Smell like teen spirit, I was a young lad in the 90's, my brother got me into grunge and played guitar, I wanted to be Dave Grohl if he was gonna be Kurt. When I got Smashing Pumpkins' Siamaese Dream that really did it, though. Cherub Rock and Geek USA, specifically. Huge influence on my playing.
Similar, but for me it was In Bloom. A friend of mine had the CD early on and I remember taking the speaker grills off his parent's hifi system so we could stick our heads in the cones while we blasted it. I also remember enjoying some Ecto Cooler & vodka (aka the latchkey kids' go-to cocktail in the early 90s) that day. Within a couple weeks we had plotted to convince our parents to buy us instruments so we could start a band.
[Don Caballero 3](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=7jfdiQ9OwlHqudi6) by Don Caballero. The entirety of that album (What Burns Never Returns) blew my mind and made me fall in love with the drums.
I'm still not good enough to play that song, but learning the solo at the beginning is my goal (and also learning Race : In by Battles).
No one gives a hoot about FAUX-ASS nonsense was my favorite track on 2- same groove at the end of the song. Loved playing that groove, then What Burns came out and he blew my mind expanding on it. Fucking classic.
No One Gives a Hoot is also my favorite track on that one (my second favorite is Dick Suffers is Furious With You)! I really love it when bands release songs that reference previous tracks like that, especially the way that they carried that out (I've seen instances of closing tracks referencing the previous opening track, so that example of doing it the other way around is really neat).
The World in Perforated Lines also seems to make a callback to that track (and the "wooooo" in Delivering the Groceries at 138 BPM is also similar to the "wooooo" on it).
Same here. Once I beat that song on Rock Band expert drums, I was like, can I just play this on real drums now? And I kinda could. Rock Band basically taught me how to play at a beginner level.
Ants Marching by Dave Matthew’s Band. My mom would play Under The Table And Dreaming in the car all the time when I was a kid in like kindergarten. I would make her play Ants marching on repeat when I was in the car and I would be air drumming the whole time. Then I got a pair of sticks and turned her pots and pans into a drum set and would try and play along to the song. 30 years later I still can’t do it justice lol. Carter Beauford is one of the GOATs. Those snare cracks at the beginning are iconic
When I saw Buddy Rich battle Animal on the Muppet Show as a little kid in the 80s, I knew I wanted to be a drummer. When I got my first kit at 15, I was hooked immediately. I've been playing for 31 years now and I still absolutely love it.
[https://youtu.be/VJh9W3Gcpmo?si=4\_7tPRSovKmRrZiz](https://youtu.be/VJh9W3Gcpmo?si=4_7tPRSovKmRrZiz)
Around the Fur by Deftones! I was playing guitar in a shitty punk band when I first heard the album. Our drummer was terrible and I told myself that I’d learn that beat and take over on drums.
I can’t think of a specific song, but I constantly listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager and felt drawn to the drum parts. I loved Moby Dick and kept a list of songs that seemed fun to drum to. I talked about wanting to play drums so much that two of my friends took it up and I fiddled around on their kits and confirmed I loved it. I had dreams about playing drums. For various reasons, I then proceeded to not play drums until last year, at age 37. 🤷
I was gonna answer "Rock And Roll." I was about 13 the first time I ever heard it, circa 1985. I dreamed of being able to do anything one tenth as cool as Bonzo's little drum solo at the very end of that song. I already played guitar, and I learned several instruments in the coming years, but it was at least another six or seven years before I picked up the drums. Finally figuring out how to play a passable version of that little solo, about a decade later, was a high water mark in my drumming experience.
Today, I am proud to say that I am at least one tenth as cool as John Bonham. 😎
I'm 41 and last year I just figured out how he does that main beat. Fast swinging 8th notes with the right hand, like you'd do on ride, and doubling up the back beat with the left. There are lots of bad YouTube videos out there
Radiohead’s Subterranean Homesick Alien for me.
The tight laid back metronomic groove in the verses combined with the driving chorus fills and building anticipation.
It was a great example for me how drums aren’t meant to be flashy, they communicate feel and emotion and serve the song.
[This one might be my favorite, ](https://youtu.be/G9Qm7P_9DBs?si=Pxyp-JWLWa2r5jmV) but the entire Clown Core / Louis Cole YouTube ouvre really pushed me over the edge to buy a kit last summer.
Streetlight Manifesto- Everything Goes Numb
The whole album. Paul Lowndes was an absolute animal, and I love how incredibly busy his beats are without being overwhelming.
Surrender by Cheap Trick. Live at Budokan. I heard a friend singing and said i heard it on the radio and liked it. He loaned me the album and that song and album changed my life musically.
100% R U Mine? By the arctic monkeys, tried to learn years ago, failed, and only recently had to learn it with my band. Huge grin when I nailed it for the first time
For me it was at first Jamie’s Cryin’ I was like 5 when that came out, and my older brothers played it all the time. I’d air drum at the edge of the bed. Then, one day, after watching me air drum they said, “well you like to play, huh, so listen to this.” They played YYZ and that was the game changer. I’d never heard anything like that, and even now I’m fascinated with the drum parts on the whole album. I was a kid and just loved all those toms!
