10 best rock drummers?

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DimChandeliers

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This has prolly been doen here before but with all the attention Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists got, I figured....
Let's stick to rock, cause adding those jazz/fusion dudes will mess it up. Let's see if I can come up with ten...

In no particular order:

John Bonham
Keith Moon
Bill Bruford
Neal Pert
Phil Collins
Ed Cass Cassidy
Lars Metallica Dude
Dave Grohl
Stewart Copeland
Mel Gaynor (Simple Minds)

hmmm.... the most influential over the last twenty years is probably the guy from Joy Division. Everyone copied his style, especially Larry Mullen.
 
DimChandeliers said:
This has prolly been doen here before but with all the attention Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists got, I figured....
Let's stick to rock, cause adding those jazz/fusion dudes will mess it up. Let's see if I can come up with ten...

In no particular order:

John Bonham
Keith Moon
Bill Bruford
Neal Pert
Phil Collins
Ed Cass Cassidy
Lars Metallica Dude
Dave Grohl
Stewart Copeland
Mel Gaynor (Simple Minds)

hmmm.... the most influential over the last twenty years is probably the guy from Joy Division. Everyone copied his style, especially Larry Mullen.
Click to expand...

I hate lists like this because I'm not really sure what they're all about. What do you mean by best? Best technique? Best musicianship? Serving the music?
I would certainly argue with a couple on your list, but then I'm sure others would argue with the merits of drummers that I admire.
I'll agree with the guy that mentioned Carey. He certainly does some interesting things.

John Bonham
Keith Moon
These guys are No-brainers". It would be a sacriledge to do a list of great rock drummers and not include them. The same can be said of:
Neil Peart
and even
Phil Collins
from when he used to be a full time drummer.
How about:
Mitch Mitchell?
or even
Ginger Baker? (okay I know all of the Ginger Baker jokes, but he helped revolutionize rock drumming and with Keith Moon was one of the first to work with the expanded set.)
Among some of the newer drumming stars you have to mention:

Cindy Blackman
Dennis Chambers
Carter Beauford
John Blackwell

Where does Fusion fit into this?
How about:
Billy Cobham?
and Dave Weckl. (People will call him a jazz drummer, but he plays Fusion in a Rock style)

Carl Palmer? (I never liked his style of drumming, but damn, he is good.)

Where do Steve Gadd and Vinnie Colliauto fit into this? Are they rock or jazz drummers, they do both.

All of the drummers that I mentioned above leave people like Lars Ulrich, Stewart Copeland and Dave Grohl in the dust. Not that they are bad drummers, they're just not in the same league.

Poor Ringo Starr is one of the most under-rated rock drummers of all time. He never did anything flashy, but he also never did anything wrong.

BTW my list of favorite drummers is quite large and includes many great jazz drummers and ethnic hand drummers that wouldn't fit style wise into this list.
 
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Re: Re: 10 best rock drummers?

Rimshot said:

Poor Ringo Starr is one of the most under-rated rock drummers of all time. He never did anything flashy, but he also never did anything wrong.
Click to expand...

amen to that brother.
 
Love him or hate him Ringo was a quarter of the Beatles sound
and while perhaps not an exhibition in over the top technique, his style gave the songs room to breath and IMO is an underrated master at the art of knowing what NOT to play in pop music of the 1960's.


:)
 
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BillyFurnett said:
Ringo was a quarter of the Beatles sound
Click to expand...

preach it brother! imagine the beatles with Neil Peart behind the kit.
 
What was the deal with the Beatles using another drummer in the studio? How much of it was not Ringo? Did the studio cat write and play, or just play what Ringo had written?
RF
 
Terry Bazzio (Probably spelled wrong but great drummer
and right on for the ringo comments.
 
Oh yeah! Here's my top ten:

Neil Peart (duh)
Steve Smith -Journey years
Bonham
Moon
Mitch Mitchell
Rod Morgenstein- Dixie Dregs
Scott Travis - Racer-X
Tommy Aldridge
Danny Carey
Dave Weckyl- his "heavy" stuff
RF
 
quote:

" What was the deal with the Beatles using another drummer in the studio? How much of it was not Ringo?..."

Rushfan33
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I may be way way wrong, but I think that only happened once or twice at George Martins request. One of the songs (I believe) is "Love me do", but there were two versions recorded. (IF I'm not mistaken) one version has tamborine which isn't Ringo and the other without tamborine IS Ringo.

