The ten greatest drummers of all time

bigjon

littlegreenman;380551" said:

Best drummer I have actually seen live would have to be Chad Wackerman.



Live with Allan Holdsworth, just over the river a few years ago. Just as good as he was with all of his Zappa stuff. Quite the rhythmic genius

I was at that gig. Great drumming, but I much prefer Gary Husband with Holdsworth. Seen him live 3 times (but never with Holdsworth) and he's definitely a contender for this list.

bigjon

A well - known drummer I would definitely include is Peter Erskine. Two obscure drummers I would include are Kaspar Rast from Nik Bartsch's Ronin and John Graham from Beehive.

strumjoughlamps

I could not leave out Levon Helm in my top 10, he would be top 5, Matt Kelly would probably make the list too

Phil_aka_Pip

the_jaffa said:

No one's mentioned one of the most influential drummers of the last 30 odd years:

Roland Trbob

Been on some massive hits over the years and always seem to keep mint time.

Al Esis Essarsix-Tene never dropped a beat neither. Good old Al.

joneve

No Jeff Porcaro so therefore the list is wrong.

Oh and my Dad should be in there too, he's pretty legit. 

koneguitarist

No Ian Paice who was the quintessential rock drummer with technique, and yet John Bonham who was just a heavy footed banger gets to no 1 what a joke.

Moon was overated, Peart was decent but come on Phil Collins in top 10 of drummers in the world?

What about DJ Fontana, Larrie Londin, or Buddy Harmon. 

koneguitarist

Almost forgot the greatest Levon Helm!

Gassage

I'm not sure many of you will know Thomas Lang- but this guy is utterly amazing- Austrian sessionista who has worked with Tina, Gabriel, Hackett, Keating and many more- utterly astonishing player

Bellycaster

Eric Delaney(deceased) and Dave Lombardo.

Clarky

koneguitarist said: but come on Phil Collins in top 10 of drummers in the world?

have you heard him playing fusion with Brand-X?

he's totally off the scale..

here's why I like him so much..

with Genesis you cannot be a shite drummer and make it stick.. the songs are to too big and tricky [early 70's especially]..

Collins made it all sound so simple.. but better than that, he plays drums the way a producer / songwriter would want them played..

he's a compositional player.. he knows when to hold back and when to get busy.. when to play light and when to get spanky..

he plays the song rather than plays along with it.. something most drummers [even good ones] fail to notice..

when he plays with Brand X it's 'gloves off'.. and he'll stand up there with Vinnie C, Dave Wekl etc

he also knows how to create a hook with drums / percussion.. which very few can do..

the opening to Dance of a Volcano, the high toms in The Eleventh Earl of Mar, the main groove in Wot Gorilla for example..

he's very smart with the time sigs too..

the song called ...In That Quiet Earth from the Wind and Wuthering album is in 3/4, what he does on occasion is to link two bars together.. this gives him effectively a single bar of 12/8 which he plays as 12/8 [compound - 4/4 with triplets] across the time.. fkn clever and sounds wonderful..

more than just being able to shred, he's clever, and most of all he's a songwriter.. 

and so he creates the drum parts from a songwriters perspective..

a seriously potent combination if you ask me..

juansolo

I may have skipped it, but I can't believe no one has mentioned the drumming machine that is Josh Freese and groove master Jean Paul from Clutch.

Also totally agree with Carey, Bonham, Copeland, Ward and Grohl. I'll also add Cozy Powell and Ian Paice. Both really distinctive

RobDavies

Lombardo was a game changer.

But I like fat drummers:

Gene Hoglan and Eric Moore.

joneve

Clarky said:

koneguitarist said: but come on Phil Collins in top 10 of drummers in the world?

have you heard him playing fusion with Brand-X?

he's totally off the scale..

here's why I like him so much..

with Genesis you cannot be a shite drummer and make it stick.. the songs are to too big and tricky [early 70's especially]..

