You're biggest influence.... past and present

[palmerlouie]

my dad was my first huge influence. but as for name drummers, Louie Bellson was the first drummer that really got me going.

in particlular the Buddy Rich Memorial vid with gregg, dennis and Louie. and of course from watching that, it was then dennis....

i remember going round to my friends when i was about 9 or 10 claiming that dennis chambers was the fastest drummer in the world.

next was weckl, rich, gregg, garibaldi, bla bla bla.

but louie and dennis were huge influences for me.

[FlamTriplet]

Originally posted by GrooovePig:
I remember being 13, in the eigth grade, and hearing Billy Cobham's "Warning" and it just literally knocking me over.

Around the same time period, I heard Al DiMeola's Electric Rendevous w/ Gadd. Again killing.

But from 1983-1988, years 13 - 18, nobody had as big an influence on me and my playing as Peart.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I saw the Warning tour. You know that major roundhouse monster fill in Mosaic? You know what I'm talking about! When it got to that fill at the show, Billy did a silent drum fill, just moved his sticks in the air. It was so awesome, because we all were waiting for the roundhouse fill, and he dogged everyone.

[benrand]

I loved his sound on Warning. Fat abd brutal.

They were right to warn people about that disc.

[Andy Edwards]

For me it's got to be Billy Cobham.

and I think he still underated, how many amazing drummers came straight out of his style (Simon Phillips, Bozzio, Rayford Griffin...the list goes on )
When I was a kid I'd been playing about a week and Billy was on TV and I just could not believe it...that was THE standard.
and then I found a copy of Crosswinds in my dads collection. To this day it's probably my favorite drum sound, playing groove and DRUM SOLO-the Pleasant Pheasant....pure beauty!!!!

I played in Switzerland with him once but I couldn't pluck up the courage to talk with him...what could I say?

[Steve Holmes]

OK, EARLY influneces:
Neil was the biggest, starting with Tom Sawyer, then all of Moving Pictures..then well...all of Rush up to Roll The bones. I can pretty much name any Rush tune from any lyric and tell what album its on and what year the album came out, and what order that tune appeared on the album. OK enough Rush..

Van Halen. 1984..Girl Gone Bad..House Of Pain..fantastic aggresive drumming by Alex. On to Fair Warning...more great stuff. Coutless hours memorizing drum parts and playing along with tapes for both Neil and Alex. Like memorizing note for friggin note.

MEN AT WORK. Thats right, I said it. Jerry Speiser was a great player, his use of splash cymbals in his fills was cool. Unique tom tuning sound as well. Busy player, great for a young kid like me back then. I'de say I learned some of basic drumming from their videos on MTV. This goes for all the drummers mentioned here.

Alan White. 90125 was also a big influence as well. Meeting Alan at Namm a couple of years ago was a thrill. The cool drumming in Cinema, "It Can Happen", and "Changes" were huge favorites and still give me chills sometimes.

Stewart Copeland! My first rock concert ever was Police in Atlantic City on the Syncronicity tour. Countless hours listening to that tape as well, memorizing every splash cymbal hit. His use of brushes in the video of Wrapped Around Your Finger I always thought was inventive, since he's clearly using sticks on the track, and hitting a cross stick (as opposed to a cannon tom with a brush like in the video). That was all thought out and I always thought that was cool.

Individual tunes back in the day:
Must have played along with Simple Minds "Dont you forget about me" countless times with the headphones on.
"Easy Lover" from Phil Collins/Phillip Bailey. Lots of tasty fills down the kit on this one.

Thats good for now.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 10, 2005 06:51 PM: Message edited by: Steve Holmes ]</font>

[Klemme]

My first was Jeff Porcaro and still is on the top of my Influence list. My dad listened, and practiced to the Tunes of Koinonia and TOTO back then and they became the backbone of my way into drumming.

Bill Maxwell was the next i practiced along to the tunes of Koinonia myself and incoorperated a tolerable timing through that [img]smile.gif[/img]

Then Gadd, Vinnie, Chambers etc. they came up as i goofed around in my dad's record collection, when he was not at home [img]smile.gif[/img]

Maxwell and Porcaro are those i respect the most, i listen to Vinnie alot, but he doesn't touch me as deep as Porcaro n'or Maxwell, they seem to be dwelling in my heart and vinnie in my brain.

[Daniel LeClaire]

When I first started playing, at the age of 13, my biggest influence was Paul Roraback from Grammatrain. He was a huge Neil Peart fan, so I guess I was indirectly influenced by Peart even though I've never listened to Rush.

Then, I started getting into the Dave Matthews Band and Carter Beauford became my drumming hero. It was good because their music really opened the door for me to get into jazz as well as many other styles of music.

