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[LennonStarrFan]

Paul McCartney (on Larry King Live): "We loved him. And we just thought he was the very best drummer we'd ever seen. And we wanted him in the group. We were big fans of his." (and 2008, on The View): "Ringo's a great drummer -- I love you Ringo!"
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George Harrison (in 1974): "Ringo's got the best back beat I've ever heard and he can play great 24-hours a day."

“Ringo is Ringo, that’s all there is to it. And he’s every bloody bit as warm, unassuming, funny, and kind as he seems. He was quite simply the heart of the Beatles.” – John Lennon

“Ringo’s just a lad. Everybody always loved him. And now that he’s all dried out, he’s just a lovable, interesting, intelligent bloke.” – Paul McCartney

“I didn’t like the look of Rory’s drummer myself. He looked the nasty one, with his little grey streak of hair. But the nastier one turned out to be Ringo, the nicest of them all. Playing without Ringo is like driving a car on three wheels.” - George Harrison

Paul McCartney
"Paul has been recently quoted as saying that Ringo Starr is still his favorite drummer, much to the amazement of the drumming community and the world at large. McCartney's worked with Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro- he can have the pick of anyone, just about, but he still loves Ringo." --- Deborah Parisi, writing for Rhythm magazine(1990)

Paul McCartney
"Ringo is right down the center, never overplays." -- from an interview in Musician magazine (Feb. 1988)

John Lennon (in a Playboy interview, 1980):

PLAYBOY: Let's move on to Ringo. What's your opinion of him musically?

LENNON: Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Star-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other. I don't know what he would have ended up as, but whatever that spark is in Ringo that we all know but can't put our finger on -- whether it is acting, drumming or singing I don't know -- there is something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced with or without the Beatles. Ringo is a damn good drummer. He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated. Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period. He is an egomaniac about everything else about himself, but his bass playing he was always a bit coy about. I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians. Not technically great -- none of us are technical musicians. None of us could read music. None of us can write it. But as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make the noise, they are as good as anybody.

[LennonStarrFan]

"Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for The Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song." - Drummer Steve Smith

"Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do." - Drummer Phil Collins

"He's got tremendous feel. He always helped us to hit the right tempo for a song, and gave it that support-that rock-solid back-beat-that made the recording of all The Beatles' songs that much easier." - George Martin

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. (Modern Drummer,Oct. 1987) . . Ringo always approached the song more like a songwriter than a drummer. He always served the music." (Modern Drummer, Dec. 1987)

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." (The St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1992)

George Martin -- "Ringo always got and still gets a unique sound out of his drums, as sound as distinctive as his voice. ... Ringo gets a looser deeper sound out of his drums that is unique. ...This detailed attention to the tone of his drums is one of the reasons for Ringo's brilliance. Another is that although Ringo does not keep time with a metronome accuracy, he has unrivaled feel for a song. If his timing fluctuates, it invariably does so in the right place at the right time, keep the right atmosphere going on the track and give it a rock solid foundation. This held true for every single Beatles number Richie played ... Ringo also was a great tom tom player." ( Summer of Love, 1994)

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." (Teach Yourself Rock Drumming, 1979)

Bob Cianci -- "He must have done something right. People today still look for people who play like Ringo. If you don't believe me, just check the musical ads. On top of all this, he certainly inspired countless millions of teenagers worldwide to learn drums. There's no doubt it, Ringo's a very important rock drummer. ... What Ringo does on the most basic of terms is make the music feel good. He refers to his playing as being fraught with silly fills due to his self-admitted lack of technique, but he says it proudly. ... Sometimes chops do not a real drummer make." (Great Rock Drummers of the 60s, 1989)

Peter Blake -- "Ringo is one of the most important drummers of the 20th century. While he hasn't got any technique to speak of, he realizes how important It is for a song to feel good. His feel is absolutely tremendous. He got some great sounds on the Beatles records. It wasn't all production and microphones, a lot of it was down to the way he tuned them. ... He has tremendous basic ability. Obviously there were people playing in a straight-forward manner before him, but he had a definite feel and he changed pop drumming around. He changed the sound from hat of the high-pitched jazz drummers. I think he's tremendous." (Speaking Words of Wisdom)

