"MISSING PERSONS" (Bozzio) Friday Five-Fer

[snappy]

"Spring Session M" and
the debut EP are a treasure trove of great drumming and lyrics.
I recommend checking out their entire performance at the
1983 US Festival.
I didn't include some of their big hits which I also love...
Terry Bozzio had a huge part in writing all of these tunes.
CRANK IT UP!!

 

[xsabers]

I was first in line for an open seating show on the Spring Session M tour. Wall of VooDoo opened. What a great drumming display that was (Bozzio I mean, not the guy from WOV playing on pots and pans...).

 

[Pocketplayer]

YES...and more YES...(not YES, but yes...)

Bozzio had to do a lot of pimping to get this band off and running...more respect other
than epic drumming. He basically hit the streets trying to get a record deal...playing
w/Zappa (an elite drumming gig) did NOT pave the way for him...I would imagine most
record executive pimps never heard him play on a Zappa record. Terry tried to break into
another genre of music...and the first record was amazing! Didn't he record all the drum
parts solo in studio?

Terry is an artist...he is the definition of an artistic personality in every way. His roto tom
kit was unlike any set being played...that is Bozzio in a nutshell...and I LOVED it!

 

[bellbrass]

Man Terry was a badass, even back then. I prefer his playing with Missing Persons to his clinics. I saw one of his clinics, and I think exactly 100% went straight over my head. I felt like I had skipped grad school, and was at the defense. If anyone is a professor of the drum kit, it's him!

 

[RogersLudwig]

I loved the 80s!

 

[zapviii]

Love it! Thanks for posting.

 

[Gotdrums]

Cool stuff. Thanks for posting.

 

[drummertom]

Saw them twice back in the early 80's. first time Terry had the roto toms, second time he had the electronic kit. Fantastic drummer and showman.

 

[snappy]

YES...and more YES...(not YES, but yes...)

Bozzio had to do a lot of pimping to get this band off and running...more respect other
than epic drumming. He basically hit the streets trying to get a record deal...playing
w/Zappa (an elite drumming gig) did NOT pave the way for him...I would imagine most
record executive pimps never heard him play on a Zappa record. Terry tried to break into
another genre of music...and the first record was amazing! Didn't he record all the drum
parts solo in studio?

Terry is an artist...he is the definition of an artistic personality in every way. His roto tom
kit was unlike any set being played...that is Bozzio in a nutshell...and I LOVED it!

Good info

 

[snappy]

Good stories, as always

 

[red66charger]

Apologies to those who may be annoyed by my reviving an old post. I missed this thread when it was active. I stumbled across something on point to the OP which I'll get to in a bit.

My musical awakening came as a kid in the early and mid 70s. It started with the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack, which my parents would play, and then morphed into KISS and then, naturally, Led Zeppelin. I was in high school when John Bonham died so I was indeed devastated that my drum hero was gone. But then they 80s came along and I graduated high school and entered the workforce full-time. I also joined my first good band...an original New Wave band playing the bars and universities around Akron and Kent Ohio. It was at that time I finally started listening to music other than Led Zeppelin. When I heard Spring Session M my world totally changed. Bozzio's playing on Missing Persons songs is so incredibly creative and powerful. I still shake my head listening to some of the stuff he pulled off. It was at this time I first learned about PASIC and drove overnight from Northeast Ohio to Washington D.C. to see Terry's clinic (forget what year it was). It was the first time I met him and he was like a God to me. (pic attached).

Now for the reason I bumped this old thread. I recently found a live recording on YouTube of Missing Persons from their Rhyme and Reason tour. For those that don't know, this was the tour Terry played an all electronic kit, not one acoustic drum or cymbal. Terry, being Terry, designed the custom one of a kind E-kit. I saw the tour in Cleveland and he was having technical difficulties with the contraption that night, but the show was still awesome (I believe it was 1984). I have never found a video or audio recording from this tour, or anything of Terry playing this kit, until now. This particular song doesn't really showcase his playing until the end. But it stands as a very rare performance.

If any of you have know of another recording of him playing his E-kit, please post it. The song below is titled "Give". Keep in mind, Terry brought the same energy to play this kit as he did is Roto-Tom kit.

The black and white pic below is courtesy Terry Bozzio's official website. I still have my copy of the Modern Drummer issue.

Peace All!

 

[Rhyma Hop]

.

I think I was under 10 and I was fantasizing about her back then.. LOL Watching/Listening to this vid

.

