Thirty years ago today: Keith Moon dies

If it's a quiet Sunday morning for you, it could because Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, died on this day in 1978. Moon was noisy, and not just because of his manic drumming. The sound you're not hearing is the splash of Moon driving a car into a motel swimming pool, as well as rooms not being destroyed at other inns. Nor are you hearing the flow of water as Moon tries to take a water bed down a hotel elevator, or overflowing toilets after Moon dropped lit M-80s into them. (Moon must have had a grudge against the hospitality industry.)

And you can't hear Moon blowing up his drum kit on The Smothers Brothers Show.

Moon and Who bassist John Entwistle, who died of a cocaine overdose in 2002, reinvented rock and roll--with the encouragement of guitarist and Who principal songwriter Pete Townshend, by placing the rhythm instruments at the forefront of the band. Early rock drummers mainly kept time with military precision, and bassists added "Oom pah pah" support. It was up to Townshend, when he felt like it, to keep some sort of time. With singer Daltrey often screaming, well, it was often chaos. It was also The Who.

Moon's alcohol and drug abuse was obscene--even among the relaxed standards of rock musicians, but by the early 1970s, his body couldn't endure the punishment any more. The last three Who albums with Moon, Quadrophenia, The Who By Numbers, and Who Are You sadly put Moon's increasingly diminishing skills on display.

During The Who's 1973 tour to promote Quadrophenia, Moon passed out, and Townshend called for someone in the audience to take over Moon's drum kit so the band could finish the show. A fan complied while Moon slept it off. Around this time, Moon spent several days paralyzed after accidentally inhaling an elephant tranquilizer.

In 1974, Moon left his native London for Los Angeles, where he got drunk a lot with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and anyone else he could find.

He recorded a solo album during that time with those drinking buddies helping out, Two Sides of the Moon in which he sang a lot but didn't play the drums much. It's listenable, but it's analogous to Frank Sinatra recording songs where the Chairman of The Board plays electric guitar, and U2's The Edge sings.

Moon tried to quit alcohol and drugs several times in his later years. He had an elaborate support network, including his fellow bandmates, Starr, and his next door neighbor in California, Larry Hagman.

But Moon died of an accidental drug overdose on September 7, 1978. Two weeks earlier. Who Are You was released. In one of the last great album covers of the LP era, a grim looking Moon, looking much older than his 32 years, is sitting in a backwards-facing chair. "Not To Be Taken Away" is emblazoned on it.

Moon is gone, but his contributions to rock music can never be taken away.