Let's List Acts That Got Better Once They Got A New Drummer

1. Rush
2. Elvis Costello
3. The Who (Zack Starky > Kenny Jones, at least for this band)
4. Genesis
5. The Beatles
6. AC/DC
7. Bruce Springsteen
8. The Cure

Bad Religion between The New America and The Process of Belief improved by leads and bounds when adding Brooks Wackerman to replace Bobby Schayer behind the skins.

also Judas Priest both improved and declined with drummer changes at numerous times in their career.

Iron Maiden (Nicko McBrain joined on album #3)
Manowar (Scott Columbus joined on album #2)

9. Superchunk
10. Nirvana
11. Journey

12. Velvet Underground

x-post Good call on Nirvana

13. The Clash

THE Beatles,Sonic youth

14. The Gossip

there probably isn't a better answer than Nirvana

the beatles are a better answer than nirvana

15. Parts and Labor

j/k

muthafuckin PAVEMENT

Sleater-Kinney

17. Pearl Jam (best drummer = Matt Cameron)

18. Butthole Surfers

pavement's pretty debatable -- gary young was a killer drummer.

19. Dream Theater (yes, obviously this band blows, but I ask you, what band wouldn't improve with the departure of Mike Portnoy, the most overrated drummer of all time... OF ALL TIME??)

Portnoy's drum kit section has a longer entry than most countries, probably:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Portnoy

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mike_Portnoy.jpg/220px-Mike_Portnoy.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mike_Portnoy.jpg/220px-Mike_Portnoy.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mike_Portnoy.jpg/220px-Mike_Portnoy.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mike_Portnoy.jpg/220px-Mike_Portnoy.jpg

the beatles are a better answer than nirvana

― The Reverend, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 3:55 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not really...not hating on Ringo but i could see the Beatles being more or less the Beatles without him, Nirvana would never have been Nirvana as we know them w/o Grohl

I saw no way this shouldn't immediately become an ILX poll:

TS: Funniest Name for One of Mike Portnoy (of Dream Theater)'s Drum Kits

17. Pearl Jam (best drummer = Matt Cameron)

― I'm gonna mention ilxor in everyone of my posts until I get dn'd (ilxor), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 4:00 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really PJ traded up w/ drummers like 3 times over the course of their career

I feel like all I do on ilx lately is go on about Pavement. But yeah, Pavement.

pavement's pretty debatable -- gary young was a killer drummer.

Maybe so but I do think Pavement was a better act later, which was the question.
(Though I only learned just now that GY drummed on Watery, Domestic, which makes this more debatable.)

I've just remembered Stuart Cable's dead. That cheered me up.

and straight up, Ringo plays on the first Beatles single, so I don't know how much Pete Best you've actually heard

thought they sidelined ringo for the first single and brought in a session dude?

i can't actually think of that many bands who traded *down* on drummers. Yes (bruford to alan white)?

Luna kinda took a dive when the feelies drummer quit/was fired.

i can't actually think of that many bands who traded *down* on drummers.

Slayer, a few times.

depends on which 'love me do' you listen to. best is on all the decca and tony sheridan stuff though i think. i don't think i've ever heard any beatles stuff w/ jimmie nicol drumming.

rem traded down

the VU traded down when billy yule stepped in for moe tucker.

the who also imo

not hating on Ringo but i could see the Beatles being more or less the Beatles without him

this is so wrong

yeah 'ringo drum fill' is easily in my top five 'these dudes are are trying to sound like the beatles' cliches

the who also imo

― balls,
i think Kenny Jones was just a bad fit, not a weak musician

12. Velvet Underground

lol beaten to the challop - I knew someone would do this!

Xp "She said she said" and "a day in the life" woulda been totally different

12. Velvet Underground
meant that they improved once moe joined the band, replacing angus maclise.

neutral milk hotel

Gay Dad

Flaming Lips

Gay dad otm

Black Uhuru?

and straight up, Ringo plays on the first Beatles single, so I don't know how much Pete Best you've actually heard

― dro™ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 1:21 PM Bookmark

a couple tracks and he was terrible

Slayer, a few times

ehh, they technically only did once, and it's not like Bostaph was any slouch, he was just much inferior to Lombardo...although I did 'LOL' while reading a Lombardo interview where he criticized the speed degradation in Bostaph's opening drum solo on "Killing Fields", capping it with "and they were criticizing MY drumming!"

Jon Dette never appeared on a studio album -- so he doesn't really count for argument's sake. Then they traded Bostaph for Lombardo which was a re-upgrade.

Mayhem

Luna kinda took a dive when the feelies drummer quit/was fired.

― tylerw, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 4:23 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

totally, tho their last couple albums were something of a saving grace. Still, demeski's subtle brush work & fills were sorely missed.

From wikipedia entry on josh freese (which ones got better after he arrived?):

A Perfect Circle,
Nine Inch Nails,
Devo,
The Vandals
Sting
Paul Westerberg
Guns N' Roses
Ween
The Offspring
Weezer
Desert Sessions
Ashes Divide

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 5:35 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

lol since this post Freese has also joined Paramore and Sublime With Rome. that guy is busy!

