FEATURE:
An Underrated Genius
IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr captured in London in 1963/PHOTO CREDIT: Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
A Perfect Ten: Ringo Starr’s Best Beats
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I will try not to step on my own toes…
PHOTO CREDIT: Bent Rej
and repeat myself in this feature. Excitedly over-eager and prepared for Ringo Starr’s eightieth birthday on 7th July, I composed a piece about him back in March. Although it has been less than two months since I last wrote about the mighty Ringo Starr, I will try and approach things from a different angle this time around. There will be some similarities: the word ‘genius’ appears on both features; I will be highlighting his finest drumming performances with The Beatles; I want to bring in words from other people, too – those who are far more qualified to explain why a particular bit of drumming is spellbinding and reveal some of the technical aspects of the performance. I do not need to give even casual fans of The Beatles details about when Starr (Richard Starkey) joined the band and what he brought. One reason why I have decided to revisit Starr’s percussive prowess – aside from the fact that the master turns eighty in a matter of weeks – is to satisfy a passion I have for his playing, whilst simultaneously dispelling any notions that he was a bad drummer! Though there was a time when people joked about Starr’s talent and did not give his drumming proper respect, there are still people today who see Starr as hugely inferior to other members of The Beatles.
IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr with the rest of The Beatles/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Sure, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the majority of the band’s songs and they must be regarded as two of the finest songwriters who have ever graced the planet. It sort of irks me that there are some who deride Starr’s brilliance or feel he was, in any way, a minimal and minor player in The Beatles’ story. I think so many of the band’s best songs are heightened and defined by Starr’s unique and wonderful playing – as I underlined and explained in my last feature. I will be quoting heavily from other articles, as I can only really describe why a performance hits me, rather than giving you any real technical specifications or proper explanation. I think Starr is not only an underrated genius; he has also inspired pretty much every drummer who has come since him – whether they know it or have just subconsciously absorbed Starr’s magnetic and phenomenal work. I think Starr’s drumming chops should not be doubted or undervalued, and there are articles that explain why Starr is such a terrific player. There is a magnificent feature that was published a few years back that goes into detail regarding Ringo Starr’s style, the kit he used and why he remains so distinct. Before I move on to selecting ten songs that perfectly epitomise Starr’s wide-ranging and undeniable gifts, I want to quote a few bits from the (excellent) article:
“He’s not a technical drummer. Men like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa would run rings around him, but he is a good solid rock drummer with a steady beat, and he knows how to get the right sound out of his drums.”
That’s how Sir George Martin, the man who produced The Beatles into existence, summed up the magic of Ringo’s drumming genius. No, it wasn’t technically perfect, but it had an intuitive soul that all truly great musicians have. So how did he do it?
PHOTO CREDIT: Express Newspapers/Getty Images
Ringo was also known for “painting” his hi-hat with an unorthodox swing. He swung his stick at a more horizontal angle, glancing back and forth off of the hi-hat. He would also aim to hit the middle of the stick, not the tip. The beauty of this technique is that he could add more sound without expending more energy, simply by adjusting the angle of his swing and how close to the tip he would hit. This technique is easy to spot in early hits like “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Ringo’s drum sound was a collaboration between Ringo and master producer George Martin. It began with Ringo’s unorthodox approach to drum tuning. Up to that time, many of the early rock ‘n’ roll drummers were still aiming for the same tones produced by jazz, swing and bebop players.
