Earl Young The Drummer On 'The Hustle'?!

[Disco Funk]

We certainly have different approaches to our experiences with the sound with the drums. You've made a career of it playing for years. I can't claim to have that experience, by a long shot. I started listening to drums in songs about 20 years ago, first in Beatles music, then branching into funk (via rap) and disco. I've been collecting 'break beats' for well over a decade and a half, which is essentially an interest in the drum patterns in a song. For me, I don't get excited over Buddy Rich doing a drum solo. And I wouldn't know a Buddy Rich drum solo from a Keith Moon solo. For me, it's all about the groove. When the band cuts out and the drummer keeps going, that's what I really am interested in. I'm pretty good at identifying drummers on records, even if they're not credited. I know Bernard Purdie's style from Gadd's; I can tell if it's Ed Greene playing, or James Gadson; and with the disco drummers, specifically the Philly ones, I can tell Earl Young from Charles Collins, even though Collins' style kind of emulated Young on certain records. Late 70s records are harder to tell apart because most disco drummers played a stiff, 'monotone' beat at that time. So, while I don't have any formal training, and have never owned a drum set, I know my way around a kit if I had to play. :)

The Hustle is hard to figure out because the drums are slightly muffled. They're not clean sounding, so it's hard to pick out certain aspects of Earl's style. But the way he enters into his drum fills (cymbal crash first, then fill) is similar to what is used on The Hustle, Disco Baby and Shakey Ground. And the playing on The Hustle is so basic it's almost an insult to Gadd to say he played on it, because he tended to put more colour into his playing. You can really hear him unloading in Spanish Boogie. But if he's workshopping the drums on that song, then I'd have to admit 'defeat', although under extreme protest! :)

I wish I could ask the drummers directly. Earl says he played on it in an interview. Steve workshops the groove. I wouldn't accuse either drummer of lying or stretching the truth. Even Purdie might have been right about playing on Beatles records. But they may have been the Tony Sheridan records, since Pete Best was a terrible timekeeper, although I don't think they had more than 3 tracks for those master tapes, so they would have probably had to re-record other instruments as well. That's probably where the confusion lies with Purdie.

Perhaps Van McCoy did something like what Steely Dan used to do, and that was to have different sets of musicians come in and play the same song, and whichever version Fagen and Becker liked, that was put on the Steely Dan record.

Disco Funk