Off The Beatle Track

I haven’t written much about Ringo in the blog. That’s my fault, not his.

I tend to forget that Ringo appeared in The Beatles’ story so late, relatively, which is a testament to how quickly he assimilated. When Ringo joined the band in August 1962, Brian Epstein was already managing them, EMI had already signed them, and George Martin was already producing them. They were thisclose to busting out, though they couldn’t have realized it.

Better than Best

Would The Beatles have been bigger than Elvis with Pete Best as their drummer? My unsophisticated musical take is no, but that assumes that Pete wouldn’t have sufficiently progressed as a drummer to support the increasing complexity of the songs written by John, Paul, and George.¹ Maybe that’s unfair to Pete. But it’s hard to imagine a timeline in which The Beatles accomplished what they did without Ringo.

I don’t know enough about music to comment intelligently about most of Ringo’s musical contributions to The Beatles, but the others routinely praised his playing right up to the breakup and beyond, which is good enough for me.² And although I’m less interested in the movies than in the music, I do want to point out that when their first film was released in 1964, a movie in which arguably Ringo (ahem) starred, he had been a member of the group for less than two years. ³

Lead drummer

Here are just I few things that I appreciate about Ringo:

1. The drums on A Day in the Life. Listen to John’s isolated vocal on A Day in the Life, and you might think, as I do, that the song seems to drag. The drive, the energy, comes from Ringo’s fills, which serve as commentary on the lyrics. I think of them as lead drums.
2. The drum intros to She Loves You and Something. Two very different songs, recorded about 6 years apart, are both noteworthy for how Ringo’s intros tumble seamlessly into the melody.
3. Too many great drum fills to mention. I’ve mentioned before that George’s Long, Long, Long is one of my least favorite Beatles songs. But when I heard a cover version, my first thought was, “I miss Ringo’s fills.”
4. Ringo and Paul singing Act Naturally. I can’t explain why I love to hear Ringo’s and Paul’s voices on the same track, but I do. Paul also sings on (and wrote) my favorite Ringo solo track, Six O’Clock.
5. Ringo’s first line of dialogue in A Hard Day’s Night. On the train, John asks whether Paul’s grandfather can talk. Paul replies, “”‘Course he can talk. He’s a human being, isn’t he?” Then Ringo hits him with this zinger: “Well, if he’s your grandfather, who knows? Ha ha ha ha ha.” Except he says it so fast that it loses almost all meaning.⁴ It’s funny partly because the delivery is so bad.
6. Ringo’s playing at the February 11, 1964, Washington, D.C. show. Two days after their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance, The Beatles played at the Washington Coliseum.⁵ Ringo was, as the kids say, on fire. My favorite number is the last song they played that night, Long Tall Sally, during which the three guitarists all turn around to admire Ringo’s drumming.

What are your favorite Ringo moments? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

1. Although I wouldn’t bet against the combined talents of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison in any case. ↩︎
2. He drummed on solo albums by each of of the others. ↩︎
3. When they appeared The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, Ringo had been in the band for about 18 months. ↩︎
4. His performance in the remainder of the movie improves considerably. ↩︎
5. It’s the show in which the band (and Mal, I believe, and Neil, maybe) periodically had to turn the drum riser 45 degrees. ↩︎