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)?

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.

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!

It doesn't matter who plays what. The switch in style of drumming is one of the many things that makes the song great!

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.

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.

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.

Paul really was a jack of all trades. Not as good a drummer as Ringo, but pretty damn good by most standards. Great drummer, great guitar player, fantastic pianist, and one of the best bass players and singers ever.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

One of my all time favourite Beatles songs. Just perfect.

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.

I’m glad someone finally talked about this! These small Beatles mysteries are what absolutely intrigue me

It's Ringo. Paul laid the backing track and Ringo added his later...

I met Ringo in a backstage gig in Brazil around 2011, my friend is a drummer and his company was promotion his All Star Band in Porto Alegre. I asked him many things, one of the question was "who is the drummer in Dear Prudence?" He said: " - Paul did it because I was on vacation, and I put my rolls before". He told he told: You make a lot of questions, what are you, a MI5?

That's Ringo's feel. There is no doubt in my mind (I'm a professional drummer of 30+ years and big Beatles fan too lol). Paul could well have been able to play the piece technically speaking but that feel man ..we all know it.

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.)

Probably my favorite Beetle's album! I remember sitting in my room singing every word to every song on this album.. I still owe it.. Thank you.. I learned a lot.. 🎶🤗🎵

... love, Love, LOVE "Dear Prudence" - one of my Top 5 Beatles tunes. In my humble opinion, it was Ringo's drumming on the final cut... it has his spirit in it. 🥁 Why won't someone simply clear up the debate by posing the question to him? "Did you, Sir Ringo, play all of Dear Prudence?" Inquiring minds want to know. 🤔... 😃 Thank you for this vid! I appreciate your work, dear channel owner! 💐🙏🏽❤️

"Dear Prudence" almost always leaves me with tears in my eyes. Thank you for this amazing backstory.

After hearing and seeing this several times (and after a half-century and more of listening and studying the Beatles--whatever that is worth) I am convinced that Ringo did the overdub at the end. Not that Paul could not have done that just as well--but it would have sounded different. For me, the most brilliant drum track of all time is Ringo on "A Day in the Life." Listen to how sophisticated that is! No one else could sound quite like that, and it has similarities to the last drum track on "Dear Prudence." I agree that the real joy in this is the consideration and discussion. The genius of the Beatles becomes more and more apparent with superb documentaries like this. Thank You!!

One of my favorites, I bought the album the day it hit the stores in Pasadena Texas and took it to School with me the next Monday and played it in art class ,Miss Reid was cool like that.

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.

The guitar work in this song is beautiful. It's just so calming.

It's been 6 mouths and I here been waiting for the day when he releases a new vid. Can't wait

Ringo has a style you can’t deny. It’s him.

Brilliant observations and such fun to put this song under the microscope. Beautiful and very inspirational. Thanks!

People often undersell Pauls drumming. Check out “My Dark Hour” by Steve Miller from 1968! Paul Plays drums and sings backing on it. The drumming is very intense and uncharacteristic of Paul’s drumming!

The over dubbed is Ringo imo. I've been playing drums since I was 13, now 60, b/c of Ringo (and Ginger), and duplicating his leading left hand fills are still a challenge. It is likely that George Martin gave Ringo a chance to contribute to what he missed, so that Ringo feel more sewn back into the band. Fantastic video, great job!

I’m a drummer and a lifelong Beatles fan. I’d bet money it was Paul. When asked if Ringo was the greatest drummer in the world, John famously said “he’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles”😅

Beautiful work! Thank you

It sounds like Paul on the McCartney album. The fact that it's cut in at least three sections increases the possibility that it was Paul because Fingo could have played it straight through LOL It's very good, whichever of them did it.

I was 19 when I first heard "Dear Prudence" in 1968 and it has remained one of my favorite songs of all time - regardless of who played the drums.

. Hello! I'm Carlos, from Spain. . I've been thinking for years that Ringo recorded a bonus track for "Dear Prudence." It is clear that the rhythmic basis was recorded by Paul, but Paul's drumming is good and efficient, but he doesn't play anything that any other drummer wouldn't play; On the other hand, Ringo's way of playing is very particular, being left-handed and setting up the drums in a right-handed configuration, made him naturally develop a way of playing "open rolls", so that instead of making successions of notes in one tom, and on another... play random notes between snare and toms. Ringo's playing is very identifiable. . In "Dear Prudence", the final part with a "simple" drum solo is very similar to the one Ringo played at the end of "I Am The Walrus". . On Beatles albums it was very common for Ringo to record additional percussion and drum tracks, for example he doubled the snare on "Yer Blues", "Helter Skelter", "Good Day Sunshine" and many other songs and he was very synchronized with the first track recorded. . I think on "Dear Prudence" there is a drum track from Paul, over which Ringo's ten bars of rolls were added. . Greetings from Spain!

And yet one of their most underrated songs. What a masterpiece!

Paul and Ringo have a kind of distinct style for drumming. Paul, being a perfectionist, has a very straightforward type of play style. Ringo is left handed and plays a right handed kit which gives him a "lagging" kind of style to his drumming, which is heard in Dear Prudence. As many people have said, it isn't impossible for Paul to have played that end section but the lagging kind of style just screams Ringo to me.

I have no idea who played any of this, but I have been listening to this album since it was first released, and I love what you are doing here. The Beatles's oeuvre definitely rewards this kind of close listening! Many thanks!❤🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🖤

Beautifully done there, Ira Glass!

Wow! What for a thrilling song analysis! I have never heard such before, thank you very much. I would like to know, if someone have ever asked this Ringo or Paul in an interview? If not, hurry up, journalists!

Dear Prudence is one of my favorites. Paul’s bass playing is the best part for me. Some of his best I think.

I can't imagine this kind of debate involving any other band. That's just one of the reasons the Beatles are and always will be the most fascinating act of all time.

To me, this is the greatest Beatles song ever.

Excellent episode.

I can't believe Dear Prudence wasn't a massive hit back in 68. I wasn't alive back then, but having been introduced to The Beatles by my dad's extensive collection of their albums, I always found that song to be one of their best. It was remade in the 80s by Susie and The Banshees and became a hit for her. Great song.

I'm really happy to read and hear these audio tracks. I read drum music before English when I was 5 years old. McCartney played a decent drum track going back to their Hamburg days and white album/solo albums/career. He was a human click track, and his tempo ( meter) was spot on, and still is. All of the later fills are completely Ringo chops. As a lefty drummer, turned righty , he had fills that are difficult to reproduce/imitate today for right-handed drummers. No one plays like Ringo. His signature is unique. It's Ringo. Thanks for posting!

So interesting. Always a favorite Beatles song, and now more joy than ever.

Great video. Thank you.

This is such an underrated channel. Such a fantastic intersection of history, art analysis, and video essay content. All with top notch production value. You’re probably one of my favorite channels on the entire platform right now. Keep up the good work dude👍🏻

Paul's drumming always sound solid but quite simple. This really does sound like Ringo to me.

Great analysis with an evident love and reverence for the material. Great job.

Thanks pat. One of my favorites I learned it years ago. Reminds me to pick up my guitars

This is fascinating! I love to have experts deconstruct a song by the greats. As a music major, I learned there is sooooo much more to a song than many of us hear and appreciate. More please 🙂

Please do not ask how I know this, I can't respond. That being said, at the time EMI did not have the ability to mix down an 8 track recording, so the tracks were mixed down at Trident to four track. Once back at EMI two of the four tracks were bounced down to a single track in order to overdub additional drum tracks. These were performed by Ringo upon his return. This was after the group played the tracks for Ringo and he had some ideas to supplement what was already done. They decided to let him add the additional parts as a way to bring the group back together as a unit and ease some tensions. This is why some tracks were bounced to one, to make room for Ringo's new parts. So yes, those overdubs were Ringo.

Those examples of Paul's drumming sound... middling. No triplets, no flourishes. Makes me lean towards the camp of "Dear Prudence was overdubbed by Ringo." Man, to have been a fly on the wall of every Beatles recording ever!

Ringo played drums on all those songs you mentioned plus Strawberry Fields Forever. No mistaking that unique "tumble-over" style. This is definitely Ringo dubbed in. I would play this song over and over on the first day of summer vacation. It is sonically the month of June. And I didn't know the backstory about Prudence Farrow at the time, but she fits the image I had perfectly.

Ringo was, and is a massive talent. Personally, I don't care who played what, when, or how. What I pay attention to is the final cut and the mastery these four men had making music that changed the culture around the world.

man, this video was brilliant!!!!!!!!!!! it's unbelievable the quality of the independent artists posting their own work here on youtube. upvoted!!!!

This is an interesting video. I never knew people thought Paul played drums on this song. I think it definitely sounds like Ringo (huge compliment to Paul if it’s Paul). Either way it was definitely recorded on Ringo’s drum set. This is one of my favorite Beatle albums and I hope they’ll release some White album film footage one day.

i remember hearing this theory when i was 10, i had just picked up drumming the same year and was an avid beatles fan, dear prudence was by far my favourite song at the time too, so seeing the discussion in early youtube comments saying it was paul really blew my mind. as a kid, i thought it was paul just 'cause i thought itd be funny probably the most difficult drum solo in the beatles wasn't even ringo, but after 13 years of drumming experience i can confidently say that's ringo. no discredit to paul, but those drum examples you pulled are super stripped down 1 & 2 type beats. the flavour of the solo is distinctly ringo, the phrasing of the kit, the triplets on the toms, and moreover (this sounds bs but humour me) solos required a trained ear to create, and there's a lot of drum-feel and intuition you can only hear if youre a drummer too; things like the double cymbal crash on the second bar is a habit you sometimes develop, and to me that screams experience. without a doubt ringo.

