Had a discussion about Keith Moon with a friend and was looking for clips to show him.
Many sadly had this opinion.
“He was an amazing drummer, but if he were not in exactly the band he was in, the Who, he would have sounded like shit!”
My opinion:
100% untrue. Jeff Beck did everything short of murder to steal him. He plays on “Beck’s Bolero,” but did so unaccredited due to either his unwarranted insecurity about his place in his band or contractual obligations. In it he was silent for exactly as long as he could be, whereupon he lets out a scream only he could produce, and basically says I’m about to lay waste to this bull shit, which he then did effortlessly.
The source of Moon’s genius is nearly impossible to explain. It sounds like he came from an entirely different planet. To my knowledge he had only one real lesson. He doesn’t appear to have practiced much and in his off years where he sadly had little to do but wait for Pete Townshend to either need him for an album or tour, he let his skills lag to the point where he had to completely reteach himself how to be Keith Moon again.
He did love surf music. If he had precedent it came from listening to Hal Blaine, whose performance on “Be My Baby” is epic and as close to the sound of Keith Moon as anything else that came before.
His work on every album other than Who Are You is stunning and perfect. Before Tommy, he was the Who. Post Tommy, he adapted to Townshend’s needs and did so in equally, audacious fashion, especially given the backing tapes he had to deal with on “Baba O’Reilly” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” A drummer who supposedly was unrestrainable, forcibly restrained with prerecorded backgrounds that could not be changed, adapted to it and did so better than anyone else ever could.
He did the exact same thing just as well all over Quadrophenia.
Ringo Starr may have been Keith’s closest friend. Keith’s biggest goal in life was supposedly to take Ringo’s job in the Beatles. Ringo’s drumming abilities are often attacked, and most will defend him similarly by saying that he was the perfect drummer for his band too. That is likely, but had Keith stolen his job (never would have happened even had both Keith and the Beatles lived) Keith would have figured it out, because Keith’s biggest asset as a drummer was not his licks it was his ears.
The only place you can find fault with Keith’s work is indeed on Who Are You.
Townshend had left Keith to rot and drink away his skills in Los Angeles for three long years. Keith, in truth, really only wanted to play with the Who, and he sadly did not get to do so nearly as much as he wanted especially during that period. Keith’s skills and health had eroded and perhaps so had his once unwavering confidence too. You can watch the clip from this period where he perhaps acknowledges his detractors by proudly exclaiming:
Townshend feeling freed by punk wanted to change the band’s sound on Who Are You, which was fine. The first song on the album states his intent, “New Song.”
Famously, Townshend was enraged that Keith could not play 6/8 during his “anthem” “Music Must Change,” which was released with no drums.
I don’t understand time signatures. I don’t know how much Keith knew about them, but we both have ears, and “Music Much Change,” although a nice slogan was a shitty song and would have been with or without any drummer. I’ve read that Keith in fact did play 6/8 on “Naked Eye” and that song speaks for itself.
There was a famous show where Keith took too many amphetamines and Roger felt he played way too fast and ruined the show. Roger was probably right. Roger in those days let his fists do the talking. Roger was told in no uncertain terms which member of the Who was most important, and Roger dealt with it and changed his attitude. Now Keith’s biggest advocate is Roger.
Keith Moon then died, and as a recording unit, the Who were not freed by it. They died too.
You can argue that Pete kept his best material for his solo albums. I love Rough Mix, Empty Glass, and (All the Best Cowboys Have) Chinese Eyes, but after that, there isn’t really much I love in his later solo work.
Without question the Who post Moon as a recording unit was over. Three albums in 37 years and not much special on any of them, even if sadly the drum lick you may often hear the most is Kenny Jones’ simplistic lick from “Eminence Front.”
As a live unit they were dead for at least close to 20 years. In 1996, Roger demanded that Kenny Jones be sacked and replaced with the exact person Keith chose to replace him. Zak Starkey, Ringo’s son who was given his first kit not by his legendary father, but by Keith. Roger eventually too chose Zak and told him, perhaps without needing to exactly how to make the Who sound like the Who again.
Perhaps Keith’s biggest critic now is Pete Townshend, which saddens me. I love Pete. Pete is very talented as a visionary, a songwriter, and as a guitarist, but though Pete is widely considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, no one will tell you that he was better than the other two men who played instruments in his band.
Pete is complex. Pete’s passion are many and change with the wind, but Pete’s memoir “Who I Am,” was pretty pathetic and to my chagrin had almost nothing good or bad to say about Moon, his life or his drumming.
Maybe Pete is so sad about Keith’s death he wrestles with his feelings about him, but Pete has reasons to be jealous.
Look at this clip; attempt to find me a similar one where the song’s composer and lead guitarist is shown so rarely; and then admit that it was filmed exactly as it should have been.
Pete Townshend is perhaps the most energetically, entertaining on stage guitarist of all time, but yeah if they are on stage together you watch Moon.
Pete improved each year as a guitarist and as a songwriter. Early he made up for his lack of lead skills (which were so in vogue at the time) with attitude, arrogance, an innovative style concentrating on rhythmic playing, and lots of feedback.
So much feedback that when this song was first released the record company thought it was a mistake and edited out one of Keith’s most epic drum fills. An epic crime unnoticed by many for years.
Pete Townshend coined the term “Power Pop,” for the sound of the pre-Tommy Who . It’s accuracy came from the work of Keith Moon.
This is one of my favorite Keith stories, whether it be like many about Keith apocryphal or not. The Who recorded “Substitute.” John Entwistle when no one was looking did what he always wanted to do and boosted the bass when no one was looking. Keith upon hearing it was enraged that he had not been the one on the recording, only to be told that it was indeed him and only convinced when asked who else alive could have sounded like that.
Here is his legacy discussed well and not so well.
See that Roger, once full of pure violence and anger, is now like I said the keeper of his drumming legacy.
My favorite part is the drummer Rob Ladd in the last clip explaining the sheer insanity and genius of Keith switching his lead foot on his bass drum and having no idea how that could have happened, but oh so thankful that it somehow did.
As usual you should listen to his rhythmic and carousing partner John Entwistle
Everything said by Pete is sad. Keith at least behind the drums was all joy. Pete has bravely talked about both his and Keith’s inner sadness. I love Pete, but I hope his current mood and attitude change, because whether or not his music did, it did for the worse.
Keith Moon in his prime could have played on the Bee Gees best recording, made it sound better and not sacrificed a single thing that made it great without him.
