Chords for Doug Fieger talks drums - Extended version

So let's talk, well actually I wanted to have a guest lecturer today of Doug because we were riding around in his car one day listening to Stevie Wonder doing this song and he had some comments I thought that were quite relevant.
Do you have it, Superstition?
I think it's queued up here.
Now your premise was very interesting and all we have to do is turn it kind of loud and it'll get into our mics.
Well should we talk over this?
Yeah I think so.
Let's talk over it.
But the premise before you even started was that you as_
Stevie Wonder should play the drums more often. _
Not as a knock on Stevie now, he's a wonderful talent and he still writes great songs and his records are still great, but when he plays the drums something magic happens on his records that isn't happening now that he's using computer drums.
And this is my _ idea, he's an amazing drummer and you wouldn't think of Stevie Wonder as a drummer.
_ But, _ _ as you'll _ hear_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ But what you pointed out to me in the car, if they can hear this, [Ab] was [Eb] _ _
_ that [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
the drumming was not the kind of drumming a drummer would do.
Right, it doesn't sound like_
And actually I saw [Gb] Stevie play this on the drums at the Whiskey [Eb] in 1972 or 3 and he looked like he was falling off the drums all the time and he actually sounds like he's [Db] falling off the [Ebm] drums.
But it's brilliant, it like works _ for _ the [Db] feel of the song [Eb] and _ it's_
There are other drummers who are remarkable in that same way, they're _ not_
They don't sound like drummers, they don't [Bb] sound like your typical, you know, [Eb] _ _ good [Bb] musician drummer, but [Ebm] what they do is so integral to the feel of the song that [Bbm] [Ebm] it's better than great.
See, I was really amazed by this because it was a musician's [Bb] point of view, I'm not a musician.
[B] I don't know what a drummer_
You said that no [Eb] drummer who calls himself a drummer would approach a song like this, right?
Probably not, I mean, [Bb] I'm not a drummer, [B] but I've [Bb] made [Ebm] music for long enough and I know enough musicians, _ _ especially [Bb]
drummers, who would [Eb] say, you know,
Oh, it's clumsy, oh no, you want to clean it up, you want to play it [Bbm] good, you know, and _ _ [Eb] _ my contention about hit [Abm] songs is, _ and especially hit rock songs, is generally the _ stupider and the _ simpler and in some ways the more clumsy, the more endearing and the better.
_ _ And like when I say stupid, I don't mean that in a pejorative sense, I mean that in the best sense, in a way that insinuates itself into your subconscious rather than into your conscious mind.
Because if a musician will listen to it, they'll go, ah, well he's playing clumsily, he's not_
You'd never tell a drummer this, ever.
I mean, you do not encourage drummers.
This is something we don't ever do.
But all hit records, all hit records start with drums and end with the drums.
It's the drums and the vocal, ultimately.
Well, that's what music is, after all, I mean, it began with drumming, didn't it?
And it's actually ended with it.
[N] Because I know, not to put down rap, I actually like, I like rap and it is absolutely basic music because it's the drum and a voice.
And that's what music's about.
And rock and roll is very important.
And you're right about these bloody drum machines.
I must admit, I use them at times on, I shouldn't say, some of my new recordings.
There are some records that are well served by that, but generally, _ for me, I would rather hear a human being and I would also rather hear a drummer who is not _ particularly a drummer.
Somebody who is doing something _ different.
Now there are some amazing drummers who are in that same sort of league.
We were talking about John Bonham.
John Bonham is perhaps the greatest drummer of that rock era.
_ If you listen to what he plays, it sounds like he's _ _ playing, he's some supersonic human, you know, playing _ _ things that no human being could possibly play.
But if you watch him play those very same things, it looks very pedestrian and mediocre because he, in a very relaxed way, would just sit there and it was all from his wrists.
Ian, do you know we're talking about Led Zeppelin?
Oh, you know, I used to, some of those guys played with me on my records.
Oh, the session guys, right.
Yeah.
He was a session guy.
I mean, Mitch Mitchell played with me.
Oh, yeah. _
He's another great drummer.
Basically a jazz-oriented drummer, not playing sort of that straight rock thing.
And yet, you know, what he played with Jimmy, he was the perfect drummer for Jimmy.
He was a British drummer.
I believe there's such a thing as British drumming.
And I used to tour in the 60s with American groups, both black and white.
They talked to me about British drumming.
It was more precise.
It was more, it came out of the British military band.
It was much more tight and _ anxiety conscious.
I mean, when I came to L.A.
Oh, Dave Clark.
Dave Clark was just that.
But, you know, when I played on Shindig, we had a great drummer there who subsequently recorded with me, Mickey Conway from New Orleans.
And he used to do all that New Orleans marching band stuff.
But when he would do a press roll, it was a laid back.
And it was kind of laid back.
Now, I remember, I'm going to stop soon, but you got a very interesting thing.
As a kid in England, I remember being incredibly impressed by seeing American bands, military bands when I was growing up that came to Britain _ _ _ during World War II.
We occupied England.
We occupied England.
I just wrote a review in the Times about that.
The point is that these bands, I always remember, can I demonstrate this?
Yeah.
These bands, I remember being knocked out by them because British military bands, can I stand up or not?
Are you going to stand up?
I'd like the camera to be ready for this.
British military bands would go, dum dum, da da dum, dum dum dum dum dum.
And the American band came in playing St.
Louis blues, da da da da da.
And the soldiers, da da da da da.
And I thought, God, they're behind the beat.
They don't like, it looks like they haven't trained.
And yet it was wonderful.
It was so catchy.
It was so relaxed and it was laid back.
It was very similar to the effect.
It was the back beat, I guess.
It's very similar to the effect that we're talking about.
Well, that won me to this country because I'd been told at school, just keep in time, march.
But these guys, they were keeping their [Em] own time.
_ And it was American time.
And it was wonderful.
It was laid back.
There you are.
We're certainly off on a drumming kick, which of course I [E] started with this, which is not bad.
Now, what is, since I'm not a drum expert, my favorite, I have one drum solo and you probably don't know it.
It's Woohoo by the Rocketeers.
Oh, love it. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Dbm] _ _ _ _ _ [N] Wonderful team.
Drums that I don't know from drums except that I've always liked them.
Now, what is the verdict on Ringo Starr after all the, it's all passed. Amazing drummer.
Because I remember at the time, not knowing myself, hearing other people snidely say, well, he's just this or just that.
Only because he, you know, he was the first star of the Beatles.
He had the funny name.
He had the big nose.
He wore the rings.
He said clever things.
But if you're a musician and you talk to other drummers or other musicians, _ he's, he's the cat.
He's one of the three or four great rock drummers.
Well, he kept a solid beat.
You know, an odd thing about drummers.
I don't know whether you agree with this, Doug, but I, I have all kinds of live bands.
It's very hard to find a drummer who will keep the right beat.
Many of them have no idea of the beat.
I mean, they'll do all these complicated licks and tricks, but they can, very few can keep a solid beat and Ringo could beat, can keep a solid beat.
Simplicity is [E] always the thing, whether it's writing, whether it's music,