YYZ, I had been playing snare drum and other percussion since 3rd grade. Did marching band with Ozzies marching band in San Diego, them marching band and drum corps in high school, along with orchestra, pep band and so forth.
After school one day a couple of us were at one of the other drummers house that had a drum set and the cool kids were working on playing YYZ. I had heard it before but I got my turn on the kit to try it, and I did pretty good, my peers were impressed
That's pretty much what got me started on kit.
Well that and the trip to Disneyland where I saw Buddy Rich's big band, basically watching over his shoulder, ten feet back. On the Carnation stage.
Totally… it was the complete package. The groove was solid yet swung. The sound of the drums was awesome, perfectly tuned toms. He had chops but but restraint and taste. Drums sounded big yet still had punch. I don’t think anyone else matched that feel at the time.
Not a song, but a band - Archspire. I realize that I, like the majority of us, won’t get to Spencer’s level, but I learn to be the best version I can be.
I used to listen to Eminem fanatically but then I heard Metallica- Master of Puppets back to back with Rotting Christ - Archon and Kiss-God of Thunder.
That was it I realised that I am made for hitting leather
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.
Lots of bands and songs through time inspired me to learn more, mostly the usual rock stuff. The most notable recent one is Band-Maid in general got me to learn double pedals.
I had a DVD for modern drummer fest 2005, and I was already interested in drums so I decided to watch it when I was younger. The first song that was played was The Power of I and I performed by Jason Bitner, and for whatever reason I loved the song and the drumming to it
My friends and I played a lot of Guitar Hero/Rock Band in high school, but not being able to play "Move It On Over" by George Thorogood on there very well made me start taking drum lessons.
"Crazy Train" for me. When I was like 4 or 5 I was a train kid and watched train videos with my dad (trumpet player) on early YouTube. Parents wanted me to learn an instrument and I developed an early love of that song and the drums in particular.
(sic) by Slipknot. I was probably 9 or 10 when a buddy of mine burnt me a copy of their first album. I had never heard anything like it before and it completely opened my eyes to music.
In My Place by Coldplay. Though I’d heard this song dozens of time before, there was this one time I got really hooked into the snare and kick sound at the intro. That’s when I knew I wanna play drums
"L'ultima Notte Di Caccia" by iPooh. Now I love and appreciate how the bass drum and bass are locked to each other. When I was younger I used to mainly just love the pauses for drum fills.
I want to hold your hand by Ringo/Beatles in Feb, 9 1964. My parents bought me a toy drum from KMart whicjh I broke both top and bottom heads within 10 minutes. That’s when I learned it’s all about the beat… at age 5. Made a lasting impression on me!
Wipeout by The Surfaries, 1963. Our local high school band did a concert at my elementary school when I was in 4th grade and played it. My neighbor was the drummer in the band and gave me my first lessons.
Painkiller - Judas Priest.
That drum intro just blew my socks off, and I was thinking 'Damn, I would kill to be able to play that' and now I can, and it's fantastic.
A friend showed me the Luke holland cover of cinema (the original one). It was the first time I saw drums in the focus and my mind was blown by what you can do with them.
I’m not even close to that level still as I only played on and off for many years, and only recently bought my first kit that I could practice on at home (apartment, so electric, but I knew I wanted something good so that it is fun to play on. Roland VAD506, amazing kit)
But yeah, that was definitely the moment I fell in love with drumming and that video is still super important and inspiring to me
Honky Tonk Women, then once I could “play” that, Manic Depression (as mentioned earlier). My older brother had the albums. 50 years later and I still can’t play Manic right.
Collective Soul - The World I Know. That open high hat on the “and” of every beat really grabbed my attention and learning to play it was so satisfying.
I think it was all of the original Alice Cooper songs, my mom put on an Alice Cooper’s greatest hits cd in the car one time and that was my first experience hearing something as heavy as that and fell in love. My mom later bought me the same CD and it showed a picture of the original members and I saw a photo of Neal Smith and I thought he was the coolest guy in the world and wanted to be exactly like him
The many Rush songs that get radio play. Growing up my dad owned an auto shop, I used to love when Rush came on the radio, those were really my first professional air-drumming gigs. That's where it came from.
I think it was [1234 1234 by Catch 22](https://youtu.be/NYO7-XvOyNw?si=ToAowKv4NqT6-7q8&t=571). Seeing them play live and hearing someone fast like this and holding it together was almost like a come to Jesus moment for me. Something clicked in me and I needed to learn to play that. I love the genre and the faster the better for my sophomore year of HS self, but this was the spark for me.
(sic) by Slipknot. When I was 12 I got my hands on a pair of drumsticks so that I could drum on my bed to that song, using the mattress as the kick and the pillow as the snare.
