The men don't know, but the little girls understand

[JSngry]

 

[Brad]

Ringo's no joke. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him

[Scott Dolan]

I grew up listening to The Beatles. By the time I was ten years old, I was quite the aficianadoa with all the official albums, one off bootlegs, and several books. 

Oddly enough, it wasn’t until 2009 when I got the remastered box set that I said to myself, “goddamn! Ringo is really playing his ass off!” I’m not sure if the new masters pushed him a little more forward in the mix, or gave him more separation, or what. But I definitely have an all new appreciation for Ringo. He was a bad dude back in the day. 

[porcy62]

Little girls and me, at least. I always thought Ringo was/is a great drummer, I thought the same of Paul McCartney on bass. They were not just the rhythm section of the Beatles, actually I don't think the Beatles had a rhythm section at all.

Edited January 20, 2019 by porcy62

[Scott Dolan]

McCartney and Entwistle are two of the best bassists in Rock history, IMO. 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, porcy62 said:

Little girls and me, at least. I always thought Ringo was/is a great drummer, I thought the same of Paul McCartney on bass. They were not just the rhythm section of the Beatles, actually I don't think the Beatles had a rhythm section at all.

Yeah, this. One of the beauties of the Purple Chick sets of the 1963-1965 Beatles albums is getting to hear the rehearsal takes, and then the basic takes that they did all the post-production on top of. And yes, there is no rhythm section there except Paul & Ringo, and they are playing there ass off all the way. You think of a garage band in the best sense, some crazy motherfuckers just jamming their ass off because that's all they know how to do, this is it, and it's STRONG. They were just giving it up, and if they didn't have as much to give up as a lot of players playing on a lot of records of the time...there's something about the "all in" thing that I find compelling on its own term (sic).

There's a, like, seven second bit of "Hold Me Tight", jsut band, that freaking levitates, and I first wondered wtf is THIS on here fore, it's a bit OCD,right? But I kept looping it, and if you get me in the right mood, I'll posit that it is the secret key to unlocking Beatles Mystique, it's ll there in the 7 seconds, no vocals, just some basic rhythm guitar over Paul & Ringo having sex with BeatleTime. That shit unlocks this universe, it is real.

John & George both contribute nothing instrumentally to the group - at this point - except basic ball-less gutarings (again, George Martin's post-productions obscured that as a real issue, that guy held all kinds of keys along the way), but the soul - and swing - of the Beatles was in the Paul/Ringo hookup. Of course they evolved/grew/etc, but that part of it never went away.

[Scott Dolan]

I agree with your assessment of John and George. Both are wonderful song writers, but pretty meh as musicians, IMO. 

[AllenLowe]

I used to think that about George; and yet he created some of the most perfect guitar parts ever. And listen to the rooftop concert.

John I think was one of the greatest rock and roll singers ever.

[JSngry]

George certainly came along, and John's singing was always his strong suit, but just sayin', listen to the Purple Chick stuff, hear the raw tracks, and there it's ALL about Paul/Ringo.

You know how people used to talk about Stones being all "dirty" and Beatles being all "clean"? Well, hear those records before George Martin pop-ed tehm up and realize that that's bullshit. Paul/Ringo were driving it home, hard.

http://www.webgrafikk.com/beatles1/pc/html/deluxe.html

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

There's a, like, seven second bit of "Hold Me Tight", jsut band, that freaking levitates, and I first wondered wtf is THIS on here fore, it's a bit OCD,right? But I kept looping it, and if you get me in the right mood, I'll posit that it is the secret key to unlocking Beatles Mystique, it's ll there in the 7 seconds, no vocals, just some basic rhythm guitar over Paul & Ringo having sex with BeatleTime. That shit unlocks this universe, it is real.

Ok, let me get this right - it's "Hold Me Tight - Rehearsal", it's five seconds, and there are vocals on the track.

Other than that, though, no corrections. Loop it for about 2-3 minutes and let it soak in.

[dicky]

Ringo is left handed. That, I think, largely contributes to his unique approach and time. 

Otherwise, they we're all spectacular. Bands are magical things. That they "came together" and wound up with George Martin was kismet to the nth degree.

[Dharmajazz]

I remember watching a Tonight show clip with Buddy as guest. Carson asked Buddy if he was a Beatles fan. I think he said something like in his house he had to be, because his teenage daughter, Cathy (and maybe his wife) was.

Apparently after seeing Ringo play, she told Buddy that he was holding his sticks wrong (traditional grip). 

I can’t say that any of the players, as individuals, would be at the top of my list for instrumentalists, but, together, they wrote and produced some great rock music- maybe some of the most important rock music ever written. We’ll see how things stand the test of time, as to how their music figures in. But much of it holds up well. In addition, I like George solo output, and maybe four or five Paul efforts, and about that many for John too. Together they just had that something that they don’t quite capture as individual artists IMO.

[Scott Dolan]

Paul started out his solo career really strong, but wound up lost in the woods for at least a couple of decades. 

He has rebounded nicely since Linda died. Some of his all time best material is from Run Devil Run in 1999 up to his most recent, Egypt Station from last year. 

Edited January 22, 2019 by Scott Dolan

[duaneiac]

And of course there was the Ringo Starr - Oliver Nelson connection as well . . .

Ringo proved himself to be a visionary man ahead of his time when he recorded this album of GAS standards decades before Rod Stewart even dreamed of croaking and wheezing his way to financial success by recording similar material.

[Dharmajazz]

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

Paul started out his solo career really strong, but wound up lost in the woods for at least a couple of decades. 

He has rebounded nicely since Linda died. Some of his all time best material is from Run Devil Run in 1999 up to his most recent, Egypt Station from last year. 

Ram had some interesting writing on it, and I actually also like much of McCartney. Band on the Run is the only full Wings release I own, but over the span  of their career, they released some good music. They certainly are catchy- he still could write hooks that are memorable, and I certainly wouldn’t mind receiving the royalties for those records (are you listening Paul?). 

I don’t own anything from Paul post 1980ish, save one Fireman disc and one live, so am not knowledgeable about what he is currently doing. What a career though.

[Scott Dolan]

5 minutes ago, Dharmajazz said:

Ram had some interesting writing on it, and I actually also like much of McCartney. Band on the Run is the only full Wings release I own, but over the span  of their career, they released some good music. They certainly are catchy- he still could write hooks that are memorable, and I certainly wouldn’t mind receiving the royalties for those records (are you listening Paul?). 

I don’t own anything from Paul post 1980ish, save one Fireman disc and one live, so am not knowledgeable about what he is currently doing. What a career though.

You're missing out on some outstanding material. Run Devil Run, Chaos And Creation In the Backyard, Memory Almost Full, Electric Arguments (as The Fireman), and Egypt Station are all worthy of your attention. 

[Dharmajazz]

Right Scott. I do have Chaos and Creation; I totally forgot about that one, and I do have it! The others I don’t own; moreover, I don’t know why I dropped off with Beatles solo releases at some point. Afterall, they were pretty integral influences when I was in my teens. I’ll check out some of the ones you listed.

[Scott Dolan]

Please do! I think you'll enjoy them. 

OH! And the Unplugged album he did with his Flowers In the Dirt band was really outstanding! Almost forgot about that one. Late 80's title, IIRC.