Best Performances by Drummer (Revision Version)

[Sherick]

Bill Bruford

1. Heart of the Sunrise
2. Close to the Edge
3. Indiscipline
4. One More Red Nightmare
5. B'Boom
6. South Side of the Sky
7. Lark's Tongue in Aspic Part I
8. Fracture
9. Frame by Frame
10. Starless

Bill Ward

1. The Wizard
2. Rat Salad
3. Symptom of the Universe
4. War Pigs
5. Wicked World
6. A National Acrobat
7. Iron Man
8. Faries Wear Boots
9. Dirty Women
10. Black Sabbath

Brann Dailor

1. Capillarian Crest
2. Crystal Skull
3. Siberian Divide
4. Iron Tusk
5. Shadows That Move
6. Hearts Alive
7. Blade Catcher
8. The Wolf Is Loose
9. I Am Ahab
10. Blood & Thunder

Carl Palmer

1. Karn Evil 9
2. Tarkus
3. Tank
4. Tocata
5. Take a Pebble
6. Barbarian
7. And So to Bed
8. When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine
9. Bitches Crystal
10. Hoedown

Danny Carey

1. Ticks & Leeches
2. Lateralus
3. Pneuma
4. Ampresand
5. Pushit
6. The Grudge
7. Forty Six & Two
8. Reflection
9. Rosetta Stoned
10. Ænema


Ginger Baker

1. Toad
2. Do What You Like
3. Rollin' and Tumblin'
4. White Room
5. We're Going Wrong
6. Sunshine of Your Love
7. Sitting on Top of the World
8. Tales of Brave Ulysses
9. Those Were the Days
10. I'm So Glad


Jimmy Chamberlin

1. Geek USA
2. Streetcrawler
3. Silverfuck
4. Jellybelly
5. Jesus I/Mary Star of the Ocean
6. I Am One
7. United States
8. PSA
9. Lyric
10. Siva

John Bonham

1. Moby Dick
2. Good Times Bad Times
3. Achilles Last Stand
4. The Crunge
5. Fool in the Rain
6. How Many More Times
7. Bonzo's Montreux
8. In My Time of Dying
9. Dazed & Confused
10. Since I've Been Loving You

Jon Theodore

1. Tetragrammaton
2. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
3. Cassandra Gemini
4. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
5. Day Of The Baphomets
6. Eunuch Provocateur
7. Meccamputechture
8. Drunkship of Lanterns
9. L'Via L'viaquez
10. Viscera Eyes

Keith Moon

1. Won't Get Fooled Again
2. A Quick One
3. Cobwebs & Strange
4. I Can See for Miles
5. My Generation
6. The Ox
7. Bargain
8. Baby Don't You Do It
9. Heaven & Hell
10. Getting in Tune

Martin Lopez

1. Deliverance
2. Ghost of Perdition
3. The Grand Conjuration
4. By The Pain I See in Others
5. The Leper Affinity
6. Closure
7. Remember Tomorrow
8. Wreath
9. Fatal Portrait
10. Blackwater Park

Mike Portnoy

1. Stream of Consciousness
2. Dance of Eternity
3. Erotomania
4. Constant Motion
5. Paradigm Shift
6. In the Presence of Enemies
7. Metropolis
8. Acid Rain
9. 6:00
10. Finally Free

Neil Peart

1. La Villa Strangiato
2. 2112
3. By-Tor & The Snow Dog
4. Cygnus X-1 Book 1: The Voyage
5. Anthem
6. Xanadu
7. Cygnus X-1 Book 2: Hemisphere
8. The Fountain of Lamneth
9. One Little Victory
10. Tom Sawyer

Nick Mason

1. Time
2. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
3. Echoes
4. Biding My Time
5. Dogs
6. A Saucerful of Secrets
7. The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt. 2
8. The Nile Song
9. Atom Heart Mother
10. Money

Nicko McBrain

1. Where Eagles Dare
2. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
3. Ghost of the Navigator
4. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
5. Caught Somewhere in Time
6. Powerslave
7. Alexander the Great
8. Satellite 15...The Final Frontier
9. Paschendale
10. The Talisman

Phil Collins

1. Supper's Ready
2. The Musical Box
3. Dance on a Volcano
4. The Cinema Show
5. The Fountain of Salmacis
6. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
7. Return of the Giant Hogweed
8. Firth of Fifth
9. Seven Stones
10. The Battle of Epping Forest

