The Greatest Rock Drummers Poll Pt. 2

Clyde.

Damn, Bruford is a personal favorite but it's hard not to vote for Clyde.

putting some guy from spoon above clyde stubblefield is fucking lol of all lols

^ He is actually higher than Jim Eno on the list: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/stylus-magazines-50-greatest-rock-drummers.htm
I sort of randomized them on the poll options.

clyde

i like how rock best of lists are the only ones to include "random other people from other genres who we also think are awesome"

What's really weird is ranking Al Jackson above Clyde Stubblefield. I mean it seems inevitable that these polls will rank some minor indie rock dude above a massively important and superbly skilled r&b drummer, but it's really weird to get the ranking so wrong within the genre (not that Al Jackson isn't great).

Voted Joe Easley from The Dismemberment Plan (which is spelled wrong). Fantastic drummer.

Ward

it's really weird to get the ranking so wrong within the genre (not that Al Jackson isn't great)

i'd take clyde too, but loving al jackson can never really be wrong.

and i guess he's not the best guy on the list, but levon definitely deserves love too. talk about your in-the-pocket guys.

clyde. i really wish he had a better band these days, i mean he plays here every week and it makes me not want to go see him.

joe easley was great on record. horrible live. would speed up/slow down and generally fuck everything up.

Al Jackson.

no mitch mitchell guys? really?

"Larry Mullen Jr. (U2)"

wtf

Rat Scabies is the bets rock drummer ever.

In terms of pure mind-blowing chops, Bruford is a couple leagues above everyone else.

I'll take Jimmy Chamberlin narrowly over Bill Berry in this one.

In terms of pure mind-blowing chops, Bruford is a couple leagues above everyone else.

even "mr. chops" Neil Peart? I think those dudes are in the same league. This one's tough.

Bruford busts time sigs that would melt peart's brane.

Neil Peart should buy Bill Bruford a house, as half of his tricks are based off Bruford while not having near the improvisational skills.

Ginger Baker is also a really well schooled drummer.

Really in this kind of poll, it depends on what you are wanting to do. It is hard to argue with Clyde Stubblefield or Al Jackson as those guys are tight at what they do. Hell, I'd love to hear what Fugazi would sound like playing with Clyde Stubblefield or vice versa could you imagine Brendon Canty playing with James Brown? I don't know that is something you kind of have to keep in mind.

Bill Ward is also pretty badass.

I'd figure Bruford or Ginger Baker could probably play with anyone and sound pretty good. I'm sure others might be able to pull it off too, but these two guys have recorded quite a range of music, especially Baker.

That's not really fair to Bruford, earlnash. BB doesn't have tricks, 'cause he thinks in an R^n, n > the dimension of space where other "normal" drummers play. Peart could no more rip off Bruford than a resident of Flatland could snack on a 5-dimensional compact differentiable manifold whose shadow happens to look like a bit of swiss cheese in R^3.

Stubblefield and Al Jackson aren't rock drummers, are they? I hate it when people try to own other genres as part of "rock", even though those genres have distinct histories of their own, and sometimes even predate rock. I still remember reading an article back in the early 90s, which mentioned "techno and rap" as "new forms of rock music".

Does the percussionist on Tommy - As Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir rock greater than these soul drummers? I can't remember his name right now.

sorry, that answer was meant as a joking "What does rock even mean" type post. Like "rock" could mean something that started with Crosby, Still, & Nash and ended with Pearl Jam. For my own use, I think of it as stuff based on or related to popular American small band music. That's a personal only for use in my own collection to help me figure out when Broadway and Classical need to be filed separately.

A different thread in a different place about history, language, etymology, entomology, and personal freedom. Do the guys that play Rock and Roll belong as much as the guys that play Rhythm and Blues? Ringo and Levon have more in common with Al Jackson than they do with Bill Bruford.

bump

Whats the word on Nicko McBrain of Iron maiden. I like him but I'm no drummer. Maybe he's all flash. What say ya'll?

Would've liked an option to vote for, amongst others, Barriemore Barlow as well, but. Lacking that, went for Bruford.

Nicko is a friggin' octopus - he's great I think ...
This is a hard poll - all here brought their own game - but you know what - Ringo merseybeat style is timeless.

Well, I like this list better than the other one.

Mitchell is pretty much the pinnacle, for me. Dude could play subtly but not in a sissy light-rock way on like "Little Wing" and then make a fine loud straight-ahead rock statement when he needed to. Baker is good in a similar way, but not as good as Mitch.

But, argh, there are some other fine throne-occupants here. Stubblefield, yow, sui fuckin generis. Helm and Berry are/were both quite tasteful players, ditto Ringo.

I think I like Bruford the most of that group of chops-centric players who get all the love from the drumming magazines (you know what I mean, the Satrianis of the drumming world). I find Peart boring, for example.

As for the Plan live: Travis used to rag on Joe E. for wearing those big-ass hearing-protecting headphones on stage; maybe they harmed his ability to groove? I dunno. Last I heard he was pursuing his original goal of being a rocket scientist, so it may just have been that the music was not his only priority.

AJ, Jr.

i love nicko!

I frankly don't understand what Canty and Mullen are doing there. Both are perfectly adequate for what they set out to do, but "greatest"?

Also on second thought Helm is hard to evaluate purely as a drummer, since he did so much else. His drumming has the quality of "rightness" to it, but I think I might be rating him higher because of his singing / other instruments / being a generally likeable person.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Guys, these results make a lot more sense if you read 'em from the bottom up.

You're not really suggesting that Larry Mullen is the best drummer among these, are you? Is it simply that James Brown's music annoys you?

I don't think Mullen is the best, but I'd take the drummers in the bottom half of the poll before I'd take the ones in the top half.

Been listening to Jimi Hendrix a lot lately and Mitch Mitchell come very underrated at this poll. His Fire performance at woodstock alone should be reason enough for him to place above Ringo and Chamberlin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnFkFCIQkcw

Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) 1

gee I wonder who this vote was lol

I can't remember who I voted for in this poll tho... I think I voted Yoshimi because I didn't want her to place very low on the poll :P

clyde needs a kidney

xp pretty sure I voted for Yoshimi because I wanted to vote for the drummer from Ruins, who wasn't included, and she was the closest to that.

wish i woulda seen this and coulda boated