Great to see the real #1 where it truly belongs, and not at #2!

Anyone think Tarkus should be higher? I hate ELP, but it definitely trumps Won't Get Fooled Again.

Not in terms of influence or reputation.

But yeah, Palmer is one of my favorites.
jew, have you heard any of his stuff with Atomic Rooster?

Tarkus should be higher I never knew why it was so low. My main issue with this list (and why I don't work on it) is it has no criteria and no one has told me what it's attempting to accomplish. What do we mean by greatest? Most important? Most creative? Most skillful? Most original? How are we ranking these?

Yeah I never knew the criteria for this list either, that's why I never edited it. I just really don't like ranking specific performances anyway. Seems so painstaking and tedious.

exactly. This list kinda seems pointless, it's even harder to rate performances on impact and influence of a SINGLE drum performance (not even drum line). I think we should just make a list of essential listenings in the rock genre for drums, just like if learning about keyboards/piano in rock you could list essential listening. But ordering them? Impossible. It might be better to actually just go by drummers and list their essential works or most famous/creative performances. I think we already have a thread for that actually, but I wouldn't go to 10. Just maybe their 5 most essential performances, you know, things you should hear if you are trying to see the placement and development of drums in rock music.

In which case if this ends up too similar to greatest performances by greatest rock drummers then this list is pretty much pointless. We may as well just take out the numbers, name it essential listenings and leave it as is.

So you're going to create a new thread for it?

Doesn't sound too bad to me.

Not a new thread, the other thread already exists. Either we just scratch the numbers and dub these 'essentials' or we just pick the top 5 greatest/important performances per drummer, which we already have a thread for.

Why not just delete both of these threads and make a new one titled Drummers' Essential Works? We have one of those in the guitar forum, and it's a lot of fun to do (although the guitar forum is a ghost town anymore).

sounds good to me. When we get through the top 50 of Greatest Drummers and revise skilled that could be next. I'm also still planning on doing greatest of all genres that list has not been abandoned, just going by priority for now

All I know is that if we DID decide to order them as an official list, Heart Of The Sunrise would probably be #1.
I mean I love Bonham but this is on another level when it comes to dynamic control and artistry. Seems like every time I listen to it, I find one more impressive thing about it, whether it's his incredible accentuation, contrasting volumes, or what have you.
Fucking brilliance.

Heart of the Sunrise is IMO the greatest performance I've heard in rock as well. Beyond brilliant.

And it's not like it's lacking in influence or 'greatness' either. Isn't Bruford pretty much seen by everyone as the definitive prog drummer?
It's probably close between him and Peart there...

I'd previously only heard it via youtube, but I got the CD yesterday, and man....world of difference.

I actually tried to push hard for it as #1 back in 2005 I think. Or at least I tried to get Bill raised (he was seemingly eternally stuck at #7 in greatest drummers) based on Heart of the Sunrise and trying to explain to people how amazing it was.

Yeah, I've thought literally ever since I first heard it that it's peerless as a drum performance. Absolutely peerless. Like if God wrote a drum part himself. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in that opinion!

Incidentally, the main reason I was annoyed at Strangiato being like #1 or #2 or whatever is unlike say Moby Dick or something it's not extremely extremely influential enough to have an argument for making #1 based on sheer influence. It's just a good drum performance that pales in performance to, er, better prog drum performances in my book, like HOTS, Larks, and shit Schizoid Man too

Giles wasn't really influential though, he was just incredibly brilliant at what he did.

Anyway, am I the only one who finds South Side Of The Sky just a tad overrated as far as drumming?
As a song, it's a killer, but as a drum performance, I wouldnt call it one of his very best. Quite honestly, it pales in comparison to other things like Larks or Fracture.