Tommy Ramone via the Ramones Facebook page
When it comes to the major bands that rose out of the CBGB scene in the mid-1970s, we usually think first of those iconic frontmen and women: Tom Verlaine, Patti Smith, David Byrne, Deborah Harry and Joey Ramone. But the passing of Tommy Ramone (nee Erdelyi) last week is a good reminder that behind each charismatic leader was an uncommonly creative and powerful drummer.
Tommy Ramone, the Ramones
No frills, no fills. If you’ve seen clips of the Ramones in the early days, you know that it required a drummer with close to superhuman endurance and a machine-like precision to keep the band cooking, even if their sets rarely clocked in at more than 30 minutes. Impassive behind his ever-present shades, Tommy Ramone made it look easy. His pure, four-on-the-floor thump taught kids all over the globe that you didn’t have to be Neil Peart to be a great rock and roll drummer. But it wasn’t just the kids he reached. Tony Williams, widely considered one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, said: “Have you ever heard that guy in the Ramones? Now that’s drumming.”
Billy Ficca, Television
The quicksilver sound of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s soaring guitars was Television’s trademark. But they wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without Billy Ficca. Somehow finding the middle ground between Nuggets-style garage rock and the explosive expansiveness of Coltrane’s drummer Elvin Jones, the drummer brought a sensitive, subtle swing to CBGB’s stage, providing the necessarily flexible base for Verlaine and Lloyd’s six-string flights of fancy. Live recordings of the band’s epic “Little Johnny Jewel” highlight the high-wire act daring of Ficca’s playing as he throws in odd, off-time fills and idiosyncratic hi-hat accents, all the while closely following Verlaine’s shifting moods.
Chris Frantz, Talking Heads
In many ways, Chris Frantz had the toughest job of all the CBGB drummers. In the band’s formative stages, it was up to him (and bassist Tina Weymouth) to hammer the strikingly unconventional musical ideas of David Byrne into something resembling a pop song. The solution? Turn up the funk. A disciple of James Brown and P-Funk, Frantz gave Talking Heads its irrepressibly buoyant groove, transforming what could have been an almost unbearably high-strung act into a band that people could (and did) dance to. “I guess I was the first person to play like a disco beat underneath a post-modern song arrangement at CBGBs,” Frantz told the Quietus. “The thing is, people didn't really notice because the rest of the music was so off-kilter."
Jay Dee Daugherty, Patti Smith Group
The first thing you hear on Patti Smith’s epochal debut, Horses, is the sound of Smith intoning solemnly over Richard Sohl’s mellow piano vamping. But very quickly, you know you’re listening not to a poet’s spoken word LP, but to a high-grade rock and roll band. Drummer Jay Dee Daugherty brought a high adrenalin, rock steady style to the Patti Smith Group. He was versatile as well, able to shift from the reggae-fied lope of “Redondo Beach” to the pounding, relentless “Radio Ethiopia.” Daugherty went on to play with everyone from Tom Verlaine to the Indigo Girls, but it’s with Smith that he’s made his mark. Close to 40 years after first playing CBGB, they’re still taking regular trips to the outer regions together.
Clem Burke, Blondie
The Keith Moon of punk? Clem Burke fits the bill. A virtuoso by all accounts, Burke’s thunderous rolls memorably kicked off Blondie’s first single, “X-Offender”, in 1976, and he’s been the unstoppable engine of the band ever since. Not many drummers could navigate the space between the slick disco groove of “Heart Of Glass” and the trashy boogie of “Rip Her To Shreds” but Burke did it without missing a beat. He’s also a hell of a showman, a joy to watch. When you’re in a band with someone as magnetic as Deborah Harry, it’s going to be difficult to get anyone to pay attention to you. But Burke’s stick-twirling presence is always a thrill, as he casually goes from dizzying fill to dizzying fill, smiling all the way.