Brilliant!. Worth listening to again and again - and with the iPad's YouTube app when you replay a video it just doesn't stop. Through headphones it becomes addictive. Hours of fun!
very cool...but i wonder if the kit couldn't have been set up in a more ergonomic fashion...maybe it was more visually appealing to have him reaching all the way across the kit like that?
@weevilboy You're dead-on. Exhibiting fairly new technology, Bruford deliberately laid out the set to be very visible to the audience, and widely-spaced, so the audience would be able to associate distinct sounds with specific pads.
@shask27 Yeah... please don't judge based on ANY of the work he did with Yes or ABWH.
If you play anyof the live King Crimson material from 73/74. you will hear the influence a lot more clearly. The electric drums shown here were a temporary thing.
i like the guy. and i see/hear his skills... but it is so Miami Vice...i used to use those pads... they had no response unless you crushed it in the middle of the pad. he is playing around the limit of the equipment and that is impressive.
Much as I love Bruford and his unique take on drums/percussion etc (i've woodshedded to his King Crimson stuff like mad over the years) - man, you'd think this was one of those "shred" videos wouldn't you? Like that santana one with the 'machine gun' timbales? There's good and bad points to the 80's and all but I'm still trying to figure this one out. I'm in no way dissing the guy but, jesus......
@DrumMasterT You must live around the place he lives in? (not saying where out of respect of his privacy). About a month ago he did a small gig with an American singer, great drummer, got some autographs, great guy too. Once all this college shit passes I'm going to read his auto biography. The kind of advice he gave me to my drumming is very very valuable.
You people should see the esotheric side of this. These are hexagon pads. This is sacred fractal geometry. The 80's were the decade when the Universe was open for mankind and all these sounds were fantastic and all the music was romantic and soulful and had charm and character. TODAY there's no point in music, it's empty, not deep - like today's people. And materialists.
Not all of today's music or people are empty. Ever listen to Tool? Not sure how much more deep you can get. Likewise, not all 80's bands were deep...... actually, many were very shallow! You can find good, quality, meaningful, music from any era, if you keep an open mind. Point taken though, there are a few bands out now that give today's music a bad rap. Without starting a war, I will use Nickleback as an example... love the music, hate the shock value "porn-like" lyrics, very empty indeed!
In the 80s acoustic drums were so muffled and processed that they're often confused with sampled sounds. A lot of the time they were sampled sounds trigged off the acoustic drums!
Bill Bruford being the innovator that he is was experimenting with an idea that seemed to have been working for him at the time of this performance...
All that crazy stuff is for the theatrics of it all!
You say it's useless but so was Motley Crue's make up!
Even though I respect Bruford as a musician what the hell is this? It has nothing to do with the song and those electronic drums man; It's just like "look at me with my new toys people". I think it takes away from a good song. And I'm a drummer!
ur a jerk, not drummer. I bet u play drums for 2 years (or less) and think u know all about this instrument. This is Bill Brudford and you are saying things like this as a drummer? There's really only few people on the earth who could be compared with Bills' greatness but u had to add ur pointless 50 cents.
@spercoco This was an interlude section of the concert. The songs are played in full on the CD I have. And beside, the band was Anderson, Bruf, Wakeman, and Howe. You don't suppose that those guys all took some solo sections? Even the album Fragile (the last one they all played on as Yes) was comprised of a solo track each that showed off whatever each player had to bring to the table. Bruf has always changed his kit from one band or project to another with wild varieties. This is 1989's kit.
@tapkae I'm not saying musicians shouldn't take solos. Of course all those guys take solos. I play and listen to a lot of jazz as well as rock and jazz is all about solos but there are tastefull solos and tasteless solos; do you follow me? BTW Fragile was not the last Yes album these guys played on together. Bruford gave his notice as they were finishing up Close To The Edge and he said he would do the tour with them but after that he was going to join Crimson but the rest decided to,,,
@tapkae ....The rest decided to change drums before the tour. Alan White had been in the studio for a lot of the recording of Close To The Edge and had the songs pretty well in his head so they rehearsed for a couple of weeks with him and did the tour with him instead of Bruford. On the accoustic kit with Yes Bruford was inovative but when he came back and did the ABWH it was just awfull.
You have to understand the time this was done. Nobody played like this, that is Bruford's style. When he first did this song it was a revolution in drumming, this is his attempt to include his experimentation 10+ years later.
Brings back memories! It was SO COOL back then because it was so new. Looks a little stilted/dated now, but back then- coolest thing ever. Still love Bill...
@goldenpica I doubt Yes fans went to see these guys in order to go to the concessions stands. Anyone who really knew what they were paying for probably was content to see each player show off a bit, ala the old days. Do people accidentally buy Yes tickets?
