RINGO STARR PREFERRED PLAYING JOHN LENNON SONGS

In an interview published in the Anthology project, Ringo said he generally preferred playing songs John Lennon wrote to those penned by Paul. It was a matter of the songwriters’ individual styles.

John was much more of a rocker. For the Revolver album, John’s sound was getting heavier on songs like “Rain” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.” That was the sort of stuff Ringo liked playing drums on.


In Anthology, Ringo spoke of how the two sides of the Lennon-McCartney partnership began going their separate ways in the late ’60s. “By then it was Lennon or McCartney,” he said. “It was up to about 80% separately written songs.”

Ringo didn’t need to wait for the publishing credits on the album to know which track came which bandmate. “I could tell which were John’s songs,” Ringo said. “I always preferred to play on them — they always had a bit more rock ‘n’ roll to them.”

“Rain,” Ringo’s all-time favorite Fab Four track (at least for his drumming), ranks among John’s finest work.
On several occasions, he’s also pointed to John’s “Yer Blues” as one of the high points from his time with The Beatles. “‘Yer Blues,’ you can’t top it,” he also said in Anthology. “It was this group that was together; it was like grunge rock of the sixties, really. Grunge blues.” Ringo must have enjoyed playing other hard-edged Lennon tracks like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Come Together.” (Ringo also played drums on John’s first solo record.)