Dave's List of Most Increditastical Fantabulous Drumming Tracks

(Preface:  I played drums and percussion "professionally" for about fifteen years, many years ago.
 I don't play anymore - can't afford a new set - but I still tap the shit out of my steering wheel, lap,
dashboard, and anything that's not fast enough to run away - when there's a good tune on).

Most Fun-to-Play Drum Tracks:

Track	Performer	Band/Artist	Album
Southbound Suarez	John Bonham	Led Zeppelin	In Through the Out Door
Cinema	Alan White	Yes	90125
Peaches En Regalia	Vinnie Colaiuta	Frank Zappa	Tinsel Town Rebellion
Double Talkin' Jive	Matt Sorum	Guns n' Roses	Use Your Illusion I
Doctor Feelgood	Tommy Lee	Motley Crue	Doctor Feelgood
Dirty Little Thing	Matt Sorum	Velvet Revolver	Contraband
Jessica	Butch Trucks / Jaimo Johannsen	The Allman Brothers Band	Eat a Peach
Crime of the Century	Bob Siebenberg	Supertramp	Crime of The Century
Trampled Under Foot	John Bonham	Led Zeppelin	Physical Graffiti
Greasy Kid Stuff	Chris Frazier	Steve Vai	Passion and Warfare
I'd Love to Change The World	Ric Lee	Ten Years After	A Space In Time

Most Fun-to-Play Percussion Tracks:

Track	Performer	Band/Artist	Album
Oye Como Va?	Michael Shrieve	Santana	Abraxas
Mind Ecology	Zakir Hussein	Shakti with John McLaughlin	Natural Elements

Stinkiest, Drippiest Groove-Oriented

Track	Performer	Band/Artist	Album
Never Alone	Vinnie Colaiuta	Jeff Beck	Emotion and Commotion
The Animal	Chris Frazier	Steve Vai	Passion and Warfare
Can't You Hear Me Knockin?	Charlie Watts	The Rolling Stones	Sticky Fingers
Belief	xx	John Mayer	Continuum

Trickiest to Learn

Track	Performer	Band/Artist	Album
YYZ	Neil Peart	Rush	Moving Pictures
Changes	Alan White	Yes	90125
Space Boogie	Simon Philips	Jeff Beck	There And Back
Windows To The Soul	Mike Mangini	Steve Vai	The Ultra Zone

Most Ass-Kicking, Balls-Through-the-Wall, Drum Snippets (intro or solo)

Track	Performer	Band/Artist	Album
Pick Me, I'm Clean	Vinnie Colaiuta	Frank Zappa	Tinsel Town Rebellion
Over The Mountain	Tommy Aldridge	Ozzy	Diary Of A Madman
Hot For Teacher	Alex Van Halen	Van Halen	1984

And Now, For something completely different...

Good Enough is NOT Good Enough

Since the dawn of mankind, the popular perception of the status quo for almost every single "technological" thing was "it works fine, why change it?"  They said that about the chariot, the map of the heavens/planets/sun, the catapult, the bow and arrow, the wagon, the castle and moat, the front-loading single-shot pistol and rifle, Sulpha drugs, leeches, slavery, battleships, Model T cars, steam engines.  Remember Roger Bannister?  Yeah, EVERY single "expert" and physician of his time swore on a truckload of Bibles that any human who broke the 4 minute mile would die.  The human body simply couldn't achieve that goal.


Then someone stuck their neck out and said "fuck that!".  I'm sorry if that offends you, but that's essentially what they said/did.  And for doing that they were ridiculed, shunned, banished, jailed and even killed.  They dared to disagree with the Status Quo; the masses; the majority.  Nearly every single one of the people the broke those de facto "rules" or "limits" endured mockery throughout their efforts to break the barrier they set out to overcome.  Some never saw recognition, as they died before the "masses" woke up and realized that they had indeed done something incredibly helpful or history-changing for mankind.

Remember the story of Thomas Watson Sr. and Thomas Watson Jr.?  The infamous head of IBM who insisted a "personal computer" was a dumb idea and would never be practical.  Junior waited until his turn came up and then he seized upon the moment to introduce the "IBM personal computer".  Same thing for HP and Atari and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.  