If someone here knows the facts and can clarify that'd be great.

(Hey Erichenryus, just imagine Rush with Ringo! Yikes! LOL)

:)
 
Danny Carey - Tool
Charlie Benante - Anthrax
John Bonham - Zeppelin
Nick Menza - Megadeth
Akira Jimbo
Jimmy Chamberlin - Smashing Pumpkins
Stuart Copeland - Police
Tim Alexander - Primus
Igor Cavelera - Sepultura
Dave Lombardo - Slayer/ Grip Inc.
 
Carter Beauford
Dennis Chambers
Stuart Copeland
Dave Weckyl
John Fishman

That's about all I really care about in all honesty
 
Here's my take on Ringo.

It's popular for musicians to say Ringo is underrated. The truth is-
Ringo sucked. They always had to fill out the beat with tambourines and shakers cause Ringo couldn't play those 16th or 32nd hi hats. The proof is in some of the session tracks on the Anthology LP.
 
Ouch!

That's gonna leave a mark! LOL

I'll be the first to agree that Ringo's playing wasn't a showcase of technique, but I don't think he sucked either. (IMO He just did his job and played for the song like Charlie Watts still does.)

When considering the "Proof" to be found on Anthology it shouldn't be overlooked that Anthology was in fact culled in part from studio out takes which in most cases are going to be nothing more than evidence of multiple takes, examples of slightly different arrangements, Songs being developed with tape rolling AND good old fashioned mistakes by one or all involved.

(Just about any band making records for a living is likely to have out takes of far less than stellar attempts.)

It's very possible that Ringo hit the ceiling of his ability a few times and simply may not have been able to play everything like a session drummer or the way George Martin helped them envision the songs (I could very well be wrong).., but I don't think there is much of anything on a Beatles record (Like tamborine or shakers) that they HAD TO put there if it wasn't what they were looking for to help strenghten and push the songs over the top.
Considering they were in the position and had the abilty (Not to mention the pressure) to continuously reinvent the cutting edge in pop music, I wouldn't say ANY of them sucked even if they had to bring in "Specialists" to get things done from time to time. Paul certainly didn't suck at song writing when Phil Spector felt they had to bring in a string section. (Even if Paul technically couldn't compose or play the string arangement, it in no way means he sucked at song writing.)

But no matter.. At the the end of the day it all comes down (For the most part) to personal opinion anyway and I accept and respect your opinions and take on it Dim.


:)
 
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DimChandeliers said:
Here's my take on Ringo.

It's popular for musicians to say Ringo is underrated. The truth is-
Ringo sucked. They always had to fill out the beat with tambourines and shakers cause Ringo couldn't play those 16th or 32nd hi hats. The proof is in some of the session tracks on the Anthology LP.
Click to expand...

Okay, fair enough. You don't
like Ringo Starr's drumming because your criteria for a good drummer is fast flashy technique.
I find it curious then that your list included Dave Grohl, Stewart Copeland and Lars Ullrich. Each of those are adequate dummers, but very average and run of the mill drummers, nothing special.

Ringo's drumming served the music. The Beatles songs were not venues for percussion virtuousity. All that was required was a steady downbeat and if there were breaks, they were going to be filled by Paul or John, leaving poor George and Ringo as accompanyists. In that role, Ringo excelled and he never missed a beat. He is certainly not one of my favorite drummers, but you have to give him props and respect him for what he did.
 
i don't even know the names of ten drummers! i always look on cd credits to see who's playing drums but i never remember afterwards.

these 'who's the best' are fun threads to read and stir up arguments in though. :0 Ringo is the greatest drummer of all time!

I did see Dave Weckyl play once. That I'll never forget. I don't think he's a rock drummer though.

Oh, and when I was a wee lad I saw Buddy Rich play a one handed drum roll. That also left an impression.

I can't remember the music that either were playing so the context is gone but both really impressed me.
 
Yeah, the whole "Greatest" list thing just doesn't work out, BUT it's fun. I'm sure my personal top ten would be pretty typical and as much as I DO like Ringo.... He's just not checking in at #1.

:)
 
Carter Beauford is my 'favorite' drummer, I'm not sure if he's tope 10 all time, but he's pretty definitely #1 of today for rock

Eric
 
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