 

[Rhyma Hop]

 

[red66charger]

This is a tough one. The drums sound like crap and there is nothing exceptional about Terry's playing. If you listen closely, you can hear there are some okay things going on, but their third full length LP, Color in Your Life, was the beginning of the end for Missing Persons. I believe they played a few shows right after the album was released but the Bozzios split up about the time of the album's release. I really don't understand how they ended up with this album. Perhaps they knew they were done and just mailed this one in? Such a far departure from Spring Session M and Rhyme or Reason. Although in this song Patrick O'Hearn's bass part is pretty cool. Terry came back to playing acoustic drums (Remo...yuck) and was playing Paiste Color Sound cymbals. This was also about the time Bozzio made his first instructional video, Solo Drums (and when I saw him in clinic at PASIC).

Anyhow, I am sharing this video for whatever you may...ahem...take away from it. Certainly not superior Terry Bozzio drumming.

 

[Vistalite Black]

Call me a heretic, but Missing Persons was not good. I understand why some people fell in love with Dale Bozzio's wardrobe, but without the visuals, it was not good, imho.

 

[Olderschool]

I get those that dug this music but for me, this era was the death nail for rock n roll. Ear screeching vocals driven by simple straight 1/8th's guitar licks and 1/4 note bass thumps replaced the guitar gods and abstract poetical creativity where people could escape in a musical nirvana called album rock. I still cringe.....

 

[John DeChristopher]

I loved Missing Persons. I still do! Their first full length LP (Spring Session M) is a great record, and it still holds up well today, 36 years later. I saw them at a club in Boston in February of 1983 and stood literally in front Terry's bass drums. As you know, he set up in front of the stage and I managed to get a spot right in front of him. It was life-changing for me. I saw them in 1984 at the Orpheum Theater in Boston on the Rhyme & Reason tour. Terry was playing his electronic kit. I crashed their sound check and got to chat with him for a while. I was using a Simmons kit at the time and he gave me the lowdown on his custom made electronic kit. A year later in 1985, I moved to LA and got to know him.

Terry once told me they recorded Spring Session M at Frank Zappa's (then new) studio. Frank let them use it to help him tweak the sound of the room. A sort of beta test.

I spoke with Terry at the time they were recording their last record Color In Your Life (late 1985) and he said he was back to playing acoustic drums and cymbals and they were going for a more contemporary sound. They hired Bernard Edwards to produce it, who had produced The Power Station's hugely successful record a year earlier. So they were going in the right direction. The material wasn't there and his marriage to Dale had fallen apart, so by the summer of 1986 they were done. I saw one of their last shows in LA in 1986. I remember thinking they played nothing from Rhyme & Reason. Just material from Spring Session M and Color In Your Life.

 

[dangermoney]

Hearing Spring Session M and the EP was a game changer for me as well. I can still remember hearing 'Words' for the first time on the radio. What a pivotal moment in my playing career.

Having come from a hard core past of 70s/80s classic rock, hard, rock, rock 'n roll, etc, this new musical perspective opened up a whole new world for me and from then on I was hooked. Bozzio was my #1 inspiration and I learned everything that I could about his playing. I played in a band called 'Destination Unknown' back in the mid 80s and we covered stuff from Spring Session M and Color In Your Life along with other mainstream and alternative music of the time. Their stuff was both challenging and fun to play and required rock solid timing to pull off correctly. The carefully placed nuances in Terry's playing were so creative and exact and required dedication to duplicate authentically.

I still have my Missing Persons albums and EPs from back then and I have never stopped listening to the band over the years. Every time I listen to their stuff, I can't help but wonder what they could have become had they stayed together.

 

[cribbon]

I first saw Terry on Zappa's Bongo Fury tour in the early 70s. I had been a big Zappa fan for years and was puzzled to see this guy who looked like he was about 15 sitting behind a Ludwig octaplus kit and nailing the gig like he'd been doing it for years.

Next live experience was when he and Missing Persons toured in 84 or 85 (this was the same time as his MD cover). He had his personally designed electronic kit but apparently there were problems with the pedals, so at that particular gig he used two Simmons tom pads set up vertically and played with regular pedals. Everything he played was impressive, but his take-off at the end of US Drag was mind blowing.

I have met him several times since then at various drum clinics and he's always been a very polite, thoughtful and highly intelligent individual. Of all of Zappa's extraordinary drummers, I think Terry's the most individual and creative. Vinnie certainly ranks as an unbelievably talented do-it-all drummer for hire, but to my way of thinking Terry has a personal vision that transcends simply being a drummer - he's a true artist.

 

[Beatnik]

They were the band in the great film "Lunch Wagon". lol