Part of the problem was the Simmons SDX. Yes, it was state-of-the-art at the time, but I can't get past the "machine gun" snare sounds he was playing on it. The particular sample he used was over-processed and artificial. It may have been more interesting had he just used his real acoustic snare instead, but he kept whacking that SDX snare.
I quite liked his solos where he actually played musical passages from his Simmons kit instead of trying to look as busy as possible, as he does here.
The important thing to remember here is that he had the balls to go completely synth-drum and put himself in the cutting edge in the 80's. The reason he's been in Crimson and Genesis is because he is always experimenting and taking his considerable chops and applying them to everything he does. Sometimes they ail, but I think the world is a little better when people like him try and fail than just play a gretsch 6-piece kit their entire career.
Robert Fripp asked him to play only synth drums exclusively when they put together the 80s band of King Crimson (with Belew and Levin). He almost refused to go completely synth-drum, so it really was Fripp's idea, not Bruford's...
Is that true? I've read about their discussions regarding dragon drums/ roto tom, etc in lieu of hi-hat/ ride That 80's kit was unreal. So many sounds used so well. It's amazing that it was happening in the midst of the awful MTV era.
It's awful w/o an acoustic snare. Every hit on an acoustic drum is unique, no two sounds ever identical. You just can't replace the snare!. And man, the V-Drum crap they're doing now is really tragic. RECORDING with V-Drums? Ugh.
@Kamakiriad66 Yeah. Progressing in rock, even as people wrote off Progressive Rock. Dont' forget Bruf & Rick Allen pushed electronic drum technology forward in that decade (Rick by accident, of course), and thanks to them, millions of people can use canned sounds to make "music" without even moving air anymore (samples and other digital processing). No one gets too shocked at digital percussion now, but someone had to be the 1st on the block with this stuff. Then the pendulum returned...
I think you are quite right. I also think that you can't help but make a good sounding solo on this type of kit. There are so many sounds going on that you can't tell a good strike from a bad one.
I Agree. I met Mr. Bruford in 2002. I was so nervous asking for an autograph. My pencil was too bad.
I ask him for another pencil, he walked away, opened is suitcase, got the pencil and signed. I just forgot the picture, but my CDs are at home with his words.
I agree, not very exciting and it doesn't even tap into what you can do with an old Simmons drum kit. I've done better solos in my basement with my drum kit... !
No comment you progressor's? This is the man! I've seen him twice once in 1989 with ABWH the in 1994 with King Crimson. He's one of the best kids if not the best.
Seems like an inefficient set up, lots of "wasted" energy. But, he's BB and I'm me, so wtf do I know. Cheers.
ascetic43 6 months ago
I'D LIKE TO KNOW...HOW HE GOT HIS SIMMONS ...TOUCH SENSITIVE?
johnbambammorgan 8 months ago
With some nice Roland D-50 incursions in the background!
arachnosoft 9 months ago
what is ABWH
KillingLies1 11 months ago
I loved the ABWH album, and I love Bill Bruford, but I hated those drums.
thebehtbeht 1 year ago
i never heard of this guy until tonight but dam he stands out nice
dm6testa777 1 year ago
The Best SIMMONS kit SDX in the 80
cirocoupe 1 year ago
I bet he got paid a big stack by the company for showcasing this kit
WELLBRAN 1 year ago
this kit creeps me out :(
kshayk0 1 year ago
Brilliant!. Worth listening to again and again - and with the iPad's YouTube app when you replay a video it just doesn't stop. Through headphones it becomes addictive. Hours of fun!
crc126 1 year ago
What a machine
myownservant 1 year ago
very cool...but i wonder if the kit couldn't have been set up in a more ergonomic fashion...maybe it was more visually appealing to have him reaching all the way across the kit like that?
weevilboy 1 year ago
@weevilboy You're dead-on. Exhibiting fairly new technology, Bruford deliberately laid out the set to be very visible to the audience, and widely-spaced, so the audience would be able to associate distinct sounds with specific pads.
GBJPhotoWorks 1 year ago
i can't believe this is danny carey's favorite drummer. very disappointing!
shask27 1 year ago
@shask27 Yeah... please don't judge based on ANY of the work he did with Yes or ABWH.
If you play anyof the live King Crimson material from 73/74. you will hear the influence a lot more clearly. The electric drums shown here were a temporary thing.
DarkeningSkies1 1 year ago
@shask27 maybe Danny knows something you're not seeing here.
GBJPhotoWorks 1 year ago
I love how Heart of the Sunrise is thrown in at around a minute into the video.