I’m not the most huge Beatles guy, but I have always liked this song and have learned this drum part. To me, it feels like it was something played by someone who doesn’t normally play drums, but still has some major skills (like Paul). It was wild and very outside of the box with lots of movement. To me, it sounds like something a bass player would come up with. I totally get the Ringo theory, but I personally believe it was Paul.

I am in the camp that Ringo came back and added drums later, simply because it sounds too "Ringo-ee" not to be him. But I never knew this story so I also always assumed "round round round..." was sung by Ringo because it sounds just like his voice. Is it a far fetched idea that Ringo came back and then added drums and backing vocals when the others welcomed him back?

This is one of the Beatles most interesting songs, very haunting. Siouxsie and the Banshees cover was rather good too

Greet video! I always understood this was Paul’s drumming. From what I had read over the years. The one thing that really catches my ear, is that, I can hear Ringo’s background vocals. Maybe we will never know about his background vocal contribution. Cheers!

I did notice Ringo's terrific drumming in She Said She Said is very much his own unique style. Thanks for this great video and comments.

This is a bit of trivia that neither adds nor detracts from how I connect to this track. Listening to this track just now after decades of not hearing it played brought a flood of all the images, the feelings it created for me back at the time I was a pre teen. There’s so much of my memory sensory entrenched in this track. I hadn’t realized that a lot of the atmosphere of that time period was encapsulated of what life was like back then in this song. It was a bit overwhelming, because it wasn’t something I was anticipating of being jolted with to my emotional equilibrium. Whether Ringo or Paul was the individual playing the drums doesn’t matter to me, because it doesn’t change anything of how I feel about it, and those dormant memories within me this song brings back to life. The final product is the final product and it’s a masterpiece not be be trifled with.

Very well done content, great!

Fascinating. As a child I listened to this record on a rudimentary stereo hi-fi. I'd switch the bass, treble and balance knobs to listen to discrete parts separated from the whole. The drum complexity towards the end is like fireworks on a quiet night. Gotta be Ringo. The host is correct, I cannot unhear this. Thank you!

As a kid being more and more fascinated with music in general than just drumming grooves I remembered my utter infatuation with"Dear Prudence " because it broke pretty much EVERY rule my young drumming career has exposed me to. The vocals playing on top of ta lengthy drum fill (which became a groove and THAT was never mentioned as a UNIQUE drumming technique ( which has not been repeated again by anyone)

I happened across this by accident. Very glad I did. I'm a Beatles fan since they arrived in U.S. in 1964 and continue to be. I enjoy the comments on this. Very, very interesting. Irrespective of what actually occurred with Dear Prudence it turned out top notch. As with some of the many other things regarding their creative period the mystique is part of the charm.

This is fantastic!

It's Paul playing Ringo throughout. It is now being revealed what a brilliant musician was Paul Mac. But, wait! that two different snare drum tones, unable to be missed...ok, this would be explained by laying more tracks here and there. Ringo was in the Mediterranean with his family.

Yesterday, Ringo was awarded an honorary degree from the Berklee School of Music in Boston (US).

I'm actually in the Paul camp here - the playing to me doesn't really feel like Ringo, I don't know why. Whoever it was, I LOVE it!

very enjoyable and enlightening video!! :)

Great interesting vid, well done

That was very interesting! I had not noticed this difference in drum styles in this song even though I am a musician (not a drummer, though) and have been listening to this for 50 years! Thank you for taking the time to share some trivia and interesting facts about the band while making this LP. I have always loved Dear Prudence, I think because it shows a tender side to the Beatles that has nothing to do with Romance. We feel it with the acoustic guitar's quiet finger picking, hear it in the tone tender vocals and kind thoughtful words. It is always interesting to me when other musicians find something in a popular song that I never even noticed. Makes me want to be more serious when listening to music. But then I'd have to stop dancing. heh

That’s definitely Ringo at the end, you can hear it instantly in his style. Paul is a great drummer but he wouldn’t try or be able to emulate Ringo’s fills like that. You can hear the similarity in style at the end of Helter Skelter just before Ringo got blisters on his fingers!

It's amazing how very talented the Beatles and SO many other bands were during that time period. It has a special meaning to me because I fell head~over~heels in love with George. My best friend was in love with Paul. We had a plan to join the Navy and go to Liverpool and marry them.

