RINGO STARR

“I was in the greatest show on earth,

For what it was worth,

Now I'm only thirty-two

and all I wanna do is boogaloo”

 

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“E”

 

Main Decade:

70's

Main Ages:

The Great Transition (1970-1980+)

​Key Members:

Ringo Starr: Solo, All Starr Band

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Key Songs:

It Don’t Come Easy, I’m The Greatest, Photograph, You’re Sixteen, Devil Woman, Back off Boogaloo, No No Song, Goodnight Vienna, Oo-wee, Snookeroo, Only You, Oh My-my

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In Robert Zemeckis's 1978 film "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," six New York teenagers try their best to win tickets to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. A radio station is giving away tickets with questions about the Fab Four, but they're not easy. One of them was: Who is the youngest and oldest Beatle at the same time?

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The answer is Ringo!!!! The oldest, since he's a few months older than John. And the youngest because he was the last to join the group. The kids will go through a thousand misadventures trying to collect the tickets, but if they want to know if they'll get to see their idols, they'll have to see the movie, which, by the way, is quite funny and highly recommended.

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Today's topic is Ringo Starr. Yes, the one everyone criticized for his brash drumming style and who would end up influencing drummers like Dave Grohl, Abe Laboriel, and Phil Collins—who, by the way, did manage to get into a Fab Four concert and there decided he wanted to be a musician. The same guy with the deep, off-key voice who was allowed to sing one song per album. The first to release a proper solo album, just because his mom wanted to hear him sing “beautiful songs from his era” and not that rock & roll nonsense. The one who would end up releasing almost as many studio albums as Paul, though almost no one has heard them. The same guy who made a career as an actor by squeezing himself into a scene in his first movie with the Beatles. The most underrated and overrated drummer at the same time…

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When it comes to characters, Ringo was always the cheerful one, the carefree one, the one with the ear-to-ear grin behind that big nose. The one who seemingly did nothing, but who had the extremely delicate task of keeping the group engaged and making them laugh with his antics. The only one who could come up with phrases like "A Hard Day's Night" or "Eight Day's a Week," which, if you look closely, make no sense. It's impossible to imagine the Beatles without Ringo, not only because of the style he would bring to the group with the drumsticks, but also because he was that point of balance and humor that no one else could have possessed.

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Richard Starkey was born on July 7, 1940, the son of bakers Elsie Gleave and Richard Starkey Sr. He grew up in the Dingle area of ​​Liverpool, a lower-class port area. The Starkeys weren't exactly wealthy, but they made an effort to ensure their son didn't lack anything. Richard Sr. left home when his son was 13, and they would see each other only three times in his life. At first, his father sent 30 shillings a week as alimony after his divorce from Elsie, but after a few months the money stopped coming in, and they could no longer afford the apartment they were renting. To support themselves, she had to work as a waitress, and little Ritchie—as he was known as a child—was left alone most of the afternoon.

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At age 6, shortly after starting elementary school at Saint Silas School, Ritchie began experiencing what was thought to be a simple stomach ache. The pain lasted all night, and he had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. By the time he arrived, his appendix had already ruptured and he had developed peritonitis. He was in a coma for 10 weeks, struggling between life and death, and suffering from complications. He spent a full year in the hospital. By the time he returned to school, he was so far behind his classmates that he couldn't read or write, and what he learned was thanks to a compassionate girl in his neighborhood.

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His time in the hospital left him sickly and weak, but he remained a cheerful, happy, and contented child. When his mother met a house painter named Harry Greaves, she grew very attached to him. Harry would become the closest thing to a father she ever had. He never managed to be a brilliant student, barely scraping by at the end of his A-levels, but everything seemed to be going normally until, at age 13, a bout of flu developed into pleurisy, weakening his lungs. One morning, a black car picked him up in Dingle and took him to Heswall Children's Hospital. He would spend the next two years there. He never returned to school. When he left, partially recovered, he was 15 and basically worked only as a messenger. When he finally managed to get a job with British Railways, he was fired after a month and a half for failing his medical exam. Harry got him a job as an apprentice assembler at a local machine shop.