Ringo wanted deeper, more resonant tones. He started by tightening his top heads and loosening the bottom heads. He also tinkered with the bass, removing the front head and adding blankets or pillows to muffle the sound. Ringo would also play with thin tea towels draped over the toms and a pack of cigarettes or roll of masking tape resting on the snare. As a final touch, Ringo removed the resonant heads from his toms, creating a louder, flatter effect”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr in 1964
Whilst it might be reductive to distil Starr’s awe-inspiring drummer to just ten songs, I would suggest people dig the back catalogue of The Beatles and listen to everything Starr played on. Whilst not every Starr turn is hugely memorable, there are certain albums that are raised to God-like levels because of Starr’s beats – Rubber Soul (1965) and Abbey Road (1969) stand out to me. Whilst every Beatles fan will have differing opinions as to Ringo Starr’s best drumming turns, I think there is some consensus as to songs that are simply impossible to ignore! I will be quoting some passages from a DRUM! Magazine article from last year that goes into detail about Starr’s best performances – I will not present my favourite songs in chronological order (as I am pretty annoying like that!). I think the finest Ringo Starr drumming performance is on Rain – which was a B-side on Paperback Writer (a non-album track) in 1966. When it comes to placing the other nine songs, it can be tough; for that reason, I am not going to rank his best drumming turns. I am also thankful to Goldmine Magazine, as they also provide some great insight into Ringo Starr’s choice tracks…
Rain (1966)
This is The Beatles song that, to me, really defines why Ringo Starr is a genius. If anyone is under the impression Starr was a crap drummer – silly, idiotic people -, then Rain should silence any doubts – whilst simultaneously blowing your mind wide fuck*ng open!
“Generally acknowledged as one of the percussive highlights of Starr’s Beatles career — by critics, fans, and Ringo himself — the 1966 B-side found Ringo moving all around the kit with precision while still remaining firmly in the pocket.“It was the first time and last time I ever played that busy,” Starr has said, although he actually had played in a not dissimilar fashion a few months earlier when he recorded the almost-as-wonderful drums for“She Said She Said” on “Revolver” - Goldmine Magazine
“For those who disparage Starr as an unadventurous drummer, “Rain” should prove to be an ear-opener. After firing off bracing snare shots, he’s all over the kit by the halfway point of the first verse, and he stays that way through the entire song, free-forming fills and never repeating a phrase. The Beatles cut five takes of the rhythm track, recording them at a fast tempo but then slowing down the tape, which resulted in lower tones and a more disorienting drum sound.
Rather than a standard-issue guitar solo, there’s a break at 2:24 during which McCartney performs a booming, squiggly run. Starr locks in with him, matching every note on the snare before taking off wildly into the song’s psychedelic coda, replete with Lennon’s drug-induced backward chants. Summing up his own work on the track, Starr is anything but humble, at one point calling it “the best out of all the records I’ve ever made” – DRUM! Magazine
Tomorrow Never Knows (1966)
There are plenty of golden Ringo Starr performances on 1966’s Revolver – I’m Only Sleeping, She Said She Said (which I will talk about later), in addition to And Your Bird Can Sing among them -, but the album’s final track takes some beating! The Beatles produced more their fair share of epic album closers (they would end their next album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with A Day in the Life; another genius Starr performance!), and Tomorrow Never Knows ranks alongside the best. The power and technique from Ringo Starr throughout the song is spinetingling!
“There are tape loops galore—seagull sounds, an orchestra droning on a B-flat chord, a finger rubbing the rim of a wine glass—along with backward guitar solos and other bits of aural experimentation. Underneath Lennon’s almost unrecognizable sneer (altered by a Leslie speaker and artificial double-tracking) is a pounding, hypnotic, and utterly sensational drum performance by Starr. Playing on slackened tom heads, his minimalist pattern of eighth-notes on the crash (with a subtle variation on his snare-and-tom work from “Ticket To Ride”) barely waivers. Paired with McCartney’s equally repetitive bass line, it’s the perfect underpinning for this daring musical free-for-all” – DRUM! Magazine
Something (1969)
Whilst some would not include Something in the list of the top-ten Ringo Starr drumming performances, I think it should be. The George Harrison-written highlight from Abbey Road (alongside his other track, Here Comes the Sun) is almost perfect! From the sublime vocal to the gorgeous and deeply personal lyrics, I think Starr takes it over the top with his wonderfully-judged and phenomenal drumming.
“Ringo once described his drumming on “Abbey Road” as “tom-tom madness” — due to the fact that he had just obtained a marvelous-sounding new kit with calf skin drum heads — and that madness is in full effect on this song. At first blush the drums might sound simple, but once the bridge kicks in, Starr elevates the track to another level by upping the dynamics considerably. There’s a version of the song on YouTube that has the drums isolated — hearing that bridge section is absolutely mind blowing” – Goldmine Magazine
In My Life (1965)
There are so, so many Rubber Soul tracks that stand in the mind, but I think John Lennon’s In My Life is the best of them all! It is such an emotional and beautiful song that, to be honest, could take the breath with no drumming at all. It was quite brave adding percussion in, but Starr’s playing adds something extra to the song; it seems to have its own voice that transforms In My Life from a wonderful song to a masterpiece.
