Post to thread in Rolling Stone about the 100 Greatest Drummers of All-Time
Click here for post in its original context

Good drumming is not always about chops and speed and flash. Good drumming is more often about enhancing and fitting in with the music it accompanies. Good drumming is rarely about setting the world's record for the 100-yard dash, but is much more often about being a capable, team player; a skilled plumber and drywaller, as it were, who fits in harmoniosly with fellow band members

Focusing too much on flashy aspects of drumming reminds me of how car guys sometimes confuse a good car with high horsepower, or a candy-flake finish, or a big bumping-bass stereo.  This misses the point of what a car is about for the vast majority, which is to provide transportation effectively, efficiently and comfortably.  That is JOB ONE.  

Hence, Neil Peart, while almost inhumanly talented in certain areas of drumming, would not be right for many bands and artists, just as a quarter-mile dragster is right only for certain exceptional situations.  Far more often, an ordinary sedan fills the bill more appropriately.   Same idea with Buddy Rich: He was definitely the right guy for certain contexts, but he would probably have gone stir-crazy having to fill the chair of Ringo Starr.  Ringo, by that token, while not at all able to fill the seat of Neil Peart or Buddy Rich, was, as producer George Martin put it (paraphrased), "exactly what the Beatles needed." (Source of this Ringo info is the book, "Here, There and Everywhere" by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick.)  Thus, Ringo should be considered shoulder-to-shoulder with the best drummers ever, including Neil Peart, Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, et. al., since he was willing and able to give the Beatles' music exactly what was required, where a Neil Peart or Buddy Rich might well have imposed needless flourishes, rather like putting tattoos on the Mona Lisa.
.