I always thought because as a youngster, he was a lefty forced to become right handed so he carried this over to his drumming.
Ringo was the perfect drummer for the Beatles! Great timing...great ears..HE LISTENED TO WHAT WAS PLAYING AROUND HIM!......kept the perfect BEAT.....very classy with his fills that were extremely limited but memorable.....plus he is without a doubt the most down to earth person you would ever want to meet. I met him in the late 90's at Philly International....he could not have been nicer......I could not believe I was talking to him.......very personable....shook my hand and of course said..." Peace my friend" Will never forget it!
Well being a drummer myself for over 50 years.....you always had a "Gatorade" bottle in hand if "nature calls".......not sure if Ringo had a bottle but God Bless him and his kidneys.
As a drummer myself who is also left-handed but plays right-handed drums, ala Ringo (but never knew that back when I started), the thing is, it actually makes sense when you think about it. When playing so called right-handed drums, you're crossing your right hand stick over to play the high-hat with your right hand. So, if you're left-handed, that means the left stick (which is where you have the most finesse and power) is hitting the snare drum. Duh! So really it makes great sense; that's where you want your power on the snare drum and also the bass drum (another part of the story ;-) so even though it's considered wrong, I've always thought it was beautiful and makes perfect sense. The other thing regarding rearranging the kit, it's not really necessary; if you're a lefty and not into the cross stick right-handed approach you can always just move your body over to the left slightly and play the high-hat with your left hand and the snare with your right. There are a number of drummers who do this, off the top of my head the drummer from The Romantics comes to mind (remember them, early 80s?) as a reference point for anyone that interested in this long wrap. lol
If I'm not mistaken, Jim Gordon is on What Is Life and everyone else but Ringo is on USSR, so "totally not" is correct. Other lefties that played righty include Bun E. Carlos and Clem Burke, btw. Dan
The drumming details are very easily found, won't be hard to find people on here who can tell you everything for group and solo effort like the back of their hand. Ringo may have had something on the final recording of BitUSSR, but he had quit and Paul took over on the skins. And it sounds too metronomical and excitable, no calculated changes in accent or emphasis on the snare, to be Ringo... Glass Onion is the first inkling on that album to tell us that Ringo is back in his rightful position, like a boss.
On my copy of USSR, the metronome must be broken, because the drums fall behind the rest of the track in the first verse. Truthfully, it can be difficult to play to an already-recorded track, especially if one is not used to doing so. As far as I know, Ringo did record, but I hear nothing that sounds like him on any of the finished track. Why they chose to rerecord the drums is a mystery. Maybe they wanted that "edge" that a non-drummer can offer, who knows? I'd be curious to hear Ringo's performance if any rough mixes exist. Dan
thanks! rock and roll doesn't pay heed to the metronome, my mistake in using that precise a term.... i understand that tension was high for these sessions.... thankfully things shortly got back to working order until the lawsuits.
The song gallops along, then Ringo does his thing with odd fills 1:38-1:45, and extends the phrases a bit (Moon did this the best) rescues the song from total monotony for me
I think Phil Collins told Chester Thompson to play like Ringo when they were first rehearsing ‘Afterglow’.
apparently he would often begin fills with a left on the floor tom, go back through the tom(s) and back to the snare hitting the hi-hat before the fills on Wait was a fun pop move at the time, mono captures it better
