Discussion: The Beatles "Old Brown Shoe" - Paul or Ringo on drums?

That sounds like Paul and is not up to Ringo's skill level, as much as I like it. It has Paul's lumbering style of playing. "Old Brown Shoe" does not.

 

Yep, it's impossible for one person to play those two parts at the same time.

 

Paul played the organ with his legs. Alternating from the right leg to the left. Ofcourse they could not get anything wrong in the SDE book. After all it is both Super and Deluxe......

 

Yeah, the 50th anniversary books do contradict the conventional wisdom regarding certain details of the recordings, but we won't hold that against them.

 

Im taking this performance as a secret Rutles reunion. Nobody can tell me that's not Dirk McQuickly on Bass. Great version of Old Brown Shoe at any rate.

 

This is it in a nutshell. Ringo is one of the few drummers that can pull that off so fluidly.
I like much of what Paul has done over the years, but this particular type of fill is WAY beyond his abilities.

 

We know Ringo and Paul are both going to be making the circuit of talk shows but all we will get will be more of the lame, softball questions. For once, I would love to be surprised by one of the hosts asking a question like "Is that really you drumming on 'Old Brown Shoe' Paul?" Instead, we'll get the usual questions about writing songs in a dream, peace and love, and what was it like being a Beatle...

 

The Abbey Road book also specifically states they uncovered new information that may contradict previous accounts

 

Right, but I was making a point about opposition to "revisionist history".

 

THIS is exactly what I'm thinking. Show me anywhere Paul has ever played those type rolls, never mind doing it so perfectly as on OBS. Those rolls are SO Ringo. Is there even one quick roll like that Paul has ever done on tape? I would love to hear it.

 

Exactly!! Like Back in the USSR. It required a composite drum track from all three Beatles. If Ringo hadn’t walked out for a week, he alone would have provided the drum track.

I love these threads asking which of the two it is, indicating know one knows. Provided you pick the right one. If someone does know for certainty, would we need a thread like this to ask the question.

I don’t know for a certainty who the drummer was on the song. I provided quotes to shed insight. Paul was a good drummer. But the last quote and source I posted said the style on the final song was in line with Ringo’s early evolving drumming style on the song.

Again:

“Upon listening to the late January "Get Back / Let It Be" rehearsals of "Old Brown Shoe," Ringo's drum performances developed quite closely to what we hear on the rhythm track as recorded on April 16th.

Paul's rudimentary drum-work, as witnessed on "The Ballad Of John And Yoko," "Dear Prudence" and "Back In The U.S.S.R.," the latter song being a composite of Paul, John and George playing drums by the use of overdubs, appears to not be of the caliber of what we hear on the released "Old Brown Shoe."”

 

"MAY" being the key word in the book. They don't even know for sure.

 

No 'MAY' on the book.
They say Paul played the drums and that Ringo wasn't there.

 

Thanx. Too bad the book doesn't say how they know this. And now it's all this!

 

There is something about Sam Okell I find strange. Never trust a Hipster...
And remember Giles had never heard of the Esher Demo's prior to last year's White Album set.
So who knows what kind of fools are the Apple researchers.

 

To be fair, he said he didn't know that these recordings were called 'Esher Demos' - he wasn't aware of such bootleg release. And I don't think he's aware of any bootleg Beatles release, that's not his area and not his job. He said that he DID hear these recordings, or at least part of them when they were working on (I think) George Harrison 2011 documentary.

 

You have to keep in mind that Paul McCartney was extraordinarily talented when it came to mastering an instrument. I mean, did he ever have to practice scales or something? That Taxman solo came out of the blue, right? The Martha My Dear piano riff is something, that would take years for any piano player to master that level.
Drumming usually takes hours and hours on end of practicing mind-numbing patterns with the metronome. I doubt Paul ever had a drum kit around the house to ever practice. Yet he played astonishingly on Dear Prudence.

So for Old Brown Shoe I guess he bit his lip and maybe after an hour or two of practice, quickly mastered those 8th fills on snare/hihat/floor tom.

That's my feeble theory, and for the record, to my ears it still sounds like Ringo.

 

I think you're a bit exaggerating.

Riiight.

 

FWIW, Paul has said that he cannot play a shuffle...which is exactly what the bridge to OBS is. I don't have a ready source, but that's what I recall.


Dan

 

Yes. Being George Martin's son and part of the extended Beatles family, Giles may have grown up with a view of Beatles bootlegs that ranges from disinterest-to-disdain. I can easily see how he never sought out bootlegs because he disagreed with their very existence as stolen content. Apparently he was around some and heard some Anthology things, so he must have known long before these remixes that there was a wealth of session outtakes and demos.

As for Old Brown Shoe, I still think it would be worth it to stage a social media blitz to get Ringo to address this question.

 

I finally got around to scanning this page in, so here's the relevant text:





Just figured that should actually be in the thread.

 

Thanks as I don't actually have the deluxe set yet...I'm waiting for Father Christmas and allowing myself to listen to around 5 outtakes online till then!

 

This is interesting. Not sure if it was mentioned earlier, but does this come from the new box set?

 

Yes.

 

Any high school student would be able to play “Martha My Dear” about twenty minutes after receiving the sheet music. I’ve seen the Wikipedia entry that makes it out to be some complex piece of music, and that’s just ridiculous.