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Clyde Stubblefield
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Clyde Stubblefield was an American drummer, born in 1943 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He decided to take up drumming after seeing drummers in a parade. He taught himself to play and took his sense of rhythm from the sounds of the factories and trains around him. As a teenager he was already playing in local bands. In the early 1960s he moved to Macon, Georgia, where he worked with the guitarist Eddie Kirkland and toured with Otis Redding.
Music and breakthrough
In 1965 James Brown saw him play and asked him to join his band. There he shared the drums with John Jabo Starks. Neither had had lessons, and together they devised the grooves of many of Brown's big hits, such as Cold Sweat, I Got the Feelin', Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud and Mother Popcorn. His patterns are syncopated: the hits fall just off the beat, so that a simple four-four bar begins to shift and dance. In this way he helped lay the foundation of funk.
Influence
The best-known moment is his short drum solo in Funky Drummer from 1970. From the 1980s that break was sampled endlessly in hip-hop, by Public Enemy, Run-DMC, N.W.A, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. Stubblefield mostly received no credit for it and earned little from it. After 1971 he lived in Madison, Wisconsin, where he performed every Monday for years. He died in 2017.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1997The Revenge of the Funky Drummer
- 2005The Original Funky Drummer Breakbeat Album
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black PlanetNL Reader