Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, musician, singer, composer and actor, British, MBE (born July 7, 1940) is better known by his stage name, Ringo Starr as drummer for The Beatles. He is the father of drummer Zak Starkey plays with The Who and Oasis.
With the Beatles
Richard Starkey has not had a peaceful childhood. Indeed, at the age of six he was operated on for appendicitis, which turns into peritonitis. He is 18 months in the hospital, and must return to 13 years to six months. He attended school so little. He can read but do not know the spelling it phonetically written.
He entered training August 16, 1962 (replacing Pete Best) until the band split in 1970. Before joining the Beatles, it was from 1959 to 1962 the drummer for Rory Storm and The Hurricanes from Liverpool. It was thus a relatively seasoned professional musician when John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the major composers of the group were still in their infancy.
Professionally, his musical talents are limited essentially to the battery (he recognizes a strong performance tempo) rather than singing or writing. Members of the Beatles, he is the one who wrote the fewest songs. According to other members, when Ringo offers a song for an album, the melody reminds them often another popular song. Ringo does not detect those similarities before their comrades tell it. Ringo has always suffered from a slight handicap compared to the other three Beatles: we do not take very seriously outside the group. In June 1964, made the tonsils, the drummer is temporarily replaced by Jimmy Nicol. In 1965, he married Maureen Cox, his hairdresser girlfriend. In September 1965, it gives a boy Ringo Zak, who will in turn drummer. In 1968, Maureen gave birth to a little Jason Starkey.
With the help of his wife, Ringo wrote still Octopus's Garden (on the album Abbey Road) and Do not Pass Me By "(on the album The Beatles) and also contributes to many other albums. In general, he sings at least one song from each album. In some cases, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics and melody especially for him. An example is With a Little Help From My Friends, one of the finest songs he has sung, although we remember him most for the catchy chorus of Yellow Submarine. Often these melodies are adapted to the vocal Ringo, rather smaller than the other Beatles. Poor singer, as he himself admits, this jolly fellow actor, however some of the group's success: I Want to Be Your Man, Boys, Yellow Submarine and his few compositions What Goes On (co-written with the duo of Lennon / McCartney), Do not Pass Me By and Octopus Garden. He did not play on Dear Prudence, Back in the USSR and The Ballad of John and Yoko, Paul McCartney holding the drums on these tracks, but worse still remember Ringo recording Love Me Do, George Martin when he chose a studio drummer, Andy White, to publish the first single Beatles in fall 1962.
Outside the field of music, Ringo is known for his humor, especially during interviews. Ringo also contributed many ideas and words of song titles, sometimes unintentionally. The best known example is the title of the group's first film, A Hard Day's Night. Emerging from a long studio session he told the others that it was a "hard day" and before finishing his sentence, he realizes it is now night and added "night". Lennon and McCartney to adopt the phrase into the title of the film. Another example is the title Tomorrow Never Knows. John Lennon, very fond of accidents language of his companion, finds a name: ringoismes. Ringo may also prove decisive, as the recording of A Day in the Life: 24 empty bars in the middle of the piece are completed by a full symphony orchestra, what George Martin refused at first considering the costs for registration so short and unique. "We only take half an orchestra and play twice! "Blurts it. As is done, climb the famous orchestral being performed by 41 musicians (instead of 90) and replayed at the end of the song.
Although some have tried to minimize the contributions of Ringo in the group, its unique style has played a major role in the sound of the Beatles. In the 2000s, many drummers list Starr as an important source of influence - Max Weinberg of the E Street Band Bruce Springsteen, Liberty DeVitto group Billy Joel, Phil Collins and others. According to Phil Collins, Ringo is very underestimated: "The sequences of A Day in the Life is complicated. Have a great drummer today and I want him like that, he will not know what to do. " Lennon, McCartney and Harrison have all said that Ringo was "the best rock drummer in the world."
Solo career (1970-2008)
In September 1969, John Lennon is leaving the Beatles, but the separation was formalized in April 1970 by Paul McCartney. Ringo felt lost and wondered about his future. Nevertheless, he continued his musical career solo. The same year he released his first album, Sentimental Journey, a compilation of songs in a style pre-rock, close to the country. This allows him to earn a good reputation, sufficient for the guitarist Pete Drake, a specialist in pedal steel, it offers the possibility of creating another album, Many Of Blues, recorded in Nashville. This album reinforces Ringo as a respected composer in a style approaching constantly country music, a style that we saw already emerging in its contributions to the Beatles songs. In the early 1970s, while he succeeds, his albums are well placed in the sales charts, and his wife just had a baby girl, Lee Parkin.
In 1971, his first single, It Do not Come Easy written by George Harrison, was a success, reaching the Top 3 of the Billboard charts.
Ditto for Back Off Boogaloo in 1972, many are quick to say that this is a gift from Marc Bolan, leader of the group T. Rex, because at the same time, Ringo made his directorial debut film for the film Born to Boogie dedicated to Bolan.
In 1973, he was originally a reunion of the Fab Four, who are dreaming of a possible reunion of the famous group. Indeed, Ringo asked his former partners, and yet still friends, to compose some songs for her new album, simply entitled Ringo. John Lennon offered the famous I'm the Greatest, Paul McCartney (with his wife Linda) wrote his Six O'Clock and George Harrison made him the song Photograph, great success in 1973 and became the one of its securities must.
In 1974, he still has success with twice: You're Sixteen by Johnny Burnette created, and the Platters Only You. Subsequently he managed to sell an impressive number of copies of Goodnight Vienna, his record of the year.
Following this early solo career, promising in terms of sales, Ringo continues to record regularly, but his albums are less well received by the public. In 1976 the album Ringo's Rotogravure is a commercial failure and his single "A Dose Of Rock'n'Roll with great difficulty managed to climb the charts. His next two albums, Ringo The 4 and Bad Boy, are experiencing a similar fate. As for Stop And Smell The Roses, he was elected "worst record of the year 1981" by a prestigious British magazine. This succession of failures Ringo take a humiliating situation where not a single record company wants to venture out his album Old Wave.
In 1989, Ringo returns to life, he finally moves away from alcohol and decides to hit the road with the help of some friends, he created the All Starr Band (composed of Dr. John, Billy Preston, Levon Helm, Jim Keltner ...) and began touring the USA. Unpretentious, this tour is an opportunity for Ringo to find some old friends and be happy. It is a success, the public responds to this, criticism greet his return. At the same time, he re-recorded in duet with Buck Owens, the song Act Naturally, the first song he had sung under the leadership of the Beatles.
In 1992, Ringo uses a few friends (Brian Wilson, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and others) and released the album Time Takes Time, well received by critics but not by the public.
In 2002 Starr was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Percussion, which includes Buddy Rich and William F. Ludwig, Sr. and his son.
Photograph released in 2007, The Very Best Of Ringo, the first of the best of his entire discography. His albums in the period EMI released for the first time in legal downloading. In 2007 also announced the release of a new DVD of his show's 2006 All Starr Band.
On January 14, 2008, released his latest album Liverpool 8.
Read also Noel Gallagher
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