Best Rock Drummers

Here's Charlie Watts' opinion. (Rolling Stones drummer, for those who don't know)

"Yeah. I would say learn to read music and listen to other people other than John Bonham. Now you’ve got totally the wrong impression about what I just said – I can see it in your face. [Leans forward and speaks carefully.] John Bonham is the best at being John Bonham and doing what he does. Or did – unfortunately, he’s dead. He was the best. There wasn’t anyone better than John like that, and thank goodness we’ve got some records so that you can hear it. But there are a lot of other people.

Ginger Baker was a much better drummer than John Bonham, if you really want to know about drumming. Ginger Baker is the best drummer to emigrate out of England. Really, Ginger is. And the guy who Ginger idolized – whatever the word was – we all did – was a guy called Phil Seaman. And Ginger learned everything off Phil. But Ginger can read, you know. Ginger’s not a foal. He can read music, he has wonderful chops, he has rudiments down. Having said all that, I don’t. So I would say to anyone – not only my offspring, but anyone – that’s what you should do, really. Otherwise, you’re locked into doing what I do. Which is fine. It worked for me."
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Philo,

I saw the Ginger Baker documentary, too, and it's clear that there's just something wrong with the guy. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I actually laughed when Ginger hit the interviewer with his cane at the end. They'd just spent several months together and seemed to have bonded (a bit), when Baker hauls off and whacks him. The poor guy just stands there bleeding and staring. It was awful and really not funny, but it was also just too bizarre for words.

OTOH, while Ginger Baker may be a pretty ugly human being, he can sure play the drums.

BTW, another name for this thread is Anton Fier of The Feelies and, later, The Golden Palominos. He was always providing interest and unexpected rhythmic flourishes for both of those bands.

i must be the only person alive who doesn't like john bonham's drumming (no disrespect to the memory of the man himself)--he was always behind the beat and gave the songs a lumbering, rather than propulsive feel. i just saw a 2007 zep tv concert with bonham's son jason on drums and actually preferred it to the original edition (even though plant's vocal range was shot)--the songs had more swing and less bombast.
i do agree with charlie watts on ginger baker, tho--that maniac can play.

Loomis - I understand what you're saying about Bonham, but playing on the back of the beat without slowing down is the essence of the "heavy" sound. There's a distinction between playing on the back of the beat and dragging and it's hard to do the right way. Carmine Appice played that way on the Vanilla Fudge records, but not quite as extreme.

Bonham was the right drummer for Zep at that time. In another band, maybe it would have been different. I heard Mitch Mitchell in a band called Ramatam after Hendrix died and it sounded like shite.