Collins made it all sound so simple.. but better than that, he plays drums the way a producer / songwriter would want them played..

he's a compositional player.. he knows when to hold back and when to get busy.. when to play light and when to get spanky..

he plays the song rather than plays along with it.. something most drummers [even good ones] fail to notice..

when he plays with Brand X it's 'gloves off'.. and he'll stand up there with Vinnie C, Dave Wekl etc

he also knows how to create a hook with drums / percussion.. which very few can do..

the opening to Dance of a Volcano, the high toms in The Eleventh Earl of Mar, the main groove in Wot Gorilla for example..

he's very smart with the time sigs too..

the song called ...In That Quiet Earth from the Wind and Wuthering album is in 3/4, what he does on occasion is to link two bars together.. this gives him effectively a single bar of 12/8 which he plays as 12/8 [compound - 4/4 with triplets] across the time.. fkn clever and sounds wonderful..

more than just being able to shred, he's clever, and most of all he's a songwriter.. 

and so he creates the drum parts from a songwriters perspective..

a seriously potent combination if you ask me..

This. Say what you will about his questionable song-writing (I actually like some of his stuff) - his drumming ability is world class. 

FX_Munkee

Nice to see some love for Ian Paice, he's definitely in my top ten.
But, 4 pages in and no ones mentioned the drummer from Rick K and the Allnighters (sorry, don't know his name)?
C'mon guys, you're slacking.
http://youtu.be/ItZyaOlrb7E

Clarky

joneve said:

Clarky said:

koneguitarist said: but come on Phil Collins in top 10 of drummers in the world?

have you heard him playing fusion with Brand-X?

he's totally off the scale..

here's why I like him so much..

with Genesis you cannot be a shite drummer and make it stick.. the songs are to too big and tricky [early 70's especially]..

Collins made it all sound so simple.. but better than that, he plays drums the way a producer / songwriter would want them played..

he's a compositional player.. he knows when to hold back and when to get busy.. when to play light and when to get spanky..

he plays the song rather than plays along with it.. something most drummers [even good ones] fail to notice..

when he plays with Brand X it's 'gloves off'.. and he'll stand up there with Vinnie C, Dave Wekl etc

he also knows how to create a hook with drums / percussion.. which very few can do..

the opening to Dance of a Volcano, the high toms in The Eleventh Earl of Mar, the main groove in Wot Gorilla for example..

he's very smart with the time sigs too..

the song called ...In That Quiet Earth from the Wind and Wuthering album is in 3/4, what he does on occasion is to link two bars together.. this gives him effectively a single bar of 12/8 which he plays as 12/8 [compound - 4/4 with triplets] across the time.. fkn clever and sounds wonderful..

more than just being able to shred, he's clever, and most of all he's a songwriter.. 

and so he creates the drum parts from a songwriters perspective..

a seriously potent combination if you ask me..

This. Say what you will about his questionable song-writing (I actually like some of his stuff) - his drumming ability is world class. 

I think his pop writting can be a bit meh... but his proggy writing is top notch..

I think that's because he puts a little of the pop writting mentality in there.. which is quite a shrewd move I think..

mike_l

Bellycaster said:

Dave Lombardo.

Although Paul Bostaph might be a better (Ie technically better) Dave Lombardo's drumming fitted Slayer perfectly.

equalsql

koneguitarist said:

No Ian Paice who was the quintessential rock drummer with technique, and yet John Bonham who was just a heavy footed banger gets to no 1 what a joke.

Moon was overated, Peart was decent but come on Phil Collins in top 10 of drummers in the world?

What about DJ Fontana, Larrie Londin, or Buddy Harmon. 

Here's Phil playing with Brand X on Moroccan Roll... 
He's just an amazing player..  as is Percy Jones on the bass..

Phil_aka_Pip

I've got that LP. Shame my phono stage is knackered

Clarky

not sure if this fella with one of the greatest drummers of all time... but I like him a lot..

his name is Biyeff de Toux

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9104124

PolarityMan

Drew_fx said:

It's a travesty that there is not more pro shot / HQ footage of Danny playing live ...and in fact tool generally....whatever happened to that live dvd?