Replacing drummers: when it matters and when it doesn't

[quaco]

Sometimes switching drummers is what makes a good band great. Genesis, Rush, The Beatles, whatever. But sometimes it's a just a bad idea to replace your drummer. It's almost as risky as replacing your singer. Arrival of a new drummer can signal a change in the music, and if you already like the artist, that can be hard to accept. Some examples:

Elton John firing Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray made the EJ band sound more bland. Maybe he wanted to try different things, sure and that's his right, but it was never as good.

Despite good songs, VU's Loaded just isn't as interesting as what went before when Maureen Tucker was in the band. I personally think it's because she was a big part of what made it sound good and unique.

One of the classic examples is The Who. Everybody knows they fucked up by picking Kenney Jones to replace Keith Moon. Except I'm not sure the band hadn't already changed. I think of Who Are You as sort of an honorary Kenney Jones–era Who album. Townshend had started writing songs with different non-Moon rhythms. Not sure if this was such a bad replacement after all.

One from the prog world that is interesting: a lot has been said about Yes's replacing departing Bill Bruford with Alan White. I think White is great, if less distinctive, and perfectly fine for what the band was doing at the time. Maybe more powerful in some ways. One could hardly imagine Bruford doing Relayer. I think the key here is that the band wasn't in a change/downturn period. They were only getting bigger and more ambitious, so changing drummers midstream wasn't such a bad thing.

I'm picking ones that come to me. Please give more examples, of good and bad replacements, but mostly when the replacing of the drummer gave an artist a new feel.

[Charlie O.]

Apr 16, 2024 0:51:18 GMT quaco said:

I think of Who Are You as sort of an honorary Kenney Jones–era Who album.

Yeah, in retrospect, that is where the big change is.

I'm trying to think of other examples. There's Robert Wyatt with Soft Machine; his successors may have had better chops, but Wyatt played with more personality. Then again, similar to your Who example, Fourth (the last with Wyatt) feels like an honorary post-Wyatt album in a lot of ways (and not just because he wasn't writing/singing).

NRBQ were already something kinda special before Tom Ardolino replaced Tom Staley, but... Ardolino was the Ringo they had needed (which is not to say that Staley was a Pete Best!). It just happens that I've been playing a lot of Q recently, and it amazes me just how Just Right he was for them (especially considering they were literally the first band he'd ever been in!).

On the jazz side, Dannie Richmond was to Charles Mingus as Tom Ardolino was to NRBQ (right down to the fact that he had never played drums with anyone before Mingus).

...

[tory]

Reni left the Stone Roses just before their Second Coming tour and was replaced by the functional but ultimately pedestrian Robbie Maddix.

The band imploded shortly afterwards.

[fearlessfreap]

I don't think the Who replacing Moon was what sunk them. Townshend's song writing ability was drying up and he was writing these convoluted over egged melodies that were more Gilbert and Sullivan than anything and there was Daltrey's increasing tendencies to bellow. It started with Who's Next, but there was enough good material to overcome it, less so with Quadrophenia, but they were still good. They were a far cry from the great band who wrote such melodic rock songs in the 60s, however. By the time you got to Who Are You, with the braying synths on top of Townshend's over the top ornate wedding cake songs that wouldn't make it on a Genesis album, and Daltrey's proto-Bono scenery chewing, Kenny Jones was the least of their problems.

[loveless]

Yeah, Kenny Jones feels more like a symptom than anything else.

[Sneelock]

IMO Pete shot his song-writing wad with Quadraphenia. I think Moon, even his diminished condition, still put a lot of "eyebrows" on what I consider very weak songs. Kenny never had a chance.

when I regarded the drummer question, the first one I thought of was when Wire dropped their drummer and a letter from their name. they became wir - I kid you not.

they'd already been relying on the drum machines by the time he left. still, the drummer's sensibility left as well. It's still Wire as far as I'm concerned but it's clear that he was making more of a contribution than was required of him. Keith LeBlanc died recently. he's another drummer who used a lot of drum machines. I guess Keith liked 'em better than Robert Gotobed did. Robert  left Wire and didn't come back (I think) until they were using REAL drums again.

[fonz]

Dream Theater losing Portnoy was a big deal, because he was the soul of that group.

Mangini was/is the technical equal of Mike P, but he could never replace the intangibles.

Now Portnoy is back it will be fascinating to see how they evolve. For the first time in a decade I am excited about the next DT album.


I guarantee that no one else on this forum gives a fuck, but, horses for courses…