Saturday, 14 August 2010
Drummer, session musician and founder member of Little Feat (6 February 1946 – 12 August 2010)
The nay-sayers will undoubtedly be out again. They were out when Little Feat re-emerged in 1988, some nine years after the untimely death of the Rock'n'Roll Doctor, Lowell George. They'll undoubtedly be out again with the passing of Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward.
There's no single definitive Feat track, and longtime fans would be able to argue for hours about the relative rankings of Willin', Rock & Roll Doctor, Spanish Moon, Feats Don't Fail Me Now and Rocket In My Pocket. Some of us might even be as semi-sacrielligious as to include non- or post-Lowell on that list (sorry Bill, sorry Paul, but after twenty-something years of answering questions about Lowell you'll be all too familiar with the if it ain't Lowell it ain't Feat mindset).
But even if you throw in Oh Atlanta, All That You Dream, Let It Roll or Callin' The Children Home (and Hughesy would) there's something that immediately comes to mind as I sit in a Sydney hotel room and try to cobble together the beginnings of an obituary.
In every case (bar the pre-Feat, and possibly pre-Richie, can't check on the timeline) Willin', every one of those songs comes with an unmistakeable percussive groove that comes from the interaction of drummer Richie Hayward and long-time percussionist Sam Clayton.
When it comes to describing drummers, terms like powerhouse and force of nature tend to be strewn around like confetti. That's certainly the case when some of the more. eccentric or straight out pile-driving percussive practitioners are concerned (with Keith Moon, John Bonham and any number of examples from the heavy metal genre being pretty obvious examples) but I can't think of anyone I've heard and consciously noted who delivers the same blend of sheer power, steamrolling momentum, rhythmic dynamics, syncopated funk and deftness of touch that I'd associate with the work of Hayward, R. drummer extraordinary formerly of this parish.
To continue with the force of nature bit, it's something that's generally used to describe percussive power in the same terms that you might describe an earthquake, say, or a tsunami, something that overwhelms with the sheer force and power it delivers.
I prefer to think of Richie's drumming as cyclonic (that's like a hurricane, to slip in a Neil Young reference), something I've had enough personal experience with to appreciate.