Historical Figure
Ringo Starr
b. 1940
English musician and actor (born 1940)
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"Shining Time Station Interview" — September 28, 1990
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Biography
Sir Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of three others.
Timeline
The story of Ringo Starr, told in moments.
Born Richard Starkey at 9 Madryn Street in Dingle, Liverpool. Only child. His parents are confectioners. His father leaves when Ringo is three. At six, his appendix bursts. He falls into a coma for ten weeks. At 13, tuberculosis puts him in a sanatorium for two years. He learns drums on the hospital bed, tapping on the cabinets.
Joins the Beatles, replacing Pete Best. He's been drumming for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in Liverpool and Hamburg. John, Paul, and George want him. The fans don't. "Pete Best forever, Ringo never!" they chant. Within months, nobody remembers what the fuss was about.
The Beatles conquer America. Ringo sings "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends." He writes "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden." Other drummers play faster and flashier. His contribution is feel. He tunes the drums lower, muffles the rings, plays for the song instead of the solo.
Releases the album Ringo. It reaches the top ten in both the US and UK. "Photograph," co-written with George Harrison, hits number one. It's the closest the post-breakup Beatles get to a reunion: all four contribute to the album, just never at the same time.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. He'd been inducted as a Beatle in 1988. Knighted in 2018 for services to music. At 77, he's still touring with his All-Starr Band. He's had 13 different lineups since 1989. Peace and love. Every time.
In Their Own Words (11)
I don't collect any memorabilia. I wish I'd have kept everything I had. But who knew you had to keep it. Just gave it away. And we lost so much and we didn't look after a lot of it. I believe Paul's got everything he ever had, but I lost a lot of mine.
Ringo Rama promotional interview with Jody Denberg (July 2003), 2003
I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one. But I have no problems of putting titles and lines from other songs in my songs, because they're great lines and great titles. And some of them I even thought of. You know, I think this is the third time I've used "It Don't Come Easy." I used that on "Time Takes Time," I think, as well. So it's just a great line that, you know, expresses so much. So I just put it in again.
Ringo Rama promotional interview with Jody Denberg (July 2003), 2003
First and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I'm other things.... But I didn't play drums to make money. I played drums because I loved them.... My soul is that of a drummer.... It came to where I had to make a decision — I was going to be a drummer. Everything else goes now. I play drums. It was a conscious moment in my life when I said the rest of things were getting in the way. I didn't do it to be come rich and famous, I did it because it was the love of my life.
As quoted in The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers (1984) by Max Weinberg and Robert Santelli, 1984
Drumming is my middle name.
"Drumming Is My Madness," from Stop And Smell The Roses (1981), 1981
When we first started, they basically went John and Paul's way because they were the writers and they would say, "This is the song," and I would play as creatively as I could. Sometimes I would have three people telling me how to do it. They were saying play it this like on that track. I'm saying, "For Christ's sake, there are two drummers there." They could never hear that, you know. You'd have to have four arms to do half the stuff they wanted me to do.
Interview in Viva magazine (1978), 1978
Artifacts (15)
Mount Starr King, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Cal., No. 1116 from the series "Watkins' Pacific Coast"
Carleton Watkins
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