Posted on 11/29/2022 10:38:32 PM PST by nickcarraway
John Lennon later expressed a lot of remorse about the way he treated his fellow member of The Beatles.
John Lennon had numerous fallings out with his pals in The Beatles over the years. It's no secret he had arguments with Paul McCartney while working with him. He even once said he wanted to "beat up" his fellow guitarist George Harrison after he made some brutal comments about his wife, Yoko Ono. But it was The Beatles' first drummer, Pete Best, who Lennon confessed he had become "sick" of over the two years they worked together.
The Beatles hired Best to be their drummer in 1960 as they were planning on embarking on a residency slot in Hamburg, Germany. McCartney first saw him playing in another band at Liverpool's legendary Casbah Club and deemed him good enough to join the group. The band then proceeded to go to Germany where they played every day, religiously, at the Top Ten Club.
Two years later, on August 16, 1962, The Beatles kicked Best out of the band. They asked their manager, Brian Epstein, to break the difficult news, however, as they didn't want to do it themselves.
Lennon opened up on his strained relationship with Best years later. He said: "By then we were pretty sick of Pete Best too because he was a lousy drummer, you know? He never improved and there was always this myth being built up over the years that he was great and Paul was jealous of him because he was pretty and all that c**p."
Liverpool legends say that after Best was kicked out of The Beatles in favour of Ringo Starr, the former's fans would attend their gigs screaming: "Ringo never, Pete forever!"
Lennon continued: "The only reason [Best] got in the group in the first place was because the only way we could get to Hamburg was he had to have a drummer."
Recounting how he met Best, he went on: "We knew of this guy. He was living in his mother’s house that had a club in it, and he had a drum kit so we dragged him, auditioned him, and he could keep one beat going for long enough so we took him to Germany."
Lennon was even more brutal when he added: "We were always gonna dump him when we could find a decent drummer. By the time we’d got back from Germany, we’d trained him to keep a stick going up and down. He couldn’t do much else." Of course, after dropping Best they auditioned and hired Starr to be their new beat-keeper. Before long, they were known as the Fab Four.
Lennon did say some kind words about Best later on, however. He noted: "He looked nice and the girls liked him so that was all right."
The Imagine singer also showed a lot of remorse about having Epstein kick Best out of the band, instead of them doing it themselves. He lamented: "We were cowards when we sacked him. We made Brian do it."
Harrison agreed: "We weren't very good at telling Pete he had to go. Historically, it may look like we did something nasty to Pete and it may have been that we could have handled it better."
McCartney also gave his opinion about Best. He mused: "I do feel sorry for him, because of what he could have been on to," while referring to The Beatles' fame, which exploded just after Best was removed from the group.
McCartney did speak frankly about the differences between Best and the rest of the band, however. He mused how Best was "never" similar to the rest of the tight-knit crew.
He said: "Pete had never quite been like the rest of us. We were the wacky trio and Pete was perhaps a little more… sensible. He was slightly different from us, he wasn’t quite as artsy as we were. And we just didn’t hang out that much together."
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John Lennon had numerous fallings out with his pals in The Beatles over the years. It's no secret he had arguments with Paul McCartney while working with him. He even once said he wanted to "beat up" his fellow guitarist George Harrison after he made some brutal comments about his wife, Yoko Ono. But it was The Beatles' first drummer, Pete Best, who Lennon confessed he had become "sick" of over the two years they worked together.
The Beatles hired Best to be their drummer in 1960 as they were planning on embarking on a residency slot in Hamburg, Germany. McCartney first saw him playing in another band at Liverpool's legendary Casbah Club and deemed him good enough to join the group. The band then proceeded to go to Germany where they played every day, religiously, at the Top Ten Club.
Two years later, on August 16, 1962, The Beatles kicked Best out of the band. They asked their manager, Brian Epstein, to break the difficult news, however, as they didn't want to do it themselves.
Lennon opened up on his strained relationship with Best years later. He said: "By then we were pretty sick of Pete Best too because he was a lousy drummer, you know? He never improved and there was always this myth being built up over the years that he was great and Paul was jealous of him because he was pretty and all that c**p."
Liverpool legends say that after Best was kicked out of The Beatles in favour of Ringo Starr, the former's fans would attend their gigs screaming: "Ringo never, Pete forever!"
Lennon continued: "The only reason [Best] got in the group in the first place was because the only way we could get to Hamburg was he had to have a drummer."
Recounting how he met Best, he went on: "We knew of this guy. He was living in his mother’s house that had a club in it, and he had a drum kit so we dragged him, auditioned him, and he could keep one beat going for long enough so we took him to Germany."
Lennon was even more brutal when he added: "We were always gonna dump him when we could find a decent drummer. By the time we’d got back from Germany, we’d trained him to keep a stick going up and down. He couldn’t do much else." Of course, after dropping Best they auditioned and hired Starr to be their new beat-keeper. Before long, they were known as the Fab Four.
Lennon did say some kind words about Best later on, however. He noted: "He looked nice and the girls liked him so that was all right."
The Imagine singer also showed a lot of remorse about having Epstein kick Best out of the band, instead of them doing it themselves. He lamented: "We were cowards when we sacked him. We made Brian do it."
Harrison agreed: "We weren't very good at telling Pete he had to go. Historically, it may look like we did something nasty to Pete and it may have been that we could have handled it better."
