Keith Moon vs. John Bonham POLL

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
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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...