Ringo Starr

1. Rain
2. She Said She Said
3. The End
4. I Me Mine
5. Strawberry Fields Forever
6. A Day in the Life
7. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
8. Good Morning Good Morning
9. Oh! Darling
10. Here Comes the Sun

Roger Taylor

1. Great King Rat
2. Liar
3. Keep Yourself Alive
4. Sweet Lady
5. Earth
6. Brighton Rock
7. Good Company
8. Ogre Battle
9. The Loser in the End
10. Father to Son

Simon Phillips

1. Smallcreep's Day
2. Give Blood
3. Dave's Gone Skiing
4. Crises
5. Star Cycle
6. Drag Him to the Roof
7. The Lake
8. Baby He's Your Man
9. Taurus 3
10. Romani

Terry Bozzio

1. Tragic
2. US Drag
3. Duende
4. Friendly Little Finger
5. Spiral
6. Windows
7. The Only Thing She Needs
8. Ms. Pinky
9. Carrying No Cross
10. The Torture Never Stops

Thomas Pridgen

1. Wax Simulacra
2. Ouroboros
3. Askepios
4. Goliath
5. Conjugal Burns
6. Soothsayer
7. Ilyena
8. Cotopaxi
9. Cavalettas
10. Teflon

Tim Alexander

1. To Defy the Laws of Tradition
2. Frizzle Fry
3. John the Fisherman
4. Mr. Knowitall
5. Spegetti Western
6. Tommy the Cat
7. Sgt. Baker
8. Eleven
9. Too Many Puppies
10. Over the Electric Grapevine

Vinnie Paul

1. Throes of Rejection
2. Becoming
3. I'll Cast a Shadow
4. Primal Concrete Sledge
5. 13 Steps to Nowhere
6. Revolution Is My Name
7. The Art of Shredding
8. I Can't Hide
9. Slaughtered
10. 25 Years

[DmitryXenon]

Suggestion:

Nick Mason

1. Time
2. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
3. Echoes
4. Biding My Time
5. Dogs
6. A Saucerful of Secrets
7. The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt. 2
8. The Nile Song
9. Atom Heart Mother
10. Money

Best Album: The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)

[Sherick]

Works for me

[AmadeusD]

Carey needs a bit of an update..

Pnuema at 3 and Descending at 6-7 I think.

[Sherick]

I would plop Pneuma at the top spot tbh. That performance has already become legendary and was making waves in the drumming community immediately after release.

[Fido]

More legendary than mighty Ticks & Leeches?

[AmadeusD]

More legendary than mighty Ticks & Leeches?

I'm not seeing that - it's an incredible performance, but I think there's some recency bias which is a result of social media availability and people like Tyler Visser popularizing pieces like this.
I could see #2 though.

[Sherick]

Pneuma is ridiculously complicated piece that floats through constant labyrinthine polyrhythms for like 10 minutes nonstop. Ticks & Leeches is renowned for its grueling opening pattern, but he does something just as complicated if not moreso during the middle section of Pneuma. The time signatures are what really makes it difficult though even if it doesn't seem as showy as some songs. There's a reason social media has bolstered it, because professional drummers have gone crazy trying to break it down and that's very entertaining.

[Fido]

I trust your judgement, but wouldn't Ticks & Leeches be more influential?

[AmadeusD]

Pneuma is ridiculously complicated piece that floats through constant labyrinthine polyrhythms for like 10 minutes nonstop. Ticks & Leeches is renowned for its grueling opening pattern, but he does something just as complicated if not moreso during the middle section of Pneuma. The time signatures are what really makes it difficult though even if it doesn't seem as showy as some songs. There's a reason social media has bolstered it, because professional drummers have gone crazy trying to break it down and that's very entertaining.

This isn't quite true. The second verse and everything after hte breakdown are incredibly intense, complicated and contains several time changes. You're right that for Pneuma, it's the time signatures. There's nothing particularly physically demanding about it.

Most of the song does not contain polyrhythms, though. Its mostly relatively simple playing with great fill work. Ticks and Leeches has both more legacy, and imo, showcases Danny's skills far better than Pneuma which does so only in certain areas (polyrhythms and fill work).

Funnily enough, the opening pattern to Ticks and Leeches is the easiest part to learn. Again, i think there's recency bias. If we didn't have that drumcam version of Pnuema, and specifically, all the reaction videos to it, i seriously doubt we'd be having this conversation. Those creators are trying to blow smoke up Danny's ass (fair) and get clicks - which is largely by way of having massive Danny fans decide their content is good because it blows smoke up his ass. Again, not unfair, but clearly misleading. If we had a drum cam of Ticks and Leeches I don't think we'd be having this conversation either.

