Best Drum Performances by Ringo? | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I saw an interview with Ringo a few months back (if I can find it I’ll post a link) where he himself declared that there were only 3 Beatles’ tracks where someone else was playing the drums, he listed them as the ‘Love Me Do ‘ version which Andy White played on, and ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ & ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko’ where Paul played them.  I don’t think that it’s accurate to state that Paul played drums on ‘Dear Prudence ‘, any publications saying this are basing their information off of Mark Lewinsohn’s book detailing their recording history, where the “final” take of Dear Prudence was supposedly recorded while Ringo was on holiday and Paul is listed as playing the drums.

Let’s, for argument’s sake, assume that Lewinsohn’s documentation is correct.  The ‘Dear Prudence ‘ arrangement is a very complex one composed of several guitars (both acoustic & electric) which would’ve likely required a “click track”, or a simple drum track laid down at first for reference to keep the tempo consistent throughout for additional overdubs which is meant only to be audible in the player’s headphones (the finished drum track doesn’t kick in until well into the song).  Paul would’ve been the obvious choice (and most willing) to sit in here if Ringo was unavailable, which explains away Lewinsohn’s “date stamp” of the drum track.  Secondly, Lewinsohn’s book shows other inconsistencies, such as crediting Paul for the drums played on ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’, which Ringo on more than one occasion has verified himself personally that he & Paul made ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’ while John & George were working on other songs in adjacent studios.

It’s very probable and likely that Ringo’s overdubbed drums were added when he returned from “quitting the band” and it was simply not documented for the final take was all ready in the can, so to speak.  Ringo even talks about ‘Dear Prudence ‘, granted the writing of it not the recording of it, during the Rishikesh sequence of the ‘Anthology’ quite fondly which you’d think would be a song he’d avoid discussing if it was one that he supposedly wasn’t good enough to drum on, after all, I don’t recall him saying anything about ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ or ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko’ other than confirming that Paul played drums on them, he seems to disassociate himself from those two as though they don’t exist.

The “proof”, as they say, “is in the pudding” and it’s very obvious to me that Ringo played the stellar drum track on ‘Dear Prudence ‘.  Compare the rock solid beats to the second verse of ‘Dear Prudence ‘ to Ringo’s drumming on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps ‘ and it’s very clear that this was the same drummer playing on both.  In one measure of 4/4 time, Ringo hits quarter notes on the bass drum during beats 1 & 2 before a single snare quarter note strikes beat 3, Ringo maintains this simple straight ahead rock pattern with precision on both these songs before filling the measure with steady eighth notes on the highhats right as John begins to sing “the wind is low, the birds will…” exactly like he does when George first kicks in with “I don’t know how nobody told you…” on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps ‘.  Owners of ‘The Beatles RockBand’ video game can actually see the identical drum charts for both of these songs are included in the game.

Paul is more than capable of steady rock drumming, as evidenced by his work on both ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ & ‘The Ballad of John & Yoko’, but what he isn’t capable of is the truly inventive fills performed by Ringo throughout the last verse of ‘Dear Prudence ‘.  What’s showcased here is very reminiscent of Ringo’s far out drumming on ‘She Said, She Said’ or ‘Rain ‘, only more evolved.  The fills have Ringo’s signature hitting off the back of the downbeats written all over them, something that the most seasoned of drummers, certainly Paul McCartney in 1968, would have great difficulty imitating, let alone coming up with it themselves.  Until Paul or Ringo personally say otherwise, I’m fairly certain that Ringo plays on the final mix of ‘Dear Prudence ‘…:-)