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Ringo Starr

British musician, drummer for the Beatles

Sir Richard Starkey MBE (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame during the 1960s as the drummer for the Beatles.

I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one.

Quotes

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  • I got blisters on my fingers!
    • "Helter Skelter," from "The Beatles (White Album)" (1968)
  • I'd Like to be
    Under the sea
    In an octopus's garden with you.
    • "Octopus's Garden, from Abbey Road
  • Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues
    And you know it don't come easy.
  • The world's saddest man will live here in Los Angeles.
    • "Fastest Growing Heartache In The West," from Beaucoups Of Blues (1970)
  • The only way I'll get you is to get you in bed.
    • "Devil Woman," from Ringo (1973)
  • All I do is scream your name.
    • "Oo-Wee," from Goodnight Vienna (1974)
  • When we first started, they basically went John and Paul's way because they were the writers and they would say, "This is the song," and I would play as creatively as I could. Sometimes I would have three people telling me how to do it. They were saying play it this like on that track. I'm saying, "For Christ's sake, there are two drummers there." They could never hear that, you know. You'd have to have four arms to do half the stuff they wanted me to do.
    • Interview in Viva magazine (1978)
  • Drumming is my middle name.
    • "Drumming Is My Madness," from Stop And Smell The Roses (1981)
  • First and foremost I am a drummer. After that, I'm other things.... But I didn't play drums to make money. I played drums because I loved them.... My soul is that of a drummer.... It came to where I had to make a decision — I was going to be a drummer. Everything else goes now. I play drums. It was a conscious moment in my life when I said the rest of things were getting in the way. I didn't do it to be come rich and famous, I did it because it was the love of my life.
    • As quoted in The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers (1984) by Max Weinberg and Robert Santelli
  • I used to wish that I could write songs, like the others—and I've tried, but I just can't. I can get the words all right, but whenever I think of a tune the others always say it sounds like such-a-thing, and when they point it out, I see what they mean.
    • The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 96
  • The song ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ was written specifically for me, but they had one line that I wouldn’t sing. It was ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?’ I said, ‘There’s not a chance in hell am I going to sing this line,’ because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage; and I thought that that if we ever did get out there again, I was not going to be bombarded with tomatoes.
    • The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 242
  • I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one. But I have no problems of putting titles and lines from other songs in my songs, because they're great lines and great titles. And some of them I even thought of. You know, I think this is the third time I've used "It Don't Come Easy." I used that on "Time Takes Time," I think, as well. So it's just a great line that, you know, expresses so much. So I just put it in again.
  • I don't collect any memorabilia. I wish I'd have kept everything I had. But who knew you had to keep it. Just gave it away. And we lost so much and we didn't look after a lot of it. I believe Paul's got everything he ever had, but I lost a lot of mine.
    • Ringo Rama promotional interview with Jody Denberg (July 2003)

About Ringo

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  • That they were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said, “Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.” So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, “George, can you play it back for me one more time?” So George did, and Ringo says, “That didn’t sound so bad.” And I said, “Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.” Great guy, though.
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