Mark Lewisohn -- "It is true that on only a handful of occasions during all of the several hundred session tapes and thousands of recording hours can Ringo be heard to have made a mistake or wavered in his beat. His work was remarkably consistent and excellent, from 1962 right through 1970." ( The Beatles Recording Sessions, 1988)

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." ( Tell Me Why, 1988)

Kenny Aronoff -- "He consistently came up with new ideas that always seemed perfect for the song, but it wasn't just a matter of him picking a basic beat for a song, because lots of drummers could do that. Ringo definitely had the right kind of personality and creative ideas for The Beatles music. You will rarely find a Beatles song without something noticeable that Ringo played or didn't play." (Modern Drummer magazine, Oct. 1987)

Al Kooper -- "Sgt. Pepper was the album that changed drumming more than anything else. Before that album, drum fills in rock and roll were pretty rudimentary, all much the same, and this record had what I call space fills where they would leave a tremendous amount of air. It was most appealing to me musically and the sound of the drums got much better. What I had to figure out now was what am I going to do to get drums to sound like that." (Summer of Love by George Martin, 1994)

Martin Torgoff -- "If I could think of a single passage in which Ringo's quintessential style as a drummer is most identifiable, it could well be something as, say, the drumming behind George's guitar solo in Paul's "Let It Be" after the organ trails off. There, in simple 4-4 time, Ringo comes in with a trademark thump of his base drum, clear tattering snare, and his insistent smashing of the high hat, unvarying, unyielding, yet distinctively Ringo, and you can't help but smile not for its banality but because it is so perfectly adequate and because one can readily envision Ringo behind his kit as he plays, his beringed fingers clutching his sticks, swaying beatifically from side to side as he gets on with his work, blinking those astonishingly saturnine blue eyes." (The Compleat Beatles, 1985)

Dino Danelli, drummer for The Rascals -- "I liked him. He had great style. I never saw anyone play the way he did. I liked his simplicity. (1984 interview for The Big Beat by Max Weinberg)

George Martin -- "I did quickly realize that Ringo was an excellent drummer for what was required. He's not a technical drummer. Men like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa would run rings around him, but he is a good solid rock drummer with a steady beat, and he knows how to get the right sound out of his drums. Above all, he does have an individual sound. You can tell Ringo's drums from anyone else's and that character was a definite asset to the Beatles' early recordings." (All You Need Is Ears, 1979)

Mike McCartney -- "There were quite a few drummers around Liverpool and I used to go home and tell Paul about Ringo. I often saw him play with Rory Storm. ...With Rory he was a very inventive drummer. He goes around the drums like crazy. He doesn't just hit them -- he invents sounds." (1983 interview for The Beatles: A Celebration by Geoffrey Guilliano, 1992)

Max Weinberg -- "More than any other drummer, Ringo Starr changed my life. The impact and memory of that band on Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 will never leave me. I can still see Ringo in the back moving that beat with his whole body, his right hand swinging off his sock cymbal while his left hand pounds the snare. He was fantastic, but I think what got to me the most was his smile. I knew he was having the time of his life." (The Big Beat, 1984)

Lenny Kaye -- "He was always meant to be utilitarian, a drummer to provide feisty beat. He did this directly with wit imagination and the famous Ringo personality. And his Spartan Ludwig kit showed his ability to cut economically to the heart of the rhythm." (interview for The Compleat Beatles, 1985)

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." (The Compleat Beatles, 1985)

Don Was -- "Ringo's drums are one of the greatest things you can have on a record."

Dave Ballinger -- "Technically brilliant drummers do not necessary make good rock drummers. ...You don't have to be a technical Buddy Rich type drummer, you just need to be inventive. He (Ringo) did things I would never have thought of doing." (interview for Speaking Words of Wisdom)

Chris Whitten -- " I think I understand why he (Paul) loves Ringo, now after working with him. Paul loves 50s Rock 'n' Roll and Ringo is a great 50s Rock 'n' Roll drummer." (Rhythm magazine, 1990)

Hal Howland -- "It is fascinating to trace the drummer's stylistic development from rock-steady club veteran to studio innovator ... Ringo's command of an exhaustive list of arrangements and new originals is matched only by his versitility. (review for Modern Drummer magazine, June 1995)

[LennonStarrFan]

MOTORHEAD rocker IAN 'LEMMY' KILMISTER has defended the talents of frequently criticised former BEATLES drummer RINGO STARR.

