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John Bonham vs. Neil Peart vs. Keith Moon (Battle of the Drummers)


Marmalade_Skies

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All of them excellent.  Most best drummers list put Peart, Bonham and Moon in the top 3.

Neil Peart is probably the best drummer from a technical standpoint.  He's very calculative, methodical, precise and technical in his drumming.

John Bonham, however, probably has the best sense of rhythm of any drummer.  His drums come in hard and crashing, with a sense of heft that no other drummer can seem to emulate.

Keith Moon was just the animal, the id, total chaos, and he tried to be as unique and off beat as he could, while raging at certain moments.  Moon's one of the best drummers of all time, but compared to the other two, if you take out showmanship, I don't think he's as good as the other two.

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23 hours ago, IpMan said:

I never liked comparisons especially since their styles are very different. All three are / were great drummers.

Bingo. Music is not a sport. There doesn't need to be a winner in everything. Some people seem to do nothing but engage in endless lists and rankings, instead of just enjoying the music and the unique qualities each musician brings to the group.

I could no more imagine Rush without Neil Peart or the Who without Keith Moon than I could Led Zeppelin without John Bonham. They are all great in my mind and made their respective bands better.

I don't care who ranks who higher, blah blah blah. Just play their records and listen to their music without turning it into a competition.

Besides, this so-called "battle" would be fairly one-sided as Neil Peart is the only one alive.

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On 4/3/2016 at 3:56 PM, IpMan said:

I never liked comparisons especially since their styles are very different. All three are / were great drummers.

Agreed, all 3 bands were different as well. All phenomenal players, that have some thing different. It's almost as bad as comparing sports athletes from different eras, just not possible.

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  • 5 months later...
On Sunday, April 03, 2016 at 1:27 PM, Marmalade_Skies said:

All of them excellent.  Most best drummers list put Peart, Bonham and Moon in the top 3.

Neil Peart is probably the best drummer from a technical standpoint.  He's very calculative, methodical, precise and technical in his drumming.

John Bonham, however, probably has the best sense of rhythm of any drummer.  His drums come in hard and crashing, with a sense of heft that no other drummer can seem to emulate.

Keith Moon was just the animal, the id, total chaos, and he tried to be as unique and off beat as he could, while raging at certain moments.  Moon's one of the best drummers of all time, but compared to the other two, if you take out showmanship, I don't think he's as good as the other two.

John Bonham was technical as well.  i get bored with the "Peart is more technical" thing.  Listen to Bonham's bass pedal playing, thats as technical as it gets.  He was also technical on his hi hat/snare movements.

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All three have/had their qualities, three different drummers each with their own unique style of playing. Why only these three. I can think of at least a dozen other skin beaters as good as Moon, Peart or Bonham... 

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4 hours ago, JTM said:

All three have/had their qualities, three different drummers each with their own unique style of playing. Why only these three. I can think of at least a dozen other skin beaters as good as Moon, Peart or Bonham... 

A dozen?  Not rock music drummers.  I dont believe Moon belongs in this discussion.  He was fast, powerful and had flare, but he disnt really play a hi hat, and his bass pedal work is blah.  IMO, Ginger Baker, Bill Bruford, Ian Paice, David Grohl, Jimmy Chamberlain and Mitch Mitchell are all better than Moon.

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On 10/3/2016 at 3:05 PM, Amstel said:

A dozen?  Not rock music drummers.  I dont believe Moon belongs in this discussion.  He was fast, powerful and had flare, but he disnt really play a hi hat, and his bass pedal work is blah.  IMO, Ginger Baker, Bill Bruford, Ian Paice, David Grohl, Jimmy Chamberlain and Mitch Mitchell are all better than Moon.

Amstel, you are not a Moon fan, I get that. But, to say he was not a phenomenal player is just wrong.  Some of the drummers you list are nothing special to me. Wanna name some underrated drummers? How about Bill Ward from Sabbath & Don Brewer from Grand Funk RR?

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33 minutes ago, The Rover 75 said:

Amstel, you are not a Moon fan, I get that. But, to say he was not a phenomenal player is just wrong.  Some of the drummers you list are nothing special to me. Wanna name some underrated drummers? How about Bill Ward from Sabbath & Don Brewer from Grand Funk RR?

I am a Keith Moon fan, but I believe there are a handful of better drummers, mainly John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Neil Peart, Mitch Mitchell and Ian Paice.

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1 hour ago, The Rover 75 said:

That may be true, it may not. It's very hard to compare musicians that don't play the exact same kind of music. I will give you another underrated drummer, Neal Smith from the original Alice Cooper Group.

Ansley Dunbar & Stuart Copeland are two of the most underrated drummers I can think of with the nod going to Copeland. The style Copeland plays is quite unique and all his own, I have never heard another rock drummer play like Copeland. Dunbar's style is very reminiscent of a mish mash of Moon & pre-76' Bonham so, if you wanna know who would win a battle of the drummers between Moon & Bonham...Ansley Dunbar would be their love child.

Peart is such an amazing drummer, another very unique player. However my only complaint is the same everyone else seems to have, too mechanical and not enough feel.

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Bonzos grove and feel set him apart from anybody. He also didn't need 300 hundred drums to be good. I think keith moons playing is sloppy garbage and cant stand the comparison to bonzo. Bonzo in my opinion was the grestest musician ever.

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On 1/9/2017 at 11:30 AM, craigled said:

Followed by Lars from Metallica. We all have our opinions.

You're joking, right? I know we all have our opinions, but yours is just plain wrong here. :)

Since we're talking drummers, I'll give a shout out to Dave Lombardo.

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Hard Rock wise,

there's John Bonham,

then everyone else...

including top players...

Brian Downey

Vinnie Appice

Philthy Animal Taylor

Mickey Dee

Cozy Powell

 

Some drummers who weren't spectacular but still a perfect fit for their respective bands and essential to their signature sound...

Steven Adler

Phil Rudd

Bill Ward

Ian Paice

Peter Criss

Ringo Starr

Meg White

Dave Grohl

And yes, Lars Ulrich!

Plus...

Chad Smith (he might qualify as spectacular)

 

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The 3 things I look for in rock drummers are their drum sound, feel/groove, & originality.

A lot of drum sounds come from engineers, however, a lot of Bonham's came from the way he tuned, the size and make of his drums.  His sound was unique, as is Alex Van Halen's.  Neil Peart is an amazing drummer, but his drums sound unremarkable to me, especially within the last 10 to 15 years.  Most modern drummers have generic sounding drums to me.

Bonham had amazing groove and a great feel.  He's unmatched there.  Other great feel/groove rock drummers are Phil Rudd and Steven Adler.  Their former bands don't sound the same without them. 

Bonham's licks and playing were very unique, especially in the late 60s/early 70s.  No other rock drummer has been or will be as influential as Bonham.  

I could listen to Bonham's isolated drum tracks for hours and not get bored.  I know there are faster and more technical drummers out there, but if we're talking about being musical, Bonham is the best rock drummer to have ever played, in my opinion.  Stewart Copeland is another drummer I could listen to for hours.

 

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