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Ringo: With a Little Help, by Michael Starr (Ringo Biography)
19 June 2015
6.26am
mstarr
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That should be July 23 in the U.K. for Ringo: With a Little Help .

The book’s pub. date here in the U.S. is July 7th (Ringo’s 75th birthday)…then a little later in the U.K.

I will be on Good Morning America in early July to talk about the book, and have some other TV/radio appearances lined up, including Access Hollywood and Tavis Smiley.

Will keep you all posted.

Best,

Michael

19 June 2015
7.54am
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Ahhh Girl
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Thanks for catching my mistake, @mstarr. I edited my post.

Out of sheer curiosity, did your surname spur your interest in Ringo?

19 June 2015
11.19am
mstarr
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It’s a happy coincidence…..

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19 June 2015
11.47am
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Cool. 🙂

I wonder if I am sick or have a headache or something. a-hard-days-night-george-10 I need to leave work because my Amazon app just popped up with the message that my copy has been delivered.

19 June 2015
11.53am
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Beatlebug
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If not, we can quickly give you a headache. Minions! Go and derail all the threads! As many, as fast as you can; and also start duplicate threads! 

Just trying to do you a favour… a-hard-days-night-john-1

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19 June 2015
11.56am
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Starr Shine?
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Silly Girl said
If not, we can quickly give you a headache. Minions! Go and derail all the threads! As many, as fast as you can; and also start duplicate threads! 

Just trying to do you a favour… a-hard-days-night-john-1

Or we could just have her play truth or dare with us . . 

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Ahhh Girl

https://youtu.be/52nwiTs7bk8

Brainwashed by RadiantCowbells.

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19 June 2015
12.06pm
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Silly Girl said
If not, we can quickly give you a headache. Minions! Go and derail all the threads! As many, as fast as you can; and also start duplicate threads! 

Just trying to do you a favour… a-hard-days-night-john-1

You might give @Ahhh Girl a headache but us mods will give you something far worse. First we’ll make you listen to the records in this thread.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

19 June 2015
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@meanmistermustard said

Silly Girl said
If not, we can quickly give you a headache. Minions! Go and derail all the threads! As many, as fast as you can; and also start duplicate threads! 

Just trying to do you a favour… a-hard-days-night-john-1

You might give @Ahhh Girl a headache but us mods will give you something far worse. First we’ll make you listen to the records in this thread.

oh-so-youre-a-moderator-tell-me-more-about-how-you-contribute-any-more-than-the-rest.jpgImage Enlarger

Nah, I think I’ll just stick to this one. 

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20 June 2015
6.29am
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Happily found my copy in the mailbox yesterday. Upon opening it, the book looked wonderful and felt great in my hands – even the paper it is printed on feels top notch. This morning, I read the intro and the first handful of pages. Though very early into it, I have a great feeling about it.

If Mr. Starr delivers what he promises in the intro, it will be THE Ringo bio we have all been waiting for, without biased opinions about his drumming and too much focus on the Beatles (seems almost sacrilegious to say that).

Thank you, @mstarr .

apple01mal-evans

 

.

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To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.

20 June 2015
9.59am
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I just sat down in a chair in the shade on my front porch. Time to crack open this lovely book.

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20 June 2015
7.44pm
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I’m going through chapter 3. The first song on Ringo’s new album is on a constant loop in my head.

23 June 2015
12.14pm
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Zig
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Still loving this book!

Having a book focused solely on Ringo is refreshing as we get more details about his pre-Beatles years and stories I have not read about in other books. Some of you may be familiar with some of the stories and early childhood mates, but they are new to me. There are different takes on some of the legends (I won’t go into what as I am not Johnny Spolier) based on the memories of folk Mr. Starr has interviewed or requoted. But he is careful (and smart enough) to not give the impression that his written word is gospel. After all, memories get jumbled, exaggerated, etc… after time. Yours truly is a perfect example of that.

More to come as I get further into it.

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23 June 2015
12.54pm
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Ahhh Girl
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@Zig, have you noticed the bar separating sections within chapters? Nice touch!

23 June 2015
1.01pm
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Zig
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It’s funny you mention that. While reading it today, I noticed what it was for the first time and smiled. a-hard-days-night-ringo-10

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To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.

27 June 2015
2.48pm
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Beatles’ drummer gets his due in ‘Ringo’

A very nice review in the Houston Chronicle.

Here’s the bit in the article about the Houston connection

A besotted fan of U.S. music (especially country), he and a friend went so far as to visit their nearby U.S. Consul, filling out forms and looking into factory jobs for a planned emigration to … Houston. Because that’s where bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins lived.

27 June 2015
8.45pm
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Beatlebug
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a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 To continue reading this story, you will need to be a digital subscriber to HoustonChronicle.com.

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28 June 2015
9.34am
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Ahhh Girl
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Silly Girl said

a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 To continue reading this story, you will need to be a digital subscriber to HoustonChronicle.com.

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Buggers, I just got that message when I went back to the article. I guess I got a freebie when I went to it the first time. Maybe it will become freely available in the future??? It really is a nice review.

28 June 2015
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Well, here it is again, so I’m going to go ahead and put the full review into this post.

