Ringo Starr is the pseudonym of an English musician, musical composer, drummer of the legendary band The Beatles, awarded the honorary title "Sir". Today he has received a number of international music awards both as a member of a group and as a solo musician.
The early years of Ringo Starr
Ringo was born on July 7, 1940 to a baker's family in Liverpool. It was then a common tradition among English workers to call a born son by his father's name. Therefore, the boy was named Richard. His last name is Starkey.
It cannot be said that the boy's childhood was very simple and cheerful. The child was very sick, so he could not finish school. While studying at an educational institution, he ended up in the hospital. The cause was peritonitis. Here, little Richard spent a year, and closer to high school he fell ill with tuberculosis. As a result, he never finished school.
I had to get a job without education. So he went to work on the ferry, which ran on the route Wales - Liverpool. At this time, he began to get involved in nascent rock music, but there was no question of starting a career as a musician.
Everything changed in the early 1960s, when he started playing drums in one of the Liverpool bands that created beat music. The main rival of the musicians on the local stage was the band, which was barely nascent at that time. The Beatles. After meeting the members of the quartet, Ringo became one of them.
Start a professional career
August 18, 1962 was the day when Ringo became a full member of the legendary team. From that moment on, the young man played all the drum parts in the compositions. Today it was possible to calculate that only four songs of the group did without the participation of Starr as a drummer. Interestingly, he not only occupied the position behind the drums, but also played a significant role in the life of the band.
His voice can be heard on almost every album. In each of the records in one of Ringo's songs there was a small vocal part. He not only played instruments, but also sang on all the band's releases. He had writing experience. Starr wrote two songs, Octopus's Garden and Don't Pass Me By, and co-wrote What Goes On. Periodically, he also participated in choral performances (when The Beatles sang the choruses).
In addition, contemporaries note that Starr had the greatest acting talent among all members of the team. This was appreciated and then Richard got the main roles in the films of The Beatles. By the way, after the collapse of the team, he continued to try himself as an actor and played in several more films.
In 1968, the band recorded their tenth disc, The Beatles (which many know as The White Album). The cover is a white square with only one inscription - the title. At this time, there was a temporary departure from the group. The fact is that then relations in the team worsened. So, during a quarrel, McCartney called Ringo "primitive" (meaning his ability to play the drums). In response, Starr left the band and began acting in films and commercials.
Ringo Starr's career as a solo musician
As you might think at first, it did not start as a result of the breakup of the group, but long before that. Ringo experimented with music in parallel with participation in the famous four. In particular, one of his first attempts to interest the listener with solo material was a collection. In it, Starr created cover versions of famous compositions of the first half of the 1920th century (it is interesting that there were also songs from the XNUMXs).
After that, a number of releases followed in the 1970s, almost all of them were unsuccessful. Three of his partners also released solo records, which were popular. And only Starr's discs were called unsuccessful by critics. Nevertheless, thanks to the participation of his friends, he still managed to record several successful releases. One person who helped the drummer in many ways was George Harrison.
Along with the complete “failure”, there were also good events. So, Richard performed in 1971 on the same stage with such legends of the music scene as Bob Dylan, Billy Preston and others.
In the early 1980s, he decided to release a CD. The Old Wave record was rejected by all the American and British labels that Richard applied to. To still publish the material, he went to Canada. Here the songs were well received. After that, the musician made several similar trips to Brazil and Germany.
The release took place, but success was not followed. Moreover, the drummer stopped receiving calls about cooperation from both stage representatives and journalists. There was a period of stagnation, which was accompanied by a long-term alcohol addiction of Ringo and his wife.
That changed in 1989 when Starr formed his own quartet, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Having memorized a number of successful songs, the new group went on a long tour, which was very successful. From that moment on, the artist plunged into music and periodically toured the cities of the world. Today, his name can often be seen in various magazines.
Ringo Starr in 2021
On March 19, 2021, the singer's mini-LP was released. The collection was called "Zoom In". It includes 5 musical compositions. Work on the disc was carried out in the artist's home recording studio.
