The Guess Who "American Women" Isolated Percussion Track

Percussion is the secret weapon that producers use to give motion to a song. Sometimes the percussion is obvious in a mix, and sometimes it's almost imperceptible (like the shaker on Tom Petty and the Heatbreaker's big hit "Refugee"), but it almost always makes a big difference how the song feels.

For decades now garage bands have been playing The Guess Who's "American Women" and wondering why it didn't sound like the record, and the reason is they're not playing the percussion that's an integral part of the song.

Take a close listen to the following video and you'll realize why it's almost a different song without the conga and  tom hit.

Note that they're not playing totally in the pocket, but that was the state of production for the era, when timing wasn't scrutinized as closely as it is today.

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The Guess Who "American Women" Isolated Drums

The Guess Who's "American Women" was a big hit for them and Lenny Kravitz, but it's basically the same riff over and over. It has a very interesting drum track though that's unusual for its time, as you'll soon hear.

I was told by one of the band's former road crew that the song was basically a jam that the band was playing one night while waiting for sing Burton Cummings to arrive. As the story goes, Burton walked on stage and began free-styling the words and a hit was born. It just so happened that a fan was tapping with a cassette recorder that night and the band managed to obtain a copy so they could relearn it. The studio version reportedly changed very little from what they did that night.

Here's what to listen for.

1. The kick drum pattern by drummer Gary Peterson is far more complex than the mix lets on. It makes perfect sense that the drum part came out of a jam because it would probably been a lot simpler had the song been written as normal.

2. The kick drum pattern is also a bit floppy. Peterson is a great drummer and his time is solid, but that doesn't mean that the kick doesn't flam on occasion. No problem, as you never hear it in the mix.

3. Yes, the drums are in mono and panned to the left. This was 1970 recording techniques, after all.

4. Check out the dry and tight sound of the tom in the intro.

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