“I DO PLAY THE DRUMS!” CLAIMS EX-FAB FOUR EX-MOP TOP RINGO STARR

He admits that, as a singer, he has "the range of a fly" (but, he emphasizes, "a large fly") . . His composing output has accelerated from one song a year to "a couple" ("It either comes or it doesnt," he reflects. "You know, its like—life"). . .In passing, he notes with approval Cliff Richards current slogan/album title Im Nearly Famous, and, perhaps a little hard on himself, quips, "Its like, “bused to be . . ."

No, Ringo remains famous by any measure, but he entertains no pretensions of artistic brilliance, and his essentially easygoing stance will allow no slavish dedication to his musical or cinematic careers. "I never work on anything," he says. "Dedication is such a weird word, after Albert Schweitzer and people like that. Thats dedication . . . Dedication is when you give your whole life. No one dedicates themselves to anything now."

Ringo, like many, just wants to get along—that, in fact, is probably the heart of his underdog appeal. You remember the innocent Ringo of A Hard Days Night, removing his nose from his "blummin bewk" at the urging of Pauls grandfather and parading the London byways. Todays Ringo, like him, seems in no particular hurry, has no compelling destination. And, as that hapless young Ringo strolled into numerous pratfalls along the way,

Someone isjust gonna go, Pow! and gonna s!ay the world.... It aint gonna be Bruce Springsteen! wmu

Ringo in 1976 finds that just getting along isnt as easy as it seems.

"Just trying to live," he says, listing his simple priorities. "Have a nice time as best I can. Have some holidays, do some work, say hello. Hello is^still the hardest word in the English language: “Hello. “Whats he mean, hello? Does he mean hello or hello? Why has he got thos^ shades on? I dont know," shaking his head. "Its crazy out there."

Especially for an ex-Beatle of admittedly modest talents but proven popularity. Nobody expected anything from this Beatle, but he remains an easy slam for those who require more than sadeyed basset-hound charm and catchy singles from their rock artists. But Ringo, well aware of his image and his strengths, has managed to come up with the perfect musical packaging to transmit that character. He recognizes his limitations and accepts them with an air of resigned dissatisfaction (convinced that theres not much he can do about them but keep at it.) But he has some definite aesthetic principles, and exhibits a fierce pride in past accomplishments and in his prowess on the pagan-skins.

That pride becomes outright indignation this heat-wave afternoon, out in the garden of his comfortable (not opulent) Hollywood Hills home, a nicely aged but contemporary-looking bungalow affair. Ringo sports the California casuals look (shorts, bare feet, an opennecked, full-sleeved smock-type shirt), overlayed with abundant gypsy-showbiz regalia: a clutter of diamond, onyx and amethyst rings on his fingers, gold bracelets, and three heavy gold chains bearing pendants and medallions, all keynoted by a dazzling diamond dangling from his right ear by a short gold stem. The Sammy Davis Jr. effect, though, is cut by his white-framed sunglasses, like a little girls toy, that look, well, a little silly. A distinctly, refreshingly Ringo touch.

"I never work on anything. Dedication is such a weird word. No one dedicates themselves to anything now."

"To clear up the myth that I only just found out was going around," he says, taking this opportunity to repel the rumors that his studio sidekick Jim Keltner does all the work, "I play the main track as the drummer. Cause I am a drummer, and Im sick of all this bullshit going on about, “He doesnt really play. Even when we were the four of us together, it was like, “Well, someone else is doing that, you know, him and his funny fills. So Ive had it all me life and Im sick of it now. I play the kit and Jim either doubles me or enhances what I do. We play well together. He is lightnin and I am thunder ... I do play, I can play, I am playing!"

His outburst over, Ringo switches from white wine to brandy and apple cider and turns to what for him is still slightly shaky ground. Still, he evaluates the unmistakable Ringo singing voice with succinct good humor: "I sometimes go through this little thing where I go out and sing a song and I think Im Stevie Wonder, and then I come back in the booth to listen to it and its Bing Crosby again.

"Vocals, thats real paranoiac time for me. You try it drunk, you go back sober and you do it for real—some takes you use when youre drunk. The “Photograph take: when we did “Photograph they were taking bets in the booth which side of me face Id fall on after a whole fifth of bourbon. But I did the whole song and I double-tracked it, and it worked for that one." He concludes on an up note. "I feel Im singing better now, because Im getting more confidence the more I do."

