When Purdie wasn’t feeling a track, he let it show.

“O-o-h Child” wasn’t clicking. They were trying everything.

Purdie explains: “In the last twenty minutes of the session, Vince (Stan Vincent, writer) gave me my head. Bam! Fifteen minutes later, we have ‘O-o-h Child’. My way.”

“O-o-h Child” is Purdie’s magnum opus.

My high school jazz teacher would tell me to “drive the bus.” Purdie is driving the bus, getting directions over the phone, and sniping lollypop-sucking kid in the mirror.

He always manages to take it higher every key change, to the point of cracking every beat on the snare near the ▶end of the tune.

The transcribed↑ phrase comes in at the ▶first key change. It has that disco hi-hat with a busy snare and kick part. It’s a good starting point for getting into this song.