Is Paul McCartney a good drummer?
A lazy and often misattributed quip is frequently thrown around when assessing the collective musical talent and ingenuity of a certain lauded Liverpool Merseybeat outfit. “Ringo wasn’t the best drummer in the world…” John Lennon is alleged to have wisecracked. “Let’s face it, he wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles“.
Of course, Lennon never actually said it. Fab Four musicologists generally agree that the tired adage originated with British comedian Jasper Carrott, and the remark does a huge disservice to Ringo Starr’s essential contribution behind the kit.
Aside from providing a crucial anchoring dynamic within the band, especially during their latter period of internal fracture and tension which plagued The Beatles and Let It Be sessions, Ringo’s drumming was gifted with an impeccable sense of timing and subtle creativity, always guided by an inspired reliability without ever lapsing into egotistical showboating.
“Ringo has a tremendous feel for a song, and he always helped us hit the right tempo the first time,” longtime EMI producer George Martin told Mark Lewisohn in 1988. “He was rock solid.”
While it’s complicated by later overdubs and studio tweaking, there are actually four Beatles tracks that don’t feature Ringo’s drumming. During one of the very few Beatles sessions not recorded at the famous EMI Studios on Abbey Road, the brief foray to Soho’s Trident Studios triggered Ringo’s fleeting departure from the band due to Paul McCartney’s incessant critique of his drumming technique. Stepping behind the kit, McCartney laid down the basic beats to the ’68 double LP’s ‘Back in the USSR’, ‘Dear Prudence’, and charming ode to his Old English Sheepdog ‘Martha My Dear’.
Later, during the Abbey Road sessions, Lennon’s insistence on recording ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ while Ringo was filming The Magic Christian and George Harrison was abroad resulted in the fourth McCartney Beatles drum beat, plus maracas, its seventh take capturing the jovial exchange between the pair: “Go a bit faster, Ringo,” to which McCartney replies “OK, George!”.
So, was Paul McCartney a good drummer?
The fact is McCartney was a more than proficient drummer, and he was at ease behind the kit as he was on bass or piano. Several of his post-Beatles output would feature his own percussion prowess, including Ram, Flaming Pie, and Wings’ Band on the Run, and all three eponymous McCartney LPs see him virtually performing every single instrument as well as producing.
McCartney’s skills on the sticks had been noted by some of the biggest drummers of the era. “One of my great compliments was from Keith Moon when he and John and others were going through that manic ‘lost weekend’ episode,” McCartney told Record Collector Magazine. “I went out to see them, and Keith Moon asked me who drummed on Band on the Run. I said it was me. Keith said, ‘Fucking great!’. Coming from Keith, that was high praise for me.”
McCartney always held Ringo in high regard, however. When reeling off his three favourite drummers on The Howard Stern Show, he listed The Who’s Moon and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham before highlighting his former Beatles drummer’s unique intuition behind the kit: “Not technically the best by a long shot, but for feel and emotion and economy, they’re always there, particularly Ringo.”
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