(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 26 December 2025 17:30, UK
Almost any artist would have given everything they had to be able to play with someone like Ringo Starr.
Despite every single joker claiming that he was the least talented Beatle and got the lucky break of a lifetime by joining them, the Fab Four wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as they became without Starr knowing exactly what to play for every song. But for a band that had played together for that long, it was always going to feel a little bit difficult when they decided to go their separate ways.
Because, really, there was no fan who wanted The Beatles to stay together more than Starr. Beyond being friendly with all of them, Starr had to be wondering what his career was going to look like without his old mates, and while he did get a few decent hits right off the bat, he was going to need to be doing a little bit more than being the lovable crooner that sang ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘Boys’ every single time he went onstage.
Although he did get a decent amount of work playing with his old mates from time to time, Ringo was proof enough that his best records were the ones that had his best musical buddies coming together for one big party. In fact, one could say that he needed…say it with me now…a little help from his friends. But if he got everyone to chip in for his album, he could do the same whenever his friends gave him a call.
And compared to George Harrison roaring out of the gate with All Things Must Pass, John Lennon needed the most time to process what had happened. He had been in the band almost half of his life at this point, and once he decided to stop everything, he needed to take inventory of his own mind. Once he came up for air, though, the only way that he could process everything was by putting everything down in song.
Lennon was helplessly human in every song he wrote, but if ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ gave everyone a glimpse into his childhood, Plastic Ono Band put everything front and centre. There was nothing for him to hide behind anymore, and with only his guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass, and Starr behind the drum kit, he was free to say his piece on the ending of the band and move on.
Songs like ‘God’ were proof that the band was no more, but Starr was more than happy to play with a scaled-down group, saying, “John, Klaus and I [were] 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.”
Then again, a lot of that came down to Starr and Lennon having played together for years at a time. Voorman found his way into the group perfectly when playing those rich chords in tunes like ‘Hold On’, but Lennon’s rhythm guitar chops had been refined once Starr joined the group back in 1962, so even if he decided to throw something off its timing, Starr was always there to make everything sound seamless.
The same could be said of Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band released around the same time, which let Starr cut loose a little more when working on tunes like ‘Why’. It might not have been the most inventive performances that Starr ever played or anything, but if you listen to a song like ‘I Found Out’, you’ll start to realise why he and Lennon were practically made for each other when driving the Fabs forward.
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