Ringo can afford to be frank about his vocalizing. He knows exactly where his bread is buttered. "Im more of a personality," he says. "Its more of a personality-cum-singer than singer-cumpersonality. Theres 20 million people out there can sing me out of the fucking room, but theyre not getting anywhere because they can only sing. Whatever it is with me, I dont know . , . Its a kind, fun-loving attitude to life that comes across, I think. I dont want to hassle anybody. I have a good time when Im making a record, most of the songs are happy love songs really, even if the girl has left."

" When we did "Photograph9they were taking bets in the booth which side of me face Vdfall on after a whole fifth of bourbon•"

In the rock world, "personality" suggests live appearances before the people, but Ringo has been the least visible ex-Beatle, remaining (except for Bangla Desh and Rolling Thunder and his stints on the silver screen) exclusively a studio entity. "Up to this year," he explains, "Ive been adamant that I dont want to go out there. Ive done enough. Im not living out of a suitcase on hamburgers ever again."

Now, as he learns from various working colleagues that a well-run modern tour is not the ordeal he remembers from five world treks with the Beatles, his resistance is starting to lower (the organization of the McCartney tour, which opens its three nights in Los Angeles in just a few hours, especially impresses him.) But it will be 77 at the earliest before the Ringo show hits the road, the same principle of moderation that keeps him from taking solos ("They sound like rats around the drums," he grumbles) precluding the typical rock-star showcase from consideration.

"Its a matter of finding the situation I would go out under, " he explains. "I dont want to go out and say, “Its Ringo Starr for two hours, how do you do, and now wed like to slow the tempo down a little . . . I want to go out in a sort of rock “n roll circus situation, whatever that may be. Ive thought about it and Ive talked to certain people and they think that would be wonderful, but till we get it together Im not going to tell you about it."

He will, though, tell you all about his new album, Ringos Rotogravure. Its his first for Atlantic Records, whose staff producer Arif Mardin (AWB, Bee Gees, et a/., ad infinitum) has succeeded Richard Perry, for the moment anyway, as Ringos producer—due to schedule conflicts and the change of record companies, Ringo hastens to explain, not to any dissatisfaction on his or Perrys part.

"With Arif, we never went over nine or ten takes really," he says, contrasting Mardins approach with Perrys "Lets do 46 takes just in case" method. "You had it or you didnt have it. If he was dancing, we had a take. I tend to close my eyes when Im playing, just get into the headphones and the band, and if I TURN TO PAGE 75 looked up and Arif was dancing, r knew, “Well keep going cause were, getting somewhere." ^

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34.

Whatever Mardin does with the final mixes, Ringo expects the sound to remain pretty much the same, thanks to the presence of Ringo regulars like Danny Kootch, Keltner, Harry Nilsson, Dr. John (on £>iano and guitar) and Jesse Ed Davis. Other guests at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles were Melissa Manchester, Van Dyke Parks, Lon Van Eaton, Peter Frampton (a return favor: "Yes, Iplayed on three tracks on his first album," says Ringo, adding with mock pomposity, "Probably his finest, if not his biggest"), John Jarvis, Jane Getz, Eric Clapton, and—oh yes, John & Yoko and Paul & Linda.

, "John came out. I mean, he flies out!" says Ringo, sounding a little awestruck at Lennons devotion. "I mean hes very good to me. He writes me a Song ("Cookin") and comes out and gets in the studio with me. /Arif loved John. Arif has great respect for John— as well as for me I suppose. He never mentioned that... Johns the only one thats been on all the albums, actually came down and worked with me and wrote me songs."

Pauls appearance was a more tenuous matter. He wrote "Pure Gold" for Ringo to cut in the middle of last year, the albums scheduled starting time, but with the move to Atlantic, Ringo postponed the sessions until this spring. The Wings tour, meantime, was pushed back due to injury, forming a dual coincidence that put Paul in town during the recording.

"Him and Linda came down," Ringo relates, "and Im the hustler, I said, “Do you want to sing? At that time of the night—it was about eight oclock—they said “No, no . . . So we went out for dinner, and ate and they had a few drinks. Then we came back and wandered round to the studio, and they decided they were ready to sing! . . . The three of us were out there, and I was a bit tipsy, as they say, so Im shouting along with them, and Arifs saying, “Weve got you, you know, weve got your vocal down, so back off. So we let the stars take over. We love each other and there they are."

