Drums and Demons - The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon - Joel Selvin

 

I believe that I first heard of this one through yet another review in Ugly Things and after reading about Gordon in books that's I've perused recently like the Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge tomes (among others), I wanted to learn more about his story.

Gordon was, of course, a session musician who played on an incredible amount of huge hits - too many for even this book to list (although what is listed alone is truly mind-boggling) - as well as a member of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen touring group, Dereck and the Dominos and innumerable others. Unfortunately, he was also a severe schizophrenic who did not take her prescribed medications regularly, heard voices in his head, preferred to self-medicate (with predictable results) and had random violent episodes, as exhibited by his then-girlfriend Rita Collidge's prominent black eye in the Mad Dogs documentary movie.  He ended up alienating his friends and peers to the point where he no longer had a serious career and eventually sat in with a bar band in Santa Monica until a switch flipped in his brain and he tragically murdered his own mother and spent the rest of his life in jail.

A short introduction about percussion in general and a tale of how Gene Krupa is basically responsible for the modern drum kit (I had no idea!) and we move into Jim's family life in Southern California. His dad was a character in his own right - two previous marriages, a child, embezzlement charges, a stint in the army and alcoholism - and Jim's childhood was uneventful but not particularly pleasant until he discovered the drums and quickly became a proficient player. As a teenager he moves quickly from playing in a local band (with the help of a fake ID) to touring the world with the Everly Brothers to session work. He plays on some of the biggest hits of the day, then moves on to Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen and Derek and the Dominos.

As is usual for me, the early days are the most exciting of the story and Selvin tells the tale in a truly engaging way. Unfortunately, once the drugs'n'alcohol become addictions, everything gets depressing instead of fun, especially combined with Gordon's mental illness. Gordon's first show of real violence appears on the Mad Dogs tour - the famous story of sucker punching Rota Coolidge - and then continues with his next girlfriend while with the Dominos as he becomes more unstable.

But while he becomes more and more unstable, he still maintains his musicianship and after the Dominos runs its course, he moves back to LA, back to session work and hit singles and a stint with Frank Zappa. More and more hit sessions come his way even as he becomes more unpredictable and volatile, more erratic, more argumentative and more violent. Eventually his illness cannot be conquered by playing drums (his previous salvation) and he loses work, either due to the voices telling him not to go or producers getting tired of his unpredictability. 

Selvin seems to have intimate knowledge of Gordon's illness and detailed descriptions of the voices in his head - either there were diaries depicting what Jim was going through or Selvin is simply using a writer's prerogative to tell the story. Either way, it is pretty harrowing, with the voices telling Jim to do things that he never wanted to do and if he didn't, he would be inflicted with pain so severe that he couldn't function. In the end he succumbed and murdered his mother in the hopes that it would rid him of her voice, and with her, the others that were crowding his mind.

Of course, this didn't really work, and, while clearly insane, he spends the rest of his life in jail, which he seems to adapt to better than life on the outside, although this portion of his life is just touched upon.

The title is truthful - this story is tragic, as well as horrifying and depressing. But Selvin is a fine writer and it is a compelling read. Recommended to anyone with an interest in this time period and this amazing music.