Bernard Purdie
Andyguitar
please don't flame me, I'm just curious. There have been many rumors
throughout the years about studio drummers playing on some of the
recording sessions instead of Ringo. One of these drummers being Bernard
Purdie. I asked a professional drummer this question yesterday and he
told me that was true. Could someone tell me what they now about this?
I've never seen it in print, I've only heard about it and would like to
know the truth. thanks.
Andyguitar
Dean C
recordings, most notably the ones released by Atco ("Aint She Sweet" LP).
Over the years, Purdie has made some claims that he made contributions to
later Beatles recordings but this would would have been in the Lewishohn
book if true.
Danoota
Thoughts immediately flash to the part in The Rutles, where Blind Lemon
Pie's wife proclaims "He's lyin'. He's awwlways lyin'!" <g> I Love it.
In fact, I dug up an article from the February 1978 issue of GIG magazine,
titled "Bernard Purdie:The Real Fith Beatle". Bernie's recall of *facts*,
*dates* and details is, well, *in-credible* <ha>
Get this: ;)
The article says that "Purdie told GIG that in the summer of 1963, he was
contacted to do a session" and "...Brian Epstein called me and took me
down to Capitol's 46th Street Studio" [New York City]. "I did the
overdubbing on 21 songs in nine days". He was paid "$130 an hour" plus an
"additional five figure check".
Now at this point, GIG makes no real attempt to discredit Mr. Purdie,
but throws in little tidbits like: "He says he worked on finished tapes.
The early Beatle albums had already been released in England. This could
[note they use *could*] mean the original English copies have Ringo doing
the drumming while the American counterparts have Prudie on some tracks,
Ringo on others and, Purdie suggests, both of them on others"
My fave quote: "We were only doing eight track recording." "They would put
me on two tracks. I would listen to what Ringo had played and then overdub
on top of it to keep it happening."
Next fave: He goes on to say that the only people in the studio were "me,
the engineer and Brian Epstein and a few of his people". GIG asks "No
George Martin?" Bernies replies that he never met George Martin until
1969, and that "he doesn't even think Martin knows what he did".
GIG, in true tabloid form, then butchers a McCartney quote about the "Love
Me Do" Alan White session, in order to suggest that replacing Ringo was
nothing new, and ends the piece with other Purdie "credits" like
redrumming for the Monkees and the Animals. The final Beatle *bombshell*
Purdie drops is "After I was finishing up one day, the engineer said they
had another guitar player coming in later to do overdubs and they were
paying him good money to keep his mouth shut too. I asked him who it was
and he said 'Keep out of that Purdie'. I never did find out who it was."
Ooooooooo
Mrs Blind Lemon Pie, you be right. He's Lyin'. He's auwlways lyin' !!!!
Cheers- Danoota
gordon thompson
Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers_ (Billboard, 1991). He
also suggests that he shouts down James Brown (quite a claim) and that
he played on 500 Motown tracks. Weinberg politely calls him on this,
but Purdie rolls right on, citing Benny Benjamin's drug problem.
I can't question the man's drumming. He did a lot of great stuff.
But these claims that he was overdubbing for Ringo and Benny Benjamin
just seem too much. However, it is possible that ATCO recorded some
material with him. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your
point of view) they would have been ruined if people found out they
had done so. Ahmet Ertegun has just too much business smarts to do
that without either covering up or nixing it in the first place.
Just my opinion.
Gordon
--
===================================================================
Gordon Thompson gtho...@skidmore.edu
Dept of Music, Skidmore College phone 518-584-5000 x2611
Saratoga Springs, New York 12866-1632 fax 518-584-3023
===================================================================
saki
>I can't question the man's drumming. He did a lot of great stuff.
>But these claims that he was overdubbing for Ringo and Benny Benjamin
>just seem too much. However, it is possible that ATCO recorded some
>material with him.
Purdie's claims that he overdubbed actual Beatles tracks, with Brian
Epstein in attendance at studios in New York, are simply unverifiable.
I'd be willing to credit him with a foggy memory for what really
*did* happen, except that some of it seems so purely invented. The
quote about Epstein being in New York in summer of 1963 simply doesn't
correspond to the facts; Epstein arrived in NY (for the first time, I
believe) in November 1963, to close contractual deals with Ed Sullivan.
And the only points where Beatles drumming was not entirely Ringo's
came during the second "Love Me Do" session, an overdub session for
"Can't Buy Me Love" (session drummer unknown; see Lewisohn for
details); and the period in August 1968 when Ringo walked out for
a few days while he decided whether the Fabs really needed him.
--
"Fads don't last, but it should be clear by now that
the Beatles are no ordinary fad."
----------------------------------------------------
sa...@evolution.bchs.uh.edu
David J. Coyle
doubt it's out of his league.
|| DAVID J. COYLE / E-Mail: dc33...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu ||
|| Diversified Communications / "Sunset doesn't last all evening..." ||
|| Ohio University / --George Harrison, 1970 ||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Hedlund
> And the only points where Beatles drumming was not entirely Ringo's
> came during the second "Love Me Do" session, an overdub session for
> "Can't Buy Me Love" (session drummer unknown; see Lewisohn for
> details); and the period in August 1968 when Ringo walked out for
> a few days while he decided whether the Fabs really needed him.
And Saki, ( expressing surprise) are you not forgetting the Ballad of
John and Yoko?
Allan.
Jon Roe
>
>And the only points where Beatles drumming was not entirely Ringo's
>came during the second "Love Me Do" session, an overdub session for
>"Can't Buy Me Love" (session drummer unknown; see Lewisohn for
>details); and the period in August 1968 when Ringo walked out for
>a few days while he decided whether the Fabs really needed him.
