At this stage, I am more inclined to believe that the answer to that question doesn't matter at all anymore but I do have my curiosities and for the life of me I cannot remember which bolt of lightning struck me first. I have asked my parents what precipitated my desire to learn how to play the drums and even they are unable to truly remember the origins of that major life step for me. I also cannot fully remember exactly when I began taking lessons. I know that the age of five was way too young and by the time that I was eight years old and began my life at a new school for 3rd grade, I had already been taking lessons and even owned a snare drum. So, I tend to split the difference and think that my beginnings as a drummer were somewhere between the ages of six and seven. My full fledged fanaticism with The Beatles made its stranglehold over me by the time I was nine but I also already knew who Ringo Starr was by that point. And as you can gather, after all of this memory jogging, that perhaps by now, I should accept the fact that (again) really none of this matters anymore because the truth of the experience is paramount: I am a drummer because of Ringo Starr.
At this time on Synesthesia, I am so proud, humbled and honored to pay considerable heartfelt homage to Ringo Starr upon his birthday of July 7th, on which he will reach the age of 73. Incredible! Still looking trim and fit. His health is apparently strong as all of his addictions are long behind him. And I think, like his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney, he may even be a vegetarian, a quality that has most likely contributed considerably to his longevity and his ability to keep touring each year with his ever revolving cast of characters in his All Starr Band. I wish him continued excellent health, prosperity and the ability to play the drums until he is no longer able to hold those two sticks and sit behind the kit. For my life and the musicians who have become my heroes, Ringo Starr sits at the very tip top of the mountain as being my favorite drummer of all time.
Several times on this site, I have remarked upon how I wished that I had been born or had been more aware of certain musical milestones right when they were first introduced to the world. That said, I feel so very fortunate and completely blessed to have been learning the drums during a period in rock music where drummers exhibited true personalities to the degree where just by listening, I could pick them apart and tell who each specific drummer happened to be. Drummers like Phil Collins, Keith Moon, Stewart Copeland, John Bonham and especially Neil Peart for example. But Ringo Starr was the very first. And while those aforementioned drummers are technically better players than Ringo and could literally play...ahem...rings around him, Ringo Starr is my favorite drummer due to his obvious and infectious euphoria when he plays as it always looked as if there was just no better place to be in the entire world than behind a drum set.
I will always remember pouring over all of my Beatles albums, sprawled across the basement rug or couch, just mentally picking songs apart and piecing them back together again, attempting to figure out how all of the elements could have been pieced together so majestically. As for Ringo Starr, I was always so amazed to hear how his playing often made the songs just happen! At this time, I ask you to please take some time to return to your collection of Beatles music to JUST LISTEN and hear these songs from the vantage point of the drummer.
Ringo Starr's drumming evolved to such a high standard that he showed and taught me that it was possible to create worlds of emotions solely through percussion. Look no further than the four sided double album "The Beatles" otherwise known as "The White Album" (released November 22, 1968), to witness just how drummers, and Ringo especially, are so much more than mere keepers of time.
Ringo displayed that he is a drummer of great elasticity as he could stretch himself from driving hard rock to the pastoral and even pseudo reggae rhythms as well. The ethereal playing in Harrison's "Long, Long, Long" is divine while the fury on McCartney's Helter Skelter" is just terrifying. That legendary scream, "I've got BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!!!" at the end of that track, and long thought to be the voice of John Lennon is actually Ringo's and as a child it frightened me so much that I had to race to the record player to physically move over the arm and needle so as not to hear it.
As far as I am concerned, the greatest of Ringo Starr's recorded drum performances can be found on every single track of my favorite album of all time The Beatles' "Abbey Road" (released September 26, 1969). The tribal tom-toms and hi-hat flourishes on "Come Together," the romantic subtleties and shadings found in the gorgeously melancholic "Something," the Latin tinged patterns within the raging "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and every magical moment found on every selection in the album's second side medley which culminates with his one and only drum solo, played so powerfully and effortlessly in "The End." A masterpiece. Period.
Thankfully, Ringo did not set down his sticks with the end of The Beatles as he continued onwards through solo material and guest appearances on recordings and in concerts. He always made playing the drums look to be so easy but as his solo song states, "It Don't Come Easy" (single released April 16, 1971) and you can hear over and over and time and again just how well thought and beautifully flexible his performances actually are. Ringo Starr was also the first drummer to show me the possibilities of what drummers could actually aspire to be as he has continued to be a vocalist, producer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and even a film actor. But he has also become an accomplished songwriter as "Photograph" (single released September 24, 1973), which he co-wrote with George Harrison, stands as tall as any Beatles song to me. Even in recent years, Ringo has continued to write songs of great charm, warmth and truth. "Walk With You" (single released December 22, 2009), from the album "Y Not" (released January 12, 2010), a track he co-wrote with the legendary Van Dyke Parks as well as co-produced, is a stirring ballad and a first time duet with McCartney. I would dare you to not sing along if you hear it--so please go find it and JUST LISTEN!
On the few times as a child when I could actually witness Ringo Starr's drumming, I paid strict attention, trying to mirror how he held the sticks, moved his body as he played to even laying towels over the snare and stuffing the bass drum with towels, as he did in Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's documentary "Let It Be" (1970) to give the drums a flatter and sometimes tighter sound. But of course, as much as I would try to emulate, I could never get myself to sound quite like him.
In fact, for all of the working and long established musicians who have attempted to emulate the songwriting and performances of The Beatles, no one could ever really sound quite like them, especially Ringo. And that is what I wish to leave you with...that Ringo Starr is a true original, who forged his own path in the kind of unimaginable vortex that rarely occurs, with talent, style, finesse, grace, skill and much needed humor.
He is the real article. A true original. And how could I not wish him endless blessings on his 73rd birthday?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RINGO STARR!!!!
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