John Bohham compared to Keith Moon

[Fertile]

I decided to use Youtube to really gain a good comparison. My first problem is that while multiple sites illustrate Bonham's drum patterns explain influences and how he followed the guitarist and not the bass player (which I believe Moon also did), dozens of top sites are others giving their analysis of Moon's work and often others attempting to emulate Moon.

Is this due to The Who more tightly controlling their work? The best I found was a 2 minute drum-isolation that obviously doesn't give insights into how the drummer meshes with the band.

I have to admit that I do like Moon's credo that 'drum solos are boring' and 'when all said and done, a drummer should follow the guitarist so the drums are more than just rhythm (Bonham thought the same).

I appreciate both but have to admit (with much hindsight) that a lot more drummers appear to have attempted to emulate Bonham - it's the more POPULAR style. But then one short film I saw (16mm taken in the studio) did mention that Moon was liable to go to MORE difficult fills (being ambidextrous helped, I'm, sure.

It's just surprisingly unrecorded.

 

[Mysterier]

I agree with your assessment as I've also tried to gain a better understanding and comparison of their styles through the years without many resources.

Here's an interesting excerpt from one article:

Here’s the difference between Keith Moon and John Bonham. After Bonham’s passing, Led Zeppelin can’t get it together – they weren’t able to neither reinstate Led Zeppelin nor look for another drummer to take the place of Bonham because he was an integral part of the writing and production process of the band.

Jimmy Page once remarked during an interview that there wasn’t another drummer who could do the things that John Bonham did for Led Zeppelin.

While The Who, after Keith’s passing, were still going 30 plus years, he was replaced by the ex-Small Faces/Faces drummer Kenney Jones. The simple explanation for that is Moon’s drumming wasn’t necessary for the Who’s survival. It was just then after Entwistle’s death when they call it a quits.

For what it's worth, they're both certainly great.