Genius or Loon: was Keith Moon actually a good drummer?
The Who was a band shot through with magnificent contradictions.
They were one of the most popular and influential groups of their time, despite doing mental shit like writing rock operas and destroying their guitars on a nightly basis. They had an almost terrifyingly blokey reputation for hellraising and thuggery despite writing some of the most sensitive, vulnerable music of their generation.
Summing up all these contradictions was the man sitting at the back of the stage. A blur of noise and chaos, trapped in an effortlessly polite, five-foot-eight frame, who could also drink you under the table and then blow up your toilet. The man who would define the archetype of the wildman drummer so perfectly he was (apocryphally) pegged as the inspiration for Animal of The Muppets, the one and only Keith Moon.
On the surface, the question posed by this headline is an easy one. A churlish part of me wants to post the video of The Who’s astonishing performance from The Rolling Stones’ Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus, gesture at it wildly, going “yes obviously”, and leave it there. The performance, one that served the hosts of the show so catastrophically they shelved the film for 30 years in shame, is a microcosm of Moon’s appeal in particular. From the moment ‘A Quick One’s’ barbershop quartet-style opening kicks in, he’s already the centre of attention. Clad in a spangly top, gurning at the audience and twirling his drumsticks in theatrical relish. Part of Moon’s appeal was always his personality, after all. Then he starts playing.
When people think of Moon’s playing style, they think of constant motion and noise. Moon was a kinetic firestorm of tom runs snare fills and his right hand thundering between ride and crash like a windscreen wiper in a thunderstorm. ‘A Quick One’, in particular, shows the range of his playing, the song’s six movements ranging from country and western to Victorian music hall to class Who power-pop, and Moon acquits himself with aplomb. Even when he has to place his floor tom on top of the kit for “Soon be home,” before hurling it over his shoulder at the movement’s close.
This performance is undeniable evidence of what made Moon one of the great drummers of the era. However, any performance from The Who’s imperial phase of 1967 to ’74 shows pretty much exactly the same quality. So, why does the question need to be asked? Well, you may have noticed I’m talking a lot about the man’s sound and fury, what a drummer is there to do is keep time and does he do that? Well… sort of. The criticism of Moon is pretty much that he was a great showman who had all the technical ability of a coked-up squid.
In a blog posted on his website, Mike Dolbear talked about his friendship with Moon. He spoke of frequenting jazz clubs with him and how “he… would get up at the drop of a hat and sit in with whichever band was playing. The interesting thing to me is that he played more or less the same thing to every song!” Before going on to say, “Moonie admitted to me once that he couldn’t play slow music. He was desperate to play songs like ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ or ‘My Girl’ but he simply couldn’t.”
This is more or less how Roger, Pete and John have talked about playing with Keith. His frenetic style of drumming came first, and the rest of the band tailored their music to suit it rather than the other way around. Pete Townshend admitted in a BBC documentary in 2012 that he “never really thought much of him as a drummer” but would elaborate in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock what he did think of him. “He aimed at decoration, augmentation, at supporting the music, at generating uplift,” he said. “That was his passion when he played.”
So, was Keith Moon a good drummer? It depends on what you mean by ‘good’. Was he a chameleonic time-keeper, able to adapt to anything and tailor his style to the music, Ringo Starr style? Absolutely not, but think of it this way. Jimmy Page’s work in Led Zep was famously sloppy, but it suited the band, so does that make Page a bad guitarist? Absolutely not, and the same can be said here.
Keith Moon wasn’t a perfect drummer, but his work was also arguably the heart and soul of The Who’s music, and they’ve never sounded the same after his passing. Just another of that band’s beautiful contradictions.
