Greatest Rock Drummers

bdp24: "I’m going to guess Steve Cham also considers Bonham a more inventive and musical drummer than Jim Gordon"

I have no idea as to what your supposition is based on. I like Jim Gordon very much. I like Levon Helm too. John Bonham left very deep tracks in the drum canon.

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.