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Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7 July 1940), known by his stage name
Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer and actor, best known as the drummer of
The Beatles. He was the oldest and shortest member of the band, and the last to
join the now familiar 'Fab Four' line-up.
 Early
years
He was born and raised in the working class Dingle area of Liverpool, England.
Starr's parents split up when he was three years old; his mother, Elsie, married
Harry Graves, whom Starr liked and who encouraged his interest in music. His
childhood was filled with long hospital stays—an appendicitis-caused coma and a
cold-turned-pleurisy were among his ailments—consequently, he fell far behind in
school. After his last extended visit to the hospital, beginning at age thirteen,
he did not return to school. His health problems had another enduring effect:
allergies and sensitivities to food. When he traveled to India in 1968 with the
other Beatles, he took his own food with him.
Like the other Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Ritchie
(as he was known in those days) also eventually became caught up in Liverpool's
Skiffle craze. In 1957, he started his own group with Eddie Miles that they
originally named the Eddie Miles Band but evolved into Eddie Clayton and the
Clayton Squares; "Clayton" was a local landmark and Eddie Miles' stage surname.
Starr joined the Raving Texans in 1959, a quartet that backed singer Rory Storm.
During this time, he got the nickname Ringo, because of the rings he wore, and
because it sounded 'cowboyish' (probably a reference to John Wayne's character in
Stagecoach, "The Ringo Kid"), and the last name Starr so that his drum solos could
be billed as 'Starr Time'.
Starr originally met the Beatles in Hamburg, in October 1960, while he was
performing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He also sat in for Pete Best on
several occasions. When the Beatles removed Best as their drummer on August 16,
1962, Starr was their choice to replace him.
Although Storm was magnanimous about losing Starr, Best fans were upset, holding
vigils outside Best's house and fighting at the Cavern Club, shouting 'Pete Best
forever! Ringo never!' Similarly, other fans yelled the contrary: "Ringo forever!
Pete Best never!"
Role in the
Beatles
While sometimes the least visible member of the band, Starr's drumming style played
a pivotal role in the music played and recorded by the Beatles. He filled the role
he was hired for in 1962, then went on to establish a new approach to rhythm in
popular music that some claim continues to grow in its significance and influence
with every decade since the Beatles recorded their music.
Starr is left-handed yet plays a right-handed kit; his tendency to lead with his
left hand contributes to his distinctive drumming style.
Drummer Steve Smith said:
“ Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity.
Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We
started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One
of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for
the Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a
Ringo drum part without the rest of the music, and still identify the song. ”
Many drummers list Starr as an influence, including Max Weinberg of the E Street
Band, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters/Nirvana, Danny Carey of Tool, Liberty DeVitto of
Billy Joel's band, Phil Collins, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater and others.
According to Collins, "Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A
Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and
say, "I want it like that." They wouldn't know what to do."
In his extensive survey of the Beatles' recording sessions, Mark Lewisohn confirmed
that Starr was both proficient and remarkably reliable and consistent. According to
Lewisohn, there were fewer than a dozen occasions in the Beatles' eight-year
recording career where session 'breakdowns' were caused by Starr making a mistake,
while the vast majority of takes were stopped due to mistakes by the other three
members.
Starr is also considered to have advanced various modern drumming techniques (for
playing and recording) such as the matched grip, placing the drums on high risers
for visibility as part of the band, tuning the drums lower, and using muffling
devices on tonal rings, along with his general contributions to the Beatles as a
whole. Specific drum parts executed by Starr in notably signature fashion include
the fill that brings the drums and bass guitar into "Hey Jude", the steady rock
beats in "Please Please Me" and other early Beatles recordings, the drum kit
pattern through the bridge of "Hello, Goodbye", and the driving bass drum notes
found in "Lady Madonna", underlying the more intricate, double-tracked snare drum.
His use of a 'sizzle' cymbal (a cymbal incorporated with rivets that vibrate) would
bring a much fuller sound than standard 'ride' cymbals.
Two song performances where Starr is most renowned as a drummer are "Rain" (his
personal favourite) and "She Said, She Said": his synching with McCartney's bass on
the final coda of "Rain" is considered one of his most memorable moments; on "She
Said, She Said", his bombastic fills along with his smooth changing of tempos from
4/4 to 2/4 have been highly praised.
