My Favorite Drummers

I totally stole this idea from Adam B and his Top Ten Greatest Rock N Roll Front-Men. Hub Pages needs more pieces about musicians... by musicians. So I'm doing one.

... About drummers.

I don't really know enough about singers to give you an informative piece like Adam did. I know what I like and what blows me away when listening to a singer, but I don't sing (in public), so I can't even pretend to be an authority. I don't even do karaoke. I've worked with real vocalists, so I know what it's supposed to sound like, and I gotta tell you - that ain't it.

OK ... now that I've alienated all the weekend karaoke-ers, on with the fun!

But I do know drummers. These are the drummers/percussionists, who've made a lasting impact on me throughout my musical life.

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You'll notice that there are many incredible drummers not on this list - I couldn't even begin to name them all. That is not because I do not think they're incredible drummers ... I do, and they are. I don't know exactly what it is that causes one musician to connect with another. I wish I did. But the drummers on the list influenced me, or had an impact on me, in some way - large or small.

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Don Brewer - Grand Funk Railroad

For the first five years of my life as a drummer, this man was my teacher, my mentor, my greatest influence. I spent hours and hours getting stoned and dissecting every song he played. Each and every stroke of the drumstick, every bass-drum and hi-hat action. Rriff for riff, beat for beat - the fancy stuff, the subtle stuff. If the dude farted during a specific part of a song, you can bet your ass it would be there when I played it.

Learning music exactly the way it is recorded or written is the best learning exercise - and the quickest way to advance as a musician - there is. Any classical musician will attest to that.

Don Brewer taught me confidence, strength, structure and discipline.

The band's "Caught in the Act" live album is still the best example I've heard of how a live recording can capture the magic of actually 'being there' at a performance. The 'video' below features music from that album.

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Simon Kirke - Bad Company

Simon is the master of Elegant Simplicity - a man of discipline when he was on stage. Keith Moon (The Who) was one of the busiest drummers ever ... Simon Kirke was the complete opposite. Drummers love to try new riffs, and typically these drum fills will come to us a split second before the spot where they're going to be used comes up - a lead-in (or out) to a change in the music, or an accent. Kirke didn't do that. What you heard on the record is what you heard him do on stage.

Anytime I played a Bad Company song (and "Movin' On" is my favorite) I did it in Simon Kirke mode. It's a priceless lesson in structure. I wouldn't want to play that way all the time because it's very restricting, but once in a while is an excellent exercise in discipline.

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Neil Peart - Rush

The image of the drummer as a brainless dolt was started by The Beatles' animated series which portrayed Ringo Starr as an idiot who wore rings on every finger - which he did not - and was perpetuated by The Muppets' drummer "Animal." Neil contradicted that image. Called "the professor" by band-mates Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, Peart wrote all the intellectual lyrics for Rush's brainy, imaginative music.

One time, as I was sitting close to the stage reading a Terry Brooks paperback before a show in a nightclub, a 50-something man approached me and asked what I was reading. I showed him. He stood there for a couple moments looking from me to the book, then turned around and walked away, and as he did so, I heard him say "Hm, an intellectual drummer." Apparently the fact that I was able to read amazed this gentleman. Old stereotypes, it seems, are not so easily shed.

Bring up Neil Peart to any drummer and you'll hear the same reverence a classical musician has for Bach. He sits behind a jungle of hardware, cymbals, drums and percussive goodies, and he uses them all ... very well.

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Ian Paice - Deep Purple

Deep Purple are the legends and royalty of 70s and 80s rock, and while guitarists will tell you it was Richie Blackmore who made Deep Purple, for me, it was the Ians: vocalist Ian Gillan and drummer Ian Paice. Both musicians forever raised the bar in their respective fields for all who have followed.

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Roger Taylor - Queen

The guy once lovingly referred to as "The velvety Roger Taylor" by Rolling Stone magazine was, in the late 70s and early 80s, my main-man. Not only was he the powerful backbone of the most original band to ever come along, but all those high-pitched shrill voices you hear in Queen's back-up vocals were courtesy of Mr. Taylor, and, in Queen's live performances, he carried all those high notes Freddie Mercury could only do in the studio.

Roger expertly meshed the pile-driver necessities of arena-rock drumming with the classy finesse required in much of the band's unique material.

A drummer in a league all his own.

