[Liberty Valance]

I emailed the drummer and asked him about the tight sound on the snare...the drummer emailed me back saying that he had taped a “wallet” to the snare to get that tight sound in the studio. ‘Get Ready’ was a major hit.

[Drumbo]

Laying a wallet on the snare head and using duct tape was done a lot in the 60s & 70s when recording techniques were primitave. It cut overtones and deadend the response which made recording engineers jobs eaiser and produced a sound popular with producers, however, to me it always sounded like you could produce the same result playing on a piece of luggage.

That's not the case on the recording of "Get Ready" (a Temptations cover), the snare is tight and crisp and very "out front" (probably close miked) and I'm surprised there was deadening involved, but then again, for many years that session was passed off as a live recording, when in reality it was recorded in the Motown studios and all the crowd noise was dubbed in. The three minute "hit" was cropped from a 21 minute performance from their first album and after awhile you can tell the crowd applause at the beginnig and after each solo is the same loop. I remember seeing Pete Riveria drumming & singing with Rare Earth in 1970 supporting The Bouys and The Buddy Miles Express. As good as Rare Earth were, Buddy's band (and his star spangled Rogers drum kit) was phenominal and I never missed a show if it was within driving distance.

Get Ready (Not Live)
~ Rare Earth ~

Down By The River (Live)
~ The Buddy Miles Express ~

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