Ringo Starr

 

                          

Simplicity With Feel – Who Can Ask For Anymore?

Now when it comes to playing what’s appropriate for the song one can’t really go past Ringo from The Beatles and Charlie Watts from The Rolling Stones.

Ringo had this ability to play with such an understated flair that one could be forgiven for saying he wasn’t much of a drummer which is certainly something I must admit I was guilty of in my early drumming days. But as one’s appreciation of learning how to play for the song come to the fore, one realizes just what players such as Kenny Aronnoff and Gregg Bissonette have come to admire in Ringo’s approach to the drumset.

The way Ringo plays in “Come Together” I feel demonstrates just how musical he was – laid back, airy and tasteful to the nth degree.
We as drummers can learn much from players like Ringo no matter what our style of music.

Gregg Bissonette On Playing With Ringo

I can't begin to tell you what an honor and thrill it is to play with Ringo! He's not only a musical legend, but an amazingly funny and cool guy to be around. He is also the drummer I've listed to and loved the most for my entire life. My brother Matt and I saw the Beatles in 1966, when I was seven and he was five. They played the Olympia Hockey Arena in our hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

Playing double drums with Ringo is like putting on your favorite and most comfortable slippers...ones that you've worn all of your life. It just feels so right and so natural. His time placement is always perfect, and he never gets in the way of the lead vocal. And when he sings live and plays tambourine, nobody locks in with the drums as well as he does.
To top it all off, on his new CD, Ringo Rama, I think Ringo's drumming sounds better than ever.

Our first gig with Ringo was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and we did a song that Ringo wrote about George Harrison called "Never without You". At the end of the first verse we all sing, "We were brothers through it all....." I looked over at my brother (who is my best friend and my favorite bass player), and then over at Ringo (who is the reason I started playing drums), and tears of joy started to pour out of my eyes! (We also did "With A Little Help From My Friends" on lots of the TV shows.)

From Drummerworld.com

 

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