Ringo Starr

Re: Ringo Starr on tour this summer with all starrs

Ringo and the All Starrs are coming to my home town of Lancaster PA in July. I'd like to see him even though the tickets are kind of steep $150.00. To those who have seen him on tour does he play the drums much? That's what I really want to see. I am also going to see a Beatles tribute band in April, called 1964. From clips on youtube I hear they are pretty good. Thanks, Spiney-Dave
 
I saw him last July and will see him this July again. he plays about 1/3 of the time. And it depends on his show. He has a new Album out so its hard to tell, but he will play some.
Tickets here, Tampa Florida, are about 60 bucks. Why are they costing you so much.? Here is the band, and tickets go on sale here March 19th.
 

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I saw him last July and will see him this July again. he plays about 1/3 of the time. And it depends on his show. He has a new Album out so its hard to tell, but he will play some.
Tickets here, Tampa Florida, are about 60 bucks. Why are they costing you so much.? Here is the band, and tickets go on sale here March 19th.[/QUOTE

It's the venue, a place called American Music Theater. I'll have to call them on it and see what they say. The tickets go on sale today March 16th. Tickets are $100, 135, and $150. Same lineup that you show. They seem to really be inflating the prices. Thanks, Dave
 
I just checked the ticket prices through Ticketmaster and the tickets for Lancaster at the American Music Theater are priced about 1/3 to 2X higher than all the other venues including Radio City Music Hall. AMT is the only place you can buy the tickets for Lancaster, Ticketmaster isn't handling them so maybe that is why. I am going to call them on it tomorrow before I but tickets. Dave
 
I just checked the ticket prices through Ticketmaster and the tickets for Lancaster at the American Music Theater are priced about 1/3 to 2X higher than all the other venues including Radio City Music Hall. AMT is the only place you can buy the tickets for Lancaster, Ticketmaster isn't handling them so maybe that is why. I am going to call them on it tomorrow before I but tickets. Dave

Well tix here were inflated also. 59.00, 79.00, 95.00, and 150.00
79.00 were too far away to even bother and 59.00 was the back row so Ringo has priced me out. It's a shame that, although not a current star, but still popular that the avg. Joe like me can't afford to see him once a year. Oh well.
 
LOVE his drumming in Take 7 of Strawberry Fields Forever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4zcDMZOZE8

Hey BF, thanks for the links. The Live at the BBC link has opened up a bunch of things I've not heard from them before. The old Ring was a much more nimble drummer than he's given credit for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv6aR9P5BFo by the knockers.

My fave of his drumming is still Instant Amnesia off Ringorama, though. Pure rock'n'roll vibe. Move over Bonzo :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-spAA9aLN0
 
Ben Harper Grabs Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne for New Relentless7 Album

3/23/10, 4:56 pm EST

Ben Harper and Relentless7 have just finished recording their follow-up to 2009’s White Lies For Dark Times. Titled Give Till It’s Gone, the self-produced album will be out in the fall and features some high-profile guests. “Not only are we excited about the songs, but Ringo Starr is playing on one of the songs and that’s just a huge deal for us. And Jackson Browne is singing in the background of one of the songs,” Harper told a handful of media during a Canadian teleconference.


Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdai...ingo-starr-jackson-browne-for-relentless7-lp/
 
Some great quotes on Ringo from his fellow Beatles:

"We loved him. And we just thought he was the very best drummer we'd ever seen. And we wanted him in the group. We were big fans of his." - Paul McCartney, Larry King Interview

"Ringo's got the best back beat I've ever heard and he can play great 24-hours a day." -George Harrison

"He was quite simply the heart of the Beatles.” – John Lennon

"Playing without Ringo is like driving a car on three wheels.” - George Harrison

Other quotes about Ringo:

"Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for The Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song." - Drummer Steve Smith

"Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do." - Drummer Phil Collins

"He's got tremendous feel. He always helped us to hit the right tempo for a song, and gave it that support-that rock-solid back-beat-that made the recording of all The Beatles' songs that much easier." - George Martin

Kenny Arnoff -- "I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today... Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. Ringo laid down the fundamental rock beat that drummers are playing today and they probably don't even realize it. (Modern Drummer,Oct. 1987) . . Ringo always approached the song more like a songwriter than a drummer. He always served the music." (Modern Drummer, Dec. 1987)

