Counter-culture Journals (文革)

Counter-culture Journals (文革)

Monday, June 27, 2016

Ringo Starr in Wichita—A chance to see a music legend


By SJ Otto
For years I've been hoping that Ringo Starr would come somewhere near my hometown of Wichita, even if I had to go as far as Kansas City or some place further. So when I heard this concert was coming, I bought tickets on day one. Ringo is my second favourite Beatle after John Lennon. Since Lennon died I will never have a chance to see him play, so this was probably the only time I will ever see a Beatle. I'm not sure if I would go to see Sir Paul McCartney.[1] After all, I actually watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in February 9, 1964. I have some of their best albums.  
I've watched most of Ringo's movies, "The Magic Christian," "Caveman" and "200 Motels." And I have several of his solo albums including "Ringo," "Good Night Vienna" and "Beaucoups of Blues."
Most of the people in the audience were as old or older than I. I used to see a lot of long hair and joints being passed around, in my younger days, at rock concerts. Now they look like a gig for the geriatric set complete with lots of gray hair. And yet there were a noticeable amount of young people there.

Ringo has his own All-Starr Band, which today is made up of some very impressive permanent band members. They include guitarist Todd Rundgren, guitarist Steve Lukather from Toto, Santana keyboardist Gregg Rolie, Mr. Mister bassist Richard Page and drummer Gregg Bissonette.
During the show he performed songs that were either written by, or performed, by other members of his band. For example, Lukather sang Toto's "Africa." Rolie performed "Black Magic Woman" from his Santana days.
Ringo did play some Beatles songs, mostly those he either wrote, co-wrote, or sang, such as "Yellow Submarine." He played "What Goes On" Written by Lennon- McCartney-Starr(Starkey).[2] "They got the order of the names wrong," Ringo joked.
Later he said; "I wrote a lot of songs for the Beatles. But they didn't play any." The audience laughed. "Until this one:" Then he broke into "Don't Pass Me By," which he wrote for the Beatles' white album (not the official album name).
He also played a song written by John Lennon for him, "I'm The Greatest." "He didn't have the balls to play it," Ringo said. "So I did and I'm going to play it now."
He played a lot of his own songs that have become popular over the years, such as "You're Sixteen," "Backup Boogaloo" and "It Don't Come Easy."
He closed with some chanting of "Give Peace A Chance," which was a breath of fresh air in our modern society so pre-occupied with violence and war.
It was a great gig for Wichita, KS and we were lucky to get it.



[1] After all he is a commercial sell-out who played for the Queen of England at her jubilee. Would Lennon have done that?
[2] Ringo's real name is Richard Starkey and he usually uses his real name when he takes credit for writing songs.

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