SHAKE: Rock and Roll’s Secret Sauce

The thing that makes your ass shake, your arm thump, your leg pulse, your head bob and weave to a great rock and roll song isn’t just the heavy hammering 1-2-3-4 of kick and snare drums, it’s not the grindy guitar riff (though that might be the thing you can’t get out of your fuckin’ head days later), and it’s not even that funky ass bass line, though that helps-- as long as our secret ingredient is in the mix. The real secret sauce, the specific kind of sound that presses the Primal Button in the base of the skull is some kind of 8^th, 16^th, or 32^nd note swishy rattly thing made by a maraca, shaker, high hat, brushed snare, tambourine, etc.  The sound hearkens through what Jung referred to as the collective unconscious to memories evoking tribal dances, trances, and rituals.   Given rock and roll’s roots in African-descended, African-American musical traditions, the pervasive presence of “shaking”-type sounds certainly isn’t surprising—their lineage traces back to Africa, cradle of Lucy’s homo sapiens, Mother to us all, originally.  But because those big, heavy 1-2-3-4s, grindy guitar riffs, and funky ass bass lines are usually more prominent in overall band presentations than the swishing and shaking sounds buried farther back in the mix, taking a moment to notice and consider said swishing and shaking is worthwhile.

And so: a brief, off-the-cuff, probably full of shit at some points, and certainly woefully, pathetically, inexcusably incomplete sampling / survey of important early chefs in the history of the Secret Sauce in Rock and Roll:

BO DIDDLEY: other early rock and rollers—from Elvis to Chick Berry— had plenty of hard, bawdy punch, and the Bo Diddley beat featured those same pelvis pounding thrusts upfront in the mix, but behind them were those maracas, fast and even, like heavy breathin’.  Oh man.  Enough said.

CHARLIE WATTS: Keef Richards’ll be the first one to tell ya’ that we all owe more to this man’s wrists than we could ever repay.  Swirling swinging jazz sensibilities in with those elemental primal thumps, Mr. Watts (Keef can call him Charlie, but I think Mr. Watts is more respectful from you n me) manages to do all of that while somehow also simultaneously coaxing shake out of a high hat which your whole body or some part of it is ultimately powerless to deny.  Vastly underappreciated Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes, inspired by Watts. works in similarly rich, thick ways.

JIM KELTNER: dunno exactly where he appeared first, but the rock and roll rhythmic vision this man lays down on Mad Dogs and Englishmen with Joe Cocker was a template which set the bar high for rock and roll rhythms which made you not simply wanna fuck, but spend an evening singing and drinking and dancing and talking and making out with the one ya love before doing so. Hell, beyond that, Mr. Keltner (same deal here) also established the drummer as a legit contributor to musical conversations, rather than as simply a timekeeper or bump-and-grinder.  Keltner often shocked other session players by asking to see lyrics for songs on which he was playing.  A studio rat for decades, Keltner’s work appears on hundreds, probably thousands, of records.  Tom Petty thinks he’s on Damn the Torpedoes because, even though Keltner’s name isn’t on the credits anywhere, Petty recalls him running over repeatedly from a studio down the hall while TP and Co. were recording to say and demonstrate how “you just need to add some shakers to this tune!”  As with the Stones’ Watts to the Crowes’ Gorman, Keltner’s influence turned Petty’s drummer Stan Lynch into a guy with some formidable shake of his own.

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS: first off, the ABB rhythm section features no one named Allman.  Rather, Jaimoe and Butch Trucks have served the ABB as the first and best double drum combination in rock and roll history.  Both of these guys are not merely drummers on kits but percussion virtuosos, and the layers of shake they provide drive and explode the rest of the band’s intricate jammery.  Kreutzman and Hart of the Grateful Dead work in similar ways, but the ABB’s Trucks and Jaimoe combo has been a breathtaking miracle to behold for the band’s entire career (spanning over 40 years) and, with all due respect to the Dead guys, are the Best. Period.

Once you’re on the lookout for it, you notice it everywhere.  Zeppelin’s Bonham’s foot-pedaled high-hat shake was actually more important to the band than his legendary thunder.  Brady Blades shake, with a bit of help from the echoey atmospherics of Daniel Lanois guitar, morphed longtime country star Emmylou Harris and her band into real rock and rollers with World Beat influences.  Meg White didn’t have no shake which is why the White Stripes sometimes never quite took off like you felt they might (and I still think this is why Jack ultimately closed that show down), but Jack White—well, whoa: that dude shakes like a motherfucker on the drums with The Dead Weather.  “Poets” by the Tragically Hip is driven from the opening by the shake...

You also miss it when it’s not there: dry drumming can suck life from a great band or record.  Petty’s Wildflowers is a pretty fucking good record, but would be great if Stan Lynch were back with Tom, ‘cuz new guy  Steve Ferrone ain’t got no shake.  Uncle Tupelo lost steam fast when the very shaky Mike Heidorn was replaced by the very clean, very dry Ken Coomer.  UFO might've been a great band but gawd their drummer was shakeless and dry as a bone (well, actually, thinking about it, no they couldn't have been a great band anyway, but the drummer- Andy Parker- was particularly lame).

It’s a funny little thing, but it’s primacy is undeniable. Humming or tapping a toe to a tune is nice, but if your head is bobbing, your fist is pounding, your leg is twitching, your butt is swaying, well then that’s something more powerful and it’s all in the Shake—the Secret Sauce of Rock and Roll.

That’s brief and crude and incomplete and I’ll think of a dozen more examples of great shakers and shakeless fops in the next few days, but I’d rather hear examples from you all.  Where and wo do you hear and dig with that primal shake?