George Martin -- "Ringo always got and still gets a unique sound out of his drums, as sound as distinctive as his voice. ... Ringo gets a looser deeper sound out of his drums that is unique. ...This detailed attention to the tone of his drums is one of the reasons for Ringo's brilliance. Another is that although Ringo does not keep time with a metronome accuracy, he has unrivaled feel for a song. If his timing fluctuates, it invariably does so in the right place at the right time, keep the right atmosphere going on the track and give it a rock solid foundation. This held true for every single Beatles number Richie played ... Ringo also was a great tom tom player." ( Summer of Love, 1994)

Peter Blake -- "Ringo is one of the most important drummers of the 20th century. While he hasn't got any technique to speak of, he realizes how important It is for a song to feel good. His feel is absolutely tremendous. He got some great sounds on the Beatles records. It wasn't all production and microphones, a lot of it was down to the way he tuned them. ... He has tremendous basic ability. Obviously there were people playing in a straight-forward manner before him, but he had a definite feel and he changed pop drumming around. He changed the sound from hat of the high-pitched jazz drummers. I think he's tremendous." (Speaking Words of Wisdom)

Tim Riley -- "Ringo wanted to serve the songs rather than show off. As a song writer's drummer, Ringo was the type of musician who could follow instructions as he completed the overall sound. His commitment to the music was bigger than his ego." ( Tell Me Why, 1988)

Kenny Aronoff -- "He consistently came up with new ideas that always seemed perfect for the song, but it wasn't just a matter of him picking a basic beat for a song, because lots of drummers could do that. Ringo definitely had the right kind of personality and creative ideas for The Beatles music. You will rarely find a Beatles song without something noticeable that Ringo played or didn't play." (Modern Drummer magazine, Oct. 1987)

Al Kooper -- "Sgt. Pepper was the album that changed drumming more than anything else. Before that album, drum fills in rock and roll were pretty rudimentary, all much the same, and this record had what I call space fills where they would leave a tremendous amount of air. It was most appealing to me musically and the sound of the drums got much better. What I had to figure out now was what am I going to do to get drums to sound like that." (Summer of Love by George Martin, 1994)

Martin Torgoff -- "If I could think of a single passage in which Ringo's quintessential style as a drummer is most identifiable, it could well be something as, say, the drumming behind George's guitar solo in Paul's "Let It Be" after the organ trails off. There, in simple 4-4 time, Ringo comes in with a trademark thump of his base drum, clear tattering snare, and his insistent smashing of the high hat, unvarying, unyielding, yet distinctively Ringo, and you can't help but smile not for its banality but because it is so perfectly adequate and because one can readily envision Ringo behind his kit as he plays, his beringed fingers clutching his sticks, swaying beatifically from side to side as he gets on with his work, blinking those astonishingly saturnine blue eyes." (The Compleat Beatles, 1985)

Max Weinberg -- "More than any other drummer, Ringo Starr changed my life. The impact and memory of that band on Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 will never leave me. I can still see Ringo in the back moving that beat with his whole body, his right hand swinging off his sock cymbal while his left hand pounds the snare. He was fantastic, but I think what got to me the most was his smile. I knew he was having the time of his life." (The Big Beat, 1984)

Martin Torgoff -- "As a drummer, he was a natural, purely intuitive, remarkably tasteful, spirited, but always basic, a proponent of less is more school of minimal drumming. ...He had an uncanny understanding of John's rhythm and Paul's base line. Time and again, the Beatles rode his backbeat to glory. Precisely because he never overstated a beat, or over accented a phrase (unless it was appropriate) he managed to get more mileage out of his licks than most drummers could ever dream of. The results were extraordinary." (The Compleat Beatles, 1985)

Don Was -- "Ringo's drums are one of the greatest things you can have on a record."

Dave Ballinger -- "Technically brilliant drummers do not necessary make good rock drummers. ...You don't have to be a technical Buddy Rich type drummer, you just need to be inventive. He (Ringo) did things I would never have thought of doing." (interview for Speaking Words of Wisdom)

Ian Fraser Kilmister of Motorhead- "Ringo's the most underrated drummer in the history of rock and roll."

