NouveauCliche
Senior Member
I understand your interest, and I definitely don't fault you or anyone else for enjoying YouTube drumming prodigies and so on. There was a time when I admired drumming for drumming's sake, but I moved beyond that mindset years ago, and it's hard to see myself returning to it. I'm much more intrigued now by drumming that bleeds into a specific musical context, one in which the drummer doesn't stand out but rather fuses seamlessly into the overall ensemble. I often don't even know the names of the drummers I'm listening to. If the music is good, the drummer is doing his or her job, and I see the effort as a collective accomplishment rather than as a great drummer who happens to be playing with a band. In that sense, standalone drummers are at odds with my musical orientation at this point.
Rest assured that in the '80s and '90s, drummers with elite skills and blazing chops were a huge draw to me. My definition of "skills" has just changed over the years. A lot of players who never caught my attention are now catching my attention because their drumming does nothing to warrant attention, if that makes sense. The Drumming God phenomenon just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Example: If I had to choose between listening to Ringo Starr with The Beatles or Dave Weckl with one of his intensely intricate fusion bands, I'd take Ringo in a second, and I think we both know who the more "badass" drummer is between the two. Paul McCartney was once asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Laughing, Paul replied, "He isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles."
I don't disagree - I've always said that a good singer with a guitar can write a song that can move me or anyone to tears or action - even the absolutely best drum solo in the entire world is maybe moderately interesting to the listener with good ears - or if it's flashy like a spinning drum set or something a lot of casual listeners can get into it - and it will never move someone the way a good song can.
So I think we agree there - however, we play drums - so as a craft I like seeing what's possible and pushing myself out of 2 and 4 backbeats in 4/4 time.
I would honestly pick Ringo too - but that's because I've seen Weckl and what he has to offer. What I enjoy is seeing the new people and new sounds more than I did when I was in my heavy learning phase studying Weckl's and Gadd's and Rich, etc.
In fact I rarely these days listen to any music that's super "Drummy" just because fusion has always been more academic listening than practical listening. I guess that's the other thing I like about Instagram - one minute videos! That's about the extent of the drum fireworks I can deal with haha - but on occasion I'll find someone that I really get inspired by and I'll seek out a youtube or a Zildjian Live Session or whatever.
The only "Drumming God" I still hold to that moniker is Vinnie C. - and to your point - a lot of that is because not only does he have the ability to be a metric modulating, mind bending, chops hound - but he has the ability to play a Faith Hill track with brushes and play 1 fill in the entire song, but it's the tastiest lick ever and I would have never thought of it with a 1,000 years to work on a track.
Careful with that Beatle's quote - technically it's been attributed to John - not Paul - and was actually factually (ha) uttered by British comedian Jasper Carrott in 1983. ;-)