More Sympathy for The Drummer

 March 9, 2023

   I was comparing notes with a fellow musician recently and we were trading horror stories about the lack of respect many musicians endure in bars. Greg Scott (who is also a very fine historian) offered up a story of playing with his band in a Patagonia, Arizona bar where they performed song after song to zero applause, but when a barmaid accidently dropped a pitcher of beer, the entire bar erupted in thunderous applause. A cringe-worthy moment for band members and barmaids everywhere.

More Sympathy for The Drummer

   From 1963 to about 1993 I spent most nights playing drums in bars all across Arizona. I learned a couple of valuable lessons which I have passed on to my kids: always give the musicians a hand and, at the end of the night, give them a generous tip. Even the bad ones deserve it.

Daily Whip Out: "The Country Drummer"

   Oh, the inhumanity this drummer has seen!

   Thanks to the late, great Renee Prefontaine, on my 21st birthday she got us in to J.D.'s In The Riverbottom to see Waylon Jennings in the upstairs club room. During a rowdy set, where Waylon harrassed his drummer for having long hair, I had my first legal drink and afterwards I got Waylon's autograph. Meanwhile, downstairs, Buffalo Springfield were playing and even with Waylon's band playing I could hear ominous lyrics coming up through the floor.

"There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware. . ."

—Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth, 1967