James Brown’s “Funky Drummer (Part 2)”

One Song

In Part 2 of the 'Funky Drummer' breakdown, hosts Diallo Riddle and LUXXURY spotlight Clyde Stubblefield, the unsung genius behind one of hi

Key takeaways

• Clyde Stubblefield's drum break from 'Funky Drummer' became the foundation for hip-hop sampling despite him receiving no songwriting credit or royalty payments.

Main topics

• Clyde Stubblefield's musical legacy
• The legal and ethical issues around sampling and copyright

Notable quotes

"James asked the drum to do something. And for a few seconds, the rhythm takes over."

Conclusion

Clyde Stubblefield's contribution to music history is monumental, yet his lack of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:14) That is a fast comeback. No room for error. No room for error. Speaker 2 (0:26) I'm actor, Speaker 1 (0:27) writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And I'm songwriter, DJ, and musicologist Luxury, aka the guy who whispers, Interpolation. And this is One Song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've Speaker 2 (0:44) never heard them before. And you can watch One Song on YouTube and Spotify. While you're there, please like and subscribe. Today's episode is made in partnership with Spotify. Their song DNA Beta is available. on Spotify premium and that feature will be guiding us through some of the sample rabbit holes we're going down today. Speaker 1 (1:02) All right, so on our last episode, we talked about every musician on this record Speaker 2 (1:07) with the exception of drummer Clyde Stubblefield. Because we felt in order to give the drummer some, we needed to dedicate an entire episode to him. And listen, if you haven't already heard part one. Go back and do that now and then come back to this. Now, Luxury, let's get into the drums because James asked the drum to do something. And for a few seconds, the rhythm takes over. Those few seconds are going to outlive almost everything else about this recording, almost everything else happening in the studio that day. But before we pull that break out of the record, we need to meet the man who played it. So his name was Clyde Stubblefield. Speaker 1 (1:44) Yeah, let's talk about Clyde Stubblefield, the man, the unsung hero of not just one, but both episodes. Maybe the unsung hero of hip-hop altogether. Speaker 2 (1:52) Hip-hop, I would say early dance music, electronica, drum and bass, jungle, all owe a Speaker 1 (1:59) bit of a debt to this gentleman and for Speaker 2 (2:01) the Speaker 1 (2:01) decision he made on the fly. Not only is it on the fly, but you'll hear it happening in real time. On this episode, kind of like the first one where the song was unfolding, we heard every instrument playing their part, every player playing their part, making decisions in the moment that balance James's instructions with their own decision-making, musical decision-making. You hear how Clyde Stubblefield finds the beat about halfway through. We're going to take you through moment by moment in the stems, in the drumbeat of the song. But Clyde Stubblefield himself was born April 18th, 1943, Chattanooga, Tennessee. All right. He moved to Macon, Georgia to tour with Otis Redding. And he ended up recording and touring with James Brown for about six years. So this is towards the end of his tenure. In fact, importantly, this is in the last few months of his tenure. As we discussed on the previous episode, there were a few... frequent mutinies in the James Brown backing band experience. And he was about to be a part of one. By the Speaker 2 (2:54) way, James didn't have a problem making those musicians walk the plank either. Speaker 1 (2:59) No, absolutely not. So ironically, the song is recorded November 20th, 1969. And just a few months later, he's no longer playing with James Brown. He ends up spending the last 40 years of his life. He moves to Madison, Wisconsin, and just plays locally on the scene after the Speaker 2 (3:15) James Brown Speaker 1 (3:15) experience. So the story of Clyde Stubblefield playing with James Brown begins in 1965 with an earlier band mutiny. And at this point, James has maybe had enough of these drummers and bass players and guitar players having too much power and leaving him with no drummers or bass players or guitar players. So he decides to start having two drummers and multiple players. So if there's any heat, you know, he can kind of play them off each other, as it were. So he auditions two drummers. The first one, two weeks earlier, we got Jabo Starks, famously, of other breakbeat fame we'll be talking about later. Um, again, two weeks later, Clyde Stubblefield goes to audition. There's another drum kit on stage. He's like, what's going on? Turns out that he is the second of the two drummers to take the stage with James Brown for the next five years. And it should be