Monday, December 15, 2008

Joe's Top 22 Drummers

  1. Neil Peart
  2. Stewart Copeland
  3. John Bonham
  4. Danny Carey
  5. Bill Bruford
  6. Mike Giles
  7. Gene Krupa (...and he was Polish!)
  8. Terry Bozzio
  9. Chad Sexton
  10. Carl Palmer
  11. John Dolmayan
  12. Tim Alexander
  13. Alan White
  14. John Densmore
  15. Stephen Perkins
  16. Keith Moon
  17. Anton Fig
  18. Tre Cool
  19. Dave Hartman
  20. Dave Grohl
  21. Matt Cameron
  22. Alex Van Halen
And almost made the list:
Chic Corea but he's a Scientologist, so he falls off.
Buddy Rich, because he personally was an asshole to me at River Oaks in 1985 when he played a free concert there
Aynsley Dunbar; yes he played for Zappa, but he also played for Whitesnake, Hagar, and others of less than stellar repute.

I've amended the list, due to vocal criticism, but I shall have to endure the fatwa.

7 comments:

  1. I'll venture to guess that Pantera isn't your style of music, but Vinnie Paul always blew my mind...

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  2. no Roger Meddows-Taylor? even on the "almost made" list?

    i declare a fatwa on your list.

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  3. In my perspective, Pantera is good when I'm
    - driving late at night and need to stay awake
    - hate the world and want to tune everything out
    - feeling adrenal insufficiency
    When I used to have a pony tail that went almost down to my ass, I'd enjoy listening to Pantera while drinking. Vinnie is good, and he's fast, and has 32nd note stamina.

    Roger Taylor's played with Queen & Clapton, and he's good and stable and can keep a beat - which are pre-requisites for being in a sustainable band, and I DID consider putting him on the list last night, but could not think of a single Queen song where The Drums WOWed me. I went through I, II, Opera, Races, Game, & Gordon, and nothing LEAPED out at me. I will have to endure the fatwa.

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  4. I'd heard that Buddy Rich and his Big Band were playing at the open air River Oaks Mall. So I took my first Drum Rudiments book I'd gotten at OLG in 4th grade, a pen, and my naive hopes of getting my first celebrity autograph, or at least just seeing, up close, the man who in my head, was a drumming legend. I got there an hour before show time, and waited beside his tour bus. There was no tape or crowd barriers or security. A 1/2 of dozen other fans, ages ranging from High School to retiree stood there as well. We all waited patiently, politely, hopefully.
    Showtime arrived, and Rich disembarks from his bus before his band, and literally SHOVES the first fan out of the way, who was not blocking him, he was just being sycophantic. I was standing 2 persons back, and the first fan's trajectory sent him back beside me. Rich angrily shouted the phrase "Get the f*ck out of my way" and un-apologetically plowed towards the stage at the center of the mall courtyard, disregarding everyone along the way.
    I listened to the concert, with a new perspective - yeah, the guy could do a one handed roll, and his stick control, technique, speed, and creativity was phenomenal, but as a courteous human being, he was a complete failure. A little bit of civility goes a long way, in my perspective.
    He died 2 years later, and I didn't mourn his passing. Roll for roll, rhythm for rhythm, Krupa was a much better drummer.

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  5. After speaking to Garvey P this morning, I need to change #22 to Sammy J Watson from Apex Theory
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Helium)

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  6. I also need to move Neil from 1 to 4, Replace him with Danny, and then switch #3 and #5. And that would be a better alignment with reality... IMHO.

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