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Moon's Drumming



> I'm no expert on drums but there must be some drummers on this list and
> just out of curiosity I would like to ask you this - Putting the
> entertaining to one side and just looking at Keiths drumming abilities -
> was he as good as Kenny? Cheers...............Mick T.
 
Moon was much better than Kenny.  Much better.  And I like Kenny!  Moon,
like Hendrix, just took his instrument to completely unexplored territories.  True
greats bring a freshness & originality to their playing.  It's more about the ideas
& approaches that Moon infused in his paying; he made people say, "Wow,
I've never seen anyone play like *that* before!"      
 
 
> just about every drummer I know (rock
> star and club gigger) all agree that Keith was probably the "sloppiest"
> drummer in the history of rock.
 
I don't want to sound nasty here, but I really don't agree with this.  Most
drummers who say that are either jealous or into really lame drummers.
They're pissed of what Moon's drumming represents: the undisciplined
opposite of what *they* were taught.  They want stuff like John Boredom
.....ooops, I mean Bonham, Neil Peart, or some other soulless clone.
 
I remember asking a sound-guy/drummer at a club show what he thought
of Keith Moon & he said he didn't really think Moon had good "chops."  Chops?
You sad fuck, I thought.  Moon's artistry had nothing to with "chops."  There's
a whole other dimension to great drumming & it's got NOTHING to with
"chops."
 
Let's just say it like it is, man:  Many people are idiots.  They're into stupid,
shit music & stupid, shit drummers.  They block themselves from freshness &
originality because they're idiotic, boring, brainwashed people.  The hypnotized
never lie.
 
What does it mean to say Moon was sloppy?  I've got dozens & dozens &
dozens of live shows & apart from an *occasional* ....how shall we say it?.....
Moon miscue......he plays extremely well.  And I recognize the downslide
he & his playing went through before he died.  So what.  What's sloppy
about LIVE AT LEEDS?  Sloppy is not an adjective that fits Keith Moon's
drumming.  Sloppy implies a monkey behind the kit, like on that monkey-show
Lancelot Link.  That's sloppy.         
 
We all agree Jimi Hendrix was a dynamite guitar player, right?  Well, I've
been listening to Jimi for many years now.  I'm listening to the new Jimi Hendrix
Experience box set right now, & ya' know what?  Jimi hendrix was a "sloppy"
guitar player.  The live material is revealing slipped notes & the occasional
questionable decision by Jimi.  But it's also brilliant & unparalleled.  Which
do we want: boring & precise or unique & adventurous?  Dumb question,
isn't it?
 
(I'm taking this mood down to Atlanta with me!)
 
> You say that Kenney was as good as Keith in keeping time but it's wisely
> known that Keith was never a timekeeper!
 
If it's not the sad, incorrect cliche about Moon being a sloppy drummer, it's
his big, evil cliche-brother who reminds us that Moon wasn't a timekeeper.
And since we all believe what we read or what we hear while standing in
front of urinals, we repeat the now supposedly sly & ironic information that
Keith Moon, drummer for The WHO, wasn't a timekeeper.  "Ho ho ho," we
all laugh.  "He didn't keep the time!  He didn't keep the time!"  BULLSHIT!!!
 
Exactly which WHO songs *doesn't* Moon keep the time on?  Moon may not
have been a timekeeper like all *other* drummers were timekeepers, but he
surely was a time keeper.  Think of all the tight, fast, intricate, late sixties stuff.
The SELL OUT stuff.  Wasn't a time keeper?  What does that mean?
 
Sure he would circle *around* the beat, add accents to the on-beats, play extend-
ed tom rolls, use light cymbal subtlety, pound with cascading, plummetting forcefull-
ness, or respectfully keep an edgy, powerful backbeat.  Many times all in the same
song.  But make no mistake, whatever he was doing he was still keeping the beat.
One way or another.
 
We could always be picky & say that during some of his extended double bass
drum craziness, the timekeeping would usually smear away.  And many of the
extreme live "noise" segments The WHO would wander into became pure chaos
as well.  These, however, are extremes.  Any decent segment of primal-force, pure
power wouldn't be caught dead with a concept as man-made as a timekeeper.
 
So what truths have we learned? 
1. Moon is/was a better drummer than Kenny.
2. Moon wasn't a sloppy drummer (atleast no sloppier than higher-held contempor-
    aries).
3. Moon was indeed a timekeeper when he played his drums.
 
Wow.  Don't we all feel good?  Atlanta, here I come!!  Cleveland, you're next!!
Gotta love these "two-WHO-shows-in-three-days" kinda deals.  Talk to y'all on
Friday.
 
 
- SCHRADE in Akron