Customer Reviews

Ringo Starr (Beatles)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an inveterate Beatles fan, I was naturally drawn to this book. Clayson does an admirable job of following Ringo from his early days in the rough Dingle section of Liverpool to his years as a Beatle and beyond.

Clayson's use of quoted interviews with people who knew and worked with Ringo is what makes this book so effective. I like the way he portrays Ringo as approachable, as somewhat humble about his stellar success as one quarter of the world's number one band. This is definitely worth reading.

Its like this, until there is a better book on Ringo, (the most well known Drummer in the 1960s, and probably R&R) this is the one. And Clayson does it with lots of quotes from Ringo and people who worked with him and knew him. Because Ringo really doesnt want a book written about him, with him getting totaly involved that is. So, if someone wants to write a book about him, I guess he says, "Go ahead, But no interviews" So some of it is Clayson's research, and lot's of quotes as I mentioned.You will learn about Ringo, you'll see a side of him that you may have never read. Is it a great book? not in the true sense, "great", is it a pretty good book? yes. Why not great? well, one reason, because there's no pictures. It makes up for that with things I never knew or heard in other Beatle books.This book is actually more like 3-4 stars, but it does get your attention at times, so I gave it 4. Is this all about the Beatles and Beatlemania? yes and no, its mainly about Ringo. That is after all what your looking for, and you hear his side of the Beatles through quotes, and quotes from some other people, too numerous to mention, put it this way, lots and lots of people. e.g. His ex-wife, other drummers sometimes, George Martin, the other Beatles of course, and many more.Sometimes the book drifts, but not too far. He talks about Pete Best, and Jimmy Nicol, but not too much, just enough probably. And mentions some things about them that you may not have heard.In this book Clayson gives us some quotes picked from various interviews (mainly from 60s-70s) so you can get Ringo's candid opinion's about his Drums, and other Drums, and Ringo's opinion's about a famous drummer or two, Such as Buddy Rich.
Also we find out what Ringo usually did after tours,
opinions about his children, his money, the Beatles, how he drank in the early days, and how he stopped, and much more.Is it a fun book with lists, etc.? sort of, at times, but no lists perse. Does it have some info you probably never knew? (sure you've heard some of it before) yes.The index is pretty good too, most Beatle books need an index.Learn some stuff not read often about The worlds famous Rock Drummer.Buy it and Enjoy.

This book was much harder to read than I expected. The author is British and expects that his readers are all British. Unless you have an intimate knowledge of England, its television shows, its local celebrities and its slang, it is easy to get lost. As an American, I found myself unable to follow a good deal of the book. I understood enough to get the gist, but feel I missed an awful lot of the information because it may as well have been written in a foreign language.

Reading this was like running down to the cellar to change a fuse in your bare feet during a thunder and lightening storm, with the floor covered in broken glass and thumbtacks.

If you buy this book, buy a dictionary along with it. This author took a simple and easy read subject and turned it into pain-filled bother. The information, I think, is there. You'll need to crawl up sharp rocks on the hottest day of the year with no water, to get to it though.

It seems this book was written for the author to show off how many big (and useless) words are in his vocabulary. Although it is filled with some good and valuable information you can't read more than a few pages at a sitting because of the writing style. If you took all of the useless words out the book would be about 75 pages.