Thought for Thursday

"America: It's like Britain, only with buttons." ~Ringo

Whatsoever Wednesday

I always tear up when I watch this- Ringo's song "Never Without You" that he wrote for his dear friend George Harrison and can be found on Ringo's 2003 album, Ringo Rama.



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Testimonial Tuesday

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Monday Minutiae

* Note: A similar blog entry was posted today on George, John and Paul's blogs, but since Ringo's experience of Hamburg Germany in 1960 was somewhat different due to being a member of a different band, I wanted to write a different entry for him. This will help round the story out a bit, I hope, of how everything happened during that particular time.

While John, George and Paul were in Hamburg, Germany with the other Beatles- Stu and Pete, Ringo also happened to be there with the band he was in at the time, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. In 1960, Rory Storm was a big deal, much bigger than the Beatles and they were topping the bill at the Kaiserkeller club.

They would play 90-minute sets 5 or 6 times per day, alternating with the Beatles, so Ringo would often stick around and listen to them perform while he took a break. He got to know the lads quite well, and became good friends especially with George.

From the 2005 boook by Bob Spitz "The Beatles: The Biography":

"The stage of the Kaiserkeller was made of planks of wood balanced on the top of beer crates, so the two groups made a bet to see to who would be the first to break it. After punishing the stage for days, a slight crack appeared, and when Storm jumped off the top of the upright piano, during a performance of "Blue Suede Shoes", it finally broke. Byrne remembered that as Storm hit the stage, it cracked loudly and formed a V-shape around Storm. He disappeared into it, and all the amplifiers and Starr's cymbals slid into the hole. Koschmider was furious, and had to replace the live music with a juke box. Both groups went across the road to Harold's cafe for breakfast, but were followed by Koschmider's doormen with coshes, who beat the musicians as punishment."

The first recording to include all 4 of the Beatles as we know them now (John, Paul, George and Ringo) was in Hamburg, Germany during the time they were all there with their respective bands in 1960. On October 15 of that year, the four of them plus Lou Walters recorded Walters' song "Summertime" at Akoustik Studios, with the Beatles members singing back-up and Ringo on drums.

Over the next two years, Ringo would fill in for the Beatles here and there when they needed a drummer for a show that Pete wasn't able to do and in 1962 when they decided Pete wasn't cutting it, they approached Ringo to ask him to be an official member of the Beatles.

Some early 1960's photos of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, right around the time they would be playing shows with the Beatles in Hamburg and Liverpool (as a matter of fact, George is in the first picture):







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Sunday Silliness

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Sex-Appeal Saturday!

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Footplate Friday

Tim Riley said in the 1988 book "Tell Me Why" -

"Ringo wanted to serve the songs rather than show off. As a song writer's drummer, Ringo was the type of musician who could follow instructions as he completed the overall sound. His commitment to the music was bigger than his ego."

Well, maybe Ringo didn't want to show off, but he couldn't hide his enthusiasm during this particular number in Australia. Having recently returned to the tour after a bout with tonsillitis, he later admitted that he was afraid he would be permanently replaced with the drummer hired to fill in for him, Jimmie Nicol. Obviously, that didn't happen because, as we can see from this clip, Ringo is quite a force to be reckoned with.



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Thought for Thursday

In April of 2010, the Vatican officially offered forgiveness to the Beatles regarding their heretical trangressions during their heyday in the 1960's. Ringo was underwhelmed, stating:

"Didn't the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic -- and they've still forgiven us?"

Touché.



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Whatsoever Wednesday

"The face of the Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr, has been seen in a droplet of water bouncing on a lotus leaf."

I kid you not.



Here's the full article:

http://physicsworld.com/blog/2009/11/ringo_starr_spotted_in_bouncin.html


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Testimonial Tuesday

Monday Minutiae

Did you know that Ringo brought his own food when the Beatles went to India in 1966 because his stomach couldn't handle the Indian food? And that he was on his death bed in 1979 with intestinal problems, surviving only after much of his intestine had been removed? Unfortunately, his medical problems started much earlier, when he was just a young boy in the small working-class section of South Liverpool called "The Dingle".

Ringo developed appendicitis at the age of 6. He was hospitalized but his appendix had burst, causing peritonitis which drove him into a coma for 2 months. Doctors didn't expect him to survive. After waking from his coma, he spent 6 months recuperating and was doing well when he fell out of his hospital bed (the story goes that he was trying to show another child a toy) and suffered a severe concussion, forcing him to remain in bed another 6 months.

When Ringo was 13, he had bronchitis which turned into chronic pleurisy and he spent the next 2 years in a children's sanatorium.

Luckily for Ringo (and for us!) he found himself to be musically inclined, as he was pretty disenchanted with school and had missed so much of it that it would have been nearly impossible to catch up. He dropped out of school at 15, upon his release from the hospital . His stepfather, Harry Graves (whom he called his "stepladder") bought him his first drum set in 1957 (a Premier kit) and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sunday Silliness

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Sex-Appeal Saturday!