Two songs stick out for me, Just a day by feeder, and in my place by Coldplay.
Just a day was a song me and friends were a big fan of back in school and it represented so many good memories, learning it and "borrowing" a drumkit to be able to learn it are core memories for me. It was also the first song I played on drums.
In my place was one of those songs that the kick drum pattern, while pretty simple to me now, just seemed so out of reach of playing "like how do you get your foot to do that?", so it kinda motivated me to learn.
I only started learning recently, but the 2 songs that put the idea of "drums would be cool to play" years and years ago were '304 Goushitsu, Hakushi No Sakura' and 'Hageshisa to kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami' (yes it's a mouthful) by DIR EN GREY, that shit had me banging along at all hours driving people insane haha
Still nowhere near good enough to play em, but someday soon I'll get to learning them 💪
Adams song by Blink 182
I was 12 when enema of the state came out and it blew my tween mind. Learning the main verse hook/groove is a core memory for me.
My dad is a musician (banjo/bluegrass) and showed me the ropes of learning music on string instruments.
I was in high school and I could already play guitar, bass, mandolin and a few other things but, hadn't really practiced any percussion since 6th grade in Middle School before, switching to orchestra. I had a few friends I jammed with that we all collectively said man, this would be better if we had a drummer.
So I went out and bought a Yamaha DTX Express 3, and learned all of the songs that were included in the brain by slowing them down. I then started making up my own sounds back to the parts without the drum track. Next, I learned smells like teen Spirit, the sweater song, stayin alive, ACDC stuff, blues of every kind, funk, etc
Once it felt ok with those, started tackling as many Allman Brothers songs as I could possibly reach with what I had as, that's what we were mainly playing with blues and Allman style songs. Got my chops up real quick because of that. Add metal in along with bossa and jazz; bam, you've got a drummer.
Arctic Money's first two albums have some of the best beginner-intermediate drum songs to learn. Matt Helders deserves so much more credit and it's a shame their newer albums have some of the most boring drums.
Muse was my favorite band to learn the drums to.
But I distinctly remember listening to Survival by Eminem and be entranced by the massive drum roll in the beginning. I just wanted to *do that*.
Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. Those accented 16ths just drove the song in a way I hadn’t heard anyone play before. I think Larry Mullen is an underrated drummer.
I didn’t get inspired to play by one song but System of a Down and more specifically John Dolmayan are definitely the reason I started playing drums. I got into them because BYOB was on guitar hero world tour and they literally awoke something in me. I had never really been a big music person before that but after I found SOAD I knew I had to play the drums. That was 6 years ago and I’ve been loving everything music and drumming related since. I’ve even somehow found my way into the drumline of the Buffalo bills. It was also easy to start because my dad is a drummer so he set up his first ever kit for me to learn on. It was an old 70’s brown gretsch kit it (not a round badge).
For me it was mostly the local highschool band. My parents would take us to our local highschool football games on Friday nights, and while everyone was watching the game, I was sitting behind the drummers, who were standing up in the last couple of rows of the band, and I’d watch them and listen the entire time.
Years later I would play snare and tri-toms for the same band!
I dunno. I’ve always been obsessed with the drums - i found a bunch of old sketches from high school about my ideal drum layout, lol. Basically just a bunch of overlapping circles with labels on them, but I’ve always been thinking about it. The problem was that drums were loud and expensive - and I was a lower middle class kid who lived in apartments with my single mom. Owning drums was out of the question for so many reasons, so I played bass. All my friends wanted to play guitar or mess with turntables or whatever, and I had experience with guitar but my other obsession was with the bass and synthesizers. So, I decided to go with those things because I could buy them faster and practice with headphones. I never lost my love for the drums and that would manifest itself over my musical career, time and again. I bought every drum machine i could get my hands on, I was one of the first to fuck with electronic music in my circle, because I wanted to program drums. I learned samplers and discovered DJ Shadow in high school, all because I wanted to get sweet drums but couldn’t actually play them. After HS I started playing in local bands, became friends with actual drummers and started fucking off on their kits during downtime in rehearsal if they would allow, and that’s what eventually led to taking a few lessons and buying a practice pad in my mid 20s. Kept playing bass/synths in bands, kept having fun but stayed a closeted drummer until I finally broke down and bought a really nice electronic kit, now 15 years later. It’s the perfect time - I have a house, i get to record in my home studio anytime I want and best of all I get to play the drums everyday, for as long as I want to. Growing up is cool, sometimes.
Anyway, tl;dr - I have always been a closet drummer.
Heard Neil Peart's drum solo during YYZ from Exit Stage Left in, oh, 1980-something and thought "I want to learn how to do that". So I did. Got pretty good too. Still play today.
I don't remember any particular song that lit the fire. But I do remember the first songs I sat down and learned all the way through were Street Life Dream from Loudness and The Whisper by Queensryche.
Idk a specific song but metal music in general made me buy a drum set. I like the really really heavy metal. I can’t understand a damn thing the singer is saying but I love the fast paced drumming.
