Best Drum Solos

I saw Keith Moon live twice (’68 and ’69), and he was as punchy and exciting as any drummer I’ve heard live. The only other I saw like him was Buddy Miles in The Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield, of course). A great drummer makes a band his, and both of those guys did just that. Zak Starkey (Ringo’s kid) is doing a great job in The Who now.

I too love Mick Avory, Loomis (saw him live twice also). Did you know that’s not he playing drums on the early Kinks hit singles ("You Really Got Me", "All Day and All Of The Night", etc.) and some album tracks? That was British studio drummer Bobby Graham, a great player. Mick, believe it or not, preceded Charlie Watts in The Stones, though only in their very early rehearsal-only period, never gigging with them. Charlie himself is an odd player, somewhat stiff and awkward. But he has his charm, Jim Keltner feeling The Stones are Charlie’s band, not Keith’s (and certainly not Mick’s!).

Once I became aware of studio-only (mostly) drummers, their style of drumming became my gold standard---taste, economy, and musicality. Hal Blaine of course, Kenny Buttrey (Nashville---Dylan, Neil Young’s harvest album), Earl Palmer (New Orleans Jazz drummer, but heard on many 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll records), Roger Hawkins as I’ve already mentioned, Jims Gordon (Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, Derek & The Dominoes, Traffic, Dave Mason’s great Alone Together album) and Keltner (Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell, John Hiatt, Little Village, Randy Newman, George Harrison, The Traveling Wilbury’s), D.J. Fontana (early Elvis), David Kemper (Dylan, T Bone Burnett. Like Keltner, he’s from Tulsa Oklahoma), Buddy Harman (Nashville studio great), Al Jackson Jr. (Booker T & The MG’s), lots of others. What made Levon Helm particularly unusual was that he played like a studio drummer, but was in a self-contained group.