How the hell did Dave Grohl get to be richer than Don Henley?

did way less blow?

Tours more, doesn't dole out as much "hush money".

7. Bruce Springsteen

Disagree strongly

Isn't Grohl famously nice as well? Exemplary life that guy lives if so, he's even sucked another drummer along in his slipstream.

I think Grohl doesn't have to split as much of his publishing. Henley always had collaborators, up to three or four on some Eagles stuff.

Was Marky better than Tommy? What of Richie? and hey let's forget the brief Elvis period...

Grohl's Nirvana past plus his massive Foo Fighters loot would account for it, I bet.

There needs to be some kind of handicap to take account of non-drumming earnings, else you might as well have Madonna at no.1. Ringo fair enough, his loot comes nearly all from the skins; Collins, Henley and Grohl less so.

eh half the Foo Fighters songs you hear on the radio are Grohl on drums. did Collins and Henley continue to play drums on most of their hits after becoming frontmen/solo stars?

it does speak volumes that the richest drummer that's never sung lead on a hit song is at #5, though

I think Watts is the only one in the top 10 without a songwriting credit.

The Jesus Lizard took off as a band once they got Mac to play drums, but I am sure there are some ILM people who would defend the drum machine out of love for drum machines.

Chad Smith must have some investment mojo or something, as I figure playing in the Chili Peppers would pay ok, but he had to do something to roll up on that list up there.

Why should non-drumming earnings not count? All the dudes above were famous first and foremost as drummers, and remain drummers. If a drummer earns enough as a drummer to buy a lucrative hotel chain, hotel chain counts. Money makes money.

The Chili Peppers divide everything four ways, iirc.

The Doors did too, you'd think Densmore would have accumulated decent wedge over the years.

eh half the Foo Fighters songs you hear on the radio are Grohl on drums

I thought he was special occasions only? You're saying this dude: #27: Taylor Hawkins Net Worth – $20 Million (Foo Fighters) is up there from playing on *the ones where Grohl couldn't be bothered*?

nah afaik TH is on all the tracks recorded after he joined, just saying that a lot of FF's biggest hits are fro the first 2 albums

from

Certainly those albums must have sold the most.

Have we included Wilco as a band that got better with a new drummer? Though I'm on the fence about that, seeing how much I love "Being There" and "Summerteeth." Certainly the drumming got better, regardless.

Taylor Hawkins like most of those drummers and probably why some of the younger dudes are higher on the list is that they made that money playing on the road with the Foo Fighters.

"If a drummer earns enough as a drummer to buy a lucrative hotel chain, hotel chain counts. Money makes money'

I don't know if you are referencing this point, but that's exactly what Sam Phillips did with the money he got from RCA for selling Elvis' contract. Phillips put the Elvis contract money in the 50s into a new company called Holiday Inn and made tons more off that than he ever did in music.

kinda surprised Larry Mullen isn't higher re: touring revenue, don't U2 split everything 4 ways too?

fwiw these lists should be taken with a huge grain of salt (ones like this, form celebritynetworth.com, as well as the Forbes ones) because there's such an insane amount of guesswork going into it. i imagine they're often hugely inaccurate but nobody speaks up because most celebs would find it unappealing to publicly say "hey i'm not THAT rich!" or "hey i'm actually worth way more than that!"

incidentally i found celebritynetworth.com a while back and it's just full of all sorts of very confidently stated figures about how much random mixtape rappers are worth with no facts to back it up at all. no idea why the 'richest drummers' list has gotten so much attention, even heard my local radio morning show talking about it a couple weeks ago.

I thought Ringo was having major financial troubles in the '90s and the whole "Anthology" project was conceived to earn him some $ ?

that was Harrison, after O'Brien fucked off to an island with 20 mil of Handmade's money

"Anthology," per my Beatles-nut friend, was partly designed to give all the major players, from Pete Best on up, a big financially boost. I posted this years back on my "Is Ringo rich?" thread:

"Good question. I don't honestly know any real specifics. He's richer than
anybody I know. Not as rich as Paul, nor George, who had plenty of
lucrative songwriting credits. He may still own publishing for Octopus'
Garden and Don't Pass Me By, both of which are on very popular albums. OG
gets covered a lot too on kids' CDs. I think he does well from residuals
from his actual Beatles performances, and he made a load of money off of
having two compositions of his appear on Anthology 3. (with a much more
favorable royalty rate than the Beatles albums) Actually, all of their
post-1990 compilations (Live at the BBC, Yellow Submarine Songtrack) have
sold well and were negotiated with EMI at a very good rate for 'the
principals,' as they are called in Apple parlance. The handful of tracks
on Anthology 1 supposedly made Pete Best a millionaire. They all did very
well off of the various commercial offshoots of the Anthology (books, VHS,
DVD, ABC TV Specials, clothing, etc etc) and Ringo would be up for an equal
share there. He was known for a string of very poor investments and
financial partnerships in the 1970s and 1980s, which Paul can be heard
mocking him for on the infamous "MPL Lawyer Tape," so he has always been
the most willing to do stuff like be in wine cooler ads or put his likeness
on collectors' plates. He keeps himself out there merchandising his Beatle
connection, but I think the Anthology was really a pretty good investment
of time for all of them, I understand it made George and Ringo well secure
for the rest of their lives, barring screwups. I think Ringo continues to
work (record & tour) because he enjoys it, he's supposedly no longer
drinking or doing drugs to speak of, and he likes to be kept amused."