Presently I don't have any one guy that is my main influence. There are so many great players out there, I try to take what I can from them all.

[WecklsMechanic]

Steve posted
"MEN AT WORK. Thats right, I said it."

I must have forgotten some of the stuff I'm not so proud of, but I thought was really cool and ahead of it's time.

DEVO!!!!! 1st three albums were the coolest to skate and play to.

Along with the Cars, Pat Benetar, & Aerosmith. Who didn't know the beginning to "Walk this Way"?? (some famous rapper knows it well.... can you do the "Wild thang")

If you can believe this........

Rap is at an all time low regarding originality. I'm listening to my mechanic playing his radio station today, and this rap group comes on using the "If I was a rich man.... bada deda deda dada deda dada deda deda dum" from Fiddler on the Roof. Is that an all time low or what??

sorry.... Rap. Off topic. But I get soooo pissed when these (certain) guys can't think of an original thought to save their lives.

[five eight]

John Bonham, Stewart Copeland, Tony Williams and Terry Bozzio are the foundation stones upon which all my drumming rests. They changed the way drummers approached their instrument. Their imapct was unequivocally undeniably universal; and I wasn't the only one they influenced. Unique drumming creates interesting hybrids. What their clever playing said with a nudge and a wink to me as a drummer was, "You can get this whack too, if you want." You can easily trace this lineage: Carl Palmer begat Billy Cobham begat Simon Phillips begat Neil Peart begat Terry Bozzio begat Marco Minneman ad nauseum. Now that's a line of influence!

When I heard Bonzo play the first three drum beats of "Since I Been Loving You" I knew I wanted to sound just like that. He'd already been killing me on "Communication Breakdown" and "How Many More Times" the latter I think, to this day, is some of his finest recorded work. One thing Bonham legitimized was to play the drums as loud as you fucking wanted. Up until him there were some great drummers, but even Buddy Rich played at a polite volume.

Tony Newman's drumming on BECK-OLA is kickass, especially "The Hangman's Knee" and "Rice Pudding." Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker aren't living legends without good reason. Even though Keith Moon would later record a better "Summertime Blues" and Carmine Appice a better version of "Parchman Farm" I remember a very long-haired chap named Paul Whaley with Blue Cheer in 1968. Blue Cheer's second album had a low-speed photo of Whaley flailing at a double bass Rogers kit so his drumsticks blurred like Japanese hand fans! I'd stare at that picture for hours when I was 13 or 14 years old and wish I could play drums. My parents said "No way!" to a set so I used to drive them crazy hammering away at a naugahyde chair with a pair of parade ground sticks.

After I finally got a kit and began to understand what I was doing Ian Paice used to knock me out. "Lay Down Stay Down" contained every flamboyant drum lick known to man and he played every one of them within the context of a rock song in four and a half minutes. Cobham played even faster than that.

I heard "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" on the radio and thought, "Who is THIS?" And Gadd's fiery playing on Al DiMeola's CASINO reparted my hair. I didn't even know what Latin was back then.

Neil Peart played odd time and concocted fun drum parts and I was trying to figure him out when Stewart Copeland and Jeff Porcaro released the sophomore Police and Toto albums REGATTA DE BLANC and HYDRA. More fun stuff!! That made me dig out KATY LIED and re-visit one of my all-time favorite Jeff grooves: "Chain Lightning."

Then I heard the original Tony Williams Lifetime and had to re-think a few things. Elvin Jones introduced me to Coltrane and I bought about 60 of his records. Improvisational bliss.

I wasn't too impressed the first time I heard Simon Phillips because I thought double bass was a gimmick. I know better now and Simon's open-handed playing makes me want to pick up a pair of sticks myself everytime I hear him.

Modern Drummer was touting this guy named Vinnie Colaiuta. I bought the Buddy Rich Memorial video and told a friend "Vinnie smoked Gadd!" My friend said, "Nobody smokes Gadd." I showed him the video and he turned to me and, with his jaw at mid-chest level, said, "Vinnie smoked Gadd." I thought Weckl was pretty mean too. Yeah, I know it ain't a competition but 'cutting contests' have been going on since the days Buddy swaggered down 52nd Street in the 40s and they were going on that night between Vinnie and Weckl, at least, although I always thought Gadd wisely sat it out.

Anyway there's Phil Rudd, Michael Giles, Bill Bruford, Jojo Mayer, Zigaboo, Sly & Robbie, Eddie Bayers, Mel Gaynor, Bernard Purdie, Matt Cameron, Stephen Perkins, Danny Carey and . . . well, y'know, I like all the same drummers as you.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 12, 2005 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Five Eight ]</font>

[five eight]

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<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 12, 2005 01:34 PM: Message edited by: Five Eight ]</font>