Amen break
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The Amen break is a drum break that has been widely sampled in popular music. It comes from the 1969 track "Amen, Brother" by the American soul group the Winstons, released as the B-side of the 1969 single "Color Him Father". The drum break lasts seven seconds and was performed by Gregory Coleman.
With the rise of hip-hop in the 1980s, the Amen break was used in hits including "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A and "Keep It Going Now" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock. In the 1990s, it became a staple of drum and bass and jungle music. It has been used in thousands of tracks of various genres, making it one of the most sampled recordings in music history.
The Winstons received no royalties for the sample. The bandleader, Richard Lewis Spencer, was not aware of its use until 1996, after the statute of limitations for copyright infringement had passed. He condemned its use as plagiarism, but later said it was flattering. He said it was unlikely that Coleman, who died homeless and destitute in 2006, realized the impact he had made on music.
RecordingEdit
The Winstons were a soul band from Washington, D.C., who played throughout the southern United States. They were led by Richard Lewis Spencer.<ref name="BBC News-2015">Template:Cite news</ref> In early 1969, the Winstons recorded the single "Color Him Father" in Atlanta.<ref name="BBC six" /> For the B-side, they recorded an instrumental based on the gospel song "Amen" and a guitar riff Curtis Mayfield had played for Spencer.<ref name="BBC six" /><ref name="The Economist-2011">Template:Cite news</ref> The result was "Amen, Brother",<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> which Spencer said they composed in about 20 minutes.<ref name="BBC six" /> Though "Color Him Father" became a top-10 R&B hit and won a Grammy Award, "Amen, Brother" received little notice.<ref name="BBC six" /> As a mixed-race group, the Winstons struggled to secure bookings and disbanded in 1970.<ref name="BBC six" />
Drum breakEdit
{{#invoke:Listen|main}} At about 1 minute and 26 seconds into "Amen, Brother", the other musicians stop playing and the drummer, Gregory Coleman, performs a four-bar drum break that lasts for seven seconds. For two bars, Coleman plays the previous beat. In the third bar, he delays a snare hit. In the fourth bar, he leaves the first beat empty, then plays a syncopated pattern and an early crash cymbal.<ref name="The Economist-2011" />
The drum break was added to lengthen the track, which had been too short with just the riff. Spencer said he directed the break, but Phil Tolotta, the only other surviving member of the Winstons in 2015, credited it solely to Coleman.<ref name="BBC six" />
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SamplingEdit
In the 1980s, with the rise of hip-hop, DJs began using turntables to loop drum breaks from records, which MCs would rap over.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> In 1986, "Amen, Brother" was included on Ultimate Breaks and Beats, a compilation of old funk and soul tracks with clean drum breaks intended for DJs.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> Salt-N-Pepa's 1986 single "I Desire" has one of the earliest uses of the Amen break.<ref name="Dave Turner-2018" />
In 1988, Mantronix released the influential track "King of the Beats", which edited and processed the Amen break to make it "central to the track rather than simply a rhythmic bedding".<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> A number of releases that year took it into the mainstream, including "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A and "Keep It Going Now" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock.<ref name="Dave Turner-2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Amen break has been in used in thousands of tracks, making it one of the most widely sampled tracks in history.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> It was widely sampled in British dance music in the early 1990s, especially in drum and bass and jungle.<ref name="butler">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="The Economist-2011" /> It has been used in multiple genres, including rock music by acts such as Oasis, in commercials, and television themes such as Futurama.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The Amen break became popular as it was easy to manipulate and offered a simple way to create jungle music.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> The English drummer Tom Skinner cited the appealing "crunch" of the recording quality.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> Producers have manipulated it by altering its pitch or speed, or re-ordering its components to mimic ghost notes or other effects.<ref name="The Economist-2011" />
RoyaltiesEdit
The copyright owner of "Amen, Brother", including the Amen break, was the Winstons bandleader, Richard Lewis Spencer.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> Neither he nor Coleman received royalties for the break.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> Spencer was not aware of its use until an executive contacted him asking for the master tape in 1996, when he was working for the Washington Metro.<ref name="The Economist-2011" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The journalist Simon Reynolds likened the situation to "the man who goes to the sperm bank and unknowingly sires hundreds of children".<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> Spencer was unable to take legal action, as the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is three years in the US.<ref name="BBC News-2015" />
Spencer condemned the sampling as plagiarism and said he "felt ripped off and raped".<ref name="BBC six" /> He said in 2011: "[Coleman's] heart and soul went into that drum break. Now these guys copy and paste it and make millions."<ref name="The Economist-2011" /> However, in 2015, he said: "It's not the worst thing that can happen to you. I'm a black man in America and the fact that someone wants to use something I created – that's flattering."<ref name="BBC six" />
Coleman died homeless and destitute in 2006.<ref name="BBC six" /> Spencer said it was unlikely he was aware of the impact he had made on music.<ref name="BBC six" /> In 2015, a GoFundMe campaign set up for Spencer by the British DJs Martyn Webster and Steve Theobald raised more than £18,000 ($26,000).<ref name="BBC six">Template:Cite news</ref> Spencer died in 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
External linksEdit
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- The Amen break on freesound.org
- Video of an audio installation about the Amen break's history Template:Webarchive by Nate Harrison (archive.org mirror, Youtube mirror)
- Amen break on whosampled.com