(or y'know, Harrison's money that he'd mysteriously made disappear via Handmade) (xpost)

All the Beatles except Paul came very close to declaring bankruptcy at one point or another. Peter Doggett's You Never Give Me Your Money is a depressingly fascinating account of the post-Beatle years and the myriad ways each Beatle got screwed financially.

Yeah, I'm about halfway through it...

Screaming Trees

Wilco

Gun club apparently became much more solid once the original rhythm section of Don Snowden and Brad Dunning were replaced by Rob ritter and Terry Graham but i still ahven't heard what the original line up sounded like. Neither of them were musicians with any previous history though. But Snowden went on to cowrite Willie Dixon's autobiography. So have wondered if he introduced a lotof the blues influence. Ranhkin jeffrey lee was known for writing on other roots musics and reggae before the band formed.

Earliest music by the Gun Club I've heard is before Brian tristan left for the first time to join the Cramps and get a new name.
BUt rhythm section there is Ritter/Graham.

Jefferson airplane Spencer Dryden replaces Skip Spence after the first lp. Spence goes off to play guitar in Moby Grape then melts down.
Dryden is one of my favourite drummers.
Band goes off the boil when he's replaced .

Deep Wound become Dinosaur when J gives up drums to play guitar and Murph from All White Jury joins on drums.

Does George Hurley come in to play drums transforming the Reactionaries into the Minutemen or are there further changes.

Budgie joins Siouxsie and the Banshees to replace a departed drummer and the psychedelic period starts. Though coincides with John Mcgeoch coming in on guitar.
Budgie's come in from recording drums on the Slits lp Cut. Not sure if he's an improvement per se there. Palmolove had a ramshackle thing that went with the band's early ethos and direction changes a bit.
Previous Banshee drummer replaced SidVicious in original line up. I think he had tried not to be heard and only lasted one performance. Replacement lasts 1st 2 lps which are pretty decent.

The Fall

― Mark, Wednesday, 6 October 2010 00:23 (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which drummer though? Personally I thought Karl Burns' drumming on "Live at the Witch Trials" was hideously flashy and bombastic, they improved when they went to tippy-tappy rockabilly drummer Mike Leigh, improved again when they went to super solid Paul Hanley, arguably impoved again when Burns rejoined and they had the two drummer line up... and that's only the first 4 years.

Echo and the Bunnymen, hurf hurf.

Miles Davis kind of "traded up" just by refreshing his sound. challenging himself with different drummers: Jimmy Cobb, Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Jack De Johnette, Al Foster, Ricky Wellman etc are each so distinctive---Wellman was from Chuck Brown's Soul Searchers, of the DC go-go community. Of course he changed a lot otherwise, but wouldn't have worked as well without just the right drummer for the phase.

Interpol. the first demo of PDA (circa '98-99) isn't on youtube anymore but it's just awful. the Fukd ID #3 ep or whatever.

pretty reliable pattern:

band changes drummers early on (especially before first record) = they get better
band changes drummers years into career = they get worse

Seems otm mostly. Sure some people will be posting exceptions come the morrow

Yeah, I had another thread with that converse, bands that got worse when they got a new drummer.

I've just remembered Stuart Cable's dead. That cheered me up.

― Already WSed last summer (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, October 5, 2010 10:21 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://bomdiaflowers.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hihihi.gif

Got worse Jefferson airplane to Joey covington. Went from one of my favourite drummers to somebody I just find leaden.

Sonic youth

Which change are you thinking of? I'm a stan but I don't agree that the Shelley-era albums are better than Bad Moon Rising (Bob Bert) or Confusion Is Sex (Jim Sclavunos and Bert), although there are a lot more of them. I do think the band got better after Jim Sclavunos replaced Richard Edson (after the first EP), although I'm not even sure how much that has to do with the drums.

The Germs

the who
led zeppelin
spinal tap

many would say oasis but i'm a tony mccarroll diehard, fuiud

Mayhem, easily. like, I love the Deathcrush EP with my whole heart, but the weakass drum patterns Manheim came up with for the titular song suck ass. they couldn't have done De Mysteriis with that dude.

once you hear versions of the song "Death Crush" that the piece of shit Hellhammer played on, it intensifies the song even more. though he's definitely fucked with his drum parts over the years for that one