Ringo Starr recently sat down with PBS NewsHour for a conversation, where the musician clarified the reasons behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s mockery of his songwriting.
He explained the little-known fact about the issue:
“The interesting thing that not a lot of people know is that when I’d first present my songs, the rest of the band would be rolling on the floor, laughing, because I’d really just rewritten some other song.”
Detailing the Beatles members’ reaction to his songs, Starr added:
“It wasn’t my song at all. I just, like, reworded it. And they would say, ‘Yes, sure,’ [laughing]. But that’s how I started. I got out of that and started making my own moves. But George was really helpful. He produced the first couple of singles that I put out. And God bless him.”
Considering the inner dynamics of the Beatles, it is publicly known that both Ringo and George Harrison were slightly outside the songwriting process, as Lennon and McCartney mainly took it over. McCartney admitted in a 2021 chat with the New Yorker that they left out Harrison when it came to songwriting, which led to the late musician feeling excluded and leaving the studio during a recording session. Paul explained:
“I remember … saying to John, ‘Look, you know, it should just be you and me who are the writers.’ We never said, ‘Let’s keep George out of it,’ but it was implied.”
The solo work of the remaining members also suffered from this attitude of Lennon and McCartney. George revealed before that Lennon was critical of his album, ‘All Things Must Pass.’ Harrison said:
“I remember John was negative at the time, but I was away, and he came around to my house, and there was a friend of mine living there who was a friend of John’s. He saw the album cover and said, ‘He must be bad, putting three records out. Look at the picture on the front; he looks like an asthmatic Leon Russell.’”
You can watch the rest of Starr’s interview below.
