The Beatles remembered, with Ringo Starr tagging along behind his bandmates.
This is the fourth in a new series of blogs written for our website by Humanity Project Founder, Bob Knotts, a playwright, poet and author of the book “Beyond Me: Dissecting Ego To Find The Innate Love At Humanity’s Core.” These blogs offer a more personal perspective on the goodness and inherent value of humanity, ideas that are the foundation of the Humanity Project’s work.
If I could sing, I would sing his praises today. Ringo Starr, great drummer of The Beatles … more recently a singer, songwriter and drummer of his own music. And a humanitarian. More than any other contemporary popular music performer I know, Ringo celebrates our humanity. To me, that’s worth pointing out for more folks to appreciate.
Obviously, Ringo doesn’t need help from me or the Humanity Project to gain recognition. He’s already one of the best known musicians alive. But I wanted to offer this personal perspective today on an important aspect of his songs that I don’t believe is widely understood. Ringo Starr focuses much less on the self-centered, ego-driven romantic variety of love and much more on an encompassing love of all human beings. That’s unusual — and as mentioned, not fully understood and appreciated by the public.
But I think it’s quite remarkable. As I wrote in my most recent book, “I’ve written love songs of my own. But now I hunger for songs that celebrate something deeper and more inspiring than commonplace romance. Why not songs of universal respect? Songs of unconditional self-value? Songs that enshrine human diversity, human sacrifice, human achievement? They can be written.”
The substantial body of work recorded by Ringo Starr includes many songs that offer this very perspective on our lives. Let me offer just two examples, here from one of his newest songs, “Not Enough Love in the World”:
“Every night I pray for some kinder time. Do we figure it out in time? The time’s coming soon. There’s not enough love in the world …. There’s not enough peace in the world. There’s not enough hope. There’s not enough love in the world.”
Or another new example from his song, “Zoom In, Zoom Out”:
"When your journey seems an endless one and fear is hard to overcome. Step-by-step is how you get it done. One day you'll be laughing. A wealthy man from way up high. A homeless child with a cardboard sky. If we could only see through each other's eyes imagine what could happen. Zoom in, to get a new perspective. Zoom out, to see we're all connected..."
I find more than a simplistic “Peace & Love” message to Ringo’s music. The songs he sings are almost unfailingly positive, upbeat, cheerful or witty, with the lyrics and music a charming complement for each other. A very fine musician himself, Ringo plays only with top pros including many colleagues who themselves are huge names in popular music. This means his sound is sharp, tight and enormously enjoyable. He also records in a wide range of genres that have carried him to country music and even reggae. But there’s more to it all than this. When you sit and listen to song after song from his extensive catalogue of albums, you soon find that there’s something deeper going on in Ringo’s music. There is an overarching optimism about our humanity, which is what the Humanity Project is really about. Remember our Humanity Project mission statement? “Instilling greater respect for the goodness and inherent value of humanity.” That’s what I hear in the music offered by Ringo Starr — and I, at least, know of no one else in pop music who’s doing the same.
So, yes, a personal blog today about some music I find exceptional in this way. And no, I’m not getting anything for promoting Ringo’s music, trust me. He wouldn’t know I’ve alive. But I’m a lifelong passionate fan of The Beatles who has been surprised to better understand just what their irrepressible drummer has really been doing with himself all these years later. His music smiles at us, urging Ringo’s fellow human beings to believe in the great value of our own humanity. We can do better, he reminds us, starting simply by discovering ways to express a little genuine respect and caring for each other.
