The album Ringo Starr picked over ‘Sgt Pepper’: “Better for me”
Not every band has to be loved with every album they put out. Even though some fine moments are worth revisiting on nearly every record, the occasional few songs don’t land with audiences or take a strange detour that looks a bit silly in retrospect. Although The Beatles are one of the few bands that don’t have any abject failures to look back on, Ringo Starr knew that there were a handful of albums that he would put well above their celebrated masterpieces.
Then again, Starr has always had a slightly different view of how the Fab Four’s legend is perceived. Outside of being in the thick of it with the rest of his mates, he was always the one trying to think outside the box when it came to his drum fills, whether that was listening to Paul McCartney suggested for ‘Ticket to Ride’ or making one of the greatest drum solo moments in rock history during the final few seconds of ‘Long Tall Sally.’
By the time the band had adopted the studio as their second home, though, there was no limit to what Starr could play. The massive amount of effects on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows meant that it was most likely never going to be played in a live setting, so that left everything wide open for Starr to make different choices, from the metronome-like drumming to bringing in different percussion layers on their later albums.
But what Starr did on their classics is instinctive rather than thought out. He could play a drum fill whenever the time called for it, but if the band needed to do another take, there’s a good chance that drum fill would be completely different depending on where he was at the moment he was playing. And while Sgt Peppers does have some great drum parts, it didn’t leave Starr with the most room to work in.
McCartney conceived the whole project as a way for them to adopt a new identity, and since they had left the road, this was their opportunity to make a sonic statement like The Beach Boys did with Pet Sounds. Since Macca had total control over how he wanted his songs to sound, though, going experimental on The White Album was almost necessary, with Starr making some of the most inventive drum parts of his career.
“It was very innovative with great songs, it was a real pleasure, and I’m glad I was on it, but The White Album ended up a better album for me.”
ringo starr
While it’s easy to acknowledge Pepper as the true masterpiece of their career, Starr said he would much rather go back to the band’s double record any day of the week, saying, “Sgt Pepper did its thing – it was the album of the decade, of the century maybe. It was very innovative with great songs, it was a real pleasure, and I’m glad I was on it, but The White Album ended up a better album for me.”
That’s not to take anything away from what Sgt Pepper did. The whole album kickstarted the Summer of Love for many people, but when looking through the different pieces on The White Album, there’s a lot more depth to what the band can do, whether that’s Starr getting his first solo writing credit on the song ‘Don’t Pass Me By,’ hearing him play something understated like ‘Rocky Raccoon’ or ending putting himself through pain to get the final version of ‘Helter Skelter.’
But choosing The White Album over Sgt. Peppers ultimately comes down to how the band feel about the final product. None of them were getting along that well by the time their double album came out, but it’s a blessing and a curse knowing that sometimes the most emotional sessions can produce the best work.
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