Bonjour tous le monde:
Le copain de ma copine nous a dit que Bernard Purdie jouait sur 21 chansons des Beatles.
Il nous a aussi dit qu'il avait les preuves puisqu'il avait un copier/coller d'une interview de Purdie lui-meme.
Après tout, si Bernard Purdie l'affirme, pourquoi en douter?
Mais d'autre part, pourquoi Ringo Starr ou les Beatles eux-memes ne l'ont jamais dit?
Qu'en pensez-vous:
"Weinberg: You played on Beatles' tracks?
Purdie: Twenty-one of them.
Weinberg: Do you remember which ones?
Purdie: Ummhmm.
Weinberg: Which ones?
Purdie: That's information I don't disclose.
Weinberg: Why won't you name the tracks?
Purdie: Because if I need that information to get me some money, then I'll have what's necessary. I also played on songs by the Animals, the Monkees.
Weinberg: Everyone knows the Monkees were a fabricated band, but The Beatles?
Purdie: Ringo never played on anything.
Weinberg: Ringo never played on anything?
Purdie: Not the early Beatles stuff.
Purdie made similar claims in the February 1978 issue of "Gig" magazine, saying he was hired to do a session six months before the first Beatle album was released in the U.S.A.
"I had never heard of The Beatles," said Purdie, "but their manager, Brian Epstein, called me and took me down to Capitol's 46th Street studio [New York]. I overdubbed the drumming on twenty-one tracks of the first three Beatle albums."
He doesn't remember specific titles except one he calls Yeah Yeah Yeah -- obviously 'She Loves You'.
"I got paid in five figures [$10,000 or more]," Purdie adds, "and that was the largest amount of money I'd ever gotten in my life. I thought they were paying me all that money because they liked what I played. Then [Epstein] told me I was being paid to keep my mouth shut."
Purdie says he signed a contract. Does he still have it?
"The contract", he explains, "was the check that I signed -- and I cashed it! On the back of the check, it was spelled out what I did ... 'payment for services rendered'. It took up half the check. But I didn't think about making a photo-copy. It didn't mean anything to me."
Purdie says he worked on finished tapes. Seeing as the early Beatle albums had already been released in England, this would mean the original English versions have Ringo doing the drumming while the American counterparts have Purdie on some tracks, Ringo on others, and, as Purdie suggests, both of them on others.
"They had four track [tape recorders] and they put me on two separate tracks. I would listen to what Ringo had played and then overdub on top of it to keep it happening."
He says he never met any of The Beatles at the time. "The only people in the studio were me, the engineer, and Brian Epstein and a few of his people." Purdie says he doesn't even think Beatles producer George Martin knows what he did.
George Martin would only say "I did not use another drummer", and no one at Capitol Records -- past or present -- knows anything or is willing to talk about it.
"The manager did everything", Purdie stresses. "Epstein instigated everything that had to be done. He was the one who told me to keep my mouth closed. He was the one."
And then there's this excerpt from the May/June 1985 issue of "Drum!" magazine:
Purdie: "Practically every English act that came over here, that's what I did, replace the drums. And then when the 70's started to come around, people started getting credits on albums. So I started wanting credits too".
Diane Gershuny (Drum! magazine): "When will you reveal the titles of those Beatles tracks?"
Purdie: "I'm in the process now of writing the book. I will tell you this much, there's 21 tracks that I played on. The other thing I can say is Ringo is not on anything."
Gershuny: "Nothing?"
Purdie: "Nothing".
And finally, here's Purdie in a 2007 interview conducted before a live audience at the Red Bull Music School in New Jersey:
Purdie: "I played on 21 of The Beatles tracks - half of them had no drums. They kicked [Ringo] out in the beginning ... he's not on anything ..."
"There are four drummers on The Beatles music, and Ringo's not one of them."
