Tag Archive | Liverpool

R is for Ringo Starr

Apr23

R is for Ringo, Ringo Starr.  Of all the Beatles, Ringo is the hardest to pin down.  He is a seemingly reluctant goof-ball who contributed much more to the Beatles than most people realize.  What John, Paul, and George called “Ringoisms,” slight twists of speech, later became titles of hits – and even a famous movie.  It was Ringo who coined the phrases A Hard Day’s Night and “Eight Days A Week.”  Of all the Beatles, it was Ringo who went on to a work in movies and television.  For a generation of kids, he will always be the original Mr. Conductor from Shining Time Station.

Born 7 July 1940 in Liverpool, England, Richard Starkey, MBE, also known as Ringo Starr, is the oldest of the four Beatles and the last to join the band.  Before replacing Pete Best on drums and joining the Beatles, Ringo Starr performed with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  John Lennon once referred to Ringo as the seasoned professional of the group.  While he somewhat meant that as a joke, during their formative years, it was Ringo who had the most experience.

While much has been made of Ringo’s supposed lack of technical skill as a drummer, he is now widely acknowledged as an innovative drummer who inspired many others, including Phil Collins of Genesis.  Since 1989, Ringo has toured extensively with various incarnations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.  He is still touring and just released his latest album, Ringo 2012.  He and Paul McCartney are now the sole surviving members of the Beatles.

Ringo’s career can largely be summed up in a September 1980 quote by John Lennon:

“Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met.  He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Starr-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer.  So Ringo’s talent would have come out one way or the other as something or other.  I don’t know what he would have ended up as, but whatever that spark is in Ringo that we all know but can’t put our finger on — whether it is acting, drumming or singing I don’t know — there is something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced with or without the Beatles.  Ringo is a damn good drummer.” 

And so he is.

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J is for John Lennon

Apr14

J is for John Lennon, of course.  Without John Lennon, the Beatles would’ve never existed.  He helped found the precursor to the Beatles, the Quarrymen in 1957. By 1960, the Quarrymen had evolved into the Beatles, with members Paul McCartney, bass guitar, and George Harrison, guitar, in place.  By 1964, they were well on their way to pop infamy.

John Winston Lennon, reluctant MBE, was born in Liverpool on 9 October 1940.  He died 8 December 1980 in New York, NY, shot by Mark David Chapmen.  He married twice, first to Cynthia Powell from 1962 – 1968, and then to Yoko Ono from 1969 – 1980.  He had two sons, Julian, with first wife Cynthia, and Sean, with his second wife Yoko.  Today is impossible not to wonder what he would’ve created in the years 1980–today if he’d survived, especially when considering the album Double Fantasy, released just weeks before his death, and the massive output of Sir Paul McCartney as a solo artist 1981-today.  Double Fantasy signaled the end of a five year hiatus from the music industry.

Within the Beatles, John served as the leader of the band, as well as one of the partners of the infamous Lennon/McCartney songwriting team.  Their output as songwriters makes up most of the Beatles back catalog.  It is widely credited as one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in all of popular music.  For a time after the breakup, particularly in the early to mid-1970s, John and Paul would publicly snipe at each other through song lyrics.

It began with the second solo album released by Paul McCartney after the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, 1971’s Ram.  On the album the songs “Too Many People” and “Dear Boy” seem to be digs at John and Yoko.  John responded with two scathing songs on his album Imagine:  “How Do You Sleep?” and “Crippled Inside.”  Fortunately John and Paul made amends by the end of the 1970s.  John’s relationships with other former band mates Ringo Starr and George Harrison faired a little better, but those relationships also struggled for a time in the midst of the fallout of the breakup of the Beatles.

I could go on about John Lennon, but so much of his life has entered the realm of legend and even myth.  It suffices to say that he was one of the great musical talents of the 20th century.  Not only is he largely responsible for the most successful pop band on the planet, ever, he also helped to write almost all of those songs.  It will be a very long time before the world sees another phenomenon like the Beatles or the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, or for that matter, John Lennon.

