Pick Withers Live - 78 and 81. A Musical Analysis.

[dustyvalentino]

Amazing drumming by JP even in the first few seconds here!

[dustyvalentino]

I never knew there were wiki pages for specific drum patterns but here we are!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosanna_shuffle

[JF]

the famous half-time shuffle

[Chris W]

There are also a lot of Youtube videos about the Purdie shuffle.

Jeff was at our hotel after the LA show. He was deep in conversation with Mark so it didn't seem polite for me to butt in.
Of course Mark never beckoned me over with a "you must meet Jeff", so I never got to speak to him.

[Ingrained]

There are also a lot of Youtube videos about the Purdie shuffle.

Jeff was at our hotel after the LA show. He was deep in conversation with Mark so it didn't seem polite for me to butt in.
Of course Mark never beckoned me over with a "you must meet Jeff", so I never got to speak to him.

You should have walked over and sat in between them. After asking Mark to "shuffle over".

[mariosboss]

For sure, on the first two albums, Pick played almost like a jazz drummer and really put his stamp on the sound. But the music and arrangements were sparse so it worked very well. On the next two albums, he is a lot more anonymous, but the music on those two is more advanced with more sophisticated arrangements, so the band needs to be more disciplined and stick to the "script". (The sound of MM and LOG feels so dated now. I can hardly listen to them anymore.)

Right now I'm listening to MFN on headphones, paying particulary attention to the drums, and OMG what a dull drum sound. SFA and WOL too. A more organic sound and a bit of Terry Williams' "live feel" would have been great, IMO. Hakim's drumming on YLT is wonderful, though. Wow. One World has some cool, but straightforward drumming (awful song ...). I love the drumming on BIA, though. Just the light rimshots and subtle high-hat work. I really like that they didn't go for full power ballad with arena rock drums.

On OES, though, I really think the drumming added a lot to that album. They are much more to the forefront than on the BIA album. More detailed sound, more assertive. Even the silly My Parties has fantastic drumming.

---

It's nice to go through these very well-known albums to us and just focus on other elements than Mark's guitar playing and vocals.

Funny thing is I agree with almost everything you have written apart from the bits in brackets about how MM and LOG sound dated. To me especially MM they sound less dated than the other albums. Also the energy in MM and drum sound is absolutely superb. Skateaway, Expresso Love. My word. In fact that is the ultimate drum sound. Had it sounded dry like the first two albums or not organic like BIA then those songs would have lost vibe and energy. Funny it's the Exact opposite of what you disliked on BIA. Strange. Otherwise I also totally agree regarding the drumming on OES. BIA even as a kid I couldn't believe TW played on it as I had listened to Alchemy and Live Aid etc and it didn't sound like him, apart from the MFN intro.

[mariosboss]

The sound of MM and LOG feels so dated now. I can hardly listen to them anymore.

I can't believe you wrote that. I really think MM sounds great, so pristine clear. And LOG is an absolute masterpiece, the Uber album, sounds great to me!

Yeah... BiA sounds dated with the synths etc, but not MM and LOG.

I agree!