In a just world, great songwriters would be honored even moreso than they are today-  more than artists with a flashy image, more than artists that have the hit single du jour, more than the latest boy band of the week.  John Hiatt is a name some of you may not be familiar with; however, many of his songs have been covered by plenty of popular artists over the years-  everyone from Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Healey, Mandy Moore, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Iggy Pop (among many) have recognized the man’s talents via their own versions.  Some have even recorded “Have A Little Faith In Me” but only one version stands tall above the others:  Hiatt’s original, found on his 1987 album Bring The Family.

With only piano accompaniment, Hiatt lays bare his soul and puts his heart on the line with an incredibly poignant love story.  The strength of the song is not only a beautiful, soul lifting lyric but the overall performance-  the piano starts subtly but shifts into heavier chords as Hiatt’s soulful vocal paints vivid pictures and gains confidence and strength as the song builds to its finale.  Sure, some vocalists have those dulcet tones or sing with angelic voices but sometimes they lack a certain character that makes them stand out from the pack.  Conviction, character, soulfulness, and the ability to sell a song is where John Hiatt often stands high above his peers.  Download this one immediately.

AKA, a case of mistaken identity but something that got me to thinking…

Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago my wife had set the alarm for 8 AM for us to get up and go to church.  Nowadays there is mostly non-stop chatter on the morning shows and very few stations playing music at all; however, there is one classic rock station in town that does a good job of giving us something that we can both agree to get our “rise ‘n shine” on.  (Frankly I’d like the iPod to wake me on shuffle mode but I don’t think hitting on Pantera first thing at the crack of dawn would go over too well).

At any rate, this particular Sunday morning I caught maybe ten seconds of a song that I’d never heard before before slapping the snooze button.  In my somewhat incoherent state of mind and bleary eye I did happen to wonder…  is my classic rock radio station actually playing NEW songs from classic artists?  Why, I’ve never HEARD of such a thing!?!?  I could just imagine a room full of radio programmers at some radio convention wondering…  “Hey…  we got the new Mellencamp/Motley Crue/Smithereens/Tom Petty/(take your pick) the other day…  hee hee hee…  I can’t believe some of these guys are still alive!  Should we (snicker) play it?”  After hilarity ensues and the loud guffawing subsides, someone yells out…  “I got the perfect time!  8 AM on a Sunday morning!  Who listens to the radio at that hour?”  HA HA HA!!!

My point is, is it worth it for classic artists to keep putting out new material?  Are classic artists making much of an impact on radio?  Do fans of these classic artists even care to hear their recent works or are they just tuning in to hear artist’s songs that remind them of the good old days?  In some cases yes, in some cases no.  I for one still love to hear what these artists have to offer and would hope radio would do the same.  You hear it in some spots and from some artists (AC/DC and Metallica spring to mind), but they seem to be few and far between.

Oh, and that song that woke me the other day?  It actually wasn’t a new song from a classic artist, it was actually an old George Harrison song that I’d never heard before called “Crackerbox Palace”.  The ten seconds of this quite catchy ditty made me think that Jeff Lynne, formerly of ELO fame, had put out something new!  But thanks to the internet I did a quick search for the song title and came up with the Harrison tune.  But it got me thinking…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icHU5zB5fLM

Ah yes, we count on down to number one with two guys from bands that I became a huge fan of in my late teens/early 20s.  Don’t listen to just their radio hits!

4.  Brian Downey

Yeah, you know THE hit (“The Boys Are Back In Town”) and that classic drum shuffle that’s part of it, but Brian Downey brought much, much more to the table to Thin Lizzy.  Besides manning the drum throne for their entire existence with main man Phil Lynott (save for a brief respite from some live shows here and there), Downey also added his skills to Lynott’s solo LPs as well as playing on material for fellow Lizzy alum Gary Moore.  While not flashy and certainly not heavy handed, Downey’s skillful, jazzy yet funky touch on Lizzy classics is largely unheralded especially considering the guitar talents and strong songs of the band.  His solid drum foundation and somewhat laid back style were perfect for the band and when he had his moments to shine (take the drum rolls “Emerald”, propulsive drumming in “Bad Reputation”, or listen to the live version of “Sha La La” or Lynott’s solo “Talk In ’79” for a variety of styles).  Highly underrated.

