Ringo Starr at the Grammy Museum backed by Ben Harper
By Tom Teicholz at 21 January, 2010, 4:05 pm
What an amazing experience it was! Ringo still very much Ringo — quick, funny, sweet and tough in a room of about 200 people at the Grammy Museum downtown.
Ringo has a new album out called “Y not” that he is out promoting and talking about. It is the first album that Ringo has produced himself — he talked about how the album grew organically and that when friends came over for tea they ended up on the album.
Robert Santelli, the director of the Grammy Museum and a former journalist described visiting Ringo in England with Max Weinberg of the E Street band and the Max Weinberg 7 for their book on drummers, “The Big Beat” and what a treat that was.
However when Santelli tried to interview Ringo, it was clear that Ringo was not comfortable in the interview format. It wasn;t long before Ringo motioned to Ben Harper to come out and participate in the conversation. Harper asked a question or two and Santelli took a few questions from the audience as well.
The irony is that as uncomfortable or impatient with the interview format as RIngo is, he has great stories to tell, particularly about his early life in Liverpool and the early days of the Beatles. He spoke about being in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, the band he was in prior to joining the beatles (that’s when he adopted the name Ringo) and told a funny story about Rory’s stutter, and also how he was given a showcase to sing in the band that they called “Starr Time”. He also did an imitation of Brian Epstein telling the boys not to curse when they were on stage.
Recent books such as Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles, Vol 1″ and the recently published “Just Kids” by Patti Smith (about her and Robert Mapplethorpe) provide a template for a wonderful that Ringo could organize around his anecdotes of those days (and that I am eager to work on with him, if given the chance…)
Ringo took to the stage backed by Ben Harper and five of the Relentless 7. As vocalist Ringo performed two songs from his new album “Walk With You” and “The Other Side of Liverpool,” a song that Ringo descrisbed as a one in a continuing series of autobiographical songs he has written. He then performed his hit “Photograph” as well as “With a little help from my friends” and as an encore, mounting the drum kit, he performed a rousing rendition of “Boys” a song Ringo perforemd with Rory Storm as well as the Beatles and conveyed much of the excitement of what it must have been to hear Ringo in a small club all those many years ago.
Ben Harper and band also performed a few songs which were great — and to which Ringo standing off stage danced to.
In attendance in the audience were Edgar Winter, Joe Walsh, Roy Orbison’s widow and Dhani Harrison.
Sitting next to me was a young woman who told me that she had taken a Beatles class in college and had only been a Beatles fan for four or five years — and that seeing Ringo that night had been the fulfillment of a dream. She was not disappointed. Nor was I. A great memorable evening.
All Photos ©Becky Sapp/Wire Image.
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