JM: Hearing this track is how I
discovered you.
DM: Oh, I see.
Picture this… It’s 9° below zero outside, the coldest day of the year and with a
walking pneumonia, I’m on my way to Boston in order to have a Face2Face
session with another one of my all time favorite players and friend, Dave Mattacks.
The drive up from the city was actually quite relaxing and peaceful. That was until I showed up and found DM, as I affectionately know him, stranded at home with a dead battery in the car. Being the ultimate mechanic that I am (believe me, all I can actually do is change a battery), I offered to help and do just that. Off we went in search of a new battery, in what felt like February in Siberia.
Battery found, it was time to shed my gloves and do the deed. It didn’t take long to lose the sensation in all of my fingers, and although they were beyond numb, nothing pleased me more than being able to give something back to Dave, in exchange for the hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing drum tracks that he’s given to me and the rest of the world.
Battery installed, the car started immediately. We were
finally back inside, slowly warming up and comfortably sitting down at the stereo.
I hand Dave the first of the compiled CDs. We listen for a minute or so… he does not recognize the track at all.
it’s Phil Manzanera, who’s now
playing with Gilmour. (still
listening) Here it comes, the
displacement of 8th notes.
This was the first time I heard
anything like that.
DM: Who’s playing bass?
JM: I got into Simon [Phillips] when I heard the 801Live album, which led me to buy Listen Now. I picked it up and of course went right to the basement, to my kit, put the headphones on and started practicing to it, but I played only the Simon songs and lifted the needle to skip over everything else. Then one day I remember playing to the song called “¿Que?” and when it ended, “City of Light” started up. So I just started playing along and enjoying the nice 4/4 groove. Then all of a sudden all these 8th notes started disappearing and reappearing, and the next thing you know I’m playing the Mattacks tracks over and over and trying to learn what the hell you were doing. And that was it, along with collecting Simon recordings, I started hunting down DM recordings as well. DM: I remember when we first met at the Zildjian offices in England, I was so surprised that you knew who I was.
JM: Bill McCormick, he played
with [Brian] Eno.
DM: Is it Phil singing?
JM: I remember that well. When I showed up that day, Colin [Schofield] told me that he needed a few minutes to finish up, that he was in the other room with Dave Mattacks. That’s when I begged him to introduce us. DM: [laughing] That’s what happened!
City of Light
Listen Now
Phil Manzanera/801
1976
JM: And it was this song that did it. DM: I must go have a look at the record, this one is so out of the blue and I think I might have it in the collection.
JM: (laughing) You guys kill me! DM: I guess someone’s been listening to the [Pink] Floyd. I give up… it’s a bit familiar. It sounds to me like someone’s trying to be Dave Gilmour.
JM: No I believe it’s Bill and another guy named Simon Ainley.
(a complicated drum fill is heard) DM: Oh, I must’ve written this out. Not the actual drum part, but at least the form of the song, because it’s so unusual.
I was so used to verse-chorus, verse-chorus, to be given something like that, with that long piano part, I probably said “Play it to me a few times.”
Listening to some of those fills, I would’ve known that a change was coming up.
JM: Interesting comment since
JM: I think it was recorded at Basing Street.
DM: I don’t recall, but I think I can tell you what the drums were. The snare drum for sure. (finding the record) Basing Street, you were right. Rhett Davies, oh ok. 1977, Jesus…
Well, it was most definitely
References:
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