Keith Moon

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Keith Moon was the drummer of The Who. He was born in 1946 in London and grew up in Wembley. As a boy he was restless and full of imagination, with a fondness for explosions and pranks. He learned to drum in a music shop on his way home from school and took lessons from Carlo Little, one of the hardest-hitting drummers of the time. He loved the jazz drummer Gene Krupa, surf music and The Beach Boys. In 1964, aged seventeen, he auditioned for The Who and almost smashed the drum kit to pieces in the process. He was allowed to stay.

Music and breakthrough

Moon played differently from other rock drummers. He did not keep the beat strictly, but filled the songs with rolls across the toms and crashes on the cymbals, in places where nobody else would put them. Bassist John Entwistle said that he played zigzagging across his drum kit. His kit grew ever larger, and together with Ginger Baker he was one of the first rock drummers with two bass drums. He found drum solos boring. On Who's Next (1971) he had to play tightly to a synthesizer part, and according to his biographer that produced his best work. His only solo record was Two Sides of the Moon (1975).

Influence

Besides the music, Moon was known for his destructiveness. He kicked over his drum kit at the end of concerts, wrecked hotel rooms and earned the nickname Moon the Loon. He drank heavily and died in 1978, aged 32, of an overdose of a medication for alcohol withdrawal. Many drummers cite him as a model, because he showed that the drums in a rock band can do more than keep time.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1975Two Sides of the Moon

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 2: Youth Cultures 1950-1980^NL Reader