Buddy's Lament

Some people, "when opportunity knocks complain about the noise."

Most musicians in the professional ranks have heard or heard about the secretly recorded tape of Buddy Rich chastising his band after a performance. The tirade happened on the bus as they were leaving a gig. Most of the people that heard this taped "out-burst" thought Buddy had gone too far. I suspect they couldn't get past the profanities.

There was a barrage of expletives and "creative" insults to punctuate his total displeasure with the band as a whole.  

It was a young band that was on tour and in honest estimation it was not one of his better bands.  In fact it was marginal at best. However, having a young crop of unseasoned musicians in your group can be asking for headaches.

Most of the players (barely out of their teens) might have been away from home for the first time and some had just gotten out of college.  As young guys are prone to do they did all the inane things they wouldn't have done in front of their parents. Some most likely tried smoking "grass", growing a moustache or beard or letting their hair grow excessively long.  Their personal hygiene was nothing to brag about either and they most likely slept in their clothes (which means the band attire.)

However, all of these things could have been over-looked (to some degree) if they had only acted professionally when on stage. (Meaning giving it their best, one hundred percent night after night like Buddy did every night of his musical career.) The young "lions" were determined to have a good time like a frat party and didn't care much for the out-come.

Now Buddy has always been known to have a "dark" side to his demeanour and he is about the last band leader in the world you want to annoy and get ticked off.(Certainly not on the bus driving through Kansas  in the middle of no-where in the dark and miles from anywhere.)

There is no denying it.  Buddy flew off the handle big time. He raged and raged (some say unmercifully) at players for their lousy playing and lack of professional direction. (read attitude)

In his mind he had given these young "stars" an opportunity to hone their musical skills playing a demanding book and coming back as professional players. He had only his perspective in mind and that is giving them a once-in-a-life-time opportunity.

These guys never got a tongue lashing like this probably in their entire lives. Even Johnny Carson mentioned this secretly taped "out-burst" on his show. Johnny tried to smooth the ruffled feathers and the negative publicity that the tape was giving his long time friend Buddy Rich. However, outside of musical circles the incident was eventually forgotten if not forgiven.

When you hear the driving beat of the band swinging it's heart out with a new bunch of talented players, no one remembers the bad events of the previous group.  

There is a saying that "the one sure way to hear a musician complain is to give him a job."  That's essentially what Buddy did.   When you play in his band you play by his rules and there shouldn't be any surprises later on. (Who said a band was a democracy?)

Buddy has always had a reputation of being "hard nosed". He didn't have refined "people skills" and most people knew this. Certainly if you chose to work for him you knew this. You didn't have to take the job. 

People came to hear the band and it was "Buddy Rich's" name that was on the marquee.   He was the attraction as other leaders of his generation were the attraction. They were strict task-masters but it's no denying it, they lead great bands and produced some exciting music.

If you did your "thing" the way Buddy expected,  you were on a winning team."

In some ways this happening was a bit hilarious. In other ways it had its "dark" (unfortunate) moments.

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