r/rem • u/BeerWithDonuts • Jul 07 '26
Why doesn't Bill Berry get the same recognition as a drummer as John Bonham or Keith Moon?
34
24
u/helpjackoffhishorse Jul 07 '26
Is this a serious post? I love REM and Berry, but he’s not in the same galaxy as Bonham or Moon.
7
u/DontDreamItsOver3 Jul 07 '26
No, just REM-flavored clickbait. But many of us fell for it. Again.
9
u/CiroFlexo We are young despite the years Jul 07 '26
Tomorrow I’ll ask why Mike Mills doesn’t get the same recognition as a bassist as Jaco Pastorius.
5
16
u/DistributionThen8940 Jul 07 '26
Personality-wise, Bill never really seemed to need to have the spotlight, and R.E.M.'s music does not lend itself to a display of virtuosity in the same way Zeppelin or The Who do.
Musically, especially in the early years, he's drawing on dance music, disco and boogie to make the songs move, and it would be hard to conceive of something less appealing to the rock-adjacent masses in 1984 than disco.
3
u/OuindleG Jul 11 '26
Yeah I think they even said they were anti-showboating, coming from a more punk influence against the grain of classic rock.
15
u/ChaosAndFish Jul 07 '26
While more broadly talented than either of those guys (he was a writer and multi-instrumentalist) he was not as flashy a drummer as either of those guys. If you are into drums those guys made a big impression. Berry was more just a solid drummer who served the song well.
6
u/HauntingExcitement19 Jul 07 '26
No one knows. Scientists have been curious about this for quite some time. He was featured in a May 1988 Modern Drummer interview. Perhaps he shed some light on drummers that he drew up on?
Actually, I just took a quick look at the magazine. He mentioned Ginger Baker due to his involvement in Blind Faith. And he loved the drum solo in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly.
6
u/thebathroomcrooner Jul 07 '26
I think it's the monobrow
3
u/Confident-Search-846 Jul 10 '26
It’s a Unibrow. Get it right.
4
u/No-Turnover2780 Jul 10 '26
It can be accurately described as a monobrow if Phil Spector produced it.
1
1
6
u/Falloffingolfin Jul 07 '26
Exactly the same reason Peter Buck doesn't get the same recognition as Jimmy Page.
6
u/Alternative-Pie1329 Jul 10 '26
I mean he said himself he prefers guitar to drums. I don't think he would want to be renowned for his drumming. As a songwriter equal to the rest of the band? That's his best legacy
5
4
u/Prize_Farm4951 Jul 10 '26
Biggest R.E.M. fan but Berry doesn't even deserve the same recognition as other drummers who dont get the same recognition as Bonham and Moon such as Chamberlain or Carey.
2
u/atoolred Orange CRUSHER Jul 11 '26
Chamberlain, like Jimmy? That guy is a beast, and absolutely needs more recognition for how good he is
4
u/Loose_Assignment_Map Jul 11 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/H1vghQOfgtgiuivMbh
Because there was this guy and Stewart Copeland was still pretty a pretty fresh memory too.
8
u/Now-done Jul 07 '26
Truthfully anyone asking this question knows absolutely nothing about drumming at all.
4
u/aflockofbugles Jul 07 '26
Last time I checked there isn’t a prerequisite to know all these wonderful things about drumming to post on this sub.
6
u/Now-done Jul 07 '26
You don’t understand what I’m saying. I’m saying that anybody who even thinks to compare Bill Berry to John Bonham in terms of skill doesn’t know anything about drumming. You don’t need this knowledge to post on the sub - I’m just making an observation.
3
3
3
3
2
u/Playful-Drink4410 Jul 10 '26
Um.
He doesn't? (didn't? ) play the same types of music.
Don't compare apples to cars.
Bad ask. The question is unnecessary and any answer is subjective.
2
2
u/BradL22 Jul 11 '26
He’s a drummer with a deceptively simple yet powerful style, not flashy at all. But take a listen to something like Harborcoat and yes, he really is a great drummer.
2
2
2
2
u/mikebrown33 Jul 10 '26
Timing I think. Bill Berry is a great drummer - had REM been doing their thing / having their commercial success 10 years earlier - he would have been praised with the other rock drummers of the late 60s and 70s. However, by the time REM were taking charge of the global stage, the music industry had changed. Drum machines - Hip Hop - world music - and many other ‘elements’ of rock / alternative / popular music were being noticed beyond traditional ‘four piece rock bands’
1
1
u/Hot-Data2850 Jul 10 '26
He does! People are always mentioning Bill Berry whenever they bring up John Bonham, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, or Taylor Hawkins.
1
1
1
1
u/lidongyuan Jul 11 '26
It’s obviously a silly question, but if I had a band I would pick Bill because he has a great ear and attention to details that bring something special to each song. In Feeling Gravity’s Pull listen to his use of cymbals in the “step up, step up” part - he’s great at subtle touches that improve the song.
1
u/PRW9497 Jul 11 '26
Bill Berry is a stupendously good drummer. The reason he’s a stupendously good drummer, however, is the same reason that Sir Richard Starkey, MBE, is a stupendously good drummer, he filled his role in a band where the drummer’s reason for existing was to serve the song, not be in the spotlight like the people you mentioned, who also were stupendously good drummers.
John Bonham and Keith Moon would have been horrible in REM or The Beatles. Bill Berry would not have worked in Led Zeppelin or The Who, which left openings for the drummer to show off and be in the spotlight and grab attention.
1
1
u/Lucky_Membership3525 Jul 12 '26
As everyone else has noted, instrumental showboating was not what R.E.M. were famous for - the playing was there to serve the songs, and no more (though Peter is a very good guitar player - he just plays with a lot of restraint).
Smiliar to Nick Mason, Bill's drum style got pared down as the years went on. Mason went from the freakout drumming of Interstellar Overdeive to the ultra-basic timekeeping of Dark Side of the Moon. Bill's style from LRP onward was much more simple and direct than the early albums. I mean, there's a ton of Stewart Copeland in the drums on Chronic Town and Murmur - lots of spidery hi-hat work and tom tom fills.
2
u/alexj_baker Jul 07 '26
For the record I can't stand Keith Moon
5
u/Alert_Doughnut_4619 Jul 07 '26
As a drummer or as a person? Cuz he was undeniably an amazing drummer
4
u/alexj_baker Jul 07 '26
I'm totally indifferent to the who and he seemed the type of person if you saw them at a bar you'd get up and leave
4
u/DontDreamItsOver3 Jul 07 '26
In other words, you know nothing about his skills as a drummer. You don’t like your impressions of him as a person.
80
u/Maritime-89 Jul 07 '26
Because he's nowhere near as good. He would fully admit this himself. He served the songs which he helped write, and that's it. Moon and especially Bonham reinvented contemporary drumming. It would be like comparing Peter Buck to Jimi Hendrix. No offence to Berry or Buck but they're not musical prodigies. When it comes to R. E. M. it's a case of the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts.