By Patrick Berkery
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by Patrick BerkerY made 'All Right Now" (Free, l97o) I t's a short list of rock drummers who've Asidefromthecrazyjaminthemiddle,whichKirkepaceswitharelativelybusy I their mark as a member of two successful bands' up with a quick buzz roll' much of Free's Bad 'l6th-note snare pattern and wraps as Simon Kirke did with Free and then together Kirke doing what he does best: ho|ding everything of American soul and R&B' signature tune finds Company. Kirke's love particularly heavy' as there's fat beat. His groove in the verses sounds the sounds coming out of Memphis in with a big, particularly This enables the meaty tone of bass guitar taking up space on the low end' the'60s on the Stax label, informed the economical no solid style he employed with both hiskick-tunedalittlehigherthannormal-tovoiceparticularlywell'"lread approach and pretty high' and I was such a fan somewhere that Al Jackson tuned his bass drum groups. Classic-rock radio staples like Free's "All that l tried iti'Kirke shares."That really helped Right ttto*" and Bad Company's "Can't Get Enough"' create that tonej'And let's put a word out there "Feel Like Makin'Love," and "Rock Steady" don't 8th-note claves pulsing throughout the anything fancy from Kirke, but everything for those feature another has tune, played by Rodgers. lf5N[ ever needs he does on these songs and so many others sketch for the next time power' He laid the perfect foundation "More cowbell!"-type purpose and "All Christopher Walken hosts, one built around for the lean, R&B-influenced sound both bands of Right Now"would kill. favored, as well as for that soul-powered howl Paul Rodgers. and Water" (Free, 1970) Company, whose self-titled debut and "Fire Bad at recently It's no surprise to learn that the drum solo second af bum, Straight Shooter, were the end of this slow-grind groover, which Kirke as deluxe editions, enjoyed more success reissued on the to the introduces by pumping steady 8th notes than Free did, so its catalog is more familiar you know of Free is "All Right Nowi kick,isatipofthehattoRingo,sso|ospotontheBeat|es,,,TheEndj,Kirke,sstarring- masses. But if all plenty of sweet extended tom fills role performance on "Fire arid Wateri'featuring you're strongly urged to go down the rabbit hole chorus' was also influenced by another' a force' and a driving double-time climb in the at your earliest convenience' That band was "During the session for'Fire and Water'l heard'Fire a work in somewhat surprising tracK' and the drumming, while admittedly I heard with Russ Kunkel on drumsi'Kirke recalls"And recordings, is tasteful and and Rain'by James Taylor, progress on the earliest just about the simp[city of his wonderful tom_tom filrs. There was something beyond Kirke's tender age at the time' Here' those sharp inside of mej' tracks' drumming and fills. lt turned a light on Simon discusses nine of his most memorable 56 | ModernDrummer I Febrtraly 2016 "My Brother Jake" (Free, l 97l ) nasty feel. During preproduction, Kirke discovered that stripping "My BrotherJake"finds Free taking a back his hi-hat pattern in the verses really allowed him to dig in. break from the hard stuffand laying ?t first I started playing Sths on the hi-hat, and the feel was a little down a jaunty little shuffle rooted in New strained," he explains. "So I started playing just quarters. At that time Orleans R&8. Kirke approaches the piano- Ziggy Modeliste of the Meters was a big influence on me. He said based tune with a light touch, at times somewhere that by playing 8ths it kind of f roze his right arm, but accenting 'l the on the kick and floor tom, by playing quarters it gave him a way of creating a more relaxed with snares on 2, 3, and 4. He alternates groove. I applied that to'Rock Steadyi and it became so much easier this pattern with snares four across the to play. And by being easier to play, I could apply more power." bar in some spots and a straight 2/4 shuflle with tasty buzz rolls interspersed to set "lt up the transitions. wasn,t a shuffle where the "Ready for Love" (Bad Company, 1 974) right hand bounces;" Kirke says. "lt was almost like a precursor to the Before rock ballads turned into arena-ready exercises in soullessness beat on'Can't ,Soothe Get EnoughJ And I took it