What drummer was the better lyricist?
 

This thread is about what drummer is the better lyricist. It's not about a who is the better drummer.

Jim Capaldi - Traffic
Dave Clark - The Dave Clark Five
Phil Collins - Genesis, solo
Neil Peart - Rush
Ringo Starr - The Beatles, solo

Grant Hart

*End thread*

Robert Wyatt and Christian Vander as well.

I'm not sure if Neil Peart qualifies as a songwriter, he writes most of Rush's lyrics while Geddy and Alex write the intrumental pieces.

Was he writing lyrics and drumming for Hüsker Dü or is he like Dave Grohl? after drumming he strapped on a guitar and became a songerwriter/guitarist.

No he was writing songs & singing them when he was with Husker Du as well as playing drums.

Grant Hart wrote & sang his songs , Bob Mould did the same with his songs.

i raise you a Mickey Hart. :pimp:

in all seriousness Tomas Haake is pretty sweet, he writes the majority of Meshuggah's lyrics and pretty much headmans the group.

Christian Vander wins by default.

Neil Peart. Love his lyrics.

Buddy Rich blows all these posers out of the water.


Clearly.

That comment does not fly here because first you have to know who we are talking about before you can call them "posers."

Please understand this is a discussion of drummers who write lyrics. I am not aware that Buddy Rich wrote lyrics, please name a song he wrote. And then explain how it is better then a song by Rush or Traffic or Hüsker Dü, or better than Christian Vander the German soccer player Comus mentioned.

You guys need to remember context.

Grant Hart and Buddy Rich don't count, they're technically not rock n roll, classic rock or 60s rock drummers.

Max Roach

Just throwing it out there.....

True,

OK, I let Grant Hart (Hüsker Dü) slide, but I don't like when someone pops in just to call everyone mentioned a "poser," especially Jim Capaldi a "poser" when in all probability he never heard of a single song by Traffic.

you can rule out Dave Clark, he never wrote a lyric in his life. He owned the band the "Dave Clark Five",he employed the other four guys and paid them a weekly wage. As such they were contacted to write songs and he was always credited as co-writer even though he never wrote a word. As for the songs such as "Because" and "Anyway you want it" which are solely credited to "Dave Clark" he actually bought them from songwriter Ron Ryan and put his name to them!
Before anyone says "What about Time the Musical" ? Well he bought that too, it wasn't his idea or his music as he claims.
CP

Well that Rotten Tottenham charlatan, all this time I thought he wrote the lyrics, I'm stunned...
Well, not that I'm challenging the veracity of your statement but how do you know?

Well it's certainly not Ringo.

Phil Collins is an underrated songwriter and drummer I think. His solo stuff is really awful but he wrote some great stuff with Genesis.

And just to make you all mad, I choose Don Henley. :D

To quote Holly (Red Dwarf) on parallel universes:

Well, for instance in this universe, it could be that Hitler won the Second World War. It could be something even more incredible, like perhaps Ringo was a really good drummer.

But he was a really good drummer.

Now if there was a paralell universe where he was a great songwriter, that would be something.

Been a follower of the group for years, there are a lot of websites around with very interesting info on what went on in that band. I got a chance to speak to Mike Smith when he toured the US a few years back with his "Rock Engine". He was very critical of Clark's using his name on the songs he (Smith ), Davidson and Payton wrote. There's a guy in the UK called Ron Ryan who has a very good website called Ron Ryan Music ( it won't let me post the link as I'm a new member) where he tells how Clark "conned" him out of his songwriting credits.
In addition of course is the basic fact that Clark didn't drum on any of the records either, that was UK session drummer Bobby Graham. It's sad for the other guys in the group that the guy taking all the credit and kudos is basically "economical with the truth" , maybe they should have been named the "Fake Clark Five".
One other lovely bit of exaggeration is on record sales. At the height of the group's success around 1965 they put out an album claiming on the sleeve they'd sold 35 million records. In 1993 they ( Clark) released the group's first cd , in the liner notes he claimed the group had sold 50 million records even though they'd released nothing since 1977. The cd failed chartwise and Clark never released another album until 2008. The sleeve notes on that says the group sold 100 million records. So effectively with no product on the market they double their world wide sales in 15 years! Some achievement by anyones standards!

:rolleyes:

he was a competent drummer, "really good" is stretching it. just as long as we're in agreement that he was an awful songwriter.

For some reason I have a vague recollection of someone telling me that before, that is why I believe you, Buddy Holly had a similar problem with Norman Petty (maybe I'm thinking of that). I was just curious if there was something on the web about what you mentioned. I always kind of known the DC5 was more of a business venture for Dave Clark then a band of close friends that made music. They say Mike Smith could not mention the DC5 in advertising when he went on tour with Rocket Engine.
It is a shame that Mike Smith died before The Rock and Roll HoF induction of the DC5, they should had really been inducted in 2007.

I am a big fan of Al Bouchard. He was a good drummer and I believe he contributed in a major way to Blue Öyster Cult´s songwriting.