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Comment by tejohnso | Hacker News Reader

Can we say that Ringo's professionalism and artistic choices were at a higher level than his technical skill? It seems as though he made great choices, but I get the sense that he's nowhere near the level of a Bonham or Peart technically.

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At the end, The Beatles weren't a masterfully technical band. It wasn't being the greatest at the guitar or the bass or the drums that made them great. It was being creative that made them great.

Hey Jude is an incredibly simple and easy to play song yet it is infamous

The pace at which they were releasing new albums was also unrealistic.

I've always considered songwriting to be an independent skill playing music. Some musicians are just so good at writing songs that it almost doesn't matter whether or not they're above average in their musicianship. I don't think anyone would rate Bob Dylan as an exceptional singer or guitarist, but he's unquestionably one of the most prolific musicians of the 20th century. I'm probably an even worse singer and guitarist than Dylan, but if I could write something as good as Like a Rolling Stone, there's no question I would try to perform it myself and have it released before giving the song to someone else.

Dylan occasionally produced exceptional vocal performances https://youtu.be/pxr22ih0r9A?t=19

And yet Dylan's vocal delivery is still very good in its way. It seems very personal and authentic.

If you listen to early 70s Dylan (his tracks on Concert for Bangladesh come to mind) he sounds a bit better vocally in that period. I read that it was because he quit smoking.

You can listen to tapes from his teenage years in the late 50s, where he's singing in almost that exact early 70s croon. But his voice throughout most of the 60s was very different and, for the most part, intentionally so.

Ironically Bob Dylan is also on their roster: http://artcelebs.com/bob-dylan/

no one would argue that Ringo was a technically skilled drummer. George Martin said "Ringo hit good and hard and used the tom-tom well, even though he couldn't do a roll to save his life".

and yet he's one of the most beloved and influential drummers of all time, and for good reason. Ask Bonham or Peart to create fills as emotional as those in "A Day in the Life".

I guess Paul McCartney probably had the most prolific post-Beatles career of any of them, but it was close. Ringo's no slouch of a musician.

I feel like that's comparing apples, oranges, and bananas.

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