Posted on 02/10/2011 9:55:55 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
Last weekend we asked our readers to name the greatest drummers of all time. Everybody from Eric Carr to Animal from The Muppets got votes, but Led Zeppelin's John Bonham led the list by a significant margin.
1. John Bonham - Led Zeppelin 2. Keith Moon - The Who 3. Neil Peart - Rush 4. Dave Grohl - Nirvana/Foo Fighters 5. Ringo Starr - The Beatles 6. Buddy Rich 7. Stewart Copeland - The Police 8. ?uestlove - The Roots 9. Ginger Baker - Cream 10. Michael Shrieve - Santana/Sammy Hagar
1. Pappa Joe Jones. 2. Joe Morello
...and many more
"He's one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early '80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called "Mo 'N Herb's Vacation." Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like "The Black Page" except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there. Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like "The Black Page." And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of rototoms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar. It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing."
Are these the same people who vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
If so, it is no wonder.
I always thought Neil Pert was better than Bonham. I have not heard of many of the others, and will yield to your selection. I do have a whole new selection of people I want to hear.
Speaking of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or what ever other list they want to throw out, since there is no “real” Rock bands left, when are they going to stop inducting bands?
Dunbar is a monster.
Buddy Rich. And then everyone else.
They’ll never run out of rappers and crappy pop music stars to induct.
Phil Collins was a very good drummer. Early Genesis and jazz fusion with Brand X.
>10. Vinnie Paul
Thanks bud for naming him in the top 10. I learned the double bass just by listening to Cowboys from Hell. RIP Dimebag.
Still remembered going to a White Zombie and Pantera double show and Phil Anselmo til the 20th song still sounded the gnarly same while Rob lost his signature voice on the 5th.
Jack DeJohnette should be there somewhere.
Finally, Freepers I can relate to!
What do you think of Jack Dejohnette? (sp?) Way back when, we thought he was God. Not so sure now. I recall thinking he was "soft in the middle", from over-extending his attention.
Also, shouldn't we bring Tito Puente into the mix?
Moonie is probably the drummer I enjoy hearing the most, nobody made order out of chaos like he could, I still don’t know how he did it, he could never be duplicated.
He reminds me somewhat of Andy Kaufman.
toche
I’m on a Latin kick atm,
Tito Puente should be on that list.
Hell, Jason Bonham is a better drummer than Ringo....
And one guy currently in his prime and destined for greatness, Stanton Moore of Galatic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6g32SElGkg
Galatic plays lots of cheesy jam music, Moore has a much larger skillset than he uses with that group.
One drummer I really liked but who fell off the face of the Earth in 80s was XTC’s Terry Chambers, really added a lot of snap to their early albums, he was definitely missed after he left.
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