On the subject of drummers:
No singer/songwriter/producer has made more creative use of unconventional
percussion over a 44-year career than Tom Waits — probably because (as he put it
in a 1983 interview, “I’ve always been afraid of percussion for some reason. I
was afraid of things sounding like a train wreck, like Buddy Rich having a
seizure.”
Curious readers might want to check this site that describes all the percussion instruments used by Waits, with interview
excerpts that explain the whys and the hows. Consistently interesting.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2014.
