With the stock market in a tailspin and a society at each others throats, I thought this post would be a nice interruption to help get our minds off the negative things in life. Drum sets, i.e. the arrangement of a set of drums, tom-toms, snare, bass drum, and a series of cymbals, can actually be considered an art form, at least by drummers anyway.
You may care less about drum sets themselves, but if you enjoy music, and I would argue 100% of the population does in some form, then perhaps you can appreciate the creativity many drummers put into assembling their touring kits. Let’s begin, shall we.
Simon Phillips an English jazz, fusion and rock drummer, has worked with The Who, Tears For Fears, and Toto among others. His arrangement of drums has not been altered for decades. He has noted in interviews that he is very sensitive about the way his drums look, orderly but functional.
The late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin had a tremendous influence on almost all rock drummers succeeding him. His kit was very minimalistic but when you’re talking drums, John has to be included. Having lots of drums is great but the groove is what really sets you apart, which John was famous for. The gong was a nice touch too.
Alex Van Halen and his late brother Eddie formed their band Van Halen in California and quickly became superstars. What’s unique about Alex’s drums is that he has two bass drums bolted together times four making a total of eight super loud bass drums.
Terry Bozzio, a studio session player, assembled this obscenely large drum set from where he composed some amazingly technical percussive orchestrations. Fun fact: I actually bought one of his much smaller drum sets at a clinic of his I attended back in the 80’s. It was used in our church every Sunday in Seattle for about ten years. Ironic huh?
Neil Peart, the godfather to most drummers these days was known for his extremely technical, precise recording and touring. In fact, rarely did he alter his drumming compositions as most other drummers do when playing live. He stated he liked to challenge himself by playing every song exactly as recorded. As you can see he was completely surrounded by drums on a platform which rotated 180 degrees depending on the songs played. That was cool.
Gary Husband of Level 42 had the clever idea of arranging his Tom Toms from small on both ends and large in the middle. It made for some interesting sounding fills. He is also an accomplished pianist.
Ringo Starr is responsible for getting me started on drums, although he’ll never know this. We all wanted to be hip like Ringo. He demonstrated that you can sound just as good with scarcity as with abundance.
And then there’s me with my Ringo like kit…in the basement. Well, we all had to start somewhere.
Hope you enjoyed!
Jim
I'll bet your drum set today looks more like Bonham's. I would love to hear you play some day - live.
And I should have said that I remember those drums and I remember you playing them!