Tuesday May 3, 2022 “Happy Jack” The Who (Keith Moon) Drums
Let’s get started with the foundation for our rock & roll heaven band with a drummer and there are some great ones to choose from but for me crazy Keith Moon is the first choice. He set the bar not just for great drumming but he was the first drummer I can recall who didn’t understand that drums were not the lead instrument in the band but should establish the backbone and drive the beat.
Keith Moon (real name) always drove the beat for The Who with an unparalleled enthusiasm but he was also consistently out front providing a staccato ‘melody’ for the band, playing ‘lead’ drums.
OK, let’s get this out of the way right now, as a stable person Keith Moon failed the test miserably. He would often blow up toilets in hotels to the estimated tune of nearly a half million dollars in plumbing replacements; he regularly threw objects out of hotel rooms; Moon once paid nine cab drivers to block-off both ends of a New York street so he could throw the contents of his hotel room out of the window living up to his nickname “Moon the Loon”.
And his drumming later in his career, thanks to the insane rock & roll life that he was leading, would not represent what he was capable of.
Along with Ginger Baker, another drummer who also led an unstable off-stage lifestyle, Keith Moon introduced the world of music to the sound of the double bass drum and was as responsible for The Who’s distinctive driving sound as much as the other band members.
Perhaps the ultimate irony, Keith Moon died from an overdose of a drug that was intended to help alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms as he tried to get sober…he died in an apartment rented from Harry Nilsson where Cass Elliott had passed away just a few years earlier,
Stay safe and well…and OK, we have the foundation of our rock & roll heaven band just be sure to keep the champagne and brandy, Moon’s drink of choice, away from Keith.