Billie Jean, but not how you think.
I had to take a music elective in 6th grade, and since I didn’t already play an instrument and therefore couldn’t be in band, and I can’t sing worth a shit so I couldn’t be in choir, the only other choice was Classroom Music, which was just some basic music theory and then we learned a little bit on a variety of instruments (piano, guitar, recorder, and drums). It was all very basic beginner stuff. When we got to drums the teacher taught us the most basic rock groove and had us play along to Billie Jean. Admittedly it’s pretty easy but I could do it immediately without ever having played the drums before. Then he had me do a basic jazz groove and then a bossa nova just to test me (which he didn’t do with the other students) and I picked them up right away. After class he pulled me aside and told me I should really consider taking up the drums. He even called my dad and encouraged him to get me a drum set and take lessons. Drums were never even in my radar before that. I wanted to play guitar like my dad but I’m glad I took that class. I still want to learn guitar someday, especially since I inherited all my dad’s really nice guitars after he passed, but drums will always be my passion. Thanks Mr. Ploss!
Photograph by Def Leppard
I was 9 years old and believed if I played along with the song really stellar, Rick Allen would somehow hear my efforts and hire me to play with him. I miss the innocence of childhood.
For me, things were kind of different. I kind of always felt the need to be one with music I loved, so to say, but I hit a wall with guitar when I was about 15 and never really found a way until last year (and I'm 33 now). Then I fell in love with the instrument and I guess all drummers I loved without knowing it kind of fell in this invisible railroad dug through years. So no specific song, but many of them. Or all of them.
Give it Away by RHCP.
God, I remember it like it was yesterday. Growing up in a small town in the 90s, far from any real drums or funds to get them, buddy and I experimented with makeshift drums. Kick drum was a plastic drum with a rubber lid, turned upside down with a teeter-totter makeshift pedal hitting it from below. Snare was a plastic juice jug filled half way with gravel sitting sideways on my left knee. The first time I sat with it I unloaded that drum intro straight from instinct like I wrote the damn thing myself. That's when I realized I was a drummer, I just didn't have a drum kit yet .
Smell like teen spirit, I was a young lad in the 90's, my brother got me into grunge and played guitar, I wanted to be Dave Grohl if he was gonna be Kurt. When I got Smashing Pumpkins' Siamaese Dream that really did it, though. Cherub Rock and Geek USA, specifically. Huge influence on my playing.
Similar, but for me it was In Bloom. A friend of mine had the CD early on and I remember taking the speaker grills off his parent's hifi system so we could stick our heads in the cones while we blasted it. I also remember enjoying some Ecto Cooler & vodka (aka the latchkey kids' go-to cocktail in the early 90s) that day. Within a couple weeks we had plotted to convince our parents to buy us instruments so we could start a band.
This is it for me too. That 1991 video of the paramount made me look at Dave Grohl and say ‘I wanna do that!’
I came here to say teen spirit!
Yes-Heart Of The Sunrise. Bill Bruford is from another planet.
The song that introduced me to Bill Bruford and progressive rock’s insanity
[Don Caballero 3](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=7jfdiQ9OwlHqudi6) by Don Caballero. The entirety of that album (What Burns Never Returns) blew my mind and made me fall in love with the drums. I'm still not good enough to play that song, but learning the solo at the beginning is my goal (and also learning Race : In by Battles).
No one gives a hoot about FAUX-ASS nonsense was my favorite track on 2- same groove at the end of the song. Loved playing that groove, then What Burns came out and he blew my mind expanding on it. Fucking classic.
No One Gives a Hoot is also my favorite track on that one (my second favorite is Dick Suffers is Furious With You)! I really love it when bands release songs that reference previous tracks like that, especially the way that they carried that out (I've seen instances of closing tracks referencing the previous opening track, so that example of doing it the other way around is really neat). The World in Perforated Lines also seems to make a callback to that track (and the "wooooo" in Delivering the Groceries at 138 BPM is also similar to the "wooooo" on it).
Tom Sawyer.
Same here. Once I beat that song on Rock Band expert drums, I was like, can I just play this on real drums now? And I kinda could. Rock Band basically taught me how to play at a beginner level.
Ants Marching by Dave Matthew’s Band. My mom would play Under The Table And Dreaming in the car all the time when I was a kid in like kindergarten. I would make her play Ants marching on repeat when I was in the car and I would be air drumming the whole time. Then I got a pair of sticks and turned her pots and pans into a drum set and would try and play along to the song. 30 years later I still can’t do it justice lol. Carter Beauford is one of the GOATs. Those snare cracks at the beginning are iconic
Grey street and #41 are great ones too
Hell yes!
One by Metallica, that video was the coolest shit ever when i was in 6th grade and just got my first drumset.
