He is the oldest Beatle and has outlived John and George. I would love to hear what the two of them would put out today. In regard to Ringo, I think of him as a fifth rate Beatle. He's not interesting at all, has never had anything interesting to say, yet parades around like he's royalty. I'm sure Paul McCartney just must look at him with contempt thinking, "I still have to share a stage with this guy 50 years later?" His drummer today, Abe Laboriel, who has been with him for 15 years, is a way better drummer than Ringo. Does Ringo say anything other than Peace and Love? Ripping off John. He won't sign autographs anymore, which is fine, but he announced it publicly. Like he's that important?
As a drummer, he's decent and fills a role. Listen to some Beatle records and his percussion playing is pretty good in an understated way. Ticket to Ride, the drums make the song, but the drum cadence was Paul's idea. Listen to the Sgt Pepper album. My takeaway from that album besides the overproduction, and it is WAY overproduced, is what makes it such a great listen is the drumming and bass playing. Especially on A Day In The Life. Key in and listen, it's terrific. Complicated? Probably not but extremely effective. The single Rain, from 1966, same thing.
He can't sing a lick. He's atonal, but it gets by in With A Little Help From My Friends. As Billy Shears, the other three treat him as a cartoon character. Which makes me question, do they see him as their mate? or as an object of amusement? Urban myth has it that someone, one time asked John Lennon, "Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?" To which, he replied, "He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles." Now whether he said it or not, who knows, but in a way, they didn't see him as a peer. For example, Paul, erasing Ringo's drum tracks and playing them himself on a number of his White Album tracks. Paul playing drums on The Ballad of John and Yoko.
Now as talented as Paul is, he's not a better drummer than Ringo. Listen to Band on the Run, Paul plays all the drums on that album. The drumming is good, but really simple.
Ringo is not a songwriter, he had one hugely successful album, Ringo, in 1972. All the songs were written by the other three Beatles. Photograph was written by George. Look at his contribution to Abbey Road, Octopus' Garden? Can you rip off Yellow Submarine any more? All the money is in music publishing, and this guy hardly wrote any songs and was along for the ride. Pure and utter laziness.
I saw him in concert with his All Starr Band about 25 years ago. When I think about the concert today, I never think, "I saw a Beatle!" I think, I saw Levon Helm and Rick Danko from the Band and heard them play The Weight. Or Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons from the E Street Band. All Ringo did was yell, "What's my name?" and hold up peace signs. He was like a bad cruise ship performer. It was a great concert in SPITE of him.
Look at his peers from the 1960's. John Bonham, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, was Ringo a better drummer than any of them? Not in a million years. But again, he didn't need to be.
Watch interviews from the 1970's/1980's George Harrison was fascinating. John Lennon, provocative, Paul McCartney, vapid, but put out some decent music. Ringo, perpetually stoned and drunk, playing Caveman. His grunts in Caveman might be the most intellectual thing he has ever said.
The best analogy in regard to Ringo compared to the other Beatles, he's Shemp of the Three Stooges. Just filled a role and was along for the ride.
