Cacophony (I'm hungry)

Next week I’m gonna go buy new drum heads and it got me thinking about drums.

Drums are a funny instrument.  When I think about it, there’s no reason anyone should ever want to play them: They’re expensive. They don’t last forever (heads and hardware need to be replaced pretty often). Transporting them ANYwhere without a tour bus is never groovy. Setting them up and tearing them down at a gig takes longer than any other instrument unless Keith Emerson plays in your band. You can’t really write a song with them…the list goes on forever all culminating with the stereotype that no matter how good you may be on your kit, you’re still not a musician. Of course this stereotype is not ENTIRELY true (Max Roach, Art Blakey, Charlie Watts), but like all stereotypes it’s based in truth. The distinction of weather you play drums and are a musician is weather you just “play” drums or you’re a drummer. I’ve certainly known many cats that “play” drums that I would not call musicians. The few actual drummers I’ve known I would never hesitate to qualify as musicians.

Just because you can lay down a moderately in-tempo 4/4 beat does not make you a drummer. And just cuz you listen to a lot of jazz doesn’t either.

I’ve always sort of had a love-hate relationship with drums. A lot of it stems from the attitudes a lot of supposed drummers have. They almost approach their instrument with the same attitude an auto-mechanic would approach some vintage car. There’s a lot of arrogance there as to how good your “chops” are (shudder) and it’s very off putting to a twelve year old just starting to learn about drums. However, when you hear a fellow who can make his kit SING, in any style, with no pretense at all, the feeling is indescribable.

I don’t claim to be the world’s BEST drummer. I know I’m not the worst either. But here’s twelve people I would love to play on the level of.

1.Charlie Watts

2. John Bonham

3. Mitch Mitchell

4. Spencer Dryden

5. Sam Lay

6. Ringo Starr

7. Glenn Kotche

8. Levon Helm

09. Al Jackson

10. Matt Chamberlin

11. Abraham Laboriel Junior

*note I did not include any jazz drummers in this list because I will make no pretenses that I am an expert in the art that is jazz drumming

**also this may seem slighty weighted towards the 60’s and 70’s. Yeah it’s a cliché, but for my money, I haven’t REALLY heard anybody that’s revolutionized drumming the way these guys have

***the really ironic part about this is that all the time I spent writing this I could have been practicing