Not so much rock, but the best drummer I have ever seen live is Mitch Marine. I wonder what he is up to these days.
Ringo Starr fans: could you point me to some of his work that you consider great? I admit I haven’t listened to the Lads in ages, but his drumming never impressed me all that much.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
Now that I’ve heard a little, I wanted to expound about my selections:
- John Bonham - In my opinion, the best blues-based rock drummer ever. Master of the groove, and master of technique. His rhythms have a soulful, bluesy swagger, and he’s very creative and unexpected. The quintessential “back of the beat” drummer. Just listen to the drums-only track of “Fool in the Rain” and listen to the rock-steady, powerful shuffle. Few rock drummer can swing like that and hold the groove. It’s not wonder he’s been one of the most sampled drummers in hip-hop. The boy has soul. His drumming oozes it. How many drummers can hold a boring beat like “Kashmir” and make it work, make it shake? Bonham can.
That, and I’m impressed by his use of unexpected accents, ghost notes, and perhaps the fasted right foot in the business. Guy did things with one foot many drummers with two couldn’t do. Listen to the triplet stutters in “Good Times Bad Times” (“Now that I’ve reached that age…”) How many drummers have the imagination or technique to pull that off, much less in their opening track on their band’s first album? What a way to say "Hello world!“
[/QUOTE]
When you speak of “swing” and “groove” and “back of the beat,” you are speaking to musical limitations. When we compare Bonham and Moon, we are talking about a tennis player who plays superbly with the net in place, and one who acts as if the net never existed. That’s what we’re talking about. I’ll take Moon.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
2) Stewart Copeland. If Bonham is the quintessential “back of the beat” drummer, than Copeland is your “front of the beat drummer.” Master of the high hat and infusing Carribean rhythms with rock music. Great energy–his tendency to drum on the front of the beat propels songs with a manic energy. Like Bonham, he’s got great dynamics and subtlety, even when he’s beating the crap out of his drum set.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, I should have included Copeland in my top 10. Without him, The Police would’ve sounded like the pretentious pricks they all are.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
3) Matt Cameron - My favorite current rock drummer. I’m not a huge fan of Soundgarden, I don’t really listen to Pearl Jam, but Matt Cameron is my man. He is a completely musical drummer. His parts rock hard, but have subtelty and groove (can you detect a pattern here?) He never overplays–always gives the song exactly what it needs while keeping rhythmic interest. And he can groove.
[/QUOTE]
Never ‘eard of ‘im, though I saw Soundgarden on Letterman a few years ago. The drummer didn’t grab me.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
4) Ringo Starr - Some say he wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles. Bah humbug! This is probably my ultimate musical, don’t-overplay drummer. He’s not as flashy as the other guys and doesn’t quite groove in the same way. But he’s original and musical. No drummer sounds like Ringo. His drum parts are fun and charasmatic, and he doesn’t just hit the snare on 2 & 4 like every other drummer these days does. He very rarely, if ever, fell into cliche and his rhythmic parts still sound fresh today.
[/QUOTE]
Every band wants a drummer that plays like Ringo, and still advertises for it, too, to this day. Good choice.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
5) Neil Peart - Once upon a time, I would have ranked him much, much lower. I was convinced he was the typical pyrotechnic, all-technique, no soul drummer, like perhaps the Yngwie Malmsteen of percussionists. However, I would be wrong. Neil grooves fine, and he’s done much to bring virtuosity to the instrument without sacrificing the fundamental purpose of drumming (at least for me): to hold all the instruments together and provide the backbone of a song. Sure, he’s fast, but who gives a shit? Speed is not technically impressive to me. Anyone can build up speed. Rhythm is, and Peart’s got rhythm, style, and performs exactly what is needed of him in Rush.
[/QUOTE]
That wiggly little pony tail of his in the 1980’s always bothered me. What was Peart trying to prove? “I can look like a fag and not be a fag! See? I’m trendy!” I hated that. Reminded me too much of Marin and Sonoma County asswipes attempting to do the same.
Moon never would’ve done that, even if he had lived past 1978.
This said, Peart just took it too easy on too many Rush numbers to be taken seriously as a great drummer. He even took it easy on numbers he wrote himself. Prick. Moon never did that, and he wrote (and sang on) some of the shittiest numbers The Who ever played.
[QUOTE=Nothing Special]
Never ‘eard of ‘im, though I saw Soundgarden on Letterman a few years ago. The drummer didn’t grab me.
[/QUOTE]
As for Moon, we just have a fundamental difference in what we perceive the role of drums to be in a band. I think Keith Moon only works well in the context of The Who, but works well enough and is original enough to put him at #6 on my list. Any other band, and it’s a train wreck. Then again, that’s part of the charm, ain’t it? And he embodied the spirit of rock and roll better than any drummer before or since.
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth]
Ringo Starr fans: could you point me to some of his work that you consider great? I admit I haven’t listened to the Lads in ages, but his drumming never impressed me all that much.
[/QUOTE]
I’d point to “Rain”, “She Said She Said”, “A Day In The Life”, “Ticket To Ride” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” to emphasize his particular style; while not technically brilliant (I don’t think even hardcore Ringo fans are going to put that forward as his strong point), they illustrate that he was playing drums for rock/pop music in a way that hadn’t been done before - listen to the drums on pre-Beatles rock and pop songs, and it’s easy to see what he contributed. Most of all, though, I think Ringo’s work served the songs better than almost any other drummer ever; compare him with Pete Best and you can see how integral a part of their songwriting he was. Sure, plenty of drummers could have done fills that would have sounded more flashy or technically impressive, but I can’t think of any that had such an intuitive understanding of exactly what was needed to make a song perfect and adding precisely that - no more and no less.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
A little about Matt Cameron.
[/QUOTE]
I’m a Soundgarden fan, so I’m not exactly objective - but I’d say he has two major things in his favor: stylistically, the band covered a pretty large amount of ground (they started off heavily grounded in punk and metal, and incorporated more psychedelic elements in their later years), and Cameron had to deal with some weird time signatures and things while still playing with authority.
Weird time signatures are overrated and less mysterious than they seem. Any decent musician should be able to feel them after taking the time to get used to them, especially a drummer. They really aren’t as difficult as people give them credit to being. I’m not a good drummer and I can play a 15/8 line without any effort on the traps. It’s about feeling the rhythm, not counting it. 'Course, can I play it with the authority and musicality of Matt? Of course not. But I think all decent drummers should be able to play outside of 4/4 if they need to. I mean, their instrument is all about rhythm and time.
However, I came to Matt Cameron via, believe it or not, the Matt Cam on those Pearl Jam DVDs. My brother is a big Pearl Jam fan and I wandered across the room one day when he was watching one of his DVDs. I stopped in my tracks and said, Whoa…who’s the drummer, he’s pretty damn good, only to find out it was Matt Cameron of Soundgarden. There was something about the musicality and lyrical quality of his drumming that made me pause and listen–the phrasing. That’s what it was. The phrasing of his drum lines is what grabbed. After that I paid much closer attention to his drumming and found out subsequently that he is, indeed, praised highly by his peers. If I were starting a rock band today, he’s the guy I’d want behind the kit.