Lennon, McCartney and Harrison have all said that Starr was the best rock drummer
in the world. Although once in 1968 Paul apparently took the liberty of playing on
"Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence", the first two tracks on the White Album
(1968). Starr walked out, and did not return for two weeks until the other three
Beatles urged him to come back. He spent the fortnight with actor Peter Sellers on
his yacht in Piraeus, where he wrote Octopus' Garden. Lennon sent telegrams to
Starr, and Harrison set up flowers all over the studio for Starr's return saying
'welcome home'.
McCartney sent Starr a postcard on January 31, 1969 (the day after the band's
performance on the roof of Apple Studios) stating: 'You are the greatest drummer in
the world. Really.' This postcard is included in Starr's book Postcards From The
Boys.
McCartney also played the drums on "The Ballad of John and Yoko", recorded 14 April
1969) since only Lennon and McCartney were immediately available to record the
song. Some have stated that while McCartney was able fill in for Starr, he didn't
possess the smoothness and dexterity Starr had. Starr commented that he was lucky
in being 'surrounded by three frustrated drummers' who could only drum in one
style. Starr also did not play drums on the Beatles' first-ever single, "Love Me
Do". Session drummer Andy White was brought in by the Beatles' producer George
Martin to record in place of Pete Best, and Martin claims to not have realized
prior to the session that the Beatles had hired a professional drummer. Starr
played tambourine on the version of "Love Me Do" featuring Andy White and maracas
on "P.S. I Love You".
Starr generally sang at least one song on each studio album, as part of
establishing the vocal personality of all four members. In some cases, Lennon or
McCartney would write the lyrics and melody especially for him, as Lennon did with
"Good Night" from the White Album, and as McCartney did for "Yellow Submarine" from
Revolver (1966). Often these melodies would be tailored to Starr's baritone vocal
range. Although some have criticized Starr's vocal range when comparing him to his
bandmates, he turned in strong performances on par with other baritone pop stars,
making an invaluable vocal and marketing contribution to the group. Starr's backing
vocals can be heard on songs such as Help!, Carry That Weight and Dear
Prudence.
Lennon and McCartney were the most prolific songwriters in the Beatles, Harrison
wrote several songs, and Starr is credited with "Don't Pass Me By" (on The White
Album) and "Octopus's Garden" (on Abbey Road) as sole songwriter. Starr's name also
appears as a co-writer: on Rubber Soul, the track "What Goes On" was co-written by
Lennon, McCartney and Starr; while the songs "Flying" (on the Magical Mystery Tour
album) and "Dig It" (on Let It Be) are listed as being written by Lennon,
McCartney, Harrison, and Starr; and "Maggie Mae" (on Let It Be) is credited as
"Traditional, arranged by Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey".
In addition, Starr wrote "Taking a Trip to Carolina" (on the second CD of Let It
Be... Naked), and received joint songwriting credits with the other three Beatles
for "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", "Suzy
Parker" (heard in the Let It Be film), "Jessie's Dream" (heard in the Magical
Mystery Tour film) and the Beatles' version of "Free as a Bird". The Let It Be film
also features "Jazz Piano Song", which is credited as a "McCartney/Starkey"
composition.
Each member of the Beatles sometimes contributed to songs without being given
specific songwriting credits; for example, Starr provided the line "writing the
words of a sermon that no one will hear" to the song "Eleanor Rigby", and he
suggested that the priest could be "darning his socks", which McCartney liked and
retained in the final lyrics of the song.. Lennon also used Ringo's common original
expressions such as "A Hard Day's Night," "Tomorrow Never Knows," and "Eight Days A
Week," and turned them into Beatle songs.
Starr commented in The Beatles Anthology that when he presented a song to the
Beatles, it would often sound to the other three Beatles like another popular song,
and Starr recognized the similarities when they were pointed out. The White Album,
particularly the song "Don't Pass Me By", continued to show Starr's taste for
country music that he had brought into the band.
The competitive nature of the Beatles seemed to rank each member according to their
writing output. It should be noted, however, that the Beatles established a new
practice of writing their own songs wheras most other pop artists were used to
recording material written by others. Rather than comparing Ringo to his bandmates,
he is best understood as a great drummer who could sing and play keyboards and
guitar, talents that many other professional drummers lack. When comparing his role
to that of other drummers, Ringo carries a legendary status.
Ringo was often nicknamed the "Sad Beatle" because he was often frowning. Ringo, on
the subject of this, commented that he had the kind of face that, whether or not he
was genuinely enjoying the moment, didn't show much emotion.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Ringo Starr -
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