Happy Belated Birthday, Buddy Rich

[filkertom]

I'm not paying attention to these as much as I should. Buddy Rich, arguably the greatest drummer ever, was born on yesterday's date in 1917. I had three drum lessons from him when I was a kid (some of you may recall that my mom was a nightclub singer; I met a few celebs like that, and every once in awhile my brain reels to think that BUDDY RICH CAME TO OUR HOUSE).

I was gonna hook up to some video, but greggp at Daily Kos did it for me.

Who are your favorite drummers? Rich, Krupa, Collins, Liberty DeVitto, Tyler Stewart from BNL, Fred LeBlanc from Cowboy Mouth, Brian "The Thundergod" Rosenworcel from Guster, and do not underestimate Ringo Starr, who isn't all that flashy but provided one hell of a solid foundation.

Comments

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

I don't know a lot of Krupa's work, but what I've heard seems special. People from "my era" that I appreciated: Mickey Hart, Ginger Baker, Keef Hartley...and, oh ya, Keith Moon. :-)

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love drummers...someone for us bassists to keep in line...

Stewart Copeland of the Police, who's more of a percussionist than a straight out drummer...

Larry Mullen Jr. of U2, who's the most precise rock drummer I've ever seen (probably because he has such a bad back)...

Pete Wilhoit of Fiction Plane, who's a fellow Hoosier and a hell of a good guy...

And I have to put in a word for Bryan Meyers of the Big Legumes/Kelly Richey Band, or as we call him, "Not-Stewart-Copeland." Long story there. :-)

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

I love your icon! So true! Would like to steal, please.

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

More than welcome to! You play the Four-Stringed Thunder as well?

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer a five-string. Sometimes I need something that's a step or two below that "E". :-)

Thank you!

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

No problem...and I always like to mock the 5 and 6 stringers (playfully, of course!), but I play pretty much straight-up rock with some simple blues thrown in, so I only play 4stringers. My hands really don't like flexing across 5 and 6 strings, so I make do. :-)

[pooh27bear.livejournal.com]

No one should forget Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Well I certainly wouldn't . . . I love the video of him and Weird Al from Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show where Al is wailin' away on the accordion while Jon beats the drum box (not the drum, the box the drum ships in) and adds silly sounds.

Amazing how far Al has come since then, and Jon's been with him all the way.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

These folks' work stays with me: Keith Moon, the pair from the Grateful Dead (Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann), Mighty Max Weinberg of the E Street Band (and I eagerly wait for the download of last night's show to complete...FASTER, O Cable, it's already been 20 minutes! :-), Phil Collins (as long as he's drumming and not singing), Jerry Marotta (who worked with Peter Gabriel; particularly love his work on PG's third and fourth solo albums), Liberty D, Robin Anders (from Boiled in Lead), and, transcendent beyond them all, Animal.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Here are a couple of current jazz players. Herlin Riley:



and Jason Marsalis (the solo starts about a minute in):

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

Cozy Powell and always gorgeous Roger Taylor.

But which one?

[kshandra]

[jeffreycwells.livejournal.com]

Would I risk not taking your topic seriously enough if I mentioned Animal? :)

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

No no Animal! BEAT drums! Not EAT drums!!

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Animal TOTALLY counts!

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

I second the late, great Keith Moon. The late John Bonham. Neil Peart. Chris Slade. Carl Palmer. I second the late Cozy Powell.

And I third Animal. Absolutely. :-D

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Sadly, too many 'lates'. After posting above, I also started thinking about Jeff Porcaro.

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Way too many "lates" in there for my liking.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Those are all great.

My favorite drummer is still ElderSon, but I'm biased ;)

[ericcoleman]

I saw Buddy several times in the 70s, and have a couple live videos. He could be too flashy at times, but if you listen to him supporting a soloist, he was one of the best at it. And there is no reason for anyone else to ever do a drum solo ... Buddy already did the best solos.

I'm a big fan of Krupa. The Goodman Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings is his best work (INMSHO).

In rock, I am always and forever a Keith Moon fanatic. No one can ever match him.

