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Michael Seth Starr. Ringo: With a Little Help. Montclair (NJ): Backbeat Books, imprint of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group, July 2015. $32.99. Hardcover. 6X9". 424pp. ISBN: 978-1-617131-20-2. 16 photos.
I was hopeful that this would be a thoroughly researched and engaging biography of a musician that is oddly in the background amidst Beatlemania fanaticism, Ringo Starr, born as Richard Starkey in Liverpool. While I was not entirely disappointed, the book falls short of my expectations for a biography of a major celebrity with six decades of materials out there on their life. The author shares a last name with the Beatle's fictional last name, which he stresses on the cover and in the introduction, clarifying that he is not in fact related to Ringo. Here's a summary of Ringo's life story from Starr, "He was the last member of the Beatles to join the group" and the oldest "and also the most vulnerable, and his post-Beatles career was marked by chart-topping success, a jet-setting life of excess and alcohol abuse, and, ultimately, his rebirth as a clean-living children's television star and one of rock's most revered elder statesman." In the introduction, Starr stresses that he avoided bias by citing both negative critics of Ringo's drumming and those that admired it. But, the book is clearly lop-sided towards admiration, with the cover quoting Max Weinberg, E Street Band's drummer, as writing, "More than any other drummer, Ringo Starr changed my life. Ringo's beat was heard around the world, and he drew the spotlight toward rock & roll drumming." This track of thought got me thinking about the cliché of the sexy American drummer who is coveted by the groupies. Perhaps...