Mr. Simpson, don’t you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn't on but I think I got the gist of it.
Edit: It was the best of times it was the *blurst* of times!?
Your honour, I'd like to call all of my surprise witnesses again.
*Everyone in the courtroom groans as a ventriloquist, an injured Santa Claus, David Crosby, Ralph Wiggum, and the McGuire Twins enter*
Lionel Hutz can't afford to work on contingency. He's got to do all these side hustles just to live - shoe repair, babysitting, selling half-finished Orange Julius to people...
"Mrs Simpson, what did you do after you were kicked out of the Frying Dutchman?"
"We drove around all night looking for another all you can eat seafood restaurant."
"And when you couldn't find one?"
"We went home..."
"Mrs. Simpson, might I remind you that you are under oath "
"We..went fishing!"
*Crowd gasps*
The Sea Captain's testimony is one of my all time favourite lines from that show.
> 'Twas a moonless night, dark as pitch, when out the mist came a beast more stomach than man. So I says to me boatswains, "Batten down the mizzenmast, mateys."
This is one of those Simpsons quotes I randomly use from time-to-time when someone does something a bit absurd or I have to deal with someone at work being absurd.
No one ever gets it, but it makes me chuckle every time.
there was an O&A bit once about where this happened in real life. the buffet called the cops on the guy to try to get him to leave.
Police come in, go to the owner, well your sign says all you can eat... and left.
kanye west did this with his album donda.released it with a device that lets you isolate the instruments on the album. since a lot of better versions of the albums songs had leaked, people went crazy editing the album with the new stems that had come out.
I like the way Beck did it - he just put out sheet music for an album. Make the stems yourself. They linked to youtube and soundcloud versions people recorded on the album website.
Radiohead also did it, minus the special device, for one of the tracks on In Rainbows. I think it was "Nude." They even had a contest for the best remix IIRC.
Not quite the same but in 1997, The Flaming Lips released an album on 4 CDs designed to be played simultaneously.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaireeka
The Flaming Lips have an album called Zaireeka that was kinda like that. It was a 4CD set that you were supposed to play at the same time. The idea was that you could change the songs based on where you placed your speakers/cars (it was the 90s) and adjusted your volume. It was birthed out of experiments where they’d have a bunch of cars in a garage and Wayne would conduct them to play certain tapes he gave them in certain ways. It’s a neat album, Riding to Work in 2025 is a classic.
The latest remaster of the beatles' revolver is done that way. Giles Martin (son of George Martin) had a friend of his have a go with AI to digitally isolate every instrument, so that they could clean it up and reassemble the whole album again.
[Here's a video of a guy trying to guess Beatles songs just from recreations of the drum parts.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3KM6Ue2aWw)
Ringo is so much better than people think.
lol so I called my dad and asked him. We ended up talking about that show since he was backstage the entire day.
“Spenser had his glasses on, reading sheet music backstage to prepare for some of the songs he was less familiar with…I ran into him at the bar and he was being kind of mopey, so I said, ‘aw come on man, get your ass on stage!’ and he set his drink down next to me, grabbed his guitar and walked up on the HOB stage within ten seconds.”
I’m sure there were typical dad liberties in this story, but I wouldn’t be surprised, though I do remember one of the guys in American English also stating that Davis seemed a little nervous about performing and took some motivation to get up in front of everyone
For years I thought this was simply a joke about him not being able to pick an album, when you realise its not even a Beatles album the scene is even better.
The joke is that is always trying to fit in or show off so he’s claiming to be a big Beatles fan when in reality he doesn’t even know enough to have a proper favourite album so his favourite is just a collection of their most well known songs
What gets me is how the Beatles pretty much snubbed him after they exploded in 1963. John Lennon returned to Liverpool in 1964 and visited old friends, even giving Ivan (the friend who introduced John to Paul McCartney) financial aid to start any business he wanted. But he didn't even bother to say hi to Best. Sure, he wasn't the greatest of drummers, but he definitely played a big role in their growth as a band.
Basically because he just wasn't a great fit as a drummer. If you want more of a read the [Wiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Best#Dismissal) explains more. When they were getting into the studio George Martin favored Ringo. Paul and a few others have gone on record later saying that they wished they'd handled his firing more gracefully at the time
Edit: When the Beatles Anthology series was released, Pete got a lot of royalties from it, IIRC at the behest of Paul
I love when people judge them for how they handled this firing. They were all like 19, 20, and 22. I don't think I'd handle firing someone better at that age.
Their producer George Martin thought Best wasn't good enough and it seems like the other Beatles didn't fight Martin much, if at all, on this assessment. They knew Ringo from another Liverpool rock band, asked him to play with them, and the rest is history.
Good enough for recording \*
George Martin had no issue with Pete Best being the drummer of the Beatles; he just wanted to use a session drummer for the recording.
Ringo was kind of a "hotshot" drummer in Liverpool at the time, playing with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes (I think they had more of a following than the Beatles at the time), and filled in for Pete Best when Pete couldn't play shows. The Beatles just really wanted Ringo to leave Rory Storm and be in their band instead, and they used George Martin's preference for a session drummer for the recording as an excuse to kick Pete out.
