I read and hear frequently that Ringo is an underrated drummer, that he does not get the respect he deserves (I know many think otherwise, but save that for another thread).
I am interested in which Beatles tracks best demonstrate this view. So, for those of you who think Mr. Starkey gets no respect, no respect atoll…to this, I say: cite?
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Rain. Ringo has cited this as his best playing and it’s just great stuff throughout. It’s that much more impressive if you know the song was recorded at a faster speed and slowed down a bit to achieve that strange, druggy sound. Strawberry Fields is another favorite of mine. I can’t highlight any particular riff in either song. The whole tracks deserve repeat listening.
Good to know the above – it’s been years since I’ve heard The Beatles, but Ringo has always stood out to me not because of any specific fills or licks, but by being a consistent, rock-steady drummer with none of the annoying ego-tripping of so many other rock players. Even jazz legends like Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, and the rest, very seldom had featured tunes – they were just always on, and it was always right.
I guess there’s something to what I hear often, “Ringo’s the one who always looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” but I suspect these people who’ve said variations of this haven’t really been listening, or haven’t played with too many drummers.
Side 2 of Abby Road is pretty good. I would say he is a “good” drummer, in that he maintains a good beat and doesn’t draw too much attention to himself. But without him, it would be a mess. The proto-type of the “good” drummer is Charlie Watts. Unrecognized genius.
I don’t know that it qualifies for demonstrating technical proficiency, and it will probably never come up on any critically reviewed list of Ringo’s greatest drumming, but the drumming that I personally, as a fan, have the most affection for is “She Loves You”.
I just love Ringo’s drumming on “She Loves You”. Those fills sound like he’s thrown a refrigerator down a flight of stairs. Absolutely my favorite of all of Ringo’s drumming.
“Ticket to Ride” is one of my favorites. Clean, lots of space, holding down the beat, and very colorful/idiosyncratic. I love the little subtleties in that tune, like how, in the first and second verse and refrain, he has that syncopated “fridge falling down stairs” drum beat, but after the first bridge and return to the verse, the beat morphs into an even straight eights (at about 1:30 into the song). It’s these little things that Ringo does to keep the drum parts interesting that I love. Or check out the bridge to “Something” where Ringo does these cool triplet fills on the high hat and toms. I don’t see any other drummer coming up with that drum part. It’s non-cliche, quirky, and distinctly Ringo, with great accenting throughout.
One of the things I love most about Ringo’s drumming, especially on the later records, is just how immediately identifiable the parts are. If you remove all but the drums, you’d still be able to recognize the songs. His drum parts were original and added so much character to their music. You really can’t ask for much more from a drummer.
I love Ringo’s direct, enthusiastic drumming and consider it a key part of the Beatle’s sound. I agree wholeheartedly, for instance with David Quantick who once observed that Paul McCartney’s drumming on “Back in the USSR” is excellent but somehow ‘UnBeatles-y’.
In terms of stand out tracks, I think his dramatic drums hold “Tomorrow Never Knows” beautifully. And for me, one of his most impressive achievements is smoothly keeping “Happiness is a warm gun” together seamlessly through all the shifts in time and tone.
Oh come on… A Day in the Life.
I was always most impressed with his drumming in “Come Together.” It’s nothing flashy, but I think most drummers would have thrown up their hands in surrender trying to come up with a back beat for this quirky syncophated melody.
A lot of the guitar riffs the Beatles used were so propulsive, it would’ve been easy for those melodic pieces to assert control over the pacing of the song (“I Feel Fine” is a very good example of this). But Ringo never let it happen–he was an anchor, and it let the rest of the guys have free reign of their writing abilities without the songs collapsing into rhythmic messes.
It’s most obvious when he isn’t drumming. Listen to the drumming on “The Ballad of John and Yoko” to see what Ringo added to the Beatles.
What I would’ve cited, along with Tomorrow Never Knows - when a song has one chord and never gets tired, you may not realize how effective the drumming is. Same thing with Kashmir by Zep - when a song has a plodding beat but doesn’t plod, whether you know it or not, you love the drumming…
This is a relatively obscure one, but Ringo’s drumming on “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry Over You”, from Live at the BBC, is explosive.
I gave my brother a book called “Beatles Day by Day” once (think I have that title right). It was written by a guy who sat down with all of the studio takes of every record the Beatles recorded, and made observations on what he heard - funny asides, noting major events that happened in the Beatles lives that might have influenced their recording sessions, etc.
I can’t remember the date, but one day he noted not for something particularly odd, but because it was the only day in the entire recording history of the Beatles that they had to restart a take because Ringo screwed up on the drum part.
He does a very nice Bossa Nova rhythm on “No Reply”.
I haven’t read the book myself, but Mark Lewisohn says that in their entire career, less than 12 tracks broke down because of mistakes by Ringo. When something went wrong, it was almost always one of the other three.
I read that the drumming starts about a minute into A Day in the Life because Ringo wasn’t ready at the beginning. Sounds unlikely, but I read it somewhere so it must be true.
I clicked on this thread to say that.