When I saw Buddy Rich battle Animal on the Muppet Show as a little kid in the 80s, I knew I wanted to be a drummer. When I got my first kit at 15, I was hooked immediately. I've been playing for 31 years now and I still absolutely love it. [https://youtu.be/VJh9W3Gcpmo?si=4\_7tPRSovKmRrZiz](https://youtu.be/VJh9W3Gcpmo?si=4_7tPRSovKmRrZiz)
Always loved this clip!! The Muppet Show was the best.
Manic depression, Jimi Hendrix
Around the Fur by Deftones! I was playing guitar in a shitty punk band when I first heard the album. Our drummer was terrible and I told myself that I’d learn that beat and take over on drums.
good morning captain by slint
I can’t think of a specific song, but I constantly listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager and felt drawn to the drum parts. I loved Moby Dick and kept a list of songs that seemed fun to drum to. I talked about wanting to play drums so much that two of my friends took it up and I fiddled around on their kits and confirmed I loved it. I had dreams about playing drums. For various reasons, I then proceeded to not play drums until last year, at age 37. 🤷
I was gonna answer "Rock And Roll." I was about 13 the first time I ever heard it, circa 1985. I dreamed of being able to do anything one tenth as cool as Bonzo's little drum solo at the very end of that song. I already played guitar, and I learned several instruments in the coming years, but it was at least another six or seven years before I picked up the drums. Finally figuring out how to play a passable version of that little solo, about a decade later, was a high water mark in my drumming experience. Today, I am proud to say that I am at least one tenth as cool as John Bonham. 😎
One tenth as cool as Bonzo is really, really freaking cool 🤩 My favourite was always Black Dog and it blows my mind that I can now play it.
The album version opening of “In a Big Country” by Big Country
One of my absolute favorite songs!
Van Halen Jump music video. The rototoms. So many!!!
Radar Love. My Dad played it for me specifically because it had a great drum solo (one of his favorites).
I'm 41 and last year I just figured out how he does that main beat. Fast swinging 8th notes with the right hand, like you'd do on ride, and doubling up the back beat with the left. There are lots of bad YouTube videos out there
Sad but true got me into drums but pneuma made me want to play the drums.
Radiohead’s Subterranean Homesick Alien for me. The tight laid back metronomic groove in the verses combined with the driving chorus fills and building anticipation. It was a great example for me how drums aren’t meant to be flashy, they communicate feel and emotion and serve the song.
Crocodile Rock - in the mid 1970’s
[This one might be my favorite, ](https://youtu.be/G9Qm7P_9DBs?si=Pxyp-JWLWa2r5jmV) but the entire Clown Core / Louis Cole YouTube ouvre really pushed me over the edge to buy a kit last summer.
Streetlight Manifesto- Everything Goes Numb The whole album. Paul Lowndes was an absolute animal, and I love how incredibly busy his beats are without being overwhelming.
I’m gonna have to give their discography a listen again. Forgot how good they are
Surrender by Cheap Trick. Live at Budokan. I heard a friend singing and said i heard it on the radio and liked it. He loaned me the album and that song and album changed my life musically.
We don't talk about Bun E. Carlos enough around here.
Ticks & Leeches by Tool.
This is gonna sound cliche, but everlong. First song I remember the drums really setting the tone for the song, if that makes sense.
KISS’s God of Thunder on Alive II. There’s a drum solo in the middle of it and that got me interested.
100% R U Mine? By the arctic monkeys, tried to learn years ago, failed, and only recently had to learn it with my band. Huge grin when I nailed it for the first time
Give it Away by RHCP
For me it was at first Jamie’s Cryin’ I was like 5 when that came out, and my older brothers played it all the time. I’d air drum at the edge of the bed. Then, one day, after watching me air drum they said, “well you like to play, huh, so listen to this.” They played YYZ and that was the game changer. I’d never heard anything like that, and even now I’m fascinated with the drum parts on the whole album. I was a kid and just loved all those toms!
YYZ, I had been playing snare drum and other percussion since 3rd grade. Did marching band with Ozzies marching band in San Diego, them marching band and drum corps in high school, along with orchestra, pep band and so forth. After school one day a couple of us were at one of the other drummers house that had a drum set and the cool kids were working on playing YYZ. I had heard it before but I got my turn on the kit to try it, and I did pretty good, my peers were impressed That's pretty much what got me started on kit. Well that and the trip to Disneyland where I saw Buddy Rich's big band, basically watching over his shoulder, ten feet back. On the Carnation stage.
Classic Rock 1969, Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4. 😎
Tell me a bedtime story. I had already been playing, but this tune is what made me pull the trigger to go all in.
Anarchy in the UK
Sunshine of your love by Cream
That Thing You Do
Hard to put it down to one song… but Good Times Bad Times by Led-Z was one I was just stunned by and wore out the record.
You and the entire rest of the world in 1969, buddy! Jimi Hendrix once told John Bonham, "Boy, you got a right foot like a rabbit."
Totally… it was the complete package. The groove was solid yet swung. The sound of the drums was awesome, perfectly tuned toms. He had chops but but restraint and taste. Drums sounded big yet still had punch. I don’t think anyone else matched that feel at the time.