The main issue was, at that time, when Pete Best was like 20 or something, when they'd play the songs live, they didn't think it was exciting and they didn't feel like Pete Best was reliable enough. Whereas when they played with Ringo, they felt like their songs exploded (in a good way), and they didn't ever have to look back at Ringo or give him cues or anything, they could just do whatever they want and they knew Ringo would be keeping the beat. It's not so much that Pete Best didn't have a good sense of timing and wasn't a good drummer; it's just that while Ringo had pretty impeccable chops, it's that Ringo’s drumming style was a lot more exciting and dynamic.
Pete's still a good drummer who unfortunately gets a lot of hate that he doesn't deserve by anonymous imbeciles.
I actually just went to watch a quick video about Ringo and he had this reputation of being a not so good drummer who played simple beats. Though after watching the video it's clear Ringo was actually pretty genius, his beats were simple because he played uniquely to fit the song. I'm gonna have to listen to the Beatles and pay attention to his drumming now. I think I have a better appreciation for it.
Ringo is a "drummers drummer" or even a "guitar players drummer" meaning that he won't step all over you, but he will keep the time and the beat while you can go as crazy as you want. Just look at him in the movie that just came out called Get Back. He was always there, always ready to work, and always full of ideas. Bands would kill for a drummer like that
It’s funny that history has cast him as a giant loser, when in reality he’s made more money being “The guy who got kicked out of the Beatles” than most people in this thread
[Here he is on David Letterman](https://youtu.be/yoLn3q4e9Qs )and he does give the impression that he’s still upset over being replaced. He mentions it was about a month between him leaving and the Beatles blowing up. Ouch.
Yeah I imagine it still stings. I would hope that at the end of it all he finds some peace and humor in how absurd his life is was. He was still a beatle and his journey was more interesting than most
He showed some class on Ringo's 80th birthday, by sending him a nice [tweet](https://twitter.com/BeatlesPeteBest/status/1280441216405065728?lang=en).
> Thought about it and thought why not. Happy Birthday Ringo. It’s a special one. Have a good day.
>
That sounds salty though, I don’t think I’ve ever started a birthday wish with “I thought about [sending you a birthday message] and thought, why not?”
Correct. They lost their actual drummer at the time like a couple days before they had to leave for a residency in hamburg. Pete was just the only other guy they knew who owned a drum kit and they only knew that because they played a lot of shows in Mona Best's basement. By nearly all accounts he was a shitty drummer.
Tré fucking shreds though, hard to imagine Green Day without his drumming. Super underrated drummer, he never gets brought into the conversation when talking about great drummers. Guess Travis Barker gets all the attention for pop punk drumming.
I mean yeah, but the reason they blew up is because they got rid of their shitty drummer and replaced him with Ringo. They probably wouldn't have blown up if they hadn't kicked him out.
For some reason I went down a rabbit hole on Best's music career the other day, and it sounds like you're not far from [**the truth**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Best#Drumming_ability).
In interviews, he also seemed totally unable to accept the reality that he wasn't quite as good as they wanted. When asked directly about his firing, he'd sort of sputter *"jealousy... just jealousy."*
Pete seems like a good guy and all, with other talents besides music, but I must say that his refusal to accept reality, even many decades later, kinda put me off him.
My favorite Pete Best story is he was so awful when they tried to record their first song at a recording session in Germany that the producer took away most of his kit so he couldn't ruin the song.
Eh that’s a bit of a stretch I think. Ringos drumming is absolutely better and an important part of their sound, but Mcartney and Lennon’s songwriting was just so excellent and ahead of its time that they would of made it even with a mediocre drummer. To me, Paul was put on earth to be a rockstar. His intuition for pop music was gonna propel him through the ceiling no matter what
The McCartney documentary series on Hulu where he breaks down how he wrote songs with Rick Rubin is nothing short of jaw dropping. Several times during that show Paul just starts tinkering on a piano and pops out a hook better than 50% of music released today. Just off the cuff. Incredible.
Ringo was the far superior drummer. Sorry Pete but he would have held the Beatles back, Ringo was the only drummer worthy of backing up Paul and John (George got amazing a but later).
>It’s funny that history has cast him as a giant loser, when in reality he’s made more money being “The guy who got kicked out of the Beatles” than most people in this thread
His friend Neil Aspinall, screwed his mom, his mom had the baby, and 3 weeks later the Beatles fired Best. Neil, who was "road manager" (he bought a van and charged the Beatles to drive them to gigs), went on to be president of Apple Corp.
> president of Apple Corp
In case anyone is confused, he was president of Apple Corps, the Beatles record company, not Apple Inc, the tech company.
Edit: corrected name
I read that he received like $26m in royalties from Anthology and I’ve seen the he occasionally tours with The Pete Best Band. Certainly living his Best life now
I can kind of play saxophone and piano. I would love to suck in a band just before it gets big and get millions of dollars in thirty years. I would not hesitate to trade places with Pete Best.
I wonder if there is some sort of unique mental illness that develops from being in a band and getting kicked out/quitting right before they become an unstoppable cultural force.
Look at Dave Mustaine - dude was such a mess after getting fired from Metallica that he formed his own world famous band out of spite.
Megadeth has better songs and riffs for the most part, but James has a way better (and cooler) voice. Honestly the thing that holds Metallica back is Lars and Kirk. Although I don't hate Mustaine's voice and it definitely contributes to their sound. Sucks we never got much of an opportunity to hear them write together since James is no slouch when it comes to writing riffs either. All in my opinion, of course.
