(TV) Flash Light -- Cover -- Drums & Schwartzberg

["Joe Thornton" <joe.thornton@gmx.net>]

Bilbicus had some harsh words to say about Cover. I'll agree with him, partly,
on just one point -- the drums. With Cover, you would occasionally miss the
"live" drummer. But that is part of the whole idea of Cover; Tom was breaking
new ground, searching for a new sound, a new feel, and I think he achieved
that.

Take "Dissolve/Reveal", which I think is a great song. At the beginning, with
the drum-machine sound, you feel "Uh-oh, something missing here". But the
sheer brilliance of the guitars, with fine vocal and lyrics, wins you over.

The drum sound couldn't be more different on "Song" from Flash Light. So
human, no machine there. Marvellous drumming by Allan Schwartzberg. Mustn't
leave out Fred Smith and Jimmy Ripp. Somehow, on that song, the elements of
voice, guitars, bass and drums come together in the most magical way.

I remembered reading some web page, a long time ago, in which Schwartzberg
talked about working with Verlaine. He described how Tom would have a song all
worked out in advance, before entering the studio; knew exactly what he
wanted.

Anyway, I couldn't find that page, but I found the following one, which I
think you'll find interesting:
http://www.stereosociety.com/body_schcolmu.html
"A Day in the Life of Studio Drummer Allan Schwartzberg"

I have copied the relevant paragraphs below. Since it's written in,
apparently, Fall 1986, it poses some intriguing questions. Is Schwartzberg
talking about Flash Light or Cover? I'm hoping some of you can enlighten me.
Maybe this has come up on the list before, but I haven't gone through all the
archives...

I have to say: Tom picked great drummers to work with -- Ficca, Daugherty and
Schwartzberg.

--JoeT

++++++

[From www.stereosociety.com/body_schcolmu.html]

So what is a supposedly jaded "jingle drummer" doing playing with a pedigreed
punk rocker like Tom Verlaine (Television) anyway? "I've done albums with him
in the past," Allan says, "but for this particular project he played me a
record he'd already cut in England, a record he wasn't happy with. There was
nothing wrong with it, he just wanted to do it over with different people and
get a second opinion, so we redid it.



"I had a situation where I'm listening to another drummer play, which sounded
find, but I know Tom told him what to play. I try to figure out what good
parts I could take out of that and then see what I don't like. And again,
picture what I could do with that music and how far I could take it. That's a
little easier since you're listening to all of the instruments at once."



Allan's role on those sessions went far beyond that of the standard session
drummer. "I heard the songs and together we sketched out the parts," he
recalls. "Tom doesn't really notate music very well. He marks down four
strokes for each bar and that's it. We started out with two guitars, bass and
drums, but it got complicated. Four people not knowing what they're doing is
not as easy to deal with as three people, so we eliminated one of the guitar
players. He sang spots of reference vocals to make different places in the
song."



Despite Allan's expanded contributions to the organization of the session, he
was careful to give Verlaine the kind of laying he wanted. "Tom is not a big
fan of drum fills," Allan admits. "He's very fussy and he likes the simplest
possible drum fills. In fact, I don't think I played a sixteenth note on the
record. He just wanted little fills at the end of the bar, on every tune."



Along with the musical challenge of re-working tracks already cut by some very
high-profile players, the Verlaine sessions made some intense physical
demands. Allan describes the studio as "very live sounding, with an old stone
wall in back where the drums were and an eighteen-foot ceiling, with
microphones on the ceiling miking the entire room. To trigger these mics, it
was necessary for me to play as hard as I could possibly play - strong,
consistent, and hard, every beat. Some people might say, 'Well, you could
sample it and get the same sound just by tapping your finger,' but it's really
not the same. I had to play simple beats very evenly, almost machine-like and
try to hit the same spot on the drum every time. I use a golf glove on my left
hand. A lot of guys do that, because it really helps cushion the shock when
you have to play lots of hard backbeats."



Despite the tight rhythmic restrictions and the physical difficulties,
Schwartzberg felt comfortable working on this project. "'How to improve this
record' is easier to deal with than listening to a song from scratch, which is
what we had to do with Peter Gabriel," he remembers. "On the first album, he
played these songs on my piano, and my first thought was 'I don't hear nay
drums on these songs.' I couldn't figure out where I could come in, and if I
did, what I could play. The songs didn't fit into any category."
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