Good prog band, bad drummer

I always kind of thought Charlie was a rather boring drummer.  I love a lot of the Stone's early music, but Charlie always struck me as competent but uninteresting. 

darkshade wrote: Lars Ulrich, to my ears particularly when they are playing really fast, sounds like he falls behind the beat so much that inverts the down-beat, and I don't feel it's intentional. Battery and Fight Fire With Fire comes to mind, but basically most of the fast thrash-metal songs.

On Fight Fire with Fire it's intentional. But it's true that he tends to lag behind the beat in the fast songs.

I saw the band Gryphon open for Yes during the "Relayer" tour, interesting band in some ways.  

The Doctor wrote: I always kind of thought Charlie was a rather boring drummer.  I love a lot of the Stone's early music, but Charlie always struck me as competent but uninteresting.

When I was about 12 years old..my brother-in-law took me out to watch professional bands rehearse. At the time the White Album was popular and bands were covering the material. I was asking all these drummers why Ringo's snare sounded different from all other drummers. They all stated that he often placed a bath towel on the drum skin to get that sound. Like the sound in "Glass Onion". I have never been able to confirm this..however I tried it myself and sure enough the sound was there. In the very early days Ringo would play nice rim shots and fast rolls on the snare..but later when he played on "Strawberry Fields" he sounded like he was doing a bizzare death march for Pink Floyd. My favorite drum sound and feel from Charlie Watts is on "Jumpin" Jack Flash' and "Street Fighting Man". There is something strange about the way he plays on both of those songs.British Invasion drummers were about the basics..yet created a unique sound for American drummers to emulate. Nothing technical, just different for the times. Definitely not the style of drumming Americans heard on Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, or the Surf music on the west coast like The Surfaris.."Wipe Out", The Ventures, or The T-Bones..which was basically all we had before the British invaded the U.S. bringing excitement to American kids! I loved Mick Avory from  the Kinks! It was all basics yet hardly anyone in the U.S. was playing those basic beats  the way they came across in "All Day and All Of the Night", Tired Of Waiting, + "You Really Got Me". I was not fond of Dave Clark's drumming. There's good and bad in every style for me personally.In 1966 , Carmine Appice, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell groomed the Jazz mentality into actual Psychedelic Rock. The double bass technique, triplets..and even odd time signatures were evident at the time.The most boring drum solo I had heard during this time was Ron Bushy's solo on "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". I disliked it from the very start, yet it became a national anthem for rock music in the U.S. I was a real Iron Butterfly hater. Later..drumming styles in rock transformed into what Ian Paice, Carl Palmer, and Michael Giles were creating..WHICH was different from the Ginger Baker school. It was an interesting time to follow drummers. America didn't have that in the early 60's. Instead we listened to Buddy Rich.  

Edited by TODDLER - March 05 2013 at 18:29

richardh wrote: sleeper wrote: richardh wrote: I like Paul Cook ( of IQ) and he is far from a bad drummer but Andy Edwards on Frequency shows what the band was missing for a number of years perhaps. Could they have been bigger? I'm not sure given that Marillion were seemingly never held back by having a less than brilliant drummer. I suppose Porcupine Tree might be an example of a band that took a big leap forward when they (or rather Steven) changed the drummer. I thought Cookie's drumming on Dark Matter was excellent, particularly on You Never Will. I would probably pick The Wake as my favorite Cookie drumming album. Can't beat the first rampaging minutes of Widows Peak Still feel that Andy Edwards added dynamics that I hadn't really heard in IQ before. The Province of The King is the best example. The last section is not dissimilar to that on Harvest Of Souls (both are very similar to the Apocalypse section on Suppers Ready) . Worth comparing.

They've got very different styles of play and both are very good drummers so Edwards was always going to hav an impact, though personally I favour Cookies drumming. Still, an excuse to listen to Frequency again.

richardh wrote: I like Paul Cook ( of IQ) and he is far from a bad drummer but Andy Edwards on Frequency shows what the band was missing for a number of years perhaps. Could they have been bigger? I'm not sure given that Marillion were seemingly never held back by having a less than brilliant drummer. I suppose Porcupine Tree might be an example of a band that took a big leap forward when they (or rather Steven) changed the drummer.

Edited by Guldbamsen - March 06 2013 at 09:20

Metalmarsh89 wrote: Mike Portnoy wasn't a bad drummer. In fact, he was a damn great drummer. I wish he would have sung much less, as I think that held Dream Theater back a bit.

My band never "made it" because of our awful drummer, he plays for 9 years but he is in a level of a month or something, we need to search for a new one.

horza wrote: Snow Dog wrote: tszirmay wrote: Snow Dog wrote: ^He may be dull but surely not sloppy? "Time Waits for No One"= tick-tick  "Miss You"  I don't know  what you mean. Neither do I - maybe he misses you