In an interview at Vulture, New York magazine’s culture and entertainment site, the legendary Quincy Jones has a lot to say—about Big Pharma, uneducated rednecks, and who really killed JFK. Then he was asked about his first impressions of the Beatles:
[T]hey were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherf***ers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said, “Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.” So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, “George, can you play it back for me one more time?” So George did, and Ringo says, “That didn’t sound so bad.” And I said, “Yeah, motherf***er because it ain’t you.” Great guy, though.
About time somebody was brave enough to say it.
