100s!
Bermuda