John Lennon’s biggest concern when The Beatles split: “I don’t want Ringo to end up poor:
When The Beatles finally came to a close in 1970, the four boys from Liverpool had produced an astonishing body of work, a gold standard of creative innovation and eternal songcraft across eight short years. It’s hard to talk about the quality of their work without slipping into bloated, rock heritage platitudes, but the prolific brilliance that radiates from each of their releases, from 1963’s Please Please Me to the final bow of Let It Be (although Abbey Road was their final recording) has destined their material to be listened to and poured over for decades to come.
They also ended at the peak of their songwriting strengths. Paul McCartney’s classic ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ was just around the corner, followed by continued commercial success with Wings, and John Lennon’s political activism and introspective explorations shaped future acclaimed records John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. George Harrison, in particular, left The Beatles with some of their strongest material yet, classics like ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Here Comes the Sun’, and ‘Something’, which Frank Sinatra claimed “was the greatest love song of the last fifty years” and erroneously stated was his “favourite Lennon-McCartney” song.
Naturally, there was a concern for Ringo Starr’s future potential among the other three members as a solo artist. His songwriting contributions had been lacklustre boasting the godawful ‘Octopus’s Garden’ and the skippable ‘Don’t Pass Me By’. He was, however, a fantastic drummer, and provided an essential ‘anchoring’ element to the group dynamic, often able to temper the conflicts that arose nearing The Beatles’ implosion.
Reflecting on his concern for Ringo’s musical prospects, Lennon confessed to Bob Harris on The Old Grey Whistle Test when considering the respective post-Beatles success in 1975, “I’m pleased that everyone is doing well, I’m more pleased that Ringo is doing well and that he’s got himself a good niche because I knew Paul would be alright.”
Lennon’s regard for his old comrade resulted in his gifting ‘I’m The Greatest’, a song which opened ’73’s Ringo LP. A satirical swipe at the disillusioning trappings of fame filled with wry references to Ringo’s ‘Billy Shears’ alter-ego from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club was demoed during the Imagine sessions. Remarking in an interview for Playboy in 1980, his last before his assassination, “It’s the Muhammad Ali line, you know. I couldn’t sing it, but it was perfect for Ringo. He could say ‘I’m the greatest’ and people wouldn’t get upset. Whereas if I said ‘I’m the greatest,’ they’d all take it so seriously.”
It wasn’t so clear exactly what Ringo would go on to do after The Beatles. While providing session drumming for Lennon and Harrison’s solo records and performing in Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, Ringo looked more set to acting and film-making, appearing in movies with Frank Zappa and Harry Nilsson plus directing T-Rex’s Born to Boogie concert film. With a music career somewhat in flux, Lennon recalled to journalist Ray Connolly from his Tittenhurst Park home: “I don’t want Ringo to end up poor, having to play the northern nightclubs…because the worst thing in the world for an ex-pop star in England is to end up playing Bradford or Darlington, the northern nightclubs because they are really awful places … The people eating chips and scampi while you’re trying to be heard.”
The friendship forged during The Beatles’ heyday, from cutting their teeth in the Hamburg clubs to the final Abbey Road sessions, clearly fostered mutual affection. McCartney and Harrison both contributed songs to the Ringo album. Lennon’s public support for Ringo’s solo career showed that underneath the distance and acrimony, they were always bonded by the Fab Four chapter in their lives.
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