Keith Moon vs. John Bonham POLL

That's weird. I tap out Roger's singing with my feet and hands.

It's true. I always catch myself humming along to the drums when the Who come on the radio.

Well you see, I think that hits the nail on the head really. I'm such a massive fan of Townshend and what he can do with melody and his voice (when he finally takes the mic from Roger) that though Moon did a fantastic job of drumming (I Can See For Miles comes to mind) it's just NOT the main reason why I listen to the Who at ALL.

unexpected poll results, given all the moon love in this thread

There's really only one proper response (at 5:12):
http://www.youtube.com/v/uzeq-tEmQmQ&hl=en

i listened to this and while i can agree that he adds a lot of excitement and character and that the band might not benefit from a drummer who plays less, it's still not something i really want to listen to. it also seems very dated in a way...given how music has gone in the last 30 odd years, bonham's huge groove has aged a lot better.

One of the great things about The Who is the noninterchangeability of the personnel. They played the way they did with each other because they were inventing it as it happened.

If John Entwistle was keeping the time, it is because that is how they evolved together. Perhaps Moon could have played a more traditional drumming role in that band or another, but I'm glad it wasn't necessary, because I like how the three of them played together, as interdependent and entwined as any trio I've heard.

As useful and great as having a Charlie Watts or Bonham or Stewart Copeland, Ringo, in your band might be, I love The Who because they were a great organic forceful mess.

"Aged a lot better" is in the eye of the beholder. Both still sound pretty huge today IMHO.

aw I'd been thinking about starting this poll for like a month now

good thing I searched first

I think Moon here, by a big margin.

agreed, i love bonzo but moon is sui generis

why can't rock bands/producers/engineers make drums sound this good anymore????

seriously!

there are a couple working who can but you also need a bonham or a moon

otm

bonham's drumming on in thru the out door is amazing as ever, keith's on who are you is not. love them both but i think i dig bonham's a lot more these days where i would have chosen moon easily back in the day

I'd like to make this poll thread a PO10 Bonham / Moon highlights if noone minds.

weirdly, there's an article in the New Yorker this week that discusses this very issue.

bonham's possibly the better drummer. keith's infinitely more fun, more joyous a drummer.

Joe Carducci comments on the James Wood New Yorker article:

He writes, “Sitting behind the drums was like the fantasy of driving (the other great prepubescent ambition)…”, and on Moon drumming: “He seems to be reaching for everything at once.” Wood contrasts Moon to John Bonham profitably (to Glenn Gould less so) but then noting their deaths two years apart, ends, “And then English drumming went quiet.”

Your editor ought to have told you that was a subject worth six pages of the New Yorker: as in, What happened? A good ten years where the UK produces drummers like Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Mick Avory, Jack Jones, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Moon, Bonham, Bill Ward, Robert Wyatt, Greg Palmer, Bill Bruford, Clive Bunker, John Marshall, Phil Collins, John Weathers, BJ Wilson, Cozy Powell, Ian Paice, Mick Fleetwood, Barrie Barlow, Simon King, dozens more at least… until glitter and punk and media itself turned on music in the hot-house Pop machine that is London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGe19nbMhaY

Joe Carducci comments on the James Wood New Yorker article:

the band was increasingly tamed by the requirements of AOR programmers

"Hey guys, look, our listeners are really demanding more Terry Riley-esque minimalism...honestly, I don't think we can get you on the radio without it."

Bonham's drumming was technically better. Moon just did his thing, and it somewhat worked in spite of lack of actual formal drumming skills. When it comes to the myth about the typical drummer personality, Moon will always be the king though, and he also played in the better band of the two.

Take something like "Going Mobile", Moon is going so batshit crazy on the fills on the last part of that song, I just don't see how ANY other drummer could have made it work like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyOibvBoJKM

Moon sounds like three drummers going full anarchy.

Jeff Beck on hanging out with Keith Moon

Also, how did I not notice that Moon rarely uses a hi hat. Ever.

http://www.modculture.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/moon.jpg

Lucked out and found this book used for just a couple bucks. Looks pretty fun! Written by Moon's personal assistant?

hah amazon

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Moon Age Nightmare, March 21, 2013
By
NoName (Staten Island, NY United States) - See all my reviews
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of the Late Keith Moon (Paperback)
I can't stand books about drunken parties and destroying hotels (how cliche), this book skips Moons great contribution to rock drumming and gets lost in all the Moon antics, skip it unless you want to journey down a drunken path to nowhere.

Why are you reading this book? Do you see the cover?

Ugh, that book is horrendous. Tony Fletcher's bio is indispensable, but even he doesn't really get to the essence of what made Moon great.

Also, how did I not notice that Moon rarely uses a hi hat. Ever.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, June 9, 2014 10:51 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He used a hi-hat until mid-1966 or so, when he got his first double-bass-drum kit (immediately after watching Sam Woodyard in Duke Ellington's orchestra). From 1966 to 1973 he never used a hi-hat on stage, though he always had a hi-hat on his studio kit.

For the most part, his hi-hat was locked-closed (or half-closed) on studio dates. But sometimes, as on "Won't Get Fooled Again," you can hear him switch up his left foot from bass drum to hi-hat, like at 2:33 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVjpymrbIY

Starting in 1973, he added a locked-closed hi-hat to his live setup.

Bonham is the drummer I'd 10x rather listen to isolation tracks of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8cSe7RvqSM

and I don't even like that song

awesome post from tarfumes, very illuminating

^^^^ on that.

Thanks! Listening to that isolated WGFA is such a wonderful mindfuck.

"Fool in the Rain" track sounds amazing, and Bonham's sound is unmatched. Glyn Johns points out in his new book that Bonham was meticulous about tuning (and Moon rather less so). But it really reinforces that Bonham and Moon were such utterly different animals as to make comparisons pointless. I'd venture to say that they might as well be playing different instruments.

But if we do compare them as drummers, to paraphrase Andre Previn's famous quote about Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington, John Bonham can lay down a monster groove, and every drummer will nod and say, "Oh, yes, that’s done like this." But Keith Moon skitters over a couple of toms, the band suddenly lifts into the air, and I don't know what it is.

love threads like this one. i'm not a drummer and know so little about this very essential element of so much music i love. good reading, thanks y'all.

also those isolated drum tracks O_O

bonham would never be able to pull off the drum break in “my generation “

fuuuck those isolated bonham tracks rock!

do we have a thread for isolated tracks? we should! there were some really cool isolated malcolm young tracks on the ADCD thread recently

i got Keith's "Two Sides of the Moon" LP last year and really love it. it's messy and silly but you can tell there's a lot of love. it has a pretty star-studded lineup:

Rather than using the album as a chance to showcase his drumming skill, Keith Moon sang lead vocals on all tracks, and played drums only on three of the tracks ("Crazy Like A Fox", "The Kids Are Alright" and "Move Over Ms. L"), although he played percussion on "Don't Worry Baby". The album features contributions from Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh of the Eagles, Jim Keltner, Bobby Keys, Klaus Voorman, John Sebastian, Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles), Spencer Davis, Dick Dale, Suzi Quatro's sister Patti Quatro and future actor Miguel Ferrer. Originally recorded for his own album, but not released on it, John Lennon gave Moon the track "Move Over Ms. L" and later did his own version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Sides_of_the_Moon#Content

highlights include Beach Boys cover "Be My Baby" with drumming by none other than Miguel Ferrer, a really nice and touching strings-based take on "In My Life" and the 50s-rock-via-70s-excess Ricky Nelson cover "Teenage Idol"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVLggoEa8o

er... that's "Don't Worry Baby". heh i always get those titles confused...