from Al Jackson on in the'80s, bands like Bad Company executed them with subtlety, Me'by Sam & Dave. I think that's subconsciously where that groove dynamics, and conviction. Kirke's best ballad work can be found came from. I was really happy with my drumming on that, because it in the soulful and spare "Ready for Love." His gth notes on the hi- was a departure from what l'd normally done. I felt it was one of my hats fill just enough space in the verses, and his signature double- most musical drummino tracks." time climb in the pre-choruses and choruses provide the perfect lift. When he's not grooving. he's controlling the dynamics and "The Hunter" (Free, 197 1) delivering tasty snare licks, like the buzz rolls between sections and You can feel the raw power of Free's live MKDMM the triplet fill after the last chorus. "l didn,t want to have a drum part show in this balls-to-the-wall version of that was too intrusive," he says. "My drumming on that ts meant to Albert King's "The Hunter." ,lJi,.!tt-.1 taken from be like a soft-feathered mattress in the verse. And when it came to 1971's Free Livel Kirke drives the band ,-..-' the chorus, I gave it a little kick in the ass." with slamming force, linking his quarter- note hi-hat pattern with Paul Kossoff's o:t "Feef Like Makin'Love" (Bad Company, lg7Sl guitar part (he opens the hats in certain @.:i Were it not for Kirke's suggestion to fuse spots to accent Kossoff) and keeping his a ballsy Paul Rodgers riff and "a simple right foot in lockstep with Andy Frasert bass. Everyone,s letting it little country song"that Mick Ralphs fly, while Kirke cohtrols the chaos.,,We usually played it as an encore, was working on, the world might never by which gig time the was complete mayhem," Kirke says.,,How you have known this slow jam, which is playing hear me it is the combination of ninety minutes of sheer soundtracking make-out sessions to hysteria. I was slamming it. Very simple groove, but so powerful. Well this day. Kirke can take credit for more pleased with that." than just suggesting that the singer and guitarist Frankenstein the track toqether. "Can't Get Enough" (Ba d Company, 19741 His sensibilities as a song-first groover are firmly intact by this point, The first thing you hear on "Can,t and he shows them off with the snare-to-tom fillthat ushers in Get Enough"is Kirke counting the the first verse, and with the rock-solid support he provides as the band in."We were spread all over mellow verses give way to the crunchy choruses.,,lt was no grear Headley Grange Simon [studio]," mystery what a lot of our songs needed from me," Kirke says.,,l,m remembers."l had to bring them just supporting the song. When I start laying into the fills at the end, all to attention, and we decided we're building, and l'm reacting to Mick,s great guitar playingJ, to leave [the count-in] on."The last thing you hear is Kirke bringing "Burnin' Sky" (Bad Comp any, 19771 the song to a close with a little This is Bad Company at its funkiest. At floor tom crescendo-the carm bassist Boz Burrell's suggestion, Kirke after the storm of an extended iam. ' plays offthe keyboard and bass line in ? riirl', In between, the drummer is the songt anchor, pumping bluesy the verse, with the snare hits on the,,&,, t'' blood into Bad Co.'s debut single with a simple shuffle that features of 1 and on 4, giving the tune a tightly :., .r: . quarter notes on the hat and double kicks on I and 3. Occasional .1.,', wound feel. When Kirke transitions to , ,,11,;, embellishments, like the hi-hat grabs in the second chorus, are snareson 2and4inthechoruses,the i.:,:r:1, perfectly placed, and the rolls around the kit are classic. song starts to swing hard. "That little . , hiccup [in the verses] was hard to do, "Rock Steady" (Bad Company,19741 quite honestlyi'the drummer says. "lt started as a straight 2 and 4, The secret to "Rock Steady" is the simplicity of the groove. Oh, and it got a little ho-hum. By doing that little hiccup, when you got Kirke gets his licks in. But it's what he doesn't play-namely how to the chorus it was kind of like a release. lt really gave the tune a he resists the urge to accent the offbeats of Mick Ralphs,guitar riff rhythmic identityJ' just and powers through the groove-that gives the song such a f4lffir Fcbnrarv 201(i I Modern f)rummer I JI.