RJH writes ...
Ringo was/is a very good drummer. Solid with the timing of a metronome and very, very innovative.
As a session drummer and a band drummer, I’ve been given songs with the music and told, “RJ, put drums to this music piece, It’s for a motorcycle commercial,” or “guys, we need some music for a part in the movie where a bear is chasing some guys,” or RJ, what kind of beat would go with this?” So it would be up to me to come up with drum parts to fit in the music, original drumming, beats, fills and rolls. Do you realize how hard that is to do sometimes?
Well, look at all the Beatle songs that Ringo had to put original beats, rolls and fills in. There was no where to go and listen To a record and say, “Oh that’s how you do it.” Ringo came up with a lot of the drumming to those songs himself, plus the songs he did later when he went solo. That’s pretty genius to me knowing how difficult it actually is to put different, memorable drumming into songs.