So, when I look around at the stupid crap we just "live with" and pay little attention to, saying things like "it's worked for years/decades, why change it?" I want to shake my head in disbelief that we've given up.  A bar of soap?  A toothbrush.  Deoderant.  Frying pans.  Toasters (have they ever been improved?  it's long overdue), Roofing Technology, Door ways.  A coffee cup.  Software.  Computers.  Aircraft. Surgical Procedures. Medicine.  Cancer Treatments.  Education systems. Weapons technology. Network routing and throughput.  Movies.  Music. Art.  Food. The list goes on and on.


Never say "good enough"!  Anything you point at can be improved upon.  Anything.  Maybe not in our lifetime.  Maybe not until future discoveries lead to secondary potentials to be realized.  But they will happen.  The longer we stand still, point and say "it's fine as-is" the longer it will take to make it better.


Most people look at Cancer treatment and say "wow, look how far they've come.", until their 5 year old child is diagnosed with Cancer.  Then it quickly becomes "when will it be cured?" and "why can't we make faster progress?"  Aircraft are just fine until the next crash investigation reveals a design flaw.  Music is just fine until you hear that one new song that grabs your attention and makes you ask "who is that?!"  Same for art, movies and food by the way.  And software?  In 2004 there was no Facebook.  There was no Twitter, FourSquare, Yelp or UrbanSpoon either.  In 2000 there wasn't any Google either.  No VMware.  All the "smart" phones were bulky, limited and boring.  Are you old enough to remember the first laptops?  The first microwave ovens?  The first video tape recorders?  The first tablet prototypes in the 1990s?  Today those things seem like steam engines.  Remember when car companies swore air bags, even seat belts, were a complete waste of time?   Remember when they thought stomach ulcers were just bad luck and you had to live with them?


Good enough is NOT good enough.  Ever.

Intermission

While I step away for a little while, enjoy this nice performance by Petteri Sariola.  This guy blows me away.  Hit YouTube for more clips of him in various places doing various things.  Amazing.  Enjoy!

Grammy's Get it Right

I was so happy to see Esperanza Spalding win tonight.  Coming from a musical background, ok, a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I can appreciate real talent when I see/hear it.  This past year there have been some amazing new artists coming into the spotlight, and many others still waiting to be discovered by the masses.  Esperanza has now crossed the threshold into the public eye.  Hopefully Tal Wilkenfeld will get her moment soon.  Enjoy…

Esperanza Spalding

Tal Wilkenfeld

Songs I Could Do Without: Forever

The following songs could be locked away in a vault and never played again and I would not miss them one bit.  I've absorbed enough shitty radio heavy-rotation air play in the past 46 years to hold me until the end of time.

• Stairway to Heaven
• Free Bird
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Sharp Dressed Man
• (Don't Fear) The Reaper
• RADAR Love
• Purple Haze
• Brown Sugar
• (You're Messin' With) A Son of a Bitch
• Born to be Wild
• Born in the USA
• Uptown Girls
• Man Eater
• Double Vision
• Wheels In The Sky
• Lick It Up
• Rock and Roll All Night
• Danger Zone

Say What You Want…

I played in rock bands, pop bands, jazz bands, even a sucky-ass country band (as if the pop band wasn't sucky enough) through the 1980's.  It was a crazy, insane wild ride, even for a local band that didn't travel far.  Regrets? Sure. Everyone likes to say they don't have any, but the truth is every human alive would jump at the opportunity to fix something they did wrong in life at least once.  Which brings me to this…

I'm not trying to get preachy or anything.  I don't have any legs to stand on for that sort of ilk.  But from a purely musical perspective, this is a fantastic work of musical construction.  The lyrics are beautiful.  The video is oddly fitting (I could've done without the very end, but the lumps come with the gravy and it actually makes sense if you've known of Ozzy since he left Sabbath).  It's nice and I wanted to plop it down on this page to share with you.  Even if you despise him or just feel indifferent: give this one a watch.  That's not a lot to ask.

Recommended Reading

I have no idea who this guy is, or anything about him.  I know nothing of him whatsoever.  But the book (at only $1.99) is a short and pretty read.  And you can read it on almost anything with the free Kindle Reader app.  Check it out.

Patterns

See if you can identify what these have in common. These should keep you busy for a while.  Enjoy your weekend!

Oh yeah, I forgot…

To provide an example of “mean guitar” as it pertains to Brian Setzer.  Enjoy!