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Stewart Copeland - The Police

This was the first drummer I heard blend reggae and rock drumming styles and, to this day, I've yet to hear anyone do it better. Stewart pioneered reggae-rock drums just as his band, The Police, brought reggae-rock to mainstream awareness.

Without The Police, there may be no ska today!

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Matt Frenette - Loverboy

When one thinks of 80s music, typically bands like Flock of Seagulls and equally repulsive acts are brought up. But during those years, my musician friends and I were listening to bands like Loverboy. The group are an easy target for ridicule: the name and those 80s outfits alone were reason enough, but the fact is, they were one of the tightest and most powerful arena acts of the time. Mike Reno was an excellent singer with superior range who never failed to deliver all the same vocal athletics you heard on their records, and every member was a high-caliber musician.

Matt Frenette was the driving force behind the band's considerable on stage power.

I wanted to provide a live video, but apparently they're all "Embedding disabled by request."

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Tre' Cool - Green Day

I think it's kind of strange that I like this drummer as much as I do. If someone were to ask me what drummers I liked, this dork would not come to mind. His image bugs me and his name is something a teen-aged gangsta-wannabe would call himself.

So, what is it about this guy?

I guess it helps that I have a very high opinion of his band. Album after album, they consistently put out good music, and when I'm just listening - and don't have to watch him - Tre' Cool is a solid and talented drummer. Green day has a lot of imaginative, outside-the-punk-rock-box material, and Tre' is never out of his element.

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Adrian Young - No Doubt

This guy is leagues stranger than Tre' Cool.  Besides the ever changing, and colorful, hairstyles, renaissance make-up and weird clothes, the dude is an in-your-face nudist - which I have no problem with.  If you've got the physique (and the junk) to pull off naked, go for it.  But I still think it's funny-weird that he appeared on No Doubt's last CD cover, and played many of the shows on that tour, wearing nothing but sneakers and a tiny, gold crotch patch with a smiley face on it ... and appeared naked in one of the CD's videos.

Dude, you're a big ol' freak of nature.

That being said, Adrian Young is a phenomenal ska drummer, and one of the best all-around drummers alive today.  No Doubt was my absolute favorite band, and I was pissed at Gwen Stefani when she left them for a solo career.  There goes my favorite ska band ... because there was no replacing her.

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Rocky Gray - Evanescence

This guy is the multi-talented drummer of my favorite Gothic-rock band.  His live work is subtle, powerful and consistent.  Every time I listen to the live disc, "Anywhere But Home," I hear something new.

He, like Evanescence, is just plain fun to listen to.

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Blue Man Group

There is not a drummer on this list - or probably anywhere else, for that matter - who would not give a piece of his bits to be in a show like Blue Man Group. Oh sure, Stomp is awesome, but any drummer knows that all surfaces and objects are percussion instruments just waiting to be played. Stomp just had the brilliance to run with it.

Blue Man Group took that brilliance to the next level and employed a state-of-the-art light show, paint, humor, talent, quality choreography, a high-caliber backup band and turned their show into a worldwide (not to mention Broadway and Vegas) phenomenon.

You don't have to be a drummer or musician to enjoy a Blue Man Group show. And if you haven't bought or rented "The Complex Rock Tour Live" DVD yet, I can't recommend it enough.

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Brad Wilk - Audioslave

When a very talented, angry, political, metal/hip-hop band called Rage Against the Machine disbanded, the guitarist, bassist and drummer got together with the haunting-voiced Chris Cornell - formally with the incredibly Soundgarden - and formed the dream band Audioslave.

Football fans have Fantasy Leagues - musicians have bands like Audioslave.

Brad wilk is an ever-evolving, fun-to-watch, intense, thinking man's drummer. He recorded just three albums with ubar-band Audioslave, then it broke up (you can't see it, but I'm crying like a little girl just remembering it).

Now Brad and long-time band-mates, guitarist Tom Morello and bassist Tim Commerford, have rejoined the angry-at-the-world singer Zack de la Rocha and reunited Rage.

To me, Audioslave will never break up, and I'll just pathetically play the same three discs over ... and over ... and over ...

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Chad Smith - Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Chilis have been a super-group populated by mega-talents for 25 years. I remember when they were a local California rock club act and my bassist and I were completely blown away by how tight Chad and bassist Flea were.

I still am!

Chad Smith is like the drummer from Paul McCartney's Wings, in that he gets a lot of big-drum sound from just a small kit. I respect that.

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