Serendipitous Ringo Starr

            “He’s the luckiest man since Ringo Starr.”   We apply this catchphrase to successful folks deemed more lucky than talented.  They inherited wealth, or through ‘connections’ found enviable success. 

            Yet, the above-catchphrase misstates Ringo Starr’s trajectory.   Luck means success brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions.  Serendipity—the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way—more accurately defines Starr’s course, of which he took full advantage.

Ritchie to Ringo.

Beneficial chance took its’ time finding the Beatles’ drummer born Richard Starkey on the seven day of the seventh month of 1940.    He grew up in a small, postage stamp sized home in a lowly section of Liverpool, the ‘poorest’ of his future Beatle band mates.   Ritchie as he was then known has no memory of his father who left the family leaving his mother to shoulder the load alone; she was protective and dedicated to her only child.   

Young Ritchie was a sickly child who endured a botched appendectomy that resulted in peritonitis.  He later suffered from tuberculosis with a two-year stay in a sanatorium.  During that time, the medical staff attempted to stimulate his motor activity and relieve boredom by encouraging him to join the ‘hospital band’, leading to his first exposure to percussion—a mallet made from a cotton bobbin that he used to strike the cabinets next to his bed.  Starkey’s love affair with percussion beat took root.  Perhaps his parents who enjoyed swing dancing during happier days genetically passed to their son his renowned movement and rhythm on the drums.

Such a ‘start’ was no harbinger for fame and fortune.   Ritchie later worked as an apprentice machinist where he found an interest in the then skiffle craze.  At lunch hour, he banged on biscuit tins and chair backs keeping beat with an amateur guitarist; the duo morphed into foursome where Starkey raked a thimble across a washboard that drove the fledgling bands’ rhythm and kept it in its’ wobbly groove.

In 1957, Starkey received a Christmas gift, a second-hand drum kit that upgraded his band’s appeal. The group secured better gigs at a time when American rock and roll sub-planted skiffle with England’s youth.  Two years later, a group then known as the Texans drafted the beat-driving drummer who helped boost the group from Liverpool’s better-known skiffle acts to a full-fired rock and roll band.  The band adopted a new name—Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  Their drummer followed suit taking the stage name of Ringo Starr, a moniker derived from the rings he wore along with the implication of the revised band’s country and western influence.  Ringo’s singing solos were billed as ‘Starr Time’.

By 1960, the Hurricanes rose to one of Liverpool’s leading bands, receiving better pay and top-billing over the Beatles when the two groups played on the same card—which is when Starr crossed paths with his future band mates.

As John Lennon remarked:  “Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met.  Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed, and was in one of the top groups in Britain, but especially in Liverpool.”

 ‘You’re only as good as your drummer’.  Joe Strummer.

On the cusp of success, the Beatles secured another opportunity to cut a record, this time with EMI.   Previously, the group’s audition with Decca in 1962 — with Pete Best still on the drums—sounded disengaged.  Thus, that record label famously turned them down. 

For his first order of business, EMI producer George Martin mandated a change of drummer, an essential but often underrated position within a group.  The unfortunate Pete Best was sacked, and the trio looked for a little help from their friend, Ringo Starr.   When asked years later if he felt sorry for Pete Best, Ringo replied: “I say no, why should I?  I was a better player than him.  That’s why I got the job.”  

Martin observed:  “He’s not a technical drummer. Men like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa would run rings around him, but he is a good solid rock drummer with a steady beat, and he knows how to get the right sound out of his drums.”  It proved an essential difference for The Beatles.

Ringo played with a deep natural feel for percussion with an intuitive soul that all great musicians possess.  He took his inspiration from soul-music drummers who played in the pocket—meaning timing and sensing the music’s feeling while staying within its’ groove—that allowed the other band members to build their mastery around his spin of American R&B, along with his country and rockabilly influence.

Their fellow Liverpudlian’s rhythmic, rock solid, hi hat style held the band’s sound and upbeat tempo together much like the drums hold together the march of soldiers on parade.   Rock historian Rob Sheffield underscored that difference:  “There’s a Place and ‘I Saw Her Standing There, the first two songs they cut the day of the Please Please Me session (Beatles first album recorded in a one day, ten hour session) —it’s their big morning in the studio, they’re all scared stiff—but during both those tracks, you can hear them speed up when Ringo drives them harder.” 

With Ringo in tow, the Band’s lineup was complete.  McCartney gamboled the strings of his violin-shaped Hofner with panache, playing bouncy, creative rhythms that bolstered the group’s sound.  Paul’s bass and Ringo’s rock-solid drumming bedrocked the beat in Beatles’ music.  John Lennon—not known to be overly generous in praise—stated that “Paul and Ringo stand up anywhere with any of the rock musicians…Not technically great….but as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make noise, they’re as good as anybody.”

Unlike later days of studio sound and sophistication, a straightforward foursome of rock and rollers drove Beatlemania with the beat driven by Ringo’s drumming.   “If you value the ‘backbeat’ era Beatles, then Ringo is pivotal.” UCLA Music Historian Robert Fink.

