Buddy Rich called Ginger a "clown". But then he didn’t like many other drummers, or musicians in general.
I like Keith Moon’s answer to an interviewer who asked him if he could play in the Buddy Rich Big Band. "No", he replied, "and Buddy couldn’t play in The Who."
I saw & heard Ginger live twice (in ’67 and ’68), Keith Moon twice (’68 and ’69), and Mitch Mitchell twice (’67 and ’68). All different: Keith Moon an absolute possessed madman, master of kinetic energy. Along with Buddy Miles (in The Electric Flag), the "punchiest" drummer I’ve ever seen. Ginger played like no one else I’ve heard (kind of "floppy". Listen to his feel on "Strange Brew".), including his hero Elvin Jones. Though he knew the rudiments, he played almost entirely single-stroke. Mitch was a pretty-much traditional Jazz-style player, crisp technique, applied to Psychedelic Rock music. The best ever in that style (more specifically Fusion) imo was Tony Williams.
The most influential Rock drummer from that era (late-60’s into the 70’s) was of course John Bonham, perhaps because his playing is most-easily duplicated (Buddy reportedly did a spot-on imitation). Bonham, Moon, and Ringo were best friends and drinking buddies. Ringo was a huge fan of Levon Helm (The Band), appearing at the end of The Last Waltz, bogging down the tempo of whatever song he played on (his playing became unbearably "slow" in about 1966).
When John Hiatt was offered the choice of any drummer he wanted for the recording of his Bring The Family album, he picked Jim Keltner, a master of song playing, a very different thing from what the above did. IMO the best living song drummer is Harry Stinson, member of Marty Stuart’s band The Fabulous Superlatives. So tasty! Many of y’all may not understand why anyone would feel that way, listening to drumming as if it’s an athletic event, rather than an artistic one. No offense intended ;-) .
