The first song you've ever played

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August 20th, 2003, 06:09 PM
tombo74

I recently visited my brother and we were talking about our kid and teenage years. He remembered me how much I used to drive him nuts when I first started of playing drums. He had his room right besides mine in the basement and I used to rush to finish my homeworks to get to the kit, turn up my little stereo to 10 and play what he called: ?THE SAME FUCKIN? SONGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN?.

I?m sure we all remember the first song/songs we could play from beginning to end. Oh! We were proud!

Let?s share this for fun!

Here in order are the very first songs I learned when I started in 1984:

1) Judas Priest?s ?You?ve got another thing comin?? (THE basic rock beat) I got it!!!
2) Scorpions? ?No one like you? (Quarter notes on the hi-hat and some upbeats on BD: tricky) [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]
3) Dio?s ?Holy Diver? (Lots of classic rock fills) [img]cool.gif[/img]
4) Iron Maiden?s ?Run to the hills? (Two-handed sixteenth notes on hi-hat groove: Gee, that?s fast!) [img]eek.gif[/img]
5) Rush?s ?Subdivisions? (My first attempt to a more involved tune. I thought I had it but an older guy told me that what I played was nowhere near what Neil did) [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

What's yours...
August 20th, 2003, 06:39 PM
Randy walker

Hold the Line by TOTO. But as early as Steely dan and Seals and Croft
August 20th, 2003, 06:47 PM
brandrum

gimme all you loving-zz top [img]redface.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img]
August 20th, 2003, 06:47 PM
peter c

The first song I ever played, on
the drums, was HONKY TONK WOMAN.

The next one was EVIL WAYS.

I think the next one was SOUL SACRIFICE.

After that, it had to be BLACK MAGIC WOMAN.

[ August 21, 2003 01:26 AM: Message edited by: peter c ]

[ August 21, 2003 01:27 AM: Message edited by: peter c ]
August 20th, 2003, 07:02 PM
ptrack

Billy Joel - The Angry Young Man
Cheap trick - the flame
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Rush - The Camera Eye
Scorpions - Im Leaving You
Def leppard - Rocket....

I was into some corny music when I was a kid....
But you gotta start somewhere..lol!!!
August 20th, 2003, 07:02 PM
ladanny

Two songs I kept playing over and over:

The Intro to "Oh What A Night" by the Four Seasons.
"Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter.

I thought if I could play that drum solo, I would be good. Little did I know it was two people playing!! Drove myself crazy! LOL!!! What happened to Chuck Ruff anyway?

Danny
August 21st, 2003, 04:21 AM
royerin

The very first two for me were Charting The Single by Marillion and Gimme All Your Lovin' - I LOVED the intro to that song! Still can't play it tho....
[img]wink.gif[/img]
August 21st, 2003, 06:08 AM
FlamTriplet

Egg Zooming(Beer for Dolphins)-----this was the first song I played!

The second song was Vital Transformation(Mahavishnu) We played it for Bobby's Pool Party

And, House of the Rising Sun(The Animals)

[img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img]
August 21st, 2003, 06:58 AM
milesaway

I always thought that the day I could play Metallica's "Master of Puppets" perfectly, then I'd really be a world class drummer... [img]redface.gif[/img]
August 21st, 2003, 08:34 AM
benrand

"Hello, I love you" The Doors, on my P.o.S. set with the incredibly bad bass drum pedal. It was total junk...

But that little tom hook in the song was pretty cool.
August 21st, 2003, 11:03 AM
numeroUnoHODfan

Never, by Heart
Your Love, by The Outfield
Working For The Weekend, by Loverboy
Throwing It All Away, by Genesis
then my brother saw my potential and got me the Moving Pictures album, and that was all she wrote... [img]wink.gif[/img]

[ August 21, 2003 08:04 AM: Message edited by: numeroUnoHODfan ]
August 21st, 2003, 12:17 PM
drumgod1

"Spring Session M" by Missing Persons-I couldn't play all of it, in fact, I faked most of it. Bozzio's playing did, though, give me a good understanding of opening the high hats in interesting places. On my first kit, all I had were high hats. No crash or ride cymbals thanks to my cheap parents! [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

I also used to dial through the radio stations and try to play with whatever was on. Usually Outfield, Boston, or Genesis.

