goodbye, tom ardolino
Tom, who played drums for the legendary, influential, and indefatigable rock group NRBQ, died last Friday. A couple days later an obit appeared in the Boston Globe, and then, day by day, came notices in the Miami Herald, the LA Times, and a sprinkling of other big-city papers. No New York Times yet, even though the Times, I feel sure of it, employs multiple music writers whose coverage extends past the modern and megaselling. When a musician's work consists of a lifelong tenure with one outfit, it's hard-to-impossible to disentangle his brain from the group's, and this is harder yet when the group is NRBQ, whose trademark was in-the-moment composition and elaboration while swimming ecstatically in each others' heads. But let me take the occasion of his passing to "give something to the drummer."
On his instrument, Tom was one of the foremost individual stylists in post-Beatles American pop music; he stood in this respect alongside players like Levon Helm, Keith Moon, and Jim Keltner. I don't mean to drop those heavy names to add easy firepower to an argument for a relatively overlooked player, only to say that Tom invented an approach to playing his instrument, such that you didn't have to have the ears of John Hammond, or to look at the credits or the bandstand, to know who was playing the kit. It's conventional to say of players that they sound like no one but themselves, but it's not really true, except in a strongly exaggerated or trivial way, of most -- if it were true, every player would be a genius. Any number of savants playing the blind-test game online will confirm that conveying an unmistakeable musical personality is uphill work.
Tom was the drummer who'd routinely shuffle with one hand and straight-8 with the other, imposing a sort of antique, blustering Kansas City drag on songs whose zippiness, or whose 1980s-pop or avant-garde aims, seemed to point elsewhere, on paper. For him, you got the feeling, there was no music without impetuousness. He would explode into a nutty, implausible fill well past the place it should have begun, and emerge from it abruptly and on time, even if "on time" meant well past the bar marker, as it often did. His tuning was loose, his touch was heavy, his time was playful and precise, and he played with the force of his full body, all of which made for a monstrous combination.
His freedom from conformity-inducing influences (he learned to play in his room, with records, and left his room to go on the road with the band he stayed with for the next 30-odd years) and his guts to walk his own path were only half of his accomplishment as a drummer, and might have left him just another eccentric player, but then there was the thing he was born with, his groove. He truly put the pocket into the rocket. His backbeat got, to these ears, a little farther back as the decades progressed -- the nature of the groove developed, a little, but the quality didn't waver, and the authority rose. I was listening, just incidentally, to "Sister Ray" yesterday, and it occurred to me that how these two rock quartets of like vintage and omnivorous reach -- Velvet Underground and NRBQ -- handled noise was most clearly differentiated by their drummers. When his three stagemates went on a rampage of randomness, Tom almost always held the security blanket nice and taut underneath them.
His physicality was most impressive. I saw him play 30 or 40 times since I was a teenager, and it always amazed and moved me to watch that left hand of his, arcing high and snapping down with reptilian agility, and to feel the fury of his kick foot. I absorbed from him a principle that a lot of others my age were getting from punk players: beating all hell out of your instrument is the path to glory. A lousy principle, as it turns out. But for him, it worked, and for quite a long while. To have left the mark he did in the way he did, in a time when every year produces more players who play like everyone else, is a beautiful thing.
23 comments
Thanks Robbie!! That's probably the best thing I've read about Tom since his passing as well as the way 20 close friends celebrated his birthday with him! Long live NRBQ! God Bless Tommy! and God Bless Us All!
Thank-Q!
Gregg
That's funny you should mention "Sister Ray"......little know fact.... in 1969 Tom and I had a band with one other guy.... played mostly in the basement but we did have one "for real" gig at a CYO dance - I played guitar, Tom played drums.... & we used to play Sister Ray..... partially because it's a col song, but also partially because the guitar part was just mostly noise, and I could handle that!
When I first saw Tommy play I couldn't believe how hard he hit his drums. I didn't think he would last through the first song let alone the first set. But he did. He played that way all night! Thank You for your words. I think you got the signal right!
As a drummer myself I am always very aware of the guys who forged their own path and Tom was certaily one of those. As a singing drummer I believe there is no greater beacon for me than Levon Helm who you also mention. And oddly enough I heard Who Are You with the legendary Keith Moon, on my way to work this morning. He makes me laugh every time. I think about the courage it takes to play fills where they don't really belong or as you said, to extend them beyond the norm. While Moon wouldn't necessarily be one of the guys you think of as a "pocket/groove" drummer, Tom sure was. But a unique style is something to be admired especially in this day and age. RIP Tom.
