Gotta learn when to stay down. Never get in the way of two girls fighting. I learned that the hard way. I was very, very young and my two middle sisters were having a heated argument at the top of the stairs in our house. I, as a mere innocent 6 year old, wanted to pass by and go down the stairs (I’m sure to watch TV or something). Well, pushing started and they fell down the stairs… on top of me. My little head bounced up and down on each step, just like in the cartoons. We reached the bottom and naturally the wind is knocked out of me; having been the surf board for two older girls on a set of hardwood steps. The next phrase has gone done in my family’s history: “Oh my God… I’ve killed him!” Now, naturally, my Mother was taking a crap and nearly killed herself getting her pants pulled up as she raced out of the bathroom. I started breathing and the beatings began for my sisters. I don’t remember much of the fall, my head still hurts to this day. Explains a LOT about me…
From 1975’s “Physical Graffiti”, “Trampled Under Foot” is one of those songs that I cannot understand a single lyric. I get the chorus, but Plant might as well be speaking Martian, as I don’t get a single word. Had to read the lyric sheet to get the gist of the song. I’m like that with a lot of songs.
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This is getting surreal. No, wait – it’s getting *real*. Though I’ve never seen two drummers fight it out with flying sticks. Very Stephen Chow of you 😀
Fourth panel is totally mega!
What were the girls doing? Using the drumsticks as flying knives or darts/jarts?
my favourite drummer joke:
during band rehearsals, the guitarist breaks a couple of strings. so he says to the drummer, “hey, can you go grab me a new set of strings from the music store across the street?” … drummer says sure, and goes out.
he enters a store, walks up to the counter and asks the guy for a set of guitar strings. the dude behind the counter squints and says, “yer the drummer, aren’tcha?” … drummer replies “yeah! how’d you guess?” …
guy behind the counter says “because this is a butcher shop, you dumbass”.
*boomboom!*
told to me by a very talented drummer, no less.
–dee!
Something tells me ol’ Rich ain’t gonna be feeling “On top of the world, looking down on Creation” come the next strip…
Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?
Because we’re cartoon characters and you keep hitting me in the head, bitch!
Ooh, ooh-ooh-oooooh…. head, bitch….
In that particular song, Robert Plant is, apparently, talking about love.
I dunno if I wanna know what happened to those sticks. 🙂
Yeah dee, good one!! Another one I heard: “What do Drummers use for birth control? Their personalities!” (Altho I’ve heard the same joke used for Bass Players, too…) I do have to admit tho – I was always envious of drummers like Karen, who could sing and play at the same time – something that I never mastered (not that I have a great singing voice to start with), but she actually was one of the better ones, and even tho admittedly she didn’t do anything very complex, was a pretty fair drummer, too. Full-time lead singing drummers were actually more prevalent in the 60’s – the music tended to be less complicated & there were several pop groups that had lead singing drummers like Gary Lewis of GL & the Playboys, Dave Clark of the DC 5, Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, & Dennis Yost of the Classics IV. Besides the better-knowns like Ringo (more as a solo artist), Phil Collins, & Don Henley, my favorite 60’s & 70’s lead singing drummers were Levon Helm of The Band, Buddy Miles of Tribe of Gypsies (with Jimi Hendrix), Pete Rivera of Rare Earth, and even tho they weren’t full-time lead vocalists, Peter Criss of KISS, Roger Taylor of Queen, Kevin Godley of 10cc, Jim Capaldi of Traffic, and session drummer Jim Gordon who played with absolutely everybody, but was best known for his work in Derek & the Dominos (he co-wrote “Layla” with Eric Clapton).
I once saw Metallica play a concert where James Hetfeild admitted he was too hung over to sing and play decently at the same time. Who sang lead on most of the songs? Lars Ulrich – while drumming! He did a pretty decent job of it, too, and they still played for over 2 1/2 hours. Say what you will about Metallica, the dudes are total pros.
