Was Ringo Starr overrated?

chic

chic

SF VIP
Location
U.S.
In your opinion, was Ringo Starr's drumming overrated? I was eight years old when the Beatles achieved international fame and like most eight year olds, I liked all the pop songs the local radio station played. I never thought to analyze. Ringo seemed like a fine drummer whose skills worked well within the group structure.

In a few years, I realized there were outstanding drummers who made you notice them no matter how brilliant other band members were, like Keith Moon of the Who, and Michael Shrieve of Santana. Those guys were electric, and Ringo's skills by comparison, were diminished in my eyes BUT. He was a Beatle and is held sort of in regard as a demi god because of this and is kind of untouchable. So I think Ringo was OK and won't go further than that except to say I did like his drumming in Back Off Bugaloo but that was sans Beatles and was a highlight of his solo career. How do you feel about Ringo? :unsure:
 

If you remove Ringo Starr from the band (like Pete Best), the Beatles are still the Beatles. But if you remove John, Paul or George. You don't have the Beatles. There's one guy on the TV show Pawn Stars, who always refers to George Harrison as everyone's least favorite Beatle. That always pisses me off. Ringo Starr was clearly the least favorite Beatle. He was popular in the 2 Beatle movies as a comedy character. I've met so many Beatle fans in my lifetime, who would ask me, "Who was your favorite Beatle?" I would always say George Harrison. Quite a few times the person would tell me that George was their favorite. That always surprised me since I would be expecting to hear John or Paul.
 

If anything, I think Ringo was under-rated. I don't know if he is technically good but, I like his style. Ringo was born left-handed but his grandmother was superstitious and made him write with his right-hand. So he has a right handed drum kit but leads with his left-hand. I think all four contributed to the Beatles music and without Ringo on drums, the sound would have been different.

This is an interesting YouTube video about Ringo's drumming style.

 
The Beatles were known for their simplistic style which Ringo was a part of. He wasnā€™t like other drummers but didnā€™t need to be. His style of drumming complimented the rest of the Beatle musicians. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were my favourites
 
According to hundreds of very successful pro rock drummers. Ringo was underrated.

Did you know that Ringo's son, Zak, has been the drummer for the Who since about 1995? Keith Moon gave Zak his first drum kit, against the wishes of his father. Naturally, after Zak got the kit, and showed an aptitude for it, Ringo began teaching him.
 
Paladin1950 said:
If you remove Ringo Starr from the band (like Pete Best), the Beatles are still the Beatles. But if you remove John, Paul or George. You don't have the Beatles. There's one guy on the TV show Pawn Stars, who always refers to George Harrison as everyone's least favorite Beatle. That always pisses me off. Ringo Starr was clearly the least favorite Beatle. He was popular in the 2 Beatle movies as a comedy character. I've met so many Beatle fans in my lifetime, who would ask me, "Who was your favorite Beatle?" I would always say George Harrison. Quite a few times the person would tell me that George was their favorite. That always surprised me since I would be expecting to hear John or Paul.
Click to expand...
George was my favorite Beatle too. He had songwriting ability that was never explored fully during his tenure with the Beatles.
 
Pete Best was the original drummer of the Beatles. There are a few different stories on why Best was sacked including his unreliability both with keeping time and actually showing up but the final straw was when George Martin brought in session drummers to replace him for early recording sessions.

Pete Best was not good enough a drummer and did not get along well enough with the other Beatles, he didn't hang out with them much outside of performances. One day he couldn't make a show and The Beatles got Ringo to fill in for him and the chemistry was immediate, unfortunately Ringo was still committed to Rory Storm and The Hurricanes.

Fast forward to their first couple sessions with George Martin early 1962, and George immediately wanted Pete out first time hearing him, and so The Beatles asked Ringo to officially replace him. He accepted. But during the first recording session of Love Me Do with him, George Martin assumed he was another Pete Best and hired a session drummer to play instead just to be safe because they had a deadline to release a single. Ringo only plays tambourine on the single version of Love Me Do. After finally hearing Ringo play in the following sessions, he realised he was wrong and he and the whole band became totally confident in his abilities.

Ringo was the perfect studio drummer, and that is not meant negatively. He had an extraordinary ability to do exactly the right thing for each song, making his part distinctive without being distracting. Listen to his isolated drum tracks and you know the song immediately. Obviously he wasnā€™t a technician, but musical genius comes in many forms.

There's a very sad post script to Ringo's band at the time he joined The Beatles. Rory Storm & the Hurricanes finally broke up in 1967. Rory Storm (Alan Caldwell) later became a disc jockey, but died under mysterious circumstances in September 1972. He was found dead in his house after combining alcohol with sleeping pills.
 
I liked Ringo the best, maybe because I was interested in playing the drums. IIRC he didn't get a chance to showcase his drum playing skills, rather he just provided the beat and timing of the music. Later on a few rock bands would cut their drummer loose to do prolonged drum solos, some of which were brilliant, others just tedious.

The first drum solo(several actually) I recall being done was by Iron Butterfly's drummer, Ron Bushy in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
 
Nathan said:
I liked Ringo the best, maybe because I was interested in playing the drums. IIRC he didn't get a chance to showcase his drum playing skills, rather he just provided the beat and timing of the music. Later on a few rock bands would cut their drummer loose to do prolonged drum solos, some of which were brilliant, others just tedious.

The first drum solo(several actually) I recall being done was by Iron Butterfly's drummer, Ron Bushy in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Click to expand...
Do a look up on YouTube for Sandy Nelson's "Teen Beat " an instrumental with just a six string guitar and Sandy's drums. That guy sold millions of albums, with no vocals on any track. In the modern era, Neil Pert of RUSH was the drummer who other drummers used to say "he makes me want to stop playing drums ". He was that good. Ringo was at best an adequate drummer. LINK Teen Beat

 
THE name ringo. Up to no good! Haha.

Donā€™T care. Didnā€™t like most Beetle sound tracks. Spams a good thought. Hard days night was listening to it. Haha

As I grew up the ladies were driving with mini skirts. Now that was some good stuff.
 
Last edited:
horseless carriage said:
Pete Best was the original drummer of the Beatles. There are a few different stories on why Best was sacked including his unreliability both with keeping time and actually showing up but the final straw was when George Martin brought in session drummers to replace him for early recording sessions.
Click to expand...
In addition, Pete's personality didn't mesh as well as Ringo's did with the others'. That was a contributing factor.
 
Paladin1950 said:
If you remove Ringo Starr from the band (like Pete Best), the Beatles are still the Beatles. But if you remove John, Paul or George. You don't have the Beatles. There's one guy on the TV show Pawn Stars, who always refers to George Harrison as everyone's least favorite Beatle. That always pisses me off. Ringo Starr was clearly the least favorite Beatle. He was popular in the 2 Beatle movies as a comedy character. I've met so many Beatle fans in my lifetime, who would ask me, "Who was your favorite Beatle?" I would always say George Harrison. Quite a few times the person would tell me that George was their favorite. That always surprised me since I would be expecting to hear John or Paul.
Click to expand...
I am stunned anyone would say that about George because it's entirely the opposite here in the UK, he's always lauded as the Nations' Favourite Beatle...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top