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Post by Emerald City on Feb 24, 2005 19:30:26 GMT -5
 Monday, July 1, 2002
Motown drummer Pistol Allen dies
Funk Brothers member put backbeat to most of classics
By Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The Motown sound has a little less backbeat today. Drummer Pistol Allen, 69, a member of the band that supplied the instrumentals to nearly every classic Motown record ever recorded, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer.
That was Howard Richard "Pistol" Allen's lazy Memphis shuffle on the Supremes' "Baby Love," his frenetic, in-the-pocket groove on Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave," and his swinging funk on Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)."
"You couldn't fall behind, you couldn't fall anywhere but in the pocket with him," said his band mate, Motown guitarist Eddie Willis, from his home in Mississippi. The little-known band that helped make Motown famous was called the Funk Brothers. Motown founder Berry Gordy never gave the band credit on the records to keep other music companies from stealing his talent.
By the time Gordy hired Allen at Motown in 1962, the drummer was a seasoned jazz pro. But on the advice of his mentor, Motown drummer Benny Benjamin, Allen put aside the jazz when recording in Motown's "Snakepit" studio.
New Jersey-based filmmaker Allan Slutsky's upcoming documentary, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," tells the Funk Brothers' story as the uncredited musicians behind Motown's greatest singers. Then picture will be released nationally in November. Slutsky got to know Allen well over the course of filming.
"This was a guy who burned with music all day long, his whole life," said Slutsky. "It wasn't music that was borne out of wanting to be a star, he just wanted to play, he felt the spirit of music moving through him his whole life. When you have something that strong, I don't think death can separate that."
"And Pistol knows he's preserved now because of the film. If I did one decent thing in my life, it was making sure his story, and the Funk Brothers' story, was told on film." Allen's oldest son, Harold Allen, saw how his ailing father was transformed by the power of music.
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Post by Emerald City on Feb 24, 2005 19:32:36 GMT -5
"Last year, he dragged himself to a Kwaanza party, I don't know how, but he insisted on going, so we went. He closed the party. When musicians start playing, I don't know where that energy comes from, but you would never have known he was sick. He was still playing when everyone else had gone. Music gave him his energy," Harold Allen said.
Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey, who in the mid- to late 1960s toiled alongside Allen in the "snakepit" recalled that the drummer made everyone laugh.
"He was always funny, a bright guy, energetic player, a lot of laughs. Between all those guys, everybody always had such a great time in the studio. ... He could play anything," said Coffey, who used him on his post-Motown solo album Scorpio.
Allen was born in Memphis, and moved to Flint in the mid-1950s to work at AC Delco. He moved to Detroit in the late 1950s and caught the attention of Motown drummer Benny Benjamin in the night clubs around Detroit: the Flame Showbar, the Bluebird, Watts Mozambique and the other clubs that made up the city's thriving jazz and R&B scene.
He joined Motown in 1962, where he became known as a quick study who could play in any style. The Memphis native was known for his shuffle beat and his powerhouse backbeat, as well as bearing down with Motown's famous "four on the floor" rhythm that would have him hammering the snare drum on each beat.
If it bothered Allen that, like most Motown musicians, he wasn't credited on the singles or albums, it didn't stop him. "He had a good time, he always expressed that," said Harold Allen.
But Coffey, as a fellow Motown player who also went uncredited, has stronger words. "If I had my way, I'd shut the world down without music for a day, let people get a handle on what musicians contribute. None of us got health care or any of the stuff everybody else gets."
Allen is survived by his wife, Barbara, and 10 children: Harold, Gregory, Valeria, Michael, Denise, Patricia, Sandra, Karen, Richard and Michelle.
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Post by Motorcity on Feb 24, 2005 23:30:55 GMT -5
:RIP:
You live on through the music :band:
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Post by Motown Honey on Feb 25, 2005 17:41:36 GMT -5
Great information on one of the once unknown makers of the Motown sound
((Admin 2)) He really does live through his music; it's a part of him that will never die
May his soul continue to rest in peace :RIP:
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Post by misstara on Jul 20, 2005 10:31:26 GMT -5
"Pistol" indeed was my favorite Funk Brother. He was and still is truly missed.
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