Ringo’s favorite Beatle song.

Well, as I mentioned in last week’s post, Ringo holds a great deal of fondness toward Revolver, their 7^th album––a great number for the famous drummer in that Ringo was born on 7/7/40. Another great thing about the number 7 is, it’s also the love of my life’s favorite figure, but that’s sidestepping the topic. I just get giddy to the extreme inside my heart when the number 7 comes up, on account of how much I cherish my best friend and boldly confess her curvature figure is by far my favorite figure. . . She is a true Goddess.

Okay, enough of my passionate daydreaming. Let’s Get Back to Revolver, shall we? August 6, 1966, the boys entered Abby Road Studio and from 8 pm until 1:30 am the next morning, recorded three takes of a song written by John titled, Mark 1. Soon afterward, Lennon replaced that titled with something Ringo said in typical casual conversation as he blurted, Tomorrow Never Knows. John seized the name and although the heading never appears in the lyrics, it certainly set the mood for a quantum leap of composing style our Beatles used to provide sensational music enamored by the fans. For the first time, George Martin’s assistant Geoff Emerick moved the bass drum microphone much closer to the huge round instrument and sought material to be inserted inside the drum to deaden the sound. Of all things, he found an old woolen jumper sweater stitched with four necks the Beatles wore years ago in a publicity shoot. Ringo went nuts over the new sound, and the alteration inspired him to come up with the hypnotic beat patterns played throughout the tune. The next day, the lads brought into the studio another new song, Got To get You into My Life. However, the five takes they recorded sound nothing like the final track issued at release time. George Martin borrowed Lennon’s one single chord idea used yesterday on Tomorrow Never Knows and played a single note on the organ during the new song intro. You can hear the results on the Anthology album.

A few days later work began on a Harrison tune called Granny Smith, yes the same apple that became the logo for Apple Corp. Ltd. This turned out to only be a working title for the track called, Love You To, and George also borrowed a tiny sliver from John by never signing its title within the lyrics. All this occurred on August 11^th and finalized on August 13^th. Time on the clock permitted two takes of a brand new McCartney song he wanted to teach the band about a novelist needing a job. Martin could sense the chart topper dynamics ability to grab any listener’s attention as the song developed and roared through the sound system.

Come August 14^th, E.M.I’s top record producer wanted a Lennon/McCartney hit single to spark a teasing interest in the upcoming album. He knew competition would be fierce, especially toying with all the new technics (Artificial Double Tracking, Leslie Speakers, compressors, jangle boxes and limiters) his sound engineers kept perfecting with amazing results, so fighting for the A-side would benefit all concerned. First came, Paperback Writer, and Paul charged onto the battlefield branding a new bass guitar, a Rickenbacker, played through a second loudspeaker as a microphone positioned right next to the bass speaker boosting the sound to intense levels, an early victory of hope winning the coveted position on the 45. Not willing to surrender, John also brought enough ammunition compiled inside his contribution for an A-side. His selection actually wins the answer to today’s post label––yep, Rain, the very tune that started a brand new trend of recording backward tapes into the mix, triumphs as the top-spot on Ringo’s favorite gem performed by the Beatles. His reason? The drum fills he had invented while in the zone of the rhythm blew him away; he felt as if some other amazing drummer had done all the best bits, and what’s more; he really enjoyed using a trick of playing the high-hat first starting a break rather than pounding a drum-skin on the downbeat. Another factor that propelled this song deep into Ringo’s heart points to slowing down the playback. In other words, the lads played the song much faster live, and after the tape had recorded it all, engineers slowed down the capstan spool causing the sound texture to fatten rather nicely. This process changed Ringo’s instruments into a giant drum kit, where you could swim, bath, and submerge oneself in the luxury barrel shaped percussion utensil’s tone that his sticks rolled over with fine finesse. If drum fills designed by Mr. Starkey equaled the key component to a favorite song, I believe A Day In The Life should immediately ascend to the Supreme landmark. Another John song which the lyrics never refer to the title.

 Although the Lonely Hearts Club Band contents as a whole still reign as the greatest Rock & Roll album ever, poor Ringo has ugly memories about the Pepper assemblies, such as he couldn’t shake the feeling he had simply become an insignificant session musician on call. Out of boredom waiting for something to do during months and months of overdubbing by the other three, Richie learned how to play chess. The early 1967 project that sailed right into summer was almost hell to endure for Mr. Starr. But listen to his ever changing drum pattern fills on A Day In The Life every couple measures, genius, remarkable, and the impeccable driving force that totally carries the song into listening bliss. Just click on this link below to catch Paul and Ringo isolated from all the other channels during the recording mix of this powerful number.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DSkmTAt9wvw    Ringo nails it!

If the above link fails, copy and paste this new link here: https://binged.it/2SvxpBO

And in closing, it should be stated the oldest Beatle digs to the max their entire undertaking substance found on Side 2 of the Abbey Road album, especially the progressive flow entering a new song, “brilliant,” he says. Quite an iconic performance to end a musical phenomenon. Hey, speaking of the word, “dig”, My least favorite song featuring Ringo’s drum fills, hands down is, I Dig Love, found on Harrison’s solo album, All Things Must Pass. To this day I think our beloved Mr. Starr is off beat every time he pounds the floor toms, but who knows, maybe George directed his mate to play those very strokes. To me, it’s awful . . . I’m reminded of Harrison’s song-lyrics that says, “When you’re listening late at night, you may think the band are not quite right, but they are, they just play it like that.” (Only A Northern Song) The first time I heard, I Dig Love, the drums sickened me and caused my mind much wonder as to what happened to Ringo’s talent. He had done such a great job on John’s Instant Karma single for producer Phil Spector, and since George also used Phil Spector to produce his solo album, All Things Must Pass, how did Ringo slip by the trained ears of Spector, a mystery. Yet, much later, I learned Ringo didn’t play drums on Instant Karma, John hired Alan White, famous drummer for the classical rock group, Yes. But George Harrison contributed his guitar talent to the Instant Karma single. Maybe that’s how Phil produced both artists. 

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