I've listened to some of the Sgt. Pepper package and it's not bad, but not worth $150, at least to me. But it's got some really interesting stuff on it, so it's better than I expected. (Figure that out...)
Here they are in December, 1962, a couple of months after Ringo joined:
Too bad about the sound, but imagine what it was like to hear them back then. Supposedly they'd play for 8 hours a night, with long jams on some songs.
Here's the story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live!_at_the_Star-Club_in_Hamburg,_Germany;_1962
Supposedly someone asked Ringo the reason for his success. He answered, "John, Paul, and George asked me to join their little band and I said yes!" or something like this.
He gave them a drive that nobody else had. Pete Best was adequate, but Ringo was far, far better. Without Ringo, they might still have connected with George Martin, but he would have had a lot less to work with.
Just my opinion.
Billastro
Starting to see revisionist writing about how the Beatles weren't that good or they were a boy band.
In real time, when the Beatles broke in the US they were light years ahead of nearly everything else on the radio.
It was literally like someone threw a switch...before and after.
Starting to see revisionist writing about how the Beatles weren't that good or they were a boy band.
In real time, when the Beatles broke in the US they were light years ahead of nearly everything else on the radio.
It was literally like someone threw a switch...before and after.
I'm with ya, aiq!
It's like hearing NASA fans belittling the Wright Brothers. The Beatles were one of the first bands who actually wrote and played on their own records. So many of the "real bands" of their time not only recorded songs that they themselves didn't write - they often brought in "ringers" to play the music on the recordings.
Ringo is likely the most under-appreciated drummer of all time. A lot of those beats are deceptively difficult. "I Wanna Be Your Man" is a good example. Ringo's charm and personality just might have been the final piece needed to make the Beatles the "overnight sensation" that they became. I got a lot of mad love and respect for Ringo!
Many assume the world of music went right from Elvis, Chuck, and Little Richard, directly to The Beatles. But The Beatles reminded people how great Rock 'n Roll had been in the 1950s. By 1959, R&R seemed like a fading fad, and was replaced in the early 1960s was a lot of vocal groups like The Shirelles and singers like Bobby Vinton. Dion, Neil Sedaka, Connie Francis, etc. There was still great music coming from guys like Ray Charles and Roy Orbison, but it wasn't Rock & Roll. The Beatles righted the direction of music back towards Chuck Berry and Little Richard, even though they were still very much a fan of those early 1960s girl groups as well. They were the punk of the 1960s.
As for Ringo, I think the reason he hasn't gotten his due as a drummer is because people see those live performances in front of screaming crowds where all he could do was slam the 1 and 3 so his band mates could hear it. Why even bother with fills when no one can hear them?
But things get built up as "The Greatest" where the reputation becomes greater than the actual work, and context gets lost.
I read volume one Tune in: The Beatles: All These Years (Mark Lewisohn) that takes 800 pages to get till 1964. A lot of it was devoted to the Beatles chronic difficulties getting a drummer (drums were expensive and heavy.) When Ringo joined them he was the better known musician - they were in awe of his maturity. Perhaps not the best drummer; but the best drummer for the band. Not just musically. Pete Best never wanted to join the party. As John said "He was a good drummer; he just wasn't a good Beatle."
The book, btw, was so well written that you find yourself thinking: "I hope that Ringo guy joins the band; they seem made for each other."
Can't wait for the next volumes.
Amen. I started listening to "rock" radio in December, 1961 (my parents gave me a transistor radio for Christmas, and I listened incessantly). There was some rock, but there was a lot of schlock as well. The Beatles grabbed us and didn't let go.
Billastro
That footage at the end of Ron Howard''s Beatles Touring Years of the armored car that they fled in, really sad, finally forced to hide in a metal box. What an image.
