The Winstons

So yeah, Amen Break is a break beat.

Uh, it was a sample of this B side by a band called The Winstons.

The Winstons, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was originally a song called Amen, Brother.

Just a few seconds.

Clipped from a 1969 funk track by the Winstons, but it became the genetic material for entire subcultures.

What's fascinating here is the mechanics of why that specific loop became so ubiquitous.

Because there were plenty of drum solos.

the original, this is one of the most sampled beats of all time, because of drum and bass music.

We're playing Amen Brother, by the Winstons.

Gregory Coleman's the drummer.

And this was a pretty obscure song on a B-side.

Like, you, you, you would hear these, uh, like these particular songs on everything.

Uh, and the, the, the first volume also features Amen, Brother by The Winstons, which, you know, ev- as a lot-

Yes

... of people know, features the drum break that has become, like, basically an instrument unto itself within electronic music.

In the living room and den, large, heavy droplets were dripping directly down the plaster walls and collecting into sticky patches on the carpet.

Understandably panicked and profoundly confused, the Winstons called their landlord, who in turn advised them to contact emergency services.

When Atlanta Police Department detectives arrived at the scene in the early morning hours of September 9, they prepared themselves for a standard grisly homicide scene.

Instead, they found an elderly couple shivering on their porch and a house covered in a substance that smelled unmistakably of copper and copper oxide, the classic scent of fresh blood.

On Fontaine Avenue, the blood simply emerged static from the walls and floors in separate rooms with zero connective trails.

Second theory, a practical joke or hoax.

Some skeptics suggested that the Winstons or perhaps a relative seeking attention had intentionally splattered the home with blood sourced from a butcher shop or a medical facility.

But this theory is debunked by the medical examiner's findings.

These were machines that could record a snippet of audio, say a five second drum break from an old funk record, convert it into digital data and allow the producer to manipulate it.

A lot of people have probably heard of the Amen Break, which is a famous six second drum solo from a 1969 track by the Winstons.

It is arguably the most sampled drum beat in history.

And the sampler allowed British teenagers in their bedrooms to take that EMN break and chop it into microscopic slices.

The breakbeat fractured.

A six-second drum solo from a 1969 track called Amen Brother by the Winstons became the most influential rhythm in British music history.

Producers sliced it apart.

Kick.

Thank you.

Remember on Father's Day, which was in June of this year, we had the Winstons on, right? Phil Talata was our guest that night, our special visitor.

He's Coley Vogels, plays the organ for them, and really a talented, talented man, Phil Talata.

By the way, the Winstons won the Grammy in 1970 for the best R&B song.

Just wanted you to know.

Well, on that show, well, yeah, I'm going to let Phil get on.

Yeah, I got about 20 or so photos in the middle of the book that tie everything together.

Wonderful.