10 Greatest Drum Performances In Rock Music History
4. Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
There's a good chance that almost every single person in the Who got stuck with the wrong instrument. Compared to the wild eccentricities that he has, Keith Moon could have practically been the lead guitar player, going through crazy fills while Pete Townshend assumed the drummer role with his steady as hell rhythm guitar work. Amid all of the chaos though, every single element of the band found a way of making insanity make sense on a song like Won't Get Fooled Again.
Though the song tricks you at the beginning by never quite nailing down a tempo with the different synthesizer parts, Keith makes it look easy when the drums eventually do come in, having just the right amount of fills to keep everything grounded from the back of the stage. Being a part of the original Lifehouse project, this feels like what the showstopper of that rock opera should have been, as Moon the Loon makes his drums feel like the actual hysteria that comes with bringing people together through the power of music.
While it would be enough to hold this kind of thing for the better part of 8 minutes, the tasteful part of this comes right before Roger's iconic scream, as the synthesizer comes in and Keith is playing all of those fills, even throwing in a bar of 2/4 in so that we're not fully prepared for the scream when it does eventually come in. It sounds like it should be too busy when you hear it out of context, but when The Who bring it together, it's all right where it needs to be.