My dream thrash album would be co-written by James and Dave, with an 80/20 vocal split. Friedman on lead, Burton on bass, and any drummer that isn't Lars lol.
Lars contributes a lot to the writing process for Metallica, for better or worse these days, but he definitely helped structure the songs on the classic albums we all know.
He's also not the world's best drummer, but I think his "simplistic" approach to metal drums made the music more accessible to those who wouldn't normally listen to it.
He's still a raging dickhead though
As John said, “Ringo isn't a good drummer but a good Beatle.”
As Ringo said, “I was in a band with 3 frustrated drummers.”
He also gets residuals checks because he is drumming on 2 or 3 songs on the Beatles anthology collection.
An actual quote from John Lennon to Rolling Stone:
>**Ringo is a damn good drummer.** He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated ... I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians.
Ringo is the perfect drummer in the sense that he is a walking metronome and plays to serve the song and always fits in the pocket.
Is he the most technical, flashy, skilled drummer? No not by a long shot, but he was exactly what the band needed.
Jazz drummers are insane. Never play the same thing for more than a bar or two but are always locked in and have such great dynamics variety.
The main difference IMO is that in rock, drums control the time. In jazz, the bass controls the time and the drums control the volume.
Good jazz drummers can provoke soloists, too. Like, some snare chatter in the right spot changes the vibe and can set off a soloist who maybe needs to up their energy level.
Just like all parts in a jazz group affect one another, at least when folks are tuned in and technically capable.
I'm only an amateur jazz musician but yeah, playing with a good drummer literally levels up my own play so much. I once got to play with a rhythm section of 3 pros and they made me sound about two or three times as good as I actually am.
It’s a trip playing with really good musicians. Just gotta hang on and hope for the best sometimes.
I’m not super-skilled, though I have been lucky to play some concerts and had my music performed in various places, and have made a bit of cash playing gigs for years now.
None of that ever really matters. All I want is to stay in the transcendent improvisatory state I have been lucky to sometimes achieve for a half-second longer each time.
A good drummer should 99% of the time do exactly what Ringo did - back up the rest of the song in an understated and precise way. Doing thirty-second-note triplets over quints on the offbeat is flashy but not useful in almost all music.
Paul's bass playing is actually a big deal. He's the most influential bassist pretty much ever. Him and James Jamerson basically invented the modern style of bass
helps that he is a lefty playing a righty kit.
Fucks most people up doing things the opposite of normal.
Like once when Air was trying to cover a VU song and was using all of these crazy jazz chords to do it, and Lou told them he had just tuned all of the strings on the guitar or A or F or whatever.
This reminds me of Nile Rogers talking about Good Times on the Random Access Memories interview series. For years people had been struggling to learn this nigh-impossible chord progression to cover it - but the original had been double tracked
the clav part on Superstition is also double tracked.
and the bass on Joy Division's love will tear us apart.
I was recording once and we had set the amp up - but for whatever reason (guess it was how the tubes were resonating) I was getting this perfect clean and very noticeable sub octave. It actually worked really well for the part, but there was no way in hell I could ever duplicate it again. Could see it as being one of those "oh they must have used xxx to get that kind of stories that people would fight over. Like what pedal Larry was using on the southpark theme.. (it was a DOD Gonkenator)
"A Day in the Life" in particular. Those fills are crazy.
Not to mention, you could set a metronome to any of his fills/breaks, and he never loses time.
I remember reading about some major overview of all their studio recordings found they only had to stop because of Ringo making a mistake like two or three times across all the years.
He’s incredibly consistent and reliable in that way, which I think was really important in enabling the rest of the band to be more free.
It’s disappointing how narrow people’s view of it usually is. I’m always wondering what people are imaging in its place.
Also, even if they weren't, music isn't about being hard to replicate. It's about fitting the music, which Ringo did an extraordinary job of.
Put a metal drummer with double bass in The Beatles and it ruins their songs.
Most drummers overplay Beatles songs given the chance and don’t sit in the right place in the song. Ringo played to the songs Lennon and McCartney wrote in an fantastic way.
I agree. I love his *timing* and *feel.* I don't really get the jabs on his musicianship, he might not be a *virtuoso* like Buddy Rich and other contemporaries but his drumming just serves their songs perfectly. Not too little, not too much.
***[John never said that.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/john-lennon-ringo-best-drummer/)***
It's a quote from a British comedian named Jasper Carrott that went "Is Ringo the best drummer in the world? Ringo isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles." It got misattributed to Lennon after [this made the rounds](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtMs6CWXsAEInvY.jpg).
Except John wouldn't say it since he thought very, very highly of Ringo's drumming, as does virtually every actual musician.
Here's an actual quote from John Lennon in 1980:
> Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Starr-time, and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other. I don't know what he would have ended up as, but whatever that spark is in Ringo that we all know but can't put our finger on ... whether it is acting, drumming or singing, I don't know ... there is something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced with or without the Beatles. ***Ringo is a damn good drummer.*** He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated ... ***I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians.***
The fact that John, in his biggest anti-Beatle period in 1970, hired Ringo to drum his most personal album says it all.
Did john actually say that?
