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Who's the best drummer?


Umma

Who's the best drummer?  

53 members have voted

  1. 1. Who's the best drummer?

    • Neil Peart
      9
    • Roger Taylor
      3
    • Bill Bruford
      1
    • John Bonham
      5
    • Keith Moon
      6
    • Ginger Baker
      4
    • Mitch Mitchell
      1
    • Dave Grohl
      5
    • Alan White
      1
    • Phil Collins
      1
    • Alex Van Halen
      3
    • Mick Fleetwood
      1
    • Animal from the muppets
      10
    • Danny Carey
      2
    • Charlie Watts
      0
    • Rick Allen
      1


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ginger baker of course....

" Ginger Baker was rock's first superstar drummer and the most influential percussionist of the 1960s. There were other drummers who were well-known to the public before him, including the Beatles' Ringo Starr and, in England at the end of the 1950s, the Shadows' Tony Meehan, but they were famous primarily for the groups in which they played and for attributes beyond their musicianship. Baker made his name entirely on his playing, initially as showcased in Cream, but far transcending even that trio's relatively brief existence. Though he only cut top-selling records for a period of about three years at the end of the 1960s, virtually every drummer of every heavy metal band that has followed since that time has sought to emulate some aspect of Baker's playing. "

_____________________________________________________________

Ginger Baker was born Peter Edward Baker in Lewisham, South London on 19 August 1939. As a teen, he trained and competed as a racing cyclist, developing strong leg muscles which later contributed to his skill on the double bass drums. Ginger had always planned on becoming a professional cyclist, until he bought his first drum kit at the age of 15. Baker was keenly interested in modern art and jazz, a rebellious beatnik with an eccentric appearance and artistic flair. Later, he would become interested in sculpture, painting, rally diving and polo. It was his wide range of interests which led Ginger to take up the trumpet in the local Air Training Corp band. Watching the drummer gave Ginger the idea of playing drums himself.

Ginger recalls his first experience on drums: "I had been into drums from a listening point of view for quite a time. I used to bang on the table with knives and forks and drive everybody mad. I used to get the kids at school dancing by banging rhythms on the school desk! They kept on at me to sit in with this band. The band wasn't very keen, but in the end I sat in and played the bollocks off their drummer. And that was the first time I'd sat on a kit. I heard one of the band turn round and say: 'Christ, we've got a drummer' and I thought, 'Hello, this is something I can do'."

After playing for only a few months, Ginger got a job with a local trad jazz band led by Bob Wallis. At the age of 16, he quit his job, left home, and spent a year on the road. After some time, Ginger got fed up with his kit. With his characteristic achiever's attitude, he decided to make his own: "I got this great idea for using Perspex," recalls Ginger. "It was like wood to work on, but it was smooth, and it would save painting the inside of the drum shell with gloss paint. So I bent the shells and shaped them over a gas stove." Ginger made the kit in 1961 and used it until 1966, when he bought his first Ludwig set. Sadly, it was this home-made set that Jack Bruce would demolish with his upright bass in an on-stage brawl with Baker during the Graham Bond days. Bruce later recalled that the kit sounded spectacular -- like no other kit he'd heard before.

Listening to records, Ginger absorbed the playing of Baby Dodds and Alton Red. Then he discovered Max Roach. Applying Roach's technique, Ginger's wild and unconventional playing got him fired from a few bands, but ultimately it would develop into the rhythmic genius that would astound drummers around the world. Moving on to London's West End, he got another band job: "I got a reading gig, and I couldn't read. I had to learn to read music in a fortnight, to get the gig. It took me a week to find out what a repeat sign meant. I couldn't figure out why I was getting to the end of a part and the band was still playing!"