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Footplate Friday

Although "Carry that Weight" is a Lennon/McCartney song, it always makes me think of Ringo. His drumming is wonderful in the song, but what makes it special for me is his vocals. It was rare to have all four Beatles singing at the same time and ironically, it's Ringo's voice that carries above everyone else's. It's the first voice you hear. It makes me smile every time. He has always said he would have stayed if everyone else had - if they could all stop fighting. When I hear Ringo singing "Boy, you're gonna carry that weight for a long time.." it gives me goosebumps.

One cannot simply listen to Carry That Weight on its own, however. It is sandwiched by Golden Slumbers and The End, and to really appreciate the song, you must listen to the three songs together. Ringo has an incredible drum solo in The End, though he was apprehensive about doing it.

"Ringo would never do drum solos. He hated drummers who did lengthy drum solos. We all did. And when he joined The Beatles we said, "Ah, what about drum solos then?", thinking he might say, "Yeah, I'll have a five-hour one in the middle of your set," and he said, "I hate 'em!" We said, "Great! We love you!" And so he would never do them. But because of this medley I said, "Well, a token solo?" and he really dug his heels in and didn't want to do it. But after a little bit of gentle persuasion I said, "Yeah, just do that, it wouldn't be Buddy Rich gone mad," because I think that's what he didn't want to do." ~Paul McCartney


A beautiful video befitting of the songs:


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Thought for Thursday

"I've never really done anything to create what has happened. It creates itself. I'm here because it happened. But I didn't do anything to make it happen apart from saying 'Yes'" ~Ringo Starr

Whatsoever Wednesday

Here Comes the Son(s)..

Ringo and Zak:













Ringo and Jason:













The Starkey boys three:



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Testimonial Tuesday

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Monday Minutiae

On how "A Hard Day's Night" got its name..

Ringo:
"We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day... and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '...night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"

Paul:
"The title was Ringo's. We'd almost finished making the film, and this fun bit arrived that we'd not known about before, which was naming the film. So we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brain-storming session... and we said, 'Well, there was something Ringo said the other day.' Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical... they were sort of magic even though he was just getting it wrong. And he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.'"

Sunday Silliness

The best last 10 seconds of a song ever:



They did 18 takes of Helter Skelter in one night. At the end of the last one, Ringo threw his drumsticks across the room and yelled "I've got blisters on my fingers!"

They kept the last take.


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Sex-Appeal Saturday!

'Nuff said.


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Footplate Friday

According to Paul McCartney, Ringo never missed a beat, and while recording, the band never once had to stop due to a drumming error.

I especially love Ringo's drums on Strawberry Fields Forever. I found a video with the vocals/drums isolated, so you can hear them better.

Check out his solo, starting at 2:58.




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Thought for Thursday

"There's a woman in the United States who predicted the plane we were traveling on would crash. Now, a lot of people would like to think we were scared into saying a prayer. What we did actually- we drank." ~Ringo Starr





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Whatsoever Wednesday

Poor Ringo.




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Testimonial Tuesday

Monday Minutiae

At the age of 16, Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere (now known simply as Cher) recorded her first solo song, called "Ringo, I love you" under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. The song never reached the charts, partly because radio stations refused to play it. The song itself wasn't scandalous (it's actually very sweet). However, upon hearing her deep vocals, deejays believed it to be a gay man singing a love song to Ringo and wouldn't give it air time. It was only 1964 after all.





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Sunday Silliness

Press: Why is it that you, Ringo, get more fan mail than the others?
Ringo: I dunno. I suppose it's because more people write me.







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Sex-Appeal Saturday!

Underneath all the goofiness and the puppy dog eyes was a sexy beast trying to get out. As he says in the movie Help, "There's more here than meets the eye."
I believe it.


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Footplate Friday

Ringo was pretty loyal to Ludwig during the early Beatles years. In June of 1963, having gone to a music store to order another Premier kit similar to the one he had been using at the time, he saw a drum kit with a Black Oyster Pearl finish and fell in love. Upon finding out that you could only get that finish on a Ludwig kit, Ringo had to have one. Ludwig didn't put their logo on drumheads back then, but Ringo insisted that the drumhead have one. They agreed to it, as long as Ringo agreed to also have a Beatles logo put on the head, bigger than the Ludwig logo.





He says that his best recorded drumming is in the studio recording of the song Rain, which was released as a B-side to Paperback Writer. It was recorded during the Revolver sessions, the album that would eventually rank #3 in the 500 Best Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003. This song is notable in that it was the first song to use a tape played backwards.




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Thought for Thursday

"Well, I'm getting happier all the time, which is very nice."
~Ringo




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Whatsoever Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Ringo!

Paul McCartney showed up at Ringo's 70th birthday party to surprise him and performed "Birthday" with Ringo on drums.

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