said that in many, if not most performances, they're both on stage. And from one song to the next, one drummer may or may not be playing. It's possible that James may decide to have only one drummer play that night. The other guy's just there the whole time. So he's sort of... do a little power dynamics with the live performers here. And I love this description. This is Questlove's description of one of the differences between the two drummers. Speaker 2 (4:26) Because Speaker 1 (4:27) like James would decide who should play a song based on his sense of what that drummer brought that was unique. And in Jabo's case, he goes, Questlove's quote is, Starks was the Beatles to Clyde's Stones. Okay, so Jabo was doing the clean shuffle. And Clyde has this famously free jazz left hand on the snare. We're going to hear that when we get into the stems. But all the ghost notes, all the subtle kind of taps so that a snare suddenly has thousands of potential sounds. It can make not just a two and four backbeat. Different levels, different attention being paid to the tone. A lot of that you hear the delicacy of how he treats the kit. So when we get into the stems, we'll point out all of those real minor tonal differences that make the part what it is. So in this crucial period from 65 to 70, Stubblefield plays not only on funky drummer, but he's also on cold sweat. Speaker 3 (5:22) Back Speaker 1 (5:34) to our last episode, we talked about that song. Give it up or turn it loose. Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. Speaker 1 (6:02) And one of my favorites, Mother Popcorn. Speaker 1 (6:15) That delayed second snare hit, Speaker 2 (6:17) you Speaker 1 (6:17) know, the syncopation. Kind Speaker 2 (6:19) of Speaker 1 (6:19) makes the song. Kind of makes the song, absolutely, yeah. Speaker 2 (6:21) Yeah, I think that's important to point out. Clyde and Jabo are very different drummers. And from both of them, James sort of expected a certain level of precision and immediate responses to his cues. Like we talked about that really quick. One, two, Speaker 1 (6:34) three, four. You got to be on. You got to be listening and paying Speaker 2 (6:37) attention, yeah. But here's where the title of the song becomes a little bit complicated. Because James Brown says, give the drummer some, but. Did the drummer get any? Clyde was paid to perform the session as a session drummer. He didn't own the master. He didn't receive songwriting credit. And he didn't have a contract giving him a share of future sample clearance money. Because Speaker 1 (6:57) nobody knew what that was in 1969, no? Nobody would have known. They would have been like, Speaker 2 (6:59) are you a martial? To say nothing of him Speaker 1 (7:01) having any power to bring it to James and say, hey, can you sign this contract where I get future royalties? Not going to Speaker 2 (7:06) happen. Speaker 1 (7:06) I don't think that James would have signed Speaker 2 (7:07) that. Not going to happen. Basically, when another artist would come along and legally sample Clyde's performance, that money. Look, it didn't automatically go to Clyde at all. Even those, those were literally his hands playing on those drums. I think it's so weird. Speaker 1 (7:21) To say nothing of constructing writing the part. Yes. It is songwriting to construct a part that you play on any instrument. But in copyright terms, songwriting is exclusively limited to lyrics and melody. Any other part of what is the song is not considered by copyright, at least it's not supported by all the cases that we know about and we talk about on this show. It doesn't equal songwriting where you get a percentage of the copyright for life. You know, it's Speaker 2 (7:46) really kind of tragic because he didn't miss out because producers only used a few seconds. He missed out because he didn't own those couple of seconds. Right. We're going Speaker 1 (7:53) to talk about that more later on in this episode. We are going to give full shine to not just the part he played, but its reuse across decades of musical recorded material. And it really lands the plane how much of an injustice it is and how stupid our copyright system is. And Speaker 2 (8:10) a little bit of how the musicians union used to work because back then the band leader got a certain amount, the session players got another amount. It goes all the way back to like the big band era. Yeah. You know, so James wasn't, in his defense, James isn't doing anything that's not kind of typical for that time. Yeah. But as we stated on episode one of this two-part series, Clyde kind of finds that groove. Speaker 1 (8:32) Right. Speaker 2 (8:32) And Speaker 1 (8:33) further support to your point, too, is that in 1969, Clyde Stubblefield's main gig was to perform on stage. And he's getting paid actually a salary. I've seen interviews where he talks