Richard “Pistol” Allen was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1932. Like his mentor, Benny Benjamin, he was a Jazz musician before being recruited to Motown in 1962. He started out playing in Detroit clubs during the 1950s, where he met and befriended Benny Benjamin, who introduced him to Motown in 1961. He learned from James Jamerson how to adapt his technique, having been given the advice: “They want it straight with 8th notes and a big backbeat”. Allen listened and learned. But he also added elements that were new to Motown, such as the shuffle beat that he had learned in Memphis. “He popularized playing the snare drum on all four beats (instead of only the back beats, 2 and 4), which gave a much more driving feel to the music.” (Loudlands website)
Richard “Pistol” Allen (Wikipedia)
Allen played on many of Motown’s biggest hits, including nearly all the Supremes’ recordings, as he was frequently booked for Holland-Dozier-Holland sessions. They liked his style of playing and the shuffle duly became his trademark. Allen can be heard on Martha & the Vandellas’ “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” and the Supremes’ “Baby Love”. He also played on Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”. On more than a few recordings, the Motown producers brought in an extra drummer, probably to add weight in the early sixties, but later to provide cover for Benny Benjamin, as his unreliability grew.
Allen died in Detroit on 30th June 2002, not long before the release of Al Slutsky’s film Standing In the Shadows of Motown, in which Allen plays a significant part. On the Soulful Detroit website forum for that date, Raplh Terrana shared a poignant memory of Richard Allen:
“Pistol Allen….a drummer along with Uriel on my first Motown session using the Funk Brothers. Being new, I was somewhat apprehensive when my partner Mike Valvano told me to cue Pistol at various parts of the track for fills etc. so there I stood…eye to eye with Pistol, and all through the song he smiled at me as he blew me away with what he knew how to do.”
Richard “Pistol” Allen was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame in 2010 as a member of the Funk Brothers.
