Mccartney as a guitarist

Funkfingers

Not heard that one before.

Photographs of the artiste as a young man often show him playing a right-handed guitar flipped over.

If Paul could play right-handed, he would not have gone to the effort and expense of obtaining left-handed stringed instruments.

Hendrix could play either hand and with the strings either way about.

26.2

Tannin said:

Yep, to this day, Ringo still gets panned by people who ought to know better. Every* band needs a straight-ahead player who holds things together and gives the others freedom to do great things. Very often it's the bass player (think Bill Wyman), sometimes a guitarist (think Freddie Green), in the Beatles it was Ringo. Ringo's straight-ahead drumming is one of the reasons Paul was able to be such an amazing, creative bass player.   I've never really listened explicitly to Paul's guitar playing, but his ear for a melody is extraordinary and almost unique.  

* Except The Who, of course, who broke all the normal rules.

Except - Ringo is far from straight ahead. He SWINGS. 

english_bob

boogieman said:

 

Ringo proved he was a great drummer with Come Together. 

Ringo had long since proved it before Come Together. 

For my money, the first utterly great Ringo performance is on She Loves You. That song doesn't work without Ringo's part, and it really is a part, not just a beat.

Tannin

Sure he swings. But the point here is that he does it in a no-nonsense way such that the other three always had room to do their thing. He was never one of those drummers who want to play fancy all the time (often to the detriment of the music), he was always completely at the service of the song. 

DavidR

Thing is, all four of them were extremely gifted musicians. I'm not sure we realised it until later. Perhaps they didn't at the time either!

As regards Paul M, very good bassist, very good keyboard player, and as a composer - virtuosic maestro. Some of his songs are achingly good.

Preferred John as a rock n' roller. And Denny Laine for that matter.

scrumhalf

Ringo's drumming on Rain is brilliant. It's not the work of someone who isn't a very good drummer. 

Caffeine_Vampire

My thread has become a Ringo Love-in but that's fine because he's exactly the kind of drummer I like to play with.