From India to London

 January 16, 1968

Like father like son

June 12, 1992 

I saw that Zak joined the All Starr Band the other night and played the drums while his Dad sang.  Zak of course is well known as the drummer for The Who.   But 30 years ago Zak was just known as Ringo's eldest son and was not a special guest drummer, but was drumming with the tour.  
 

How many drummers does this band have anyway?

 

November 14, 1963

The Tonight Show

 

June 23, 2006 - Ringo on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  

A glimpse of Wings backstage

 June 7, 2021 -  Wings over  America in Denver, Colorado.   I spot a KSHE 95 bumper sticker!  (KSHE 95 was and remains to be a very well loved hard rock radio station in St. Louis) 

Drum Ringo Drum!

 

Ringo's White Album - A book review

Let me be honest.   I typically would not have been interested in reading Ringo's White Album by Alex Cain.  But you know how it is -- we are all stuck in the house and the Kindle edition was really cheap ($1.16).   So why not give this book a read?

There are some really interesting things in the book.    The author really knows his audience and doesn't bother us with the background of how Ringo joined the Beatles or any of the information we already know about the drummer.  He jumped right into the topic of the book, which is greatly appreciated.

This book is exactly what the title says:  Ringo's drumming and percussion on the White Album. Cain goes into how Ringo quit the Beatles and about Paul's drumming on Back in the USSR and Dear Prudence as well.     The most interesting part of the book (for me) was the section about the Hey Jude promo films.  There was some information about Busker Bill and the filming that was really interesting.   I also liked how the book went song by song and put who played what percussion instrument. 

The rest of the book was a little over my head.   I know very little about reading music and nothing about drumming.   Parts of this book were boring to me -- just going on and on about the drumming patterns and whatnot. 

That is not to say that this is a bad book.  It just didn't interest me too much.  Cain did a great job writing it.  It was obviously well-researched, and he knows a LOT about drumming and admires Ringo for being a great drummer.    I am sure that if you were a musician and especially a drummer, the information found in this book would interest you. 

The wonderful thing about living in the era of self-published Beatles books is that now anyone can write in his/her niche area of The Beatles.   I think that is great!    There is bound to be hundreds of other Beatle fans that are interested in the same area that the author is interested in. 

If you want to learn about Ringo's drumming on the White Album in great detail -- then this is the book for you!   Plus, it really wasn't a bad book to read while being quarantined.


The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase this book.   I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3IhcwqD

Gather around the drum kiddies

September 8, 1964 - Montreal

RIP Hal Blaine

Hal Blaine was one of the most famous sideline drummers in rock n roll.   He played his drums on the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" album, as well as for Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, and even Barbra Streisand.    He was the drummer you heard on many #1 hit songs in the 60's and 70's. 


His Beatles connection is that he is one of the only people to have played with all four Beatles at one point  (well sort of).    He played with George during some of the Jackie Lomax sessions,  played with John during the recording of the Rock n Roll album,  did overdubs on some of Paul's songs,  and played on a few of Ringo's solo songs (although I can't quickly find which of Paul's or Ringo's songs he played on). 

From an interview with Hal in 1989

I'll tell ya, I had a very nice rapport with John Lennon. When I net him the opening night, I was in there early, just tuning and adjusting, and it turned out that he was a big fan of mine, obviously from all those years of listening to American records. And it was maybe a week later that my son and I were going into a drugstore, and John and his son were there. We had a nice afternoon chat, the four of us, which was really nice. But on the sessions, unfortunately, they were trying to keep the bottle away from him. He had, I don't know what you call that size, If it was two gallons size or what it was, sitting right next to him, a big giant bottle of vodka. It was a huge bottle.

Hal was working on a Neil Diamond album and Paul McCartney was in the same studio.  Paul sneaked over to Hal's famous gigantic drumkit, known as the "monster kit" to try it out when Hal was out.  You can even see Hal's name on the case near Paul. 

After seeing Hal's drum kit in 1968 while in L.A., George decided that a set similar to Hal's would be the perfect gift for his drummer pal, Ringo.   So George paid Hal to put together the kit that you see above.   After he received it, Ringo sent Hal a note that said, "Thanks Hal, for the tom tom tom tom tom toms!”

The Nerk Twins new duet -- flute and drum

New drummer

Phot by Linda McCartney 

My occupation is syncopation

Bang on the drum all day

I believe this photo is from when Ringo was in South Africa on September 27, 1975---great photo!

Ringo's golden drum

The Ludwig drum company's main office was located in Chicago, Illinois.   Ringo Starr played Ludwig drums and the name "Ludwig" was seen prominently on the Beatles drum head.   To honor Ringo for the advertising  and publicity, William Ludwig Jr. presented Ringo with a special gold snare drum.   This snare drum was a one of a kind made especially for Ringo.   It had a special plaque that said, "Ringo Starr, the Beatles" on it.  

Before the Chicago concert of 1964,  a presentation was made where William Ludwig Jr. said this;

"I have never known a drummer more widely acclaimed and publicized than you, Ringo Starr. Your millions of fans have honored you and the other members of The Beatles by their overwhelming acceptance of your recordings and concert appearances. On behalf of the employees and management of the Ludwig Drum Company, I would like to thank you for choosing our instruments and for the major role you are playing in the music world today."

Ringo took his gold drum back to England after the tour and has had it in his possession every since.  In 2010, Ringo allowed the Met in New York City to borrow the gold drum for a special exhibit and many fans had the chance to see the famed drum.  It appeared again at the Grammy's special Ringo Starr exhibit at their L.A. museum last year.