Two examples suffice.  His intro tom roll drumming on She Loves You kicked off Beatlemania with a shot of adrenaline that charged the song’s thumping.   Starr’s drumming drove Can’t Buy Me Love with a wall-of-sound hi-hat thrash sounding like two drumming at once.  His hard-hitting offbeat style is so much part of the Beatles style that one cannot imagine their songs without him

Starr’s influence waned when the Beatles became a studio band, but his beat-driving drumming can still be heard in songs such as Tomorrow Never Knows, Rain and in the Anthology’s alternate take of Good Morning—a version many opine should have been selected for the cut on Sgt. Pepper.

Persona.

George Harrison once noted that there were large egos in the band—which surely swelled with the Beatles’ phenomenal success.  It could not have been easy to join as the newly added fourth of the Fab Four.  Yet, the other members of the group viewed their newcomer as an equal, underscoring the drummer’s importance.

“I was always ready to play.  I invented the back for the drum stool because I would be on that stool ready…you could see (the three) all chatting.  If anybody started (playing), I’m ready.”

An incidental but key factor in the Beatles early days of rapid hit production while in the haze of touring involved Starr’s intuitive ability pick up and play the songs quickly, which was a major part of the Beatles incredible work rate, augmented by his distinctive drumming style.

By nature a regular bloke with a winsome personality, Ringo’s easygoing nature meshed with his mates, his non-ego persona lubricating inherent friction that bands endure when endlessly working together in tight quarters.  The Beatles’ later implosion under the strain of seven unrelenting years of stifling fame and the incumbent pressure that comes with it may well have occurred sooner but for their new mate’s tempering influence. 

Beatle fans viewed the affable drummer as a relatable ‘everyman’, especially when he sang Act Naturally, a Buck Owens’ country and western tune that fit within his limited yet confident vocal range. That song became his touring signature piece reflecting his role in a band filled with larger than life personalities.

Starr sang in nearly every Beatle album with songs written or selected to establish his vocal personality within the band, and tailored to fit within his limited baritone range.   With a Little Help from My Friends, Yellow Submarine and his own compositions “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Octopus’s Garden” became fan favorites.

Ringo’s malapropisms only made him more endearing.  Two of them became song titles:  Tomorrow Never Knows and Hard Day’s Night.  The latter was also used for the title of the movie in which Ringo proved that he could indeed act naturally. His ‘walkabout’ scene was perhaps the funniest of that Beatlemania flick.  Ringo later performed in over a dozen non-Beatle movies.  Director/producer Walter Shenson called him an absolute natural.   

Post Beatles.

“Ringo’s talent would have come out one way or the other…Whatever that spark is in Ringo, we all know it but we can’t put our finger on it.  Whether it’s acting, drumming or singing, I don’t know.  There’s something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced as an individual.”  John Lennon.

Not many predicted that Starr’s solo career would achieve success.  Yet, he rode the wave of post-Beatle fame.  He recorded successful albums, and scored several hit records in the decade that followed the Fab Four breakup.

Sentimental Journey, composed of old standards with musical arrangements by Quincy Jones, Maurice Gib, George Martin and Paul McCartney peaked at number seven in the UK and number 22 in America.  Starr followed that album with the country-inspired Beaucoups of Blues, which received favorable reviews.

In the 1970’s, his top ten hits included It Don’t Come Easy; Back off Boogaloo; Photograph; You’re Sixteen; and Oh My My.  Author Peter Doggett described the album Ringo as a template for Starr’s solo career performing as a musician first rather than a songwriter:   “He would rely on his friends and his charm, and if both were on tap, then the results were usually appealing.”

Underscoring his affability and musical kinship, Ringo continued to play on selected songs on all three of his former mates’ albums—the only ex-Beatle to do so.

Ringo continued to record music—a total of 20 post-Beatles albums.  Record sales lagged in the 1980s, primarily due to an older fan base who slacked off on purchasing music—though he always retained a following.

Ringo Starr and his All Star Band.

In 1989, Starr returned to his love for performing live and touring when he formed Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band.  The windfall that comes from being a former Beatle includes his appeal to others who desire to perform with a living legend, as well as fans of all ages who yearn to see one of the fabled fab four in person.

In those 30 plus years, the ever-changing band membership includes over 50 different luminaries such as Joe Walsh, Todd Rudgren, Clarence Clemmons and Nils Lofgren, plus over 75 special guest ‘star’ appearances ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Bonnie Raitt.  

Ringo’s All-Stars began touring again in Spring of 2023, with scheduled performances in Kansas City and St. Louis on September 22 and 23, respectively.   The current lineup consists of Edgar Winter; Men At Work’s Colin Hay; former David Lee Roth drummer Greg Bissonette; erstwhile Toto guitarist Steven Lukather; virtuoso Warren Ham on sax, percussion, harmonica and vocals; and Hamish Stuart of the Average White Band.

Critics praise the All-Star band’s performances that generally begin with selections from the Beatles’ song book of Ringo lead tunes intermixed with individual All-Stars hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s that feature among others Toto’s Africa and Rosanna, and The Average White Band’s Pick Up the Pieces and Cut the Cake. 

Ringo closes the evening with Act Naturally; With a Little Help From My Friends; and Give Peace a Chance—the latter a salute to the late John Lennon as well as a nod to Ringo’s own signature slogan of ‘Peace and Love’.  

As Lennon noted, there is indeed something ‘projectable’ about Ringo Starr.  At age 83, he still projects an amiable, everyman persona with an affable and energetic desire to share music and good times with his fans.   ‘Peace and Love’ indeed.