This Boy

Something that really sticks in my craw is people who undermine the ability of the Beatles and their level of musicianship. Ringo seems to come in for particular criticism. During the recent 40th commemoration and celebration of the Sgt Pepper album, a project was devised to get modern bands to recreate the album, track for track, with Geoff Emerick at the controls. Most of the bands did a reasonable job in covering the songs, but it was interesting to get Oasis songwriter, Noel Gallagher's view. Firstly, being Oasis, they insisted their version was recorded in Studio Two at Abbey Road. Fair enough I can relate to that. In one throwaway comment he said, "Look, you can have the studio, you can have the same mics and desk, you can even have the same drum kit, but you've not got the drummer!" His drummer at the time?....Zak Starkey!! Reading between the lines, what he was saying was that they were about as close to a proper recreation of the circumstances of that particular track and it STILL wasn't quite right.
Great pop music is built from the bottom up, with perhaps the most important part of a band - THE DRUMMER. If the drumming isn't right, the production is sunk. It has been astonishing to me just how many people seem to undermine the man's ability for the job. After all, Ringo Starr was handpicked for the job by the boys themselves. Witness the differences in the Beatles sound when Pete Best was playing for them. They weren't cohesive; a tight unit. It just didn't sparkle. Something not quite right. They needed a solid beat, a definitive crack from the snare drum and pow from the kick drum. Ringo brought this with him into the Beatles. If I were to hazard a guess on what that might have meant to the guys themselves in the band, I'd say first off that the difference would have been night and day. They would have felt a collective sigh of relief and it would have been smiles all 'round, just knowing, just feeling that the final piece of the puzzle was in place. Great songs would be made greater still. Why? Because the platform on which they were built was solid. A good foundation for the house of Beatle.

It bugs me no end when it's said that Ringo was just some lucky so and so who jumped on the bandwagon at the last minute. It wasn't an accident. The Beatles CHOSE him because he gave them that extra edge. Ringo's great gift apart from his unbelievable timing, is his musicality. Strange thing that eh? A musical drummer. Drummers just beat things loudly don't they? Ringo's parts in the arrangements belie a sensitivity to the song. He recognised the importance of the song and not to overplay but to simply underline its best qualities. This is essential to an arrangement achieving it's objective. Try to imagine a guitarist just widdyling all over the place, having no regard for the song. It would be irritating and messy right? Less is best and if in doubt? Less is best! He also understood the sound of his drums. His tuning is great. An out of tune drum kit is as bad as an out of tune guitarist or vocalist. In short Ringo PLAYED his drums, he didn't just batter them in time. Those familiar with the Beatles outtakes will have noticed that by and large, the Beatles played songs right through, and then maybe played the ending again, or the solo section again if it was required. Take after take after take. At which point George Martin and the team upstairs would edit the takes together to complete the recorded performance. This wouldn't have been possible but for Ringo's immaculate timing. These days that job would be done using a computer generated "click track" set to tempo to ensure stability. For the Beatles, Ringo was the click track. I've played Beatles tunes many times with various drummers. Almost to a man they will come the table, thinking that it is an easy gig! However, they always leave with a new found respect for Mr Starkey and not because it is difficult to recreate what Ringo played. They learn that it is difficult to sound that easy, to play with that type of subtlety and yet retain the power and drive. It could be argued that Ringo was the first of the modern pop drummers, and to this day his name is synonymous with the drum kit. If the Beatles were a firework, then it was Ringo who lit the touchpaper.