This is substack. I’m supposed to talk about New World Order conspiracies and stuff. Instead, I’ll talk about arguably the greatest drummer of the second half of the 20th century: Ginger Baker.
Exhibit a:
Standard wisdom says that Buddy Rich was The Best.
Exhibit b:
Buddy was amazing, and revolutionized drumming, but he could only swing in one direction at a time, like most drummers. Ginger could swing in 4 directions at once. Here is full deployed Ginger Baker, sort of a rhythmic MIRV of mass construction:
Exhibit c:
That other infamous drummer, Animal the Muppet, is allegedly based on Keith Moon, and I can see the resemblance, but they’re just cousins. The real Animal avatar was Ginger Baker, Animal’s true soul brother, down to the red hair (see Exhibit a).
But back when all this was happening, late 60s/early 70s, I was a true-blue Keith Moon devotee. Had he not suffered from severe emotional/drug problems, he might’ve matured into something that even Ginger Baker (who wasn’t much impressed by Moon) would’ve respected.
Personally, I think that what drove Moon’s drumming to such unique extremes was those emotional issues. Moon obviously had some serious demons that he fought in himself. I think he was always trying to break through to some kind of exalted freedom, and this is what drove his beautifully manic drumming.
Below is what I feel was the last example of Moon at his peak (Exhibit d), before the drugs etc. fogged him into a crude parody of himself. If you listen closely, you can hear his drumming begin to fall apart in this song. Whereas before he drove the drums through all obstacles to its desired goal, by this time (the album Quadrophenia) he struggled to keep up with the standard’s he’s established. He’s still kicking it and ferociously original… but he trips over himself here and there:
Exhibit d:
I close with Moon at what for me is his very best on The Who’s very best album:
Exhibit c:
If you’ve read this thing through, and listened to the music selections, you’ll know that, while Moon had a unique inimitable flair that was, at it's best, as good as anyone, it’s not like Ginger wasn’t equally an impulsively deranged rhythmic juggernaut (see Exhibit a).
I close with their Big Granddaddy, the guy who inspired almost every drummer of my generation to try drums — Gene Krupa:
As you can see, Moon is to a great extent just being his idol, Krupa, playing hard rock. Srsly:
But the future is for the very young: