Was Pete Best really that bad of a drummer?

Well of course the drumming on Back in the USSR is a mess, with John and George contributing overdubs, too.

 

Pete Best was a lousy drummer -John Lennon

 

I just finished reading With The Beatles by Alistair Taylor. From the book:

Brian always let this be seen as a musical decision taken by the Beatles themselves. And, in a way, it was, yet Brian and I had several times talked in our distinctly unmusical way about something being not quite right about Pete’s drumming. We tried to put our finger on Pete’s weaknesses but we failed to identify them.

Brian was not surprised when the boys came to him to do their dirty work. Deep down he agreed with the decision; indeed, he and I were both flattered to have come to the same conclusion as the Beatles. Brian certainly would not have sacked Pete otherwise, but he said to me that he knew the boys were absolutely right. And he was certain that Ringo was a definite improvement, not least because he was a great deal more malleable than Pete. Brian had crossed swords with Pete about not combing his hair like the other guys. But then Pete always was something of the odd man out. From the very first time we saw them, John, Paul and George had a jokey rapport both on stage and off that Pete clearly did not share. He was a terribly nice fella but he would be sulking when the other three were laughing. Technically, Pete was a better drummer than Ringo but he was not right for the Beatles.
​

The book is kind of slapdash, like Taylor jabbered away into a tape recorder and somebody threw his comments together in a hurry. It jumps around chronologically and even a non-expert such as myself noticed a number of factual errors.

 

83 pages, surely we must have come to the conclusion that the band, manager, producer etc all came to 50+ years ago lol

 

I never read that book, but if I had started on it and come across that phrase highlighted in bold, it would have been my cue to snicker, close the book and toss it in the garbage.

 

HAHA. : )

 

I like the drumming on the Decca audition tapes and I like the Pete Best solo album "Hayman's Green" so I reckon he is Alright by me.

 

It's not that his drumming is 'bad' per say, it's just he uses the same 'drum roll' fill on everything, and in the most random of places. Listen here:



Random drum roll fills halfway through a bloody verse. The more I listen and pay attention to the drums, the worse it gets, and I'm someone who enjoys the early Beatles stuff (My Bonnie is a great rocker IMO).

 

Really? What did they add? (I haven't got Recording Sessions to hand - can't remember if Mark mentions it)

 

Alistair Taylor also claimed to be Raymond Jones (the young lad who walked into NEMS and asked Brian for My Bonnie). He claimed that NEMS needed to have a customer's name in the order book before a record could be ordered. Only one problem - Raymond Jones did exist and has since been interviewed. Nice try, Al!

He reminds me a bit of Joe Flannery who seems to think he was the Beatles' 'booking manager'. Always going on about he and Brian were friends etc yet he was the one who told Philip Norman that Brian had bought 10,000 copies of Love Me Do to hype it into the charts.

As George Harrison once sagely advised Mark Lewisohn (paraphrasing here), 'in telling you what they know, some people will tell you more than they know"

 

Yes, he does mention it- while Paul dubbed on piano and then extra guitar, John and George added some snare and toms work.

 

Ok - must nip back to Southport and retrieve my very dog-eared copy!

 

I think if they had kept him in the band, his drumming would have improved (as they all did as musicians) and/or they would have dealt with its limitations. Sitting in the background, most people wouldn't notice during the Beatlemania years, and all he would have had to do to excite the girls is give an occasional wink or grin. The band image dynamic would have been different without the cuddly Ringo, but probably wouldn't have hurt them.

Bottom line -- if he lasted, everyone here would be talking about how Pete Best is one of rock's greatest drummers of all time simply because he was a Beatle.

 

Funny how that works, and it can sometimes work the opposite way too. I’ve always felt that if CCR had just been JC Fogerty as a solo guy but if he’d used Doug, Stu and Tom on all this albums, they’d be regarded as one of the all time greatest backing bands, but since they were a band: CCR, they’re no-talent scumbags who were just luck to have John carry them along

 

No.

His limitations were very apparent. The different tempos in the various parts of Love Me Do show that he needed more than a little work. To get to the point where he had an equal sense of swing and cohesion that Ringo had when he joined - it would have taken years, and he would have to develop a need to improve, which he apparently lacked.

This is assuming GM would have accepted his stylistic faults, which is highly unlikely. Andy White would have had many more songs to his credit.

 

This.

If they didn't fire Pete, Please Please Me would have had a session drummer. And the divide would have grown.

 

He was never going to be allowed to play on any recording sessions by George Martin.

@Lemon Curry and @davenav beat me to it

 

Why can’t we accept the fact that Pete Best was a drummer with limited skills.

 

and that they wanted him out of the band. Sometimes that's the way it goes.

 

Yes and the recorded evidence proved them right for wanting him out.

 

Although it makes for great stories, the Pete best thing is not unique. Bands, when starting out, fire members all the time (many times after they make it). Musicianship, personality, you name it. Let's face it Stu would have been fired as well if he wanted to stay with the band

 

yes, but i think stu would have stayed involved somehow, doing artwork for the albums or something. john took the trouble to introduce stu to brian epstein.

 

No

 

According to Lennon, he did not improve in the two years he was in the band, so that argues against the possibility he would have improved if given another two years. Becoming a great musician takes a combination of natural talent and hard work. If you lack the former, no amount of the latter is going to make a difference. It seems likely Pete had simply hit the ceiling of his abilities.

 

Nice thought. Did John introduce him to Brian? I never knew that, but it's cool.

I'll just join the chorus in saying that not only did Ringo have a greater variety of beats (the reason he also claims superiority over Paul and the others regarding later pinch-hits) ~ he swung.

They loved his personality, too, of course, but he truly was the better drummer for the group ~ particularly given the number of styles they'd eventually cover (or create). Even the BBC years are full of different styles ~ but we have too few recordings to know which songs Pete may've played on and what he played on them if so. (Trying to picture him on "I Just Don't Understand"...and I can't.)