Bruford, WHO ?

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   Hi,
A lot of this material is talked about in his autobiography, although I think that he was much quieter about it, then, than the rest of the musicians that talked about things in this new piece.

Some things stand out, and one of my personal favorites to blast in the car (Roy Harper's The Game Pts 1-5), features Bill and also a tremendous guitar duet in the end ... all of which make for a massive piece of music to play SUPER LOUD! .... (got it?)!

All in all, his time with GONG was probably not a good one considering his own personal life, and while a lot is said about this and that and the "commune" style of living, you never heard Mike, or Didier, or even Pierre or Pip ... say much about it, although Pierre left it many times, though one gets the idea that his problem was the quality of the music and being able to improve it, rather than deconstruct it because folks were too stoned and out of it ... this is, however, a guess ... he did not speak "nicely" about the drugs, and him and Didier did not stay close to the joint'ers during the tour I was with them and took pictures.

I'm not sure that there is a lot of new stuff in there, except more words about GENESIS than otherwise, but I think I agree that most folks did not think that the group would go anywhere, and it only made huge sales after the PG break up, and most of it due to the singles and the new PC making it big.

One of my "criticisms", in Bill's Autobiography, is that it is a strictly personal book ... that talks about the drums as an instrument and how a musician feels about it, the whole time, specially with the newer changes into some of the electronic stuff around the drums, a lot of which failed in the early days of trying it, but Bill DID try them! In this sense, you learned a lot about the music itself, but rarely about the player, although he has some really nice compliments and appreciation for some folks, specially later in his musical career.

In some ways, when you read the book, Bill seems to be better suited to be a professor at some school, rather than a drummer in a band that would likely "dumb down" his ability to play just to maintain a rhythm or beat that did not, necessarily, make the song, or the band any better. In this matter, he says nice things about KC, and probably because he was able to do some little things, for which he is now famous ... and some drummers won't even try it ... because they are not musicians ... they are just basic time keepers!