By Dave Read (Sept. 3, 2022 concert) – An evening with Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band lowered the curtain on another Popular Artist series, the broad shoulders from which hangs the Boston Symphony‘s eight weeks of classical music at Tanglewood.
Once the innocuous drummer of history’s luckiest band, now Ringo Starr is the nucleus of a band of pop and rock stalwarts. If the other night Judy Collins delivered big whiffs of Sixties nostalgia, then the succeeding decades were heavily evoked tonight by key personnel from Toto, Men at Work and Average White Band.
Combine the prominent role played by Edgar Winter, and you’ll see that Ringo’s ensemble is rooted firmly in the foundation of all pop music – unadorned rock ‘n roll. Truly gritty, down and dirty, rock ‘n roll is an American thing, a rural, unschooled, non-European thing, with decidedly black roots.
Edgar Winter nearly stole the show with his tribute to big brother Johnny Winter (1944-2014), playing a song that could serve as a tribute to the entire genre, Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.
Throughout the two hour show, Ringo regaled the audience, whether teeny bopper or hep cat, even engaging with fans up front, complementing someone’s tee shirt! He sang half a dozen Beatles songs, including the show’s penultimate selection, With A Little Help From My Friends, followed by Give Peace a Chance, which his old bandmate, John Lennon, recorded the same month as the Moon launch, the month before Woodstock!