Count Me In

Just to make sure the makers of this documentary get it loud and clear, I'm going to knowingly echo the other reviewers.

I enjoyed this documentary but it lost a lot of credibility by omitting Neil Peart, considered by most rock fans and all industry magazines as one of the top two or three greatest drummers of all time. His estate might have restricted use of footage but IP laws don't prohibit talking about someone. Wow!

If you like drummers you may like it, but without some of the greats it feels incomplete.

The purpose of and skills involved in being a drummer in a rock band. Told through interviews with some modern day drummers plus a few legends of the profession. They talk about what got them into drumming, who their idols were and why they do it.

An interesting documentary on rock drummers and drumming in general. Shows the evolution from jazz drumming to rock drumming and some more modern variations on it.

The interviews are generally quite illuminating, especially when the drummers, some of whom are legends in their own right, discuss who their heroes were and what made those people so good.

However, it does often degenerate into a mutual back-slapping session. Rather than giving constructive input on other drummers they just parrot how great they were.

Coverage of the greats is pretty good, but with two notable exclusions. The documentary mentions drumming as an "orchestral" musical form and gives examples of drummers who exemplify this, e.g. Keith Moon. However, no mention of Neil Peart who would be the first person to come to mind when thinking of multi-dimensional, "orchestral" rock drumming. Similarly, funk gets covered but then only to the extent that it influenced The Clash and The Police. How about covering some of the great funk drummers, e.g. Clyde Stubblefield?

Overall, not brilliant or entirely comprehensive but still quite interesting.

The documentary went through a timeline of drummers in chronological order, paying the right amount of respect to every drummer that it covered, starting with the old jazz greats before shifting gear into Rock specific territory for the rest of its run time. Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon, John Bonham and Roger Taylor, right up to Dave Grohl. Everyone you'd expect is touched on... Except Neil Peart, which frankly I just don't understand, especially with him passing away only last year. Anyone who knows Rock n Roll would count him as a top 5 drummer, he is every bit as influential and inspiring to young drummers as any of the others covered, in fact more so than most. It really seems like he was deliberately omitted for some reason and they could've easily squeezed him in, especially when Keith Moon is covered TWICE, and there's a kinda forced feministy bit at the end with drummers that... be honest... no one has really heard of. They at least could have talked about Meg White for that part, a female drummer who is a respected household name, and another pretty egregious omission, especially during the girl power bit. So yeah, I enjoyed it, and it wasn't a bad documentary, I would recommend it, but omitting Peart is like omitting Eddie Van Halen from a doc about guitarists.