P.D.A.D. #2: Keith Moon

Late last week I snuck myself a little listen to The Who's Who's Next. It had been a while since I had graced my ears with Keith Moon's spastic, mega-jungle drumming. When I'm not thinking about Moon, I often times don't consider him my favorite drummer ever (most recently that title has gone to The Dismemberment Plan's Joe Easley). But, when I'm listening to or watching him play, I can't help but think that he is. At least, I think he is the greatest rock drummer in history. Yeah, I'll go there.

Interesting that I included Deerhoof's Greg Saunier in the first installment of Public Display of Affectionate Drumming, as his and Moon's styles are very similar (I would put money down that Saunier considers Moon an important influence). Moon just used a lot more unneccessary equipment (as you can tell from the photograph above), and also he was ahead of his time.

As far as Moon's drumming being affectionate or emotional, I think it's obvious. If I had to come up with a metaphor for his playing off the top of my head, it would be this: his drumming is comparable to the excitement of a young puppy. Moon's drumkit is to him as a puppy's owner just arriving home from a long day of work is to the puppy. When he sits down and eyes that drumkit, he gets so excited that he can't help it or restrain himself, he must lash out in overwhelming joy and anger and cry and piss all over the place. Does that make sense, or am I just being ridiculous?

Anyway, this performance of "A Quick One While He's Away" is taken from The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus event back in December of 1968. Based on my limited knowledge of rock and roll performances, I'd wager that this has got to be one of the greatest.

On second thought, maybe this is more of an instance of P.D.C.O.D.D.: Public Display of Completely Obliterated by Drugs Drumming. Either way, Moon still rules.