Book review of drumming book

I moderately recommend the book Born to Drum, by Tony Barrell.

It's interspersed with loads of interviews and quotes from drummers: most I'd heard of; some I had not.


It has a chapter on "women who drum", and the discrimination they face -- which is what lead me to pick up the book in the first place.


The rest of the book is "pretty good" if you're into drumming; probably not of interest if you're not: the writing style is mostly engaging -- but not enough to bring you along if you're not into drumming in the first place.

The theme for the book is that most chapters examine a stereotype of drummers (e.g. "Adrenaline junkies", "Not very smart", "Have lots of tattoos") -- and then gathers a lot of anecdotal evidence based on interviews with drummers. And then each chapter concludes with "Well, there's a lot of support for that -- but with a lot of notable exceptions."

Some swearing and sexual references. 

Again:  likely of interest to drummers; of moderate probable interest to other musicians; probably not interested to the general public.

--GG