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Ecw Press - Dennis Bryon

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103 pages

English

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With worldwide sales of over 220 million records, the Bee Gees are the sixth bestselling music artists in history. Dennis Bryon's story of how he became the Bee Gees' drummer during their peak period offers many never-before-told tales about such infectious hits as Stayin' Alive, How Deep Is Your Love and Night Fever. You Should Be Dancing reveals unforgettable stories of his encounters with many famous musicians, including the Bee Gees themselves, Andy Gibb, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix and Olivia Newton-John. Also features Bee Gees photographs and ephemera.

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Reino Unido

United Kingdom

Percussion instrument

Great Britain

Royaume-Uni

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Publié par	Ecw Press
Date de parution	17 septembre 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781770907676
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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YOU SHOULD BE
DANCING
MY LIFE WITH THE
BEE GEES
DENNIS BYRON
FOREWORDS BY
ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW
AND ZORO

ecw press

“How does it feel to know the whole world was dancing to your beat?”
— Bee Gees fan to Dennis Bryon

FOREWORD
BY
Andy Fairweather Low
When Dennis asked me to write the foreword for his book I thought, Well, of course he would . Typical of me: I was the self-absorbed, self-obsessed lead singer in Amen Corner, the band we were in together all those years ago. And it’s not like Dennis isn’t aware of my many faults. Yet despite them, he wanted me to write this. That’s Dennis.
Recently, I saw some super- 8 footage of Amen Corner when we lived in London in the late sixties filmed by Neil, our guitar player. Boys-being-boys stuff. With the hindsight of more than forty years, I can see clearly that Dennis was the heart and soul of that band. I had always felt we could be a band — a real band — but Dennis was the one who decided it was going to be fact.
I will always remember how I first met Dennis. I was lucky enough to see him in a great band in 1965 : Brother John and the Witnesses, one of many great Cardiff bands. When I was looking to form Amen Corner, Dennis was my first choice as drummer. It was a time when drummers were actually required to play . And yep — he could play. (Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of much of today’s Pro Tools generation.)
As a band, we had a residency at a fantastic late-night club in London, the Speakeasy, which was the best . Jimi Hendrix was a frequent visitor, and one night he borrowed Neil’s guitar, turned it upside down, and started playing with us — and Dennis stepped up to the plate, straight away. I know that despite my aforementioned quirks and faults, Dennis and the band tolerated me — for whatever reasons. And I am very, very grateful to them. Dennis got to deliver his dream from Cardiff, Wales, to the U.S.A. with one of the biggest-ever bands in the world. That wasn’t by luck, and it wasn’t an accident. You cannot survive in the music business by luck. Not as a player.
I miss Dennis (he now lives in America, and I in the U.K.), but his memory and presence stays with me. And we do get together now and then. We recently met for a band-reunion meal in Cardiff — a curry, of course.
We were boys in a man’s world, a long time ago. What a joy … what a joy …
Love you, Den.
Andy Fairweather Low
Lead singer and founder of Amen Corner and Fair Weather. Session musician for Roy Wood, Leo Sayer, Gerry Rafferty, The Who, Joe Satriani, Roger Waters, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Lane, Dave Edmunds, Bill Wyman, and George Harrison.

