Dante’s Hifi – Miami – April 20 Breakbeat Tuesday – With Love
So I had the idea to start this thing called Breakbeat Monday – which quickly became Tuesday – showcasing a specific record from my collection that has a monster drum break. I own a lot of records (almost as many as I have on MP3 format hahah) and they run the gamut from hip-hop to rock to jazz to comedy records to freak folk opuses to experimental whale-sound recordings (okay, no drum breaks on the whale-sounds records.) Some I’ve used for sampling, some I’ve used for DJing, some I just listen to and some I don’t even like but just have kept around because I’m a borderline completionist. But at the end of the day, I have such a weakness for a dirty old monster break beat. There’s nothing like it in the world.
The group Love, helmed by the unique Arthur Lee, was an L.A. based psychedelic rock band that was best known for the landmark album “Forever Changes” (a must cop if you don’t have it already.) They had a unique musical fingerprint, thanks to their diverse pool influences and their incredibly witty songwriting, and in my opinion they actually captured the darker side of the late 60s hippy L.A. scene better than any other group. I often think of “Forever Changes” as “Sergeant Pepper’s” evil yet misunderstood twin. Needless to say, it’s one of my favorite albums of all time, by one of my favorite groups. I got put on to it when I was mad young from finding my mom’s old copy of “My Little Red Book” and absorbing it into my collection.
In 1969 when Lee was at the pinnacle of his creative talent he released “Out There” which is a towering tour-de-force showcasing the multitudes of styles dude could hit on. One of which is “Doggone” which is a groovy song that starts in the folk realm, moves to the rock world and then takes a far-out trip to a crazy jazz drumming solo, provided by George Suranovich. George really starts to go in around the 3:08 mark, but when 4:54 comes around he channels the craziest BOOM BAP schitt you’ve ever heard. I know a grip of people sampled this, specifically Kanye West for Talib Kweli’s “Get By” but honestly I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing these drums. So here it is, complete for the first Breakbeat Tuesday, Love’s “Doggone.”
Love “Doggone” (Blue Thumb, 1969)