by Ringo Starr was never one to show off his technique every single time he played the drums. He played for the song above anything else, but even when he reached his solo career, he admitted that a few tunes were worth revisiting because of how much power he put into his performance.
Then again, Starr’s entire ethos was about not having the drums get in the way of the vocal or the melody whenever he played a tune. The drums may have been the backbone to nearly every single Beatles song, but when looking through some of their finest songs, Starr never plays anything too busy. He’s there to make sure the song can breathe, and even if he played a specific fill for the tune, it wasn’t like any of it was clearly thought over before he went into the studio to record.
A lot of great drumming is based on instinct and working off of what the rest of the band is doing, but when Starr struck out on his own, it was a much different ballgame. He could still play the drums on the record, but now that he was the true star of the group, he needed to make sure that he was covering all the bases. It helped when he played cover songs and could do justice to an arrangement, but it’s not like he would make his solo tunes a drum extravaganza.
At least, not yet. If you think about it, Starr’s first official solo songwriting on The Beatles’ ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ is filled to the brim with as many percussion layers as he wanted, and when looking through his solo discography, it’s not like he couldn’t break out a few rhythmic hooks every time he got behind the kit.
Out of all his solo records, ‘Drumming is My Madness’ always held a special place in Starr’s heart. While he was still going through a handful of personal issues, hearing him and Jim Keltner lock in on a groove together is a match made in musical heaven as Star sings Harry Nilsson’s lyrics about the pure love of all things percussive. Keltner was always a sympathetic drummer, the same way Starr was, but if there was one thing that Starr always went back to, it was the sense of fun that came from playing with his friends.
The song is far from the most thoughtful thing in the world, but Starr always looked back fondly on the record and how it reflected his purpose as a drummer, saying, “‘Drumming Is My Madness’ is one [of my favourites], because it was fun. It was Harry Nilsson, Jim Keltner and I. I truly believe that my heartbeat keeps the tempo, because I naturally have a great time, as you all noticed, and that’s not blowing my own horn. I just have a great time, and that’s the rhythm of my heart and my soul.”
While the song wasn’t going to earn Starr any major awards by any stretch, his best songs are always the ones that fit his voice the best. He never had a show-stopping set of pipes like his bandmates, but a song that’s all about the joy of being able to bang on things for a living and celebrating his role as the drummer feels like a natural, silly follow-up to his other lighthearted numbers when working with The Beatles.
But the fact that this is one of his favourite drum tracks is actually far more telling of the kind of drummer Starr naturally was. Not every piece of the tune is meant to be flashy, and a majority of its runtime involves Starr laying down a solid foundation for the rest of the band, but giving a song that kind of pulse was what he always felt was his art.
