Simon Sux?

[Howard Powers <howie@rexnet.net>]

ChicoTodd wrote:

> As far as I'm concerned, Simon is the epitome of a mechanical, unimaginative
> drummer.

I'm relieved to know that I'm not the only one.  He plays everything Just The Way
A Rock Drummer Should.  Which these days is exactly the same as any big
classic rock stadium show drummer.  The drums all sound the same these days.  Part of
that's the homogenization (sorry, grammar buffs... don't know if that's a word)
of Live Rock Sound Engineering (sorry again... overuse of caps?), but there is
also a homogenization of the playing itself.  It's also happening on a lot of jazz
albums in the 90's.

I once saw an educational book from the 1800's, sort of a "How To Act" book.
Apparently this volume was fairly revered in its time.  But the book featured
pictures of facial expressions, with captions describing the emotions portrayed.
In other words, if you are portraying anger, make this face... fear, make this
face.  Acting by numbers.

And the sad state of affairs in the 90's is that most classic rock and jazz drummers
drum by numbers.  They do everything perfectly... but there is no feeling.  They
merely portray ferocity, and they do it exactly the way countless other unimaginative
drummers do it.  (Insert biddabop-crash-andathumtwiddle-bang at end of 2nd
chorus to give a feeling of increased energy, is how the manual would read, if there
was one).

I have no qualms with imitation, because that can be a way for a drummer to grow.
But we now have a bunch of copycats... they've taken it to a high level of technical
proficiency, but music is also a form of expression.  And that's what I miss today
from classic rock drummers.

On the other hand, you can always count on Simon Phillips... the music will never
crash to a halt because of him.  You will get your money's worth.  You'll get
entertainment.  You'll get the same thing Tina Turner (and her very capable, homo-
genous drummer) gives out in her shows these days... the exact same thing, night
after night after night.  Never a bad night.  And that really is a good thing.  But from
the Who, I want a great thing.  I don't want to be entertained the the Who... I want
to be inspired.

I sometimes wonder if Roger just wasn't pissed off that Kenney Jones didn't play
like Keith Moon.  He was much more of a finesse drummer, IMHO.  Keith hit
the drums hard; Phillips hits the drums hard (that hard-hitting style is part of the
aforementioned homogenization; Keith added imagination).  Kenney liked to fiddle
with the rhythm itself.  Perhaps Roger felt Kenney should have played like Keith
(which nobody could), that Kenney should have been able to bring back the fire
of the old days (which is a huge load to place on anybody's shoulders, even the
orignial members'), and blamed Kenney for not doing that.  He seems to harbor
resentment toward Kenney personally because of his drumming.  In much the
same we he seems to resent Pete for not being a more lead-type player.

It's been a long time since I've listened to FD (Face Dances) and
IH (It's Hard), but it seems like he bounced off the music in an interesting way.
Keith was the music for everyone else to bounce off of.  FD and IH are good
albums.  But how can they hold a candle to anything else The Who did?
Compared to the rest of the catalogue, something's missing.  But on the grand
scale of rock music, these albums still rank pretty high, I think.  Very good
albums.

But we want more from The Who, don't we?

Thanks for enduring the self-indulgent length of this post.

Long Live Rock!

Howard P.