Beautifully put Robbie and right on the money!
Robbie --
You've described the indescribable. I got to meet Tom a couple of times. The first time was total fan-boy stuff on my part, gushing about his playing and how I wish I could play like that and all that. And he said, "MEEEEOWWW. Don't say that. I just hit 'em. You can too." After that, it was a couple of after-show things and he was completely cool (meow and all) talking about records and the odd Japanese pressing of an NRBQ disc I had taken for him to sign. Sweet guy, master musician, one of a kind.
Great piece. You nailed it.
Yours,
Ted
You've hit it right on the snare (or maybe the tom-tom?). I don't have the musical knowledge—as you do—to know why Tom's playing sounded so good, I just know it did.
Yeah, Tom's playing could be "nutty and implausible" but it always fit right in perfectly.
R.I.P. (Rhythm In Perpetuity!)
Thanks Robbie,
I will never get tired of reading great things about such a unique, shuffling, powerful, bright spirit. Tommy and his style will live on forever. I can't wait to show my two year old clips of him drumming.
Thanks,
A fan,
Dave
TheZambonis.com
I once had a conversation with Tommy about Christmas records. I think of him whenever I see the picture sleeve to Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby", which in my house, is a lot.
Nicely put Robbie... another great perspective on Tommy's life. My brief encounters with him were as one record collector to another. Our communication was based on want lists. As a big Q fan, I knew about his esoteric tastes & wanted to help him track down stuff; music that was rarer and more esoteric than anything I had in my collection.
Meow! Like a cat capturing a mouse & presenting it to it's master, I still remember his enthusiasm & appreciation when I gave him a small stack of MSR 45's; I felt as if I joined a special club that day.
Tommy's appreciation for the far reaches of what folks consider "good music" is what, in my opinion, made him an exceptional musician.
Thanks so much for adding to the pile of love that Tom left behind. He was an overlooked genius, musician and drummer.
He was also a good friend with lovable quirks and an unmatched knowledge of any music made prior to 1980.
NY Times obit is rumored to appear tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday.
hey robbie -
well done, nice job.
it was just different if you got to see them a bunch. how much he meant to the night. and when they were on fire he had the gasoline and wasn't cheap with it.
just sayin' nice one
db
Very beautifully stated, Robbie. There will most definitely never be another like Tommy! We will miss him terribly.
I have been dying to read something decent about Tommy. NRBQ were the Marx brothers of our time—silly irreverent and dangerous in a way that many punk bands wished they could be. Tommy was the child savant in a band that nailed a youthful vibe every time they played. It's sad and ironic that he should go first (if you count only the classic line up). Thanks Robbie for your thoughtful piece.
John
Now, this is a fitting tribute. Thanks for conjuring up some wonderful sonic and visual images while bringing an analytical perspective as well.
Thanks Robbie.
Thanks Robbie. That was one fucking awesome tribute.
I'd just checked out your site for the second time and came across your tribute to Tommy Ardolino. Strange how you find things out. Twenty-three years ago I discovered NRBQ and grew to appreciate their catholic tastes in music and vowed to expand my own listening palette. Now I'm gonna miss the kid who took his place among men and made me sit up and take notice (one listening to "I Want You Bad" cinched it for me).
It's a sadder day, but reading your tribute was reassuring: you and those who wrote back prove there are folks who do listen and search for the good stuff.
I first started paying attention to the Q after I picked up a cut-out of ..."Yankee Stadium" for a buck around 1981. After I heard Tommy on Green Light I was hooked. Went to hear them every chance I could in clubs like The Bottom Line or The Chestnut Cabaret during their (in my opinion) glory days. Too much fun watching those guys with Tommy whacking the shit out of his kit! As it turns out I caught one of their last shows during the Dummy tour in 2004. This was a beautifully written tribute. Thanks!
Turned onto NRBQ many years ago by older brothers. The best damm drummer on the planet!! Any young kid learning the drums should be required to listen to and watch Tommy. A true legend!
Wow, what a tribute. I saw the Tom/Terry/Al/Joey lineup about 80 times yet I still learned a lot about drumming from reading this. Great job.
Will there be a tribute concert with the rest of the band?