Jesus Just Left Chicago · ZZ Top

69 bars of 6/4 -- not four -- at 120 BPM, 3:24 of playing on crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom and kick.

RockJazz / Blues120 to 149 BPMShuffle / tripletIntermediate
TEMPO
120 BPM
TIME
6/4
BARS
69
LENGTH
3:24
DIFFICULTY
55/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 28% of the song

The beat the song is built on is one bar, played through bars 16-23 and 43-47 -- 27.7% of every bar the kit plays. That is the spine of it; everything else is what happens around it.

LOOP · 120 BPM
JESUS JUST LEFT CHICAGO · BAR 16
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE FILLS

Where it comes off the beat

4 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 12, 13, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 1 more.

LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 12-13 · LANDS ON BAR 14 · PLAYED 2 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BARS 24-26 · LANDS ON BAR 27 · PLAYED 3 TIMES
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 28 · LANDS ON BAR 29
LOOP · 120 BPM
BAR 37 · LANDS ON BAR 38
EVERY FILL, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

69 bars across 7 sections: 35 keep time, 7 are fills, 1 is a stop and 22 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 14-23.

PART B
PART C
CHORUS
PART L
PART F
OUTRO
BREAK
6 groovesHS7LCB+1Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is Jesus Just Left Chicago?

120 BPM, in 6/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is Jesus Just Left Chicago hard to play on drums?

55 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 44 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

69 bars, about 3:24 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 23 exercises over 7 sittings, about 26 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

crash, ride, hi-hat, snare, high tom and kick. That is most of a full kit; the part moves around it rather than sitting in one place.

How many fills are in Jesus Just Left Chicago?

4 fills to learn, played 7 times: bars 12, 13, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 1 more.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 69 BARS ANALYSED
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