My brother is a former club-circuit drummer-for-hire. Once, when watching the “Closet Classic” footage of the Eagles performing Hotel California, and noting Don Henley’s performance of that song behind the drums, my brother commented that singing lead while drumming was one of the hardest thing a musician can attempt.
Besides Henley, I can only think of Phil Collins as a drummer who, at one time or another, sang lead while drumming. So, drummers - does the rarity of this skills combo in the pop-rock world accurately reflect the difficulty of singing while drumming?
I’m not a drummer–I’m a guitar player (and not a very good one at that)–but I’d tend to agree that drumming and singing is very difficult.
But mainly, I just thought I’d mention that before Soundgarden got big, Chris Cornell played the drums and sang. But then I think Chris Cornell is one of the most talented people in music today.
Terry Bozzio plays drums and sings lead vocals on many Frank Zappa songs. Lead vocals, drums on Punky’s Whips and Wind Up Working In A Gas Station. Both are live songs.
I know of quite a few small time bands that feature lead singers/drummers. While that has got to be a hard thing to do, I don’t think that the difficuly factor is why we don’t see more band doing this.
Lead singer/drummers don’t make that good of a show. They don’t gytate, they don’t throw their beer on the audience, they don’t bite the heads off bats, that just sit there and drum. Audiences demand to be entertained by the lead singer’s antics, and it is hard to do so when you are stuck behind a drum set.
On local Santa Cruz band, the Sneaky Creekans, fixed that by having to really ugly guys jump around and act like idiots to entertain the audience while they play. Somehow I just don’t think that would go over in the mainstream.
I agree with even sven - the seeming lack of drumming lead singers is more due to the lack of entertainment value - even Dave Grohl moved to guitar when he formed the Foo Fighters.
Havning said that, singing while doing something rhythmically complex is difficult on any instrument. I play guitar and have been in a lot of bands - if I am playing standard rock stuff, it’s no big deal to sing. But a number of songs with complex guitar can be tough, especially when I am the only guitarist. The riff from “Message in a Bottle” can be tough (for that matter, try singing while playing the riff from "Every Breath you Take - not easy!); “Pride and Joy” (if you are playing it correctly) by SRV can be tough. Even “Fools in Love” off Joe Jackson’s old “Look Sharp” album is tough, especially if you don’t normally play reggae…
What’s interesting with all of these songs, though, is once you get in “the zone” with them, it becomes much more straightforward to sing and play them. The only issue is if something distracts you and throws you out of sync - getting back in is harder than it looks!
Last drummer I played with had enough difficulty drumming while he was drumming. Every time we went from a chorus to a verse (any song) he’d lose about 3/4 bpm. Got to the point where we wondered if we’d ever even finish some songs, and we dropped the medleys pretty quick. Actually we dropped him pretty quick too, IIRC.
Though Phil Collins played drums and sang on most of Genesis’ recordings, he almost never played drums on stage. Genesis usually hired a drummer to tour with them (Bill Bruford was one, Chester Thompson was another), so that Collins could move about the stage, cracking jokes, and perfecting his Steve Martinish, lounge-lizard routine.
Other guys who played the drums and sang lead simultaneously: Levon Helm of the Band, Don Brewer of Grand Funk, and the guy from Triumph (whose name escapes me).
In one of my old bands, we worked with two different drummers, both of whom were capable of singing lead while drumming. Both did a pretty good job, but the second one was better than the guy he replaced. Both also sang harmony vocals when someone else was singing lead.
I often have trouble playing the bass and singing lead, depending on how syncopated the bass line I’m lpaying is in relationship to the vocal line. Some songs, no problem; others, I may as well be trying to juggle chainsaws. In another band, whenever I had to sing lead on a song, I switched instruments with our rhythm guitar player and let him play bass.
Astorian beat me to Levon Helm (otherwise known as the most soulful drummer in rock), but I’d just like to mention that he is very entertaining to watch as well as listen to. If you’ve ever seen him singing “Ophelia” from The Last Waltz, you’d know what I’m talking about. And he never threw a beer at anyone even once.
I used to sing lead and play drums. Not for the whole gig, just for several songs. I had been doing it since day one, so it was second nature. I enjoyed it and got to belt out my favorite songs. It’s good to give the REAL singer a break every now and then. I certainly couldn’t carry a whole show.
Later on I started playing bass guitar. It was a real struggle to sing while playing bass, much harder than singing with guitar or drums.
Nowadays people I play with who can sing can really sing so I’d just be embarassing myself if I tried.
I have to agree with even sven that once you get into the upper strata of the pop/rock world, putting on a good visual show is key and lead-singing drummers just don’t cut it. Lots of drummers sing harmony though, so it’s not a skill set that’s particularly rare. I’d classify it as untapped.
There are really only two kinds of people in the world: musicians and drummers.
[/Joke]
If you saw someone playing drums and singing lead at the same time and doing both well, you saw a musician.
If not, well… you can figure out the rest.
(Please don’t anyone be offended by the above, it’s a little game I play with my drummer friends, who of course harbor similar feelings about horn players.)
And don’t forget Andy Sturmer from Jellyfish!
Didn’t he have a kit that allowed him to stand upright while playing? Wonder if that made singing any easier or not.
Karen Carpenter was the drummer for the Carpenters, and spent much of their early years singing lead while drumming, primarily because she didn’t want people to see how fat she thought she was by fronting the group. Then again, the drumming was hardly of the most challenging variety.
Hey, don’t forget Peter Criss, who sang lead on a couple of Kiss songs while drumming.
Yes, it must be hard, but with practice it shouldn’t be too tough to get the hang of it (if you are an accomplished drummer, that is). Singers frequently clap their hands (to keep the rhythm) while they are singing; drumming, while admittedly more complex than clapping, isn’t all that dramatically different.
As dated as the reference will make me, the drummer of Night Ranger sang lead on a few songs, including their big hit Sister Christian. After admitting that I know that, I’m motorin…