3.  Ian Paice

It’s possible that Deep Purple’s Ian Paice is technically the most gifted drummer on here.  You get into specific rudiments in drumming and Paice can play them all-  single stroke rolls, paradiddles, one handed drum rolls(!)…  it’s some crazy sweet science when you watch what he’s doing; lots of looseness overall in his wrists and fingers as he moves around the kit .  You give him ONE DRUM and he’ll make the sweetest sounds, I tell you!  Sure, everyone knows “Smoke On The Water” but you put on a slow burner like “Demon’s Eye” and check out his quick snare fills or his ridiculous jazzy workout on something like “Burn”.  One of my favorite performances from Paice is something that sounds so simple but is groovy as all get out is “Strange Kind Of Woman”-  the beat is fairly straight forward with some cool snare crashes here and there, but the FEEL is something else.  Go out to YouTube and search “isolated Ian Paice” to get a taste.

8.  Charlie Benante

There are quite a few outstanding thrash metal drummers that can be plugged into this spot, but my money goes on Anthrax’ Charlie Benante.  Charlie “beats the beat the beats you beat” like a man possessed, fine double kick speed and excellent tom pounding galore.  Among The Living was my first exposure to this band and this great drummer’s talents with plenty of lively thrashing moments and technical mastery out the wazoo and really the first drummer that I’d heard that played fast with such controlled precision.  One listen to the frantic “Indians” with that tribal intro and that careening tempo had me hooked.  Although I miss that frenetic pace from the early days, Benante is still a massively strong player.

7.  Nigel Glockler

Totally unheralded and largely unknown in the United States, Saxon was around for the birth of the NWOBHM movement (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) in Britain around 1980.  After four albums, Nigel Glockler assumed the drum throne for their seminal live album The Eagle Has Landed (see my fave live albums posts on this one!) as the band started to make some headway in the good ol’ USA.  Glockler’s debut studio album Power And The Glory showed off the man’s skills with the killer intro to “This Town Rocks” and his double kick work in “Warrior”, among others.  Glockler’s steady hand behind the kit, tasty fills, and rock solid playing continue with band today.

6.  Clyde Stubblefield/John “Jabo” Starks

I’ve been a funk fan for a long time and an even bigger fan of James Brown, but if you held me down and asked me who the best funk drummer was I’d have a hard time splitting my vote between these two gentlemen.  What can I say?  JB’s beats are so classic that many have been sampled in 70’s and 80’s rap hits and that influence continues today.    The pocket is deep, the pocket is wide, and the beat is so laid back and steady that you can’t help but get swept up in it and get your toes a tappin’.  From 1965 through approximately 1971, both of these guys played on Brown’s biggest hits both in the studio AND together on tour (Starks continued on with Brown into the mid-1970s).

5.  Nicko McBrain

Always funny, always exciting, and seemingly never playing the same thing twice or at the same tempo is something that you gotta understand about Iron Maiden’s Nicko McBrain.  After taking over for the (excellent himself) Clive Burr on Maiden’s Piece Of Mind, Nicko immediately made himself known with the killer intro to “Where Eagles Dare” and hasn’t stopped since.  There is a certain unmitigated joy in the man’s playing, often sounding like a man with eight arms as he swings from beat to beat.  And when I mean “swing”, it’s just that-  Nicko has never been an out and out pounder, more of a flashy, jazzier player with plenty of unique fills in abundance.  The Maiden machine would certainly be totally different without him.

GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME!  There was a brief moment in time where I thought I was going to be a drummer in the school band-  however, that moment was fleeting because I just wasn’t cool enough to play drums.  You had to have a certain je ne sais quoi to pick up the sticks and bash out a beat on the kit, so I ended up playing trumpet instead (NOT my instrument of choice, but that’s a story for another time).

Now my brother, on the other hand… HE’S the cool one so he’s the drummer!  I dedicate this to him, I’m sure it will spark some debate 🙂  Interestingly enough, I couldn’t whittle it down to just ten so this one goes to twelve.

12.  Kirk Arrington

Metal Church’s Kirk Arrington…  dude, where you been?  The debut album from these Seattle stalwarts is chock full of great drumming plus it has a killer drum production and favorable mix courtesy of producer Terry Date (not only thundering drum sounds but you can hear his work on the cymbals too).  Every single song on the debut is a drum workout and it’s hard to pick a favorite, although the title cut has great groove and fantastic fills and “Merciless Onslaught” is top notch, speedy playing.  While I love the other albums that Arrington played on, it was the debut that stands above all (wish he was back in the band tho).