McCartney also gave his opinion about Best. He mused: "I do feel sorry for him, because of what he could have been on to," while referring to The Beatles' fame, which exploded just after Best was removed from the group.
McCartney did speak frankly about the differences between Best and the rest of the band, however. He mused how Best was "never" similar to the rest of the tight-knit crew.
He said: "Pete had never quite been like the rest of us. We were the wacky trio and Pete was perhaps a little more… sensible. He was slightly different from us, he wasn’t quite as artsy as we were. And we just didn’t hang out that much together."eanwhile, Starr only responded to questions about Best a couple of times throughout his career. But when he did open up about the drummer, he wasn't kind.
Starr said: "Pete Best? – it’s no offence, but I never felt he was a great drummer." (Via Culture Sonar) In another interview, he was asked if he felt sorry about replacing Best. He replied: "No. Why should I? I was a better player than him. That’s how I got the job!"
Seriously,what has John Lennon or the beatles even done in the last 50 years?
Nothing.
I had read that after a day of recording, Starr left the studio and John and Paul would stay and mix the music, with Paul re-recording the drum tracks correctly. The next day, Ringo would come in and listen to the music silently, turning red as a beet with shame and anger.
The decision to go with Ringo paid off very handsomely for the other three members of the band. In a manner of speaking, Ringo was kind of handicapped, playing as a left-handed player on a right-handed drum set. But he had a lot of talent and creativity, which shone forth or shone out from within these “bounds”. He ended up becoming a magnificent groove drummer, displaying his
inner creativity and ear for rhythm one by one across 300 or so Beatles songs over about 6-7 years, always responding to the material he was presented with by laying down that recognizable but never boring Ringo groove.
George and Ringo admitted that they never really practiced much between recording sessions. They just kind of moved forward based on their large respective gifts of innate musical talent, responding to what was presented to them by John and Paul when called upon to do so. The latter two, enormous talents in their own rights, kept cranking out great material/hits. The formula worked very well for most of a decade, so each of the four Beatles had to have been really brimming with talent and performance chops. I for one no longer give any credence to those who wish to intimate that Ringo was not “all that”.
Had never heard that! Imagine Ringo’s chagrin.
By chance, was Paul, who was famously a left-handed guitarist, a right-handed drummer?
Not sure about that. But I teach music for a living and in my experience, all lefties are ambidextrous, whether they have developed the other side or not. Almost always, southpaws that play music right-handed do better than those who attempt to play left-handed.
“John could be a massive a$$h*le at times.”
Very true. But he was right on the money about the lack of drumming skills of Pete Best. The guy couldn’t keep a beat to save his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU3a1deif-w
That story doesn’t fly at all. Ringo played live. You can gauge a player live very easily. I’ve seen Ringo live and never took my eyes off of him. He played with a timing and ease which is notable. Paul may have replaced something he personally didn’t like once or twice, the world is full of songwriters who are absolutely psycho over elements in their songs, but the idea that he could put Ringo in the shade is ridiculous. Ringos’ rep among musicians is growing even a half century after the band broke up.
“And screw the Beatles. They sucked”
I never liked them. They were boring as hell. The Rolling Stones were number one. Then The Animals and the Yardbirds. None of my friends were Beatles fans.
Nonsense. You could be the best drummer in the world, and if you came in and found your music was erased for someone else’s playing, you too would be red as a beet with anger and shame, as would I. The story is sound.
“Love Me Do” was recorded by the Beatles on three occasions with three drummers at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road in London:
1. The Beatles’ first recording session, on 6 June 1962, with Pete Best on drums. This version (previously thought to be lost) is available on Anthology 1.
2. Second recording session, 4 September 1962. In August, Best had been replaced with Ringo Starr. Producer George Martin did not approve of Best’s drumming for studio work. It was the norm at that time to have a specialist studio drummer who knew the ways of studio work. The decision to fire Best was not Martin’s. The Beatles with Starr recorded a version at EMI Studios. They recorded “Love Me Do” in 15 takes. This version with Starr is available on Past Masters.
3. Third recording session, 11 September 1962. A week later, The Beatles returned to the same studio and they made a recording of “Love Me Do” with session drummer Andy White on drums. Starr was relegated to playing tambourine.
As tambourine is not present on the 4 September recording, this is the easiest way to distinguish between the Starr and White recordings. The Andy White version is available on Please Please Me, the Beatles’ first album.
I think Paul re-recording the drum parts happened on a song on Sgt. Peppers, but it wasn’t something that happened regularly.
Actually, Ringo was already with the band when George Martin felt that Ringo couldn’t handle “Love Me Do” and had a session drummer come in for the song. Ringo was relegated to playing tambourine.
Right! And it wasn’t long before the whole money-making entity fell apart. No telling how much dough they amassed over the years.
The story being “sound” ie its elements are logical, isn’t the same thing as the story being true. I’ve written and recorded a shitload of songs, no two musicians agree on anything. Someone feeling very strongly and changing something is so common as to not be terribly notable. The he anecdote is of a type that has been around since the Beatles came upon the scene in that it is dependent upon a perception of Ringo as a no talent hack ( impotent in his fury and shame in this case).
“What did John do that earned murder?”
Conspiracy to brainwash a generation of dumbasses.
Most notably 2 have died, and are now decomposing.
True. His statement about his son Sean being “conceived in love” or some such was very hurtful to his older son Julian from his first marriage. I get it that he was in a different place - successful musician - when Sean was born, instead of a musician building his career, when Julian was born. But why say that????
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