^Good for you man, always awesome to have another member of the Beefhead collective.
Anybody ever listen to Beefheart's drummer, John "Drumbo" French's solo work? He has stuff under John French and Drumbo, and it's pretty awesome. Here's some background I found on a solo drum version of "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" that he did on his album "O Solo Drumbo."
Quote:
Years ago, I did an album of drum solos called "O Solo Drumbo." Henry Kaiser had heard a recording of me playing drum solos at the London Musician Collective where I had been invited to play by Ed Baxter. HK wanted to record a drum solo album while I had my chops up. He requested that I add a drum solo version of "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole" and I, being completely insane, decided to play both the melody and the drums parts simultaneously. I tuned the drums in a very odd fashion using a guitar tuner. Each drum had the top head taken off, and the bottom head was tuned to the not specified -- making sure all the lugs were the same tension, and then the top head was put back on and that head was also tuned to the right pitch. Once that was done I transcribed the drum part only as best I could for snare, HH, Kick and Cymbals. Then, I added in the melody, indicating which tom was which with a notation which didn't actually indicate the PITCH but the drum. It took me two and a half months working every day to barely master this. I think there had to be three or four edits made as there was not one measure of repeat in the whole thing and it is six minutes and 50 seconds long. It was the most challenging piece I'd ever done. For a couple of years afterward, I kept this configuration on my kit and this particular setup was photographed during the very first Magic Band reunion rehearsal with Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston, and Denny Walley. Date was in October, 2001 -- a few weeks after 9/11. I believe the album was recorded in 1998, in October or November, so about 3 years earlier.
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