Personally, I think Peter Criss had the best rock-n-roll voice in KISS. Paul Stanley has the better pipes, but Criss’ bluesy rasp really makes tracks like “Black Diamond,” “Baby Driver” and “Hard Luck Woman” (and manages to salvage lamer songs like “Hooligan”). His signiture song may have been “Beth,” but if he’d been the lead singer rather than the drummer, KISS would have rocked far harder than they did.
Keith Moon did a bit of singing too, but was uncharacteristically restrained when he did. I found his solo album somewhat disappointing, partly for that reason.
Okay, another tale about the drummer who threw his kit at the singer (referred to earlier this week):
Said drummer was, as I mentioned before, a devout Christian. He never drank, never drugged, and never cursed(*). He did, however, beat the living hell out of his drumkit on a regular basis – so much so that I nicknamed him “Wood Shop” because of the splinters I saw flying off his sticks during a gig. So…
Here we are, bashing our way through rehersal. Suddenly, the drummer stops. We all train-wreck to a halt. Turn around to face him. His own face is going red. His fists clench the drumsticks. Then we see why. The 14″ crash-ride cymbal is split from end to end. Now, those buggers are expensive. It’s one thing to replace sticks and drumheads, quite another to replace a quality cymbal. Drummer looks ready to blow. What’s gonna happen?
We all stand in silent fascination. He gets redder and redder. Finally, he clenches his face. “Ohhhhhhh…” he growls. We’re waiting for it… “Awwwwwww – DURN!!!”
We lose it. Totally. Literally laugh so hard we can’t breathe and wind up on the floor, gasping for air.
This just makes him madder, of course. Fortunatly, he used to practice in his garage. There’s a punching bag in one corner. He gets up, strides over to the bag, and beats the living shit out of it.
Never piss off the drummer. It’s a really bad idea.
(For Iron Maiden fans, there’s a great track called “Message From Harry” on the bonus disc of the two-disc edition of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. It’s not a song – it’s a recording of a backstage argument between drummer Nicko McBrain and band leader/ bassist Steve Harris, aka Harry. A non-stop barrage of working-class Brit profanity, it reveals that McBrain had gone off at a roadie who’d been trying to get a message – from Harry – to McBrain during his drum solo. After the gig, Harris tries to calm McBrain down and explain what happened. Nicko is having none of it, and unleashes the funniest cascade of heavily-accented obscenity this side of vintage Richard Pryor. Finally, one of the guys noticed that the tape is running. “Some cunt’s recording this,” he says as the track abruptly ends.)
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* Said drummer is serious about his conservative brand of Christianity. When Rob Halford finally came out of the closet, our drummer – a devoted Judas Priest fan – actually considered getting rid of his Priest albums because he didn’t want “gay music” in his collection. The last straw between him and me occurred after we’d had an argument about gay rights. Sadly, neither of us was able to reconcile our position with the other one’s perspective, and when the singer wanted me out of the band, the drummer agreed. He and I kinda patched things up years later, but I can’t honestly say we were ever friends again after that. As I heard it, he decided to keep his Judas Priest albums after all, but has refused to see or support the band again since then. Weird. Like I said the other day, only in rock-n-roll…
What do you suppose will happen when he finds out about Queen? :-p
nicko mcbrain is effing hilarious to listen to. i really liked all his “listen with nicko!” commentary tracks on the singles collection. they were a scream to listen to !!! very funny guy.
–dee!
PS: Byron, your facial expressions really rock this episode. Great work!
How come your obviously guilt ridden sisters don’t support you now and comment on your life’s work or at least buy a calendar for xmas?
At what point does some character yell “Quit it! You’ll put someone’s eye out?”
nice comic, but I really enjoyed that story about you and your sisters, LOL. I once pushed my little sister down the stairs in a laundry basket, telling her it’d be like a roller coaster ride. whoops. More like Slinky-Sister.
I like this,but The carpenters are my guilty musical secret passion.
I LOVE ‘Trampled Under Foot’! My favorite memory of Zeppelin songs was when our band used to cover ‘The Wanton Song’. My singer never learned the words to it! He just warbled through it and the crowds never new it! Lol, hell, I never really noticed either until he told me. Good times man, good times. 🙂