Too often has The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr been the butt of some unkind jokes. Reportedly purported by his bandmate John Lennon, the adage goes that when asked about whether Ringo was the best drummer in the world, the bespectacled Beatle responded: “He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles.” Thankfully, that myth has been dispelled, and the joke traced back to a 1981 radio show featuring Jasper Carrott to prove that nobody within the Fab Four thought of Ringo as anything less than integral to their sound.
Was He A Good Drummer?
That hasn’t helped his wider public of Ringo’s drumming be any less derisory though. As we all know by now, it doesn’t have to be the truth to be spread around as fact. But, for Ringo, it is an unwelcome and unwarranted tagline. The truth is actually that Ringo may not have been a studious percussionist, or particularly gifted with what was deemed as precision playing. Still, he had that one unteachable thing that every musician craves — he had style. As Paul McCartney said when picking his own favourite drummers: “Not technically the best by a long shot, but for feel and emotion and economy, they’re always there, particularly Ringo.”
read this great article about Ringo and his top drum performances
Want to Know More About How Great A Drummer Ringo Is?
Find out more about Ringo, in the following books from the Beatles Bookstore:
Finding the Fourth Beatle by David Bedford and Garry Popper, plus the exclusive Double CD of Finding the Fourth Beatle with over 40 tracks by those who played drums with The Beatles,
In Ringo Starr and The Beatles Beat, drummers Alex Cain and Terry McCusker analyse Ringo’s incredible contribution to the Beatles sound.
Don’t miss their analysis of Ringo on the White Album and Abbey Road too.