During the early 1960s, Ginger played in many jazz ensembles, striving to become a part of London's modern jazz circuit. His passionate and unconventional style, not to mention his short temper, were considered too disturbing. Says Ginger, "In those days I played like a madman and got emotionally involved with the music. Some people don't like that. They feel they are losing control of the band. A lot of drummers played what they heard on record. I was always playing myself. I had influences, obviously, but when I was playing modern jazz I was always accused of being a rock'n'roller because I need to lay down an off-beat. But then, so did Art Blakey. They didn't like this loud drummer playing off-beats, and getting the audience clapping their hands, and dancing about. That was most uncalled for. You were supposed to sit up and listen and drink your drink. But I never considered myself a rock'n'roller, I was always a jazzer."

In 1962, Ginger entered the R&B scene, joining Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated in August of that year, taking over as drummer on the recommendation of Charlie Watts. One night, the late great modern jazz drummer Phil Seamen came to hear Ginger. They later practised and talked together. "Phil heard me play in the All-Niter Club which used to be the Flamingo on Wardour Street," Ginger recalls. "Tubby Hayes (the sax player) had apparently been in there and heard me and ran over to Ronnie Scott's Club and told Phil to come down and hear me. When I got off stage I was suddenly confronted by my hero."

In February 1963, Ginger, Graham Bond, and Jack Bruce left Alexis Korner to form the Graham Bond Organisation. Ginger stayed with Bond until 1966 when he formed CREAM. The Bond years were tremendously exciting for Ginger and for the British R&B scene; jazz guitar great John McLaughlin would join the Graham Bond Organisation, then later tenor sax man Dick Heckstall-Smith. During those years, Ginger developed a ferocious approach to drumming which would stun the world during his high-profile days with CREAM. Ginger would add a touch of jazz technique to the rock form, becoming probably the first true jazz-rock fusion drummer. Even today, great musicians hail Ginger as the greatest drummer of the rock genre, though the public at large has given him less credit than he deserves.

He did incredible works on studio, and specially live with Cream (he often collapsed on stage) . Ginger Baker is the finest example of how a Jazz & Blues drummer can sound amazing with a Rock band.

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Edited by kiwibank
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Saw Ginger Baker play with Cream and Blind Faith--I went with John Bonham even though Ginger Baker's solo with Cream was unbelievable

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I also saw Blind Faith in concert and Ginger Baker's drum solo was the height of the concert.

I would say he was also a very strong drummer in that from what I heard, he would regularly destroy a drum set with the power of his assault on his drum kit.

Listening to Ginger Baker you have to note the sheer power of his drumming.

I have to mention though that Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell ar up there as well. Mitchell had a really wild technique that was perectly suited to Hendrix. Just listen to Mitchell just going all over the place with his drums, he was really unique.

Edited by rickio
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Never saw Mitch Mitchell or Hendrix - my one rock and roll regret. But you cant argue that Keith Moon is not as good as Bonham or Baker.. hell, they are all unbelievable

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aynsley dunbar is another one....an excellent and definitive drummer

Aynsley Dunbar...

Aynsley was born on January 10, 1946, in Liverpool, England. Over his career, he has demonstrated the ability of playing many different styles including jazz, blues, fusion, rock and progressive rock. With over 30 gold and platinum records from over 112 albums, Aynsley Dunbar has proven himself one of the finest drummers in the business for over forty years, whether as a member of a band or as a session musician.

Playing drums since the age of eleven, Aynsley began his professional career on the Liverpool jazz scene, playing at various gigs until joining a band called Leo Rutherford at fifteen, and then on to the traditional jazz band Merseysippi Jazz Band at the age of seventeen. In August, 1963, when rock descended on Liverpool, Aynsley shifted to rock/R&B and joined Derry Wilkieand the Pressmen. In January, 1964, the band disbanded and Aynsley joined four of the band members to form The Flamingos. After a short tour of Germany, they joined Freddie Starr in April of 1964 to form Freddie Starr and the Flamingos . In 1964, Aynsley joined the Excheckers, and then off to Stu James and the Mojos, a Liverpool band who toured from 1963-1966, famous for their pop hit entitled Everything's All Right.

