On a technical level Keith Moon was a bad drummer. His style was chaotic and his drumming was off tempo. He played nearly every song like a drum solo, and probably incapable of drumming for any band other than the Who.
The Who was a a unique power trio where John Entwhistle often played bass like a rhythm (sometimes a lead) guitar while Pete Townsend rarely played anything other than slashing waves of chords on guitar. If you listen to "Happy Jack" it's pretty apparent that the song is built almost entirely around Keith Moon's drumming, as were most of the Who's early songs like My Generation, Can't Explain, Substitute and I'm A Boy. I picked Happy Jack because Moon's pivotal role in this song is so obvious:
The other two leading power trios of the day, the Hendrix Experience and Cream, which both fronted by the two guitar gods of the day: Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. The conventional wisdom was that power trios were built around a highly creative lead guitarist. The Who was the opposite.... a power trio built around a highly creative drummer and bass player, while the guitarist maintained the tempo of the song structure playing rhythm guitar.
The Who was a band that did everything wrong and maybe that's why the end product turned out so right.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
Last edited by Gavin B.; 02-15-2011 at 11:51 AM.
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