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In 1956, Skiffle became all the rage. Ritchie had played drums in the hospital band, and when he got out, Harry bought him a secondhand set. Like many Liverpool boys, he joined a band, The Darktown Skiffle Group, with his friend Eddie Clayton, another apprentice assembler. They played in the same area as the Quarrymen, and soon began playing rock & roll when the skiffle craze wore off. By 1956, he was playing drums professionally and was recruited by Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, then Liverpool's most advanced group and direct competition for Lennon and his gang. It was during this time that Ritchie became known as Ringo Starr. Ringo because he used to wear a lot of rings, and Starr because of the wordplay he used when introducing him and performing his solo, "Starr Time."

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The Beatles knew Ringo well, not only from the Liverpool circuit, but also from Hamburg, where they had spent months alternating with Rory Storm and his Hurricanes. Of all of them, Ringo was the one they got along with best, as he was very friendly, down-to-earth, and didn't take their musical rivalry offstage.

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By 1962, the Beatles had become Liverpool's top band, while Rory's fame was waning. They had been reduced to fulfilling a contract at a summer camp. The Beatles, on the other hand, had found a manager, a real one, who had made them look professional on stage and had just secured them a record deal with Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI. It was a label that made comedy records, but it didn't matter; it was more than any Liverpool group had achieved. Fate would come into play here, as the assigned producer, George Martin, didn't like Pete Best. He said he didn't fit in with the group, either musically or stylistically. Lennon tried to defend his friend, but when he gave them the ultimatum that if Best didn't leave, he wouldn't record anything for them, they didn't think twice. Ringo was fulfilling his contract at Butlin's Holiday Camp when George Harrison finally managed to reach him by phone to ask if he was interested in the position of drummer for the Beatles. He would be paid initially, at 25 pounds a week, and if all went well, after a trial period, he would be an official member of the group. He immediately cut his hair just like them.
 

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It came as a surprise to George Martin when the Beatles arrived at the studio on September 12 with Ringo Starr. Not only had Brian Epstein not informed him that Pete had already been fired, but Martin had hired his own drummer, a session man named Andy White. Martin tried Ringo out, and after listening to him, decided to go ahead with White on the bench. He gave Ringo a tambourine and instructed him on how to use it. While recording the first takes of "Love Me Do," Ringo must have thought, "What's a slob like me doing with guys like these?" Seeing him so distressed, Martin allowed him to record the song. And voila. Ringo would never let go of the bench.

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When "Love Me Do" was released, Brian Epstein expected support from the record label, but there was no publicity at all. That was like starving a newborn, so he ordered 10,000 copies for his record store, NEMS, and started a campaign on Luxembourg radio and the BBC, recruiting all of the Beatles' relatives and his own to write and call stations requesting the song. The stations finally relented, and "Love Me Do" reached number 17 in the charts. From then on, it was all uphill.

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Ringo would bring a unique style to the Beatles. He held the drumsticks upside down, had a very simple set without much fuss, didn't mind crossing his arms to do his rolls while others progressively moved around the drums, and sought to give each song its own personality.

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One of his nonsensical lines would give the title to the group's third album, and in turn to their first film, which they would film under the direction of Richard Lester. In A Hard Day's Night, there is a scene where Ringo walks despondently along the shore of a lake, which critics loved. The scene worked out this way for him because he was suffering from a terrible hangover, so he basically didn't perform, but it would be crucial for the future. In June 1964, Ringo suffered from pharyngitis, which was complicated by tonsillitis and prevented him from completing the group's tour of the Nordic countries, Australia, and New Zealand. Ringo had to rest at home, and his replacement was session man Jimmy Nicols. Ringo lived through those days worrying that the others wouldn't want him back, but he joined them on June 15 in Melbourne. During the Christmas break, he had his tonsils removed.

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On February 11, 1965, he married Maureen Cox, whom he had met during the last gigs at The Cavern. In 1963, he had gone on vacation to Greece, without his parents' permission, with Ringo, Paul, and Jane Asher. Maureen had become pregnant, and following in John's footsteps with Cynthia, he married her. Their son Zak was born on September 13th. During this time, he experienced the dark side of fame, as he received a death threat before a concert in Montreal, which forced him to hold the cymbals vertically to protect himself if someone shot him. As if they would stop bullets!

