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Comment by ilamont | Hacker News Reader

Tangential: I can't for the life of me understand why The Who chose Kenney Jones as the replacement drummer after Moon died, and kept him for nearly ten years. While competent, his playing on It's Hard is about as inspiring as a metronome, and if that's the way he played live, it would have really taken away the dynamism that The Who were famous for. Live at Leeds (1970) is one of the most driving, passionate live rock albums ever recorded, and other Moon-era live recordings (check out "Thirty Years of Maximum R&B") underline how important Moon's drumming was to the band.

They would have been better off with this kid.

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He replaced Keith moon first on Face Dances, and you’re right, he is nothing more than a metronome.

Keith Moon was a one-of-a-kind drummer. He pushed the drums up from the background to a first-order instrument. He didn’t keep time and didn’t maintain a steady beat.

I recently started teaching myself drums and when I listened carefully to Keith Moon, he doesn’t maintain any semblance of repeatable beat. But it’s beautiful and intimidating and ferocious. I wonder why others haven’t tried to imitate him because it’s so much more interesting than a regular drummer.

From my amateur ear, Moon and Bonham are the only ones who both played match grip but were exceptional and were members of popular bands. Even Peart is a bit of a yawner compared to these two. Compare to all those great drummers not playing match grip, like a dozen including Buddy Rich, Keith Carlock, Steve Gadd, other great jazz drummers, and with the exceptions I mentioned, match grip doesn't hold up as well to my ear.

One more match grip exception would be Tony Thompson, who exemplified why xor decisions suck for just about everything in life.

Oh yeah, Modula2 foundationally rules. Just needed some more iterations.

Good points.

I think Bill Bruford is another exception, matched grip, but IMO he also qualifies as being exceptional and not a yawner! :D

Keith Moon was the first and only drummer I've ever heard that played "lead drums."

Yeah I always wondered too. I assume they chose him because they wanted a "peer" from the old days that had its own thing rather than an anonymous player/fan that could replicate Moon's style. Also at this point I guess they were ok with a change in style.

Similar to, for example, Metallica picking Rob Trujillo, Dio in Sabbath or maybe Dave Navarro in Red Hot Chili Peppers.

He's not too bad live, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0RB6A9vak I still miss Keith Moon, though.

True. The online articles all note that he was a peer and friend from the Mod days. And being able to "get along" counts.

OTOH the names you mentioned are arguably brilliant in their own right. I just don't see that spark in Moon's replacement.

For me, Dio really took Sabbath to the next level. The albums they put out together are amazing, and some of my favorite albums to this day.

I was lucky enough to see them in Athens as Heaven and Hell, and it was a once in a lifetime experience.

I like Dio era Sabbath a lot, but it really does feel like a different band in a lot of ways. To some extent that's probably a product of developing musicianship and musical interests among the whole group, but Dio as the frontman definitely is a major vibe change from Ozzy and the sludgy occult warbles of the first few Sabbath albums.

For my money, though - thank God we got both versions. I really like Heaven and Hell and also Dehumanizer had some great tracks. And I wouldn't trade Paranoid or Master of Reality for the world.

I agree with all of that, I just prefer Dio. I definitely wouldn't want War Pigs to not have existed, though, or to not have been sung by Ozzy.

Could it be the case of hiring an uninspiring player so that the surviving members can enjoy the limelight and preserve their existing brand? Think of how, after Bill Berry retired from R.E.M., that band hired various drummers who were supposed to remain quietly in the background, not represent the band in the press, etc.

Maybe they were ready to have someone that wasn't so volatile.

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