Bruce Gary
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Bruce Gary (7 April 1951 in Burbank, California - 22 August 2006 in Tarzana, California) was most widely known as the drummer of the music group The Knack. He was also nominated for two Grammy Awards as a stage performer, producer and recording artist.
The young Bruce Gary was a bundle of energy and for that reason his parents allowed him to set up the drum kit that his cousin had offered him after getting bored with it. Gary left home at 15 and was drawn to the musical scene of Topanga Canyon, CA. He made friends with guitarist Randy California. In the 60's and early 70's he played with bluesman Albert Collins. By the time he was twenty-four he was touring and recording with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce and guitarist Mick Taylor who had just left the Rolling Stones. This stellar line up also included jazz pianist Carla Bley. Gary also worked with Dr John in the 70's.
In 1978 he found himself in a band with Detroit native singer Doug Fieger, guitarist Berton Averre and bassist Prescott Niles. Fieger and Averre unveiled a tune they'd written about Sharona Alperin, a teenage girl Fieger was obsessed with. Despite his initial reservations about the song, Gary came up with a drum riff to match "My Sharona's" stuttering style. He approached the song like a surf stomp. As he explained himself, surfbands play lots of songs with no cymbals, just tom and snare drums. He also borrowed from "Going to a Go Go", by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The final ingredient he added is something he called a flam. A flam is when two drum strokes are slightly staggered, first one drumstick, then the other, just barely apart. It gives a fuller sound. It was an idea that became central to the song's success. The recognisable kick and snare drum intro propelled the poper-pop-anthem to the top of the US charts. The Knack's debut album "Get the Knack" sold 6 million copies. After the break-up of The Knack in the early 1980s, Gary became an in-demand drummer for studio work and live performance with some of the premier musicans of the era including Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow, Bette Midler, Yoko Ono, Harry Nilsson and Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. He also worked with blues masters Albert King and John Lee Hooker.
In addition to his work as a drummer, he achieved recognition for his work as a producer - recording new albums with The Ventures and co-producing (with Alan Douglas) a series of seminal archival recordings of Jimi Hendrix including the Blues compilation.
He died at age 55 of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
