"There's
nothing you can do that can't be done"...but this is something I can do. I'm a big Beatle fan, and a working caricaturist
for thirty years. I thought a nice way to combine the two is to steal a page from "Julie & Julia" and commit
to doing one new image related to the Beatles per week for the next year. I'm not doing one a day in strict homage, as I don't
think I could keep that pace for the next 365 days. 52 pieces of art seems more realistic, and might allow for more time intensive
media occasionally (painting, etc.) , though I expect most of the images will be ink on paper. There will also be non Beatle
drawings here on the blog, and my definition of "Beatles related" is elastic (if not fully Plastic Ono;-). So, key
people and family members outside the Fab Four will appear.
In some rare instances, I may work
digitally which means there will be no "original" per se, but apart from that, most of these images will be available
for purchase. Email me if you are interested, and comment at will.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Everybody loves Ringo...
Someone on a newsgroup recently observed that in any band, there’s one guy that everybody
likes, and that Ringo was that guy in the Beatles. Ringo was key to their making it big professionally. They kicked out Pete
Best in favor of Liverpool’s best drummer, only to find out that even he wasn’t quite up to George’ Martin’s
standards, at least for the first song they recorded, “Love Me Do”. But Ringo brought both a great sense
of timing, and enough creativity and adventure to augment and improve the great songs of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Ironically,
even though he was the final piece of the puzzle, as they turned to studio work, there was less and less for him to do. Ringo
said “Sgt. Pepper was the album where I learned how to play chess”. According to Mark Lewisohn, "there were
fewer than a dozen occasions in The Beatles' eight-year recording career where session 'breakdowns' were caused by Starr making
a mistake, while the vast majority of takes were stopped owing to mistakes by the other three members." (Ringo Wiki)
So here’s Richie on the cans, listening to playback in the middle period, about Rubber/Revolver time.
In February 1968, the Beatles went to India to study meditation techniques with the Maharishi.
Though they did not find nirvana, they did find a good rest for the first time since they started being noticed. Ringo split
early, because he could not handle the Indian diet, but the other three stayed on for a while.
And if they did
not get what they wanted, what they came home with was pretty good indeed: the Esher/Kinfauns demos show that this change
of pace and place was great for the three writers in the band. John brought home "Julia", "Revolution",
"Yer Blues" and the song I allude to in the name of this blog. Paul brought back "Blackbird", "Back
in the USSR" and "Junk". And George brought back "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and 3 songs the
others did not allow on the White Album: "Not Guilty", "Sour Milk Sea" and the weirdly funereal "Circles".
They all showed major growth as writers, but it was all pretty much as practice for their solo careers. Once back,
they pursued their own songs sometimes in the exclusion of the others. Paul famously wiped Ringo’s drum track and re-recorded
it leading the mellow Ringo to become to the first of the Fab Four to quit the band in disgust. So this burst of individual
creativity contained the seeds of the band’s eventual breakup.
On August 22nd, 1969, the members of the band gathered for a photo shoot at John’s
estate, Tittenhurst, as the mixing and editing of Abbey Road was winding down.
Looking at the various photos that
emerged from this shoot (the most familiar ones were used in the “Hey Jude” compilation album, on front and back),
it’s clear that things were unraveling, or had unraveled entirely. On the surface, they are all playing the game
and posing together. But John’s outfit was particularly weird even by Lennon standards. To me he looks like a gunslinger
from the Crab Nebula, by way of Japan.
Paul looks very fidgety in contrast to every other Beatles photo session;
of course the biggest schism was between Paul & John, and the shoot was at John’s house. George looks distracted
and like he’d rather be anywhere else. And Ringo is just trying to get along.
I’ve gone a bit more
exaggerated in the style than I normally do, to suit John’s appearance. I am after all, a caricaturist, even if much
of my work here leans a bit more straightforward representational.
Ringo was born on July 7th, 1940. The oldest Beatle is 70 years young!
John Lennon once wrote that the
Beatles were composed of “John, Paul, George and It’s Only Ringo”. In the context of the writing team
of John & Paul, and most excellent junior varsity writer George, Ringo’s rep has often devolved to “the luckiest
man in show business history”. Ringo himself had also voiced the sentiment. When asked at a Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame dinner whether he was planning to play that night, he demurred with “There’s real musicians here!”
But Ringo was the final piece of the puzzle to make the four Fab. To this day, a “Ringo fill” is something
every drummer knows. And Ringo’s trademark malaprops and witticisms were as much an upgrade on Pete Best as was his
superior skill on the skins.
We’ve got "Beatles:Rock Band", and the first time I played
the drum controllers on that, I had a newfound appreciation for Ringo’s talent and stamina (and that of every rock drummer,
FWIW!). Yikes!
And this birthday of Ringo’s is special for me, because my wife and I just saw him perform
live for the first time last Tuesday. What a show. If Ringo and his All Starrs are coming to town, catch that show. You’ll
be glad you did.
On June 25th, 1967, the Beatles participated in the first big satellite broadcast.
They played semi-live (using some backing tracks) to their upcoming single, “All You Need Is Love”. This
was the pinnacle of Pepperland, the apogee of the Summer of Love. Earlier this month, the band had released Sgt. Pepper, and
resolved the naysayers who had wondered if they had run out of talent now that they were no longer touring. They were
the kings of the world at the moment, and all of swinging London wanted to be there with them. The crowd at their feet includes
Clapton, Graham Nash , Keith Moon, Jagger, Richard, Marianne Faithful, Jane Asher & Mike McCartney.
The Anthology clip is nice, and one of the few good uses of “colorizing” technology. Oddly, the original footage
of this psychedelic crowd was shot in black & white!!! Glad somebody decided to save the BBC a few quid .
In the Anthology clip, the bit starts in black & white and fades into pretty full color, based on stills taken that day.
