If you drive to work every day, you know that it’s not accurate to call it ‘driving’ so much as “sitting in pokey, stop-and-go traffic for over an hour in what should be a 15-minute commute.” When that happens, there’s not much you can do but crank up the tunes, roll down the windows, and endure it.
But why stop there? Why sit there, suffering silently when you could be air drumming to the crappy music being played on drive-time rush hour radio? Not every song lends itself to this glorious activity, but we’ve isolated 15 of them that should be mimed along to when they come on your radio during standstill traffic jams. So read what they are, rush hour Ringos!
Image Credit: Depositphotos.com.
1. The Rolling Stones’s ‘Paint It Black’
This song is primarily famous for its faux-Eastern melody and use of the sitar, but the drums thunder along from start to finish. This one is not a great one if what you want to do is demonstrate how well you know the drum parts, and it’s better for random pounding on the steering wheel instead.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
2. Rush’s ‘Tom Sawyer’
Neil “The Professor” Peart may be gone, but the drumming in 1981’s “Tom Sawyer” is both death-proof and impossible to listen to without air-drumming. We recommend practicing a few of the cymbal crashes and tom-tom fills at home before trying it in your car.
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
3. Van Halen’s ‘Hot for Teacher’
If you’re sitting there motionless in your car as the time you’re supposed to be at work creeps ever closer, it’s a good time to adopt Zen principles and embrace your powerlessness in the moment. It’s also a good time to attempt to play along with the drum opening from this song, if you can even figure it out.
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4. Boston’s ‘Foreplay / Long Time’
This song is a twofer that’s split between a somewhat progressive and complicated intro and a foursquare, straightforward main song. In the first minute, demonstrate your deep grasp of Sib Hashian’s complex pounding, then use the actual song part of the song to play a very basic rock beat while pretending to twirl your sticks. The kids in neighboring cars will dig it.
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
5. Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’
Hey, if “In the Air Tonight” is good enough for former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson to air-drum to in the 2009 movie “The Hangover,” you can certainly do it in your car. And we won’t even insult your intelligence by telling you which part of the song to air-drum to.
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6. Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’
Released in 1986, Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” album is considered by many to be the band’s high-water mark. It also features 54 minutes of music to air-drum to relentlessly. Be careful with this one though, it goes on for over eight minutes and there are a lot of cymbal chokes.
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7. The Surfaris’ ‘Wipe Out’
Enough with all this heavy metal crap! The classics afford motorists more than their fair share of opportunities to air-drum, and none more so than the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out.” As you pretend to be the drummer for this band, enjoy the feeling of nostalgia, assuming you’re old enough for this song to have any meaning for you whatsoever.
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8. Led Zeppelin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’
There’s no shortage of drum parts by the late John Bonham that are next to impossible to resist air-drumming to. In fact, just picking one was very hard. We would have picked “The Immigrant Song,” whose running time is a tidy two and a half minutes, but since you’re likely to be stuck in traffic a lot longer than that, try this seven-minute song instead.
Image Credit: Tony Morelli / Wikimedia Commons.
9. Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’
The drum part in this song – the boom-boom BAP – may not win any awards for originality, but its utter simplicity is a big reason why this song has hung around for as long as it has. And if the only thing keeping you from air-drumming in your car is not knowing how to faithfully recreate the parts, this one is crude enough for anyone to master.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
10. Judas Priest’s ‘Painkiller’
Scott Travis’s double-bass mayhem should only be attempted by the most experienced of air-drummers, lest they pull a muscle with their enthusiasm. Parenthetically, you should also take great care not to hurt yourself trying to imitate lead singer Rob Halford’s vocals either.
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
11. The Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’
Whether Keith Moon was a great drummer is largely a matter of taste —he’s considered one of the elite drummers of rock history, but live footage has shown he could be downright sloppy, depending on how many horse tranquilizers he had eaten. We recommend that you learn the iconic fills in this song and put the animal sedatives aside.
Image Credit: Public Domain.
12. Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills’
Iron Maiden really like writing songs in which the entire band can engage in what’s best described as “galloping.” 1982’s “Run to the Hills” is one of their finest examples, but if you’re air-drumming, watch out for those cymbal crashes. You might inadvertently smash your GPS.
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13. Slayer’s ‘Angel of Death’
If you’re not going to heed our cautious advice about not hurting yourself during Judas Priest’s “Painkiller,” then you shouldn’t even attempt this one. If you do anyway, please avoid replicating the thunderous double-bass drums on the gas pedal and brake unless you’ve got good insurance.
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
14. Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’
You never know how long it’s going to take for all of those motorists ahead of you to merge, so maybe the best songs to air-drum to in your car are those that last at least eight minutes, like this Black Sabbath classic. When you copy Bill Ward’s pounding fills, remember to do it with the swing of a jazz drummer.
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15. ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’
This song really only has one spot in which air-drumming is appropriate, the epic fill at its middle section before the guitar solo. Drummer Frank Beard, the only member of ZZ Top with no beard, acquits himself well of that single fill though.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.
Image Credit: Wikipedia.
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