George & Ringo: The Brothers Fab

By |2022-06-17T03:57:26-07:00May 12, 2015|George, George Harrison, Guest blogger, Ringo, Ringo Starr, Uncategorized|

By Michael Ray, Guest Dullblogger  •  Discuss the Beatles and much has been made regarding the brotherhood of its two principal players, John Lennon and Paul McCartney: a team – collaboratively and spiritually. Such a force is hard to deny. But there is another brotherhood that rarely gets mention, a true musical expression of love and respect between the remaining members of the Fab Four. After all, it was George Harrison who was the first to suggest that Richard Starkey (aka: Ringo Starr) join the group and replace the band’s original drummer, Pete Best. It was George who also took a black [...]

Ringo honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

By |2015-04-15T09:28:43-07:00April 15, 2015|awards, Beatles tributes, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

DEVIN McKINNEY  •  As the karmic wheel turns: balancing out my snarky but I think accurate estimation of The Magic Christian (see the panel to your right), comes today from Salon this informed, comprehensive, well-written, and generally right-on appreciation of Ringo Starr’s truest talent and most immeasurable contribution: his musicianly drumming. Authored by Patrick Berkery, a journeyman drummer who writes for Modern Drummer and has played with War on Drugs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and others, it comes upon the announcement that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will, during the April 18 induction ceremonies, bestow upon Ringo its Award [...]

Starrtime: Defining Moments from Ringo’s non-Beatle movies (2)

By |2022-03-01T14:45:29-08:00April 13, 2015|1969, comedy, Monty Python, Movies, Ringo, Ringo movies, Ringo Starr|

If you thought Candy sucked rubber, point your innocent eyeballs in the direction of The Magic Christian, a film with similar components—Terry Southern novel, Ringo Starr one face among many in a ridiculously eclectic, overqualified cast—and find yourself trapped in the Fourth Dimension of Suck. All that I remember of the novel from a high-school reading is that Ringo’s character, a homeless bum and adopted son of a billionaire, isn’t in it. That the role was created for the film and left to languish as an afterthought manifests in the marginality of Ringo’s presence, though he is top-billed among the eminent or [...]

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Happy birthday, Ringo!

By |2014-07-07T15:50:39-07:00July 7, 2014|1967, 1968, A Day in the Life, birthdays, Levon Helm, Ringo, Ringo Starr, Sgt. Pepper|

DEVIN McKINNEY  •  Hey! Let’s all wish Ringo the best on his 74th birthday. He’s still on tour, still looking great, still showing those peace fingers and giving a plug for love wherever he goes. I wrote a little birthday tribute to Ringo over at HiLobrow, a pop-culture site where I often contribute (edited by the great Josh Glenn, a guest contributor of ours). I hope you’ll pop over and check it out. Here’s something else I’ve wanted to say for a long time about Ringo, and it’s exclusive to Hey Dullblog. Once, not more than a year or two ago, a vision [...]

Variety agrees with Hey Dullblog: 2014 is the Year of Ringo

By |2014-01-29T13:36:36-08:00January 29, 2014|David Lynch, Ringo, Ringo Starr, Todd Rundgren, Transcendental Meditation|

"Peace, wall." DEVIN McKINNEY  •  Ringo is on the cover of the latest Variety, heralding a celebrity profile by Assistant Managing Features Editor Steve Chagollan that is not only indifferently written but, typical for an age in which basic compositional standards are plummeting faster than an anvil lofted from the Empire State Building, is dotted with stylistic and factual boo-boos.  (Ringo’s wife is referred to as “the actress formerly known as Barbara Bach”; what is she known as now, The Actress?) Still, the piece offers a brand-new, piping-hot array of Ringo opinions (he thinks Di Caprio is a lock for [...]

Starrtime: Defining Moments from Ringo’s non-Beatle movies (1)

By |2015-10-21T20:19:44-07:00January 7, 2014|1960s, 1968, alternate history, comedy, Film merde, Psychedelia, Ringo, Ringo movies, Ringo Starr|

The two dozen or so films Ringo Starr has made outside of the Beatles may constitute, more than any other legacy, a hefty bequest to the genre known unofficially as film merde. In spite or perhaps because of this, a surprising number of the all-star extravaganzas that make use of our favorite drummer’s amenable presence and recognizable nose have generated cults of some size (at least, if you believe Internet commentators who themselves, rather than stating existing facts, may merely be hoping to originate such cults). If nothing else, some of them offer a window on that passage in cultural history when, [...]

George and Ringo, the forgotten Beatles: A preamble and provocation for 2014

By |2014-01-02T07:27:21-08:00December 31, 2013|alternate history, George, George Harrison, Living in the Material World, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

Imagine there's no ... DEVIN McKINNEY  •  Offered in spirits of love and objectivity: One notices that the talk at Hey Dullblog tends, in a broad sense, to revolve around, or devolve toward, precisely two subjects: John and Paul. (Or John or Paul; or John versus Paul. Or John. Or Paul.) Start at virtually any discussion point, and reader heat will amass itself around their two heads—as if they were not just the most interesting of the four, which they are, but as if they were the four in total, which they are not. It’s only natural, in a sense, [...]

Cries and Whispers, Crashes and Flutters: 10 Favorite Beatles Musical Micro-Moments

By |2016-12-03T07:44:13-08:00November 27, 2013|1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, John Lennon, Lennon, McCartney, Paul McCartney, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

Recording "Real Love," 1994:Gut genius at work. DEVIN McKINNEY  •  We all know you can take the Beatles to the outer limit and upper extremity of significance—Best thing in universal history—and then narrow that unit to its subordinate but still-impressive absolutes:  Best miracle of the 20th century; best socio-cultural force of the 1960s; Best group of the “rock era.” Having accepted all of that, you can, and we all have, then go superlative in descending levels of specificity: Best album; best song; best vocal performance—John; best vocal performance—Paul; best bass playing; best guitar solo; best everything else. But have we [...]

All I’ve got is a photograph: Ringo snaps Miami fans

By |2014-12-30T21:28:59-08:00October 27, 2013|1964, fans, Ringo, Ringo Starr|

DEVIN McKINNEY  •  Courtesy of Joe Bonomo, writer, professor, rock fan, comes this item. Ringo took this shot of fans from the back of the Beatles' limousine. He doesn't remember for sure, but he believes it was in Miami Beach on the Beatles' first trip there, February 13-22, 1964. The article in the Miami Herald has some great quotes from local fans, some of whom remember the Beatles' visit, and poses a mini-mystery of the kind I love. Someone objects that, since the kids are wearing jackets, this can't be Miami. But the writers do their research and discover that, indeed, there [...]

Prudence and the Penis: A Mystery

By |2013-09-02T08:03:39-07:00April 3, 2012|1968, Paul McCartney, Ringo, The White Album|

We know who wrote it. But who is on the Dear Prudence drum track? DEVIN McKINNEY  •  Mike's Facebook posting of isolated tracks from "Hey Bulldog" led me to seek out other examples of stripped-down Beatlesongs. This is among the more interesting, for both the music and the controversy. The mystery of the Dear Prudence drum track Did Ringo play the outro drums on "Dear Prudence"? One tends to forget that Paul is credited with drumming this track (recorded during Ringo's brief angry White Album hiatus), because its climactic passage is so utterly Ringoesque. (Plus, recordings like "The Ballad of [...]

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