Ringo Starr

Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

Some reasons I love Ringo:

  • Let It Be
  • Come Together
  • A Day In The Life
  • Here Comes The Sun
  • Getting Better All the Time
  • Tomorrow Never Knows
  • Instant Amnesia (off Ringorama).

The smartest rock drummer? Hmm, I'd say Bill Bruford. Like Ringo he made a good living playing exactly what he wanted. So many great tracks - And You and I, Larks Tongues Pt 1, Starless, One More Red Nightmare, Frame By Frame, Thela Hun Ginjeet ... no jingles for that little black duck! The closest he came to that was the Yes reunion concerts :)
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

Shiningtime Station!

Personally there are only a few beatles tracks that I actually like the drums on. I never cared much for his playing..
the OP has a good point that he is a huge success. So yeah, a technical drummer he is not, but i do think he did have a certain musical quality that can't be ignored... but really when it comes down to it i think that he owes his success to the other beatles... he probably wouldn't have made it on his own. So that being the case i wouldn't say "Smartest"... i'd say "Luckiest".
But that's just my opininon.

OffTopic Comment: Bill Bruford... AWESOME!
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

yea I don't literally mean smartest, but for maximum return on minimal investment, I can't think of anyone who can top him.
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

He was hired, as a drummer, to join a band, to keep the beat. He did that very well.
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

i love you all.

Ringo is great.

Don't bash Ringo.

I go to the coast now - not sure if i come back today....

Bernhard
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

Even though I was brought up in Liverpool, I was never a fan of his playing, although I did like his narration of the childrens television series "Thomas the tank engine". Smartest, I'm not so sure there is such a thing but he certainly was smart enough to realise the audience didn't care about his technique. They just got off on the whole sound and performance. Now that is a lesson in smartness that many drummers would be wise to take on board!

Smartest? I'd say probably not. Smart? Oh yes.
 
Re: Ringo, smartest drummer ever?

yea I don't literally mean smartest, but for maximum return on minimal investment, I can't think of anyone who can top him.

How about Moony? Unless you count driving Rolls Royces into swimming pools as an "investment" :) Um, not sure he was the brightest crayon in the box, though.

Ah, back in the old days you were allowed a little looseness if you could move people.
 
KeepitSimple, kept it simple. He understands. Why do people have to make issues of non issues. Ringo didn't play in 1990 to 2010 progressive bands. He played in a 1960's rock band. His style and methods may well have been different in a diffferent era. Geeze get over it with Ringo for Gods sake.
 
The reason I brought him up is because here we are knocking ourselves out to learn polyrhythms and blazing fast singles, and every other darn thing, trying to get as much technique as we can, when it's not really necessary to create good feeling music.
He is a great example of working smart, not hard.
I realize that can be taken as a bash but it's not. I'm saying he gets what is really important. So everybody can now stop practicing ha ha.
 
He is a great example of working smart, not hard.
I realize that can be taken as a bash but it's not. I'm saying he gets what is really important. So everybody can now stop practicing ha ha.

Oh ... don't do that, it takes a well practiced set of limbs to get that 'simple' stuff spot on. Ringo may have lacked the flair that we have come to expect from rock drummers - but his sense of time pretty much defines what drummers are supposed to be ... solid.
 
What is really reprehensible when the question of Ringo's drumming dexterity rears its ugly head is that Paul, John and George never did the right thing when they unceremoniously dumped Pete Best from the group in the first place.

Considering that the type of live drumming required by Rock & Roll percussionist in the early 1960's was not what it was by the late 1960's, Best was as good as, or better than, Ringo. John, Paul and George never complained about Best's competency for the year he played in clubs with them. In fact, it seems Best was the real draw for the chics who came to see these Liverpudlians.

It is obvious that when the Beatles were about to turn the corner, they had pangs of insecurity and even resentment about their current drummer, who was better looking and who might upstage their lyrics and melodies.

Would Billy Cobham or Ginger Baker have fit into the Beatles scheme better than Ringo? Of course not. Ringo was the perfect non-threatening musician who was counted on to compliment the stylized George Martin studio sound and who would not Wow! listeners with riffs that might diminish the other three's capabilities.

But it is interesting when the group (John, Paul, George) pursued individual careers, they all employed drummers whom they did not inhibit from a more productive and energetic rhythm than Ringo demonstrated on the Beatles 13 albums.

Had Ringo been Herman's Hermit's drummer would anyone know his name today? No. But Ringo was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it (heard it?) and he rode the Beatles phenomenon for all it was worth.

I could NOT imagine The Beatles without Ringo, it is that simple. There is a symbiotic relationship that can not be denied. Really, I think it is illogical to start saying that one drummer is better than another. Maybe if you had 2 drummers having to play the same piece of music and then be judged you could say one was "more technical" or the other had "better feel" but you would still have 2 drummers. I'm not sure if that is a very good analogy but perhaps the gist is understood. Great points made Bernard and yourself, it definitely leans to my way of thinking.
 
Ringo had a hard time doing complex rolls and other breakthrough drumming parts because he was a Left handed Drummer playing a Right handed drum kit. Makes sense to me why he didn't really branch from a basic rock beat!

It's hard for a Right handed guy playing a Left Handed guitar and trying to be like Hendrix!
 
Playing a right hand set as a left handed drummer is the best thing, that can happen.
 
I just had a thought. Ringo Starr was already a professional drummer when he joined the Beatles, so I wonder if there are any recordings of his playing before he became a Beatle. I guess I could Google it. That would be interesting to hear.

I love Ringo's drumming. There's a real generosity of spirit in his playing, I very much get the feeling that he loved those songs, so much so that he took great care not to step all over them. He loved those songs, well, who wouldn't, but he played just perfectly on those songs, just perfectly, especially when you consider that they did many takes of the same tune. He kept it going. RIngo had a great sense of time and consistancy.

Also, I think he had a very personal sound on the drums, a sort of loping, happy way of playing, that's the only way I can think of to describe it.

I'm a fan.
 
I know he used to be in a band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. I YouTubed it and got results. It's def him.
 
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