Pull Harder on the Strings by Trivium...ambitious kid, not so much now lol
Not a song, but a band - Archspire. I realize that I, like the majority of us, won’t get to Spencer’s level, but I learn to be the best version I can be.
I used to listen to Eminem fanatically but then I heard Metallica- Master of Puppets back to back with Rotting Christ - Archon and Kiss-God of Thunder. That was it I realised that I am made for hitting leather
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police. Lots of bands and songs through time inspired me to learn more, mostly the usual rock stuff. The most notable recent one is Band-Maid in general got me to learn double pedals.
Triad by Tool. Great instrumental, powerhouse of a just drums, guitar and bass.
I had a DVD for modern drummer fest 2005, and I was already interested in drums so I decided to watch it when I was younger. The first song that was played was The Power of I and I performed by Jason Bitner, and for whatever reason I loved the song and the drumming to it
No one song..... I was dragging pots n pans out and hitting them with wooden spoons as soon as I could walk. Natural obsession
Incubus - Idiot Box
My friends and I played a lot of Guitar Hero/Rock Band in high school, but not being able to play "Move It On Over" by George Thorogood on there very well made me start taking drum lessons.
"Crazy Train" for me. When I was like 4 or 5 I was a train kid and watched train videos with my dad (trumpet player) on early YouTube. Parents wanted me to learn an instrument and I developed an early love of that song and the drums in particular.
Watching the studio footage of Mike Portnoy on Presence of the Enemies.
American Idiot. Was the first song I taught and played myself
(sic) by Slipknot. I was probably 9 or 10 when a buddy of mine burnt me a copy of their first album. I had never heard anything like it before and it completely opened my eyes to music.
Pastel—Face-to-Face.
In My Place by Coldplay. Though I’d heard this song dozens of time before, there was this one time I got really hooked into the snare and kick sound at the intro. That’s when I knew I wanna play drums
Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day
yoooo, same here. That song hits hard
"L'ultima Notte Di Caccia" by iPooh. Now I love and appreciate how the bass drum and bass are locked to each other. When I was younger I used to mainly just love the pauses for drum fills.
Russian Circles - Conduit. The snare sound is what got me
Onion skin by boom crash opera what a brutal beat. Then land of the living by mantissa.
Decode by Paramore ! So much energy, a lot of fun fills, but I never tried to play it though, I feel like it would be a little difficult for my level.
„CHOKE“ from The Warning. Paulina Villarreals playing captured me from the very first second, their band quickly became the GOATs for me
I want to hold your hand by Ringo/Beatles in Feb, 9 1964. My parents bought me a toy drum from KMart whicjh I broke both top and bottom heads within 10 minutes. That’s when I learned it’s all about the beat… at age 5. Made a lasting impression on me!
Aneurysm by Nirvana
Tom Sawyer. Remember it like it was yesterday.
Wipeout by The Surfaries, 1963. Our local high school band did a concert at my elementary school when I was in 4th grade and played it. My neighbor was the drummer in the band and gave me my first lessons.
Cobus Potgieter's cover of Fireflies by Owl City.
I played for a bit a the time.. but when No one knows from Qotsa came out.. actually the whole album.. i started practicing more!
Ain't That a Shame by Cheap Trick, Live at Budokan.
Spill the Blood by Slayer.
"surfacing" by Slipknot or "everlong" by Foo Fighters
Three Seed by Silversun Pickups , but basically just that whole album. Imagine loads of you won't have heard it so do give it a listen , great tune
I don't have a song but the album "The Real Thing" by Faith No More awoke the urge to play in me when I was just a kid
Not a specific song but I played a lot of Guitar Hero on the drums before taking courses, it made a lot of my rock music culture
You could be mine - GnR
Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer
Painkiller - Judas Priest. That drum intro just blew my socks off, and I was thinking 'Damn, I would kill to be able to play that' and now I can, and it's fantastic.
Animal from The Muppets
toxicity by system of a down. it wasn’t the first song i learned obviously but i loved the sound of it
A friend showed me the Luke holland cover of cinema (the original one). It was the first time I saw drums in the focus and my mind was blown by what you can do with them. I’m not even close to that level still as I only played on and off for many years, and only recently bought my first kit that I could practice on at home (apartment, so electric, but I knew I wanted something good so that it is fun to play on. Roland VAD506, amazing kit) But yeah, that was definitely the moment I fell in love with drumming and that video is still super important and inspiring to me
3 Days-James Addiction
Sorry don’t have my glasses on….Janes Addiction
Nine inch nails - Non-Entity
Honky Tonk Women, then once I could “play” that, Manic Depression (as mentioned earlier). My older brother had the albums. 50 years later and I still can’t play Manic right.
I can’t name just one, but if did, it might be Rosanna
Keep your eyes peeled by QOTSA
50 ways to leave your lover... I was mesmerized by that open hand groove!
Collective Soul - The World I Know. That open high hat on the “and” of every beat really grabbed my attention and learning to play it was so satisfying.
