I did above.
Purdie.
I like Peart, but I've never been a huge fan of most prog-rock groups (though, I can handle Rush).....I just find most a tad pretentious for rock'n roll (e.g., Dream Theater; and btw, Mike Portnoy is a douche sandwich).
Rush sucks donkey balls. In spite of all that, Peart is the greatest, which is remarkable in itself considering his racial handicap (Canadian).
Good job today guys. Somebody start a Chili Peppers thread tomorrow, an Eagles thread Tuesday, 2 Live Crew thread on Wed, and a Motley Crue one on Thursday and you will have my top 5 covered.
Neil Peart and it ain’t even close with anybody else.
A coworker told me about the injustice being perpetrated here by some well-meaning but horribly-misguided fellow Bulldog fans. To combat this evil, register I shall.
Let us be very, very clear about one thing: to the question of who the greatest rock drummer of all-time is, there is only one possible right answer. It's not subjective. Not a bit. Not even for a single second.
It's John Bonham. Bonzo. The GOAT before he was born, the GOAT while he lived, and GOAT he shall always be.
Do a google image search for Neil Peart drum kit and you will see why so many of us are in awe of him.
One of the really cool elements of the R40 tour was the "deconstruction" of the band. They played their set from newest music to oldest, removing equipment and striping down the stage until at the end it was Neil, 2 kick basses, a couple of toms, a snare and 3-4 cymbals. The sound was just as crisp, complex, and complete as any other part of the concert. It showed how he could still bang it out whether he was at an 8 piece kit or a 200 piece kit.
Need to break the drummers down in to categories because "rock" can be broken down into 50+ genres itself. And you can't really compare the drumming of someone like Ringo to the drumming of Joey Jordison. What are we looking for in "greatest" rock drummer? For me it's as much about being original and creative and having your own distinct style of play as it is playing difficult things. I've seen drummers play fast as hell but struggled with slow songs. Ringo isn't one of my favorites, but I respect him because he played his music perfectly and I don't mean that in a technical way, he just played exactly what needed to be played on each song. To me you're great when a song comes on the radio and you know who's playing drums even before you know what band it is. This is what separates the Pearts, Barkers, Carreys, Hawkins and Ringos of the world.
The cool thing about drummers though, is that even "simple" guys like Ringo can have huge influences:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqeBt5ZO4mU
And I can't believe I left Stewart Copeland off my list - so I revise mine:
1) Peart
-gap-
2) Bonham
3) Copeland
-gap-
everyone else