Ringo Starr Once Revealed What Made The Beatles Change Their Sound So Quickly
Once Ringo Starr joined The Beatles, the band became a sensation almost overnight. Starr’s impressive drumming skills provided a steady back beat for the Fab Four. Whether it was a saccharine single (“A Hard Day’s Night”) or a complex, ahead-of-its-time track (“Tomorrow Never Knows”), Ringo provided solid stickwork throughout the Beatles’ career. Liverpool’s finest changed their sound dramatically in a relatively short time, and Ringo once revealed what made the Beatles’ sound develop so rapidly.
The Beatles pushed the limits of the three-minute pop song
The Fab Four proved their ability to craft melodic pop songs almost immediately. Early hits such as “Love Me Do” and “All My Loving” are practically masterclasses of the guitar-bass-drum pop song.
Yet The Beatles soon added new elements to their songs and wrote about more mature themes.
A few short years after establishing themselves as masters of the sweet pop song, they started reinventing themselves. Rubber Soul (George Harrison’s preferred Beatles album) included several new elements:
- A sitar on “Norwegian Wood”
- A sped-up recording technique that makes a keyboard sound like a harpsichord (“In My Life”)
- A song that frankly discusses relationship jealousy and revenge (“Run For Your Life”)
In quick succession, The Beatles dropped Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, and Abbey Road, all of which were defining achievements that further stretched their sound away from the sweet three-minute pop song. Ringo once revealed what led the Beatles to change their sound so drastically.
Ringo Starr revealed what made The Beatles change their sound so quickly
A lucky encounter with Ed Sullivan got the Beatles booked on his show in 1964. Not long after that, the band went from playing theaters in England to performing in arenas and stadiums worldwide.
The Beatles stopped touring years before they broke up, but they created what many fans would call their best albums. Their later work was expansive, seminal, and diverse. Ringo once revealed to Australian TV what was behind the Beatles’ rapidly-developing sound.
Today show host Karl Stefanovic asked how the Fab Four went from the sweet young love of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to the complex and mature sentiment of Abbey Road’s “Something,” and Ringo revealed exactly what inspired the change (via YouTube):
“Drugs. We were opening up our minds. We were opening up. We were going around the world; we were seeing the sites. We were growing, and our music was changing.”
Ringo Starr explains what led the Beatles to change their sound
The Fab Four hardly tried to hide their drug use. Songs such as “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” are thinly veiled drug references. John Lennon once called Revolver the acid album, and it’s not hard to see the connection.
Admitting to drug use might have tarnished the Beatles’ image, as U.S. News and World Report wrote, but using illicit substances overlapped with their most creative output.
Drug use never hurt the Beatles’ popularity
The Beatles might have taken some flack for being fairly open about their drug use, but they never lost fans because of it.
Revolver, perhaps the first album where they really pushed their sound toward full-fledged psychedelia, went gold in a matter of weeks, per the Recording Industry Association of America. Sgt. Pepper’s, Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, and Abbey Road followed suit. The band’s fans, and music-lovers in general, point to those albums as high-water marks for the Beatles and the 1960s music scene in general.
Ringo Starr said drugs led to the Beatles changing their sound, but changing their sound led to them creating some of the most seminal works of classic rock.
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