After leaving the Mojos, Aynsley joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1966 with Peter Green and John McVie to record such British Blues staples as Hard Road and many others. As a Bluesbreaker, Aynsley recorded with Eddie Boyd and released an EP record with Paul Butterfield. It was through Bluesbreaker concerts that drummers first discover that an Aynsley Dunbar drum solo was something never to be missed. Aynsley's next gig was drumming for the Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, playing on Jeff Beck's Seminal Truth sessions, Tallyman and Rock My Plimsoul. Before leaving the band, the whole group appeared in Donovan's album, Barabajajal. In 1967, Dunbar formed a blues-rock band named The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, which featured guitarist/vocalist John Moorshead, keyboardist Tommy Eyre, bassist Alex Dmochowski, organist/singer Victor Brox, and also back veteran blues artist Champion Jack Dupree and Tim Rose, famous for his songs Hey Joe and In the Morning Dew. Rod Stewart also fronted Retaliation on an earlier live recording with members Peter Green and Jack Bruce. Retaliation disbanded and Aynsley formed a new band, Blue Whale, a progressive style jamming band that recorded one album that featured a cover of a Frank Zappa song, Willie the Pimp. While with Retaliation, Aynsley met Frank Zappa in Belgium at a BYG record festival, where Frank sat in with Retaliation on two songs.

One night, upon randomly wondering into his favorite haunt, the London Club SpeakEasy, Aynsley was told someone was there waiting for him. There sat Frank Zappa. He invited Aynsley to join his new band and move to America. Aynsley arrived in the U.S., moved into Frank's Los Angeles house and set up his drums in his basement. Frank immediately put him to the test: OK, now remind me why I hired you. Aynsley delivered the goods and in that spontaneous moment, he and Frank created Chunga's Revenge. Not bad for the first day in the basement. Aynsley first appeared with Zappa on Chunga's Revenge and toured with the old Mothers on the Mother's Day Tour of 1970. Frank then approached Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (The Turtles) to join his new version of the Mothers of Invention, appearing on such albums as Fillmore East: June 1971 and 200 Motels, and playing music that gave Aynsley a chance to show off his jazzier chops. In 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono joined Aynsley with Frank and the Mothers to record the live album Sometime in New York City.

When Howard Kaylan (Flo) and Mark Voman (Eddie) jumped ship from Zappa's band in 1972 after a strange accident where a fan pushed Zappa from the stage and caused him to be confined to a wheel chair, Aynsley joined them as a member of their backing band for a short period. He would return to work with Zappa on jazzier studio projects like Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, and Apostrohpe', as well as continuing his studio work for other artists. He joined David Bowie in the 1973-1974 time frame for the albums Pin-Ups and Diamond Dogs. Aynsley recorded powerful drumming on a cover of his own Mojos hit, Everything's All right, and Bowie's huge hit, Rebel Rebel. In 1973, Aynsley also recorded Lou Reed's famous session album Berlin with Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, and Tony Levin. In 1974, after recording twelve albums in two years (yes, 12 in two years), Aynsley was acclaimed by the music industry as the world's leading session musician. That same year, too busy flying a bi-weekly Atlantic crossing from Los Angles-to-London to record with Bowie. Aynsley delayed returning several phone messages from Santana guitarist Neal Schon and manager Herbie Herbert . When Aynsley finally returned the call, he took a listen to this new jazz-rock fusion group named Journey. Eager to build a democratic rock-fusion band, he joined, recorded and co-wrote four albums, including the highly acclaimed rock-fusion instrumental Kohoutek, Of a Lifetime, which features Gregg Rolie vocals with high-impact solos, Hustler, which featured Aynsley's first use of double kick drums, and such mega-hits as Lights, Feeling That Way, Anytime,Patiently, Something to Hide and Wheel in the Sky. Aynsley departed Journey as the band shifted their sound away from challenging rock-fusion towards simpler ballads.

