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Bobby Whitlock YouTube video interviews

Are you familiar with Bobby Whitlock? He came out of the late-60’s Tulsa music scene (a very fertile breeding ground of musical talent), playing keyboards (organ, mostly) with Delaney & Bonnie, Don Nix, Sam & Dave, Booker T & The MG’s, and others. George Harrison then brought Bobby and some other Southern musicians over to England to play on his All Thinks Must Pass album. There Bobby reunited with Eric Clapton, as did drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Carl Radle. After hearing Music From Big Pink and realizing he didn’t want to do Cream anymore, Eric had gone out on the road as a hired gun in the Delaney & Bonnie band, whose members included Bobby, Jim, and Carl. After Harrison’s album was in the can, Eric, Bobby, Jim, and Carl formed Derek & The Dominos, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bobby and his wife (and musical partner) Coco Turner have a YouTube video "channel", on which they post videos of Coco asking questions and Bobby answering them. They are fascinating! Lots of insights into musicians, their lives and careers, may be gleaned by watching them, so consider giving them a try.

Some of you may be familiar with my attempts here to enlighten ya’ll to the concept of ensemble playing: musicians playing in service to the song, the singer, or both, not to mention the greater good---the collective whole of the Band/Group---rather than for self-glorification. It is my opinion (and not mine alone) that the "best" musicians play in such a manner. Here is Bobby in one of the videos, speaking of the relative failure of the Derek & The Dominos album at the time of it’s release:

"Nobody wanted to hear it. They wanted to hear Cream and stuff like that. They weren’t interested in real songs and real singing."

Many still aren’t.

Speaking of JIm Gordon: When I recorded with Emitt Rhodes (he was engineering and producing a solo act), he told me Jim Gordon was the best drummer he ever worked with. I didn’t take offense (Jim is a favorite of mine as well), he praised my playing at the same time ;-) . By the way, Emitt played drums in his first band---The Palace Guard, turning pro while still in High School, switching to guitar for his second, The Merry-Go-Round (have you heard their great Pop song, "Live"?). He plays them on his great s/t debut album on Dunhill Records. Better than McCartney’s debut!

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bdp24 OP
9,820 posts
 

I watched a few more of the videos tonight, and one of them contained this quote from Bobby about Jim Gordon:

"What a great, great drummer. A magnificent drummer. At one time we (Delaney & Bonnie, with whom Bobby first worked with as a trio) had a pretty serious band, and Jim Gordon was the engine that drove that whole thing."

Yes, Jim plays "like" a studio drummer. In fact, JUST like a studio drummer, for the studio is where he did most of his playing. Another studio drummer beloved in the same way as Gordon is Roger Hawkins, also a Southern boy (Alabama). Hawkins was the house drummer at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, and is heard on Aretha’s Atlantic recordings, and on Boz Scaggs’ debut (along with Duane Allman). Jim Keltner (Dylan, Lennon, Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell, Randy Newman) said in a Modern Drummer interview that he wished he played more like Hawkins. Easier said than done ;-) .

Jim Capaldi, himself a wonderful drummer, loved both Gordon and Hawkins, and at one point hired both to play in Traffic---at the same time! Now THERE’S a band I would like to have seen and heard live!!

The Rock drummers I have seen and heard live include a lot apparently preferred by most here to Gordon and Hawkins (and perhaps Keltner), including Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, and Mitch Mitchell. But the "best"---and by a country mile---was Earl Palmer, the inventor of Rock ’n’ Roll drumming. Listen to his playing on Little Richard’s "Keep A Knockin" to learn from where Bonham "borrowed" his intro to Zeppelin’s "Rock And Roll".

Throughout the 1990’s Earl’s Jazz trio played at Chadneys, a restaurant in Burbank (directly across the street from the NBC studio in which The Tonight Show is filmed) two blocks from my then house. I and numerous other drummers sat at the bar and listened to him play, some traveling from far-off lands. He played like no one else, impossible to duplicate. Bonham tried, but failed. Earl played slightly ahead of the pocket ("leading the charge", as they say), Bonham way behind. Sluggish, like Charlie Watts, though not as severely.

roxy54's avatar
roxy54
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It’s funny that you should mention Charlie Watts. I’’ve always thought that he was just terrible; and that was even in his prime! Listen to his performance carefully on one of the Stones best songs form Sticky Fingers, "Sway". He actually stumbles at one point, and I can’t understand why they didn’t do another take. Of course, for their music, he was usually good enough.
I will check out Earl Palmer on youtube. Thanks.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Here is that of Eric Clapton:


"I was in absolute awe of these people (the three musicians who comprised The Dominos---Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle). And yet they made me feel on the same level as them. We were kindred spirits, made in the same mold."

"To this day I would say that Carl Radle---the bass player---and the drummer Jimmie Gordon are the most powerful rhythm section I have ever played with. They were absolutely brilliant."

"WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT JIM GORDON IS THE GREATEST ROCK ’n’ ROLL DRUMMER THAT EVER LIVED, I THINK IT’S TRUE. BEYOND ANYBODY."


I didn’t manage to see and hear Jim Gordon live, but his playing on records is one of my gold standards. And his recorded drum and cymbal sound is the best I’ve ever heard. I did manage to acquire one of Jim’s Camco drumsets, left in a storage locker when he was committed and sent away. It’s not for sale. ;-)

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roxy54
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bdp24,
Oh my God!
"WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT JIM GORDON IS THE GREATEST ROCK ’n’ ROLL DRUMMER THAT EVER LIVED, I THINK IT’S TRUE. BEYOND ANYBODY."
I really and truly have a hard time believing that anyone would consider Jim Gordon to be the greatest. I’m not the typical American I suppose; I don’t look at everything as a contest where there has to be a "best" or a Number 1. I look at it as each having his or her own individual style, and then how they develop and express that style, and by that standard, I find Jim Gordon a solid average. Not innovative, and while certainly a clean player, by no means an amazing technician.
As far as Eric Clapton is concerned, he’s a guitarist with his own opinion, and that opinion carries no weight with me and doesn’t change mine in the least.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
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As I said, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. The notion that one opinion may "carry more weight" than another is also an opinion, one that I have found to have merit.

But beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. There was a time when I preferred other composers to J.S. Bach. I no longer feel that way, and in fact consider JSB to be "the best" who has ever lived. There was a time when I loved the drumming of Ginger Baker, a player Buddy Rich called "a clown." Turns out Buddy was right, it just took me a while to realize it. ;-) Others are free to have their own opinion, don't bother me none.

"Liking" one thing over another is one thing; saying it is "better" quite another. Jim Keltner has said he wishes he played more like Roger Hawkins. Does the opinion of someone who has never heard of Hawkins carry as much weight as does Keltner's? Of course not. To take it a step further: does the opinion of a "lesser" drummer than Keltner carry as much weight? Or the opinion of a non-drummer?

The answer to those questions are themselves opinion, opinions based upon one's personal idea of what constitutes superior drumming. Eric Clapton has his idea, one I happen to share. My intent in discussing Jim Gordon is not to convert anyone, but rather to provide an inspiration to ya'll to consider why a  musician of Clapton's caliber (I myself like EC, not love him) considers Jim Gordon "the best." It's not for no reason.

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