Yoko Ono - "Ringo is the most underrated drummer in the industry! His drumming is like life—it gives you the most solid beat. When he drummed on my Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band album, I was totally amazed that he had no difficulty in following the very complex improvisational vocals I did – again, no overdubs. I think his incredible drumming was what made so many great Beatles songs possible. We thank you, Ringo!"

Don Was - "He puts the fills in the same place a guitarist would. He's not sitting there counting. He's playing to the vocal."

To this day, producers direct studio drummers to "play like Ringo." Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith sums it up thusly: "The greatest thing a drummer can contribute to a recorded song is the feel of it, and every Beatles song feels great."

Ringo "doesn't dazzle with flashy technique and pyrotechnics," says The Cars' lead guitarist, Elliot Easton. "What he does is so much more elusive and difficult: He plays songs on the drums. Anybody who has sat down behind a drum kit in the last 45 years owes him."

The Police’s Stewart Copeland - “Ringo is the leader in the education for all young drummers of style over flash, always playing the right things rather than a lot of things.”

Mostly Ringo has made a living out of being an ex-Beatle. Unfortunately, that legacy has disregarded his musical accomplishments. "He's an underrated cat, really underrated as a drummer," says Dr. John, a.k.a. Mac Rebennac, a member of the All-Starr Band Ringo recruited for last summer's U.S. tour--his first ever and the first by a Beatle since Paul brought Wings to America in 1976.

Fellow All-Starr member Nils Lofgren, from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, echoes Dr. John's praise. "It's not often I can lend my heart and soul to someone else's thing," Nils says. "But if there's someone you hit it off with and have a good feeling about, you hang on to that. And Ringo's that type of guy."
 
Emmy winning writer Bill Stainton: Imagine you’re a drummer in the 60s. Most rock and roll drumming is simple, bubblegum stuff. Then somebody—say, John Lennon—starts shaking things up by bringing in songs like She Said, She Said; Strawberry Fields Forever; and A Day In The Life. Songs for which there is simply no precedent in rock history. You then, as the drummer, come up with drum parts that are not just good, but so astonishingly innovative that it’s all but impossible to imagine the songs played any other way!

“Yes, but I can play anything Ringo played,” the detractors will say. To which I reply, “So can I. I can also sit down at my computer and retype Hamlet, but that doesn’t make me Shakespeare.” I mean, who’s the real artist here: the guy who can copy something note for note, or the guy who came up with it in the first place?
 
Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman gives nice props to Ringo Starr

Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman used his column on the group's website to give some unabashed praise to fellow drummer Ringo Starr. Here are his comments, which Gorman graciously allowed us to reprint (and thanks to Allen Stearns for telling us about this):

Hey Steve,

Here’s my question- I’ve recently been playing The Beatles: Rock Band and I’m realizing more now just how different Ringo was as a drummer.

His playing is pretty simple and very connected to the songs, yet less intuitive than a lot of subsequent rock drummers.

I can’t really put my finger on why, but learning the tunes is actually kinda difficult.

Any thoughts?

Spencer
San Francisco, CA

Long time fan. Saw you guys with Joan Jett and Aerosmith in Miami in 1990, I think.

Spencer

First things first – I don’t remember ever having played a show in Miami with Aerosmith and Joan Jett.

We certainly did some shows with Aerosmith in 1990, but none were anywhere near Miami.

And, as much as we do in fact love rock n’ roll, we never were party to anyone putting another dime in any jukebox, baby, either.

So, with that cleared up, let’s move on:

Ringo Starr’s drumming is infallible, untouchable, and he is quite simply the greatest drummer in the history of rock n roll music.

So, there’s that.

With this in mind, it would stand to reason that you might struggle to learn his parts, even on so rudimentary a level as Rock Band provides. I will resist the urge to write an endless screed about why Ringo’s drumming is beyond reproach and instead offer a quick “Q and A” to examine your specific points.

Q) Was Ringo actually “different as a drummer”?

