Burundo Drumbi! - John French's Series of Q&As, 2000/1
In early / mid 2000 John French called on Radar Station visitors
for some help writing his book, Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic...
From: Eric Clark
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 8:48 PM
Greetings John,
I have played a long time myself and respect what you do. Please
talk about how the drum parts were developed. How much "freedom" you had within
the framework of what you were given. And about the tuning of your drums, choice
of cymbals etc. Were these things that you controlled or were others instrumental
(oops and ouch for the pun) in directing the drumming and drum production. How
about the recording process, were there drum overdubs? How many takes of songs
did you do? Live sound issues with drums. Was the sound good live for you or was
it difficult? Hope I'm not wearing you out here.
All the best to you, Eric Clark
Eric,
Thanks for your questions and especially for your respect. I worked
very hard at my style, and it’s nice to be appreciated. The drum parts will be
discussed in detail in the book. The whole evolution of my drum style and how
it developed and how much influence Don had over my drumming and vice versa is
too much information for a simple note, but I think you’ll find most of what you
want to know. I will say that I had much more freedom in the earlier days (Trout
Mask and before), but later, Don was more conscious of the "I wrote every
note" approach to copyright and writer’s credits, so he became more involved
in the drum parts. The later drum parts were usually much simpler and less-challenging
than what I liked to play, but I enjoyed many of them for their sheer uniqueness
especially "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole", which
he wrote by "singing" drum ideas to me, which I would then translate
to the set.
Regarding the tuning of the drums: I worked for hours on tuning
drums, and I liked several different sounds I was able to achieve. I always like
the sound of tabla drums and so for a long time, I tried every conceivable type
of approach to achieve a tabla like sound. I always liked low-tunings, which require
looser heads and are hard to "cut through" the music in a mix, tending
to make the overall sound "muddy". Also, looser drum heads don’t allow double
stroke rolls as in the style of Art Tripp on "Spitball Scalped a Baby".
I couldn’t do the "pinwheel" type of articulation achieved there on
my set, although I had played in a similar style in the past.
I really didn’t have a choice in choosing cymbals. I have never
once really had the money to buy exactly the set I’ve wanted. If it were up to
me, I would play Yamaha Drums Red Natural Wood Finish, 18"kick, Susp. Toms
– 6,8,10,12,13,14 Floor Toms 15,16. I like a simple Ludwig Chrome snare standard
size. No piccolo’s. I use a Gibralter Rack system, which is a brilliant and time-saving
device. I would have a throne with bicycle type seat with a back. A double foot
pedal. I have a simple Remo Hi Hat pedal which always works well. Cymbals are
Zidgian 20" Ride, Zildgian 18" Crash/Ride, Zildgian 16"Crash, Zildgian
10" splash, 13" Zildgian Hi Hats, authentic Chinese ( not a Zildgian
"pang" or whatever they’re called) that sounds like a trash can lid.
I usually use a cowbell and I want to add a woodblock and a remote Hi Hat on the
right side.
Re Production and Live sound: I always liked low toms with a lot
of slow decay with a lot of compression. Hardly EVER did anyone listen to what
I wanted to do. Soundmen usually have one way of dealing with drums, because it
is a complicated issue to deal with. My set back then wasn’t as big as now, but
it was still a royal pain just to mike. Most of the time, they just "ran
out of time." Seldom did I ever achieve a sound I liked. Closest is probably
Mirror Man on Strictly Personal.
Usually, live sound was difficult to achieve because of soundmen
problems mentioned above. My dream set would have internal mikes with pre-set
sounds controlled from the stage by a digital mixer and triggers so that I could
use samples and effects. It would cost over $20,000 which the national defence
budget would never even miss. So, please write a letter to the President of the
USA today!