Hello friends,
I recently did a themed week of newsletter posts highlighting some of the greatest rock drummers ever to grace this planet. They generated so much interesting discussion in the comment sections and my inbox that I decided to elaborate on the same theme for this month’s playlist.
I’ve put together 30 tracks under the self-explanatory playlist titled “30 Legendary Rock Drumming Performances.” The word to emphasize there is “rock,” as this list is in no way an exhaustive list of great drumming performances, period. Jazz, funk, and other genres aren’t represented here, and that’s by design—otherwise, this list would’ve become unwieldy.
Similarly, I decided to limit each drummer to a single performance on the playlist. This could’ve easily been 30 legendary Neil Peart cuts or selections exclusive to Bonham, Moon, Collins, and so on. One song per drummer for the sake of brevity and parity.
Scroll down for Apple Music and Spotify links (and an embed for the latter). If you use another streaming service as your daily listening driver, consider using platforms like Soundiiz or Tune My Music to copy the playlist to your account.
Check back on the last day of every month for another playlist. As always, thanks for reading, listening, sharing, and subscribing!
What’s your favorite rock drumming performance? Is there a song that should’ve made the cut that isn’t here? Sound off in the comments!
I would for sure include Missing Persons here. Terry Bozzio is one of the best drummers in rock. And for King Crimson, Id pick something with Bill Bruford. Maybe Thela Hun Ginjeet from Discipline.
Fun playlist! You were featuring more hard rock drummers here, but since you do feature Jim Gordon in the Zappa track, I thought Id mention that Keith Higgons of Abandoned Albums just interviewed Joel Selvin who wrote a new book about Gordon’s life.
https://open.substack.com/pub/abandonedalbums/p/author-joel-selvin-on-his-new-book?r=1046qe&utm_medium=ios