positively the worst drummer?

It does sound like Lennon, but obviously he was joking. I mean, McCartney can drum but not like Ringo. And surely he wasn't referring to Pete Best or whoever they had in the Quarrymen!

 

Right. It's like John is saying he can beat Ringo at his own game - and it's double-funny because he does it by using humor, just like Ringo would do! It's classic. The ultimate touche.

 

He had a great style. Listen to his work on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, my favorite example. Rock solid, no frills. Extremely steady like someone else said about Mick Fleetwood. Someone once said you could calibrate your watch or your metronome by his timekeeping on the drums. He had the feeling and he had the sensitivity to appropriately serve the music of whatever type without calling undue attention. He has also been complimented as an "economical player" as has George Harrison on guitar.

 

Moon was just a shadow of his former self during Won't Get Fooled Again on TKAA. That was filmed in '78 and was WAY past his prime.

 

It sounds like John's type of humor, but most likely he never said it. We had a thread about this awhile ago, and no one was able to identify the source of this supposed quote.

 

Dave Holland from Judas Priest. The guy was incredibly bland after the powerful drumming of Les Binks and Simon Phillips.

 

All the more awesome in his prime then.

 

yeah mick fleetwood is one underrated drummer...!


i nominate meg white... and lars ulrich (after and justice for all he lost it...BAD) though the drumming on AJFA is quite decent

 

TOM GREEN!

hahah anyone seen the subway monkey hour dvd? awful drumming on there!

 

animal! from the muppets

 

Tommy Lee. Actually, I don't think I've ever really heard him play because all the drum bits on Motley Crue albums sound like samples.

 

There's nothing Neil Peart can do that a drum machine can't. You can't say the same thing about Keith Moon or Stewart Copeland.

 

I believe Robert Smith once said he's a better ottoman than a drummer.

you can add any speed-metal drummer to the list
I don't care how fast you drum,
if your work has no substance, just banging around I don't want to hear it.

 

I remember people said Carl Palmer couldn't keep time, with his faster-than-is-generally safe drumming, he would get ahead of himself. I thought it was pretty rich percussion on the ELP records though. I liked it. At least he was serious about improving his technique as they went along, and took some risks.

 

1. Phil Rudd - AC/DC - did he ever play a fill(phil)?
2. Larry Mullen - U2 - riding Bono and Edge's coattails for 20 years plus
3. Stumpy Pete - Spinal Tap - how many drummers have ever exploded/combusted while playing Intravenous De Milo?

 

I could never stand Karen Carpenter's drumming.

 

What he said.

 

Ringo Starr, one of the worst acts I've ever heard.

 

The posters who are slamming Tre Cool have not stated "why." That's pretty necessary...without including a reason, it appears kind of childish.

Tre is a drum hero!!! Anyone who wants to knock him I challenge you: Could you play as fast as he does, as steadily as he does...? Great beat-keeper...God, he's just amazing with the fast tempos he maintains. It's HARD to do...Geez, he must have arms of STEEL!

He's simply one of the greatest! Plus, he makes it LOOK easy, but it ain't...

 

Man I know this really isn't fair, but I've always hated Andy McCulloch's drumming on the King Crimson masterwork, Lizard. I don't remember what he sounded like with Manfred Mann or Greenslade, but on this particular album he sounded clumsy and unrefined, and way out of his element.

In McCulloch's defense, he unfortunately has to suffer comparison from the two greats he is sandwiched between: Giles and Bruford. He's not the worst drummer ever, just the worst drummer Crimson had, IMO.


***

 

Pete Best: The guy (from the admittedly crappy recordings I have heard) seemed to play the same thing in every song. Then when he gets his big chance at Abbey Road (the original Love Me Do), he blows it badly trying to get fancy. No wonder he got sacked shortly thereafter.

Nick Mason: The best parts of most Pink Floyd songs were the sections where Mason wasn't playing anything. It also seemed like the larger his drum kit became, the worse he got.

Tommy Lee: In "Tommy Goes To College", he tries to play a marching-band drum and looks like a junior high school talent show band hack.

Now, I happen to like musicians who try to play outside their normal comfort zone, or jump genres. Peter Criss and John Densmore started out as jazz-trained and so they played differently than straight-rock schooled stickmen, as did Mitch Mitchell. Densmore kept the Doors from getting too heavy, of which they proved time and again when trying to play blues covers, that they had no aptitude for that kind of stuff.

 

ALL drummers are hacks in comparasion with Jughead!

 

I recognized how important a drummer like Mick Fleetwood is at a Stevie Nicks concert. She sang her Fleetwood Mac hit, "Dreams," and her drummer didn't play Fleetwood's patterns and fills, perhaps because he was a drummer of some repute himself and didn't want to copy someone else. But without Mick Fleetwood's accents, "Dreams" was revealed as a song almost devoid of melody and hooks. Fleetwood's drumming made that song.