11.  Mikkey Dee

Sure, without Philthy Phil Taylor’s work on those seminal Motorhead classics we might not even be talking about Mikkey Dee.  But I argue without Mikkey Dee, we might not have had some of the great latter period Motorhead albums either (grab Inferno pronto!).  And let’s not forget the solid work that Dee put in on King Diamond’s classic early albums (Abigail, anyone?).  Joining Motorhead allowed him the opportunity to provide the backbone that those classics needed, continuing to carry the legacy of the band until Lemmy’s recent passing.  You want solid, muscular playing with tons of powerful gusto look no further.

10.  Neil Peart

Ha ha, I can hear my drummer friends now…  “Number 10????  Why so low on the list???”  No knock on Peart’s skills at all; I have huge respect for Rush (Geddy’s on my top bassists list) but I’m more of a fan of their radio hits.  But man, those hits…  who hasn’t air drummed through those fills in “Tom Sawyer”?  Or bashed out the intro to “Spirit Of Radio” on your steering wheel?  As far as technical skill, Peart covers a lot of territory and provides tons of dramatic stickwork on their releases since joining the band on their second album.  One of the cool things about him is that he still has the hunger to learn, revamping his drum style to include more jazz ‘n swing in his recent playing.  Kudos!

9.  Bun E Carlos

It only took one album and one song for Bun E Carlos to end up on this list, that album being Cheap Trick’s At Budokan and the song being “Ain’t That A Shame”.  I can vividly remember madly bashing out that intro on my bed pillows as I dreamed of playing in front of thousands of rabid fans (this was before I decided I was uncool).  Add to that the cool mini solo at the end of “Clock Strikes Ten” and I was hooked.  Bun has never been a flashy player; however, he is extremely rock solid and always plays for the song (kinda like one of his drum heroes in Ringo Starr).  ‘Bout time Trick makes the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame but it’s too bad Bun no longer mans the drum throne for the band.

I’ve been a hard rock/metal fan for as long as I can remember, starting with KISS, Van Halen, and AC/DC all the way up through Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and even branching into thrash metal with the Metallicas, Anthrax, Testaments, and Megadeths of the world.  But it took the longest time to get into stuff that was even more extreme, mostly due to the propensity for too much growling or “cookie monster” vocals that were part of the scene.  I didn’t quite get it or start to appreciate it until I heard the song “Heartwork” from Carcass back in the mid nineties or so.  Musically it was totally up my alley; lots of great guitar work and musicianship but as for the vocals…  uhhh….  huh?  what’s he “singing”?

Kick ahead a few more years and I find a copy of their final (at the time) release Swansong.  The songs were a little more straight ahead metal; not as intricate and certainly the lyrics were much, much different from the past (less medical textbook and more clever with the pun), but somehow I was starting to get those vocals.  Jeff Walker’s style is certainly not for the faint of heart and if you are looking for melody you ain’t gonna get it.  But there is a flow to the grunt and growl where it’s not just a tuneless straight ahead bark; it’s more of a menacing display of intensity as he spits out venomous lyric after lyric.  Think a more pissed off Gollum from Lord Of The Rings as he searches for the ring and you’ll finally be “YEAH!”

At any rate, I finally picked up the Heartwork CD and it started to come to me even more.  Musically it was just ripping; the grooves and melodic spots in the guitar work balanced along with the heavy drumming was really coming together with those vocals.  But it really wasn’t until 2012’s comeback album Surgical Steel that I was finally hooked with the main reason being the mighty wrecking ball of a track in “Unfit For Human Consumption”.  Starting off with a nasty descending riff, the song kicks in with a galloping, chugging riff before Jeff Walker’s menacing sneer takes over and grabs you by the throat as he is accompanied by some unhinged background growls while he spits out a modern day horror story.  But the song is just getting started:  come chorus time a totally different but just as killer spinning, descending riff is thrown in as Walker ups the intensity before we go back to the verse.  And just when you are ready for a breath the song kicks into second gear with some fiery riffing and killer solo from Bill Steer and an intense blast beat section from drummer Daniel Wilding before returning to one more lunatic ride through a final verse before eventually coming to a close.

If you want to branch out from the hard rock\heavy metal world and dip your toe into some more extreme metal, this song will certainly set your hair on fire via its manic panic.  And check out the hysterically crazy video that shows a bit of the humorous side of the band.  While you’re at it, check out some of the other great cuts on Surgical Steel!