Best Rock Drummers

chayro, you got to the essence of my point--playing on back of the beat without slowing down the heaviness is critical. charlie watts or al jackson (who did all the booker t/stax stuff) play behind the beat, but don't hold back the whole flow; bonham doesn't have the same touch to my ears, although i'm biased towards the hyper, driving drum sound like baker, keith moon, stewart copeland.

Loomis - now that I think of it, I remember a record called Lord Sutch and His Heavy Friends. I think Bonham and Page both played on it, but it was horrible and Bonham definitely came off as ponderous. So it's a matter of compatibility as we all know. That was one of the worst records ever made.

just saw the "beware of mr. baker" documentary on netflix (ginger's quite a lovely fellow) and watched with interest his "drum battles" with the likes of elvin jones, max roach and art blakey. great a "rock" drummer as baker is/was, he's really not in the same league as the aforesaid three--they're speed, technique, etc. are astounding, while he sounds wild and unschooled in comparison. good film.

Based on Blu-ray performances that I've recently seen, I really agree with the previous Vinnie Colaiuta comments. His drumming on Jeff Beck's performances have really caught my eyes & ears!

Additionally, I don't believe Lenny White has been mentioned. He puts down some very musical & impressive licks on Return to Forever: Returns - Live at Montreux [Blu-ray] (2009) with Chick Corea on keyboards, Al Di Meola on guitar & Stanley Clarke on bass. In fact the musicianship displayed by everyone on this DVD is more than impressive.....