RIP. Johnny Barbata

He was great

I liked his style. Not what I'd call extraordinary, but a good natural feel that added something good to every band he was in. @bdp24 , what do you think of him?

Oh man, Johnny was fantastic! Even Buddy Rich thought so.

His technical playing is just subtle enough to pass unnoticed, but not by drummers. Give a new listen to his playing on The Turtles’ "Happy Together", "Elenore" and "She’d Rather Be With Me". Absolutely brilliant, hip, and cool! I employ Johnny’s kick drum ideas in my own playing. His and Levon Helm’s, my models for the playing of the bass drum.

Thanks for those examples. Yes, he was a great one.

There are many "unsung" heroes, quite literally, in the music industry.  Mr. Barbata will be missed.

He was an excellent drummer who died last week. RIP John....

In an obit, the writer for the San Francisco Chronicle described him as the drummer from the 'classic Jefferson Airplane lineup', and when he mentioned the other 'classic lineup' members, he didn't even mention Marty Balin, and thought the last album from the 'classic' lineup was "Long John Silver". He knew not much about what he wrote of.... 

Spencer Dryden was the original drummer for the Jefferson Airplane. RIP Johnny Barbata!

Actually Skip Spence was Airplane’s original drummer who was replaced by Dryden.  Sadly all JA drummers are now gone.  Spence and Dryden both passed at age 67 so at least Barbata had a bit of a longer run.  RIP.

@soix is correct, Skip Spence was The Airplane’s drummer on their first album. He took off for Mexico with a coupla chicks without telling the group, and was mia for a few scheduled shows. They fired him, and he ended up playing rhythm guitar and singing in Moby Grape.

I read somewhere that before joined MG he was briefly in the San Jose band The Chocolate Watchband, but I saw every local show they played and I never saw him onstage with them. Throughout the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s you would occasionally see Skip wandering the streets of downtown San Jose (he was living there in a halfway house), bumming cigarettes and asking for spare change. Like Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Peter Green, a victim of LSD.

skip spence shined brilliantly before burning out--he literally never wrote a bad song. "seeing," his sole contribution to the moby grape 69 album, is mindblowing, and his solo album, oar (supposedly the lowest-selling record in columbia's history) is the rare outsider work which really does live up to the hype.