Mike
August 21st, 2003, 02:35 PM
Jean-Paul

First I started with originals and then covers, some of them were cool but others not. After a gig someone adviced me to find covers we liked because it sounded horrible. MMMMMmmmmmmmmm!!! But I can remember:
Police - Roxanne (damn hi-hat part)
Prince - The Cross (this one was easy)
Tone Loc - Funky called Medina (hip shit for 12 years old LOL)
Golden Earring - When the Lady Smiles (Dutch group but Radar Love was a hit in the USA long ago) JP
August 21st, 2003, 02:44 PM
brandrum

the second one i learned was little guitars by van halen, i thought the intro beat was so cool at 12.
August 21st, 2003, 02:59 PM
BennyAndTheSkins

First song I remember playing was "Jesus is Just Alright" by the Doobies, and putting in triplet fills every other verse (lick of the week, ya know)
August 21st, 2003, 04:05 PM
Steve Holmes

Tom Sawyer from RUSH got me into drumming. Did my best at that song and rest of that TAPE.
Pop songs later that basically taught me the ropes:
Don't You Forget About Me - Simple Minds.
Easy Lover - Phil Collins/ Phillip Bailey

ALso this reminds me, the Men At Work stuff (Business As Usual, then Cargo) were great stuff, JERRY SPEISER was a fantastic drummer. Great UNIQUE drum sound and very creative fills. He could play.
Hey! [ame="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Jerry+Speiser%22"] Goggle Search Results[/ame] for Jerry Speiser!
August 21st, 2003, 04:25 PM
buga

"Enter Sandman" by Metallica [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]
August 21st, 2003, 04:43 PM
tombo74

Funny that we all started of as rockers and moved on to the jazz thing . I guess it?s a natural evolution when you get better and develop your ears and taste for a music where you can play more freely and stretch out.

I?m asking myself if it?s possible for a kid nowadays to be attracted to mucic/drums by jazz.

In the 40s-50s, jazz was the hip thing for many people (parents or kids) and appealed a lot.
But since rock?n?roll took over in the 60?s, it?s different.

Today, unless you?re in the Marsalis family, I think it?s virtually impossible.

I used to only put jazz/fusion/latin music in the house or car but my kids just HATED it. Now they listen to what they want. I just hope that someday my little girl will ask me: ?Dad, can you buy me drums or guitar, I want to play Jenny from the block??
August 21st, 2003, 04:49 PM
Randy walker

Men at Work was a kewl band but I could not watch Jerry play drums live, he had the oddest stiffest technique. But he sounded good on tape.
I too went thru a RUSH phase, Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres were 2 of my favs at the time, of course then came Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. Then I moved on, it's only been recently I can listen to RUSH again.
1 thing that kind of killed RUSH was when Peart in an MD writing spoke of how he never played his parts start to finish and that they were spliced together.
August 21st, 2003, 05:06 PM
buga

Tombo-I agree and disagree...

I don't really have the time to go through the "jazz" players looking down on rockers, because that has been widely covered and discussed before. I think in today's age everyone can have the ability to "expand" their idiom through a song, and not be cliched and "tied" to it(especially in ROCK where everything is pretty much up for grabs-especially in FUSION which I don't really consider to be jazz but HEY!)

Everyone has to start somewhere, and like u mentioned most bands mentioned here are ROCK outfits, and quite cheesy for today standards(Men At Work? GEEZ might as well mention GLAM and Culture Club right? and don't even get me started on TOTO)....tho Rush and The Police are still HOT in my book....and just about every rocker or so it seems from reading about player's influence on MD hehe...
August 21st, 2003, 05:15 PM
ladanny

Bozz, those am fightin' words about M@W and Toto! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ August 21, 2003 02:15 PM: Message edited by: ladanny ]
August 21st, 2003, 05:48 PM
sideshow097

until it sleeps by metallica
tonight tonight by smashing pumpkins
August 21st, 2003, 08:10 PM
Clintuplet

Cool posts guys. Rush seems to be a thread that runs through this group. My first stuff was Genesis (wore the grooves off of ABACAB) King Crimson (Three of a Perfect Pair)and Rush, (Moving Pictures) 'Tom Sawyer' for sure, and bits and pieces of 'The Camera Eye'. I remember trying to get the hi-hat part to another Rush tune and 'stumbled' onto the Gadd-type hi-hat/ride pattern on 'Camera Eye' [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] A highlight from my old days.