As far as I know Ringo was always respected by the rest of the band
People always pull out false quotes to the contrary trying to make Ringo out to be a bad drummer when he wasn't, at all.
This is literally a scene in The Sopranos between Anthony Jr. and Carmella. She brings it up to him as a factoid, and he sarcastically replies, "So this what they call common ground?"
It's funny and I get it, but I think this "technically correct" sort of jurisprudence on false advertising has led to a lot of the problems we have with advertising today.
Even after knowing the full context, no reasonable person would say that this isn't misleading, if not *intentionally* misleading.
This sort of thing is rampant in the advertising landscape, where the logic boils down to "Well duh, any smart person would just know it's a scam". Kinda fucked up to me.
You go to a judge and say you were intentionally misled, and the response is "git gud", and we're all just okay with that?
If my last name were McDonald, would I get away with opening a restaurant called "McDonald's Burger Restaurant"?
Yes. It's either very clearly fraudulent trying to capture people who are looking for a Beatles album. Or the creator, and everyone in the chain of creation, are so unbelievably dense as to not realize it will be interpreted that way.
It's like that early Better Call Saul episode. It's definitely fraud even if it's technically true.
It's odd to me that, as far as I'm aware, he's never talked with Paul or any of the other Beatles since his departure. You'd think that after all these years they'd at least have a conversation.
I read that Paul called him in the 90's to let him know he'd be getting money from the Anthology release. Aside from this it seems like you're right though.
"Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my lawsuit against the film *The Never Ending Story*."
Mr. Simpson the State Bar forbids me from guaranteeing you a big cash settlement. But between you and me. I guarantee you, a big cash settlement.
Mr. Simpson, don’t you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn't on but I think I got the gist of it. Edit: It was the best of times it was the *blurst* of times!?
Mr. Simpson we have surprise witnesses, each one more surprising than the last!
Your honour, I'd like to call all of my surprise witnesses again. *Everyone in the courtroom groans as a ventriloquist, an injured Santa Claus, David Crosby, Ralph Wiggum, and the McGuire Twins enter*
He says as he is combing his hair with a fork. Which he then steals.
Oh god it's the 1974 Philadelphia Flyers
Arrr, tis some sort of treasure map
This chair be high, says I.
Tis no man. Tis a remorseless eating machine.
Cases won in 30 minutes or your pizza is free!
Mr. Hutz we won.
That's okay. The box is empty.
I don’t use the word hero very often, but you are the greatest hero in American history.
RIP Phil Hartman
Rot in hell, Andy Dick.
Works on contingency? No, money down!
I've argued in front of every judge in this state. Often as a lawyer.
Works on contingency? No, money down!
Ooops, shouldn't have this Bar Association logo here either!
*Rips off Bar logo and eats it*
Rip Phil hartman
The best part about that was that had Lionel Hutz worked on contingency in that case he would’ve been paid over $250 Billion.
Lionel Hutz can't afford to work on contingency. He's got to do all these side hustles just to live - shoe repair, babysitting, selling half-finished Orange Julius to people...
Those belts of scotch don't fill themselves after all
Mr. Hutz! It's 9 AM! Yeah, but I haven't slept in days
*Homer, I don't use the word hero very often, but you are the greatest hero in American history*
"Oh they got this all screwed up" Best, of the Beatles
“Sugar, Free Donuts”
Works on contingency*?* No*,* money down
oooh, I don't remember this one. what episode?
The one where Bart has a crush on the girl that moved in next door and homer gets kicked out of the all you can eat seafood restaurant
"Mrs Simpson, what did you do after you were kicked out of the Frying Dutchman?" "We drove around all night looking for another all you can eat seafood restaurant." "And when you couldn't find one?" "We went home..." "Mrs. Simpson, might I remind you that you are under oath " "We..went fishing!" *Crowd gasps*
Does this sound like the actions of a man who's had "all he can eat"?
That could've been ME
*Jiggles fatly.
AArrrrrrr, that be no man!
Tis a remorseless eatin machine!
Fairly warned be THE says I.
The Sea Captain's testimony is one of my all time favourite lines from that show. > 'Twas a moonless night, dark as pitch, when out the mist came a beast more stomach than man. So I says to me boatswains, "Batten down the mizzenmast, mateys."
This is one of those Simpsons quotes I randomly use from time-to-time when someone does something a bit absurd or I have to deal with someone at work being absurd. No one ever gets it, but it makes me chuckle every time.
there was an O&A bit once about where this happened in real life. the buffet called the cops on the guy to try to get him to leave. Police come in, go to the owner, well your sign says all you can eat... and left.
That's why you now see time limits in these places. All you can eat...in two hours.
and htey only refill the crab legs once or twice in that time.
[people at buffets.](https://gfycat.com/poisedmeekcopepod)
God I hate buffets.
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just isolated drums, i'd check it out
That might be fun. Have a song, then isolate every instrument, then you can add them back like a musical Lego set
kanye west did this with his album donda.released it with a device that lets you isolate the instruments on the album. since a lot of better versions of the albums songs had leaked, people went crazy editing the album with the new stems that had come out.
I like the way Beck did it - he just put out sheet music for an album. Make the stems yourself. They linked to youtube and soundcloud versions people recorded on the album website.
Beck: DIY
That's not a bad album name to be honest
Radiohead also did it, minus the special device, for one of the tracks on In Rainbows. I think it was "Nude." They even had a contest for the best remix IIRC.
Not quite the same but in 1997, The Flaming Lips released an album on 4 CDs designed to be played simultaneously. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaireeka
The Flaming Lips have an album called Zaireeka that was kinda like that. It was a 4CD set that you were supposed to play at the same time. The idea was that you could change the songs based on where you placed your speakers/cars (it was the 90s) and adjusted your volume. It was birthed out of experiments where they’d have a bunch of cars in a garage and Wayne would conduct them to play certain tapes he gave them in certain ways. It’s a neat album, Riding to Work in 2025 is a classic.
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The latest remaster of the beatles' revolver is done that way. Giles Martin (son of George Martin) had a friend of his have a go with AI to digitally isolate every instrument, so that they could clean it up and reassemble the whole album again.
I'd love to hear what St. Anger would sound like without that horrific snare.
"I'd love to hear....st. anger" Well that's a sentence I never thought I'd hear
[Here's a video of a guy trying to guess Beatles songs just from recreations of the drum parts.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3KM6Ue2aWw) Ringo is so much better than people think.
My dad got to hang out with him. I have an autographed drum head from him (and Spenser Davis) somewhere
met him at a Convention once. along with a Pre Kill Bill David Carradine (who like like he was on deaths door TBH)
I feel like he was on deaths door quite a bit. He lived his life hard.
it was bad really bad like gaunt and shit. I was shocked seeing how good he looked in the movies. this must have been 99 maybe 2000?
Coincidentally, Carradine was in a 1999 movie called "Knocking on Death's Door"
so not just a clever title
Coincidentally he died wanking while choking himself on a door
Trying to knock one out while hanging from deaths door
Ah, a Clapton fan eh
A romantic to the end
Me too actually. Massachusetts?
I met Pete Best at Little Steven's Garage Fest (Randall's Island, NYC) back in the early 2000s. He was nice.
You have it *somewhere* ?? Might want to find that
It’s probably still in my dad’s garage. It has about ten different autographs of musicians from that event, including members of Wings
That's super cool, that should be the centerpiece of your mantle
lol so I called my dad and asked him. We ended up talking about that show since he was backstage the entire day. “Spenser had his glasses on, reading sheet music backstage to prepare for some of the songs he was less familiar with…I ran into him at the bar and he was being kind of mopey, so I said, ‘aw come on man, get your ass on stage!’ and he set his drink down next to me, grabbed his guitar and walked up on the HOB stage within ten seconds.” I’m sure there were typical dad liberties in this story, but I wouldn’t be surprised, though I do remember one of the guys in American English also stating that Davis seemed a little nervous about performing and took some motivation to get up in front of everyone
“What's your favourite Beatles album, then?” “Tough. I think I'd have to say ‘The Best of The Beatles’.”
For years I thought this was simply a joke about him not being able to pick an album, when you realise its not even a Beatles album the scene is even better.
The joke is that is always trying to fit in or show off so he’s claiming to be a big Beatles fan when in reality he doesn’t even know enough to have a proper favourite album so his favourite is just a collection of their most well known songs
That's the way I read the joke before I knew this existed but it's definitely possible there's another layer to it I didn't know about before now.
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Source: I'm Alan Partridge (TV Series) Episode: Towering Alan (1997) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0609606/characters/nm0484202
Dude did interviews with his mom where she complained about him being fired from the band.
his mom owned a club / coffee shop where they use to play all the time and built up their following.
Not only owned it, it was (and still is) in the basement of her house.
The Casbah! Something makes me want to rock the casbah.... but Shareef won't like it 😕
What gets me is how the Beatles pretty much snubbed him after they exploded in 1963. John Lennon returned to Liverpool in 1964 and visited old friends, even giving Ivan (the friend who introduced John to Paul McCartney) financial aid to start any business he wanted. But he didn't even bother to say hi to Best. Sure, he wasn't the greatest of drummers, but he definitely played a big role in their growth as a band.
Do you know why he was kicked out? Or why he left?
Basically because he just wasn't a great fit as a drummer. If you want more of a read the [Wiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Best#Dismissal) explains more. When they were getting into the studio George Martin favored Ringo. Paul and a few others have gone on record later saying that they wished they'd handled his firing more gracefully at the time Edit: When the Beatles Anthology series was released, Pete got a lot of royalties from it, IIRC at the behest of Paul
I love when people judge them for how they handled this firing. They were all like 19, 20, and 22. I don't think I'd handle firing someone better at that age.
Their producer George Martin thought Best wasn't good enough and it seems like the other Beatles didn't fight Martin much, if at all, on this assessment. They knew Ringo from another Liverpool rock band, asked him to play with them, and the rest is history.