Yarsh52 1 year ago
he dont need double bass like most of todays drummers,
MrAlessio111564 1 year ago
unnerving
Platschheimer 1 year ago
i like the guy. and i see/hear his skills... but it is so Miami Vice...i used to use those pads... they had no response unless you crushed it in the middle of the pad. he is playing around the limit of the equipment and that is impressive.
humbledrumah 1 year ago
Much as I love Bruford and his unique take on drums/percussion etc (i've woodshedded to his King Crimson stuff like mad over the years) - man, you'd think this was one of those "shred" videos wouldn't you? Like that santana one with the 'machine gun' timbales? There's good and bad points to the 80's and all but I'm still trying to figure this one out. I'm in no way dissing the guy but, jesus......
deejaybee 2 years ago
I just sat down for an hour and had coffee with him today! :)
DrumMasterT 2 years ago
@DrumMasterT You must live around the place he lives in? (not saying where out of respect of his privacy). About a month ago he did a small gig with an American singer, great drummer, got some autographs, great guy too. Once all this college shit passes I'm going to read his auto biography. The kind of advice he gave me to my drumming is very very valuable.
1991ant1991 1 year ago
Bill Bruford is far from being underrated and anybody that knows drummers puts him in their top 5 or 10 greatest
Jimmy1tooth 2 years ago
You people should see the esotheric side of this. These are hexagon pads. This is sacred fractal geometry. The 80's were the decade when the Universe was open for mankind and all these sounds were fantastic and all the music was romantic and soulful and had charm and character. TODAY there's no point in music, it's empty, not deep - like today's people. And materialists.
drjeffamatrixx 2 years ago 3
Not all of today's music or people are empty. Ever listen to Tool? Not sure how much more deep you can get. Likewise, not all 80's bands were deep...... actually, many were very shallow! You can find good, quality, meaningful, music from any era, if you keep an open mind. Point taken though, there are a few bands out now that give today's music a bad rap. Without starting a war, I will use Nickleback as an example... love the music, hate the shock value "porn-like" lyrics, very empty indeed!
cdm121880 2 years ago
In the 80s acoustic drums were so muffled and processed that they're often confused with sampled sounds. A lot of the time they were sampled sounds trigged off the acoustic drums!
Bill Bruford being the innovator that he is was experimenting with an idea that seemed to have been working for him at the time of this performance...
All that crazy stuff is for the theatrics of it all!
You say it's useless but so was Motley Crue's make up!
The 80s was all about the bling!
TeaJayRabbit 2 years ago
its just so unnecessary. and not practical
rstormy 2 years ago
Even though I respect Bruford as a musician what the hell is this? It has nothing to do with the song and those electronic drums man; It's just like "look at me with my new toys people". I think it takes away from a good song. And I'm a drummer!
spercoco 2 years ago
ur a jerk, not drummer. I bet u play drums for 2 years (or less) and think u know all about this instrument. This is Bill Brudford and you are saying things like this as a drummer? There's really only few people on the earth who could be compared with Bills' greatness but u had to add ur pointless 50 cents.
petersinol 2 years ago 3
@spercoco This was an interlude section of the concert. The songs are played in full on the CD I have. And beside, the band was Anderson, Bruf, Wakeman, and Howe. You don't suppose that those guys all took some solo sections? Even the album Fragile (the last one they all played on as Yes) was comprised of a solo track each that showed off whatever each player had to bring to the table. Bruf has always changed his kit from one band or project to another with wild varieties. This is 1989's kit.
tapkae 9 months ago
@tapkae I'm not saying musicians shouldn't take solos. Of course all those guys take solos. I play and listen to a lot of jazz as well as rock and jazz is all about solos but there are tastefull solos and tasteless solos; do you follow me? BTW Fragile was not the last Yes album these guys played on together. Bruford gave his notice as they were finishing up Close To The Edge and he said he would do the tour with them but after that he was going to join Crimson but the rest decided to,,,
spercoco 9 months ago
@tapkae ....The rest decided to change drums before the tour. Alan White had been in the studio for a lot of the recording of Close To The Edge and had the songs pretty well in his head so they rehearsed for a couple of weeks with him and did the tour with him instead of Bruford. On the accoustic kit with Yes Bruford was inovative but when he came back and did the ABWH it was just awfull.
spercoco 9 months ago
I love Bill and every band he's been into... but this has to be the worst perfomance of this song ever.
navespacial 2 years ago
You have to understand the time this was done. Nobody played like this, that is Bruford's style. When he first did this song it was a revolution in drumming, this is his attempt to include his experimentation 10+ years later.
