He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!
His drumming’s technically great, but I find either they’ve recorded the sound poorly or he just hits too hard. Feels like John Bonham doing the Beatles.
Pop drumming for fun and profit. The Beatles chose well with Ringo. He had the right look.
Ginger Baker, Clyde Stubblefield, Neil Peart, Tony Williams, Buddy Rich, Benny Benjamin… Dig?
No, actually. I can’t imagine Baker in the Beatles, neither his temperament nor long drum solos. As for the rest, the band was about pop songs not musical virtuosity. I can’t recall a song where McCartney did an “Entwistle” on his bass.
I can’t work out from this mega drum solo is who is doing the regular hi-hat that keeps going pretty much all through (ptssh-it, ptssh-it…) from 3:26? Same with the cow bell - none of the subsequent shots show any of them keeping that up.
Suspicious…
I dig Max Roach and Klaus Dinger.
As for Neil Peart:
Beatles’ album reviews focused solely on Ringo’s drumming:
With all the Beatles multitracks available, one could almost assemble entire albums of just Ringo’s drumming.
Also; Angelfire? Damn. I’m surprised to see they’re still going.
They had very little amplification and no monitors. If he didn’t play loud, there would’ve been no way in hell the rest of the band could’ve heard him on stage to keep in time what with all the (unprecedented at the time) screaming fans.
@Ugh
Max Roach was another great but I have to admit to not knowing much about Dinger beyond my being a Kraftwerk fan.
@gellfex
I couldn’t imagine it either. They are pop and they chose well with Ringo as a pop drummer. Like I said, he had the right look.
The list of drummers wasn’t an alternate list of who should have been the Beatles drummer but rather a list of drummers with real talent. Or to put it another way “A Ringo beat compilation? Meh.”
Sorry, I don’t think I was clear enough. I felt the live drummer hit too hard. Didn’t have Ringo’s subtlety. While there’s no doubt pounding the drums was necessary in live environments, Ringo was pretty subtle in the studio.
Its pretty well recorded, but with a modern feel, you can hear a pretty loud click from the kick drum, more to do with modern metal recordings than with recordings from the 60’s.
I would have loved a more retro recording on this, but its a great video nonetheless. 
I agree that for several of the songs (especially in the first two minutes) something wasn’t quite right. To my ear, it was that this drummer was a bit too “on top” of the beat compared to Ringo’s “behind the beat” style. After two minutes, it felt like he captured the right groove more often. I’m sure he’d score 100 in Beatles Rock Band, regardless.
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