[AmadeusD]

Also....pretty tentative. I need to relisten to his entire discog, but i am almost 100% comfy with only TMV performances being on the level of a top 10.

Jon Theodore
1. Tetragrammaton
2. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt
3. Cassandra Gemini
4. Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus
5. Day Of The Baphomets
6. Eunuch Provocateur
7. Meccamputechture
8. Drunkship of Lanterns
9. L'Via L'viaquez
10. Viscera Eyes

[Sherick]

Funnily enough, the opening pattern to Ticks and Leeches is the easiest part to learn. Again, i think there's recency bias. If we didn't have that drumcam version of Pnuema, and specifically, all the reaction videos to it, i seriously doubt we'd be having this conversation. Those creators are trying to blow smoke up Danny's ass (fair) and get clicks - which is largely by way of having massive Danny fans decide their content is good because it blows smoke up his ass. Again, not unfair, but clearly misleading. If we had a drum cam of Ticks and Leeches I don't think we'd be having this conversation either.

I'm glad that you mentioned that part the intro because it's true, the rhythm itself is easy to learn though the dexterity required to play it properly takes practice. By the same token though, once you remove the intro nothing else in the song is "physically demanding" other than some of the footwork in the verses. The rhythms themselves are nothing to sneeze at and require a lot of dynamic awareness, but the intro riff and the freeform breakdown in the middle are what captures everyone's attention.
Saying that Pneuma is "not demanding" or polyrhythmic though is also misleading. Remember that he plays polyrhythmic to the rest of the band at gradually shifting intervals. It's compositionally and mentally brilliant, if not on the athletic level of Ticks & Leeches.

Which is not to say Ticks & Leeches shouldn't be #1, it's certainly monolithic. But waving off Pneuma as some sort of Youtube fad is way off-base. It stretches in the other direction toward primacy bias and the idea that if something new is considered better than something old it must be for bad reasons.

[AmadeusD]

Funnily enough, the opening pattern to Ticks and Leeches is the easiest part to learn. Again, i think there's recency bias. If we didn't have that drumcam version of Pnuema, and specifically, all the reaction videos to it, i seriously doubt we'd be having this conversation. Those creators are trying to blow smoke up Danny's ass (fair) and get clicks - which is largely by way of having massive Danny fans decide their content is good because it blows smoke up his ass. Again, not unfair, but clearly misleading. If we had a drum cam of Ticks and Leeches I don't think we'd be having this conversation either.

I'm glad that you mentioned that part the intro because it's true, the rhythm itself is easy to learn though the dexterity required to play it properly takes practice. By the same token though, once you remove the intro nothing else in the song is "physically demanding" other than some of the footwork in the verses. The rhythms themselves are nothing to sneeze at and require a lot of dynamic awareness, but the intro riff and the freeform breakdown in the middle are what captures everyone's attention.
Saying that Pneuma is "not demanding" or polyrhythmic though is also misleading. Remember that he plays polyrhythmic to the rest of the band at gradually shifting intervals. It's compositionally and mentally brilliant, if not on the athletic level of Ticks & Leeches.

Which is not to say Ticks & Leeches shouldn't be #1, it's certainly monolithic. But waving off Pneuma as some sort of Youtube fad is way off-base. It stretches in the other direction toward primacy bias and the idea that if something new is considered better than something old it must be for bad reasons.

That's fair, we're probably both over-reading each other.

I think you're dismissing the final verse of Ticks And Leeches. It's consistently physically difficult. The ghost notes in the middle of what's already a pretty busy metal explosion are nigh-on-impossible to get right at the studio speed. Much more tiring that the intro (even when the full-measure double kicks come in).

I don't at all meant to dismiss Pneuma. Its an incredible performance and it's up there for Carey - but he has many performances that are, I think, quite clearly better performances but don't have the social-media frenzy (both for reason of time and available drum cams). Examples: Right in Two, Rosetta Stoned, The Grudge (those swiss triplets are just... goddamn), arguably Ampersand, Reflection (though, admittedly, psychologically, this one isn't hard at all).

Additionally, can't tell if I just missed the Theodore list earlier or if you've edited mine and put it in - but either way, they are comedically close

[Sherick]

I haven't edited anything yet, but I'll do that now.