Best Drum Solos

Billy Cobham on Stanley Clarkes" School Days"  

Life is just a game. 

Don Lamond in Bobby Darin’s version of "Beyond The Sea". Lamond had been Woody Herman’s drummer in the 1940’s. Don's two short little drum "breaks" on "Beyond The Sea", especially the second, are insanely cool.

The worst drum solo is probably Ron Bushy’s in Iron Butterfly’s "Inna Gadda Da Vida". Second place for me is Ginger Baker’s in Cream’s "Toad". Just miserable. Buddy Rich characterized Baker as a "clown".

First of all, Ginger’s drums and cymbals sound terrible---terrible! The drums are thin and ringy, no body or tone, like an unplugged Telecaster. The cymbals are dissonant (the overtones being out-of-tune with the fundamental) and clangy, without the percussive "click" of good cymbals, or their melodic pitch and tone. Listen to the cymbals of Jim Gordon (Derek & The Dominoes, Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, Traffic) and many Jazz drummers (as well as Don Lamonds in the aforementioned "Beyond The Sea"), then Gingers. The man had no taste! Likewise, his drums just don’t sound good. Just as with his cymbals, their overtones are out-of-tune with the fundamentals, creating dissonance. Ugly and unpleasant. Some drummers never learn how to tune drums. He also used really thin heads on his drums. Ask any guitarist about what super-thin strings sound like---no body, no substance. To hear what good drums and cymbals sound like, listen to Levon Helm’s on the Band’s albums, particulary the 1st and 2nd. Listen to the opening of "The Weight", the three simple quarter notes Levon plays on his mounted and floor toms. Fantastic! Then listen to his cymbals---beautiful musical instruments, very much like Jim Gordon’s.

As for the substance of Ginger’s "Toad" solo, when you take away all the repetitions of patterns and figures that he plays, you have only a couple minutes of actual ideas. He just repeats them over and over and over again in a row, making the solo sooo repetitious and (imo) boring. And those ideas themselves are just not interesting, at least not to me. They sound awkward and clumsy, without quality flow, structure, and development. Each to his own!

There is a story told of when Miles Davis went to a club to watch and hear The Buddy Rich Big Band. Miles expressed his surprise at discovering that Buddy wasn't just displaying his astounding chops, but that he was playing parts that set up the song for what the other players were about to play.  That's called ensemble playing, and that's the way the best musicians play. Ginger Baker was not one of the best, whether he was soloing or playing a song. It doesn't bother me that others like his playing, I don't know why it should bother anyone else that I don't!

Regarding being a "professional musician and all", that does not make an opinion any more valid than that of anyone else, including non-musicians, professional or otherwise. I have known non-musicians with far better taste (imo) than many musicians I’ve known. And taste is what we’re talking about here. That, and the lack of it ;-).

I’ll concede one point, ghosthouse---I really should not have used the adjective miserable, that’s excessive.

In The Last Waltz, Eric Clapton talks about hearing Music From Big Pink for the first time, and how it changed everything for him---after hearing it he told Jack and Ginger he was done with Cream. He says, and this is almost an exact quote: "Music had been going in the wrong direction for a long time. I heard MFBP, and thought ’Well, someone has finally gone and done it right’ ".

The Band’s Levon Helm was an unusually musical drummer, as musical as anyone I’ve heard. He also had technique (unlike another musical drummer, the unfairly maligned Ringo Starr), but used it to create great song parts. Another such drummer was (he’s still alive, but retired) the great Roger Hawkins. He was the drummer in the Fame Studios Rhythm Section (aka The Swampers) in Muscle Shoals Alabama. He can be heard on all those great Jerry Wexler-produced records on Atlantic---Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, Percy Sledge, and many others. Dylan used him, recording in Muscle Shoals specifically to get the "loose (relaxed, Southern feel) but tight" sound that he, bassist David Hood, pianist Barry Beckett, and guitarist Jimmie Johnson created. Roger went on to play in Traffic, at one time alongside another fantastically musical drummer, the aforementioned Jim Gordon. Two of the best drummers in the world, in the same band! Steve Winwood has great taste in musicians. Why then was Ginger Baker in Blind Faith? With Clapton!

