Chords for Bill Cosby on drums

But I studied, took lessons and everything.
Lessons cost $2.50. You used to go down to a place called Wurlitzer's.
I shined shoes until I made $3 and I'd go pay for my drum lessons.
And about six of us would go into Wurlitzer's and beat on the man's drums and tell him that our mother was coming tomorrow with the relief check and buy a set, you know.
So the guy would let us beat on them.
And so this one day, I don't know if you people will understand what I'm talking about, because I'm talking about jazz now.
Take a chance.
Okay.
_ I play the blues.
Now, I have these records that I play along with Art Blakey and I play along with Arthur Taylor and Philly Joe Jones, you know.
And I'm a teenager and I'm sitting up in my bedroom with these drums I paid $75 for.
A whole set I got from the pawn shop for $75 with cardboard heads.
So _ I'm beating on these drums, you know, and I'm copying all the licks, Max Roach and everything.
And I'm really cool.
I'm so cool I paint the tips of my sticks blue because these are my sticks.
And I carry them in my back pocket.
So at the time, people like Lee Morgan and Reggie Workman and Archie Shep, they were all coming on their own as young musicians coming up from Philadelphia.
And we have a wealth of musicians.
Everybody comes out of Philadelphia, you see.
So I went to this place called the Showboat and they had a matinee going.
And I was walking around and you got to get this picture of me because I'm really cool.
I am ultra cool.
I'm not saying nothing to nobody.
But people wonder when you look cool like that, you must be somebody.
And I had my sticks sticking out with the blue tips on them.
[Bb] _ And I'm sitting there and they had this session where guys just come up and sit in, you know.
And I'm watching and this dude up here, his name is Mickey Roker, and he's playing, you know.
And they're playing everything.
_ You _ know, and the drummer's doing the hit, check, the pop, you _ know.
And I'm saying, I'm doing, I'm listening to what he's playing and I'm playing what I would have played at the time had I been playing, see.
And I'm saying, this cat is not doing it right, man, because I would be cooking up there.
I would, hee-ya-bap-boo-dee-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee _ [N]-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee _ -ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba _ -dee
And you say, man, can I sit in?
So I went up and I sat down, and I'm all ready, because that's my groove. _
_ _ And I sit down, and mind you, I'm very [Bb] cool.
I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm very cool.
See, and I got the, I took the guy's key, and I started tuning the drums for myself.
I don't know what I'm tuning, but I've seen other drummers do this, you see, tuning the drums.
And I made a little run, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, _ a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, _ a little, a little, a little, a little, _ _ a little, a little, _ _ _ a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a _ _ _ _ _ _ little, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a little, a
Who is _
who is _
Who's your violinist?
The fellow, Stern?
You are taking _ Isaac Stern.
Isaac Stern?
Sunny Stitt is Isaac Stern of the Alto saxophone.
All right, so don't make any difference what his name is.
No.
Mr.
Stern of the alto is coming up.
And that's ..
that's good enough.
Yeah, and I _
I said _
I said oh man, I'm a play with Sunny Stitt.
So he comes and he take his horn out of case.
Now, all the time they've been playing _
Do _
do _
Boom _
Baby Do _
Baby Take Two.
So Stick turns around to the dudes in the bandstand.
Now there's about eight saxophone players on this [Bbm] bandstand.
All of them want to take a solo.
At least two choruses.
There's 12 piano players.
[A] _ _ [Bb] One bass player, Reggie Workman.
And there's about nine trumpets and trombones.
All these guys want to take a solo.
Stick turns around and he says,
Let's play some jazz.
I'm tired of just the blues.
[Bbm] He says, Cherokee.
_ Now, wherein we have an itty bong bing.
_ Cherokee, you have to go,
dee dee dee [F] dee dee dee dee dee dee [Eb] dee.
And I had never played that fast before.
[Bb] _ You know, now there's your left hand,
which you have to synchronize,
and the bass foot and also the saxophone.
You have to keep time here.
And you want to go,
_ I mean, I've seen Max Roach do it,
but Max sits there and he goes,
dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee.
Well, my hands are not in shape like that.
So he counted off.
He said, one, two, one, two, three,
ba ba ba, and I went,
ba da da da, _ _ _ _
and I was keeping good time, you know,
but I was in a panic,
and the whole thing is starting to tighten up here.
Meanwhile, the left hand is frozen. _ _ _
It's frozen, and I want to do something hip, you see,
[Gb] because that's the hip [Bb] part of the band.
You know, if I can just get it,
ba da da da,
ba da da da,
ba da da da,
_ do that kind of thing,
while I'm still,
ba [Gb] da da da,
and [Bb] _ _ [Bbm] I said,
no, we can't, we can't,
we can't handle that.
Don't, don't hit nothing [Bb] down.
So I'm going like this.
[E] Meanwhile, rigamortis
_ _ _ _ started to settle in my forearm,
_ [Eb] and when your hand gets tired,
you [Bb] lose, you can't grab no more.
But these muscles, these muscles here,
we're not playing anymore.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
Instead of doing,
now I start hitting with the shoulder.
_ I haven't hit anything on this hand yet,
and this foot is frozen,
and this leg is just going,
I'm putting this on automatic spasm.
So I'm going like this, _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] and nobody started playing yet.
[D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ But my blue tip is [Eb] flashing,
and I'm going like this,
and they start,
ba do do da do,
_ and I went,
I went to make a hit.
Whap!
And all of it,
ba da da,
and then my arm just froze,
and I started playing,
and I went from
da dee dee dee dee dee,
da dee dee dee dee dee,
and the guys are playing.
Now, this is very embarrassing,
because you got a guy
blowing on the saxophone.
And he's,
ba da da da da da da da da da da da da da da,
_ and all of a [Gb] sudden,
ba da da da da da [N] da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da,
all _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ these people that I was
very cool in front of,
I'm now going- _ _ _ _ _
Boom.
And the next thing I knew, a stick came up on the cymbal.
It said, ring-da-ding-da-ding-da-ding-da-ding-da-ding-da-ding-da.
And a guy came in, and I got up out of the seat, and this guy just sat down, and he just-
and it was Max Roach, you see.
Rescue.
Max had rescued me.
And he was just sitting there doing that thing.
Meanwhile, somebody had [Ab] shoved a lead pipe all the way up my arm here, and I couldn't
straighten the thing out.
and I just took my sticks, put them in my back pocket, _
and went on down the well, you know.
And I said to the guy, I want my money back. _