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Best drummer ever..


Wilbur

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​I don't know if he was even the best of the Beatles.  :)  I always heard it said tongue in cheek. 

​Ringo wasn't flashy (like his hands) but his timing was spot-on.  

If you like drumming in-your-face like John Bonham you won't like Ringo, but what he did, he did very well.

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I like BR, really do.  Of his time there is no question of who was the best.  A true innovator.  I do think that at least the first two that I mentioned were better. (NP and SC)  They, to me, are two of the best technical drummers I have ever heard play.  JB is just sheer power.  I just love his sound and style. 

On a side note, once I met Kenny Arnoff in a drum shop and got to play a bit with him.  He's no slouch. 

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For me a truly talented musician not only excels with his own instrument, but has to play seamlessly with the rest of the band - listening to what they do, complementing them.  This becomes even more pronounced with a drummer, who can pull a band together, drive it, calm it - or who can start wars between the members so it sounds like everybody is playing their own concert not caring what anyone else is doing.

I saw Buddy Rich play in concert, and any words I might use would fall far short of describing his abilities.  Even my imagination couldn't comprehend how he even thought up what he wanted to play much less how he managed to execute it.  I think of him with foundations in the Big Band and Jazz eras, though there's nothing he couldn't play.

Of the 'modern' or post-Big Band era drummers I would like others would pick Neil Peart.  I've listened to those songs untold times and still can't follow what he does.  Maybe there are other drummers with other bands who could have played those songs just as well as he did - but they didn't.  Most of the other bands wrote and played songs that were fairly easy to follow because, quite obviously, that makes them popular and that translates to money.  The songs Rush recorded weren't always that easy to follow, but they were popular because the musicians played so well people wanted to hear their music.

Who of the two is better?  That's like saying "Which is better, the sky or the ocean?"

Edited by Thaddeus Kosciuszko
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"Which is better, the sky or the ocean?"

​Clearly this is a discussion that can't be "won". We'll all have our opinions, tastes and preferences.  For many years I felt it was Bonham, and while I still regard him as one of the greats, it's the combination of talents that Peart has that puts him at the top for me.  He writes most of their songs, plays with talents that can't be described and has no real time signature throughout a song.

I looked up a Rush song with beginner guitar lessons and they guy was pretty funny.  He said to just listen to the record and play along with his instructions.  The timing changed so many times during the song it would be effectively impossible to describe.

The way Rush plays as one fluid sound astounds me.  They are truly magical.  All that being said, I don't think they are my favorite band, I don't generally pick favorites, but I'd still have to give that to Led Zeppelin.

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