Ringo Starr's Biography

With the Beatles

  Of all of the Beatles, Ringo changed the least.  He grew and evolved with the rest of them, but he kept his cheerful, down to earth personality.  Ringo is often seen as unimportant and irreplacable, but this is far from true.  Ringo is what kept the Beatles together.  He may not have been as talented as the others, but he that may have helped him.  John, Paul or George often got big egos knowing that they were big, and Ringo was often the one to bring them back down.  I think that is part of the reason they broke up.  Ringo was sick of bringing them down, and then being forced to act like nothing more than a backing drummer.  This is supported by the fact that after the Beatles broke up, Ringo was seen as the one that is most likely to get them all together.  He would often play on the others' records and they would often play on his.  He is what kept the Beatles, the Beatles for as long as they did. 
    In the beginning, Ringo was not very well liked by the fans, but he was well liked by his bandmates, for he had the same sense of humor and sense of fun.  This all changed with the fans, and with Paul he became one of the most popular Beatles.  Fans found a connection with little Ringo.  John said in a later interview that Ringo would have made it one his own, he had a special charm about him.  He did not do much songwriting or singing with the Beatles, but he was a great drummer.  His sound is unique, which is in part due to the fact that like Paul, he too is left handed.  On the first couple of albums he sang either throwaways which he did well, like "I Wanna Be Your Man" or "Boys", but eventually he sang many of the Beatles classic songs such as "Yellow Submarine" and  "With a LIttle Help From My Friends".  John and Paul wrote both of these songs being that Ringo wasn't a prolefic songwriter by any means.  He often rewrote other people's songs.  He did help with "What Goes On" from Rubber Soul, but it was minimal.  He always knew what songs to sing though, and he does a fantastic job singing "Honey Don't" and "Matchbox", and "Act Naturally" seemed like it was written with him mind.  It wasn't until the White Album that his first composition appeared, "Don't Pass Me By".  He had actually started writing this song in 1964, and it shows, but it fits on the ever so weird and ecclectic White Album.  He also sang John's lullaby to Julian on the second disc of the White Album called "Goodnight".  It was not until Abbey Road that Ringo had wrote his very own catchy song, "Octopus's Garden".  This song is somewhat of a rewrite of "Yellow Submarine", but it is still good.  George found a line of brilliance in the song, which he felt Ringo was subconsciously very philosophical.  The line, "we would be warm, under the storm", was the line George found very appealing.  All of the songs that Ringo sings for the Beatles are very fitting, and I can't imagine John, Paul or George singing them any better.
      Even though Ringo was not a main player musically, his importance was elsewhere.  He would contribute to a classic lines of John and Paul's songs for example, it was he that thought of "A Hard Day's Night", albeit, by accident.  After filming one night, they walked out and Ringo said, "Well that was a Hard Day's" and he meant to say work, but he realized that it was night when he said it so he fixed himself in midsentence, and "A Hard Day's NIght" is what they got from it.  He also came up with the title for "Tomorrow Never Knows" where he mixed up two cliches, which John found better than the originals.  Ringo would also critique the others work, and they valued his opinion.  He was no expert, but he still ahd taste and they respected that.  Ringo was also the groups best actor.  In a Hard Days Night, Ringo gave a great performance playing the lonely guy on the dike.  He really was not acting all that lonely though, in fact, he had just come straight from a bar to the shoot.  Everyone was so impressed by his acting that he was made the lead character in the Beatles next film, Help.
   Ringo also grew and evolved with the others.  He enjoyed smoking marijuana as much as the rest of them, and he took acid well before Paul ever submitted to taking it.  He was never as into the drugs as the others though, and he was much more fond of alcohol.  In fact, Ringo is the only Beatle not to be busted for illegal drug possession.  He joined in with the others with the Maharashi.  Unfortunately, he could not stay long in India becaus of all of the food and his allergies to many different products.  He enjoyed meditating and hearing of eastern religion from George and the others, and he continued to grow with them.  However, after all of their return from India and during the White Album recording, the relationships between the Beatles was becoming strained.  It was Ringo who left the group first.  Paul was telling him how to play drums for "Back In the USSR" ,and it got even more tense, and Paul said that he could play better than Ringo, and Ringo had it, and basically said do it, and he left.  Paul did in fact play drums on "Back in the USSR" as well as "Dear Prudence" and "Why Don't We Do It In the Road".  Ringo was eventually coaxed back the day before their playing of Hey Jude on the David Frost Show.  The situations did not get any better and soon George quit, and Ringo did again, and eventually John came and said that he was leaving the group (contrary to popular opinion John dissolved the group, although Paul was the first to announce it).
      Ringo's legacy in the Beatles is important.  He showed that it was possible for anyone to be famous if you have the right character traits.  Ringo was not "the luckiest man in the world", he deserved to be in the Beatles, and needed as much as he was needed.  The Beatles would not have been complete without their short, blued eyed, drummer.

A cute picture of Ringo behind the drums which is where he felt most comfortable.

Fooling around with a toy gun in the early days.  He always wanted to be a cowboy