John Lennon

Fun Fact #1 –

Linda McCartney, a rock and roll photographer before she even met Paul McCartney, admitted that she was originally attracted to John.

Fun Fact #2 –

Early in the life of the Beatles, when his band mates became depressed that the band was going nowhere, John would say:

John – “Where are we going fellas?”

Band – “To the top, Johnny!”

John – “Where’s that, fellas?”

Band – “To the Toppermost of the Poppermost!”

John – “Right!”

Fun Fact #3 –

Liverpool, the hometown of all of the Beatles, renamed their airport after John Lennon in 2001.

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E is for Eleanor Rigby

Apr7
Statue of Eleanor Rigby in Stanley Street, Liv...

Statue of Eleanor Rigby in Stanley Street, Liverpool, UK (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know the song Eleanor Rigby.  The song itself encapsulates the former greatest fear in my life – a deeply human, common fear – the fear of ending up completely alone.  The song itself was largely written by Paul McCartney, with input from several people, both within the Beatles and out.  While Paul McCartney once claimed he created the names Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie, an actual headstone for Eleanor Rigby was “discovered” in a cemetery in Woolton.  Those who know the history of the Beatles know that John Lennon and Paul McCartney met at the Woolton church fete in 1957.  In fact, they used to hang out in the church yard in which the headstone for Eleanor Rigby was discovered.  Years later, Paul suggested that he may have subconsciously remembered the name from those early days hanging around the church yard.  There is a headstone for a McKenzie nearby as well.

As for the song itself, it was a definite departure from the band.  They play no instruments on the song.  Instead a string octet played the classical score composed by one of the many 5th Beatles, George Martin.  Paul McCartney sings lead vocals, backed up by George Harrison and John Lennon.  Today there is a memorial to Eleanor Rigby in Liverpool.

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In My LIfe …

Feb5

December 1980 | Ramblings of a Misguided Blonde

If these videos do not inspire you on some level, I don’t think anything will.  Simply amazing.  I do not want to imagine a world with the music of the Beatles.

December 1980

Dec11

9th December 1980 « Ding!

I came across a moving blog post discussing the murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980 and the Beatles in general.  December 8, 1980 is a date that will always stay with me.  It was the day I was supposed to be born.  As a Beatles fan, I am so grateful that my birthday is ten days later – December 18, 1980.  As strange as it sounds, I never knew a world in which John Lennon wasn’t practically worshipped.  By the time I was into music, the Beatles had long ago broken up, Paul McCartney had already achieved success with Wings and his solo career, and John Lennon accomplished everything he could with his solo career due to his untimely death.

In fact, I’ve always wondered when it happened.  When did the Beatles go from being just another rock-n-roll band, four guys playing in the Cavern Club in Liverpool, to icons that inspired all that came after?  I want to know.  Personally, I would’ve loved a front-row seat to Beatle-mania.

Actually, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know at least some Beatles music.  I also can’t remember a time when I didn’t love it.  When the Beatles Anthology came out during my high school years, inspiring a whole new generation of fans, I pretended to hate their music, something that belonged in childhood.  If something caught on in pop culture at that time in my life, I wanted nothing to do with it.  A mere five years later, I absorbed as much Beatles trivia as I could and actually listened to all of their albums.  I even watched the movies.  The entire experience left me in awe.  Why couldn’t my generation create something so extraordinary?  We were stuck with grunge and bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis, and The White Stripes.  Good bands, but nothing coming close.

It was Beatles lyrics that made realize that lyrics could be poetry.  While not all song lyrics can stand alone, much of the Beatles catalog can.  People like to argue over who wrote what in the Lennon/McCartney catalog; I’m just glad that they were friends.

 Nowhere Man

Rubber Soul

Lennon/McCartney

1965

He’s a real Nowhere Man

Sitting in his Nowhere Land
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere Man the world is at your command

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man don’t worry
Take your time don’t hurry
Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere Man the world is at your command

He’s a real Nowhere Man
Sitting in his Nowhere Land
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody

Cover of "Rubber Soul (1990)"

Cover of Rubber Soul (1990)

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