Ringo Starr names his “first musical influence”
Ringo Starr proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for The Beatles. Although he wasn’t a founding member of the Fab Four and, in fact, didn’t even play on their debut single, the drummer was a vital component of their sound, providing a platform for his bandmates to thrive.
Starr’s greatest attribute has always been his unselfish nature. The percussionist wanted to avoid being the centre of attention, and the idea of prolonged drum solos made his stomach turn. For Starr, his only role was to assist the song, which is somewhat linked to his musical education.
Unlike many drummers, Starr has never listened to records exclusively to hear his instrument of choice. Instead, he cares about songwriting as a whole entity, with the exception of Cozy Cole, who was his first and only drumming hero as a teenager. When Starr was growing up in post-war Liverpool, music wasn’t particularly accessible. Therefore, the drummer had to survive off whatever songs he could get his hands on. He didn’t have the luxury of plentiful radio stations accessible or music television channels to rely on to discover artists.
During his early years, before he could buy records with his own money, he used his local cinema in Merseyside as a vehicle for new music discovery. While Cozy Cole was the first drummer that Starr appreciated, his musical journey dates all the way back to Gene Autry, who was known as ‘The Singing Cowboy’.
Autry was an actor as well as a musician, and it was through his cinematic exploits that Starr became familiar with his work. While his novelty brand of music bears little resemblance to the stellar catalogue Starr helped construct with The Beatles, Autry was a crucial figure in his life who helped open his eyes to the possibilities of sound.
Speaking to NME, Starr said ‘South Of The Border’ was the first track he fell in love with as a child. It was the soundtrack from a 1939 film of the same name, which he has fond memories of watching on tape at his local cinema as a youngster. He commented: “They used to play it on Saturday morning at the pictures in Liverpool, which was a big deal for kids in those days. I remember it like yesterday, him singing that, and it just feeling good. It moved me.”
The interview above isn’t the only time Starr has talked in such favourable terms about Autry, and he even owns a portrait of the late singer. In the book Hamburg Days, the Beatle said of his first musical hero: “I remember getting shivers up my back when he sang, ‘South of the Border'”. In addition, he’s also quoted as once saying: “Gene Autry was the most. It may sound like a joke – Go and have a look in my bedroom, It’s covered with Gene Autry posters. He was my first musical influence.”
Autry was a prolific actor. In 1939 alone, the year of South of the Border’s release, he starred in eight different cinematic productions. His career was halted between 1942 and 1946 due to World War II, but once he returned from serving his country, he returned to being one of the leading names of the Western genre.
Everybody needs that first gateway into music. It doesn’t matter if the artist isn’t a critically acclaimed darling with abundant talent; all that’s important is the feeling it invokes inside the listener. While Autry never produced an album on the level of Pet Sounds or Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, ‘The Singing Cowboy’ illuminated Starr’s life.
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