Quote:
Originally Posted by Gavin B.
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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Totally agree w/ your Moon observation. That conflict between Entwistle and Keith, who wanted to rock out, v. Townshend who had more melodic pop/rock instincts, was always a source of conflict for the Who. Personally, I'm firmly in the Moon/Entwistle camp, and their dominance of "Live at Leeds" make it my favorite Who record
. I also consider Keith Moon as one of the 1st Extreme drummers, who's ability and technique made him front and center of the compositions you've displayed. An analogy can be made to modern bands like Mastodon and Brann Dailor who has the same kind of tsunami style.
As a prog-drummer, anybody who doubts the abilities of Neil Peart obviously hasn't listened to "Farewell to the King", which is one of the absolute best prog. drumming performances ever committed to tape, so voting on which drummer is best really comes down to a personal taste in music. I voted for Moon, simply because he's had a greater impact on the more crazy and extreme modern style of drumming in many of the metal bands that I enjoy listening to.