Ringo Starr

Richard Starkey, MBE (born July 7, 1940), known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is a popular British musician, best known as drummer for The Beatles. Ringo is known for his reliable, steady drumming and innovative fills. His everyman personality made him an easy fit with the other Beatles. He was the eldest member of the band.

Role in The Beatles

Starr's drumming style played a pivotal role in the music played and recorded by The Beatles. He filled a role that he was hired for in 1963, then went on to establish a new approach to rhythm in popular music that 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.

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"Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity," said drummer Steve Smith. "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."

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Many drummers list Starr as a major influence including Max Weinberg of The E Street Band, Liberty DeVitto of Billy Joel's band, Phil Collins, 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 less 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 has commented that the most difficult drumming he has ever performed was on the Beatles song "Rain". Starr is also notable for having 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, using muffling devices on tonal rings, along with his general contributions to the Beatles as a whole.

Related Topics:
Max Weinberg - The E Street Band - Liberty DeVitto - Billy Joel - Phil Collins - A Day in the Life - Mark Lewisohn - Rain

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John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison have all said that Starr was the best rock and roll drummer in the world, although when asked in an interview once "Is Ringo Starr the best drummer in the world?" Lennon quipped "He's not the best drummer in the Beatles!" This was in reference to the songs on 1968's White Album "Back In The USSR" and "Dear Prudence", the first two tracks on the album, in which McCartney handled the drumming; Starr had walked out earlier and did not return for two weeks until the other three Beatles urged him to come back. They even went so far as to dress up his drum kit in flowers when he returned. McCartney also played the drums on "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in early 1969 since only Lennon and McCartney were immediately available to record the song. Starr also did not play drums on some of the recordings of "Love Me Do" as the session drummer Andy White was brought in by the Beatles' producer George Martin.

Related Topics:
Rock and roll - White Album - Back In The USSR - Dear Prudence - The Ballad of John and Yoko - 1969 - Love Me Do - Andy White - George Martin

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Starr's easygoing, everyman personality played a major role in the Beatles' success, combining very effectively, Lennon's wit, McCartney's charm, and Harrison's quiet seriousness. With these qualities The Beatles became the "Fab Four". Starr also contributed in areas where the others were weak like public relations (Starr did most of the talking during their press conferences) and acting (Starr being the only competent actor of the four, being cast in the lead roles in their feature films and specials).

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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 "With a Little Help from My Friends", from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and as McCartney did for "Yellow Submarine" from Revolver. Often these melodies would be deliberately limited to take into account Starr's vocal range—most of "With A Little Help From My Friends" is sung within the space of five notes.

Related Topics:
With a Little Help from My Friends - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Yellow Submarine - Revolver

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Of the four Beatles, Starr did the least songwriting. The Beatles explained that when he would present a song as a contender for an album cut, the song would sound (to the other three Beatles) like a knockoff of another popular song, but Starr did not recognize the similarities until they pointed it out. He did, however, write "Don't Pass Me By" (on The White Album) and "Octopus's Garden" on the album Abbey Road, albeit with quite a bit of help from Harrison. The White Album continued to show Starr's taste for country music that he had brought into the band earlier, such as on the Rubber Soul album track "What Goes On", which was co-written by Lennon, McCartney and Starr. Starr also wrote "Taking a Trip to Carolina" (on the second CD of the Let It Be... Naked release), and received joint writing credits with the other three Beatles for "Flying", "Dig It", "12-Bar Original", "Los Paranoias", "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", and the Beatles' version of "Free As A Bird", while "Maggie Mae" was credited as being "Traditional arr. Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey".

Related Topics:
Don't Pass Me By - The White Album - Octopus's Garden - Abbey Road - Country music - Rubber Soul - What Goes On - Let It Be... Naked - Flying - Dig It - Free As A Bird - Maggie Mae

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In addition Starr contributed a number of lyrical ideas and song titles to Lennon and McCartney, although sometimes unintentionally. One of the most famous examples of this was the title for the band's first motion picture, A Hard Day's Night. Starr had emerged from the studio after a long day of work and commented to the others that it had been a "hard day's..." - before he finished his sentence, Starr noticed that it was now night time and added "night". Lennon and McCartney liked the twisted phrase enough that they decided to use it as the title for the still untitled movie the band had been filming. Another example is the title to "Tomorrow Never Knows". Starr also contributed to the lyrics of the Clapton/Harrison song "Badge". According to a Clapton interview, the lines

Related Topics:
A Hard Day's Night - Tomorrow Never Knows - Clapton - Badge

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:I told you 'bout the swans that live in the park.

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:Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.

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were thought up by Starr.

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