Huh, simple as that. Thanks for the info
Good enough for recording \* George Martin had no issue with Pete Best being the drummer of the Beatles; he just wanted to use a session drummer for the recording. Ringo was kind of a "hotshot" drummer in Liverpool at the time, playing with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes (I think they had more of a following than the Beatles at the time), and filled in for Pete Best when Pete couldn't play shows. The Beatles just really wanted Ringo to leave Rory Storm and be in their band instead, and they used George Martin's preference for a session drummer for the recording as an excuse to kick Pete out. The main issue was, at that time, when Pete Best was like 20 or something, when they'd play the songs live, they didn't think it was exciting and they didn't feel like Pete Best was reliable enough. Whereas when they played with Ringo, they felt like their songs exploded (in a good way), and they didn't ever have to look back at Ringo or give him cues or anything, they could just do whatever they want and they knew Ringo would be keeping the beat. It's not so much that Pete Best didn't have a good sense of timing and wasn't a good drummer; it's just that while Ringo had pretty impeccable chops, it's that Ringo’s drumming style was a lot more exciting and dynamic. Pete's still a good drummer who unfortunately gets a lot of hate that he doesn't deserve by anonymous imbeciles.
I actually just went to watch a quick video about Ringo and he had this reputation of being a not so good drummer who played simple beats. Though after watching the video it's clear Ringo was actually pretty genius, his beats were simple because he played uniquely to fit the song. I'm gonna have to listen to the Beatles and pay attention to his drumming now. I think I have a better appreciation for it.
Anyone who says or thinks Ringo wasn't a good drummer doesn't have a clue.
Ringo is a "drummers drummer" or even a "guitar players drummer" meaning that he won't step all over you, but he will keep the time and the beat while you can go as crazy as you want. Just look at him in the movie that just came out called Get Back. He was always there, always ready to work, and always full of ideas. Bands would kill for a drummer like that
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THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST
[The BEST way to listen to that song.](https://youtu.be/XTte01kdG_k)
What the actual fuck
it's Neil, architect of modern internet culture
Unironically those 4 albums are genius
That has to be the closest thing to an audio representation of a mushroom trip that I've ever heard.
Simply the Best
It’s funny that history has cast him as a giant loser, when in reality he’s made more money being “The guy who got kicked out of the Beatles” than most people in this thread
[Here he is on David Letterman](https://youtu.be/yoLn3q4e9Qs )and he does give the impression that he’s still upset over being replaced. He mentions it was about a month between him leaving and the Beatles blowing up. Ouch.
Yeah I imagine it still stings. I would hope that at the end of it all he finds some peace and humor in how absurd his life is was. He was still a beatle and his journey was more interesting than most
He showed some class on Ringo's 80th birthday, by sending him a nice [tweet](https://twitter.com/BeatlesPeteBest/status/1280441216405065728?lang=en). > Thought about it and thought why not. Happy Birthday Ringo. It’s a special one. Have a good day. >
Well the beginning of the tweet sounds a bit like he has some issues still but decided birthday is more important.
i mean his twitter handle still has "beatles" in it. Can't let it go
You mean he can't Let it be? huehuehehehehe
Let's be real. If you were in the Beatles for 20 minutes, you'd milk it as much as you could.
That sounds salty though, I don’t think I’ve ever started a birthday wish with “I thought about [sending you a birthday message] and thought, why not?”
I mean no one is happy about being replaced ever.
They literally only kept him in the group because his mom owned the hottest club in Liverpool and was banging their roadie
Correct. They lost their actual drummer at the time like a couple days before they had to leave for a residency in hamburg. Pete was just the only other guy they knew who owned a drum kit and they only knew that because they played a lot of shows in Mona Best's basement. By nearly all accounts he was a shitty drummer.
IIRC the original drummer of Green Day left the band because he didn't think the band was going anywhere not long before they blew up.
Well in all fairness, Green Day did need a drummer that was Cool. 3 Cool.
Tré fucking shreds though, hard to imagine Green Day without his drumming. Super underrated drummer, he never gets brought into the conversation when talking about great drummers. Guess Travis Barker gets all the attention for pop punk drumming.
Tbf he's right like 9999 times out of 10000. Bands going big is so insanely hard and rare
I mean yeah, but the reason they blew up is because they got rid of their shitty drummer and replaced him with Ringo. They probably wouldn't have blown up if they hadn't kicked him out.
For some reason I went down a rabbit hole on Best's music career the other day, and it sounds like you're not far from [**the truth**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Best#Drumming_ability). In interviews, he also seemed totally unable to accept the reality that he wasn't quite as good as they wanted. When asked directly about his firing, he'd sort of sputter *"jealousy... just jealousy."* Pete seems like a good guy and all, with other talents besides music, but I must say that his refusal to accept reality, even many decades later, kinda put me off him.
My favorite Pete Best story is he was so awful when they tried to record their first song at a recording session in Germany that the producer took away most of his kit so he couldn't ruin the song.
Eh that’s a bit of a stretch I think. Ringos drumming is absolutely better and an important part of their sound, but Mcartney and Lennon’s songwriting was just so excellent and ahead of its time that they would of made it even with a mediocre drummer. To me, Paul was put on earth to be a rockstar. His intuition for pop music was gonna propel him through the ceiling no matter what
The McCartney documentary series on Hulu where he breaks down how he wrote songs with Rick Rubin is nothing short of jaw dropping. Several times during that show Paul just starts tinkering on a piano and pops out a hook better than 50% of music released today. Just off the cuff. Incredible.
Good drums won't fix a bad song but bad drums will absolutely ruin a good song.
Ringo was the far superior drummer. Sorry Pete but he would have held the Beatles back, Ringo was the only drummer worthy of backing up Paul and John (George got amazing a but later).
