In a recent interview with AARP The Magazine, Ringo Starr reflected on the role he played in The Beatles. In the interview, he was asked if he could be the glue that binds the group together. He answered:
“No, I was the glue. That’ll be in big letters: ‘I was the glue, says Ringo.’ George was the first one to make a solo album [Wonderwall Music], and I was the drummer. John started the Plastic Ono Band, and I was the drummer. Paul likes to play drums himself, or I would’ve been on his albums too.”
His unique role in the band allowed him to maintain a harmonious relationship with all band members, unlike the feuds that sometimes surfaced.
The Beatles Feuds
The Beatles have a long history of disagreements. As we mentioned, Ringo’s name is not often mentioned in these disputes. The Beatles officially announced their breakup in 1970 and years of bitterness soon followed. When the breakup was confirmed, the relationship between Paul McCartney and John Lennon was brutally broken. In fact, they were on the brink of a heated feud that would last for years, and they were not afraid to admit it. In 1971, Lennon told Rolling Stone that he thought McCartney’s self-titled album was ‘rubbish.’
There were also several ‘diss tracks’ that the pair released separately that included intentionally direct lyrics, including McCartney’s ‘Too Many People’ to which Lennon responded with his track ‘How Do You Sleep?’
McCartney then wrote about their feud in his book, which was published in 2021: ‘Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.’ About his ‘diss song’ Too Many People,’ McCartney wrote:
“This song was written a year or so after the Beatles breakup, at a time when John was firing missiles at me with his songs, and one or two of them were quite cruel. [That] was me saying basically, ‘You’ve made this break, so good luck with it.’ But it was pretty mild.It was all a bit weird and a bit nasty, and I was basically saying, ‘Let’s be sensible.”
Although John Lennon admitted that he wrote ‘How Do You Sleep’ as directed to Paul McCartney, he would later take a different approach. Later, in 1972, John Lennon would remark in the ‘Imagine’ film. He said:
“It’s not about Paul, it’s about me. I’m really attacking myself. But I regret the association, well, what’s to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.”
Paul McCartney was able to patch things up with John Lennon before he passed away.
