Ongoing History Daily: The most famous drummer you never heard of
One of the biggest technological changes in music came in the early 80s with the introduction of the drum machine. A number of companies built them, including one founded by Roger Linn.
His machine was called the LM-1, which could be programmed to play whatever rhythms you wanted using preset drum sounds. But where did those raw sounds come from?
Roger Linn put his friend Art Wood in a closet and painstakingly recorded him hitting the various pieces of his kit. This meant that any artist who used a Linn machine used Art’s drumming.
That’s him you hear on everything from “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” by Culture Club to “When Doves Cry” from Prince. Art is heard on thousands of songs, although practically no one knows it.
