Best Drum Solos

First of all, Ginger’s drums and cymbals sound terrible---terrible! The drums are thin and ringy, no body or tone, like an unplugged Telecaster. The cymbals are dissonant (the overtones being out-of-tune with the fundamental) and clangy, without the percussive "click" of good cymbals, or their melodic pitch and tone. Listen to the cymbals of Jim Gordon (Derek & The Dominoes, Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, Traffic) and many Jazz drummers (as well as Don Lamonds in the aforementioned "Beyond The Sea"), then Gingers. The man had no taste! Likewise, his drums just don’t sound good. Just as with his cymbals, their overtones are out-of-tune with the fundamentals, creating dissonance. Ugly and unpleasant. Some drummers never learn how to tune drums. He also used really thin heads on his drums. Ask any guitarist about what super-thin strings sound like---no body, no substance. To hear what good drums and cymbals sound like, listen to Levon Helm’s on the Band’s albums, particulary the 1st and 2nd. Listen to the opening of "The Weight", the three simple quarter notes Levon plays on his mounted and floor toms. Fantastic! Then listen to his cymbals---beautiful musical instruments, very much like Jim Gordon’s.

As for the substance of Ginger’s "Toad" solo, when you take away all the repetitions of patterns and figures that he plays, you have only a couple minutes of actual ideas. He just repeats them over and over and over again in a row, making the solo sooo repetitious and (imo) boring. And those ideas themselves are just not interesting, at least not to me. They sound awkward and clumsy, without quality flow, structure, and development. Each to his own!

There is a story told of when Miles Davis went to a club to watch and hear The Buddy Rich Big Band. Miles expressed his surprise at discovering that Buddy wasn't just displaying his astounding chops, but that he was playing parts that set up the song for what the other players were about to play.  That's called ensemble playing, and that's the way the best musicians play. Ginger Baker was not one of the best, whether he was soloing or playing a song. It doesn't bother me that others like his playing, I don't know why it should bother anyone else that I don't!

Regarding being a "professional musician and all", that does not make an opinion any more valid than that of anyone else, including non-musicians, professional or otherwise. I have known non-musicians with far better taste (imo) than many musicians I’ve known. And taste is what we’re talking about here. That, and the lack of it ;-).

I’ll concede one point, ghosthouse---I really should not have used the adjective miserable, that’s excessive.

In The Last Waltz, Eric Clapton talks about hearing Music From Big Pink for the first time, and how it changed everything for him---after hearing it he told Jack and Ginger he was done with Cream. He says, and this is almost an exact quote: "Music had been going in the wrong direction for a long time. I heard MFBP, and thought ’Well, someone has finally gone and done it right’ ".

The Band’s Levon Helm was an unusually musical drummer, as musical as anyone I’ve heard. He also had technique (unlike another musical drummer, the unfairly maligned Ringo Starr), but used it to create great song parts. Another such drummer was (he’s still alive, but retired) the great Roger Hawkins. He was the drummer in the Fame Studios Rhythm Section (aka The Swampers) in Muscle Shoals Alabama. He can be heard on all those great Jerry Wexler-produced records on Atlantic---Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, Percy Sledge, and many others. Dylan used him, recording in Muscle Shoals specifically to get the "loose (relaxed, Southern feel) but tight" sound that he, bassist David Hood, pianist Barry Beckett, and guitarist Jimmie Johnson created. Roger went on to play in Traffic, at one time alongside another fantastically musical drummer, the aforementioned Jim Gordon. Two of the best drummers in the world, in the same band! Steve Winwood has great taste in musicians. Why then was Ginger Baker in Blind Faith? With Clapton!

What other musicians don’t like about drummers is their lack of musicality. The parts a lot of drummers play are designed, not to serve the song, or to selflessly make another musicians playing sound as good as possible, or to make for good ensemble, but rather to display their own chops, to impress everyone (especially other drummers) with their technical ability. Those parts don’t necessarily make for bad music (Johnny Barbata’s parts in his The Turtles recordings are fantastic both technically and musically. He later played in Jefferson Starship, but hey, a guy’s gotta eat ;-), but often do. Jeff Beck is a fantastic guitarist, so I was mystified when he had Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart) playing with him. Carmine is a drummer will highly developed technique, but poorly developed musical sensibilities. His playing is so "vulgar" it actually embarrasses me.

IMO opinion Ginger Baker was a rather selfish (I hope that does not sound too pejorative) musician, whose song parts are not only unmusical, but also really goofy---he "flops" along, in the time sense. He played every song the same, not considering what the song needed from a drummer. He was also a somewhat unpleasant fellow, though probably not as much so as Buddy Rich ;-).

I believe I’ve already told ya’ll this story Evan Johns told me when I recorded with him in Atlanta GA. If so, it bears repeating. Evan’s good friend and sometimes bandmate, the late, great guitarist Danny Gatton (Vince Gill, himself a fine guitarist, nicknamed him "The Humbler"!) played his first gig with a new drummer. After the first set, Danny had this exchange with the guy:

Danny to the drummer: "You know all that fancy stuff you’re playing?"

Drummer: "Yeah".

Danny: "Don’t".

When I was living in Sherman Oaks CA in the late-90’s, I used to bump into Billy Swan (remember his 1970’s hit "I Can Help"?), who was playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony in Kris Kristofferson’s band. He told me when Kris was just starting to play big shows in the late 60’s and early 70’s, everybody told him he needed to hire a drummer. Coming from coffeehouses and folk clubs, Kris had never had one. So, he arranged to have a drummer audition. Unfortunately, it being the late 60’s, and all drummers thinking they had to play like Ginger Baker, or Keith Moon, or (shudder) Carmine Appice, the drummer pounded his way through Kris’ songs, playing way too loud and way too busy, very unmusically walking all over the other bandmember’s parts. That’s what Clapton was talking about. Billy said that soured Kris on drummers, and that he never again auditioned one.

Clapton now has one of the best drummers in the world, the incredible Steve Gadd (he created the drum part in Paul Simon’s "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"). Now THAT guy can not only play a song as musically as anyone, but can solo like Buddy Rich, a very rare combination. And, his drums and cymbals also sound great!