The heavy metal veteran is a devoted fan of the Fab Four, and is still amazed at the achievements of the much loved English band.

Lemmy says, "Ringo's the most underrated drummer in the history of rock and roll.

Source: http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/lemmy-ringo-was-unde rrated



Yoko Ono talks drums with Modern Drummer
8 December 2009

MD: What are your thoughts on Ringo as a drummer?
Yoko: Ringo is the most underrated drummer in the industry! His drumming is like life—it gives you the most solid beat. When he drummed on my Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band album, I was totally amazed that he had no difficulty in following the very complex improvisational vocals I did – again, no overdubs. I think his incredible drumming was what made so many great Beatles songs possible. We thank you, Ringo!

Source: http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/9052



Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman gives nice props to Ringo Starr

Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman used his column on the group's website to give some unabashed praise to fellow drummer Ringo Starr. Here are his comments, which Gorman graciously allowed us to reprint (and thanks to Allen Stearns for telling us about this):

Hey Steve,

Here’s my question- I’ve recently been playing The Beatles: Rock Band and I’m realizing more now just how different Ringo was as a drummer.

His playing is pretty simple and very connected to the songs, yet less intuitive than a lot of subsequent rock drummers.

I can’t really put my finger on why, but learning the tunes is actually kinda difficult.

Any thoughts?

Spencer
San Francisco, CA

Long time fan. Saw you guys with Joan Jett and Aerosmith in Miami in 1990, I think.

Spencer

First things first – I don’t remember ever having played a show in Miami with Aerosmith and Joan Jett.

We certainly did some shows with Aerosmith in 1990, but none were anywhere near Miami.

And, as much as we do in fact love rock n’ roll, we never were party to anyone putting another dime in any jukebox, baby, either.

So, with that cleared up, let’s move on:

Ringo Starr’s drumming is infallible, untouchable, and he is quite simply the greatest drummer in the history of rock n roll music.

So, there’s that.

With this in mind, it would stand to reason that you might struggle to learn his parts, even on so rudimentary a level as Rock Band provides. I will resist the urge to write an endless screed about why Ringo’s drumming is beyond reproach and instead offer a quick “Q and A” to examine your specific points.

Q) Was Ringo actually “different as a drummer”?

A) Was Magic Johnson “different as a point guard“? Was Frank Lloyd Wright “different as an architect”? You bet your ass. As much as people try to disparage Ringo’s playing, no one ever seems to have a suggestion as to what drummer would have made those recordings better. And that’s because there was not, is not, and never will be, a drummer more perfectly suited for the Beatles.

Q) Was his playing “pretty simple and connected to the songs”?

A) If by “pretty simple”, you mean “pretty perfect” and if by “connected to the songs”, you mean, “integral to the execution of these rock n’ roll masterpieces”, then the answer is a resounding YES.

Q) Was Ringo “less intuitive” than a lot of subsequent rock drummers?

A) Absolutely not. Few if any drummers in rock history have been more intuitive. Ringo understood exactly what every song needed to have, and bear in mind he was working with not one, but three songwriters.

Q) Any thoughts?

A) Yes. Don’t argue with me about this. I know what I know.


I love John Bonham, Charlie Watts, Phil Rudd, and the nutjob from Wilco (and about a million other drummers) as much as anyone could. They are all perfect for their bands. They are all irreplaceable. But Ringo was in THE BEATLES.

Check the scoreboard.

Ringo wins.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m11d6-Black-Crowe s-Steve-Gorman-has-high-praise-for-Ringo-Starr?cid=examiner-email

[LennonStarrFan]

“Ringo, Moonie(Keith Moon), and John Bonham would be my three main drummers. Not technically the best by a long shot but for feel and emotion and economy, they’re always there. Particularly, Ringo.” -Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now