Posted on 07/08/2023 3:36:33 PM PDT by lowbridge
Original Beatles drummer Pete Best — best known for being replaced by Ringo Starr — believes the Fab Four wouldn’t have missed a beat if he had not been booted all those years ago.
“I still think it would have been The Beatles and I still think they would have been playing the same music and I still think the sound would have been very, very, very similar,” Best, 81, told The Post from his home in Liverpool.
“To this day I still don’t know why” he was dismissed, Best added.
Best — the Beatles’ drummer from 1960-1962 — is headlining a fantasy rock camp in Manhattan next week for some extra scratch.
Campers pay $6,000 for the privilege of jamming with him.
Best was dismissed just before the Liverpool lads achieved worldwide fame, and hasn’t spoken to his former bandmates since 1962.
“Some of the stories that came out. You scratched your head and wondered. Was I actually in that band for two years? Was I friends with them? Because it just didn’t make sense,” said Best, who admitted to having “many sleepless nights” since then.
Best has heard and read all sorts of theories as to what got him Beatle booted, including ‘hairstyles to being non-communicative to being a lousy drummer, jealousy. It goes on and on and on,’ he said. .
“There are more conspiracy theories about my dismissal than I could even remember,” he chuckled. “I laugh a little bit because of the fact that so much water has gone under the bridge since then.”
-snip
It hasn’t all been a hard day’s night for Best, who received “seven figures” for his work with the Beatles after the release of their 1995 compilation of their early recordings on “Anthology 1.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If you listen to old Beatle recordings with Best, it becomes pretty clear why he was replaced.
He is probably right that The Beatles could have been successful with him, but the bottom line was that they didn’t think he was a great drummer, and neither did George Martin.
I’ll bet…..
I just can’t help but feel sorry for Pete.
I mean, getting fired from the most iconic, legendary bands of all time in history just as that band was on the cusp of their international fame and fortune.
It’s not like he got fired from a band that would go on to have a few years of success only to fade into obscurity. He got fired from THE BEATLES, for crying out loud. A band that whose name, music, fame, and fandom that still lives on, even decades after it broke up.
Pete eventually went on to a 20 year career as a civil servant, helping unemployed people find jobs.
I know how many times he’s said he’s perfectly fine and happy with how things turned out for him. But still, I can’t help but think there just had to be a few times when he’d be sitting in his civil service office, filling out paperwork, dealing with the daily drudgery of his 9-5 job, and think about The Beatles.
How much more money they’re pulling in than him (I would think they earned more in one day than Pete earned in a lot of years). How much fame they have/had. How they’re living in the lap of luxury while he’s struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table for his family. If I were in Pete’s shoes back then, I know that’s what I’d occasionally be thinking about.
I think he may have hit upon something there.
Best’s mother, according to the Beatles and their manager was constantly complaining and interfering. I do feel sorry for Pete, but he seemed to have made a pretty good life for himself, according to an interview I listened to.
Pete Best?
I thought he died alone
A long long time ago...
I believe Best got a large lump sum payment many years later as his share from the sale of early Beatles recordings.
george martin realized pete couldnt keep time. he kept speeding up. You tube supports this,and his mom was too big of an influence on him. he was a mommas boy.
Elenor Rigby.
Lives of quiet desparation.
Look on the bright side, Pete: You out-lived half of them; never had to deal with Yoko Ono; still make some scratch for your recordings with them; and no one can deny that you were a Beatle and a part of what made them.
“Could’a been somebody.”
Ummm, nope.
**I mean, getting fired from the most iconic, legendary bands of all time in history just as that band was on the cusp of their international fame and fortune.**
They were hyped by the media to no end. I’m not saying they weren’t good musicians, just that they were hyped enormously. The media makes money off of hype.
The only thing Beatles connected I ever bought was the Band on the Run 8 track, when it came out. I only had it so the chicks would have something they liked when riding in my mustang. But my gearhead buddies made so much fun of it I tossed it in the trash can at a gas station one night.
A year or so later I bought an elton john album for when any chicks came to my house. I hid it from my friends, but even I hated listening to it, and threw it in the trash within a couple months of the purchase.
I feel for the guy, but “Ringo” was great branding - along with his looks.
Later on, John Lennon had this to say: ““By then we were pretty sick of Pete Best too because he was a lousy drummer, you know? He never improved.”
*************
That says a lot. The Beatles played a wide mix of music. They needed a versatile drummer who was serious about growing as a musician along with the other members of the group, and dedicated to working with people like George Martin. That lack of professionalism, or dedication to one’s craft, was what probably got him sacked.
BotR was a pretty good album, loved the 12 string on the title track
Safer than deep sea submersibles
If he was in fact a good drummer then other bands would have been lining up to recruit him. Lots of GOOD players move around like that for a variety of reasons. And in those early days there were no shortages of opportunities in the burgeoning British band business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.