This question was posed this morning on Facebook by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. I personally have no idea, but figured some of you might have some answers:
"JF here with a question for the tmbg fb musos--I was listening to a "best of 1970" broadcast this morning and it included John Lennon's Instant Karma. It dawned on me that the drum beat--played by Alan White (later of the band Yes) in Feb. 1970 might be the first example of the "glam beat" in a pop song (a chugging shuffle groove heavy with flams with loud hand claps on the back beat) Can anyone think of an EARLIER example? I see it pre-dates T. Rex entirely, and no other earlier examples come to mind… did Alan White create the template that was soon to dominate the UK charts?"
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