Dec 14

Ringo Starr

Highly Appreciated

RINGO STARR
 
 
Ringo Starr  (born Richard Starkey on 7 July 1940) is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles.  When the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  He joined the Beatles in August 1962, replacing Pete Best.  After the band’s break-up in 1970, he released several successful singles including the US number four hit “It Don’t Come Easy”, and number ones “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen”.  He narrated the first two seasons of the children’s television series Thomas & Friends.  Since 1989, he has successfully toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.  Starr – already inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Beatles in 1988 – will go in for his solo career in 2015, making him a two-time inductee.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

 
Never having been in a band, I can’t say for sure; but it seems to me that choosing just the right name has to be a major decision.  Many bands go through several names before settling down.  The Beatles, for instance, cycled through a long list of names beginning in March 1957, many totally unknown to their fans:  the Blackjacks, the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moondogs, the Beatals, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beatles, and finally the Beatles in mid-August 1960.  It was Stu Sutcliffe who, in January 1960, came up with the name “the Beatals” – as a tribute to the name of Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets – so he should rightly be credited with the name we all knew them by.  (Another British band was more direct in their honoring of Buddy, the Hollies).  By the way, Pete Best was hired as the permanent drummer for the Beatles on August 12, 1960 – within days of their starting to use the name without “Silver” – and Ringo Starr wouldn’t be brought in for two more years. 
 
(June 2012)
 
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Finally, I have a recommendation to go with my confession earlier.  If any of you are still signed up with Netflix, you should add the 1994 film Backbeat to your queue.  It is the early history of the Beatles mostly when they were in Hamburg, Germany and primarily follows Stu Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff), an old friend of John Lennon who was in an early incarnation of the band.  Long before they were famous, Sutcliffe was drawn into photography and found a love; he died tragically young before his 22nd birthday.  Along the way, you meet Paul McCartney (the two actors who play John and Paul are dead ringers), George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr, who was hanging around the group even though he wasn’t in the band yet.  Actually the words “the Beatles” were only spoken once during the entire movie; John Lennon mostly just called them “the band”. 
 
The idea is that, in those days, the Beatles were the world’s greatest punk rock group, so the band that they lined up to play the music was drawn from the top American alternative rock bands of the day, like the Afghan Whigs, Soul Asylum, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth.  The drummer was Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, who later became the front man for Foo Fighters (sadly, I believe that I read that they have gone on a hiatus).  However, he still hits the skins from time to time for bands like Queens of the Stone Age.  Highly recommended. 
 
(September 2012)
 
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The newest member of Trillion, CJ Vanston has also performed on the last two albums by Steve Lukather of Toto and the recent tour by Tears For Fears, as well as a remarkably varied list of other artists like Joe Cocker, Ringo Starr, Bob Seger, Prince, Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Richard Marx, Celine Dion, and ’NSync.  
 
(October 2012)
 
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Golden Earring (originally known as the Golden Earrings or the Golden Ear-Rings) formed in 1961 and are still together – yes, you read that right:  before the Rolling Stones formed, and before Ringo Starr joined the Beatles. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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Much of the overheated rhetoric about J. Reuben Silverbird is about his name changes; even the minor switch from Ruben to Reuben is mentioned.  Using stage names is hardly limited to rock musicians – the very term itself shows that its origin is in the theatre.  You needn’t go any further than the drummer for the Beatles to find one:  Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey).  Guitarist and songwriter Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones used the name Keith Richard for many years.  The John Birch Society called Stones frontman Mick Jagger “Mick Jaeggert” back in the 1970’s; a Google search brought up only two websites using this name – one French and one Hungarian – so this is probably not for real. 

 

(August 2013)

 
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The Beatles performed a sort of mini-Wall of Sound at the close of their masterful Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, not long after Phil Spector came along.  Following the second symphonic build-up within “A Day in the Life”, the orchestra swelled into a crescendo, and then there was a thunderous piano chord (an E-major chord to be exact).  Many people who have been around a piano marvel at how long the instrument can hold a note; and here, the Beatles were dealing that expectation up in spades with a long, slow fade for nearly one full minute before the sound faded into background hiss. 

 

Actually though, it wasn’t just one piano:  John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and one of the Beatles’ roadies, Mal Evans were manning different pianos; while George Martin was playing the same chord on a harmonium.  What’s more, the gain was gradually turned up as the chord faded in order to prolong the effect – at the end (they tell me), it is possible to hear background sounds in the recording studio:  rustling papers, a squeaking chair, and the air conditioners.  