about how he was paid. I think me well, the numbers vary depending on the information source, but he was paid a weekly salary essentially of which recording this song Yeah, exactly So the main gig though is to be on stage with James Brown Yeah at a predictable like this week next week the week after that So if there was ever a time when he might have thought to himself gosh I made a contribution to that song to say nothing of whether publishing was even a thought that they would have had In 1969. Of course. It wasn't necessarily something people were talking about. It's likely that what came first was, I want to keep my job. Right. Speaker 2 (9:18) I Speaker 1 (9:18) want to play with James Brown on stage next week, and I'm not going to rock the boat. Speaker 2 (9:22) Here's what's interesting. We've kind of come full circle. Because I think in the earliest days of music, it was understood that the real money was in the performance. Yes. It was in performing live. And then somewhere after the 50s and the 60s, especially when the Beatles started writing their own songs. Right. everybody starts understanding, oh, there's this thing called publishing where the real money is at. And at that point, the publishing became more valuable than the live show. And that was kind of thanks to AI and a bunch of other stuff, private equity firms buying people's catalogs. Now for the musician, it's come full circle. Now the real money is once again back in the live show. Speaker 1 (9:58) I mean, look, I want to support what you're saying, but man, there's levels of complication. To be a performing musician now is also terrible. Famously, a lot of like, big acts that have to cancel tours or Speaker 2 (10:10) break even, Speaker 1 (10:12) or maybe it's all coming only from the merch or the hot dog sale concession, or whatever. The money that comes from touring is certainly also not what it used to be. So money from any musicianship now, that's its own kind of... We do talk about that a lot on the Patreon, don't forget. The real money is in the Patreon. The real money is in the Patreon. But even then, to your point, you're right. Up until music was recorded, all of human history, musicians... Maybe they taught lessons here and there, but for the most part, a musician is paid because what you're hearing in the moment, a performance, a recital, whatever it is, again, maybe a lesson, but there is no recordings to speak of until the early 20th century. And even with publishing, the second thing you mentioned, to this day, publishing... is still confusing, complicated, and requires a certain measure of leverage and power in a conversation that most drummers still don't have. Drummers Speaker 2 (11:01) especially. Speaker 1 (11:02) Drummers especially, to this day, are usually the first one to get cut out of a songwriting split. Speaker 2 (11:07) Unless you're Phil Collins. Speaker 1 (11:08) Phil Collins, there's no cutting him out. No cutting him out, no. As mentioned in our first episode, this song is a combination of... pre-planned sections. There are only a handful of them. And the rest of it is the musicians playing parts that they'd either worked out in advance or, in some cases, like with Clyde Stubblefield, you can hear them sort of working it out as the recording progresses. In real time, this is nine minutes of a drum performance. There's no splices of any kind that I'm able to find. And he's in the room with the other musicians, and you hear the evolution. of his part until the famous moment that we'll all hear together and get chills up our spine. But the beat begins rather simply after the opening hits. So here are the opening hits and then we get into a motif that's not the famous beat. Okay, listen. Two and four. One E and a two E and a one E and a Speaker 2 (12:06) two E and Speaker 1 (12:06) a. So the snare is on, syncopated on a two E and a one E and a two E and a one E and a two. So you're hearing the uh, that's the 16th note, a syncopated 16th note. Again, we did a deep dive about funkiness also on the first episode, but part of what makes the beat feel funky is we have pretty strict 16th notes just going on the hi-hat. And you're getting the syncopated stutter, this like anticipated snare drum that's a little unexpected, even though we heard it a measure ago. And that's what's driving it. I would actually say. It's not driving the beat forward. This is not an example of a James Brown song with the one. I think that second stuttering snare kind of gives us a different feel. The funk's a little more stutter. I Speaker 2 (12:52) know. And the first time we played in the studio today, I was kind of doing my own version of the jerk. Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:56) And Speaker 2 (12:57) I think that that little stutter really propels your body into the jerk. Speaker 1 (13:01) Yeah. And further sort of supporting this idea that the first half of this song doesn't really have a James Brown, the one in it. Listen to actually the downbeat. I'll point it out. There actually isn't anything on the downbeat. The kick is not on the downbeat. So I'll count it out for you and you'll hear it. Speaker 1 (13:21) One two three four one here how that snare is right before the downbeat one One two three four. This is not a song where that one Grounds you and then the rest of the bar or the rest of the two bar cycle You can kind of mess around with you're actually kind of gliding over it I'll bring in the bass just for some context there to make that make more sense So listen to again that snare drum. I'll count it as we're listening one Speaker 1 (13:55) It's on the uh of four. You're right. It's Speaker 2 (13:57) really right Speaker 1 (13:58) before the Speaker 2 (13:59) one. Speaker 1 (13:59) It's anticipating the one, and the one itself is not really much of anything. Wow. It's almost like the opposite Speaker 2 (14:05) of Dilla, who's always a little bit behind. Here, it's almost like he's jumping the gun a little bit. Speaker 1 (14:09) Yeah. It's anticipating the next bar, which means that we don't get that James Brown one, which is such a legendary thing. But interestingly, as the song develops and as... his part develops, you'll hear that start to change until he locks into the famous beat. Speaker 2 (14:23) What's funny is that that first part before he's, when it's a little bit before the beat, it feels a little bit more, I want to use the term 60s, like 60s, kind of like swinging, almost like, you know, a casual stroll through Woolworths on your way back to a gas guzzling car. Yeah, Speaker 1 (14:39) it Speaker 2 (14:39) has kind of a Speaker 1 (14:39) go-go feel, especially with that bass line. These two chords, the cycle between these two chords. Yeah, you can see a dancer being like, It's a Speaker 2 (14:50) little more French. It's Speaker 1 (14:52) a Speaker 2 (14:52) little more like discotheque French Paris 1965. Oh, dude, yeah. With some different instrumentation, like some more strings, this could be Burt Bacharach. Speaker 1 (15:02) Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's obviously James Brown, and it's unquestionably got funk in it. There's no doubt. But it's not the funk we're about to get to, which gets even stankier as the song goes along. So he does that for a little bit, and then he starts to mess around and find some other ideas. Speaker 1 (15:25) Let me give you some context to that because it's interesting to hear it without any context. It's almost hard to find where the downbeat is. But what we had just heard, that motif thing with the anticipated second snare hit, that's just for about 40 seconds. And then either he gets the nod from James, he either gets some sense of displeasure, like, oh, I should change it, or he just decides to change. Here's what he does, and I'll bring it in now with the bass so you kind of hear it together with that. And now he changes. He's throwing a lot of snares. Speaker 1 (16:02) He's almost turning the beat upside down. It almost makes Speaker 2 (16:05) it harder to dance to. Oh my gosh. It was almost like a double time. I expected it Speaker 1 (16:09) to go into double time almost. It's almost too clever by half. He's sort of like looking for a complicated part, but it's sort of the rhythmic density of it makes it like, all right, we're getting away from funk. It's funky. I love it, but I'm not dancing to it. It's not going to lock in the groove like a couple minutes from now. So he's playing with ideas. I'll play some more because he did that for about 30 seconds and then he changed again. Count how many snares are in a bar. He's putting four snares in every bar. Speaker 2 (16:46) There's four, but none of them are on that beat you expect. One, Speaker 1 (16:50) two. Speaker 1 (16:52) One, two, three, four. One e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a. So we switched from the uh of two and four to the e. So it's a different 16th note. It's a 16th note before. It's interesting because that changes the groove altogether. Before we had an anticipatory groove because it was four e and a. And now it's da, da, da. These subtle changes change the feel of the song. of the entire song. Because don't forget the rest of the parts, the rest of the band is relatively staying the same with what they're doing. So a little bit later, I'm going to fast forward to around the, let's see, this is the two and a half minute mark. Let's see what happens here. He's still kind of doing that. And by the way, notice the resonance of that kick drum. Yeah. It's got a lot of tone to it. Speaker 1 (17:44) It's not muted like a Fleetwood Mac kind of 70s Speaker 2 (17:48) kind of thing. It feels much more like a