joking! he's my favourite beatle.
the thing is i get sick of hearing/reading/watching people continually put ringo's down. they say he wasnt any good. these people seem to expect he should of been a true virtuoso of his instrument. why?
i've never heard anyone say, yeah i like the beatles but george harrison isn't the greatest player is he?
or mccartney's bass playing is boring i bet there a lots of other bassists around that would wipe the floor with him.
nope, never heard that type of thing.
yet so many people demand ringo to have to live up to a higher standard as far as his musicianship goes.
if he wasn't good he wouldn't of got picked by the beatles to be in the band. if he wasn't any good he wouldn't of lasted playing in the greatest band of all-time. the group were under constant surveillance by the world at the time, they wouldn't of had a dodgy player in the band.
whatever cd own mine that i play, whoever it is, i've never yet thought, i wish so and so was a better drummer, or singer. they are what they are and we all know the band in that way.
he wasn't a keith moon! true, but almost everyone else in the sixties weren't either. so what?
one thing i've always went against ringo was his character. he was a jovial, happy go lucky man, liked joking. something you could really see in the movies.
people really liked that, but i feel at some point the press associated his carefree attitude to being thick. same with peter tork.
whenever i see ringo i always feel a little sorry for him to be honest. i can only remember critisizm of him over the years, and he obviously is more than aware of this critisizm. probable for a lot longer than anyone else would be aware of.
his confidence MUST of been severely dented over the years. not only his confidence in drumming but also simply being a person too.
i don't expect he's ever gotten over it.
ringo jokes come up all the time. you see/hear them in shows like family guy, the simpsons, etc. i've heard them on those late night letterman type of shows over the years too.
"lets pretend to be the beatles!"
"ahhh, i don't wanna be ringo!!!"
'the luckiest man in rock and roll.' that really annoys me.
no he's not, robert plant maybe or john bonham perhaps as they were second choices to join led zep. lucky jimmy page thought of them after he was turned down by his original choices.
charlie watts is like keith moon, but no one ever compares the two. almost all sixties drummers werent like moon. they mainly played what is now probably thought of as old school drummers.
i personally like his drumming on strawberry fields forever and ticket to ride. he always sounded good and distinctive to me.
i've got his ringo album. also some tracks like goodnight vienna, back off boogaloo, it don't come easy. i really like one of the b-sides called blindman.
this link may be of interest;
Ringo's Drumming