Clint
August 21st, 2003, 09:15 PM
Manos

I've never really been much for learning songs - I normally just pick up licks I like from music, so I don't know a lot of songs from start to finish, still. That said, here are the firsts songs I ever learned, in order:

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Fear Factory - Replica
Fear Factory - H-K
Dream Theater - Take the Time

I don't know why, but I just don't enjoy playing to most CDs/albums/tapes/recorded music. On the other hand, I can play just about anything and LOVE it with other musicians in a live setting.
August 22nd, 2003, 12:26 PM
woodshed

Quote:

Originally posted by Randy Walker:

1 thing that kind of killed RUSH was when Peart in an MD writing spoke of how he never played his parts start to finish and that they were spliced together.

I did not know this! I was under the impression that Peart was a perfectionist and wouldn't release/use his drum parts until they were perfect. This info hurts me as well?
August 22nd, 2003, 12:41 PM
Randy walker

Yeah, sorry but it is true. I think he was discussing the making of Moving Pictures in fact and how they would play the tunes and record everything and pick parts that fit here and there. When it came time to tour he would actually have to listen at the finished product to figure out how to play it. In some cases this is why certain tunes were played slower live than the recorded tempo.
It was in Modern Drummer, if you have the Digital Archive it would be easy to look up.
August 22nd, 2003, 10:32 PM
wolfgang.at

AC/DC - Highway To Hell
(The perfect Play-Along-Album for Beginners [img]biggrin.gif[/img] )

[ August 22, 2003 07:34 PM: Message edited by: ] drumhead [ ]
August 23rd, 2003, 07:36 PM
Flamaque

Great Question!

The first song that I played drums to was: Rain Drops (keep falling on My Head).

I started in music as a pianist at age 6...
My Mom was a concert pianist so...I had to learn...lol

My close childhood friend was learning guitar.
We were around 12 at the time. His dad had a set of old Rogers drums in his attic. Huge Bass drum! About a 28" or bigger...32"? One day we were in his attic and he blew the dust off the kit. So I sat behind it and he found an old recording of Rain Drops and made me try to play to it.

Needlees to say, I had very little abilty, but it was fun! I went home an begged my parents for a drum set for the next year. I was playing pots and pans for that time. Finally they broke down and got me a "Black Jack" drum set. It was ON from then on. They were great parents. They allowed me to bang way at them all times of the day and night.

So, there ya have it.
August 24th, 2003, 11:42 PM
swatcop

I remember it like it was yesterday. I wouldn't give up until I learned every single lick on Rush's Moving Pictures album. Took me all summer. I still turn up the radio when Tom Sawyer comes on, and I keep a few other Rush CDs in my truck. I'm still waiting for someone to invent an electric drum kit that attaches to the gas/brake pedals, steering wheel, and dashboard. They'd make a fortune.
August 25th, 2003, 05:03 AM
McKenzie

Of course like many others it was Rush-Moving Pictures. Also a number of Yes and Genesis songs were first attempts for me. That is interesting about Rush putting pieces together to finish songs off of Moving Pictures. I have the Chronicles tape and it shows Rush in the studio during the recording process for Moving Pictures and they play a couple of the songs all the way through. Neil played everything right on. Maybe they did this after they got the songs down well.

Digital
August 25th, 2003, 02:15 PM
woodshed

Quote:

Originally posted by Digital Man:
I have the Chronicles tape and it shows Rush in the studio during the recording process for Moving Pictures and they play a couple of the songs all the way through. Neil played everything right on. Maybe they did this after they got the songs down well.

Digital

I agree I have seen this video as well and I was under the impression that Neil worked his butt of on the parts before he would put them on tape..
August 25th, 2003, 03:43 PM
FlamTriplet

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve Holmes:
Tom Sawyer from RUSH got me into drumming. Did my best at that song and rest of that TAPE.
Pop songs later that basically taught me the ropes:
Don't You Forget About Me - Simple Minds.
Easy Lover - Phil Collins/ Phillip Bailey

ALso this reminds me, the Men At Work stuff (Business As Usual, then Cargo) were great stuff, JERRY SPEISER was a fantastic drummer. Great UNIQUE drum sound and very creative fills. He could play.
Hey! Goggle Search Results for Jerry Speiser!