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While the others were leaving the rock & roll scene and experimenting more and more in the studio, he felt more isolated, and he would say that he spent much of the sessions playing cards with Neil Aspinall or Mal Evans. However, he also contributed to musical experimentation. Ringo, arguably one of the most renowned drummers, was the first to break away from the norm of simply marking time. Songs like "Ticket to Ride" feature drums that definitely carry the entire song, with a "backwards" beat, and he was one of the first to create completely recognizable beats without the other instruments.

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In 1965, they made their second film, Help!, with the script revolving around Ringo, as a group of crazy people hunt him down to steal one of his rings, chasing them around the world. Although the film received less favorable reviews than the previous one, the press continued to praise Ringo's performance.

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In 1966, they released Revolver, an even more experimental album with extremely complex beats. These sessions produced "Rain," which many say is one of the songs with the most complex drumming. The album also produced the single "Yellow Submarine," the only single sung by Ringo that would reach #1. The song portrays John and George's first experience with LSD.

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After Revolver and their decision to abandon touring for the simple reason that they couldn't hear each other over the screams of the fans, the band took a hiatus. While the others pursued projects such as traveling to India to study sitar and meditation (George) and making film soundtracks (Paul), John and Ringo made separate appearances in various films. John in How I Won the War, and Ringo in a small role in Reflections of Love. When they returned from this break, they found that, without agreeing, everyone had a mustache.

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The next project was the ambitious Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which they began recording in late 1966 and would take eight months. Ringo here plays Billy Shears, the album's main figure, performing "With a Little Help From My Friends." On the cover, he would appear wearing a pink suit. On August 19, their second son, Jason, was born.

 

In 1968, after Brian Epstein's death, they traveled to India for a more intensive Transcendental Meditation course with the Mahareshi. Ringo could barely last a week, as his stomach, which had been left delicate by his childhood problems, couldn't handle the spicy Indian food. He wasn't too keen on all that nonsense George was carrying, either.

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In 1968, he composed his first composition for a Beatles album, "Don't Pass Me By," or at least one that his bandmates didn't dismiss. The song's title was a kind of hint, as he felt increasingly excluded from the recording process, to the point that he had learned to play guitar and compose to kill boredom. The sessions were tense, so much so that during one session McCartney scolded him like a little boy for his drumming. This tried Ringo's patience, and he left the group for a couple of weeks. During that time, he took a vacation with his family on a yacht around Sardinia. During a conversation with the ship's captain, he explained to Ringo the behavior of octopuses at sea, which inspired him to compose "Octopus's Garden," a song for his children. When he returned from vacation to London, he found his drum kit covered in flowers and returned to the band, accepting his bandmates' apologies and continuing as if nothing had happened. During his absence, Paul would record drum tracks for some songs. That same year, he would appear in the film "Candy," which garnered critical acclaim. The filming and sessions for "Let It Be" were no easier, and during them, it was George's turn to announce his departure, though he later returned, as did Ringo. On their final album, "Abbey Road," Starr would release his second song, "Octopus' Garden," which was in perfect harmony with the rest of the album. He would also perform one of his only solos in the final medley.
 

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In the final dispute over choosing a new manager, Ringo and George sided with John over Allen Klein, mainly because they feared that if they chose Paul's father-in-law, he would have privileges. In September, John privately informed them that he was leaving the group, but since there was no official announcement, everyone believed it was a threat like Ringo and George's previous attempts. In 1969, Ringo appeared in the film The Magic Christian.

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Tensions grew in 1970, when Ringo began preparing his solo debut, which was more of a collection of 1930s and 1940s jazz pieces that Starr wanted to dedicate to his mother than a serious album. With a release date, Paul rushed to record his own debut, announcing a date that overlapped with Ringo's album and Let It Be. John and George sent Ringo to speak with McCartney, but he slammed the door in his face (Ha!). This would be the final straw. Paul didn't discuss it privately, but announced to the press that he was leaving the Beatles on April 10th. This time it was real, although John would claim he was the one who had broken up the group months earlier.

