Drums in Lay Lady Lay

[Pfraser]

Anyone know what those drums are in the Bob Dylan song lay lady lay? they are panned to the right and have a bit of a tick tock sound to them.

thanks for any info.

[psycho_monkey]

maybe wait more than a few hours for a reply....? Patience!

I'd love to help but...actually wait...*turns on iPod*...I'd have said it was less drumlike, more stick percussion.

In fact...putting "lay lady lay"+percussion into google turns up this:

Metallic sound in "Lay Lady Lay" - Harmony Central Musician Community Forums

Any good to you?

[joeq]

I went and listened to it. Here is my "expert" analysis FWIW

I would place my bet on some kind of small single-headed drum, either dumbeks or maybe even bongos. Octobans? The tone (and some ruffs) suggest they were played with sticks.

Another clue is that there is zero overlap between the percussion sound and the drumset part, suggesting it was a single performance by one drummer who had no time to change sticks.


They are a little too resonant and not metallic enough to be cowbells.

Not 'woody' enough to be one of those of slot drums. Maybe a metal drum- like the dumbek, but I definitely hear a skin "giving". A very tight skin, but still, a drum head.


they seem to be tuned to the key of the song, which I think is a big part of the effect.


if you google "percussion" and "lay lady lay" this thread is the top hit!

[joeq]

ha! just found this!

wikipedia knows all: moral of the story- don't stop at the first page of results-

"Lay Lady Lay" turned out to be one of Dylan's biggest pop hits, reaching #7 in the US, and giving him his biggest single in three years. "Lay Lady Lay" was originally written for the film Midnight Cowboy, but Dylan did not deliver it in time for it to be included in the score. He was initially reluctant to authorize the single's release, but eventually approved at the insistence of Columbia president Clive Davis.

"Sometimes... I go to the artist and say, 'What do you hear on the drums?' Because sometimes when people write songs they can hear it completed, they hear everything they think's gonna be on it", says drummer Ken Buttrey. "I went over to Dylan and said, 'I'm having a little trouble thinking of something to play. Do you have any ideas on ['Lay Lady Lay']?'... He said, 'Bongos'... I immediately disregarded that, I couldn't hear bongos in this thing at all... So I walked into the control room and said, 'Bob [Johnston], what do you hear as regards [to] drums on this thing?'... [He] said, 'Cowbells.'... Kris Kristofferson was working at Columbia Studios at the time as a janitor and he had just emptied my ashtray at the drums and I said, 'Kris, do me a favor, here, hold these two things... hold these bongos in one hand and the cowbells in the other,' and I swung this mike over to the cowbells and the bongos... I had no pattern or anything worked out. I just told Kris, 'This is one of those spite deals. I'm gonna show 'em how bad their ideas're gonna sound.'... We started playing the tune and I was just doodling around on these bongos and the cowbells and it was kinda working out pretty cool... Come chorus time I'd go to the set of drums. Next time you hear that [cut], listen how far off-mike the drums sound. There were no mikes on the drums, it was just leakage... But it worked out pretty good... To this day it's one of the best drum patterns I ever came up with."

wait a minute, did he just say Kris Kristofferson was the janitor?

[joeq]

Originally Posted by Pfraser

and by Janitor they probably meant the studio slave aka, a runner... cleaning toilets, making coffee for people, cleaning everything, etc, etc. but who knows.

call it whatever you want. Kris Kristofferson was still the guy who emptied your ashtray!

that should make all the studio runners and interns feel a little tiny bit better about their current circumstances.

[heyheymymy]

Man, that is so cool it hurts.

[macmod]

maybe it was the 'big brass bed'

cheers,
Bob

[Jules]

Ewwwwww... bad one!

[Jules]

Good bit of web research!

Interesting..

remember - If you are paying the bills, dont take shit from a percussionist! Make em do what you want.. !! (sometimes they can be like donkeys.. v stubborn! But it works out in the end....)