Yes, men at works first album was killer.
But I have to ask you what you know about the song Don't You Forget About Me. Any reason that song was a hit? Could it have been the drummer?
August 26th, 2003, 03:42 AM
royerin

I believe "Don't You Forget About Me" was Simple Minds' greatest hit, probably because it was used in "The Breakfast Club", the classic 80's teen movie.
August 27th, 2003, 01:41 AM
beats

"Queen Bitch" by David Bowie. That started the drumset revolution in my mind.

Mel Gaynor's performance on "dont you forget about me" was (is) so kick ass. Same on the Simple Mind's track "Alive and Kicking". Uber powerful drumming...............respect......beats.
August 28th, 2003, 03:20 PM
drumaddict

Most of the tunes from Chicago 9 'Greatest hits and also a "Buddy Rich in London" tune called Dancin' Men. I played these tunes over and over trying to cop that feel and energy. Danny Seraphine and Bobby Columby really bridged the gap between pop rock and jazz. Also Louie Bellson's tune "Quiet Riot". I guess I'm old school but these tunes still inspire me today.
August 29th, 2003, 06:51 PM
FuseU1

[In my best dumb-superficial-teenie-valley-girl voice]: "Oh, this topic was SOOOO four days ago"...

Boston 1 [More Than A Feelin', w/ "Hitch A Ride"], & Don't Look Back... Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak... Alan Parsons' TOM&I-EAPoe... Zep's Stairway, etc; Floyd's The Wall... Jrny's Infinity, Departure, & Captured; & then, WHAM - RUSH's Spirit Of Radio/Perm Wavs]; GENESIS' Duke; & Movg Pics sealed my fate... then Yes, Kansas, & ELP; Dregs, JLPonty, RTF, MahavO, InCourtOfCrimsonKing... yada-yada...then there was this little clinic in '84, w/ this relatively 'unknown' drummer named...oh, what was it again...oh yeah, Vinnie Cola-somethin-or-other & some bassist, Tim so-&-so... which ripped my f'n head clean off, inspiring me & totally depressing me all at the same time... Neil's sh** i could master in a summer... VC's sh** [conceptually-speaking], i'm STILL tryin to master [img]wink.gif[/img] [so-to-speak]... takes a lifetime....

...swat, that invention of yours might indeed make a fortune - but not for the insurance companies [as he sheds a tear] [img]wink.gif[/img]

[ August 29, 2003 03:52 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]
August 30th, 2003, 12:40 AM
Geoff_G

i think it was zeppelin...i am guessing "when the levee breaks". i also recall eagles "in the city" & "my sharonna" [ cringe!] [img]redface.gif[/img] .

i DO remember my 1st performance on violin (turkey in the hay -- age 8 in a mall) & my 1st snare drum performace (the little drummer boy).

my 1st performance with a big band was "gonna fly now" or "watermelon man". LOVED the rocky tune at the time. and after practice, the band director was kind enough to play the riff on "aqualung" for 30 minutes straight so i could experiment with soloing. [img]wink.gif[/img]
September 1st, 2003, 02:11 AM
no_bells

Man, this is cool, great topic-I can almost smell my first drumkit (unfortunately) just just thinking about this stuff.

Eric Clapton(Jamie Oldaker)-"I Can't Stand It" I remember when I started playing and the moment any drummer played sixteenths, even just for like 1-1/2 beats I was like, "Oh this guy is good!"

Rush-"YYZ"

King Crimson-"Three of a Perfect Pair" I did'nt even know this was in 7 for the verse, I just played a straight 4/4 and prayed I came in on the one for the chorus which was in 4.

Genesis-all of "Three Sides Live" I used to pretend I was the "new" drummer for Genesis replacing Chester Thompson and turn the lights down and play the whole tape like it was a concert.

Power Station-"Lonely Tonight" and "Bang A Gong" Tony Thompson is BADASS or ... was?

Gino Vanelli(Garibaldi, Mark Craney, Gino Vanelli)-all of "Black Cars" Did anyone listen to this record growing up? Man, Gino Vanelli was or is an extremely tasty drummer with a good time feel. Nicely crafted drum parts on the whole record.

Does anyone remember that live Jethro Tull video w/Mark Craney that they used to show on MTV? I would love to trade stuff for a copy of it. Mark Craney is another naturally gifted badass.
September 14th, 2003, 11:30 PM
Dam drum

My first song that i played was the theme from hawaii -five- O the beginning roll around the toms gave me a boner at five years of age [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]confused.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[ September 14, 2003 08:36 PM: Message edited by: Dam drum ]