In 1976, Aynsley played on rocker Sammy Hagar's album Nine On a Ten Inch Scale and played for the second time with Nils Lofgren to drum up his hit Back it Up on Cry Tough. Aynsley next joined Jefferson Starship in 1978, promptly bringing the band a new hit album with Freedom at Point Zero and such hits as Jane, Girl with the Hungry Eyes, and the mega hit, Find Your Way Back. He stayed with Jefferson Starship, touring and recording through 1982's Winds of Change. Aynsley took a well-deserved breather, to rest on his laurels in the great city of San Francisco, the same city that awarded him three prestigious BAMMIES. At the request of David Coverdale, over lunch at Sunset's La Dome, Aynsley was convinced to leave retirement to join Whitesnake in 1985. Aynsley played drums on the band's commercial breakthrough album, Whitesnake 1987, producing another string of hits, Still of the Night, What is Love and Here I go Again.

Aynsley then took another leave to raise his four children, Gretchen, Bibs, Taylor and Dash but the sticks kept calling and Aynsley headed out on the road again in 1994, playing and recording with such artists as Pat Travers, UFO, John Lee Hooker, Michael Schenker, and collaborating with many of the world's top musicians on tribute albums to Van Halen, Steve Ray Vaughn, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Queen and most recently Metallica. In 1996, Aynsley joined guitarist Alvin Lee from Ten Years After, Eric Burdon and a band of veteran musicians for a tour entitled Best of British Blues. Soon after, a virtuoso of musicians formed a hard driving rock band Mother's Army, featuring guitarist Jeff Watson from Night Ranger, Ozzie Osborne's bassist Bob Daisley, Deep Purple front man Joe Lynn Turner with Aynsley on the chops for a progressive metal-rock album Fire on the Moon, now awaiting release in the U.S.

In October 1996, Aynsley returned to his hectic world touring roots and signed on with Eric Burdon and the New Animals, bringing his powerful, driving beat to the rock `n roll hits We Gotta Get Out of This Place, It's My Life, Spill the Wine, Don't Bring Me Down, House of the Rising Sun, and many, many others. He has recorded three albums and a live recorded DVD which includes one of Aynsley's tremendous drum solos.

No other modern rock / jazz / blues / fusion drummer has played with as many successful bands and musicians as Aynsley Dunbar.

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Edited by kiwibank
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I always forget about Dunbar, even though Ive had almost all the albums listed above and one time or another...

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I really don't know any of those drummers because I'm not that old. :tongue:

BUT... I do know Joey Jordanson from the band Slipknot and Dave Lombardo from Slayer can reak havoc on anything. In my eyes they're the best because I have yet to see any of the others in person.

*Waits to be bashed* :lol:

Edit:

I missed Dave Grohl. I must give him credit too.

Edited by DudeAsInCool
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I voted Animal. Maybe I should go back to bed.

I would have thought you would have gone for Grohl :)

I actually voted Grohl. He gets my respect because he has drummed for Nirvana which was the breakout group of the 90s, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers which was worthy of it's own thread here, Queens of the Stoneage which is made up of guys who end up on every best of list there is, Scream, and of course he heads the Foo Fighters (although he doesn't drum much for them).

Pretty nice stuff for only being 35.

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I would have thought you would have gone for Grohl :)

I actually voted Grohl. He gets my respect because he has drummed for Nirvana which was the breakout group of the 90s, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers which was worthy of it's own thread here, Queens of the Stoneage which is made up of guys who end up on every best of list there is, Scream, and of course he heads the Foo Fighters (although he doesn't drum much for them).

Pretty nice stuff for only being 35.

I don't know enough about these people to make a valid judgment.

So that's why I voted Animal.

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BUT... I do know Joey Jordanson from the band Slipknot and Dave Lombardo from Slayer can reak havoc on anything.

