George Harrison Once Joked That Ringo Starr ‘Might Be a Yogi Disguised as a Drummer’
George Harrison once joked that his fellow Beatle, Ringo Starr, “might be a yogi disguised as a drummer.” The pair were close during their time with the Fab Four.
George Harrison said Ringo Starr ‘might be a yogi disguised as a drummer’
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote that when The Beatles broke up, George was sad about not being bandmates with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and especially Ringo.
“Of course, they would remain close, communicate, see each other from time to time,” Greene wrote. “How could it be otherwise? They’d built a rapport that was nearly ‘telepathic,’ as Ringo had once described it.
“Of the three, George knew, Ringo could always be counted on for good humor and affection. Ringo would always be there for him. ‘For all I know,’ he said, ‘Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer.'”
Maybe that was because George never got any hassle from Ringo.
George helped Ringo write songs
While they were bandmates, George often helped Ringo write songs. He helped Ringo write one of the only two songs the drummer wrote for The Beatles, “Octopus’s Garden,” on Abbey Road.
During an interview with Rolling Stone radio (per the Daily Mail) in 2020, Ringo admitted that he thought he “didn’t have the talent” to finish the songs on his debut solo album, Sentimental Journey. So, he often turned to his fellow Beatle to help him.
“I used to always go to George to help me end the song,” Ringo explained. “I didn’t have the talent to end a song. With Back Off Boogaloo, I went to George and he helped me finish it.” Ringo’s “Back off Boogaloo” reached No. 9 on the U.S. charts.
Ringo was one of the drums George always counted on
Once their time with The Beatles ended, George and Ringo collaborated many times during their solo careers. George helped Ringo on Sentimental Journey in 1970, and Ringo provided drums on some tracks on George’s first solo album, All Things Must Pass, that same year.
Ringo also helped George with The Concert for Bangladesh, Living in the Material World, Dark Horse, Somewhere in England, Cloud Nine, Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, and Extra Texture (Read All About It).
Meanwhile, George helped Ringo on his 1973 album Ringo, Ringo’s Rotogravure, Stop and Smell the Roses, and Vertical Man. It’s also worth pointing out that both George and Ringo guest-starred the most on other Beatles records.
Ringo was one of the drummers George always counted on. The “My Sweet Lord” singer explained that he always knew what he would get when he asked Ringo to appear on his records during a 1987 interview.
“You couldn’t make an ex-Beatle record without having Ringo, could you?” George said. “It’s like a built-in thing. If I play a song to Ringo, I don’t need to say to him, ‘You know, I want it to go like this.’ I just play it, and he joins in. Maybe you could tell him, ‘Stop there’ or ‘Can you do a little fill there?’
“But other than that, he’s got a great feel. Ringo, he’s like-I sort of don’t practice much on the guitar. I just pick it up and play it when I need to and he’s the same. He never practices, he’s a very naughty boy. But he just gets his sticks and he just does it, and it sounds just like Ringo.”
George and Ringo had each other’s backs. It was always a given that Ringo would help out, doing what he does best.
