Saturday, July 22nd, 1972
Keith discusses his influences in New Musical Express. Although he says he admires Carlo Little (Lord Sutch), Bob Henrit (The Roulettes), and D.J. Fontana (Elvis Presley), Keith admits when The Who recorded their first singles, "I wasn't aware of anyone influencing me."
Transcript:
Whatever Turned Me On A look at past influences: this week KEITH MOON
CHUCK BERRY'S "Schooldays", "Johnny B. Goode" and a lot of the early Berry stuff, ... most certainly they were nearly all records by American artists. I also enjoyed a bit of R and B, especially the things by Slim Harpo and Muddy Waters, then a little later on all those surfin' and hot rod records that the Beach Boys did so well.
I got them by a combination of both buying and nicking 'em. People were always coming 'round my gaff, bringing a few records, getting stoned outta their box, walking off and leaving a few records behind. Then I'd do the very same thing around at their place. I was about 16 at the time.
Before that I'd been playing a bit of trumpet, but Eddie Calvert records ... Man, they're not cool. "Oh Mein Papa"... that's a drag, so we can't have that. I suppose all this is going to be used in evidence against me. At last I've been exposed.
TOMMY STEELE'S "Singin' The Blues" was the first record I ever bought. It was the one without the whistling on it ... even then I couldn't stand whistling. Yeah, I think it was Tommy's ... You know, apart from the records that I nicked, the ones that I bought nobody else liked ... in fact I can't even remember them now. When you look at the choise that I had then, it was either Rosemary Clooney or Tommy Steele. Come to think of it, I fancy Rosemary Clooney now, but I'd have felt a right puff at 16 if I'd been buying her records (Breaks into a fit of laughter).
LORD SUTCH'S drummer Carlo Little lived near me, so he influenced me by giving me a few lessons.
THE CLOVERS' "Love Potion Number 9", "Shakin' All Over" by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and a few things by Shane Fenton were what really started me off. Until I took up playing the drums, it was just the records themselves I liked. Later on I'd just concentrate on what the drummer was doing. At that time, I used to work me way backstage at concerts so as I could get a closer look at what the drummers were doing. Apart from Carlo Little, I used to dig Bob Henrit with the Roulettes, a lot of the drummers on those great Chess recordings, the guy who backed Presley, D. J. Fontana. Oh yes, and also Eddie Cochran's drummer. And since I've been going to the States with the Who, I've been lucky enough to have met them all except for D. J. Fontana.
Of course, when I met them it was as a fellow musician rather than as an aspiring drummer, so it was only natural that my views had changed by the time I finally got to meet them. I wasn't a star-struck kid anymore.
When the Who made "I Can't Explain" and "My Generation" I wasn't aware of anyone influencing me.
The "BANGLA DESH" albums are what I'm listening to just now, along with the BEACH BOYS "Surf's Up" and the recent releases by ROY YOUNG and SLADE. As a matter of fact, I've been re-listening to a lot of older material I haven't heard for a while like the BEATLES' "Sgt. Pepper". I think the reason why I've been digging out these old albums is because there's nothing that you could really call mind-shattering being released.
RINGO STARR'S drumming is good to listen to, plus the stuff that's on "Slade Alive". I like Slade very much, I think it's because they remind me very much of us in our early days.