Greatest Rock Drummers

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.

@audiozen


Bonham learned his bass drum punctuation and triplet style from listening to Carmen Appice of Vanila Fudge. He managed to emulate essential aspects of what Carmen did with two feet on the double bass drum with just one foot and a single kick drum. Plenty of folks since then have developed these skills but at the time it was unusual to see such an accomplished rock drummer (jazz drummers were far better than rock drummers back then and today it is the heavy metal drummers with insane foot skills)

You were very very lucky to catch them so early on... you saw history in the making ...but the year would have been 1968 not 1969. I believe Carmen was very supportive of Bonham and helped get Led Zeppelin as one of the opening acts, touring together. After the tour (done with rented gear), Bonham’s own Ludwig endorsement and kit was obtained with Carmen’s assistance. He initially had a double bass drum kit identical to Carmen but Page said it was just too much and that he “couldn’t hear himself think”. 

I will not attempt to persuade anyone that a specific drummer is the best.   I will say that Terry Bozzio is worth hearing.   I first heard of him with the group, “Missing Persons”.  Later, he was playing with Frank Zappa.

It was when two great guitar slingers, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Beck, came to town that I realized how good he is.   In my opinion, Bozzio’s solo with Jeff Beck stole the show.   He released a CD in 1998, “Drawing Circles”, which is his drumming only.