Instrumentation part one: the Drummers
In the next handful of posts i will be writing about the basic elements of these awesome rock bands. Here on Earth we have fire and water and wind; in the rock world you have guitars, drums, and keyboards. Most times you can measure the greatness of a band by the sheer power that the members can create from their instruments. Which bands have the best at their respective positions? We will be taking a closer look to see. For a start, we will look at the loudest, most pure rock instrument of them all, the drums.
British drummers.
I feel i must begin with the best, and the best is(was) Keith Moon “the Loon” from the Who. No drummer since or after can quite match the skills that Moon had. Shear power and reckless abandonment sums him up the best. Moon played the drums the way he lived his life, hard and fast. His love of pure R&B music mixed with the mid-60′s surf rock , made-up his awesome sound. One gig the Who played in Texas during 1973, Moon the Loon took horse tranquilizers in order to be properly high for that nights performance. Before the first song was done, Moon passed out and could no longer play the drums for the rest of the show. That was Keith Moon. Second to the master was a fellow rock drummer who was actually a good friend. Led Zeppilens’ John “Bonzo” Bodham. Bonzo had a very similar style to Moon, hard, fast, and ferocious. Bonzo may not have hit as many toms that Moon could, however Bonzo could beat the drum kit a lot harder than Moon. In the world of rock drumming, that is a must-have skill to master, and Bonzo was the best. The sad fact about both these drummers is that they died at the age of 32, way to young in life, but legends in the rock world. Next we have Nick Mason, the drummer of Pink Floyd. A very good drummer that knew how to play well and technically sound. Mason was the opposite of Moon and Bonzo, he was not flashy, he didn’t even have a nick name. When the Floyd played live however, he never skipped a beat. Mason is the only member of Pink Floyd to be incorporated into every lineup the band ever had. From the early years till today. Lastly for the British side we have the one and only Ringo Starr, from the Beatles. Ringo was cool before anyone even knew what that word meant. He was the first drummer to have a cool nick name(his real name is Richard Starkey). He was the first to have a prominent part in his group, outside of drumming. He wrote songs for his band and he sang songs for his band. He was the first drummer to use a double kick drum pedal. His offspring, Zac Starkey, now drums for the Who. A very worthy replacement for Moon. Ringo has done it all.
These 4 men have played on hundreds and hundreds of classic rock records for nearly the past 50 years. In the next post we will see if the 4 American drummers can keep up with the British.