“The instrumentation on “In My Life” matched the song’s gentle Baroque pop—Lennon on softly strummed electric rhythm, Harrison playing lattice-like riffs, McCartney performing understated bass lines. As for Starr, he provided a subtle rhythmic underpinning that is perhaps the song’s greatest sonic asset. Rather than keep a straight 2 and 4 beat, he composed an arresting and memorable soft-funk rhythm based around the hi-hat, snare, and bass drum—he doesn’t even touch his toms and crashes—and only attends to the ride during the tune’s captivating bridges (“In my life, I’ve loved them all”) where he splits his time between quarter- and eighth-note patterns.
Starr later overdubbed a tasteful tambourine part that underscored the song’s wistful lyrics, and Martin added a brilliantly composed, Bach-influenced piano solo section that sounded remarkably like a harpsichord. Everything came together to complete what Lennon would later call his “first real major piece of work” – DRUM! Magazine
She Said She Said (1966)
Revolver is an album that is packed with exceptional drumming performances. Whilst Starr does not top the work he did on Tomorrow Never Knows on She Said She Said, I just adore what he did to the track and how he brings so much passion, texture and nuance to the song. Take a listen to the song and concentrate on Starr’s percussion: it is a masterclass in how sparsity and subtlety can make as big an impression as power, potency and loads of layers.
“Ringo’s unorthodox drumming style has given the band some of the most memorable moments in their songs. Take, for instance, the John Lennon-written bluesy classic ‘Come Together’. Starr’s drums on this single are a testament to his laconic style. His style is swinging and cultured, as he “plays with his shoulder”—it leads to some off-beat and unique fills. It’s a style that is almost impossible to replicate.
The song ‘She Said She Said’, a track penned by Lennon for the 1966 album Revolver, was once described as “an ‘acidy’ song” by Lennon. It was the beginning of the band’s rejection of their popstar tagline. They were now expanding not only their sound but their minds.
The lyrics were inspired by actor Peter Fonda’s comments during an LSD trip in August 1965. The striking opening lines “She said, she said, I know what it’s like to be dead,” were attributed by Lennon after a particular night with acid took place with members of The Beatles and The Byrds.
‘She Said, She Said’ is also a contentious song for the fact it doesn’t feature Paul McCartney at all on the record. Macca allegedly stormed out of the recording sessions after an argument over the arrangement of the tune. But Ringo Starr more than makes up for his departure bringing an understated rhythm to this psychedelic number” – Far Out Magazine
Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)
This is another Beatles masterpiece, and it is part of the double A-side (with Penny Lane) that dropped in 1967 which still sounds out of this world today! Of course, we all know John Lennon wrote the track and, whilst the rest of the band definitely bring their A-game, it is, again, Starr’s drumming that transforms the song into this biblical, transcendent thing.
“With each new verse, he opens the kit up more, laying down a furious sixteenth-note groove on the floor tom while increasing the intensity of his fills. By the final verse, taken from the “harder” second take, he’s bearing down like he’s in a drum line. After the innovative fade-out/fade-in fake, Starr is in full freak-out mode, performing some of his most flamboyant and sophisticated licks before the whole thing ebbs away with Lennon’s infamous “cranberry sauce” line, which many listeners thought was “I bury Paul,” one more element of the “Paul is dead” hoax” – DRUM! Magazine
I Feel Fine (1964)
There are two camps of Beatles fans: those who prefer their tighter and more Pop-y songs pre-1966, and those who gravitate towards the more experimental songs that appeared on Revolver and albums after that. I think Ringo Starr’s drumming went up a notch on Rubber Soul in 1965, but there are some cuts pre-1965 where he really brought the heat! I Feel Fine is a prime example from 1964. This Lennon-penned single features one of Starr’s most joyous and accomplished performances – it is definitely in my top-five!
