ribbons

Maureen Tucker was a real pioneer. Usually, she would play (while standing up) on a primitive kit with no cymbals, a bass drum on a stand, and a tom with one stick and one or two mallets. Moe was influenced in early years by the African percussionist Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley’s rhythms. Her first exposure to Olatunji was on Murray The K’s radio show when Olatunji’s Drums of Passion was played as intro/outro music. She became such a fan that she took up a collection at her high school to have Olatunji perform there – and he did! A Verve press release characterized Moe’s precise, relentless style as that of a “human computer” (she had been an IBM employee, after all). A style that later influenced the pulses of bands like Kraftwerk.