Malzarin 2 years ago 10
@Malzarin jUST ASK dANNY cAREY.......HE says openly "K'C's discipline was my biggest influence growing up"
Good stuff all the way up and down.
rcacad 1 year ago
THE SDX!!!! ROCKS there is no other one like it!!!!
simmonsdrumsrule 2 years ago 4
this guy's good, even if the kit is cheesy. .
elk3730 2 years ago
Brings back memories! It was SO COOL back then because it was so new. Looks a little stilted/dated now, but back then- coolest thing ever. Still love Bill...
rubbus 2 years ago
The SDX!!!
sagie1234 2 years ago 3
C-C-C-C-Cocaine!
tlz12345 3 years ago 4
Everybody knows you dance like you..
Sidar654231 2 years ago
Since when is having musical skills become a sign of drug use?
Can somebody explain?
WouterJ 2 years ago
This is by far one of my favorite drum solos! Bill is awesome!
eennymo 3 years ago 2
Self indulgence anyone? Ok, ok, he's great. But a lot of people go and buy hot dogsor for a leak at this point during rock concerts.
goldenpica 3 years ago
@goldenpica I doubt Yes fans went to see these guys in order to go to the concessions stands. Anyone who really knew what they were paying for probably was content to see each player show off a bit, ala the old days. Do people accidentally buy Yes tickets?
tapkae 9 months ago
Part of the problem was the Simmons SDX. Yes, it was state-of-the-art at the time, but I can't get past the "machine gun" snare sounds he was playing on it. The particular sample he used was over-processed and artificial. It may have been more interesting had he just used his real acoustic snare instead, but he kept whacking that SDX snare.
I quite liked his solos where he actually played musical passages from his Simmons kit instead of trying to look as busy as possible, as he does here.
robste 3 years ago
The important thing to remember here is that he had the balls to go completely synth-drum and put himself in the cutting edge in the 80's. The reason he's been in Crimson and Genesis is because he is always experimenting and taking his considerable chops and applying them to everything he does. Sometimes they ail, but I think the world is a little better when people like him try and fail than just play a gretsch 6-piece kit their entire career.
Kamakiriad66 3 years ago 3
Robert Fripp asked him to play only synth drums exclusively when they put together the 80s band of King Crimson (with Belew and Levin). He almost refused to go completely synth-drum, so it really was Fripp's idea, not Bruford's...
prog4evr 2 years ago
Is that true? I've read about their discussions regarding dragon drums/ roto tom, etc in lieu of hi-hat/ ride That 80's kit was unreal. So many sounds used so well. It's amazing that it was happening in the midst of the awful MTV era.
Asymmatrix 2 years ago
It's awful w/o an acoustic snare. Every hit on an acoustic drum is unique, no two sounds ever identical. You just can't replace the snare!. And man, the V-Drum crap they're doing now is really tragic. RECORDING with V-Drums? Ugh.
Asymmatrix 2 years ago
@Kamakiriad66 Yeah. Progressing in rock, even as people wrote off Progressive Rock. Dont' forget Bruf & Rick Allen pushed electronic drum technology forward in that decade (Rick by accident, of course), and thanks to them, millions of people can use canned sounds to make "music" without even moving air anymore (samples and other digital processing). No one gets too shocked at digital percussion now, but someone had to be the 1st on the block with this stuff. Then the pendulum returned...
tapkae 9 months ago
I think you are quite right. I also think that you can't help but make a good sounding solo on this type of kit. There are so many sounds going on that you can't tell a good strike from a bad one.
ledzeplad 3 years ago
I Agree. I met Mr. Bruford in 2002. I was so nervous asking for an autograph. My pencil was too bad.
I ask him for another pencil, he walked away, opened is suitcase, got the pencil and signed. I just forgot the picture, but my CDs are at home with his words.
akoff 3 years ago
I agree, not very exciting and it doesn't even tap into what you can do with an old Simmons drum kit. I've done better solos in my basement with my drum kit... !
Novaheart1998 3 years ago
But you didn`t play in Yes, King Crimson and Genesis. So, don`t fool around. Bruford is the man !
akoff 3 years ago 15
I know, I know! He's got me there that's for sure!
Novaheart1998 3 years ago
Whoever gave me a - is a retard.
Novaheart1998 2 years ago
I saw him with ABWH and also with his solo project called Earthworks ,He is the man!
subatomicllove 3 years ago
Bill is my fav and this is the lamest thing he has done
keystop 3 years ago
No comment you progressor's? This is the man! I've seen him twice once in 1989 with ABWH the in 1994 with King Crimson. He's one of the best kids if not the best.
Dannymusic1999 3 years ago