“Paul McCartney: “The drumming is what we used to think of as ‘What’d I Say’ drumming…sort of a Latin R&B that Ray Charles’ drummer played on the original record, and we used to love it. One of the big clinching factors about Ringo as the drummer in the band was that he could really play that so well” – Goldmine Magazine
“And so “I Feel Fine” starts, and after Harrison’s splendid, arpeggiated opening riff, Starr grabs hold. Although the song is in 4/4 time, Starr performs the verses as something of a subtle hybrid of mambo and R&B, the main influence being the Latin feel in Ray Charles’ hit “What’d I Say.” While teasing the ride cymbal with a groovy, heavily accented “stuttering” pattern, he alternates between the tom and snare rim clicks as if they were conga drums—a sexy and stylish flow that works as the perfect counterpoint to Harrison’s distinctive lead lines” - DRUM! Magazine
She Loves You (1963)
There is not much I can say about this iconic single that has not been said before! Released in the U.K. on 23rd August, 1963, She Loves You is one of the greatest singles ever released. It is quintessential 1960s Pop, albeit on a different plain to anything else. The fact the song has inspired and survived for nearly sixty years is down to the band giving it their all – including a tremendous bit of drumming from Ringo Starr!
“Beginning with rolling toms followed by a staccato beat during the chorus and the open hi-hat that became a Starr trademark in the early years, the drive, passion and pure energy here is undeniable” – Goldmine Magazine
A Day in the Life (1967)
I do not think any album has ended as memorably as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A Day in the Life is a symphony in itself, and it could not have appeared in any other position on the album – it ends so dramatically, any song that follows it would have sounded pale in comparison. By 1967, Starr was near the top of his game, and A Day in the Life is full of so much detail and nuance. The lyrics, vocals and compositions make A Day in the Life a true masterpiece; Starr’s unbelievable drumming, again, turns a piece of near-genius into an unbeatable and untouchable epic.
“Lesser drummers might have approached Lennon’s folk-flavored first verses with a straight beat or even a soft shuffle, but Starr treats them as musical theater, dispensing with the idea of rhythm in favor of those well-placed, well-spaced tom flurries. Played on low-tuned calfskin heads and drenched with echo, they sound like timpani in a concert hall, contrasting with the spine-tingling effect of Lennon’s detached, almost otherworldly vocals.
After an orchestral crescendo and the ring of an alarm clock, Starr keeps militaristic pace with McCartney through the cheeky “woke up, fell out of bed/dragged a comb across my head” section, and then we’re plunged back into Lennon’s kaleidoscopic vision. Here, Starr is in full bloom, working double-duty as a peerless timekeeper and a virtuoso pit drummer, providing ingeniously propulsive tom licks that rise up to meet Lennon as the song spirits away to its shattering conclusion” – DRUM! Magazine
Come Together (1969)
The reason I have only quoted from Goldmine Magazine and DRUM! Magazine is because, between them, they have chosen the very finest Ringo Starr performances in their lists. There are one or two songs that are exclusive to each – ones they do not both mention -, but I am not being lazy by only selecting onr song outside of that (She Said She Said), as I agree with what they say. There are some notable omissions – I have only selected ten tracks to show you the tip of the Starr iceberg of drumming genius -, but I could not ignore Abbey Road’s Come Together. Like Rubber Soul, Abbey Road is a brilliant percussion album where Starr turns every song into something golden. I could have selected I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and The End in addition to Come Together and Something. I feel bad fort leaving out Here Comes the Sun, but it just shows how many staggering performances from Starr there were on Abbey Road alone – let alone every other Beatles album.
“Emerick’s innovations worked wonders on the minimalistic drum figures Starr employed on “Come Together.” Coming off a sixteenth-note triplet on the hi-hat, Starr plays what is now one of his signature licks, a melodic triplet roll across the toms—“tapita tapita tapita tap”—that segues into the backbone of the song, a floor tom–led pattern that sounds both groovy and ominous. On the next two choruses, he transcends the “less is more” ethos with beautifully placed snare cracks on the 2 and 4, and it is not until the organ/guitar solo section that he opens the kit up, laying down a driving rhythm on the crash and snare. For the final chorus, he reduces his playing to a single quarter-note bass drum pattern before taking flight once again.
All in all, it’s a masterful performance that once again underscores Starr’s ability to compose the perfect hooks and to play exactly what is needed at exactly the right point in a song” – DRUM! Magazine