RINGO!

Sorry for the late update.  Henceforth, I think I'll be writing on Sundays, rather then the previous Wednesdays

I went to the Ringo Starr concert in St. Louis last Friday, and I was just blown away.  I've never seen a Beatle before, and he did not disappoint.  I've heard he has arthritis, and I know he had a quarter of his intestines removed in the 1980s due to recurrent illnesses.  That makes his range of motion all the more impressive- the man can really dance!  This came as a surprise because all the concert footage I've watched was of him drumming, not in front.  He did drum on a few numbers, though he was working with someone else- their coordination was superb- you could actually see them mirroring each other's movements in perfect time, but more on that later.

His drums are now emblazoned with a red star motif, which pleased me greatly.  The only disappointment I had was the lack of Octopus' Garden and Good Night, but he closed with "Give Peace a Chance" which was a really nice tribute, I thought. 

Ringo did a good number of Beatles' songs, but he especially drew form the covers they did in the early days- he opened with Matchbox, and continued with Boys and Honey Don't throughout the evening.  The cover he did best was probably "Act Naturally"- his voice hasn't slipped a notch since 1965, and he even knelt on stage in mid-song, just to show us he can still bend.  It was terrific.

His second song was "It Don't come Easy"- one in a series of hit singles he co-wrote with George Harrison in the early 70s, and this was a flawless rendition.  I was also interested and pleased to see Yellow Submarine performed live for the first time, and it was really engaging- more sax here.  I'm still partial to Gerry Marsden's version from 2010, but this could not be beat.

Some songs from the 2012 album made it onstage- not too thrilled with Wings, but Anthem (which, as I interpret it, contains his little shoutout to the Occupy movement with the line "No man ever made it on his own, no man ever made it all alone- we've got to help out and we've got to shout..." was done too, and it worked really nicely.  The crowd roared throughout most of the show, including during these, which was a nice touch after the album wasn't reviewed terribly well. 

It's a true testament to his showmanship that he can make even so simple and wanting a song as "I wanna be your man" engaging, and he did.  I wanted to scream with the rest of them when he announced it.

He of course got us singing along during "With a little Help From my Friends", which was the penultimate number. 

This was a fantastic evening, the Beatles mean so much to me, and Ringo has produced some impressive work during his solo career, and I finally got to see it live.  I may try to analyze it more later and make this more than just a puff piece but last Friday was seriously fun.

Peace and Love, Genossinnen und Genossen.