The Beatles solo album Ringo Starr never liked: “Not for me”
The ending of The Beatles was never going to be the easiest to get over. As much as the band were seen as a band of brothers that were meant to go on forever, there was never any rule that said that they had to prop up each other when it came to their solo careers, especially when Paul McCartney started to sue his bandmates over business dealings. While Ringo Starr could be amicable with almost any of his old mates, he knew that there were some albums that he wasn’t itching to put on the turntable.
Looking at Starr’s solo career, though, he was always more than happy to play with anyone that he could. His ties with the band were never completely severed, and despite the band being broken up, the drummer was able to contribute percussion to at least one record from every one of his old bandmates. That is, when it came down to making the standard definition of rock and roll.
Because looking at Starr’s solo trajectory, he was never interested in making something with as much substance as the other three Beatles. That’s not to say that any of his music was horrible from back to front, but looking at what he was doing compared to everyone else, a song like ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ wasn’t exactly supposed to have the same staying power or ask the same hard questions that John Lennon was doing on ‘Working Class Hero’ or George Harrison did on every song on All Things Must Pass.
Like it or not, The Beatles were on totally separate musical wavelengths by the time they reached the 1970s, but there were already some cracks in the ice when they were together as well. As much as The White Album is considered a masterpiece today, it was never going to be a fun ride from back to front, especially since the tonal whiplash of the album becomes impossible to take after a while.
If there’s one song that was the most polarising in the Fab Four’s career, though, it’s ‘Revolution 9′. Created by Lennon and Yoko Ono with help from Harrison, this random sound collage has befuddled fans for years, but if that was a strange detour in the middle of the album, an entire album of that music was enough for some people to want to rip their headphones after more than 15 minutes.
And while Two Virgins did garner controversy for Lennon and Ono baring it all on the album cover, Starr admitted that he was never a fan of the record, saying, “It’s not a question of approving it. It’s just not for me. That’s what John wanted to do at the time, so that’s alright. It’s a very nice photo, very clean. Everybody who doesn’t [like it] shouldn’t be all ‘kill, kill.’ I’ll keep my trousers on.”
Beyond the photograph, though, Lennon’s run of experimental albums with Ono has forever been an acquired taste. No one should dock points for him wanting to express himself, but a song like ‘Cambridge 1969’ on their second album, Life With The Lions, is enough to give anyone a migraine if they’re not being careful enough.
Still, a lot of the music on those records is more about the pain that Lennon was going through at the time. That kind of expression would eventually be more refined on Plastic Ono Band, but there’s also a good chance that we would have never heard a song like ‘Mother’ had these albums not paved the way first.
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