Review: “Ringo: With a Little Help

Reviewed by Bob Ruggiero

In his signature song for a little pop group from Liverpool, England, Ringo Starr warbled “I get by With A Little Help From My Friends .”

Well, those friends better be proficient in iCal and multitask scheduling because the diminutive Billy Shears is a little busy these days.

Starr, recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (the last Beatle to be so honored), has released a new CD, “Postcards From Paradise.” He’s the face of both a new ad campaign for Skechers and his own #PeaceRocks social media movement. And he’s headed back to the concert trail this fall with the latest version of the All Starr Band.

Did we mention that he turns 75 on July 7? And that he has, thanks to an insanely healthy lifestyle, plenty of boundless energy (as Houstonians saw firsthand last year during his gig at The Woodlands) and only a slightly higher body-fat percentage than, say, Gollum.

In the first major biography of the “funny Beatle” in nearly a quarter century, Michael Seth Starr (no relation) charts the life and career of the man born Richard Starkey.

The book separates Starr’s life into three parts: pre-Beatles, Beatles and Post-Beatles. Readers learn that growing up, Starr – beset by a variety of medical ailments, some life-threatening – spent nearly three years of his youth confined to hospitals.

A besotted fan of U.S. music (especially country), he and a friend went so far as to visit their nearby U.S. Consul, filling out forms and looking into factory jobs for a planned emigration to … Houston. Because that’s where bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins lived.

His memorable moniker was a gift from his former bandleader, Rory Storm, who first christened him “Rings,” due to his penchant for fingerwear. Later, Rory and the band gave themselves cowboy-style nicknames because they were all fans of cowboy movies. John Wayne played “Ringo Kid” in the movie “Stagecoach.”

The book’s wild ride through Starr’s career with the Beatles from 1962-70 is filled with fascinating stories and quotes – the text is a combination of original interviews and previously sourced material – though many of them will be familiar to the more-than-casual Beatles fan. Admittedly, though, it is convenient to have all this material in one place and part of a brisk retelling.

The casual fan and reader will find humor in many of the book’s details. For example, Starr’s wordless, melancholy stroll on a riverbank in the movie “A Hard Day’s Night ” – for which he won acting accolades – was actually filmed in the morning while he had a wicked hangover from partying too hard the night before. The planned scenes with dialogue were scrubbed.

And when the Beatles visited Rishikesh, India, in 1968 to study under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Starr brought one suitcase filled with nothing but baked beans, as his sensitive stomach couldn’t handle spicy foods. Not surprisingly, he and wife Maureen (who had a phobia about insects) were the first to exit the outdoor compound after only two weeks.

The intense, all-the-time pressure of being a Beatle could also get scary and downright bizarre. In the early years, lines of sick and crippled children would be presented to the band backstage – as if the touch of a Beatle could cure them. And one time, at an elegant party at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., a member of the tuxedo-and-jewelry crowd whipped out a pair of scissors and, without word or warning, cut off a chunk of Ringo’s hair.

The book’s best section, though, examines Starr’s life and music after the Fab Four’s messy dissolution. Starr often was adrift professionally without the musical gifts of his three former bandmates who, as a credit to the drummer’s geniality, were all happy to lend a hand on his solo records. He was adrift personally, too. A series of high-profile romances and a nonstop jet-set lifestyle provided ample opportunity to fall into severe alcoholism.

That he spent so much time partying with fellow substance-abusing drummers Keith Moon and John Bonham – as well as Alice Cooper, Harry Nilsson and John Lennon – led to some “lost years” and talk-show appearances where Starr was clearly drunk. Smoking upward of 60 cigarettes a day didn’t help, either. Starr and his second wife, actress Barbara Bach, finally got clean and sober in the late ’80s after one too many violent altercations. Both made complete turnarounds and today are many years happy and healthy… though maybe a bit too healthy. “Every time I see Ringo, he smells of kale!” Eagles singer/guitarist Joe Walsh (Starr’s brother-in-law) told Rolling Stone earlier this year.

Just how good a drummer Ringo Starr is and was is always a subject for debate, with fans, music journos and fellow skin thumpers taking all sorts of positions.

Was Ringo Starr just an average technician who got lucky by being in the Beatles? Or was his no-frills/no solo style perfectly suited to the material? The author doesn’t take sides but quotes plenty of advocates for both of them. And they generally fall toward the latter.

“Ringo: With a Little Help ” is clearly the definitive biography of one of the most famous musicians – or, heck, people – of the last century (though author Starr could not get subject Starr to participate). And, while he did get help along the way, Richard Starkey richly deserves this solid literary treatment.

Bob Ruggiero is a Houston-based music journalist who many moons ago competed in a Beatles trivia contest that was supposed to be emceed by … Ken Hoffman. He currently is writing a biography on the funk-rock group WAR.

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Beatlebug, Oyster Black Pearl
1 July 2015
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I just posted my review of this book earlier today:

 

http://rnrchemist.blogspot.com…..-help.html

 

Excellent book and I think you Beatles/Ringo fans will enjoy it when it comes out next week! FINALLY, we have a thorough biography of Ringo to go alongside all of the books on John, Paul, and George.

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3 July 2015
12.33pm
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My appearance on “Good Morning America” today (July 3) to talk about Ringo: With a Little Help

https://gma.yahoo.com/video/be…..32173.html

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