Word: waller
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EARLIER THAT DAY Waller lounged on his hotel bed, fiddling with the volume controls on a radio tuned into WBCN. He is quiet, sensitive, faintly pleased. "What do you think of American white rock, Country Joe, the Grateful Bead?". "A bit tame isn't it?" and one suddenly realized that he was right. Waller said he thought English groups were so much more aggressive and alive, able to pick up the mantle from the great black blues and rock musicians of the past because their members are all from the same particularly troubled English generation that was born during...
...Mick Waller was one of London's top sessions musicians before he joined the Jeff Beck Group, and played in particular with the Stones (he owned up to being the bongo drums in 'Jumping Jack Flash). He predicts, "the Stones will stand the test of time better than the Beatles. They're much simpler, you know, and they say a lot more than the Beatles with their highly contrived messages. Its just like Dylan, he can say in a few words what it would take Janis Ian a whole song to get at. I've only recently begun to listen...
...Waller rapped for hours about psychology, linguistics, (did you know that the Russian word for wolf is the same as the German one for people?) and American society (its schizophrenic. the phones ring too softly and the police sirens are too loud. in England its all very level...
...singing, singing guitar, Rod Stewart itching and arching with a tambourine. Beck does more--a rich screeching, waves of unearthly sound over and over, soulful wails. The fired crowd howls for more. Somebody shouts for 'Train' which is what the Yardbirds were doing in 'Blow-Up'. Beck looks at Waller taking up the challenge and they invent a melody to be called from now on 'Train'. The sound of the tracks on wheels, the howl of the whistle, the engine, and the train and its heavy coaches...all on guitar, drums and bass. The drums go quiet, the train chugs...
...Stewart is hoarse and happy. "You have to jump around like I do to get the kids jumping too. Look at the other group they just stood there. They were playing too complicated, too static, very difficult to get that off the ground." He turned to Waller "I really like it when you tap on the snare and do the tom-tom at the same time. Its really deep you know what I mean." Again the bewitching London accent...