What other musicians don’t like about drummers is their lack of musicality. The parts a lot of drummers play are designed, not to serve the song, or to selflessly make another musicians playing sound as good as possible, or to make for good ensemble, but rather to display their own chops, to impress everyone (especially other drummers) with their technical ability. Those parts don’t necessarily make for bad music (Johnny Barbata’s parts in his The Turtles recordings are fantastic both technically and musically. He later played in Jefferson Starship, but hey, a guy’s gotta eat ;-), but often do. Jeff Beck is a fantastic guitarist, so I was mystified when he had Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart) playing with him. Carmine is a drummer will highly developed technique, but poorly developed musical sensibilities. His playing is so "vulgar" it actually embarrasses me.

IMO opinion Ginger Baker was a rather selfish (I hope that does not sound too pejorative) musician, whose song parts are not only unmusical, but also really goofy---he "flops" along, in the time sense. He played every song the same, not considering what the song needed from a drummer. He was also a somewhat unpleasant fellow, though probably not as much so as Buddy Rich ;-).

I believe I’ve already told ya’ll this story Evan Johns told me when I recorded with him in Atlanta GA. If so, it bears repeating. Evan’s good friend and sometimes bandmate, the late, great guitarist Danny Gatton (Vince Gill, himself a fine guitarist, nicknamed him "The Humbler"!) played his first gig with a new drummer. After the first set, Danny had this exchange with the guy:

Danny to the drummer: "You know all that fancy stuff you’re playing?"

Drummer: "Yeah".

Danny: "Don’t".

When I was living in Sherman Oaks CA in the late-90’s, I used to bump into Billy Swan (remember his 1970’s hit "I Can Help"?), who was playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony in Kris Kristofferson’s band. He told me when Kris was just starting to play big shows in the late 60’s and early 70’s, everybody told him he needed to hire a drummer. Coming from coffeehouses and folk clubs, Kris had never had one. So, he arranged to have a drummer audition. Unfortunately, it being the late 60’s, and all drummers thinking they had to play like Ginger Baker, or Keith Moon, or (shudder) Carmine Appice, the drummer pounded his way through Kris’ songs, playing way too loud and way too busy, very unmusically walking all over the other bandmember’s parts. That’s what Clapton was talking about. Billy said that soured Kris on drummers, and that he never again auditioned one.

Clapton now has one of the best drummers in the world, the incredible Steve Gadd (he created the drum part in Paul Simon’s "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"). Now THAT guy can not only play a song as musically as anyone, but can solo like Buddy Rich, a very rare combination. And, his drums and cymbals also sound great!

Loomis, I completely agree about John Bonham---"behind-the-beat" is exactly right! Some drummers like to be the engine at the front of the train, pulling the band along. Bonham was at the back of the "pocket", pushing the band from behind. The players I like are those who play in the deepest part of the pocket---dead center. Listen to "634-5789" by Wilson Pickett; Roger Hawkins (with David Hood on bass) creates the deepest, most incredible pocket I’ve ever heard! The great studio drummer Jim Keltner (Ry Cooder arranges his recording sessions around Jim’s availablility!) says he wished he played more like Roger!

A moment in time has a little "spread", a visual representation being a "V". The deepest part of the pocket is the bottom of the V. Some drummers play a little in front of (before) that moment in time, some a little behind (later than). Bonham was the latter. When I played a three-night gig with Jonny Kaplan in late 2007, after the first night he asked me to play a little "later", that I was at the front of the pocket (Jonny has a great sense of timing). What?! I listened for what he heard as we played night two, after which he asked for it still later. It wasn’t until I was driving home from the final night (with which he was finally satisfied!) that it occurred to me---Jonny learned Country-Rock not from Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, or any other American outfit, but from the Let It Bleed-era Stones. Charlie Watts is another drummer who plays late (is it a British thing?!), and that’s the way Jonny likes it (he’s a huge Keith Richards fan).