Your videos sometimes show up in my KZfaq recommendations. But as a fair warning, I've always been able to unhear what it was that you pointed out.

By the time this happened they knew each others styles and techniques so well, and they were both so good, that Ringo could convincingly play an imitation of Paul, playing an imitation of Ringo, that could fool and confuse anyone. They were both capable and both had the mischievous personalities that would pull such a thing off in any combination just to mess with people. I will, as I always have, enjoy the song and I will never lose any sleep over who played what where. I know it's a Beatle song and that is all I need to know.

You got it right when you said they can sound like each other. Paul was great a mimicking George's guitar style. Maybe with overdubs and bounced tracks he was able to achieve the drum sound from the second half of the song.

To me, a twenty-something who listened to each new Beatle album with undivided attention and perception, I feel it was both Paul and Ringo playing the drums on "Dear Prudence." Even an amateur, if he listens w/the kind of intensity that I did, acquires a primal sense for nuance in playing style. I was totally unaware that Paul played the drums at all until his first solo album. When I heard what he did on that, I flipped out. Is there any instrument this guy can't play? Apparently not, as he continues to demonstrate to this day. Paul and I are now both in our eighties. (My god!) As he has for millions of others, Paul has become a very important, integral part of my life, underscoring the phenomenon we all experience when we identify w/a favorite artist's talent so much that our brain creates a folder marked, "Friend" for that artist. So, based on this heartfelt blather, I hear first Paul and then Ringo on drums on "Dear Prudence." The Beatles were in the early days of recording on an eight track machine for the first time. Today, musicians, thanks to being able to record digitally, can create as many tracks as needed w/out losing generational fidelity. When you think of it, after listening closely, you realize how much the Beatles accomplished w/their overdubbing. Few relatively early Bealtes' songs were overdubbed as much as they were on "Rubber Soul." For that matter, think of what they (with Sir George's help) accomplished w/Sgt. Pepper, recorded on a four track machine. Clever lads, yes? --- Terry McGovern

Very enlightening - even for an old Beatles-fan.

If you listen close you'll hear Ringo's weird emphasis on fills because he plays a backwards kit. Paul is good, he can even get close to mimicking Ringo, but feel is everything and Ringo has an unmistakable feel.

As a drummer too, this is a sticky question all the more so because Paul is left handed like Ringo. Any right handed drummer will listen and re-listen to Ringo's fills because they do not follow the normal pattern a right handed drummer would follow. Subtle but astonishingly significant. Ringo, rightfully so (no pun intended) could not round the set from left to right because his fills were lead by his left hand and not his right. That made Ringo's drumming VERY unique. Paul would have the same trouble, actually more so as Ringo was somewhat ambidextrous by playing his kit set up for a right handed person. His grandmother forced Ringo to use his right hand as it was more socially acceptable than being a "lefty". Thus, Ringo "appears" to be a normal right handed drummer, when in fact he had to lead his fills with his left hand. Again, Paul did NOT play his instruments as a right handed player. He played as a lefty. Paul thus would have very similar fill characteristics as Ringo although clearly not to the extent or capability of Ringo. I agree the drumming sounds very inline with what you would expect from Ringo yet I believe it most likely was Paul for the said reasons as well as the fact that Paul often "instructed" Ringo how he wanted the drums played, ie. fills, tempo etc. So much so that during these session for the White Album Ringo left the band because he was fed up with Paul constantly telling him what to do. A small break in the Mediterranean and Ringo was back.

Thanks so much for sharing. 😉👌🏻

It's one of the most beautiful songs in the history of music

The last part on Dear Prudence was definitely Ringo. Paul's style and technique at that point in time was very straight forward. With the dynamics and accents as well as the groove, it certainly feels and sounds like Ringo.

Nothing explains the corporate genius of the Beatles like this analysis of Dear Prudence. The group is greater than the sum of its parts. The Muse worked through all of them together -- even when Ringo was absent.

I don't know why anyone is saying that someone should just ask Paul or Ringo.. They're both in their 80s now, and this was recorded well over 50 years ago. They've done a lot between now and then..

Paul was a good drummer, but he didn't do extensive fills like in Dear Prudence his drumming was more straightforward.

Has anyone ever asked Ringo or Paul about the drumming on Dear Prudence? I know it's been a very long time, but I'd be very interested in hearing what they had to say.

IMHO John's greatest under rated song and my favorite Beatles track...period! I listen to it nearly everyday. Absolutely a joy to listen to! "Won't you come out to play..."

The change in the drumming style and the snare sound change is absolutely fascinating. The reality of it all is theirs to keep and to hold for all time. This is one of those musical groups that I have to respect as beyond superior talent and having what it takes to persever through what it takes to hang in there for so long for the sake of the band.