Vinnie “Mad Dog” Lopez may have been the worst drummer to ever record a major-label album.

The New Jersey drummer, most famous known only for having played on Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, the Innocent and the Street Shuffle – albums famous for swooping changes in rhythm for no good musical reason – was whacked from the E Street Band in 1974, replaced first with Ernie “Boom” Carter (who played on “Born to Run”) and finally Max Weinberg, both of whom could…well, keep a beat for starters.

It’s interesting, then, to look at this video of the tribute band “Tramps Like Us”, featuring Lopez on drums, doing a ’73-era Springsteen classic , “Thundercrack”.

So – not only is he no better a drummer than ever, but he’s backing a bunch of singers that sound like a bunch of Italian soccer fans trying to sing harmony.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 5:41 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.