Loomis characterized Bonham as ’lumbering", which is an apt adjective. I hear that trait in a lot of drumming, partly because of the tendency of young drummers to "bury the beater" (leave the bass drum pedal’s beater head mashed into the drum’s batter head after a note is played, rather than letting it rebound away), and to play every bd stroke as hard as possible, using no dynamics, and without "feathering". That’s the manner in which Bonham played bd. To me, it sounds like every time the bass drum beater is buried in the head time abruptly stops, then starting again anew. The sense of flow is disrupted, the music becoming disjointed.

Early in The Who’s recorded output and live shows, Keith Moon was at the leading/front edge of the pocket (sometimes completely out of it, way out ahead of Pete and John). As his drinking increased, he started playing pretty far behind the pulse/beat/pocket, ruining The Who for me. I hear it starting on "Live At Leeds", and in full bloom by the time of "Won’t Get Fooled Again". Early in The Beatles career, Ringo’s playing was right where I like it---deep in the pocket. Unfortunately, his playing too took a nosedive, timing-wise, as he got older (and started drinking with Keith!). Listen to Ringo playing along with Levon Helm in The Last Waltz in 1976; Levon is in deep pocket, Ringo is way late, sluggishly following along behind, like the caboose on a train, not at the front like an engine. Sad.

I saw Keith Moon live twice (’68 and ’69), and he was as punchy and exciting as any drummer I’ve heard live. The only other I saw like him was Buddy Miles in The Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield, of course). A great drummer makes a band his, and both of those guys did just that. Zak Starkey (Ringo’s kid) is doing a great job in The Who now.

I too love Mick Avory, Loomis (saw him live twice also). Did you know that’s not he playing drums on the early Kinks hit singles ("You Really Got Me", "All Day and All Of The Night", etc.) and some album tracks? That was British studio drummer Bobby Graham, a great player. Mick, believe it or not, preceded Charlie Watts in The Stones, though only in their very early rehearsal-only period, never gigging with them. Charlie himself is an odd player, somewhat stiff and awkward. But he has his charm, Jim Keltner feeling The Stones are Charlie’s band, not Keith’s (and certainly not Mick’s!).

Once I became aware of studio-only (mostly) drummers, their style of drumming became my gold standard---taste, economy, and musicality. Hal Blaine of course, Kenny Buttrey (Nashville---Dylan, Neil Young’s harvest album), Earl Palmer (New Orleans Jazz drummer, but heard on many 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll records), Roger Hawkins as I’ve already mentioned, Jims Gordon (Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, Derek & The Dominoes, Traffic, Dave Mason’s great Alone Together album) and Keltner (Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell, John Hiatt, Little Village, Randy Newman, George Harrison, The Traveling Wilbury’s), D.J. Fontana (early Elvis), David Kemper (Dylan, T Bone Burnett. Like Keltner, he’s from Tulsa Oklahoma), Buddy Harman (Nashville studio great), Al Jackson Jr. (Booker T & The MG’s), lots of others. What made Levon Helm particularly unusual was that he played like a studio drummer, but was in a self-contained group.

Loomis, Jim Capaldi was a very fine drummer, very cognizant and respectful of the singer’s phrasing and dynamics, as well as the song's structure. Being a singer and songwriter himself, that’s not surprising, I suppose. Now that you mention Jim, perhaps it was he and not Winwood would enlisted the services of both Roger Hawkins and Jim Gordon for Traffic!

Grant Hart I’m not familiar enough with to have formed an opinion. From afar, he appeared to be just another punk drummer. Speaking of that, did you ever read what the great Tony Williams said upon hearing Marky Ramone? "Now THAT’S a great drummer" ! I don’t think he was being facetious, either.

Doug Clifford was adequate for the music of Credence, but was what I consider a "pedestrian" musician. No original ideas, no personality, not very interesting. I feel the same about Springsteen’s Max Weinberg. Call me a snob!