*Waits to be bashed* :bigsmile:

The only bashing you'll get from me is because you gave any sort of credit to Slipknot.

thumbsdown

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I really don't know any of those drummers because I'm not that old. :tongue:

then, my friend...you should listen to them...last time i checked technology had advanced at such a rate that young folks are actually able to listen to music from the olden days.....

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buddy rich beat the drums pretty good

a very good drummer indeed.....

another great rock drummer...simon king of hawkwind...

" Simon King excited people during his days with Hawkwind like no other drummer before or since. The combination of fast (up to 250bpm in places!), rhythmic and yet organically sensitive drumming with long fills and rolls that span the kit and finish back on the beat is something that set up Hawkwind up throughout the 1970s. "

___________________________________________________

Simon King

Early days

Born in Oxford around 1952, Simon quotes his earliest influences in drumming as "some of the jazz greats that I heard a lot of. I always really wanted to play jazz but never got around to it. Early rock influences were the same as everyone else's: Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, etc."

Simon started playing at 15 in various local bands, mainly in Berkshire, teaching himself as he went along. The earliest recordings I have of Simon are with Opal Butterfly in the late 1960s. This band, of course, also featured Lemmy for a while and it was his acquaintance with Simon that eventually got him the job with Hawkwind.

Four years later and Hawkwind are having problems with Terry Ollis being so stoned that he "kept falling off his drumstool". Lemmy happens to catch Simon King getting out of a taxi in London and offers to introduce him to the band, as a "proper drummer".

The next eight years are the stuff of legend, with some immensely powerful material from Simon King coming out of the Hawkwind stable.

Influences

Chosen by Simon King in 1973, here are a few of his main musical influences:

Beatles: "Strawberry Fields" - "a changing point all round."

"Velvet Underground and Nico" - "I just liked their basic simplicity.... It had an overall effect on me that I'd never experienced before."

Jimi Hendrix - "Hey Joe" - "This was the single that made me want to play rock and roll professionally... Somehow this record appeared out of nowhere and it got me into rock and roll in the form of three-piece bands... When I first heard this single it blew my head off. It was just rough and raw and gutsy."

Who - "Who's Next" - "I was impressed by this album because of what the Who left out - what they didn't do. It's somehow empty, despite Townsend's huge chords. Also, I think Keith Moon's drumming is brilliant."

____________________________________________________

"And down in the engine room, in place of booster rockets, lurked the most amphetamine-fuelled rhythm section ever heard along the interstellar spaceways. You have to race forward warp-speed almost 30 years to the launch-pad powersurge of 'Speed Guru' from Japan's Acid Mothers Temple before you hear anything that multiplies the G-force as effectively as the combined muscle of Simon King and Lemmy."

Yea verily, and the God of Rhythm heard the pleas of the people, and forsooth he bestowed upon them monster drummer Simon King and animal bass-masher Ian "Lemmy" Kilminster, and it was damn good and the people rejoiced"

"... a brilliant drummer - quite unique..."

"Me, I tell you my drum solos are a waste of time, unless excellent, nothing worse than a mediocre one, that's why I don't do one! now give me Baker for power, Keith Moon for tremendous energy, but all in all Buddy Rich, he's the guvenour."

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Edited by kiwibank
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  • 1 month later...

There are too many good ones on that list.... :drumsplay3:

Charlie Watts

John Bonham

Herman Rarebell (Scorpions)

Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake)

and Don Powell from Slade are all my picks...

There are alot more good drummers out there too.....

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I really don't know any of those drummers because I'm not that old.  :tongue:

BUT... I do know Joey Jordanson from the band Slipknot and Dave Lombardo from Slayer can reak havoc on anything. In my eyes they're the best because I have yet to see any of the others in person.

*Waits to be bashed*    :bigsmile:

Edit:

I missed Dave Grohl. I must give him credit too.

:o too bad, you missed some of the best

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