Serious Omission - Where's Dennis Wilson?

[TalkShowMan]

Hi, this is my first post. Greetings from Belfast. Have been a long time viewer of the site, kudos to all involved in making it a one stop resource for the truly modern drummer.

Anyway, the subject of my first post is this; where is Dennis Wilson (no jokes please).
Couldn't help but noticing that a genuinely inspirational and influential drummer is't listed on the drummerworld roll-call. Any chance he could be put up here someday soon? I can give a long list of reasons why he should be here, but for now suffice it so say..."DENNIS ROCKS".

Discuss

[TitanSound]

He is on the DrummerWorld Wishlist (http://www.drummerworld.com/wishlist/U.html)

And welcome to the forums!!!

[TalkShowMan]

Ahhh, wishlist you say... I obviously don't know this site as well as I thought I did. Thanks for the reply.

[jstorey4]

I'm a huge Beach Boys fan. Dennis was not the greatest drummer, but did have a lot of natural talent. I mean, he was doing studio work and touring with only a year or two of experience. His solo album is pretty amazing. He also is never credited for being one of the first's to play "open handed".

[riddim]

With all due respect, I"m not sure how serious that omission is.

I saw Dennis with the Beach Boys on Shindig and elsewhere back in the day, and my overwhelming impression was that playing drum set with any degree of skill was not his thing. Nothing has crossed my vision to change that, unfortunately.

To the best of my knowledge , all the Beach Boys hits were recorded by Hal Blaine, earl Palmer, Jim Gordon, or a combination thereof. Hal's bio goes into this in detail.

[Skynman]

Start a thread about Dennis Wilson on the drummers page and see what the rest of the members have to say! I looked and did not see one about him who knows it may generate some interest? As far as the Beach Boys goes I like their sound and thought the drumming was fine!

[BellsOfRhymney]

He was great on live tapes I've seen ...great natural feel.

[nickg]

yes, hal blaine did most of the beach boys tracks in the studio. i'm not sure how many, if any, that dennis wilson actually did for the most part. so it's kinda hard to judge how good of a drummer he really was just by watching tv reruns of him playing along with pre-recorded tapes.

[chrisnope]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum but had to respond in some fashion to this old thread regarding Dennis Wilson. 1st off the fact that Dennis Wilson didnt play on studio recordings is a massive myth. I also think that the overwhelming attitude towards his drumming (he's been called a basher) has more to do with his brother Brian's attitude than anything else. Dennis played on alot more Beach Boys material and hits than you might realize.

He played on pretty much everything on their 1st four or five albums but did NOT play drums on "Surfin USA." song.He did however play on: "Don't Worry Baby," Surfin Safari," "Surfer Girl," "Wendy," "Do it again" " I can hear music" "Got to know the woman" and many, many more. The fact is he WAS the drummer in the beach boys. In later years, basically from 1977 on is when his drumming really began to suffer due to substance abuse problems just like Keith Moon. One only has to view later Who material to see that literally Keith could not play anymore, Dennis' talents suffered similarly.

Alot of people simply don't think Dennis is a good drummer. But I on the other hand disagree. In fact the early albums/hits that he played on are very good. They all have distinct hooks minus tons of fills.To this day I find it kinda strange that Ringo Starr is worshipped but Dennis (who in many ways was a similar self taught drummer) is never mentioned.

After 1967 he can also be heard on plenty of BB's material and this stuff shows off his drumming best of all. From 1967-1977 is when his drumming was at it's best due to plenty of road work. He however, took his songwriting most seriously and this talent including all the songs he lent to the BB's as well as his "Pacific Ocean Blue" album are incredible artistic contributions. As a drummer for 25 yrs of both tons of live and studio work I think I'm a pretty good judge of a drummer and I happen to like Dennis' drumming. It's not perfect, but then again he never took it seriously enough to make it that way. He has interesting phrasing and creshendos that he relied on, probably because he played 'open handed' although he was right handed.

Most of all- he endorsed Camco drums and up until 1975 he is ALWAYS seen playing either a Camco or a Rogers kit. He almost always used a Rogers Dynasonic snare-thus he had fantastic taste in drum gear. For anyone looking to judge Dennis' for themselves I'd suggest: The Beach Boys lost Concert which can be seen on youtube from 1964. And some parts of The Beach Boys Live at Knebworth from 1980. Albums to listen to- any of their 1st four proper albums as well as "Sunflower," "20-20" and the strangely interesting "Love You" from 1977.