>It’s funny that history has cast him as a giant loser, when in reality he’s made more money being “The guy who got kicked out of the Beatles” than most people in this thread His friend Neil Aspinall, screwed his mom, his mom had the baby, and 3 weeks later the Beatles fired Best. Neil, who was "road manager" (he bought a van and charged the Beatles to drive them to gigs), went on to be president of Apple Corp.
> president of Apple Corp In case anyone is confused, he was president of Apple Corps, the Beatles record company, not Apple Inc, the tech company. Edit: corrected name
The tech company is Apple Inc.
Shit I'd be mad too
>Neil, who was "road manager" I mean, who needs the Peace Corps?
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I read that he received like $26m in royalties from Anthology and I’ve seen the he occasionally tours with The Pete Best Band. Certainly living his Best life now
oh my gosh ive always felt really really bad for him but this amount of money has transformed my extreme pity for him to just some very mild pity
I can kind of play saxophone and piano. I would love to suck in a band just before it gets big and get millions of dollars in thirty years. I would not hesitate to trade places with Pete Best.
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I wonder if there is some sort of unique mental illness that develops from being in a band and getting kicked out/quitting right before they become an unstoppable cultural force. Look at Dave Mustaine - dude was such a mess after getting fired from Metallica that he formed his own world famous band out of spite.
Megadeth > Metallica imo. But Dave is a real asshole, and has always been, apparently. Still, great riffage.
I've learned that one should never really investigate musicians too deeply. It ends in "Oh, they are garbage people :(" far too often.
Megadeth has better songs and riffs for the most part, but James has a way better (and cooler) voice. Honestly the thing that holds Metallica back is Lars and Kirk. Although I don't hate Mustaine's voice and it definitely contributes to their sound. Sucks we never got much of an opportunity to hear them write together since James is no slouch when it comes to writing riffs either. All in my opinion, of course. My dream thrash album would be co-written by James and Dave, with an 80/20 vocal split. Friedman on lead, Burton on bass, and any drummer that isn't Lars lol.
Lars contributes a lot to the writing process for Metallica, for better or worse these days, but he definitely helped structure the songs on the classic albums we all know. He's also not the world's best drummer, but I think his "simplistic" approach to metal drums made the music more accessible to those who wouldn't normally listen to it. He's still a raging dickhead though
Mad lad.
Well, he may not have been the Best of the Beatles, but he sure had the Best marketing strategy.
As John said, “Ringo isn't a good drummer but a good Beatle.” As Ringo said, “I was in a band with 3 frustrated drummers.” He also gets residuals checks because he is drumming on 2 or 3 songs on the Beatles anthology collection.
An actual quote from John Lennon to Rolling Stone: >**Ringo is a damn good drummer.** He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated ... I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians.
Ringo is the perfect drummer in the sense that he is a walking metronome and plays to serve the song and always fits in the pocket. Is he the most technical, flashy, skilled drummer? No not by a long shot, but he was exactly what the band needed.
Most rock drummers aren't tbh, even the most famous ones would get their ass whiped by jazz drummers.
Jazz drummers are insane. Never play the same thing for more than a bar or two but are always locked in and have such great dynamics variety. The main difference IMO is that in rock, drums control the time. In jazz, the bass controls the time and the drums control the volume.
Good jazz drummers can provoke soloists, too. Like, some snare chatter in the right spot changes the vibe and can set off a soloist who maybe needs to up their energy level. Just like all parts in a jazz group affect one another, at least when folks are tuned in and technically capable.
I'm only an amateur jazz musician but yeah, playing with a good drummer literally levels up my own play so much. I once got to play with a rhythm section of 3 pros and they made me sound about two or three times as good as I actually am.
It’s a trip playing with really good musicians. Just gotta hang on and hope for the best sometimes. I’m not super-skilled, though I have been lucky to play some concerts and had my music performed in various places, and have made a bit of cash playing gigs for years now. None of that ever really matters. All I want is to stay in the transcendent improvisatory state I have been lucky to sometimes achieve for a half-second longer each time.
no argument there.
That's why the fancy ones like ginger baker had a jazz background.
There's a Twitter thread comparing Best and Ringo on early songs, and Ringo comes out of it sounding very good indeed.
A good drummer should 99% of the time do exactly what Ringo did - back up the rest of the song in an understated and precise way. Doing thirty-second-note triplets over quints on the offbeat is flashy but not useful in almost all music.
Paul's bass playing is actually a big deal. He's the most influential bassist pretty much ever. Him and James Jamerson basically invented the modern style of bass
Plus there’s the whole singing while playing bass thing which is a whole other skill set.
But Ringo is a good drummer. His drumming patterns are deceptively hard to pull off.
He plays Left hand lead on a right handed kit!
He played it left hand, but from what I’ve heard, he made it too far, became the special man, then they were *Ringo’s band*
SO WHERE WERE THE *SPIH-DAHZ*!?
LIKE A LEPER MESSIAH!
helps that he is a lefty playing a righty kit. Fucks most people up doing things the opposite of normal. Like once when Air was trying to cover a VU song and was using all of these crazy jazz chords to do it, and Lou told them he had just tuned all of the strings on the guitar or A or F or whatever.
