Will the Real Richard Starkey Please Stand Up? (1968)

 Will the Real Richard Starkey Please Stand Up?

By Alan Walsh

Melody Maker

March 16, 1968

    "Just because the others are in India, I get all the interviews,"  grinned Ringo Starr as we settled into armchairs at NEMS new Mayfair headquarters. Ringo is back in Britain. Chirpy, cheerful, he sipped his sixth cup of coffee of the afternoon and answered questions readily and patiently. 

    Ringo has been regarded as the Beatle in the shadows, but he has his own views on things. He agreed that their new single was based loosely on Humphrey Lyttleton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues," talked of India and the Maharishi, and denied he was losing interest in meditation, and spoke of his schizoid life as both Beatle Ringo Starr and plain private Richard Starkey, two people to him, but overlapping into his private and public lives. There was sadness in his final remarks on his dual existence. "I try and keep them separate, but you can't," he said.

 Q: 'Lady Madonna' has been called almost a return to rock and roll. Is this true? 

Ringo: Yes. That's what it is-- almost a return to rock and roll.

 Q: Can you explain what you were trying to do in this record?

 Ringo:  The thing is, we've been trying to make a rock n roll record for five years now. Because rock n roll has suddenly hit the headlines-the great revival. Because this one is a rocker (a slight one). Anyway, people are saying it's a rock n roll record. 

Q:  When did you start thinking about the record? 

Ringo:  Paul thought of it originally. He did it like Fats Waller first.  I heard it in the studio. Paul plays piano on it. What he's doing on piano is sort of 'Bad Penny Blues.'  We said to George Martin, 'How did they do it on 'Bad Penny Blues?'  And he said they used brushes. So I used brushes, and we did a track with just brushes and the piano, and then we decided we needed an offbeat. So we put an offbeat on it, and then Paul decided to sing it in his sort of Elvis voice.

 Q:  Many people thought it was you singing.

 Ringo: Yes, a lot of people did. It didn't sound like me to me.

 Q: Is this as near as you've got to a rock number in five years? 

Ringo: Ever since rock n roll, rock n roll records have been made, but people forgot to say rock n roll. All through the years, there have been people who have come out with rock n roll records, but now suddenly everyone wants rock ' n ' roll to come back. So they're saying, 'this is a rock record', and 'that's a rock record.'

     They picked out records that have an offbeat or a saxy thing or a Duane Eddie thing. They're calling ours rock n roll, and the Moves 'Fire Brigade', and Elvis's record. I don't think anyone will ever go back to rock n roll as it was years ago. The reissues will be the only ones, because there's so much more musical influence now from all the years that have gone by.

     Rock originally was influenced by country and western and blues, mainly, but now we've had 10 or 15 different types. So all the new rock-and-roll records will have a bit of that in them as well. They'll be technically a bit more advanced and have a lot more musicians in them.  I don't think it's really your old rock n roll. It's just a title. 

Q: This single is very different from the sort of Beatles music on Sgt. Pepper, for example.

 Ringo:  We always try to be different. If people hadn't been saying the great rock n roll revival, we most probably still would have done this record, and it would have been just the new Beatles single. It wouldn't have been rock n roll. Beatles. 

Q: How do you feel about the early days of rock and roll? 

Ringo: They were the greatest days for me. I was just at the right age, but I don't even think the re-releases of the old rock n roll records will sell. It's nostalgia for us -- you and me. The people who went through that -- the 25s and over.

 Q: Would you ever get so nostalgic that you'd want to play again?

 Ringo: No, I don't think I ever would. I don't want to play again on stage, not at the moment anyway.

 Q: Is this record a step in any specific direction for the Beatles?

Ringo: It's not a backward step, as some people have said, because it doesn't freak out. People think you're going backward. It's just another step, and that's what they all are, just because we do certain things on some records. It's called progression. This one is just us doing a record. It's just a record. It's not a step back or a step forward or sideways. It's just another step. It's just another type of song from the Beatles. 

Q: You stayed only 10 days in India. When you got back, were you confused about why you came back?

 Ringo:  I wasn't confused. The newspapers were confused. I came back because I felt like coming back. That's the whole simple thing to it. I just thought, 'Well, I'll go home.' We got there, and it was great, and the sun was shining, nice place.

 Q:  Was there an element of disappointment or disenchantment in your decision to come back?

 Ringo:  No, it was just that we felt like coming back; we still meditate. The whole point of going there was because we were away from everything. And Maharishi would like you to graduate to as many hours as you can do. And while you're there, you can, but it's impossible at home to do 10 or 12 hours, really, because you have a lot to do. But you can do it there because everything's provided, and you've got your room, you don't have any worries about all the work you have to do. We weren't disenchanted. It was just a feeling. I think everyone must get it sometimes, wherever you go. 

Q:  Was it homesickness?

 Ringo: Yes, it can be described as a lot of things. I think Maureen was missing the kids. That was only one thing. I mean, we didn't say suddenly, 'oh, we've got to go see the kids.' It was 100 reasons which formed into one thing -- feel like coming home. So we came home. 

Q: It was reported that the Maharishi was disappointed when you left 

Ringo:  We went to see him, and he wanted us to stay because he was helping us. If you're going to learn something, you might as well learn it from the boss man, and he's the gov'ner.

 Q:  Were John, Paul, and George disappointed?

 Ringo:  No. We just said, 'We're going home.'  And they said, 'All right, see you when we get back.' Not one of us holds the other

 Q: What have you been doing since you got back?

 Ringo: This is the first day of work. Apart from that, I've been at home doing whatever you do at home. I've just taken up enlarging and developing films. I've been doing them for the past two days. That's all, really 

Q: You said in Melody Maker in December that the Maharishi looked like answering a lot of questions for you. Is this still true?

 Ringo:  He still does. Somebody said that I looked at him and said, 'there I am', but he's a long way ahead from where I am. He's so great. There's something about him. I can't tell you what it is really, you just know there's a great man. 

Q: Do you think he'll ultimately lead you to what you're striving for?

 Ringo:  He's put me on the road. Now it's up to me whether I follow or get off.

 Q: Do you intend to carry on? 

Ringo: At the moment, yes, I've never said that 'in five years, I'll still be doing what I'm doing now,' because I don't know. 

Q: Has it helped you up to now?

 Ringo: It's calmed me and made me more relaxed, although I still have the same emotions as anyone else, but I feel more relaxed.

 Q: What's the practical application of meditation when you're at home?

Ringo:  Half an hour meditation in the morning and half an hour at night. The rest of the time, you just do what you normally do. It's meditation because we're 'householders'. That's the word for people who have to get up and do jobs and who can't be monks and sit in the cave and not do anything. So we do the householders meditation --half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night. This eases your mind in the morning before you're out, doing your job, then when you're finished, everyone's minds a bit tight, and meditation relaxes it and relaxes you. You're a better person. All the worries, troubles, and tribulations of the day, if there are any, they build up, and that's when you get all the aggression, because everyone is so tied up that they're not thinking straight, and they're out shooting and fighting before they know what happens. So that way you relax yourself and relax your brain, and no problem seems to be as big as you make it out to be.

Q: The devotion of the Beatles to the Maharishi has given him a lot of publicity. Has it been good or bad publicity? 

Ringo: The publicity we've tried to give has been good publicity, but all the people who think it's something else have just been saying a lot of rubbish, really, this has been bad publicity. But you are going to get this. You get good and bad with everything, and it's just a pity that all the people who have never tried it are giving it a lot of bad publicity, like the press and a few pop stars. 

Q: Has it helped you musically?

 Ringo: I don't think it helped me musically. No, our songs will be influenced by it because of John and Paul. It's another influence, so it will influence our songs. But I don't think it'll be a cause. I won't become a cosmic drummer.

 Q: Have you acquired any ambition to go deeper into music yourself?

 Ringo: No. I have the phases where I want to play guitar, or I want to play piano, or anything I can play a tune on, because I get sick of bang, bang all the time. Though some drummers can make them talk and play tunes on drums, but I haven't done any of that, really.

 Q:  What about writing songs? 

Ringo:  No, I have the odd go, but it's a joke. It's tunes I find the hardest thing to do. I don't think words are very hard. Usually, I write a song, then I sing it to someone, and they say, "Oh, hey, 'Blue Moon'." And the first ones I used to write used to be pinches from Jerry Lee Lewis, all his B-sides. 

Q:  Has the fact that you're away from touring and just work in the studio these days given you any appreciation for other types of music? 

Ringo: Not really. I still appreciate the same music that I used to, which is country, rock n roll, pop, and the odd classics.

 Q: What about jazz? 

Ringo: I've been through it all, you know. I've been through trad jazz and that got boring, and modern jazz, which I still like. I like small combos, Chico Hamilton, Yuset Latleef, people like that, small groups more than big bands, but there's no great urge in any of them. I just play an odd LP and I have to be in that mood to play that sort of record. 

Q: What do you listen to most at home?

 Ringo:  I don't think I listen to anything more than anything else. I stick LPs on from Tamla to country. I put them all on.

 Q: Away from work in the studio and elsewhere, what takes up most of your time?

 Ringo:  Photography, playing with my kids, answering the telephone, just being a normal person who lives in a house.

 Q: Do you ever miss touring in the days of chasing round the country? 

Ringo: No, when we toured, it was such a frenzy and so exciting that I'd had enough at the end of it. Five years of it at the pace we did, it was enough for me. I don't feel at this moment that I want to do a tour.

 Q: Has age had its effect too? 

Ringo: Yes, that is. Well, it's like when I first moved down to London, I used to go out to the clubs every night, and I had great times. But if I go now, I expect it to be like it used to be, but it never is. You blame the club and the people, but it's you yourself as well, because you've gotten older and changed yourself. 

Q: Do you ever become nostalgic for the early days of the Beatles and Beatlemania? 

Ringo: Not yet. Maybe I will in a few more years. We haven't been away from it that long, really. Maybe in 10 years, like I'm still nostalgic for rock n roll now.

 Q: Are you ever nostalgic for the North of England and Liverpool? 

Ringo:  No, because now I have my own family and my own life. I still go up there and see them, and I still enjoy going to Liverpool. If this all finished, and I was back to not being Ringo, back to more normal, I suppose I might move up there again, but I don't know, really, 

Q: Back to more normal. That's an intriguing phrase. What do you mean? 

Ringo:  Well, it is, but it's one of the phrases you use. I consider myself as Richard Starkey and Ringo Starr. There are really, like two different people, but they're not. It's just, I think Richie Starkey has got his life to lead, and he doesn't want it in all the papers or the whole world shouting about it. Then there's Ringo, where I'm quite willing to put up with it. This is a Ringo interview. It's no interest if you write Richard Starkey, if I wasn't me. I still make two different scenes altogether. I try and keep them separate, but you can't.