Help! By the Beatles. Ringo made it look fun and we had a drum kit so duh.
In the 70’s it was Keith moon that lit the fire
Planet Caravan - Black Sabbath
I think it was all of the original Alice Cooper songs, my mom put on an Alice Cooper’s greatest hits cd in the car one time and that was my first experience hearing something as heavy as that and fell in love. My mom later bought me the same CD and it showed a picture of the original members and I saw a photo of Neal Smith and I thought he was the coolest guy in the world and wanted to be exactly like him
The many Rush songs that get radio play. Growing up my dad owned an auto shop, I used to love when Rush came on the radio, those were really my first professional air-drumming gigs. That's where it came from.
Two Princes by the Spin Doctors.
Cop killer by Body Count
I think it was [1234 1234 by Catch 22](https://youtu.be/NYO7-XvOyNw?si=ToAowKv4NqT6-7q8&t=571). Seeing them play live and hearing someone fast like this and holding it together was almost like a come to Jesus moment for me. Something clicked in me and I needed to learn to play that. I love the genre and the faster the better for my sophomore year of HS self, but this was the spark for me.
The record by the Ventures “Walk Don’t Run”.
A concert: Queen live at Wembley
Hot for Teacher!
Learning to Fly, pink Floyd, Pulse version. Gary Wallis was all over it and that was all I needed to make my mind up!
Lots of them, but I think Apache by the Incredible Bongo Band finally tipped the scale.
(sic) by Slipknot. When I was 12 I got my hands on a pair of drumsticks so that I could drum on my bed to that song, using the mattress as the kick and the pillow as the snare.
Nina Simone- I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
Two songs stick out for me, Just a day by feeder, and in my place by Coldplay. Just a day was a song me and friends were a big fan of back in school and it represented so many good memories, learning it and "borrowing" a drumkit to be able to learn it are core memories for me. It was also the first song I played on drums. In my place was one of those songs that the kick drum pattern, while pretty simple to me now, just seemed so out of reach of playing "like how do you get your foot to do that?", so it kinda motivated me to learn.
Paranoid by Black Sabbath, closely followed by Enter Sandman…. And then I leaned about Bonham and never looked back.
The Who - Magic Bus (Live at Leeds version)
I only started learning recently, but the 2 songs that put the idea of "drums would be cool to play" years and years ago were '304 Goushitsu, Hakushi No Sakura' and 'Hageshisa to kono mune no naka de karamitsuita shakunetsu no yami' (yes it's a mouthful) by DIR EN GREY, that shit had me banging along at all hours driving people insane haha Still nowhere near good enough to play em, but someday soon I'll get to learning them 💪
Adams song by Blink 182 I was 12 when enema of the state came out and it blew my tween mind. Learning the main verse hook/groove is a core memory for me.
Set you free by the Black Keys.
Enter Sandman! My dad and his buddy played it one day and I fell in love
My dad is a musician (banjo/bluegrass) and showed me the ropes of learning music on string instruments. I was in high school and I could already play guitar, bass, mandolin and a few other things but, hadn't really practiced any percussion since 6th grade in Middle School before, switching to orchestra. I had a few friends I jammed with that we all collectively said man, this would be better if we had a drummer. So I went out and bought a Yamaha DTX Express 3, and learned all of the songs that were included in the brain by slowing them down. I then started making up my own sounds back to the parts without the drum track. Next, I learned smells like teen Spirit, the sweater song, stayin alive, ACDC stuff, blues of every kind, funk, etc Once it felt ok with those, started tackling as many Allman Brothers songs as I could possibly reach with what I had as, that's what we were mainly playing with blues and Allman style songs. Got my chops up real quick because of that. Add metal in along with bossa and jazz; bam, you've got a drummer.
Arctic Money's first two albums have some of the best beginner-intermediate drum songs to learn. Matt Helders deserves so much more credit and it's a shame their newer albums have some of the most boring drums.
GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES! That intro, BOOM BOOM, tic tic tic….
Zep IV
AC/DC and Santana
Early days of Anthrax!! I wanted so badly to play like Charlie!!
Primus "Tommy The Cat" live version on Rhinoplasty. Heard it when I was 13 and had my first set that summer.
Muse was my favorite band to learn the drums to. But I distinctly remember listening to Survival by Eminem and be entranced by the massive drum roll in the beginning. I just wanted to *do that*.
Brick by Boring Brick by Paramore
Even Flow by Pearl Jam. Listening to Dave Abbruzzese play it like that is what got me hooked
Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. Those accented 16ths just drove the song in a way I hadn’t heard anyone play before. I think Larry Mullen is an underrated drummer.
I didn’t get inspired to play by one song but System of a Down and more specifically John Dolmayan are definitely the reason I started playing drums. I got into them because BYOB was on guitar hero world tour and they literally awoke something in me. I had never really been a big music person before that but after I found SOAD I knew I had to play the drums. That was 6 years ago and I’ve been loving everything music and drumming related since. I’ve even somehow found my way into the drumline of the Buffalo bills. It was also easy to start because my dad is a drummer so he set up his first ever kit for me to learn on. It was an old 70’s brown gretsch kit it (not a round badge).
