diamonds...and dust

A good drummer can make an otherwise good band great, and a great band superb. Without Phil Rudd, AC/DC would have been good some of the time and great on a handful of tracks, but they never would have been the consistently excellent band they were up to For Those About to Rock… I came of age musically at a strange time in the history of rock and pop, from the mid 70s through the mid 80s. Hescher rock still had momentum and corporate power behind it, but Punk, New Wave and power pop were increasingly asserting themselves as upstart alternatives to the dinosaur mindset that dominated FM airwaves. I think this more than anything else is why my taste is all over the map. But in my early formative years, I skewed towards the hescher thing, and my idea of a good drummer was Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, Carl Palmer, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Neil Peart… These are all great drummers with somewhat varying styles, but they all share a similar philosophy of the drummer’s role, which is to get the drums noticed, to have the drums essentially be an additional lead guitar. The thing is, though, that I’m a guitar nut and don’t want my attention diverted like this. I really don’t want the drums to be the main focus or something I notice more than the guitars. Drums should enhance songs, not dominate them. My ideal drummer is one who provides a rhythm that brings me into the music without taking it over. And this is the very essence of what Phil Rudd does. He is known among drum aficionados as No Phil Rudd because he almost never plays a fill. He doesn’t have to. The sound he gets from his drums is so great that all he has to do is provide a simple, stripped-down beat. It’s the sound he gets from his drums more than anything else that makes him distinctive in spite of the conscious effort he makes to not be ostentatious. I’ve heard his style described as ‘unselfish,’ and I think that’s pretty apt. His job, as he sees it, is to make the song swing, and the one thing you can say about the Golden Age of AC/DC is that the songs really fuckin’ swing. They might be the swingingest band ever, and Phil Rudd is a huge factor in giving the band its jackhammer-like power. …I’ve spoken a bit over the past few posts about bands and their secret weapons. Michael Anthony’s backing vocals were Van Halen’s secret weapon. Malcolm Young was one of AC/DC’s secret weapons, Phil Rudd being the other. Maybe it was inevitable that the two of them would eventually, and literally, come to blows. Sometimes there’s only room for one secret weapon. Bon and Angus are what you notice most when you listen to AC/DC, but Phil and Malcolm turn great music into something really special…

PS – I know I’ve said this before but tonight’s footage reinforces my belief that youtube is the greatest fucking invention since the wheel. Tomorrow I will cut the sleeves off my jeans jacket and get me a balls-out anchor tattoo…