Ringo Starr on the “best experiences” of his post-Beatles career
Life as a former member of The Beatles was a difficult journey for all four members. The weighty expectations that followed each of the former players were handled in different ways. Ringo Starr could have the toughest or easiest time, depending on how you viewed it. His easy-going persona and lovable attitude made him a favourite of his former bandmates, but that lack of seriousness could have doomed his solo career.
Luckily for him, that wasn’t the case. Starr scored one of the first solo hits out of all of the former Beatles, 1971’s ‘It Don’t Come Easy’, and continued to rack up hits throughout the early part of the decade. In the United States, Starr was briefly the most popular of all the former Beatles, landing number one singles like ‘Photograph’ and ‘You’re Sixteen’.
Crucially, Starr maintained good relationships with all of his former bandmates, collaborating with them on their solo records while they gave him some of their material in return. Starr was there for George Harrison’s The Concert For Bangladesh and was one of only a small number of people who helped Lennon work on his debut solo LP, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
“It was incredible,” Starr later told Uncut of the recording sessions. “John, [bassist] Klaus [Voorman]and I. One of the finest trios I ever heard. We did it like a jam. We knew John had the songs, and we’d kick it in and felt where it should go. We knew Klaus anyway. John and I really knew each other, so we were psychic where the atmosphere was going to go.”
The making of Plastic Ono Band was a difficult birth. The album took specific inspiration from Lennon’s primal scream therapy that utilised traumatic incidents that are relived and recreated. Lennon dealt with weighty topics like the death of his mother, his disillusionment with The Beatles, his lack of belief in God, the plight of the working class, and the loneliness he felt outside of the embrace of his wife, Yoko Ono. In spite of this, Starr remembers the sessions being a positive time for everyone involved.
“It’s one of the best experiences of being on a record I have ever had,” Starr claimed. “Just being in the room with John, being honest, the way he was, screaming, shouting and singing. It was an incredible moment.”
Check out ‘Mother’ from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band down below.
