Spencer Charles Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also played with Dinosaurs, and the Ashes (later known as the Peanut Butter Conspiracy). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane.
Life and career
Early life
Spencer Charles Dryden was born in 1938 in New York City to Alice Chapple and George Dryden Wheeler Jr. Alice Chapple was a ballet dancer with Anna Pavlova's dance company, and a member of the Radio City Ballet Company; Wheeler Dryden was an English-born actor who became an American citizen. He later worked as a director, and was also a half-brother of Charlie Chaplin. When Spencer Dryden was growing up, he carefully concealed his relationship to his world-famous half-uncle, not wanting to be judged on his name.
While Dryden was an infant, the family moved to Los Angeles and his father went to work as an assistant director for Chaplin. His parents divorced in 1943. Dryden later fondly recalled playing at his famous uncle's Hollywood studio as a child when visiting his father. In the 1950s, Dryden became friends with Lloyd Miller, also born in 1938, who lived down the street on Royal Boulevard in Rossmoyne in Glendale. They both liked jazz. Miller said the two boys should start a band and encouraged Dryden to play drums. Since Dryden didn't have a drum set, Miller fashioned an instrument by thumb-tacking an old inner tube over a wooden barrel with no ends. Miller would pump his player piano, play cornet or clarinet and Dryden would bang out beats on the drum.
One day Miller walked to Dryden's house and heard him playing on a full drum set. He was playing Baby Dodds' solos to perfection, even the difficult nerve sticks. Soon they had recruited trumpet player Buzz Leifer, a Glendale High acquaintance of Dryden's, a trombone player, Miller's friend Faith Jackson on piano, and a banjo player. The band, called the Smog City Six, would rehearse in Miller's garage. After his parents complained, they played on neighborhood lawns for short concerts until they had to flee from cops.
Soon they were sought-after for their lawn jams. Their final New Orleans-style jazz gig was for the spring festival at Miller's school, Flintridge Prep. After that Dryden 'went modern' and began playing cool jazz in Hollywood and Los Angeles. Miller also added modern jazz to his styles, and the two jammed a few more times at Miller's before losing contact.
Both musicians made their mark in different ways. After Chaplin moved to Switzerland in 1952, Dryden's father managed Chaplin's business affairs in the U.S. until his studios were sold in 1954. Dryden's father was also a jazz fan, and took him to Los Angeles jazz clubs during the 1950s. These inspired Dryden's musical ambitions. His father died in 1957, when Dryden was 19 years old.
Jefferson Airplane
In mid-1966 Dryden was recruited to replace Skip Spence as the drummer in Jefferson Airplane, a leading San Francisco psychedelic band. Together with bassist Jack Casady, he helped create an exceptional rhythm section. A feature of live Airplane sets at the time were free-form improvisational jams, with Dryden's licks complementing Casady's fluid style, examples of which can be heard on "Thing" and "Bear Melt" from Bless Its Pointed Little Head. During this period, he had an affair with Grace Slick.
The song "Lather", appearing on the Airplane's Crown of Creation, is said to have been written by Grace Slick on the occasion of Dryden's thirtieth birthday. Its lyrics tell of a boy who stays as young as possible until one day when he is shattered by having finally to grow up.
Founding editor of Rolling Stone and music critic, Ralph J. Gleason, published The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound in 1969. The book included an engaging forty-four-page interview with Dryden.
Dryden quit Jefferson Airplane in February 1970. This followed the group's violent experiences at the notorious Altamont Festival, where lead singer Marty Balin was knocked unconscious by Hells Angels bikers, and a festival patron, Meredith Hunter, was fatally stabbed. Dryden seemed to have some sense of foreboding about the concert, as he initially did not want to play there, saying the "vibes" were wrong.