That certain kind of album famous drummers made...

For absolute dreck, Carl Palmer's PM would be very hard to beat surely?

 

This is not "that kind of album," and, if you don't think he's a famous drummer, he played with Tomorrow, Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, Pretty Things, Syd Barrett, and a host of others.

Twink - Think Pink

 

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With that logic, you could say Karen Carpenter.

 

I don't care what everyone else thinks, I love Two Sides of the Moon.

 

I write this as a massive fan, but I'm eternally grateful we've not yet had to endure a full solo album from Bev Bevan of ELO, since he clearly falls into the camp that prefers indulgent instrumental workouts to anything of real substance... To date, he's issued just one single, which was a rather pedestrian cover of Let There Be Drums (backed with the lightweight Heavy Head - the only instance of a song credited to all four core members of the group), and it's believed that the Xanadu era track Drum Dreams was built up from an outtake of his work, being very much in the same basic style. Even with Jeff Lynne producing, it seems as if Bev served best when he remained part of the ensemble, though I do like some of the songs he later co-authored with members of ELO Part II and The Orchestra, even if there's no way of knowing just how much he contributed to these. While still with The Move, I've read that Roy Wood gave Bev credit on some tracks just so that everyone would be on the same level financially as they prepared to launch ELO, so it's possible his recognition in this capacity was always more of a morale-boosting token gesture.

 

The two best examples of "solo album by a drummer in name only - he's barely even a guest on his own album" which were already mentioned upthread are:

Alan White - Ramshackled - He did drum on it - and that's about it...He called in some guys he played in a band with prior to joining Yes, and had them write, sing, and play an album for him. He was a piano player as well as a drummer (with a few Yes co-writer credits over the years) but strangely on his own album he composed nothing.

Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports - He did drum on it but that's about it....I can't think of a more fraudulently credited album. He was the most famous participant on the album (so using his name would sell more copies - especially in America) but really its a Carla Bley album since she wrote everything and played the keyboards, or a "Carla Bley & Robert Wyatt" album since he was the primary lead vocalist on it.

In both cases Yes and Pink Floyd, I wonder what fans of those bands thought of these two albums upon release.

It must have been a giant at least, if not a full on

 

I dunno, man... I thought the cover of "Not Fade Away" was inspired. And inspiring.

 

Yeah, the album isn't that bad actually. It's more the conception of Warners letting the drummer of the band go to Africa and spend a lot of money on a solo project that's amusing.

 

Wow! That's awful!

 

The discographies of Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead and Father John Misty (former drummer for Fleet Foxes) either qualify according to this thread’s wavering criteria or they don’t.

I report; you decide.

 

Different strokes for different folks, but I thought that was a horrendous album filled with self indulgence. I bought it at Goodwill and returned it.

 

My friend Paul Gurvitz produced the album and that's his amazingly talented brother on guitar.

The Gurvitz brothers also played with Ginger Baker which is how I met Paul.

 

Actually not Warners. Mick Fleetwood made a separate deal with RCA. He mentioned in his book that the original deal was for three albums, but after two low selling albums they dropped him.

 

...Yeah , you could -)!!!!!!!!!!








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With that logic, you could say Karen Carpenter.[/QUOTE]

 

What a great album. I like it even though Doug Clifford isn't fond of it.

"It's not in print, and I don't see any reason why... why it would even be relevant. When Revival broke up, we all ended up having individual contracts, so I decided to make a record and see what it was like...I think it's a terrible record. The band is good. The band is great. I had really good players on that record but I... obviously I'm not a singer. So that's not something I'm interested in."

 

Anton Fier's albums with the Golden Palominos fit all the parameters of the OP, except that they are awesome.

 

Some great posts here.
Brian Downey of Thin Lizzy did some great things with the drumming on Lizzy albums (and live), there would be 2 guitars going off, a bass line mixing it up or holding steady and Brian was in there shuffling or hitting some drum riffs making it very interesting and holding it all together and in a style of his own. One of the very underrated drummers in rock.

 

Oh man, the other day I spun Peter Criss' 78 solo album AND Mick Fleetwood's "solo" album and I thought about making a thread about the different types of drummer solo albums. Ringo/Peter Criss/Doug Clifford can write songs (somewhat) and sing (only Criss is a good singer, per se), and drum on most or all of their albums. For what it's worth, all three of those guys wrote and sang lead with their parent bands prior to the solo stuff.

Then you have albums like Mick Fleetwood's The Visitor, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, and Alan White's Ramshackeled where they write 0% of the material and don't sing. In all 3 cases it seems like the drummer was the biggest name on the LP and was given a band to drum in and got his name on the cover for commercial reasons. I know Nick Mason sung at least one jokey Pink Floyd song where he sounded like Keith Moon screeching out goofy stuff, so meh. Alan White has been listed as a writer on songs and he's credited with vocals on some YES albums (as well as Ramshackled, I think?) but I have no idea what his voice sounds like and I don't think I've ever seen him sing.

Anyways, Ramshackled seems like the most "I'm just the drummer" of the drummer solo albums. On a side note, I really enjoy both of the Graeme Edge band albums, but Edge writes songs on both of them and he provides some vocals but he likes to be back in the mix. That makes those albums halfway between the Ringo/Criss style and the Fleetwood/White style. Fascinating, eh?

 

Always loved Ginger Baker's Air Force.

 

Moe Tucker released quite a few records. They are all quite good, standing tall amongst other post-Velvets work.
Everyone should own this:

 

This is a fantastic album. The only bad part is when he sings, but thankfully that's confined to one song.

 

Yes, I like his instrumental much better than the vocal.

 

My social crowd and I loved them for the most part.

Maybe I'm weird/have weird friends/had unusual experiences, but it wasn't until I started using the Internet a lot that I realized that there were so many curmudgeonly wannabe critics in the world. We didn't love everything equally, but we always tried to appreciate things for what they were, we always focused on positives, etc.

 

The first time I saw The Security Project, Jerry Marotta sang one song, Back In New York City. That was... regrettable.

 

King Crimson drummer Michael Giles recorded "Progress" in 1978 (released in 2002).

Renaissance drummer Terry Sullivan released "South of Winter" in 2004. It's credited to "Renaissant" but it's mostly Terry and his wife and two kids.

Gong drummer Pierre Moerlen took over the band when Daevid Allen stepped aside. It was even called "Pierre Moerlen's Gong".