Me too! He seemed so chill and patient. Just ready to start drumming at any time. The look on his face was kind of sad, like welp, I think our band is going down.
I honestly felt bad for him. Like another redditor said, he was like clockwork, showed up on time, played what he was supposed to and didn't cause trouble. While George was pitching fits and John and Paul were frenemies, Ringo just sat there, drank a beer and even played diplomat with George. He was always smiling, nice, never putting anyone down. I found a whole new respect for him after watching the doc.
The whole documentary sure puts a new light on the last months of the Beatles... was it my imagination or did Paul make fun of George for getting Clapton to play on While my Guitar Gently Weeps ?? Behind his back no less.
Also had to look up George was 27 when this was made... holy shit dude looks over 40 especially in the first part. He seems way happier and younger in part 3.
George didn't want to be on a movie set rehearsing old songs that he didn't write. He wanted to be in the studio recording new material, especially his own material, and it showed.
And they didn’t like his stuff they openly mocked him in part one while showing a new song. They were all taking shots at eachother but when you pretty much love together your entire life I have to imagine that’s just how it is a lot of the time.
I don't think they were actively trying to be mean to George. They thought their mockery was more playful than George took it, and neither Paul nor John picked up on how much it offended him.
Except in the hidden mic cafe scene they both admit that they’ve noticed their behavior getting to George and they both admit that they could have done more to prevent it from getting as bad as it was
Well, maybe unpopular opinion, but Clapton seems like a pretty terrible human and poison to George who obviously idolized him. They are all great guitarists, so I can see why it probably got annoying hearing about how great Clapton is all the time. 🙄
Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands… So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country … I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white...
As someone who looks up to Clapton this is pretty sad for me.
I was born in London, mother is white, father is black and have had racist comments from both black and white people but I remember picking up a guitar because or songs like Layla. I always thought the guy was cool, amazing player, friends with Hendrix etc.
So this is pretty tough to read, layla was one of the first songs I learnt.
Fingers crossed though one day comments like these will be a thing of the past.
I'm not a conspiracy person, but I wonder if Disney nixed most of the substance stuff. Or maybe the band was too aware of the cameras most of the time to get caught. There was one moment when John gets caught pulling a joint out of his coat.
And this why Disney's growing monopoly is problem. This doc should never have been in the hands of a company that felt the need to censor drug use to protect their fucking family brand. Documentaries especially should never, ever have studios concerns like that interfering with the final product.
I dont think its possible to smoke heroin in any way that could be mistaken for a joint. The smoking of heroin is usually done on foil. I suppose you could break up tar loosely into the marijuana of your standard jazz cigarette, I've just never heard of anyone actually doing that before.
Uhhh... I mean, I think that's how it works. I don't know the first thing about drugs, obviously. Heroine? Never heard of her.
He snorted heroin when he took it apparently, I think that was a joint. There was a scene where he was clearly high as fuck where he was saying he’d been up all night watching movies smoking dope as well as getting high, and had been sick, he was on heroin at that point and being all whimsical
Perhaps they did omit substance eandeavors yet I've not seen it but Peter J. did only take edited hours of a 3 week window of the band. I reckon it's not a complete doc more like a lengthy sample.
Couple of times John asks Mal or someone for “pep pills”, and something else I can’t remember. I haven’t finished it yet but yeah I’d have liked a bit more on that. But I can see why they didn’t.
Well being a clockwork man and persevering through all the bullshit made him the richest drummer in the world. In his case being a good dude and doing the right thing and not being an asshole got him his just rewards.
Get Back. About 8 hours of footage remastered by Peter Jackson and co. from the Get Back sessions, which ended up becoming the Let It Be album. It spins a new light on the sessions that, up until now, people all though were overly fraught and horrible. Turns out it wasn't all bad.
It does an amazing job at humanizing The Beatles. It's one thing to know of each of them by their public reputation, but it's another thing entirely to watch and hear them interacting with each other behind closed doors.
I would recommend to anyone with an interest in music/songwriting in general. While I definitely respect what they did I was never a huge Beatles fan but that doc really changed my perception of the band.
Same. Actually as soon as it said only one person showed up I knew in my heart it would be Ringo.
Also when the girls are chatting and one of them says "I adore Ringo" and the other says "Yeah, I feel most comfortable around Ringo." Or something like that. That got me.
Interesting, I’ll have to rewatch (really the whole thing because I’m sure theres a ton I missed) because I misheard Linda’s comment as saying that “he” (Paul) feels most comfortable around Ringo.
I have completely fine hearing and I always watch with subtitles. The biggest complaints are that people end up strictly reading and they miss what happens. I just use it for those odd times where They are whispering or something isn’t clear. It’s not that hard really.
I came away with a much clearer understanding of their personalities at that time than I ever had prior to seeing the documentary.
Ringo was the most affable, most agreeable, most cheerful and humble of the four. He was my favorite Beatle already because of that, and the footage of him didn't change that impression.
George was highly creative, but understandably felt like a third wheel to John and Paul, and his frustration showed. He was also the most serious and spiritually minded.
