Ultimate Rhoads

hi!! I'm wondering, why Tomy (or is it Lee??) did change the drum part of Crazy TRain when they played the song live?? I dont remember how Lee Kerslake played Crazy train live, i didnt check the bootleg

Someone know the story???

Being drummer, I can tell you that Tommy made very little effort to copy Lee's recorded parts stroke for stroke.

Frankly, Tommy has a style very different from Lee's. Purists will say that Tommy butchered the songs, but I think he did pretty good and put his own stamp on them live.

If you take a listen to the BOO UK tour boots, it appears as if Lee was making an effort to replicate the records. This stands to reason since Lee was not that far removed from the recording sessions that yielded BOO.

When seeing Lee play them with Bob, Don, Gary, and Steve Morse later on, he played CT pretty close to the recorded chops. Amazing, given that it was almost 30 yrs hence.

In summary, Lee is a fantastic and inventive drummer. IMHO, spot on perfect for BOO and DOAM. That said, Tommy is no slouch and added his own personality to the BOO US and DOAM tours.

Personally, I like Lee's style better than Tommy's, but that doesn't diminish the fact that they both are top shelf skinsmen.

i'M asking this cuz the drum part of Crazy train is like a trademark... When you play crazy train over the new drum part, its a little boring.. find it weird anyway, would like know why he didnt keep it like it is and just put his stamp on it for roll drum part

fortress wrote:i'M asking this cuz the drum part of Crazy train is like a trademark... When you play crazy train over the new drum part, its a little boring.. find it weird anyway, would like know why he didnt keep it like it is and just put his stamp on it for roll drum part

As a musician I would say because it wasn't his style and besides, when playing live (My opinion) you should always have more energy and be more wild. Randy did this, if you couldn't tell. He never tried to replicate parts EXACTLY how they were in the studio, especially as the tours went on, he even started messing around live (Adding in fills every other line and such). Rudy did this as well at times. I don't think he's ever played the intro to Believer right.

Lee was fantastic on the recordings. There is no doubt about that. For me, I absolutely love Tommy's playing of the songs live. Great stuff.

Tidbit of cool info --

If you listen to the Cleveland show, pay close attention to Children of the grave. During the bridge of the song, Tommy actually loses one of his drumsticks and never misses a beat. You can clearly here it on the recording as a sort of "click" when the stick hits the rim of the drum head. This actually caused the stick to depart from Tommy's hand. A friend of mine was actually at that concert near the front row and saw it happen. Pretty cool...

dfanucci wrote:Lee was fantastic on the recordings. There is no doubt about that. For me, I absolutely love Tommy's playing of the songs live. Great stuff.

Tidbit of cool info --

If you listen to the Cleveland show, pay close attention to Children of the grave. During the bridge of the song, Tommy actually loses one of his drumsticks and never misses a beat. You can clearly here it on the recording as a sort of "click" when the stick hits the rim of the drum head. This actually caused the stick to depart from Tommy's hand. A friend of mine was actually at that concert near the front row and saw it happen. Pretty cool...

WOW pretty cool

You can hear the beginnings of Over the Mountain (Lees drum intro) in Crazy Train studio (after solo - return to F# - 1st drum fill - before A verse) and his live solo on Chelmsford '80 he plays those beats. Someone played me a Deep Purple song, I forget but it sounded a lot like the OTM intro. Anybody? I have heard Lee play it on some Uriah Heep live videos too. Sorry if off topic.

The beat that Lee played on the studio version of Crazy Train is the standard pattern used in most disco tunes, minus the fills and flourishes at the end of the figures.
Tommy Aldridge played a modified pattern on the hats, compared to Lee.

The fill that hansolo is referring to is fairly common one as well. It shows up in Purple's Black Knight (I believe), and was used judiciously by John Bonham and many others.

I have read that it was actually Frankie Banali who created some of the signature drum parts on BOO - from the very earliest Blizzard 'jam' sessions.
Not sure if that is true, but it does make sense. Frankie is a ROCK solid drummer too.

shred1 wrote:I have read that it was actually Frankie Banali who created some of the signature drum parts on BOO - from the very earliest Blizzard 'jam' sessions.
Not sure if that is true, but it does make sense. Frankie is a ROCK solid drummer too.

Lee has denied this urban legend. I would tend to believe it is false, Frankie may have had the opportunity to jam with Randy prior to Randy going to the UK but the songs were written well after those early jams.

I'd say it remains a possibility, as the seeds for some of those songs go back to QR riffs. And I am assuming that the jams at this early stage were recorded in a lo-fi fashion for reference.

As A drummer Tommy did a great job and is a better drummer than Lee. Had I been given the job I would have played them as I play and would not have coppied Lee's patern.

Trigger wrote:As A drummer Tommy did a great job and is a better drummer than Lee. Had I been given the job I would have played them as I play and would not have coppied Lee's patern.

It's interesting that drummers have no issue with things being changed up to suit their style while guitar players consider it blasphemy to play anything by Randy in any way other than note for note.

None of Ozzy's guitarists have really played the RR guitar parts note for note.
Everyone had their own spin. Ditto bass and drums.
If you want to hear Crazy Train 'dumbed down' drumming-wise, listen or watch to a version with Tommy Clufetos.

Paul Wolfe wrote:

Trigger wrote:As A drummer Tommy did a great job and is a better drummer than Lee. Had I been given the job I would have played them as I play and would not have coppied Lee's patern.

It's interesting that drummers have no issue with things being changed up to suit their style while guitar players consider it blasphemy to play anything by Randy in any way other than note for note.

Agree 100%

Paul Wolfe wrote:

Trigger wrote:As A drummer Tommy did a great job and is a better drummer than Lee. Had I been given the job I would have played them as I play and would not have coppied Lee's patern.

It's interesting that drummers have no issue with things being changed up to suit their style while guitar players consider it blasphemy to play anything by Randy in any way other than note for note.

Personnaly, i dont like when i play with a drummer who change the drum parts of a song.. Play it like it was recorded damn it