There was always a slight caveat put on everything Ringo Starr ever released after The Beatles split.
He had no problem being considered one of the least adventurous songwriters out of the Fab Four, and sometimes it was better for him to get the best out of his friends rather than worry about racking his brain for whatever else he wanted to say outside of peace and love. Because if he kept himself busy with a few of his songwriters mates by his side, he would always be able to come out with the kind of songs that suited him the best.
I mean, when looking at Starr’s discography, not everything is meant to be the deepest thing in the world. Half of his entire discography has been about promoting peace and love at every single turn, and even though there are more than a few bright spots throughout his later career, there’s a good chance that every single album has at least one song that either reminds us of that other band he was in or namechecks a few of his other hits to remind everyone what he does best.
Because, really, Starr didn’t want to be the kind of person who lectures someone whenever he made a new record. He wasn’t a quasi-revolutionary like John Lennon, and even though Paul McCartney knew the perfect formula for writing one of Starr’s hits, it was a lot easier for him to save a lot of his best material for Wings by the time that they started to tour around the world in the late 1970s.
But the most underrated relationship in The Beatles throughout their career was always between Starr and George Harrison. Both of them knew what it was like to be at the back of the stage and having a laugh just playing music, but when Starr first showed some interest in writing songs, it was often Harrison who helped him out, getting the right chords for him to sing over whenever he began his solo career.
He had already begun fleshing out many of Starr’s tunes out when he suggested changing around ‘Octopus’s Garden’ a little bit, and even when they were fooling around with the idea that became ‘It Don’t Come Easy’, Harrison was diplomatic enough to help his old mate finish off the tune and not bother giving himself any writing credit. But no one would have ever tried to work up a song like ‘Photograph’ without wanting a little piece of the pie once Starr decided to record it for his album Ringo.
Starr and Harrison had hit on one of the more perfect Beatles solo hits, and even when performing it at the Concert for George, Starr was more than happy to keep singing the song he and his friend made together until the end of time, saying, “I love the sentiment of ‘Photograph’. When we did The Concert For George, I told the audience that ‘Photograph’ now has a different meaning just because of the fact that George has left. But ‘Photograph’ is a song that fits into the universe. I still do it a hundred years later, and I still enjoy singing it.”
But when Starr walked out on that stage surrounded by other rock royals, it was a lot more poignant singing his song for Harrison. There are countless songs that have been written about a broken relationship, but it’s hard not to hold back a couple of tears when Starr sings about thinking about life without Harrison and being reminded of all the places that he used to go with his guitarist friend.
It could be a little too sentimental, but if you really think about it, Harrison and Starr are two of only four people who knew what it was like to be one of the biggest names the music world had ever seen, and knowing one of them is no longer there anymore, it’s a lot more emotional than you’d expect. ‘Photograph’ was meant to be the standard lost love song, but these days, it feels more like a final farewell to the guitarist who had been a friend with Starr ever since they first started jamming together.