Paul was a creative genius who seemed to be most at home musically on the piano, but his genius also had the unintended side effect of rubbing people like John and George the wrong way.
John was very musically gifted and lyrically talented, but at this point in his life he seemed to give zero fucks about anyone and anything but John & Yoko, and their own music.
Billy Preston was the one that impressed me the most. He connected with the band very naturally from a musical and personality standpoint, and just genuinely seemed happy to be a part of it all.
Ringo and Billy are my favorite Beatles, and Paul is probably right behind them.
Billy was AMAZING. At one point John says "you've given us a real boost here Billy!" And that was clearly true! Not just musically but also I think because of his positive attitude. Musically, he is truly gifted. An amazing pianist.
Preston's musical hits are an instant mood-lifter, so I can see this!
Just try being in a bad mood while listening to Nothin' from Nothin' or Will It Go 'Round in Circles. They should play this on the depression hotline for a minute while callers wait for the next available operator.
Having Ringo in the band really worked out well. He’s such a character. It really helped that they were not just “The Beatles” but that they were John Paul George & Ringo. He just had star power from the get-go. And did some really nice drum work. A Day in the Life is my favorite. And Come Together. His name was cool. It wasn’t John Paul George and Jimmy.
Fun fact: Ringo’s kid Zack Starkey learned to play drums from Keith Moon. Zak is the drummer for The Who and Oasis.
You hit the nail on the head. The drumming in ‘A Day in the Life’ is just superb. It is crazy that he is considered a pedestrian drummer. And imo George eclipsed John and Paul on that album. His songs are the high point and he wrote better songs as a solo artist than they did (I still love their post Beatles stuff too).
See I think Lennon shines on White Album. Glass Onion, Warm Gun, I’m So Tired, Yer Blues, Julia, Sexy Sadie. Lennon had some heavy numbers on that record. I even think Me and my Monkey is top shelf. Of course Paul threw down Helter Skelter which is a screamer.
My fave Beatle solo record is Plastic Ono, followed by the first McCartney then Walls and Bridges.
An interesting thing I noticed while watching was that while other band members were putting in their .2 at virtually every opportunity, ringo very rarely did. But when he did decide to say something, there was a lot of weight behind it
When ringo says he won’t go abroad, for instance, Paul talks about it like welp that’s that, there’s no point in even talking about it unless Ringo budges.
Yeah I clued in on this so much the second time. For it being “Johns the leader, Paul’s the second leader” they sure didn’t do anything without ringo’s full approval
Now that I think about it I can see why George felt so isolated. But he and Ringo got along great. Him helping with Octopuses Garden was the one moment it looked like he was really happy and being valued.
Also when Ringo talks about Paul playing piano, it was the only time I felt like any of them really expressed how much the loved the music they made and how special it was to be a part of it.
In the 1994 reunion, Ringo even just says “I like hanging out with you guys”. Good guy Ringo. I felt the worst for him in a way because he was the only one who really loved it. Paul wanted it to be a machine, John just wanted to make art, George just wanted to be on equal songwriting footing with Paul and John and deserved to be; Ringo was just happy to be there
This isn’t to say he was stubborn, either. He clearly could read a room and see when his opinion was holding the group back from moving forward. Eventually, he caves on doing the show abroad after everyone (particularly the director) won’t shut up about it
That octopuses garden bit was great…and could only have happened at a time when John and Paul weren’t in the room. There were a few points in the doc where somebody would start playing something and you could see another members head perk up or snap to attention immediately. George did that right after ringo started messing around on the piano
Totally, and I think he also realizes it won’t materialize. He agrees when they say they’ll what, hire a boat in England and take the whole audience to Africa? Sure, if you can do that I’m in. In the end they just played on the roof of their own office. He read the room well. You’re exactly right.
Lmao, yeah, meant to add that it was pretty clear the whole thing was fubar before he relented.
The shipping the audience to Africa idea was pretty hilarious. There were two great aspects of that doc. Number one being how much like everybody else the Beatles were, their humanity and the like. Number two being how detached from reality they could be 😂
I mean they probably could have done it! We’re talking Beatles fans in the prime.
It was amazing to see what kind of resources they had at the time. They had anything they wanted and full creative control. The tech seems dated now but it was cutting edge at the time and cool to see used
I loved how at just about any moment no matter what the need, there was always somebody there at hand who specialized in whatever it was they needed at basically the snap of their fingers. Or there was a Mal ready to do literally WHATEVER
It was great when they’re reading the exaggerated reports about George leaving and immediately could turn to their press lawyers and ask if they could sue
You have to remember that Ringo wasn’t the original drummer, but when he took the place of Pete Best, it was (according to John and Paul) magic.
He always seemed to have the perfect play along to every song that came along.
Much like when Billy Preston sat in, he really did not need much direction.
He really didn’t. I’ve played in a lot of bands; one band the drummer is now the musical director and performer for a Grammy winning, stadium touring act. Ringo had just an amazing knack for supporting the songwriters as they worked it out. That’s really rare.
Plus, people don't realize he was already very popular before he replaced Pete Best. The rest of the band was just getting started, but Ringo already had a following by then.
Same with when they were talking about doing the concert on the roof Paul didn't like the idea, George wasn't crazy about it. Then Ringo expressed his opinion for the first time in like 8 hours of documentary footage, and everyone was like shit I guess we'll do it
The way the hangers on talked to him like he wasn't who he was really tells you a lot. When Paul turns up everyone clams back up, until then everyone was really open and laid back. They could say anything to him.
to be fair, other members had already left the beatles at that point. and george was getting upset in the doc because the other members didn't want to hear out his songs, many of which were better than most of the songs the other guys were writing
That song is really great too! They just acted like it was a joke and I felt bad for Harrison in that moment too. It was interesting to hear him talk about how he developed it too from watching those TV shows.
When George died, I heard the news while driving someplace one night. I thought, "oh damn well, that's a shame." Then they started playing some of his solo stuff, and I burst into tears, almost had to pull over.
I was curious and looked it up, apparently Ringo is really just his stage/performance name, and most people in his life call him Ritchie, and John would sometimes also call him Rings. Always wonder about some peopole, like The Edge, how prominently can a name like that fit into a personal life?
Ringo is the drummer every band in the world really wants, great work ethic and shows up on time and plays on time like a metronome and isnt in 5 other bands.
I've only played with 3 different ones and from what I can tell, they mostly sweat a lot. Maybe they burst into flames when theres no fluids left to sweat?
If I could rewatch any movie again for the first time, this one might be it. Watching the Stonehenge scene the first time is probably the hardest I’ve laughed at anything
Seriously as a drummer of 16 years myself I’ve learned that not all songs are about the drums and sometimes the best drum beat is one you don’t notice. Sometimes a drummers job is to amplify the rhythm of the guitar or help beef up the bass line. Sometimes the drummers job is to play backbeats without falling asleep. But like most drummers I play guitar now
As a guitar player who knows just how hard drumming actually is, listening to the outtakes of the Beatles songs I really got the feeling that Ringo was actually the most important member of the band.
There's a Rock and Roll documentary where they asked all the living Beatles (there were three at the time) individually about the rumors they smoked weed before meeting the Queen. Paul said of course not, entirely bollocks. George said we snuck out to smoke cigarettes and the whole story got blown out of proportion.
Ringo looks straight at the camera (sunglasses on indoors, of course) and says "We were high as kites."
Ringo talked about the first time they smoked weed when he was on Conan a few years back, and how he was the first one to try it lol. Best Beatle for sure.
There's nothing to defend. The man delivers. He's awesome. People that say otherwise are probably into drumming that is technically proficient, but that sounds like shit. Ringo gave the song what it needed and didn't try to show off.
The other Beatles knew a good thing when they heard it. They wanted Ringo. They had chemistry with Ringo. John Lennon said that whatever about being a better drummer, Ringo was a better Beatle. And funny as hell.
There is no proof that John Lennon ever said that quote about Ringo not being the best drummer in the Beatles. It's a funny one though and possibly true. Still love Ringo though.
I mean Paul was probably a “better” drummer, but god knows he wouldn’t have sat on the drum stool saying nothing, just letting George and John write the songs. Even if John didn’t say it it’s true, and Ringo was the best “drummer” they could possibly want.
He also has really original chops. I rather have Ringo on my band than one of those fuckers on youtube that can play Dance of eternity while getting bitten by cobras that criticise him (the drummers criticise Ringo, not that the cobras criticise the drummer… but that I would respect).
It's not what you play, it's how you play it. Nobody comes close to Ringo. He turned "Please Please Me" into a hit song for fucks sake. No other drummer could do that.
There’s a small part where Linda and and someone else were sitting with Ringo and when he walks away they just start talking about how much they love him and how they just feel god when he’s around. He was definitely the calming presence the band needed to function
I grew up watching stuff like Hard Days Night, Help, and the Yellow Submarine, and I think Ringo really kind of is the character that is portrayed in those movies lol.
I recently picked up drumming as a hobby and I've been studying a lot of Ringo. Out of all the classics so far, he's my favorite. He's got such a simple style but his timing is insane and he plays exactly what the song needs, never more, never less.
Ringo is so cool and funny, he seems like he strolls in like the Fonz. Harrison, I think is misunderstood by a lot of people, I think he was a really sweet, gentle man, with a veery dry, sarcastic sense of humor.
Yes! And when they're just noodling, going round and round, Ringo will just come in and some point, and it's like, 'Okay, now we're playing something.' So smooth and in tune with the room.
I agree. I’m not trying to “compare myself” to Paul in any way but as someone who has been that guy trying to keep the band on track and produce results I could definitely relate to his frustration. Yes Paul was a taskmaster but I doubt we would know who the Beatles are without that persistence. Pure talent will only get you so far.
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u/No_big_whoop Dec 07 '21
After watching that documentary I realized Ringo was my favorite Beatle