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Ringo Starr-Overrated or Underrated?

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ManWithNoName

ManWithNoName

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It seems that Ringo is never rated properly. People either consider him one of the best rock and roll drummers ever, or the luckiest person in the history of music. So what's your opinion? Personally I think he's underrated. One of the biggest "criticisms" of Ringo is the only kept a beat, he didn't do any big solos. This is true, but listen to the songs he kept beats too. A Day in the Life, Strawberry Fields Forever etc. Most drummers wouldn't have a clue how to keep a beat to that, but Ringo did and made it seem easy. His drumming perfectly complemented Paul and Johns lyrics. With music like what The Beatles were producing they did outstanding vocals and guitar work, they didn't need a drummer to try and get all the attention. Ringo is one of the best drummers in Rock and Roll history IMO.
 
Overrated to be honest, but personally i think the beatles were extremely overrated.
 

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As a drummer you wouldn't compare him to Ginger Baker. As a lyricist he doesnt rate. He belonged to a famous group for a few years.
My Sweet Lord was a great song.

Imo he is a middle of the road muso who was in the right spot at the right time.
 
massively under-rated, and i'm a drummer - here's some quotes from drummers and musical icons on him...

Kenny Arnoff -- "I consider him one of the greatest innovators of rock drumming and believe that he has been one of the greatest influences on rock drumming today... Ringo has influenced drummers more than they will ever realize or admit. Ringo laid down the fundamental rock beat that drummers are playing today and they probably don't even realize it. . . Ringo always approached the song more like a songwriter than a drummer. He always served the music." (Modern Drummer, Dec. 1987)

Max Weinberg -- "D. J. Fontana had introduced me to the power of the big beat. Ringo convinced me just how powerful that rhythm could be. Ringo's beat was heard around the world and he drew the spotlight toward rock and roll drummer. From ;his matched grip style to his pioneering use of staggered tom tom fills, his influence in rock drumming was as important and wide spread as Gene Krupa's had been in jazz."

Phil Collins - "I think he's vastly underrated. The drum fills on A Day In The Life are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' They wouldn't know what to do."

Alex Van Halen -- " One of the most interesting things about Ringo is how he manage to maintain a level of self-esteem -- in addition to being a great player, of course. But he wasn't overshadowed as a human being by McCartney, Lennon or Harrison. I think he did a wonderful thing for drums because drummers would see him and think, "Hey, he's part of it, too."

Don Was -- "As a drummer, he influenced three generations of rock drummers. It's not very flashy playing, but it's very musical. Instead of just counting the bars, he's playing the song, and he puts fills in unusual places that are directed by the vocal."

Mike Finkelstein -- "If you have ever been in a band where you had to recreate Beatle songs, you would have realized that Ringo Starr was no slouch. Those drum parts were very tricky and subtle. He did have a special ability to create interesting rhythmic structures within the music. This gave the Beatles a unique sound without loosing that distinctive drive in rock and roll. ... Ringo moved smoothly from verse to chorus without loosing the groove by subtly changing a texture in the rhythm. Ringo is an important drummer to study well."

Tim Riley -- "Ringo wanted to serve the songs rather than show off. As a song writer's drummer, Ringo was the type of musician who could follow instructions as he completed the overall sound. His commitment to the music was bigger than his ego.

Martin Torgoff -- "As a drummer, he was a natural, purely intuitive, remarkably tasteful, spirited, but always basic, a proponent of less is more school of minimal drumming. ...He had an uncanny understanding of John's rhythm and Paul's base line. Time and again, the Beatles rode his backbeat to glory. Precisely because he never overstated a beat, or over accented a phrase (unless it was appropriate) he managed to get more mileage out of his licks than most drummers could ever dream of. The results were extraordinary."
 
Photograph is underated
 
dugrene said:
As a drummer you wouldn't compare him to Ginger Baker. As a lyricist he doesnt rate. He belonged to a famous group for a few years.
My Sweet Lord was a great song.

Imo he is a middle of the road muso who was in the right spot at the right time.
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You definitely wouldn't. Ringo was a lot less annoying.
 
I will differ to everyone and talk about his albums since 1992 which have been very underrated. Nothing genius but, you never hear about the work. He has been prolifically releasing stuff andtouring and did a moving Harrison tribute called "Never Without You" which was real moving and a solo from Clapton, the song was one of the best he ever wrote. He has had some great songs recently. He always updates his website, probably runs it, with videos etc
 
Underrated. Paul and John get all the hype but Ringo, along with George, is the quiet achiever of the group. Ringo isn't a the greatest drummer ever but he is a brilliant one nevertheless.
 

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lihei said:
dugrene said:
My Sweet Lord was a great song.
:confused: :confused: Ringo? Don't you mean George Harrison.
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Oops. This is what happens when the fingers engage while the brain is in idle.

mark73 said:
You definitely wouldn't. Ringo was a lot less annoying.
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Biography:
Ginger Baker was rock's first superstar drummer ......and the most influential percussionist of the 1960s. There were other drummers who were well-known to the public before him, including the Beatles' Ringo Starr and, in England at the end of the 1950s, the Shadows' Tony Meehan, but they were famous primarily for the groups in which they played and for ........

Ringo will never be seen as anything other than the drummer of the Beatles.

Ginger Baker was a drummer.
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I remember reading that Lennon used to hit him over the head to get the rythyms right that were in John's head.

He was competent, but to suggest he was the poineer of sounds and rythyms would be extremely naive IMO.

Those most responsible for any "innovations" in drumming would be in order Lennon then Martin then McCartney then Ringo.
 

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If I could quote John Lennon on why he replaced Pete with Ringo
"Pete was a good drummer, Ringo was a good Beatle"
 
I have been a mad Beatles fan most of my life and the above quote (made by Lennon) just about says it all. Pete Best was a great drummer, in the pre Beatlemania period the Beatles were awesome live as they honed their skills for hours each night in seedy German clubs as well as the Cavern in Liverpool. It has been reported though through various sources that Pete didn't seem to gel with Lennon Macartney and Harrison. His consequent sacking brought outrage amonsgt the hardcore fans, but Ringos appointment appeared seamless. Early Beatle interviews claerly show that Ringo more than held his own amongst the other three in terms of charisma, charm and sense of humour.

Was he a great drummer? I wouldn't know beacuse i'm not musically inclined, but was he the right drummer at the time for the greatest rock group in the world? - Absolutely!!!

P.S For what it's worth i saw Oasis live at Festival Hall in December 05. Their drummer at the time was none other than Zach Starkey (Ringo's first born). I 've seen Oasis a few times but Zach Starkery was freakin awesome and gave the band a whole new feel.
 
Baxter Stockman said:
there music is really old sounding! really out-dated.
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You play "Tomorrow Never Knows" to someone without telling them when it was recorded or what band played it, and they won't believe you when you tell them it's 40 years old. To say The Beatles have dated badly is a ridiculous statement.
 

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