Little Feat's "Fat Man In The Bathtub" intro percussion...

[davd_indigo]

I'm in a band and we're working up this song. I was trying to analyze the intro percussion. The guy hitting the wood block (next to the ccongas) is pretty easy to hear.

Can anyone suggest what Lowell George is playing on his cowbell (more cowbell PLEASE!). See the youtube link below. Thanks.

 

http://youtu.be/S1AWV3F8muI

[JonR]

Interesting - nice to get a percussion question in place of the usual guitar chords/tab questions!

 

It's certainly difficut to be sure what he's playing, so I checked out the studio version - which is different. That has cowbell playing a standard 3-2 clave, with just an extra hit on the repeat:

|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|
|x   x   x x   x|  x     x      |x     x        |    x     x    |

That repeats before the bass and guitars band come in (ie, 8 bars intro in all)

 

Against that, the drums are playing what seems to be a random pattern in 8ths (different accents in every bar), while the woodblock (less distinct) seems to be playing this 4-bar pattern:

|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|
|x   x   x x   x|  x x          |x     x     x  |               |

In the live version - which is slower, btw - the snare pattern is missing, and LG's cowbell seems to have taken that over: playing constant 8ths, but with varying accents - and sometimes on the rim of the bell to vary the tone.

 

Meanwhile the woodblock is playing something closer to the studio version:

|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|
|x   x   x x   x|  x x          |x     x     x  |               |

 

Conclusion: take your pick! Or make your own variation. What I might do is combine a standard 3-2 clave (on the woodblock) with a cascara pattern on the cowbell:

                    |1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|
woodblock 3-2 clave:|x     x     x  |    x   x      |
   cowbell cascara:|x   x x   x   x|x   x   x x   x|

Notice how neatly they interlock. You'd sound more authentically Latin if you did this (it's a standard mambo pattern). OTOH, you'd sound less cool-loose-funky-who-gives-a-**** Little Feat.

 

 

[JonR]

"bass and guitars band"?? I meant to delete "band". (Too tricky to edit - again - on this damn site.)

[davd_indigo]

Thanks for the thoughtful analysis JonR. I'm going to test some of the notations you've presented when I get the bass player over to my house. Thanks.

[JonR]

Sorry I've just realised: in my re-editing of my first post I got the patterns mixed up, so some of the text makes no sense.

 

Firstly, you'll notice that patterns #2 and #3 are identical (duh!)

These show the woodblock pattern in the live version.

 

Pattern #1 is NOT the studio cowbell pattern, but the studio woodblock pattern (as far as I can tell). So it should be where pattern #2 is.

 

The studio cowbell pattern (the simple 3-2 clave with one extra hit on the repeat) is what's missing, and is this:

 

|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .||x     x     x  |    x   x      |x     x     x  |    x   x x    |  

That should be where pattern #1 is.

 

Hope that clarifies the issue. (I daren't try and edit my original post, I'll probably just screw it up again...)

 

[JonR]

As extra clarification, here's what I think is happening in the studio version:

 

          |1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .| COWBELL:|x     x     x  |    x   x      |x     x     x  |    x   x x    |    WOODBLOCK:|x   x   x x   x|  x     x      |x     x        |    x     x    |

 

I'm pretty sure about the cowbell, less sure about the woodblock.