Greatest Rock Drummers

Ginger Baker will always be the King of Rock drummers, historically, heres why. The first drummer in history to use two bass drums was jazz drummer Louie Bellson which inspired Baker to use two bass drums around 1964. Prior to becoming a drummer, Pete "Ginger" Baker was a professional bicycle track racer, resulting in very powerful legs, which gave him the fastest speed out of any drummer in history when he would do high speed perfect bass drum rolls with his feet. His greatest drum solo ever was in February 1968 at the Winterland Auditorium in San Francisco. The solo, "Toad", wound up on Creams "Wheels of Fire" album which broke all records. The album was released in late June 1968, and six weeks later, in August, it rose to the number one selling album in the USA and was the first double album in history  to go platinum. Listen to "Toad", and towards the end of the solo his two feet go into such high speed bass rolls that is like two high speed race cars competing to the finish line. The album was a smash, knocking the hell out of Jimi Hendrix,
The Beatles, The Who and the Rolling Stones. Cream was untouchable. I saw Ginger Baker twice, with Blind Faith and in 1974 with his revised Air Force. As a former drummer for ten years, I was blown away as well as the crowd by what he did on his drum kit on stage while he was warming up with Blind Faith. Phew! While sitting on his drum stool, he took a drum stick in each hand and smacked them down hard on the tom tom's as he opened his hands, and the sticks soared above Ginger about ten feet in  twin perfect turns in a perfect pattern, when they landed back in his hands both tips were at the front of his hands. He did this very fast three times in a row and the audience couldn't stop clapping. Ginger treated each upper and lower tom set as musical notes where he would create a musical dialog with the toms creating the most unique drum patterns in history. With Buddy Rich, Neil Peart and all the others, they all played conventional style with fast, choppy rudiments, and great snare rolls. Zzzzzzz. All the same with those guys. Ginger is one of a kind, creating original musical percussion patterns that no one has achieved since. Creams' early '68 tour was such a smash that the Beatles begged Clapton to play on their White Album. Clapton did all the lead guitar work on two tracks, "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Yer Blues".

"When Cream came to America they were like Viking's taking heads" 
   Mickey Hart, The Grateful Dead.

"What we accomplished as the Cream can never be bettered by anyone."
 Jack Bruce, 1991 

shadorne..I watched that doc on Ginger a couple of years ago..Baker was a ruthless competitor. When I saw him in 1974 at the Paramount in Seattle, Buddy Miles opened the show. When Ginger ended his drum solo at the end of his show, he yells in the mike and says.."Thats how you play the drums Buddy"..Baker loved to intimidate drummers and put them on the defensive. He is a Leo, known for their very dominate controlling style and their very combative nature.


 One drummer comes to mind that also got a dialogue going with his tom's, Ron Bushy with Iron Butterfly. His In-A-Gadda-Davida solo 
burned me out since it was so overplayed on the radio more than "Stairway to Heaven".

Thanks bdp24 for that correction. I was not aware of Claptons' involvement on the White Album until the early 80's when I read a brief bio on Clapton in a music magazine stating that Clapton played two tracks on the White Album. Apparently the article was incorrect.

I have to share this..I happened to see Led Zeppelin on their first U.S. tour. I saw them at the Seattle Center Ice Arena and had no clue who they were. They opened for Vanilla Fudge. The concert was on December 27th, 1969, just weeks before their first album was released. I was 17 at the time. Halfway through their set, I almost went into shock, my heart could not stop pounding and had a hard time keeping my breathing steady. These guys were fresh from the assembly line. They stole the show that night. I have seen every Zeppelin Concert in Seattle except two, May 1970 when they played outdoors at Seattle's Green Lake Amphitheater. That concert was filmed and a very good quality video of the concert is currently on YouTube. The other show I missed was their 1976 concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum. That night in 1969 was a concert from Heaven. John Bonham that night played with such technical virtuosity, doing a perfect snare roll with one stick, never done by any other drummer that I'm aware of. His rudiments that night were breathtaking. He only had one bass drum in his kit. His technical skills went down hill in the seventies and he never played like that again due to severe alcohol and drug abuse. Out of all the live rock concerts I've seen in twenty years, that concert in '69 will always be #1 on my list.

Carmen Appice is a killer drummer. My very first concert I went to was at the original Electric Factory in Philadelphia in the spring of 1968. Vanilla Fudge and Blood Sweat and Tears back to back.

