The Drummer's Stairway to Heaven

[White_Pointer]

If there's one song almost every budding young guitarist wants to play one day, it's Stairway to Heaven. It seems to be the quintessential guitar song, the holy grail of the 6 stringed instrument.

I've been thinking recently...what is the drummer's equivalent? Is there even an equivalent? It doesn't seem to me like there's THE song out there that almost all young drummers want to learn how to play. All depends on drumming style too of course, but I imagine that most of us either wouldn't have a specific song in mind, or would all choose something different if we were asked.

So...as a drummer...what is your Stairway to Heaven?

[haggis-man]

For me it would be "Here's a man" by Spock's Beard. I love the mix of jazz and rock in the drumming. It's very complex and difficult to play.

[BWaj]

Great band, I like them too. And what a cool name, lol.

[hairmetal-81]

'We Will Rock You' by Queen


(...or 'Life is Live' by Opus, in various parts in- and around Germany....)

[slyone]

For each drummer it will depend on age I suspect, but for me and the era I started it would be a list of stuff that included Hendrix's "Fire" and the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". I'd include I. Ron Butterfly's "Inna Gadda Da Vida" except I'm performing that with a band I'm currently in.

Lyle

[KennyinDundee]

Rosanna by Toto for me. I can do the shuffle and I get the groove, but it's hard to do both together!

[jonm42]

What Kenny said! Thats where I'm aiming. Other things on the playlist include Freewill, Ants Marching, Africa & Pieces of April. Go big or go home!

[jonm42]

Oh, and She Drives Me Crazy, by Fine Young Cannibals, too .

[LoKey]

"Tom Sawyer" - Rush or "In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins

[Intruder]

I agree, Both are in my mind!

[jonm42]

And how could I possibly forget "meadows" by Joe Walsh!

[slyone]

And how could I possibly forget "meadows" by Joe Walsh!

Cool song, a fav' from the Smoker album. Walsh stuff is fun to play. A band I'm in is playing an old James Gang (with Walsh) song, "Tend My Garden" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqeErugWXZ4 . And FYC stuff is quite cool too

[jimorlando]

When I was young, it was Ginger Baker Toad. Now I like White Room, Fire, and the Stones, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, among other things. The various shuffles mentioned above are also fun.

[dinsdale]

One that springs to mind for me is on the other side of the same LP: 'When the Levee Breaks.' It's one of the most sampled tracks of all time along with Stubblefield's 'Funky drummer' (all 5 seconds of it).

[stonebone]

Led Zeppelin / Rock and Roll

[Kenster]

For me I guess it would have to be RUSH - Subdivisions or Spirit of Radio. It's funny, my new band has already decided and begun working on Subdivisions as a "one off" at gigs since it's not in our current "Rock Songs You Can Dance To" format.
K ;-)

[BWaj]

We do Subdivisions too, very cool song. You figure out that grove with up beats on the ride bell and 16th's on the hat? Man, that was almost enough to make me quit the song, lol.

[Kenster]

Figuring out parts is always fun but it wasn't so much fun trying to find the wav file of the word "subdivisions" from the actual song. It's like no one has it on the web so I extracted the two variations of it from the song myself. Now we can trigger them via keyboard or my SPD-s so we can have a clip from the actual song when we play it.

[BWaj]

For me it's about anything from Dream Theater. I can't play any of it, but sure is fun trying, lol!

[Greg The Groove]

Man I'd love to play anything by. Dream Theater. Unfortunately I don't play double bass that well, never have so that pretty much puts me out of contention. LOL

[BWaj]

Agreed, those guys are some great musicians! The hardest part for me is getting through it all clean without tripping up somewhere.Actually, the hardest part is figuring out what he's doing first, lol. My double bass skills are really rusty these days so I agree with you on that. My left foot actually seems to look up at me and say, dude, I'm not doing that!

[Kenster]

Oh Dream Theater is my next Stairway stuff....and I can play most of it so it is really really fun!!! Now the newer Mangini stuff...not so much lol. K ;-)