A) Was Magic Johnson “different as a point guard“? Was Frank Lloyd Wright “different as an architect”? You bet your ass. As much as people try to disparage Ringo’s playing, no one ever seems to have a suggestion as to what drummer would have made those recordings better. And that’s because there was not, is not, and never will be, a drummer more perfectly suited for the Beatles.

Q) Was his playing “pretty simple and connected to the songs”?

A) If by “pretty simple”, you mean “pretty perfect” and if by “connected to the songs”, you mean, “integral to the execution of these rock n’ roll masterpieces”, then the answer is a resounding YES.

Q) Was Ringo “less intuitive” than a lot of subsequent rock drummers?

A) Absolutely not. Few if any drummers in rock history have been more intuitive. Ringo understood exactly what every song needed to have, and bear in mind he was working with not one, but three songwriters.

Q) Any thoughts?

A) Yes. Don’t argue with me about this. I know what I know.


I love John Bonham, Charlie Watts, Phil Rudd, and the nutjob from Wilco (and about a million other drummers) as much as anyone could. They are all perfect for their bands. They are all irreplaceable. But Ringo was in THE BEATLES.

Check the scoreboard.

Ringo wins.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beat...igh-praise-for-Ringo-Starr?cid=examiner-email
 
Elvis Costello - "Ringo Starr played the drums with an incredibly unique feel that nobody can really copy, although many fine drummers have tried and failed."

KING: Yoko, what makes Ringo Starr special?
ONO: I think that with somebody who is so incredible and talented, I think he had this thing about just being cooperative when he was in the band. In other words, he didn’t try to say, me, me, me, I’m the star. He was just playing with the other people in the band. There was a peacefulness and lovingness about it. He was always like that. So, I think that’s something that was very special in those groups of people in the ’60s, where everybody was saying, me, me, you know. (Larry King 2008 Interview)
 
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Some quotes from Ringo from various interviews, talking about his drumming:

What makes a great drum part?

RS: The fill is the art of the drummer, that happens in the moment. That’s always been the way with me. I can’t think about it. I don’t play drum parts. I have no idea how it’s gonna turn out. I don’t say, “Oh, 16 bars in I’ll do that.” I have no idea at all what I’m going to do, it just happens.

Your drum work was not only tight but could be very adventurous. The ending of “Strawberry Fields” showcases some wild off-the-wall tribal drumming. Was that work you enjoyed as well?

RS: You know, what you’re talking about just happens. There was no plan for that. I can play basic patterns, and the freedom is the fills. To move it to where you can put it in a different space as a drummer, especially with The Beatles only came at the end, because the songs were so set up that there was two verses, a chorus, a verse, a middle eight and a chorus and something like that. Then at the end we’d all be allowed to blow our tops, which we did. And we still did that under three minutes (laughs).

You truly blossomed as a drummer on Revolver. Did the vast improvement in sound inspire you?

RS: Yeah. Also I think we decided we could finally hear the bass drum on our records. If you listen to the early ones, there’s no sign of the bass drum, just like the snare and cymbals. So the recordings were getting better and you would play differently because you could hear it.


Source: Goldmine May 2008 Interview


O: Over the years, you haven't recieved the same kind of public respect and reverence for your musical skills that, say, Charlie Watts or the late Keith Moon get. Yet other musicians, particularly drummers, hold you in high regard. Does that lack of respect bother you?

R: Not any more. In the early days, that was going around. People heard that I wasn't good in '62 and '64 and kind of kept along with that. But that's okay, because it's not up to them. I have to realize, in the end, that I know I'm a good player. That's what's important, and that other musicians think I'm a good player.


Source: 1989 Interview by Gary Graff

Which drummers turned you on as a kid?

“You know, no drummer really turned me on at the beginning. I was in hospital with TB, and they sent me out of Liverpool to a place called Heswall, where they used to have this big greenhouse for children, so we could breathe and get well, cos there’s not a lot of oxygen in Liverpool. Oh! [Groans and mimes a headline] ‘Ringo says there’s no oxygen in Liverpool.’ Anyway a woman came once a week with instruments for us to play, tambourines, maracas, little snare drums with one stick. She’d put this huge music sheet up, she’d point to the yellow and you’d hit the drum, she’d point to the red and you shook the maraca. It was all pretty primitive but it kept us entertained. I was in there for a year, so they used to make you do things just to keep your spirits up, I suppose. And that’s where I started, in the hospital with this one drum.