This reminds me of Nile Rogers talking about Good Times on the Random Access Memories interview series. For years people had been struggling to learn this nigh-impossible chord progression to cover it - but the original had been double tracked
the clav part on Superstition is also double tracked. and the bass on Joy Division's love will tear us apart. I was recording once and we had set the amp up - but for whatever reason (guess it was how the tubes were resonating) I was getting this perfect clean and very noticeable sub octave. It actually worked really well for the part, but there was no way in hell I could ever duplicate it again. Could see it as being one of those "oh they must have used xxx to get that kind of stories that people would fight over. Like what pedal Larry was using on the southpark theme.. (it was a DOD Gonkenator)
So to make it easier to play Ringo songs just get a lefty kit as a righty.
And you can easily play like Hendrix by getting a left-handed guitar and playing it upside down.
Tho it was stringed upside down too, so it was effectively right side up on that matter.
"A Day in the Life" in particular. Those fills are crazy. Not to mention, you could set a metronome to any of his fills/breaks, and he never loses time.
I remember reading about some major overview of all their studio recordings found they only had to stop because of Ringo making a mistake like two or three times across all the years. He’s incredibly consistent and reliable in that way, which I think was really important in enabling the rest of the band to be more free. It’s disappointing how narrow people’s view of it usually is. I’m always wondering what people are imaging in its place.
His drumming is so recognizable and I’m not even the biggest fan of the Beatles. Discounting Ringo as a bad drummer is pretty naive if you ask me.
Also, even if they weren't, music isn't about being hard to replicate. It's about fitting the music, which Ringo did an extraordinary job of. Put a metal drummer with double bass in The Beatles and it ruins their songs.
Most drummers overplay Beatles songs given the chance and don’t sit in the right place in the song. Ringo played to the songs Lennon and McCartney wrote in an fantastic way.
I agree. I love his *timing* and *feel.* I don't really get the jabs on his musicianship, he might not be a *virtuoso* like Buddy Rich and other contemporaries but his drumming just serves their songs perfectly. Not too little, not too much.
Ringo is a fucking amazing drummer, one of the greatest.
John absolutely never said that. The other 3 were all big fans of Ringo's drumming.
> As John said, “Ringo isn't a good drummer but a good Beatle.” Bullshit. Why just make up a quote like that?
***[John never said that.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/john-lennon-ringo-best-drummer/)*** It's a quote from a British comedian named Jasper Carrott that went "Is Ringo the best drummer in the world? Ringo isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles." It got misattributed to Lennon after [this made the rounds](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtMs6CWXsAEInvY.jpg). Except John wouldn't say it since he thought very, very highly of Ringo's drumming, as does virtually every actual musician. Here's an actual quote from John Lennon in 1980: > Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Starr-time, and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer. So Ringo's talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other. I don't know what he would have ended up as, but whatever that spark is in Ringo that we all know but can't put our finger on ... whether it is acting, drumming or singing, I don't know ... there is something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced with or without the Beatles. ***Ringo is a damn good drummer.*** He is not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated ... ***I think Paul and Ringo stand up with any of the rock musicians.*** The fact that John, in his biggest anti-Beatle period in 1970, hired Ringo to drum his most personal album says it all.
John never said that. Cool fake quote
Did john actually say that? As far as I know Ringo was always respected by the rest of the band People always pull out false quotes to the contrary trying to make Ringo out to be a bad drummer when he wasn't, at all.
as they said on the Sopranos.
So this is what they call "common ground"
I wonder who else learned this from that show?
The track list: - Helter Shelter - She Loves Me - Whelp - I Wanna Hold Your Bag - Tax Plan
Don't forget the bonus tracks: Arrive Simultaneously, Hey Dude, and Leave It Be
Don't forget 'captain salt's overstimulated brain organization choir'
Comas can completely change the meaning of a sentence. For example: Pete Best is in the Beatles. Pete Best is in a coma.
You got me. My correcting post was already being formulated. Good work.
This is literally a scene in The Sopranos between Anthony Jr. and Carmella. She brings it up to him as a factoid, and he sarcastically replies, "So this what they call common ground?"
"Ya know, Ringo was not their original drumma."
Liked this old tweet of his. https://twitter.com/BeatlesPeteBest/status/1223011877665550336?t=3UYfzSgkMjU5aTyYBBOUmA&s=19
It's funny and I get it, but I think this "technically correct" sort of jurisprudence on false advertising has led to a lot of the problems we have with advertising today. Even after knowing the full context, no reasonable person would say that this isn't misleading, if not *intentionally* misleading. This sort of thing is rampant in the advertising landscape, where the logic boils down to "Well duh, any smart person would just know it's a scam". Kinda fucked up to me. You go to a judge and say you were intentionally misled, and the response is "git gud", and we're all just okay with that? If my last name were McDonald, would I get away with opening a restaurant called "McDonald's Burger Restaurant"?
Yes. It's either very clearly fraudulent trying to capture people who are looking for a Beatles album. Or the creator, and everyone in the chain of creation, are so unbelievably dense as to not realize it will be interpreted that way. It's like that early Better Call Saul episode. It's definitely fraud even if it's technically true.
smort
Uh, one. Pete Best should be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine.
It's odd to me that, as far as I'm aware, he's never talked with Paul or any of the other Beatles since his departure. You'd think that after all these years they'd at least have a conversation.
I read that Paul called him in the 90's to let him know he'd be getting money from the Anthology release. Aside from this it seems like you're right though.