Questlove on Ringo's Drumming on Revolver

Ringo’s work here [on "Tomorrow Never Knows"] is, like in a million other places on this album and the rest, amazing. It seems like every few years there’s a misguided debate about technical ability and rock-and-roll drumming, or a reductive Greatest Rock Drummers list, and usually that debate or that list ends up undervaluing Ringo. From one drummer to another, I can say that he does one of the hardest things imaginable, which is to put a human stamp on drumming, to innovate in subtle ways that don’t detract from the song but enhance it, and to define and maintain the groove. Nice work, Ringo. Better than nice work. Songs like these pushed rock forward, which is why they meant so much to audiences of the future. (Questlove, "Evolver," in Revolver Super Deluxe Ed. book, 2022)

Ringo's Drumming on Revolver

 ...the Memphis influence is most prominent in Ringo Starr’s drumming, where the backbeat is as rock-solid as anything this side of Al Jackson, Jr., the great Stax session drummer. There’s long been a jokey idea that Ringo Starr is a second-rate drummer, one that probably originated with his affable willingness to serve as the source of comic relief in early press conferences and films like A Hard Day’s Night and Help! This notion is stupid, to put it mildly. Ringo Starr is a great drummer, and in 1966 he was at the top of his craft. (Jack Hamilton, "The Beatles’ Revolver Was Their Avant-Garde R&B Album," Slate 2022-10-28)

Hamilton goes on to say, "To my ears the most audacious drum performance on Revolver is “She Said She Said,” which finds Ringo holding down a murderous groove while simultaneously providing an onslaught of cascading, over-the-bar drum fills. There was simply no one else playing drums quite like this in pop music." Right on, Jack!

Ringo in Richmond

Whoo-hoo! I saw my favorite drummer last night, and it was wonderful (and I say this in spite of all the AWB and Men at Work covers). Just breathing his air, yeah yeah yeah. He sounded great on drums, although I could have wished to hear him by himself rather than always doubling with Greg Bissonette (who also sounded great, to be fair). He opened up, standing down front, with a killer version of "Matchbox" followed by "It Don't Come Easy," then... "What Goes On"!!! What a thrill to hear him sing that! A hidden Beatles gem, and easily my favorite Ringo Beatle vocal. After he moved back to the drums, the highlights for me were "Boys" and "I Wanna Be Your Man"... yeah, the oldies. Also, it was surreal to hear Ringo playing drums on "Free Ride," of all things. I'm so thankful I got to see him. Big fun!

Ringo

In most accounts, Ringo has been characterized as an average drummer with severe technical limitations. I would counter that such a characterization demonstrates a very narrow understanding of what constitutes good drumming technique--one that takes into account only speed and intricacy without acknowledging timbre and tempo management as vital aspects of drumming performance practice. (Steven Bauer, "Ringo Round Revolver: Rhythm, Timbre, and Tempo in Rock Drumming," in 'Every Sound There Is:' The Beatles' Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll, ed. Russell Reising, Ashgate 2002, p. 179)

Let's Hear It for Ringo

As for Starr, long travestied as an amiable mediocrity riding The Beatles coat-tails, he is nothing less than the father of modern pop/rock drumming -- the modest man who invented it. His faintly behind-the-beat style subtly propelled The Beatles, his tunings brought the bottom end into recorded drum-sound, and his distinctly eccentric fills remain among the most memorable in pop music. (Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 3rd ed., p. 383)