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Ringo's solo career thus began with Sentimental Journey. Despite not being a very commercial album, it reached #7 in the UK and garnered relatively favorable reviews. By September, he had released a second album, Beaucoups of Blues, which leaned more toward country and was his first sales failure. On November 11th, his third son, Lee, was born.

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After the album's failure, Ringo focused on his family, making films, and appearing on songs by John and George. In 1972, he made his debut as a film director by making a documentary about Marc Bolan of T. Rex.

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His first proper album wouldn't come until 1973, with his self-titled album, on which he received help from John George and Paul, composing, performing, and singing backing vocals on some songs. The album is surprisingly good, and on the recording of "I'm the Greatest," John and George recorded simultaneously, with Klaus Voorman on bass, giving rise to rumors of a possible reunion. Billy Preston and members of The Band also provided support on the album. Ringo would be his biggest commercial success, with songs like "Photograph," "Oh My," and "You're Sixteen" climbing the charts, reaching platinum status.

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By the end of 1974, he released "Goodnight Vienna," almost as good as Ringo, and featuring guests such as John Lennon, Elton John, Jim Keltner, Harry Nilsson, Vini Poncia, and Billy Preston. The title track, "No, No Song," and their cover of "Only You," would be quite successful, and the album would sell over half a million copies. The cover art is a reference to Ringo's portrayal of the character Klaatu in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Interestingly, a rumor would arise that a Canadian band called Klaatu was the Beatles' pseudonym for releasing material without attracting attention in the latter half of the 1970s.

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In 1975, he divorced Maureen after a series of infidelities that weakened their relationship. Mo is believed to have had a relationship with George Harrison.

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After releasing a compilation album, in 1976 he released Ringo's Rotogravure, with support from Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Dr. John, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon. It would be John's last collaboration with a former Beatle. The album, however, did not sell well and marked the beginning of a series of commercial failures. He attempted to reverse the problem by modernizing his sound with 1977's Ringo The Future, incorporating disco and R&B tracks, but fared worse. Ringo's voice wasn't suited to that type of music.

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In 1980, after John's murder, Ringo was distraught and attended the funeral visibly shaken. That year, he had been filming The Caveman, where he met the stunning actress Barbara Bach. They married on April 27, 1981, with George and Paul as guests, in the first public appearance of the three since John's death.

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Anyway, I don't intend to bore you with every single album he released, especially those from the '80s. Ringo cared little about the critics; he continued releasing albums regardless of whether they sold or not. What's clear is that he never struggled to surround himself with big names, which was a testament to the affection and respect Ringo always had in the industry, forming his All-Star Band, in which he would have a rotating cast of personalities and friends accompanying him. He never fought with anyone, never got into scandals, and always walked around with his huge smile flashing the peace sign whenever the opportunity presented itself. In 1995, he reunited with George and Paul to work on the Anthologies project. Jason and Zak would follow in his footsteps on the drums, with Zak being the most prolific, playing with The Who, Johnny Marr, and Oasis.

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In 2001, when George died, he commented, “We will miss George for his sense of love, music, and laughter.” A year later, he participated in Concert for George, the tribute to Harrison held at the Royal Albert Hall, where he performed “Photograph” and “Honey Don't.” Ringo surprised everyone with tears in his eyes during “Photograph,” a composition he wrote with George. That same year, he was inducted into the Percussive Hall of Fame.

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Ringo is thus a figure who grew over time. Underrated in his time, he is now revered by drum majors who admit that without him, they would never have picked up the sticks. There's a video circulating on social media in which some famous drummers sit down on a drum kit identical to Ringo's, a Ludwig brand, complete with the Beatles logo. It's incredible how everyone's faces light up when they see the set and get to sit on it. They explain how Ringo holds the sticks, try out drum patterns, and say everything they owe him. He's an unpredictable, seemingly simple drummer who never liked solos, but, according to many, very difficult to replicate.

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Ironically, today we could repeat the question: Who is the youngest and oldest Beatle? The answer remains: Ringo, with his cool, forty-something image who refuses to age. I suspect he's going to bury us all.

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That's why I stand by what I said in the ex-Beatles post: And Ringo? We love Ringo!
 

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By Corvan

Jun/16/2017

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