 

(October 2013)

 

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For the Bob Dylan album Shot of Love, other players include ex-Beatle Ringo Starr on drums, current Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood on guitar, bass guitarist Donald “Duck” Dunn – formerly of Booker T and the MG’s and also the Blues Brothers Band – and veteran sessionman Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar on guitar and electric guitar.  Bumps Blackwell, who produced most of Little Richard’s most indelible songs, produced the title song “Shot of Love”. 

 

(August 2014)

 

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The liner notes for the Wonderwall Music album were a mess, and George Harrison was not originally credited with performing any of the music, leading many to think that he merely oversaw the album; actually, in addition to arranging the music, Harrison played electric and acoustic guitar, piano, and Mellotron.  Other musicians on the album include Eric Clapton on electric guitar – credited as “Eddie Clayton” – Harrison’s bandmate Ringo Starr on drums, and Peter Tork of the Monkees who plays banjo (!).  In 1969, George Harrison collaborated with Eric Clapton in writing perhaps my very favorite song by Cream, “Badge”. 
 
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From Wikipedia:  “Among the large cast of backing musicians [on All Things Must Pass] were Eric Clapton and Delaney & Bonnie’s Friends band – three of whom formed Derek and the Dominos with Clapton during the recording – as well as Ringo Starr, Gary Wright, [Billy] Preston, Klaus Voormann, John Barham, Badfinger, and Pete Drake.”  
 
(September 2014)
 
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The above photo of the Rolling Stones from Mad magazine is one that I remember well from my younger days, not because the gag was all that great – the balloon quote from Mick Jagger is:  “I’d like people to consider me as something more than ‘just another pretty face’!” – but because the band was apparently at some sort of news conference, and there were name tags in front of each of them.  Almost as soon as we heard about the Beatles, we knew their names, “John, Paul, George, and Ringo”, and even casual fans typically knew the surnames as well.  But it wasn’t like that with the Rolling Stones. 
 
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Of course, the Beatles recorded their own version of “I Wanna be Your Man”; it was included on Meet the Beatles, with Ringo Starr on double-tracked lead vocals.  

 

(May 2015)

 

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In Sgt. Pepper’s title song, the album opens with a framing device that, despite being “the band you’ve known for all these years”, serves to introduce the Beatles as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, along with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” near the end of the album.  There were even rumors that the band was going to officially change its name, but of course that never happened.  Before launching into their second song, the singer is introduced as “Billy Shears”; then Ringo Starr begins singing “With a Little Help from My Friends”. 
 
Wikipedia reports:  “To date, [Ringo] Starr has closed every concert performed by each version of his All Starr Band, with this song [‘With a Little Help from My Friends’].  After he is done singing, Starr tells the audience, ‘Peace and love . . . peace and love is the only way . . . and good night’, then walks off the stage. . . .
 
“[Paul] McCartney and Ringo Starr . . . performed the song [‘With a Little Help from My Friends’] together on The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles, a commemorative show on 27 January 2014, that marked 50 years after the band’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.” 
 
(June 2015)
 
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As to the Beatles’ attitudes toward the Let it Be . . . Naked reissue, Wikipedia notes:  “[Paul] McCartney in particular was always dissatisfied with the ‘Wall of Sound’ production style of the Phil Spector mixes of three tracks, especially for his song ‘The Long and Winding Road’, which he believed was ruined by the process.  George Harrison gave his approval for the Naked project before he died.  McCartney’s attitude contrasted with [John] Lennon’s from over two decades earlier.  In his December 1970 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Lennon had defended Spector’s work, saying, ‘He was given the s--ttiest load of badly recorded s--t – and with a lousy feeling to it – ever. And he made something out of it. . . .  When I heard it, I didn’t puke.’  Harrison and Ringo Starr also remained complimentary about Spector’s contribution, with Starr saying:  ‘I like what Phil did. . . .  There’s no point bringing him in if you’re not going to like the way he does it – because that’s [Wall of Sound] what he does.’” 
 
(September 2017)
 
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Anyway, here is what and who I talked about last year:
March 2017 – 1980’s/1990’s punk rock band THE LAZY COWGIRLS; Story of the Month on Ringo Starr’s pre-Beatles career; also, first-wave punk rock, Iggy Pop, the Stooges, the Avengers, Penelope Houston, the Weirdos, the Dickies, Pat Todd and the Rankoutsiders. 
 
(Year 8 Review)
Last edited: April 7, 2021