The Groove Master: the drummer Eddie Van Halen called “one of the best”
Drummers tend to get the short end of the stick in almost any rock band. Say what you want to about guitarists being married to their instrument or singers famously having huge egos, but none of them tend to get labelled as “the dumb one” as often as the one behind the skins. Although it might not seem like the worst job in the world to hit things for a living, Eddie Van Halen thought that there was true art behind the way Jeff Porcaro played the skins.
Porcaro was never the drummer in the way most people think, though. Being a professional on the studio scene, some of his signature drum rolls were the soundtrack to some of the biggest hits of the 1980s, turning Toto into a well-oiled machine whenever they put out hits like ‘Africa’ or ‘Rosanna’.
That kind of touch only comes from playing for long hours, though. Any session drummer knows the demand that comes from having to play multiple genres of music with a decent level of proficiency, and it wasn’t out of the question for Porcaro to go from progressive rock to jazzy pop to hard rock without batting an eye.
For all of the massive solos that he played, it’s not like Van Halen couldn’t appreciate that sense of rhythm. He may have been able to introduce tapping to the world, but he is one of the most criminally underrated rhythm guitar players, having spent time behind the drum kit before he had even picked up the six-string.
Even though he gelled perfectly with his brother, Alex, Eddie thought no one could touch what Porcaro did, later saying at his memorial service, “To me, he was definitely one of the best drummers in the world. (He was) definitely the groove master, and come on, you gotta do a tribute to a cat like that. He was just too heavy, you know.”
While it’s every session player’s job to blend into the background of most tracks, Porcaro’s sense of timing was the heartbeat of every song he played. Whether it was when Don Henley decided to step behind the microphone during his solo career or when laying down the groove on ‘Rosanna’, he made even the most difficult drumbeats seem simple as if he was laying down a groove in his garage with a bunch of friends.
Looking at his resume, most of his accolades speak for themselves, too. Outside of his main gig in Toto, not many can claim to have played on an album as classic as Michael Jackson’s Thriller, serving as a member of the ‘King of Pop’s backing band on songs like ‘Beat It’. Even when working in the big leagues, Porcaro had the opportunity of working alongside jazz legends Steely Dan as well, being a major part of their studio sessions and even playing a handful of live shows with them.
Whereas most drumming legends lists tend to favour artists like Buddy Rich and Keith Moon (as they should), Porcaro deserves at least a cursory mention among the greats. He may not have played flashy, but he didn’t need to. All he needed was to lay down a groove, and once everyone layered everything else on top of that, you couldn’t go wrong.
