The Drum Mystery in The Beatles' Most Beautiful Song | Dear Prudence

Published 2022-05-27
Dear Prudence is one of The Beatles' most beautiful and widely beloved songs. Within the song's many captivating layers, however, is an odd anomaly that has been a source of dispute among Beatle fans for decades: who is really playing the drums - is it Ringo Starr, or is it Paul McCartney? As a fair warning, once I point it out...you can't unhear this!

**Correction: in this episode, I mistakenly mentioned that Ringo fled to Greece for his vacation. In fact, he flew to Sardinia, Italy for rest and recuperation aboard Peter Sellers' yacht.

Image Credits for Photographs used @0:51, @0:56, @1:00, @1:16 and @1:25 :
Copyright Paul Saltzman. All Rights Reserved.
www.thebeatlesinindia.com/

Sources:
- Dave Rybaczewski www.beatlesebooks.com/
- The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn
- The Beatles Recording Reference Manual: Volume 4: The Beatles through Yellow Submarine (1968 - early 1969) by Jerry Hammack and Gillian G Gaar
- www.beatlesbible.com
- Recording the Beatles by Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew

Listen to the full isolated tracks here:
@DLD2Music    • Deconstructing Dear Prudence (Isolate...  

Special thanks to:
Brian Panek

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Dedicated to: Pierce T.

#TheBeatles #YCUT #Music

All Comments (21)
  • New episode is here!! Who do YOU think played 🥁? Paul, Ringo...or both? Let me know in the comments!
  • Why doesn't someone simply ask Ringo and Paul about this to find out (while they still can)?
  • It doesn't matter who plays what. The switch in style of drumming is one of the many things that makes the song great!
  • @feelthejoy
    Those fills definitely feel like Ringo. His drumming style is often described as “shuffling” and he himself described it as “like falling down the stairs”. That being said, Paul is a gifted mimic and a decent drummer. The question is, is/was he good enough to imitate Ringo’s style that well? I’m not sure!
  • @MrCook1227
    I have always found the way the guitars build up in complexity and volume throughout the song so thrilling to listen to that I never noticed the change in the drumming. Even after watching this I can't stop focusing on the guitars.
  • Paul’s drumming is unmistakable in the ‘Ballad of John & Yoko’. That’s the way Paul drums. In my opinion, Ringo definitely dubbed the drum fills on ‘Dear Prudence’. Those fills are something I never heard from Paul. 🥁
  • As a drummer myself, it has always sounded like Ringo playing during the end section, especially the very last fill LRRLRRL which Ringo often used and McCartney never used. However, McCartney probably could have pulled it off with numerous takes.
  • @dynjarren7523
    Dear Prudence is proof of Lennon’s genius. It wasn’t a single or a top 40 hit but it is brilliant and moving. I also enjoyed his beautiful tribute song to his mother Julia. He was a great artist.
  • @JaneNewAuthor
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps is my favourite song, ever.

    I'm 70, I remember when it was released. I was working in a cafe with a jukebox, I think I wore the record out.
  • @robpassavanti
    Ringo, absolutely. Every drummer has a certain way that he addresses the drums, even if they play the same exact notes. As a drummer I I hear Ringo in the more complex part.
  • @wilberforce95
    the "new snare drum" could literally just be a tea towel (which they often used as dampening) accidentally falling off the snare and allowing it to ring out
  • @be_reel
    The drums at the end have the leading left-hand rolls from right-to-left which are Ringo's trademark, as he can't roll around the kit from the other side. All of Paul's examples such as Back in the USSR have the left to right rolls (snare, high tom, floor tom). Both Paul and Ringo (on the outro) are on the track.
  • I once was in a electronic devices showroom. They played, Dear Prudence, on Bose speakers. I thought that the Beatles were in the next room playing live. I had heard this song but to me it was just another Hit musical piece from the Beatles. Now I was completely hooked on this classic masterpiece. Sometimes you need to hear on a real good sound system and know the worth.
  • NOWHERE in Paul's entire drumming catalogue are there back-to-back tumbling fills like those heard in Dear Prudence. Yes, including My Dark Hour.
    (edited for spelling.)
  • @Stonkzy
    Another thing I heard about the sound change of the snare drum near the end may have been due to the tea towel on it falling off, but your theory is also an interesting take on it
  • @gturner9533
    I think it's fairly well documented that Ringo's return occurred in early September at Abbey Rd, when George had arranged for Mal Evans to deck out Ringo's drum kit with flowers. Mark Lewisohn's Recording Sessions book documents this as taking place on 5 September, the day after Ringo had in fact rejoined for the shooting of the Hey Jude / Revolution promo clips at Twickenham (out of interest, this was also the same day the Beatles 'liberated' the EMI 8-track machine from Francis Thompson's office...). While Dear Prudence, by all apparent evidence, was wrapped at Trident the week before, I always had it in my head that it would have been an apt gesture for the Beatles to have Ringo overdub a drum part onto Dear Prudence to pump up his tyres and emphasise his worth to the band. There's no evidence of this of course, and the Beatles history is ridiculously well recorded in intricate detail... However, you just never know. For example, with the release of Get Back last year, it has become apparent that the Beatles had almost certainly engaged in additional Let it Be recording sessions at some point in February 1969 - sessions for which there is no documented evidence.
  • So interesting! The second drum part is what made this my favorite Beatles song back in the day! I definitely always felt like it sounded like Ringo.
  • @couriertx
    I like to think that the Beatles found Dear Prudence to be incomplete without Ringo, and when he came back, He put his mark on this (of many) Beatles masterpiece.
  • @justfelix6171
    I’m glad someone finally talked about this! These small Beatles mysteries are what absolutely intrigue me
  • @siriusfun
    One of my all time favourite Beatles songs. Just perfect.