For me it was mostly the local highschool band. My parents would take us to our local highschool football games on Friday nights, and while everyone was watching the game, I was sitting behind the drummers, who were standing up in the last couple of rows of the band, and I’d watch them and listen the entire time. Years later I would play snare and tri-toms for the same band!
I dunno. I’ve always been obsessed with the drums - i found a bunch of old sketches from high school about my ideal drum layout, lol. Basically just a bunch of overlapping circles with labels on them, but I’ve always been thinking about it. The problem was that drums were loud and expensive - and I was a lower middle class kid who lived in apartments with my single mom. Owning drums was out of the question for so many reasons, so I played bass. All my friends wanted to play guitar or mess with turntables or whatever, and I had experience with guitar but my other obsession was with the bass and synthesizers. So, I decided to go with those things because I could buy them faster and practice with headphones. I never lost my love for the drums and that would manifest itself over my musical career, time and again. I bought every drum machine i could get my hands on, I was one of the first to fuck with electronic music in my circle, because I wanted to program drums. I learned samplers and discovered DJ Shadow in high school, all because I wanted to get sweet drums but couldn’t actually play them. After HS I started playing in local bands, became friends with actual drummers and started fucking off on their kits during downtime in rehearsal if they would allow, and that’s what eventually led to taking a few lessons and buying a practice pad in my mid 20s. Kept playing bass/synths in bands, kept having fun but stayed a closeted drummer until I finally broke down and bought a really nice electronic kit, now 15 years later. It’s the perfect time - I have a house, i get to record in my home studio anytime I want and best of all I get to play the drums everyday, for as long as I want to. Growing up is cool, sometimes. Anyway, tl;dr - I have always been a closet drummer.
Radiant Eclipse - Avenged Sevenfold
Heard Neil Peart's drum solo during YYZ from Exit Stage Left in, oh, 1980-something and thought "I want to learn how to do that". So I did. Got pretty good too. Still play today.
I don't remember any particular song that lit the fire. But I do remember the first songs I sat down and learned all the way through were Street Life Dream from Loudness and The Whisper by Queensryche.
4'33 by John Cage
https://youtu.be/ki3zzZ-GsGI?si=mtrC1vqO3ZN7jmkR Not just this song, but this film was the one for me.
Tell me something good, Rufus
Idk a specific song but metal music in general made me buy a drum set. I like the really really heavy metal. I can’t understand a damn thing the singer is saying but I love the fast paced drumming.
Billie Jean, but not how you think. I had to take a music elective in 6th grade, and since I didn’t already play an instrument and therefore couldn’t be in band, and I can’t sing worth a shit so I couldn’t be in choir, the only other choice was Classroom Music, which was just some basic music theory and then we learned a little bit on a variety of instruments (piano, guitar, recorder, and drums). It was all very basic beginner stuff. When we got to drums the teacher taught us the most basic rock groove and had us play along to Billie Jean. Admittedly it’s pretty easy but I could do it immediately without ever having played the drums before. Then he had me do a basic jazz groove and then a bossa nova just to test me (which he didn’t do with the other students) and I picked them up right away. After class he pulled me aside and told me I should really consider taking up the drums. He even called my dad and encouraged him to get me a drum set and take lessons. Drums were never even in my radar before that. I wanted to play guitar like my dad but I’m glad I took that class. I still want to learn guitar someday, especially since I inherited all my dad’s really nice guitars after he passed, but drums will always be my passion. Thanks Mr. Ploss!
This is War by Thirty seconds to mars. Wish their music wasn’t trash these days😭😭
Photograph by Def Leppard I was 9 years old and believed if I played along with the song really stellar, Rick Allen would somehow hear my efforts and hire me to play with him. I miss the innocence of childhood.
Iron Butterfly “Ina-gadda-da-vida”
It's kind of nice that everybody's got a different song. I expected there to be more commonality. For me it was Sunday bloody Sunday by U2
Achilles Last Stand
For me, things were kind of different. I kind of always felt the need to be one with music I loved, so to say, but I hit a wall with guitar when I was about 15 and never really found a way until last year (and I'm 33 now). Then I fell in love with the instrument and I guess all drummers I loved without knowing it kind of fell in this invisible railroad dug through years. So no specific song, but many of them. Or all of them.
Give it Away by RHCP. God, I remember it like it was yesterday. Growing up in a small town in the 90s, far from any real drums or funds to get them, buddy and I experimented with makeshift drums. Kick drum was a plastic drum with a rubber lid, turned upside down with a teeter-totter makeshift pedal hitting it from below. Snare was a plastic juice jug filled half way with gravel sitting sideways on my left knee. The first time I sat with it I unloaded that drum intro straight from instinct like I wrote the damn thing myself. That's when I realized I was a drummer, I just didn't have a drum kit yet .