(Credits: Bent Rej)
It’s time that Beatles fans stop taking the piss out of Ringo Starr. Although he has garnered a reputation for being the “least talented” member in some people’s eyes because of his role as the drummer, every single one of their songs wouldn’t have sounded half as good if Starr didn’t know how to sit with the tune and play whatever was appropriate at the moment. The Beatles may have started as a bunch of garage rockers hoping to make it, but Starr had spent years perfecting his craft before he even got the call to join the group.
Granted, Starr always admired what the band could do in their early days. He already had a group in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but whereas most musicians would pack up after a long night of playing music, Starr was one of the few people that would stay behind after his gig and listen to The Beatles play, always drinking bourbon at the bar as the Threetles sang their hearts out with Pete Best behind the kit.
But whenever Starr had to sit in when Best was ill, the difference was like night and day. Best was far from a terrible drummer in those days, but compared to some of his sloppy delivery on their audition tapes, Starr was locked in from the moment that he started playing tunes like ‘What’d I Say’, which would have normally left most drummers in shambles.
It’s also worth noting that nothing Starr did was necessarily easy to play. Some of the drum fills that he would throw into later Beatles projects seem fairly simple, but when he wanted to fly off the handle, he could hang with the Keith Moons of the world, especially during their moptop days when they would play ‘Long Tall Sally’ and Starr would look like a flailing animal behind the kit half the time.
Then again, Starr almost had no choice but to become a drummer from the moment he was born. Before he even reached his teens, Starr was in and out of the hospital dealing with every single ailment that you could think of. But when one of the doctors came into his room with a drum for him to play, Starr knew that things wouldn’t be the same.
“When I was 13, I was in hospital… We were all in bed with tuberculosis, and the music teacher came around to keep us busy. He gave me a little drum, and from that minute, I wanted to be a drummer.”
Ringo Starr
Whereas most people find their calling to be a musician from hearing a specific song on the radio, Starr knew that his goal was to make people happy when he had that drum in his hand, saying, “When I was 13, I was in hospital… We were all in bed with tuberculosis, and the music teacher came around to keep us busy. He gave me a little drum, and from that minute, I wanted to be a drummer. I look at myself now; I’m still doing this, and that’s what’s far out.”
And it’s not like the rules have changed for drummers ever since Starr started playing in that hospital room. The whole point behind any music is to make sure everyone is entertained, and while the drums may have grown a lot bigger and Starr’s dexterity may have improved over the years, it’s easy to see the same lovable kid loving life behind the kit whenever he goes out on the road.
Although Starr will tell you that he is far from the greatest composer in the world, that hardly matters in this case. Because if he couldn’t write songs in the same way that John Lennon and Paul McCartney could, he would make sure that tunes like ‘Rain’ had some of the best percussion that he could possibly deliver.
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