I noticed in “Baby You Can Drive My Car”, I believe (or, Daytripper?) the drumming is very simple, and in parts there is drumming along with a tambourine. Ringo can’t be doing it all. Does he have an unknown helper, or is the tambourine mounted somehow so he incorporate it into his drum rhythm? How is he doing that?
John Lennon plays the tambourine on that, but, even so, it’s a studio track so it can always be dubbed in later on a separate track or played by some studio musicians or other helpers. When we recorded, we always added tambourine, hand claps, and miscellaneous percussion after the basic tracks were recorded.
That said, I do know a drummer who would drop his left stick, and actually pick up a tambourine, do that 16th note rattling with the left hand, and stick with the right hand (not for this particular song, but for various other songs). And, yes, you can mount a tambourine to your kit, but that produces a different kind of sound when it is sticked (or played with a hi-hat open-close foot when mounted on the hi-hat.)
You can also map a tambourine synth onto a controller. Lots of drummers have a digital controller pads they can hit for other sounds like tambourines, gongs, etc. Of course, that wasn’t around in the Beatles era, but today’s drummers can do a lot of ‘non-drum’ sounds.
I have this picture in my head of the Beatles recording “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” trying to figure out how to clap their hands and play their instruments at the same time. Little wonder that song was their first 4-track recording.
Sure, and if you’re playing to a click track in your earphones, you can set a trigger that will play that shaking tambourine pattern, rather than banging it out with your stick (which would give you a different kind of tambourine groove). Plus, of course, all sorts of other programmed loops or extended samples.
Beatles (Ringo almost exclusively) drumming patterns aren’t likely to be complex, although some are tricky at speed, like Twist and Shout.
Drive My Car actually has some syncopation that you wouldn’t normally get in a Beatles track. And yes, there were overdubs.
What you can say about Ringo is that even when the drumming was simple, it fit the song perfectly.
Ringo’s superpower was knowing exactly what a song needed from the drums, and playing that and no more. He hated drum solos and heavy “Look at my awesome drumming!” fills and flourishes.
I recently saw this good Wired interview with McCartney:
He answers the internet’s “most searched questions” about him and the Beatles. Worth watching if you’re a Beatles / McCartney fan.
One of the questions is “Did the Beatles use a click track?” He says no, because they didn’t exist then. But he also said that one of Ringo’s strengths as a drummer was that he could hold the tempo really well, so there wasn’t a need for it.
IIRC one of the more unique sounds of The Beatles was the fact that, although Ringo was a Lefty, he was playing on a set of drums, set up for somebody right handed.
There’s plenty of left-handed drummers who play righty, but Ringo did lead with his left hand for drum fills, so on a right hand kit, they did come out a bit different than a right handed drummer leading with his right hand playing on a kit set up for a righty.
Ringo kills it, just nails it on Rain.
I saw a clip where he’s explaining that, and showing how he has to kind of roll his arm around, which makes his upbeat a little late (or sure, call it syncopation, that sounds less accidental).
Ever since I saw that, I keep hearing little syncopations in Beatles songs, and it gives me even more respect for Mr.Starr.
Coincidentally, this was published a few days ago.
5 isolated drum tracks to prove The Beatles’ Ringo Starr was a genius
Also highly overlooked are his fills on A Day in the Life. Brilliant.
Here is another good video that explains how Ringo is a genius. He gives some concrete examples that even I can follow.