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 ...
I wouldn’t feel too sorry for Pete. He managed to escape the super levels of fame, drug use, etc. that tore the other Beatles apart, and he still made some dough (he got a cut when the Beatles catalog was sold because it contained their early recordings which he was part of) not the hundreds of millions the others made of course, but enough to live quite comfortably the rest of his days. The best of both worlds if you ask me.
Best flat out sucked. YouTube him and compare. Beatle songs even with a talented drummer other than Ringo would have been markedly different. Ringo played to the song. In doing so he did things no one else in rock was doing. Ringo wrote as many recognizable riffs as John and Paul. His timing and swing were off the charts.
“Ringo wasn’t a great drummer but somehow just managed to fit in..”
Some of the biggest names in drumming and music in general would disagree with you . Search Ringo on YouTube.
When John Lennon was playing in Hamburg, he loved to insult his German customers, calling them Nazis, and asking questions such as “where did you park your tank”? This was only 15 years after the end of WWII! Even though John had a big mouth, he knew when to shut up and exit before getting his face smashed. Really a cool guy, and original. He never really pissed on any nuns.
I did not realize that John also was very well read and was always reading on current event topics.
He might be the longest lived one, and that in itself is a victory.
Imagine the smile in his face if people need a Beatle and he’s the only one left
He didn't need to be Ginger Baker, just Richard Starkey.
“..Welcome to my class called ‘aow ta git frone out da Beatles 101”…
“I believe Best got a large lump sum payment many years later as his share from the sale of early Beatles recordings.“
Too bad he had to wait until 1995 when their “Anthology” was released. Good payoff, but man, he had to live most of his life working and wondering.
He’s a nice guy. Glad he got his eventually.
I think you meant to say that his contributions can’t be overstated. :-)
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My mistake. Thank you for pointing it out.
As I said, Ringo was a solid drummer and a great fit for the Beatles. What made him exceptional was his ability to adapt to an enormous variety of songs that the prolific Beatles pumped out on a steady basis. Being left handed, his adaptation to a right handed kit was also extraordinary. After dealing with Pete Best’s timing issues, Ringo’s gift of timing was no doubt exactly what the Beatles were looking for.
All that said, from a technical standpoint he wasn’t among the greats of all time IMO.
And Paul’s melodic bass lines weren’t the easiest to drum with.
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.
“And Paul’s melodic bass lines weren’t the easiest to drum with.”
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Right. It sure wasn’t an easy gig for Ringo being in a creative whirlwind like that. Credit to him for being able to adapt under constant pressure as the Beatles moved along at a torrid pace of song writing.
Charlie Watts had a much easier gig. :)
“ All that said, from a technical standpoint he wasn’t among the greats of all time IMO.“
That is only true if you define technical only one way. Maybe in the case of the drummer playing alone and therefore having to carry the show. Buddy Rich was at the top of that heap. But playing with others Buddy did the same thing Ringo did, he pushed the song. And it cannot be said Buddy did it better than Ringo. He did it with more notes and I guess that’s why people say that type of drummer is “better”. They’re impressed by the torrent of sound.
Ringo’s work is called iconic and genius by many if not most of the top names in n the business. Even Buddy didn’t rip Ringo and Buddy would have ripped his own mother if she sucked.
Do you think Ringo could have done what drummers like Hal Blaine, Jim Keltner (who incidentally did session work with three members of the Beatles, including Ringo Starr) and a raft of other prolific studio drummers routinely did? Those guys were work horses and the backbone of countless hits and scores. Those are the kinds of extraordinary talents I’m talking about. The best of the best, everyone of them with hundreds of impressive credits to their names. They have to be absolute standouts to be repeatedly called in for work by the biggest names in the business.
“Do you think Ringo could have done what drummers like Hal Blaine, Jim Keltner (who incidentally did session work with three members of the Beatles, including Ringo Starr) and a raft of other prolific studio drummers routinely did?”
That’s EXACTLY what Ringo did with the Beatles. Think of the Beatles catalog and all the truly weird shit Ringo had to gin up beats for. Never mind the multi shifting time sigs and all over the place tempos in some of that stuff. Ironically Blaine was exactly the kind of drummer George Martin wanted to replace Ringo with. He has recanted that but I don’t believe he was sincere. The main difference between Blain and Ringo is that Blaine pushed a song with percussive propulsion and jazzy absolute mastery of the notes and Ringo did it with melodic riffage and a great sense of swing and time.
In highschool in the mid seventies I noticed how many people unconsciously anticipated Ringos riffs and many times played air drums when they came along. Blaine could lift you out of your seat. Ringo did the same but also got into your head. Blaine was light years ahead of the often silly crap he was playing on. Ringo was exactly where he belonged. He was the drummer for the Beatles. That is the reason I think George Martin recanted. He was embarrassed that he failed to recognize that Ringo was uniquely a BEATLE. His unique sound and style is as important to the Beatles sound as anything John and Paul and George did.
What I do wonder is what would have happened if, along about the first or second year, Ringo got hit by a bus and Martin got a Blaine in there. The Beatles Bizzarro all over hells creation songs would have stretched him further than the wrecking crew stuff he did. Being who he was he would have stepped up and what would THAT have sounded like? Interesting.
“Think of the Beatles catalog and all the truly weird shit Ringo had to gin up beats for.”
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I already did consider that, several posts ago. Recall that I said “Ringo was a solid drummer and a great fit for the Beatles. What made him exceptional was his ability to adapt to an enormous variety of songs that the prolific Beatles pumped out”.
John Lennon is quoted as saying that “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.”
I think we both agree that Ringo was an excellent player and absolutely the right guy for the Beatles, in addition to his being a good fit in terms of his affable personality, which is also very important from a band chemistry standpoint. To a large extent he suffers from being overshadowed by two creative musical geniuses. What we disagree on I think is the matter of what constitutes greatness, which has a subjective element to it. I just don’t think he rises to that level, but you’ve certainly made a good case for him.
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