Rosanna - Toto
Disclaimer. This text is a prayer to the god of drumming. The last few months this god, for me, has been Jeff Porcaro. Thank you for reading.
Dear God.
I am in love with Rosanna. I know I'm not the only drummer in love with her. She speaks to all of us. She fascinates us and delights us. She can make us cry and she can make us sing. She fills us all with a desire to get to know her, and to understand her every little part.
Even though I am not alone in this love, I still fear that I am living in sin. I fear that I might desire the wrong aspects of her beauty. For she is beautiful, we all know that, but what I desire, every time I encounter her, it is not the main groove. It is not the smooth shuffle that Bernard Purdie created to sooth the demons that haunted Steely Dan. It is not the sweetly rolling Bo Diddley beat in the bass that singlehandedly kicks of her grace. No. What I desire was created by lesser gods.
I do not desire heaven itself, populated by subtle ghostnotes. I only desire the bridge. The element that connect these shuffling parts of heaven. Every time I hear that half-time shuffle i get excited. Excited for the moment we have to leave it behind, to go straight on to the straight fourths. On to the simplest of simples. All I want when I encounter Rosanna, is the beautiful suspension of the straight bridge. Every time we hear the acclaimed shuffle, I want to travel on, because all I want to hear is the small, subdued and understated groove of the four to the floor bass drum, with nothing in between. I desire this, but it keeps me stuck to that floor. It keeps me grounded, and even though I can see glimpses of the heavens, standing on this bridge, i will never reach them. And the worst thing is that I don't even feel bad about it. I like it here. This bridge is good for me. I am a simple man, and I do not need heaven right now.
I do, however, feel bad about not feeling bad. Even though it's obviously a part of your creation, dear God, you didn't create this part to grab the attention. You created it so the shuffle could rise and shine again and again, in contrast to the bridge's grounded groove.
As a drummer and drum teacher I should know better. So I pray for forgiveness, and hope that you will once let me sail into your heaven of smoothness.
Amen. (p.s., Vote for Rosanna in de tijdloze)