“And I decided that next time she came, if I didn’t get a drum I wouldn’t play. That’s where the dream started. Then I would walk around Liverpool, to the music stores, and I would just look at the drums, I was never interested in the other instruments at all. My grandparents who played mandolin and banjo gave me them, and I’d no interest; my grandad bought me a harmonica, I had no interest. We had a piano at home that I used to walk on. But a lot of people sang around that piano, and people would bring instruments to the parties when I was growing up. There’d always be a harmonica player, banjo player, guitar. It was a party town.

“And I just always wanted to drum. I used to make little kits, mainly a snare drum and a tom-tom out of biscuit tins, and then I bought a huge bass drum for 30 bob, I used to whack that. Then I was 18 and my stepfather, he was from Romford, Essex, he went down there for a funeral or something and found this drumkit for me for 12 quid, and brought it back. That’s how it started. A month later I was in a band, cos I had the instrument.”

You were in Rory Storm & The Hurricanes weren’t you?

“I had a couple of bands before Rory. I started with the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. I started on brushes and one snare. Then I went to the Dark Town Skiffle Group, which was like this big skiffle group in Liverpool. I auditioned for Rory, the only time I ever auditioned. Got the gig, played with him for a year. Then we got a gig in Butlin’s, went professional and then we went to Germany. We were at one club, The Beatles were at another, we used to go and watch them. I loved the front line. We got to know each other, got back to Liverpool. Their drummer couldn’t make it one day, Brian Epstein said, ‘Could you play?’ Couple of months later they asked me to join, that’s the whole story.”

Is it true the drum riser wasn’t common before you had one in The Beatles?

“No, it wasn’t common before. The reason I had a drum riser, and also the smallest kit of drums, was I was going to make damn sure you could see me. You know what I mean? Cos the drummer was always playing at the back, cymbals hiding him: ‘Who the hell’s on drums?’ It was not gonna happen to me. I just thought, ‘Shit, I’m gonna be out there too.’ So i t was John, Paul, George… AND RINGO! They could all see me.”

Yet you were never a fan of the drum solo?

“I wasn’t into drummers in that way. I was into drummers being part of a band. I’ve seen the most miserable drum solos get a huge round of applause. And I always felt it was a cheap shot, because you could do anything and they’d all applaud. When we were with Rory, playing Butlin’s, we used to do a double bill with this street band The Happy Wanderers, who used to march around London. And I’d always give their drummer my solo! ‘OK mate!’ Bop bop bob-ba-dop bop! Just on his bass drum! I just never liked solos. It’s not what drumming’s about for me. George Martin practically forced me to do that one on the end of Abbey Road, I do that 13-bar thing – bom bom bom bom bobbadobba bom – and that’s as far as I’ll go. The interesting thing is that because it’s the only solo I’ve done, it’s a classic now. Talked about in drum magazines!”

A drum part that’s often admired is A Day In The Life.

“Yeah. It was good, but bigger than that was Rain, earlier on, and later was Bathroom Window and Polythene Pam. I’d got this new kit and I’d actually got calf heads, and the depth was incredible after all that plastic, so there’s a lot of tom-tom stuff going on there.”




Source: http://www.pauldunoyer.com/pages/journalism/journalism_item.asp?journalismID=180


Did John and Paul give you drumming directions, or were you able to experiment? —Scott Peterson Minneapolis
No, a song has a certain format. John always wanted two drummers, and I kept pointing out that it was just me. He would say, "Do that," and I [would say], "But they've got two drummers on that song, John." I'm blessed that I did have songwriters who had a specific way, but if I changed it my way, they went along with that too.

How would you describe your drumming style? —Terry Matlen birmingham, Mich.
I was blessed with great timing. The other blessing that makes my drumming individual is that I was born left-handed. But my grandmother turned me into a right-handed person. So, I'm actually ambidextrous. If I throw anything, play cricket or golf, it's done left-handed, but I write and cut with my right hand. I'm a weird, handy guy. That makes my style really personal.



Source: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1694689,00.html#ixzz0kGZSmEAI
 
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