'Ringo's coming this year' says ex-Beatle
John W. Barry
June 24, 2010
Even a Beatle can get stymied by paperwork.
Ringo Starr, during a telephone interview with the Journal on
Wednesday, explained how a customs-form snafu led to the cancellation
of the concert he and his All Starr Band were scheduled to play last
year at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Sullivan County.
The band's equipment truck was not allowed to cross the U.S.-Canadian
border because, Starr said, "they changed the form by the time we
left (the) venue."
The form that Starr's entourage had completed in advance, the famous
drummer said, had been changed by the time the equipment trucks
reached U.S. custom officials at the border.
At this point of the conversation, Starr began to laugh, with his
funny, Beatle-esque, isn't-life-absurd take on things.
"They know I didn't do it on purpose," he said with a chuckle. "There
was no way to get out of this."
Then Starr said, with an air of hilarity and defiance, "Tell them
Ringo's coming this year."
Indeed he is, on Saturday night.
Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band are scheduled scheduled, mind
you to perform Saturday at Bethel Woods, which has been built on
the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
"No one cannot admit," Starr said about the Woodstock festival, "it
was the biggest show ever at that time."
But for all its history, The Beatles were not a part of Woodstock. So
where was Starr when he heard that Woodstock was happening on a farm
in upstate New York?
"I was eating ice cream in England," he said, "in the back of a limousine."
On Saturday, Starr will lead the 11th edition of his All Starr Band,
which features Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Rick Derringer, Richard
Page, Wally Palmar and Gregg Bissonette on drums.
Winter is known for his hit "Free Ride;" Wright is known for his hit
"Dream Weaver;" Derringer is known for "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo;"
Page was a member of Mr. Mister; Palmar was in the Romantics; and
Bissonette has played drums with Santana and David Lee Roth, among others.
All Starr Band lineups change from year to year.
"I feel this band," Starr said, "is more rocking than the others."
Starr is expected to play Beatles classics such as "With A Little
Help from My Friends" and "Octopus's Garden," as well as solo hits
such as "It Don't Come Easy" and tunes from his new album, "Y Not."
"Y Not" features an appearance by one of Starr's oldest friends,
fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
Having McCartney play on "Y Not" was "great," Starr said.
"He's a fine player and he's a good friend," he said. "It's always easy."
Starr's songwriting process, he said, including for the tunes on "Y
Not," is organic.
"It unfolds," he said. "I love the life when it unfolds."
Saturday's show at Bethel Woods is the first U.S. date on Starr's
tour, which will stop at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan July 7
which, coincidentally, is Starr's 70th birthday.
"There's nothing I can do about it," Starr said about turning 70.
"Here I go. Here I come, and here I go, and that will be it."
Starr in his trademark gentle and funny, yet direct, way also had a
message for his fellow baby boomers "Get off your a - - and start
working out and moving about a bit and easy on the pizza."
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Reach John W. Barry at jobarry@pough keepsiejournal.com or 845-4337-4822.
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Ringo reunites with '60s tribe
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20100628/LIFE/6280322/1005/life
John W. Barry
June 28, 2010
BETHEL, Sullivan County Ringo Starr's concert this weekend on the
grounds that hosted the Woodstock Music and Art Fair fused the
beginning with the end, the dawn and the dusk.
The ex-Beatle's performance Saturday night also brought together two
cultural phenomenons of human history that far transcend music, or
even popular culture the British Invasion of rock music and the
Woodstock festival.
Ringo's second-to-last song Saturday night at Bethel Woods Center for
the Arts, the majestic performing arts center that now sits on the
land that hosted Woodstock, was "With A Little Help From My Friends,"
from what is perhaps the most artistically adventurous rock album
ever released, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
There was a sense of community and togetherness when Ringo led
thousands in the crowd, singing, "I get by with a little help from my
friends/Gonna try with a little help from my friends."
The peace signs Ringo flashed did a lot to evoke the sprit of
Woodstock, that whole "peace, love and music" thing.
You could say that Ringo, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George
Harrison laid the groundwork for Woodstock, the concert held here in
August 1969 that attracted hundreds of thousands and ended up a
milestone in American history.
I have heard from more than one Hudson Valley musician how they were
inspired to pick up their instruments or start singing because of the
Beatles. Many watched the Fab Four perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
in February 1964 and went out the next day to purchase a guitar.
And many, in their early teens in 1964, were approaching adulthood in
August 1969, when an announcement was made that a music festival
would be held in Bethel, featuring Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others.
The Woodstock Nation, you might say, was raised by the Beatles.
But by the time August 1969 had rolled around, the Beatles were done.
They had raised a generation on innocent, loud rock 'n' roll, leaped
down the rabbit hole of psychedelic music, and everyone came out on
the other side, before parting ways.
The Beatles didn't play at Woodstock. But their legacy informed about
everything around which Woodstock revolved:
• The loud electric guitars, which the Beatles, inspired by Elvis and
Chuck Berry, took directly to the American youth during that "Ed
Sullivan Show" broadcast, inspired a different kind of American revolution.
• The long hair sported by the majority of young men at Woodstock was
longer than the mop tops the Beatles were styled with on their trip
to America in 1964. But I know from speaking to baby boomers that the
Beatles haircut of 1964 was considered scandalously long by the
majority of men in 1964, who had crew cuts.
• The music. You might say some Beatle songs foretold that spirit of
togetherness at the heart of Woodstock's success: "Come Together,"
"All Together Now," "All You Need Is Love" and, perhaps most
importantly, "With A Little Help From My Friends."
It was that song that was the moment for me on Saturday night, when
one of the Beatles stood a few dozen feet away, reunited with his
lost tribe of the 1960s, those folks who sat glued to their TV sets
in February 1964, and reminded everyone that, even if he is one of
the Beatles, we are all in this together.
--
Reach John W. Barry at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4822.
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