>
without Ringo -- The Ballad of John & Yoko in the spring of
1969. Paul on drums and bass and John on guitars -- no Ringo,
no George.
Jon
cenglert
>Ringo reportedly used brushes in the taping of "Free As A Bird" so I
>doubt it's out of his league.
And, apparently, in "Give My Regards To Broad Street", Ringo WOULD have used
brushes on Paul's remakes of "Yesterday" and "Here, There, and Everywhere"...
IF he'd been able to find them soon enough! ;-)
ChuckE
Laura Dever
BROAD STREET is that he told Paul he wouldn't play on any remakes of
Beatles songs in the movie. He had been there and done that. That's why
it was written into the script that he would be looking for the brushes
while Paul played the Beatles songs.
From Me To You,
Laura
Joseph Brennan
>Thoughts immediately flash to the part in The Rutles, where Blind Lemon
>Pie's wife proclaims "He's lyin'. He's awwlways lyin'!" <g> I Love it.
The tentative credit to Purdie for the drum overdubs on Atco's four
songs from the Tony Sheridan sessions is an attempt to salvage some
truth out of his claims. Purdie did do work for Atlantic, and those
songs do have extra drumming dubbed on, but nobody's confirmed that
even this possible work was Purdie. Significantly, there is extra
guitar on two of Atco's songs too, which keys to Purdie's comment
about a guitarist coming in later. Many liars start with a nugget
of truth.
Joe Brennan Columbia University in the City of New York
bre...@columbia.edu ("affiliation shown for identification only")
http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles.html
Mike Arcidiacono
in fact, Bernard Purdie. Purdie has stated in interviews with Modern
Drummer magazine and Max wienbergs book, The Big Beat, that he overdubbed
drums on many Beatles tracks. Given the amount of money Capitol invested in
the Beatles PR campaign (100,000 in 1964 dollars, an ASTRONOMICAL amount),
it seems totally plausible to me that Capitol would have hired Purdie to
make the tracks sound better for AM radio...something he was well known
for.
John C. Winn
Å‚And the only points where Beatles drumming was not entirely Ringo's
came during the second "Love Me Do" session, an overdub session for
"Can't Buy Me Love" (session drummer unknown; see Lewisohn for
details); and the period in August 1968 when Ringo walked out for
DonÄ…t forget Å‚Ballad Of John And YokoË›
- John
Jim Wong
(Mike Arcidiacono) wrote:
You're right: Purdie overdubbed the drums on many Beatles tracks -- he was
there when I came in to redo the lead vocal on "Hey Jude".
--
Jim Wong (jd-...@uiuc.edu)
saki
>In article <44us6v$g...@pipe3.nyc.pipeline.com>, mik...@nyc.pipeline.com
>(Mike Arcidiacono) wrote:
>
>> The "unknown session drummer" on the Cant buy Me Love overdub session was
>> in fact, Bernard Purdie.
>
>there when I came in to redo the lead vocal on "Hey Jude".
And what a fine job you did, Mr. Wong!
But back to Mike's claim:
>The "unknown session drummer" on the Cant buy Me Love overdub session was
>in fact, Bernard Purdie.
No evidence for this at all; not one shred. Sorry!
> Purdie has stated in interviews with Modern
>Drummer magazine and Max wienbergs book, The Big Beat, that he overdubbed
>drums on many Beatles tracks.
This cannot be substantiated in any way. Documentation is the best
medicine for such extravagant claims.
> Given the amount of money Capitol invested in
>the Beatles PR campaign (100,000 in 1964 dollars, an ASTRONOMICAL amount),
>it seems totally plausible to me that Capitol would have hired Purdie to
>make the tracks sound better for AM radio...something he was well known
>for.
But there's nothing to suggest that Purdie had anything to do with this,
in any way, and Purdie's proven inability to recall actual overdub
venues and details (and his predilection for inaccuracies) suggest that
his memoirs are more wishful thinking than anything else.
The idea that the Fabs somehow needed someone to "sweeten" their music,
to improve what was already there, is tied in with the relentless
belief that somehow the Beatles could not have been responsible for
their own talent. You'd think after three decades this could be elegantly
and eloquently quashed by anyone possessing ears and perhaps a few of
Lewisohn's books. But the rumors persists, despite lack of substantive
verification.
In my very humble opinion, the Beatles made AM radio sound better
just by being themselves. They didn't need secret session men to
make their reputation. They did it with their own brand of irrepressible
artistry.
We should all be so fortunate to have such a legacy!
Nadav Appel
fithb...@aol.com (FithBeatle) wrote:
>In article <jd-wong-0410...@colt-14.slip.uiuc.edu>,
>jd-...@uiuc.edu (Jim Wong) writes:
>>
>>You're right: Purdie overdubbed the drums on many Beatles tracks -- he
>was
>>there when I came in to redo the lead vocal on "Hey Jude".
>>
>>
>Yes....I remember you!!! Do you remember me??? We both worked on "The
>End" together...... I did the guitar solo's and you did a fantastic job on
>the drum solo. Hey, why didn't they let us help out on that "Free as a
>Bird" thing?
Because they called me, that's why!
Look, we all know you were hired to work on The End and Hey Jude just
because I had some technical difficulties at the time that prevented
me from going to help them (i.e. I was only born ten years later).
But now, that I am here in full glory, you don't expect them to hire
amateurs like you again, do you?
Watching for pigs on the wing...
/Nadav/
Isn't this where..