well, thats kind of impossible. first off, Vicious didnt exactly hav a hugely commercially successful career- we're talking one album here. second, whatever success he had he was never able to really enjoy. if yure talking about luck, when it comes to Sid you really cant separate personal and business becos his personal situation never allowed him to enjoy his relative success in the business.

this thread obviously has to point to Ringo. not only was he a fairly average drummer in the greatest band of all-time, he wasnt even the first drummer. he really really lucked into that gig and it paid off better than any gig ever.

no its not impossible. people with little or no talent who is/was in a sucsessful band.

Alright, I gave it another listen and I have to say I was pretty impressed. Ok. I guess i lose this one. But next time.

Don't see the logic. He wasn't the first drummer because the first drummer(Pete Best) sucked. Ringo had already achieved a measure of success with Rory Storm, was brought in by Lennon& McCartney and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) was approved by George Martin. He didn't "luck" into the gig...it was very calculated, you see?

the logic is there no denying that he was an average drummer at best [depsite his recruiting process] and he wasnt even there in the first place. its not like he grew up with them or anything, he was juste in the right place at the right time. he didnt even hav anything to do with the intial formation of the band is what im saying.

And neither did George: He was recruited by Paul. And your point is?

Also, according to Bob Spitz his style wasn't limited by name alone: "Ringo had chops. He was an excellent drummer and had a good feel. It was an opinion that resonated throughout the Merseyside club scene. He established a nice groove that managed to serve the songs without taking anything away from them. Of all the drummers in Liverpool, where the pecking order was so clearly established, bands ranked Ringo among the best."

In fact it was George who was irrated with Pete. It bugged him that the drum patterns remained so static. Thunk-Thunk-Thunk-Thunk! They provided no contrast to the music, no matter was being played.

At least Ringo's drumming seperated him from other drummers. Everyone else at the time was emulating the bangers who relied on bruising upperarm strength to power an arrangement, but Richie developed a discipline for playing shuffle rhythms that made the drums a more integral part of songs. He could, as Johnny Brynne (former bandmate said), "punctuate what the other instruments were doing musically instead of just keeping strict time." Simply amazing.

George Martin, the Beatles record producer has said: "Ringo always got and still gets a unique sound out of his drums, as sound as distinctive as his voice. ... Ringo gets a looser deeper sound out of his drums that is unique. ...This detailed attention to the tone of his drums is one of the reasons for Ringo's brilliance. Another is that although Ringo does not keep time with a metronome accuracy, he has unrivaled feel for a song. If his timing fluctuates, it invariably does so in the right place at the right time, keep the right atmosphere going on the track and give it a rock solid foundation. This held true for every single Beatles number Richie played ... Ringo also was a great tom tom player."

"He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles."

— John Lennon



He could go missing and unless it was a live performance no one would really notice. When he quit the band during the "White Album" sessions the other three easily replaced him on drums. One of the reasons Paul was able to get away with it so easily was that he's left-handed as well.

"I must emphasize that it was a team effort. Without my arrangements and scoring, very many of the records would not have sounded as they do. Whether they would have been any better, I cannot say. They might have been. That is not modesty on my part; it is an attempt to give a factual picture of the relationship. But equally, there is no doubt in my mind that the main talent of that whole era came from Paul and John. We were not all five equal people artistically; two very strong, and the other three were also-rans. In varying degrees those three could have been other people. The fact is, we were not. Although you could say of a successful football team that it might have done as well with another goalkeeper, or another centre-forward, the fact remains that the goalkeeper and the centre-forward are in the team, and as part of it they cannot be discounted."


— George Martin


P.S. He's also including George as one of the replaceable "also-rans". That I don't agree with. George may not have been as important as John and Paul and not as good as guitar player as Paul, but he was still important to the band.

The luckiest s.o.b in music belongs to no other than Yoko Ono. Period. She had no talent what-so-ever and her voice sucked. If it weren't for John Lennon, she'd be locked up in a mental asylum and living on welfare for the rest of her days.

In my reply to you chrisarclark, Ringo learned to play by ear: The hardest way to learn how to play an instrument. The shaping of his ear-this introduction to sophisticated syncopated rhythms, along with the ability to identity a scattering of tempos-provided a root foundation that forged his talent in ways no formal training could duplicate. Ritchie was musically inclined, simply put.

Ringo also did the percussion on most of the Beatles tracks. Nowadays, bands hire a percussionist to add a percussion track, but in those days, they were just four guys sitting in a room and George Martin would say, `Maybe we could use some percussion,' at which point Ringo would play great-feeling maracas, lots of tambourine, and he even played timpani on `Every Little Thing.' He played bongos and congas, the backs of chairs, and had great musicality.

Finally Jim Keltner, a very good drummer indeed, has said: When you think of Ringo, it's impossible to not think of the Beatles, and when you think of the Beatles, you remember those perfect songs with the perfect drum parts. When you hear the live BBC tapes, recorded with no more than two or three mic's, and the way he's laying it down, you know Ringo is one of the greatest rock drummers of all time."

Ummmm....none of The Bealtes could read music and there have been a lot better musicans before and after Ringo who couldn't read music.



"Ringo hit good and hard, and used the tom-tom well, even though he couldn't do a roll to save his life."

— George Martin




P.S. It should be pointed out that Ringo couldn't play a roll because he was left-handed but used a right-handed kit.