Just For Fun

I’ve always like Brian Setzer, just because he refuses to “fit in”.  He also plays a mean guitar.  This is just fun to watch (and I wish I could dance like that)

Dipping Back a Little

I played drums throughout much of the 1980's, so it's still something I hold close to my heart.  I have a lot of favorite percussionists, many you've probably heard of, some you may not have.  This is one that that hit me pretty hard because John Bonham was one of my favorites.  This is not just a matter of being a tribute from his son (like Natalie Cole did for her father Nat King Cole).  It's that, plus the fact that he just nailed it.  He f**king nailed it.  Anyone who questioned whether Jason could fill those shoes has to close their mouth and just smile.  It's worth watching.

You can find this among a hundred other fantastic videos on my YouTube channel.

Remember Kids: Don't Smoke

(just make sure your guitar playing is smoking)

Best and Worst Bands to see Live (1980’s edition)

Ok, ok, ok, so it should read “1970-1980’s edition”.  I’m dating myself obviously.  But I was talking about concerts back “in the day” with my son and he asked which ones were good to see live and which were not.  So here goes…

Bands that Sounded Great Live and were Fun to Watch:

• Frank Zappa
• AC/DC
• Aerosmith
• Jethro Tull
• Genesis (yes, I actually saw them, I admit it)
• David Lee Roth
• Judas Priest

Bands that Sounded Great but were BORING to watch:

• Yes *
• Rush *
• Emerson, Lake and Palmer *
• Jefferson Starship
• ZZ Top
• The Dregs (aka The Dixie Dregs) *
• Kansas
• The Moody Blues *
• Ozzy *
• Robert Plant
• The Rolling Stones
• Carlos Santana *
• Steve Miller Band
• Supertramp

Bands that Sounded Horrible but were Great to Watch:

• Motley Crue
• Van Halen (and Van Hagar)**
• Yngwie Malmsteen**
• Stray Cats
• Iron Maiden**
• Sting **

* Excluding exceptional musicianship, which for a musician (back then, anyway) was “fun” to watch.  But based on pure layman entertainment value, I gave it a thumbs-down.

** They might have sounded great but the acoustics or their sound system were so over-driven that nobody could make out a single note or word.

Because it’s Bad-Ass, that’s why…

Ok, not as visually exciting to watch as the Top Secret Drum Corps, or The Phantoms, but damn, this was just well done.  Bad Ass.  Enjoy!…

I think I may need a kleenex

Memories: 26 Years Ago Today

In March of 1984 I was playing drums in a band named “Tracer”.  We played in and around the Hampton and Newport News areas of Virginia.  Sometime during that same month, we had a house party which drew around fifty or sixty people.  One guy who showed up was a well-known fixture in the area, who almost never wore a shirt, only worn-out jeans and white cowboy boots.  They were snakeskin boots actually.  We nicknamed him “Snakeboots”.  Snakeboots was usually stoned or drunk or both.  I don’t recall ever seeing him *not* intoxicated with something.

Snakeboots came, saw and conquered: a bottle of Tiquila.  As he tried to leave the house, he staggered feabiliy to the backdoor which was through the small kitchen.  He reached to hold onto cabinets, counters and walls because he was pretty drunk.  But he slipped on a puddle of beer and landed his forehead on the corner of the countertop, right before the back door, with enough force to feel the impact through the floor with our feet, standing 12 feet away.  He stood back up quickly, but with half-opened eyes, and turned to say “I’m alright, dudes”.  We could easily see the white “V” indentation in his forehead where the blood had not yet rushed back into the area where it once filled.  We didn’t see him again until the following morning.  Some kids knocked at the front door and asked “is he ok?” and pointed to Snakeboots, passed out, face down in the middle of the front yard.  He only had one boot on.  The other boot was in the backyard.

It was a great party.

Sarah McLachlan – I Love You (Live)

I really love a wide range of music.  From country to Jay Z to Frank Zappa to Chick Corea to Sinatra to Coltrane to Gwen Stefani to …     This is one my all-time favorites.  Enjoy…

Sarah McLachlan - I Love You - The funniest bloopers are right here

Alice in Chains: Black Gives Way to Blue

Alice In Chains "Black Gives Way to Blue" Short Film

The Perfect Song for a Quiet Sunset

"Ebony Coast" by the Scottish Guitar Quartet.   And don't forget the wine.