Walter Cronkite, Funky Drummer
If you needed another reason to feel sad about the passing of the iconic television journalist Walter Cronkite today, this video is it. John Perry Barlow tweets, "True fact: Walter Cronkite was a hot drummer. Once saw him play with Mickey Hart, Mike Gordon, & Mutatator. Kept the one." This video is proof. Cronkite appears around 1:55 in.
Previously: Walter Cronkite, RIP.


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I bet no other media outlet will have a headline like that. Thanks, BB!
Not sure what part of his "performance" makes Cronkite a hot drummer.
And like the true newsman that he is, he's whacking that drum with his microphone.
Well, he's no Feynman but gets points for participating.
The "interview" is a little condescending I thought. In the way that young people are awkward around elders. Walter was just having a little fun, and good for him.
My friend John Dierkes remembered him as a ballsy reporter in WWII London during the blitz, who was given to spontaneous song & dance performances after a few cold ones. I don't know about the quality of his hoofing, but going in on a ''suicide train'' with the Screaming Eagles at ''Operation Market Garden'' certainly validates the ''ballsy'' part of the assessment.
He was probably a bit stoned. Dunno where I read this but he had quite the romance with pot over the years (picked up the habit overseas) and was a staunch antiprohibitionist up through the 60's...
Xeni, as far as I can tell, he appears 1 minute 38 seconds in. And you could've linked right to it by including the timecode, i.e.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9dypuCEqEA#t=1m38s
It's obvious that Mr. Cronkite is being polite in the face of a patronizing interviewer.
I hope that in saying goodbye to Mr. Cronkite we are not saying goodbye to the possibility of that deep sense of integrity holding forth in our news again.
Looks to me like he was playing djun, but I couldn't pick him out of the mix, so I can't tell if he was holding down the part or not...the visual wasn't enough for me to tell.
Thank you! Bless Cronkite. My dad ran into him in a bar in the Turks & Caicos.
Princess Leia at 1:28.
don't know much bout his music talent but he was with-it during those times ... was go down n the history books as one of the greatest newscasters of all times ...
The most trusted keeper of the beat.
Yeah, what Friendpuppy said: Hot drummer?? When I saw that writeup, I was expecting a Gene-Krupa-calibre performance. Instead, he's just keeping time on a bass drum.
Hype much, Barlow, lol? I'm surprised you didn't catch that, Xeni -- or you just didn't call him on it, because it was John Perry Barlow ...
Cronkite was a legend at what he did, and a good human being on top of that. Let's not perpetuate any whoppers to confuse the issue, 'k?