Best Drum Solos

I’ll concede one point, ghosthouse---I really should not have used the adjective miserable, that’s excessive.

In The Last Waltz, Eric Clapton talks about hearing Music From Big Pink for the first time, and how it changed everything for him---after hearing it he told Jack and Ginger he was done with Cream. He says, and this is almost an exact quote: "Music had been going in the wrong direction for a long time. I heard MFBP, and thought ’Well, someone has finally gone and done it right’ ".

The Band’s Levon Helm was an unusually musical drummer, as musical as anyone I’ve heard. He also had technique (unlike another musical drummer, the unfairly maligned Ringo Starr), but used it to create great song parts. Another such drummer was (he’s still alive, but retired) the great Roger Hawkins. He was the drummer in the Fame Studios Rhythm Section (aka The Swampers) in Muscle Shoals Alabama. He can be heard on all those great Jerry Wexler-produced records on Atlantic---Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, Percy Sledge, and many others. Dylan used him, recording in Muscle Shoals specifically to get the "loose (relaxed, Southern feel) but tight" sound that he, bassist David Hood, pianist Barry Beckett, and guitarist Jimmie Johnson created. Roger went on to play in Traffic, at one time alongside another fantastically musical drummer, the aforementioned Jim Gordon. Two of the best drummers in the world, in the same band! Steve Winwood has great taste in musicians. Why then was Ginger Baker in Blind Faith? With Clapton!

What other musicians don’t like about drummers is their lack of musicality. The parts a lot of drummers play are designed, not to serve the song, or to selflessly make another musicians playing sound as good as possible, or to make for good ensemble, but rather to display their own chops, to impress everyone (especially other drummers) with their technical ability. Those parts don’t necessarily make for bad music (Johnny Barbata’s parts in his The Turtles recordings are fantastic both technically and musically. He later played in Jefferson Starship, but hey, a guy’s gotta eat ;-), but often do. Jeff Beck is a fantastic guitarist, so I was mystified when he had Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart) playing with him. Carmine is a drummer will highly developed technique, but poorly developed musical sensibilities. His playing is so "vulgar" it actually embarrasses me.

IMO opinion Ginger Baker was a rather selfish (I hope that does not sound too pejorative) musician, whose song parts are not only unmusical, but also really goofy---he "flops" along, in the time sense. He played every song the same, not considering what the song needed from a drummer. He was also a somewhat unpleasant fellow, though probably not as much so as Buddy Rich ;-).

I believe I’ve already told ya’ll this story Evan Johns told me when I recorded with him in Atlanta GA. If so, it bears repeating. Evan’s good friend and sometimes bandmate, the late, great guitarist Danny Gatton (Vince Gill, himself a fine guitarist, nicknamed him "The Humbler"!) played his first gig with a new drummer. After the first set, Danny had this exchange with the guy:

Danny to the drummer: "You know all that fancy stuff you’re playing?"

Drummer: "Yeah".

Danny: "Don’t".

When I was living in Sherman Oaks CA in the late-90’s, I used to bump into Billy Swan (remember his 1970’s hit "I Can Help"?), who was playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony in Kris Kristofferson’s band. He told me when Kris was just starting to play big shows in the late 60’s and early 70’s, everybody told him he needed to hire a drummer. Coming from coffeehouses and folk clubs, Kris had never had one. So, he arranged to have a drummer audition. Unfortunately, it being the late 60’s, and all drummers thinking they had to play like Ginger Baker, or Keith Moon, or (shudder) Carmine Appice, the drummer pounded his way through Kris’ songs, playing way too loud and way too busy, very unmusically walking all over the other bandmember’s parts. That’s what Clapton was talking about. Billy said that soured Kris on drummers, and that he never again auditioned one.

Clapton now has one of the best drummers in the world, the incredible Steve Gadd (he created the drum part in Paul Simon’s "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"). Now THAT guy can not only play a song as musically as anyone, but can solo like Buddy Rich, a very rare combination. And, his drums and cymbals also sound great!