The album Ringo Starr called his musical biography: “What my life is about”

The number-one rule of any good songwriter is always about writing what you know. Most listeners can see through someone who’s dishonest within the first few seconds of any song, so anyone even thinking about lying through their teeth in songs is normally in for an uphill battle when people don’t believe a word they say. But when looking at the standards of songwriting everyone else is measured against, it’s easy to judge Ringo Starr on a bit of a curve by comparison.

The Beatles drummer was never known to be the most imaginative songwriter of his peers, but that’s because he was never trying to be. Throughout his time in the spotlight, he wanted to play music with his friends whenever he could, and if he happened to learn a thing or two about songwriting, that may as well have been an extra bonus for people to work with. So what the hell do you do when all the songwriters have left?

Well, at the risk of making every single person reading groan, he did, in fact, get by with a little help from his friends. Starr always had a great team of people helping him on every record, and since his All-Starr Band has been going strong for years now, he has always taken great pleasure in playing off of people that are great songwriters in their own right, whether that’s Todd Rundgren, Joe Walsh, or Billy Preston.

Each of them brought something new to the table when they were there, but whenever Starr made a record, it was a different story. There were some people that he would ask to contribute to his albums, but whenever he was forced to take the lead vocal on a song, it was more about him celebrating his status as one of the greatest artists in the world than trying to break any new ground.

He could have continued to make lighthearted pop tunes for the rest of his life, but Liverpool 8 was the first time Starr was forced to look back at his time at the top in song, saying, “It was Dave Stewart’s idea to write something of a “mini-biography” for Liverpool 8, but of course I had to write the words, because only I know what my life is about. I did work in a factory. We went to Butlin’s Holiday Camp, where I turned professional. And the only difference between a professional and amateur musician is that you get paid and don’t have to go back to the factory.”

That kind of songwriting isn’t that unusual for Stewart, either. Throughout his time working with Eurythmics, everything was based on putting a personal spin on things, and when he ended up working with Stevie Nicks later on, she would say that he was a lot more interested in finding the real person through the songs rather than rely on the ‘Gold Dust Woman’ persona that most people remembered onstage.

Does Liverpool 8 really tell us much about Starr that we don’t know? Well, yes and no. It’s clear that Starr wasn’t going to be the same kind of confessional songwriter that someone like Joni Mitchell wa, but hearing him make amateur inroads back to his childhood gave him a new avenue to work in, which probably explains why he made other tunes about his early days on tracks like ‘Rory and the Hurricanes’ years after the fact.

Paul McCartney might have his own share of reflective tracks in his arsenal like ‘Early Days’, but Liverpool 8 was the first example of Starr making a song like ‘Early 1970’ not sound so corny. After being one of the biggest stars in the world, he was proud of where he came from, and he was more than happy to be one of Liverpool’s native sons who drummed his way all the way to the top of the world.