My friend John and I have been freaking out over a bunch of early Police live video lately. Stewart Copeland is a monster.

Terry Bozzio, especially in his work with Zappa, is simply not human.

Ben Mize, the former drummer for Counting Crows is a big favorite, if for no other reason than his ability to put the beat in unusual places ... it drives me nuts trying to play his stuff.

I could go on for a couple more days ...

[poltr1]

Buddy played at my high school for a fundraiser.

I second redaxe's suggestion for Jerry Marotta. And I just gotta metion Neil Peart of Rush.

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I'm going to mention Peart and Rich in the same sentence, as Peart was an admirer of Rich - this video is of Peart's performance at a Buddy Rich Memorial Concert:



Then there's Peart in his native habitat:



Amazing drummer...

Raven

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Keith Moon, Bun E. Carlos, Neil Peart, and messrs. Rich & Krupa.

Just one word...

[m-t-quill.livejournal.com]

Animal... Especialy the episode where Buddy Rich was the Guest... i think?!?

Re: Just one word...

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on YouTube you can find the video where Animal and Rich have a drumming duel. I'm too lazy to go find it this second though.

Re: Just one word...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

It's in the dKos post I linked to.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Eddie Hartness (http://eddiefromohio.com/index.php?page=bio&display=332) from Eddie From Ohio.

[rook543.livejournal.com]

Buddy Rich was THE MAN! Some others I like are, of course Neil Peart from Rush, and Myron Grombacher (sp?) who is Pat Benatar's drummer. He is VASTLY underrated I think. And two of the best currently I would say are Carmine Appice and Anton Figg. For those of you who know me as a huge Kiss fan, yes I like Peter Criss. No, he is not one of the worlds best. However hIs important contribution is the same as Ace Frehleys for guitar. He was not the best, but damn, if he didn't make me want to learn to play.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Billy Cobham belongs on the list, if no-one has mentioned him yet.

Edit: Doesn't look like anyone had. Also one heck of a song writer.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I remember at least one music industry insider saying Ringo had the best backbeat in the business.

You might want to add Jon Bonham to that list. If nothing else, the intro to "Rock and Roll" kicks you right in the head and gets you all lined up for the song to follow.

[kitsap_charles]

How about some more love for Carl Palmer?

[beki.livejournal.com]

Way cool! He used to go to my uncle's music shop back home (I'm from Las Vegas originally)He'd jam with some of the folks there. I'd met Dizzy Gillespie there too a zillion years ago.

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

Guy Evans, drummer with Van Der Graaf Generator, though he has a lot of jazz/experimental side projects.

Here's a latter-day live shot...curiously enough, on an early Van Der Graaf song, "Darkness (11/11)". He's pretty laid back here.

And the younger days...

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

...doing a live rendition of their cover of "Theme One," Ron Grainer's theme for BBC Radio One (yep, THAT Ron Grainer, composer of the Dr. Who theme); the VDGG cover was used as the Radio One sign-off for quite a few years, before the BBC went to 24 hour radio.

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

I also need to put in a vote for the underrated (The Great) Paul Thompson, who anchored Roxy Music in their earlier years, and returned to the band with the 2001 reunion. He's like Ringo Starr in a lot of ways -- rock solid -- but inventive in ways that suited Roxy Music.

Here's the later live version of "For Your Pleasure" (I learned to play the drum part on this myself; it's a wonderful bit of work, and tightly composed):



Here's a fake video for "The Bogus Man," which shows off Thompson happily flipping his rhythm pattern on its head and back again:



And last but not least, "If There Is Something." Thompson's drumming starts out, like the song, with this sort of optimistic, upbeat sound, but stick with it while it turns dark and thunderous -- I played this track to death when I was younger.

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

...I could go on all night, emanwhile. I'm forgetting to mention another major influence as a drummer -- Max Roach.

Peart!

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Very surprised you didn't mention Peart in the post... I see others have mentioned him in the comments, but he definitely deserves to be in this august company.

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Whoa. You had three drum lessons from BUDDY RICH? OMG.

My favorite drummer is of course drumbot. (And Neil Peart, but don't let drumbot hear that!)