He wasn’t the most talented or musical member of the Beatles. He was the last to join and maybe some would say the luckiest drummer of all. But Ringo was very important to the Beatles. Not only was his steady beat the key to the Beatles as a band he carried on working with John, George after the band split and to this day with Paul. And Ringo was the one who American audiences first warmed to when the Beatles arrived in 1964.
Despite this Ringo was actually first to walk out on the band in 1968 during the tense White Album sessions. Whilst he was tempted back shortly after things were never quite the same for the band again. However after the Beatles split Ringo enjoyed a relatively successful few years at the very top culminating with the 1973 Beatles re-union album Ringo. Well not exactly but he successfully convinced all 3 other members to write and record with him and a mighty fine album it is too. The same formula was repeated with Goodnight Vienna and met with favourable if not as brilliant sales but after that Ringo’s career fell off a perch and he turned to the bottle.
But through it all he remained the only Beatle to keep in touch and hang out with the other Beatles. The Anthology was an exception and artificial singles “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” were nice touches of nostalgia but never really anything more than candy floss to sweeten up the project.
So why did the other Beatles turn to Ringo to collaborate with whilst usually ignoring the other two? Ego certainly comes into it. Ringo was no threat. He wrote few songs whilst in the Beatles and actively encouraged his former bandmates to help him out on his albums. His happy go lucky personality was probably another. Whilst the major reasons were probably that although John and Paul were at one stage closest to each other in the early years there was much bitterness after the split. John’s premature death put an end to what might have been. George and John were close after the initial split but then disagreements surfaced not long after. And George’s relationship with Paul always seemed the most prickly of all perhaps even up to and after the Anthology project.
But Ringo he just carries on. His easy going style probably being the key. Plus the fact that he was always happy to have been a Beatle and had accepted long ago he could never escape the tag. Paul took a good 10 maybe even 20 years to come to terms with it. John maybe didn’t ever due to circumstances. George I doubt we will ever truly know. Still touring at 70 years old and in recent years releasing some of his best music ever I urge you to check it out. Ringo Starr – Y Not
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