“Out of the blue”: The one song Ringo Starr said was created by accident
Ringo Starr usually didn’t have that much of a problem being the worst of the best in The Beatles.
There’s no conceivable way that anyone would have been able to do what he did behind the kit, but he was more than happy to admit when he didn’t have the same kind of songwriting chops that his colleagues had whenever he started his solo career. He could still get by with a few contributions from his friends, but even when they were coming to him with some of the best songs of his career, the drummer was counting his lucky stars that he actually could get some of them down on tape.
Because Starr would be the first one to tell you that he wasn’t exactly the most proficient on every single instrument. ‘Early 1970’ was the clearest example of him flat-out admitting that he wasn’t very good at any of the instruments other than the drums, and even during the band’s first few shows, he wasn’t above taking a few shots at his own singing voice when saying that he was singing all out of key whenever he tried his hand at songs like ‘Boys’ and ‘Act Naturally’ whenever they played live.
But even if the Fab Four were gone, Starr’s bandmates knew how to take care of him. They didn’t want him going back to a life outside of music, and when listening to the first few records that he made, it was insane to think that Starr was the one outshining every single one of his bandmates on the charts right out of the gate. If you look at the songs themselves, though, it might not be all that surprising.
I mean, compared to Paul McCartney’s demo-quality debut or John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, Starr was just around to have a good time and bring the party to everyone on every one of his songs. And with the help of George Harrison, songs like ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and ‘Photograph’ are still some of the best songs of his career because of how laid-back they are. Starr was ascending much faster than really makes any sense, but ‘Back Off Boogaloo’ is still one of the best grooves he ever laid down.
It didn’t take him long, usually, to find the right sound that he was looking for, but aside from the nonsense title from Marc Bolan, a lot of the percussion was suggested by Harrison. Starr was more than happy to work on a rhythm that one of his Beatles had thought of in the early days, but even if Harrison gave him something strange on ‘Here Comes the Sun’, ‘Back Off Boogaloo’ was a lot trickier for Starr to lay down than the typical backbeat that he was used to throughout his solo years.
This was the time to bring the thunder, and Starr admitted that it was purely by happenstance that he got the right take, saying, “‘Back Off Boogaloo’ is an incredible example of how accidents are sometimes fabulous when coming up with a song. You see, George wanted me to play that pattern on the bass drum but the problem is I’m not that efficient as a drummer. I can’t go (imitates a beat) and play regular. So I started doing it on the snare and it worked a treat. You know, it was just out of the blue.”
Then again, The Beatles always took advantage of those little mistakes in the mix. MAny people would want to edit over little pieces of songs that didn’t work, but sometimes the right accident can be what ties a song together, whether that’s the vocals not lining up on ‘Please Please Me’ or the ramshackle production behind a pop marvel like ‘I’m Looking Through You’ from Rubber Soul.
So while the audience would have preferred if Starr did indeed play something ‘regular’, the key to genius is about giving the crowd what they don’t know they want. Starr could definitely bring the hits when he wanted to, but sometimes it was better for him to change things up a bit and give himself a challenge from his usual bag of tricks.