Since this thread was asking about solos, but has taken a detour (sorry ;-), there is one drummer who should be mentioned. He was a big band drummer, and they were expected to play, and were routinely called upon to do so, a solo at some point in a live show. Dave Tough was loved by the other musicians in the Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw bands in which he played, in spite of his limited abilities as a soloist. They loved how he made the band swing harder and better than did ANY of the great drum soloists, and how his accompaniment made each of them and the entire band sound better. The Rock ’n’ Roll equivalent would be Ringo Starr, who, though he couldn’t/can’t solo like Neil Peart, John Bonham, or Ginger Baker, was a great ensemble player, making the song itself sound as good as possible. Those are different talents, and rarely are both found in a single player.

Speaking of players of songs, here is just a small sampling from the over 18,000 (!) that Buddy Harman played drums on:

"Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

"Little Sister" by Elvis Presley

"Ring Of Fire" by Johnny Cash

"Crazy" by Patsy Cline

"King Of The Road" by Roger Miller

and a favorite of mine, "Stand By Your Man" by the great Tammy Wynette. So tasty! The drumming, I mean ;-).

Loomis, I loved Disraeli Gears at the time of it's release (Fresh Cream as well), and played songs off both albums in my High School garage band. But you have just pointed out Ginger's tendency to play for his own benefit, not the song's or the band's. As I said earlier, he played every song the same, which is not a compliment ;-). Did you read how Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun characterized Disraeli Gears when it was submitted? "Psychedelic horses**t" !

My eyes were opened, and my teenage brain blown, when my band opened for The New Buffalo (only drummer Dewey Martin remaining from Buffalo Springfield) at a San Jose High School in 1969. Bobby's brother Randy Fuller was playing bass, and I became perplexed and uncomfortable when I could not for the life of me figure out why, in spite of the fact that that rhythm section appearing to be playing nothing special (unlike Ginger and Jack), TNB sounded and felt SO good. All of a sudden, in an epiphany, what I had heard and read about The Band hit home. Oh, NOW I get it! THE transformative moment of my musical life. That, and hearing J.S. Bach!

shadorne, yup, Ferrone is a fine player, and Petty likes how he comes up with parts he says would never have occurred to him. Chad Smith is okay, but I really dislike the sound of piccolo snare drums (all they do is make a one-dimensional "popping" sound---no depth, no resonance), which is his sound. His snare drum sound ruined the Dixie Chicks album he played on (Taking The Long Way) for me. But that's just a matter of sonic taste, not style or quality.

shadorne, I LOVE Phil Rudd! Love him to death. Nobody plays Chuck Berry-style Rock 'n' Roll better than Phil, and his snare drum sounds just the way they are suppose to. Steve Gadd is an absolute marvel, absolutely one of the very best drummers in the world. Expensive, but worth it. Speaking of worth, can you believe Paul McCartney was paying Wings drummer Denny Seiwell a whopping $150/wk?! What a d*ck.

A drummer who was great as a session player, and continued to play great even as the member of a lame band, was Jeff Porcaro. Imagine playing on Boz Scaggs "Lido Shuffle" (great drumming), and then having to play Toto's horrid songs?

I neglected to mention L.A. studio drummer Russ Kunkel. The last time I saw him live was as a member of Lyle Lovett's Big Band (what a band!), but in the 70's and beyond he recorded with just about all the best songwriters and singers. The Everly Brothers, Dylan, Ronstadt, Neil Young, Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Joe Walsh, J.J. Cale, Tracy Chapman, Rita Coolidge, Crosby, Stills, & Nash (group and solo), Rodney Crowell, Richie Furay, Andrew Gold, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Sedaka, Bob Segar, Carly Simon, John Stewart, Steve Winwood, Bill Withers, and Warren Zevon engaged his services because of his superb musicality, not his abilities as a soloist. I like songs, not solos (though Steve Gadd does a great one!). But this isn't my thread, so enough outta me. Back to your favorite drum solos, boys!