One outstanding drummer that rarely gets mentioned, and it really ticks me off, is Corky Laing from the band Mountain. I saw him play in the early 70's at the West, Bruce and Laing concert in Seattle. Jack Bruce and Leslie West that night really kicked ass on their guitars.

shadorne..thanks for the correct year, 1968. At my age its more difficult to keep the mind accurate sliding into old age. Getting old sucks! Seeing the Fudge and Blood Sweat & Tears in '68 was the start of the Fudges' tour
and Zeppelin replaced B,S,& T's as the opener when they hit the west coast. Yes I was lucky, but painfully lucky at that time period. Worst time of my life. At the time, I was living in a run down "skid road" hotel that I co-manged with my alcoholic mother in Seattle's Chinatown. My only salvation that prevented me from slipping into darkness were rock concerts. Big time. For those youngsters from the Pacific Northwest in their late 30's to mid 40's reading this thread, who think the Show Box in downtown Seattle at 1st & Pike is the greatest rock auditorium in Seattle's history, are dead wrong. Let me educate you. Your going to love this. Lets go back to 1966 when a little known man named Boyd Grafmyre, known as the Bill Graham of the Northwest, took over an auditorium at 7th & Union in downtown Seattle called Eagles Auditorium. The rock bands that played Eagles at the time were the greatest rock bands in the world. Here are the groups I saw at Eagles. The Youngbloods with Jesse Colin Young. The Steve Miller Band. The original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. Lee Michaels and his drummer Frosty. The Byrds,(saw them on LSD). Blue Mountain Eagle. Paul Butterfield Band, Pauls' harmonica playing was killer. Joe Cocker and his Grease band on their first U.S. tour. Jethro Tull on his first U.S. tour. Around 1970 Boyd became so big he moved his operation to the Seattle Center Coliseum now known as the Key Arena, and founded a company called Concerts West. At the Coliseum I saw Jimi Hendrix, Yes on their first U.S. tour. They opened for Jethro Tull and blew Jethro Tull out the window. Santana, Chicago, KC & the Sunshine Band. And of course Zeppelin. Saw Paul McCartney and Wings at Seattle's King Dome in 1976. In the early 80's, saw Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones at the Dome as well. Boy, life sure goes fast.

Correction..my mistake, I apologize..confusion of this old timer. Concerts West was founded by Seattle's Pat O'Day, who was outright threatened by Boyd Grafmyre due to his rise at Eagles, Pat O'Day came out of the early sixties doing rock shows at the Spanish Castle. He was the Dick Clark of the NW and the hottest DJ on Seattle's KJR a.m. radio. Slick well dressed conservative. When the counter culture exploded in the sixtie's is when Grafmyre made his move capturing the hippie culture in Seattle. Pat O'Day was never in the counter culture scene. He had great appeal to conservative teenagers. He had more money and power than Boyd and ripped the rug out from under him to prevent him taking over Seattles rock scene on a large scale since the counter culture rock bands ended the grease period and took over. So O'day switches to counter culture bands to prevent the rise of Grafmyre and moves the concerts to the Seattle Center. Never liked Pat O'Day. What a schmuck. By 1970 Eagles shuts down, but Eagles will always be Seattle's greatest rock hall from the past. Got confused over Grafmyre and O'Day since they have been  off my mind over 40+ years.

Finally remembered the two other bands I saw at the Coliseum. John Hiseman and his group Colesseum, and The Soft Machine. Quit going to the Coliseum shows since the Seattle Police were doing pat searches looking for drugs, having to take off your shoes and empty your pockets.
In the 80's at the Bumbershoot  festivals, saw Mitch Ryder, Tina Turner(what a big ball of love), The Ventures, and my last concert I attended, Roy Orbison.

Whats really a gas is that the average cost of a ticket at Eagles back then to see all those great drummer's and bands was $3.75
The Eagles tour last year cost $200.00 a ticket. What a screw job. Their sitting on several hundred million dollars cash at their banks. Thats worse than Al Capone.

There were rare moments back in the late 60's and early 70's where the fusion of drums and instruments blended so well together in a handful 
of live rock/blues concert's that will go down in history as the greatest concerts ever that not even Jimi Hendrix could ascend to in a live concert format due to the explosive, atomic power these bands played on stage which were their peak performances of all time. The live concerts were "The Who" Live at Leeds. Creams live performances on their "Wheels of Fire" album at the Winterland and the Filmore auditoriums in early 1968.
The live "Yes" "Starship Trooper concert's. Joe Cocker and "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" at the Filmore East in 1970 which went nationwide as a major motion picture. Led Zeppelin first album tour concerts 1968/69. The Allman Brother's "Eat a Peach" live concert. In The 80's hats off to Rush's live 1984 concert in Montreal, and U2's "Joshuah Tree" tour concerts 1986/87.