One of the biggest running jokes among Beatles fans is that Ringo’s drumming is like falling down the stairs: he’s remarkably sloppy, yet somehow never fails to keep time and rarely ever misses a fill. Starr’s pounding ostinato and Martin’s clever use of reversed cymbals make this groove one for the ages, and arguably even laid the foundations for the ubiquitous Madchester beats of the ‘80s and ‘90s. George Martin’s use of tape loops, sampling, Eastern drones, Leslie speaker and multi-tracked vocals proved to be pioneering several times over, but it’s Ringo’s drums that take the cake for this track.
The closer to the band’s seminal LP Revolver (and the first track recorded for the album, weirdly enough) saw the Fab Four embark on a radical departure from their typical sound, creating a hypnogogic epic that aimed to replicate the sound of a thousand Tibetan monks chanting from a mountain top.Īs most Beatles fans will know, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is a bit of a marvel in the band’s catalogue for a number of reasons. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ isn’t just a track, it’s a psychedelic trip unto itself. It’s these kinds of unorthodox touches that really made his style unique, and man does it make for one hell of an intro. The tom-tom introduction ranks right up there with one of the most recognisable drum intros of all time, and even though it’s rudimentary as hell, the subtlety of his playing is something that many an accomplished drummer has striven to achieve on a session since.įun fact: if you listen to Ringo’s isolated ‘Come Together’ drum track from the Abbey Road sessions, you can actually hear he plays an ascending tom roll, starting with the floor tom and ending on the rack tom, which makes sense, given he’s a leftie playing a right-handed setup. It’s on songs like ‘Come Together’ where the simple genius of Ringo Starr really shines through. ‘Rain’ blows me away … I know me and I know my playing … and then there’s ‘Rain’. Starr’s performance on ‘Rain’ is rated by many critics and Beatles historians as being his best in the band’s discography, with even Ringo himself agreeing that it was his standout moment, telling Rolling Stone in 1984 that “I think it’s the best out of all the records I’ve ever made. Released in 1966 as the B-Side to ‘Paperback Writer’ (and supposedly inspired by the tepid drizzle experienced when the band toured Australia in 1964), ‘Rain’ is peppered with insane drum fills from Ringo, who went to down on his Ludwig set to deliver some of the best breaks ever heard on a Beatles song.
Paul McCartney’s ludicrously good bass tone in this track can’t hurt at all, but make no mistake: ‘Rain’ is by all means a Ringo standout. To celebrate the 80th birthday of the beloved Beatles drummer, we’re taking a look at some of his best moments behind the kit with the Fab Four to get a deeper understanding of his whacky technqiue, breaking down exactly what makes Ringo Starr such a unique drummer within rock ‘n roll history. Starr’s unorthodox approach to drumming might be the butt of many a great joke, but it’s also quite hard to replicate properly, and if anything, it’s a style that can only be pinned down to Ringo. On the contrary, there’s plenty of examples in The Beatles’ discography that prove Ringo’s ability to not only hold time, but throw in some pretty expressive fills and unique breaks as well.
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