The albums repertoire also includes a country song ("I wont do without a country song"), Allan Toussaints "I Can Hear You-Calling," a song called "Birmingham" (England) that emerged from a Ringd-Vini Poncia rewrite as "Lady Gay," an unreleased George Harrison number and Claptons "This Be Called a Song," cut for, but not included on, Erics new album.

"All my tracks are basically rock “n roll pop songs," says Ringo. "I try on my albums to get ten number one singles ... Thats what I do, and I love singles and I dont have any concept albums like Tommy or any of those things. I try to make a record thats a really good record, but its a rock “n roll pop hit."

It figures, then, that Ringo would be impressed by the recent mass-release of Beatles singles in England. "It was wonderful," he enthuses. "Thats the brightest trip EMI ever laid out on anybody . . . Twenty singles. I wish wed thought of it. Twenty singles! Wha! Nobody does that. Twenty singles on the same day. I thought it was wonderful, I really did!"

Ringo has his ideas on the Beatles unflagging popularity, which lately, of course, has become out-and-out resur* gence. "Mainly," he suggests, "because most of you grew up with us. Were all that age now, the oldest teenagers in the world. And then, anyone thats te.n years younger than us are just getting into us.

"I think the main point of the whole situation is that those pieces of plastic that we did are still some of the finest pieces of plastic around, some of the finest records, that no one has done anything beyond yet . . . Where are they going? Where am / going? I dont think Ive ever topped “A Day in the Life, personally. Im doing something, but Ive never tbpped that musically."

Theres that pride again, but Ringo, who dismisses the incessant reunion talk as "silly," has no desire to squat forever with his three mates on the rock “n roll pedestal:, "I wish someone would come out there and wipe us out. That would be interesting. Give us a band that gets up there and wipes t us out, be as big as the Beatles. I dont want to hear these fucking “Jock Strap arid the Strappers, the next Beatles, causethere never will be. Even Elton John.' Elton John is big, right, but hes not as big as that craziness we were involved in. And Pete Frampton just had three million but its not that. That was something else besides being big. That was being ai monster ...

"Of course it will happen again, of course it will! Its an Ee-talian tenor, thats what its gonna be. Worldwide Italian tenor. Maybe Spanish. I mean somebody's gonna do it. The stretches between the monsters are getting longer, thats all . . . What is it? God. knows—thank you, God, thank you so fucking much. I dont know what it is. Nobody kriows what it is. Thats the old gag—“If we knew, wed manage'Jt. Its just something that happens. Someone is just gonna go, “Pow! and gonna slay the world. I hope so, and"—Ringo isnt about to abdicate for just anyone—"ft aint gonna be Bruce Springsteenf

Ringo is going to field one more interview, then will head down to the Wings concert at the Forum. ("They keep saying Ill be on it Wednesday," he says, slightly puzzled; "but Ill actually be in France:" Tonight, however, hell join Paul briefly on stage to present the other half of the Beatles rhythm section with a bouquet of flowers.) Keith Allison is ready and waiting inside the house, and soon Nilsson will pull up the driveway of what has become something of a rock “n roll social center.

"Yes, I like going out," says Ringo, who finds Los Angeles agreeable on that account (and, naturally, -for musical purposes.) "Every night theres somewhere to go if you want to. Besides a club, someones house, theres always something going on—and most of the time its going on here after two in the morning.

"Once the bars close theyll all drive up here, all the old faces, “Hi, man, yeah, hi, come on in. I have to get away from this house, because it never stops . . . But now Im relaxed. It used to be Id expect to stay up all night with them if they wanted to stay up. Now its fine. If Im really wrecked I say, “You know where everything is, Im off. You can actually leave your guests and they dont mind if youre there or not. So thats L.A. for you. It is a great town, because of the passing strangers."

As fun as it might be, its not exactly paradise. That, for Ringo, is up the coast a few hundred miles. "Ive always wondered why I live here," he muses, when Big Sur and Carmel and Pebble Beach and that areas so beautiful. I like it up there, but fhe problem up there is theres not much work. I guess I could go jam with the seails on the rocks."