One thing that stands out to me about this article is that while it was published in February 1971 -- the events in the story are all from 1970 - heck Lee wasn't even born yet! Fans had to rely on getting Beatles news from newspapers and were often several months behind in what was going on. Say what you want about the evils of the Internet -- but we sure are now up to date on Beatles news.
Ringo: Not Through Yet
By Marvin Kupfer
Newsweek Feature Service
February 19, 1971
Ringo Starr has always been a self-effacing sort of a Beatle. While the other lads were experimenting with politics, the drug culture, multiple marriages, and the 10 notes scale, Ringo just sat back, smiling his slightly baffled smile and playing his drums.
Then came the group's great split. But to everyone's surprise, Ringo, who at any given time in the past would have been voted the Beatle least likely to succeed on his own, seems on his way to becoming the most successful of all.
Ringo has been making albums of his own in an awesome variety of styles. He has two movie "singles," and made the long, strange journey to Nashville to record Beaucoup Blues, an album entirely made up of country music. "I was a bit uptight and stiff at first," he says of the Nashville experience, "because suddenly I was like in the front, singing all those songs, you know, like the leader of the band. I'd never been there before."
Ringo was the last of the Beatles to join the group, and to outsiders, at least, he always seemed slightly less equal than the other three. He did not compose. He rarely improvised, and he was always satisfied to sing only one song per album. "One's enough for me,: he used to say cheerfully.
Placid was the word for Ringo. He's married to one wife. He has kids. He's not a threat. He's always been sort of small, and comfortable, and friendly, just a nice chap.
But the Beatles have always had separate identities. John Lennon is the clever one with the Japanese wife. Paul McCartney, the creative, cute one. George Harrison, the quiet one. And Ringo, well, Ringo plays the drums.
Now the horizons have widened out of all normal contours. His first solo album, the newly released Sentimental Journey, may be even more off the Beatle beat than the country item. It is a schmaltzy melody of old standards ("Stardust", "Bye Bye Blackbird") which he says "Me Mum and Dad and aunties used to sing."
He made the album for his father, who, according to Ringo, "was once the best singer in our house," until a throat operation diminished his voice. "I thought it would be nice if I did it for him and for me as well. And if anyone else likes it, well, that's okay too."
Ringo lives 15 minutes (by his six door chauffeur driven Mercedes) from London. His large red brick Tudor-style house contains four television sets, two children, his wife, and a third baby, due for release in November. He is, incredibly enough. 30, now, his hair is cut shorter. He even wears a necktie on occasions.
Friends say that he prefers to be known at least privately as Richie. (Richard Starkey is his real name.) "I've always been two people," he says. "Ringo, they can have. Richie stays at home. When I get into the house, it's Daddy and Richie, and that's how I like it."
But the Beatles ties are still not completely broken. The boys were together in a movie, Let it Be, though none of them bothered to attend its London opening, and they see one another frequently, though in threes, never all four together, due to the hard feelings between John and Paul.
Only Ringo is presently active. Paul is holed up on his farm in Scotland. George is in London, and John is in Los Angeles, reportedly seeing Dr. Arthur Janov, the controversial psychologist and author of The Primal Scream, a book which elaborates on the ego-crushing methods allegedly so beneficial to the doctor's patients.