You Stepped Into My Life
FOREWORD
BY
Zoro
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
— Jackie Robinson
YOU SHOULD BE DANCING!
Why?
Because nothing brings joy to the human spirit quite like dancing. The desire to dance is written into the genetic code of every human being, and life gives us many reasons to dance.
Have you ever given thought to what prompts us to dance in the first place?
It’s called rhythm. And behind all of those beautifully crafted rhythms is a drummer. The role of a drummer in all cultures is the same — to create a groove, a pulse, a special magical feel that inspires people to move their bodies and feel a passion and vibrancy for life. Drumming is a noble and culturally important calling. Without the cadence of drummers from every tribe and tongue, the world would be a terribly unexciting place.
Life has a rhythm to it, and You Should Be Dancing recounts the rhythmic journey of a great drummer. Since the mid- 1970 s, Dennis Bryon’s hypnotic drum grooves have been responsible for luring much of the world’s population onto the dance floor. Dennis accomplished this incredible feat by playing on one of the best-selling albums of all time — the iconic Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Released in 1977 , the double album received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and the music on it became a phenomenon that changed the cultural landscape, prompting more people to enroll in dance classes than ever before in history.
Saturday Night Fever featured some of the most memorable songs in pop music history. Bee Gees anthems such as “Stayin’ Alive,” “Night Fever,” “Jive Talkin’,” “You Should Be Dancing,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” and “More Than a Woman” all bore the imprint of Dennis’s undeniable feel.
Equally so, the drum part he played on “Nights on Broadway,” from the 1975 Bee Gees’ album Main Course, was incredibly infectious and so “in the pocket” it felt unreal. It remains one of my all-time favorite grooves.
On top of playing such beautifully crafted drum parts as “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love),” Dennis pushed the known musical boundaries with the highly innovative 32 -note hi-hat pattern he played on the bridge of “Love You Inside Out . ” It is one of the hippest drum parts ever created, and it really blew me away when I first heard it. The song reached number one on the Billboard charts in June 1979 and was just one of the many musical gems that sprang from the Bee Gees’ Spirits Having Flown album.
I also have great personal reason to thank Dennis. Whereas countless drummers would cite the names of Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Ringo Starr, John Bonham, or Keith Moon as their greatest influences and the reason they picked up sticks in the first place, for me it was the grooves Dennis played with the Bee Gees that beckoned me down the path to becoming a drummer. His drumming made an indelible mark on my soul and set my feet dancing, which I did plenty of in those days. It also birthed within me the desire to become a professional groove drummer and play in the R&B style that Dennis had done so successfully.
When I started playing the drums back in 1977 , the Bee Gees dominated the airwaves. The group penned great songs that featured catchy melodies and beautiful, warm harmonies. Intoxicating rhythm tracks were combined with crisp horn parts and lush string arrangements — all played by real musicians in real time.
This vibrant and heartfelt music was recorded prior to the technological revolution that would destroy the art of live recording and open the floodgates of mediocrity for amateurs and novices to permeate the music industry. In those golden days of recording, a drummer needed to play in real time throughout the entire track with no computer or Pro Tools software to fix mistakes. You had to really play!
Dennis really played. He served the Bee Gees well with his tasty musicianship, and he did all of this at such a young age, playing with the restraint and maturity of a much older player.
To underestimate Dennis’s contribution to drumming would be a grave mistake. His renowned grooves have affected every generation since. You’d be hard pressed to find a teenager or young adult today who hasn’t heard the songs Dennis played on. They’ve become a part of the fabric of modern pop culture. And it’s important to note that Dennis is the only drummer in history, other than Ringo Starr, to have five songs on the Billboard Top 10 chart simultaneously. He played on nine number one records, plus countless hits that spent a total of 188 weeks on the Billboard Top 100 .
His accomplishments are truly epic.

For years, I had wondered about Dennis and his whereabouts. Then in 2014 , something came over me — I needed to meet Dennis in person. I wanted to pay homage to the man whose drumming meant so much to me.
I started my quest by replaying all the records Dennis had ever played on. I played them over and over — reliving those special moments of my youth. The effect of those grooves had in no way diminished. If anything, I came away with an even greater appreciation for that music. Dennis’s drumming and the warmth of analog recordings came through clearly, infusing me with a new respect, particularly since the world is so inundated now with synthetic music and cold digital sounds.
After I’d drenched myself in the spirit of Bee Gees music and all the great grooves Dennis had played on, something welled up within me. I felt something almost spiritual drawing me to him and believed a guiding force would eventually lead me to him. I started searching the internet for anything that might help me locate this man.
As life would have it, I discovered that he lived only a few miles from me in Nashville, Tennessee. I laughed and contacted Dennis via email. He graciously responded, and we set a time to meet the following week. I purposely avoided talking with him by phone at that point, because I wanted to save any talking for when we were together in person.
I was nervous prior to meeting Dennis and wondered what this drum hero of mine would be like. But the moment I walked up to him I could sense a genuine warmth. He gave me a bear hug and we clicked instantly, as if we were long-lost twin brothers separated at birth who were finally reunited. We immediately engaged in effortless conversation and found ourselves talking like old war buddies for more than three hours.
There is an unspoken brotherhood in the world of drummers, and as a breed we bond like no other musicians I know.
At the conclusion of our time together, Dennis said meeting me was like catching up with an old friend he had known all of his life. We were kindred spirits, and I felt the same. I left that first meeting feeling much like a child who got the Christmas present he’d always wanted. I had waited a lifetime to meet Dennis, and it seemed that life had come full circle.
Prior to our meeting, Dennis had taken the time to review many of my drum performances. He told me when we met that he “absolutely loved” my drumming. To think that the drummer I emulated as a young man would one day say he loved my drumming was almo