Playing the least appreciated Beatle has given Ralph Castelli a lot of respect for Ringo.
Castelli has portrayed the Fab Four’s drummer for 24 years in the critically praised Rain — A Tribute to The Beatles show, which stops on Tuesday at the Centrium in Red Deer.
In the process, he’s learned a thing or two about what made Ringo so special.
For one thing, the musician born as Richard Starkey knew when to let ’er rip with loud drum solos — on the song Strawberry Fields, for example — and he also knew when to be subtle.
“He said in multiple interviews that he didn’t want to overplay the drums when John and Paul were singing,” added Castelli, who doesn’t know why Ringo is considered by many people to be the least essential Beatle.
Castelli can’t imagine anyone else, not even fabled `960s drummer Buddy Rich, setting the beat for the famous Liverpudlian group.
Ringo was able to lay the foundation for those famous Beatles melodies only because he was completely in tune with the kind of effects Lennon and McCartney — and occasional songwriter George Harrison — were striving for, said Castelli.
“He was a piece of the puzzle that fit perfectly. Anybody else would have changed their style of music.”
Then there was that idiosyncratic Ringo style. In the old concert footage, you can see his mop top constantly moving.
“There’s a lot of bobbing from side to side, and backwards and forwards,” said Castelli, with a chuckle. “He also swayed from left to right when he would play.”
And when Ringo would hit the “high-hat” cymbals, Castelli noticed he would “swish” them from left to right, instead of making the more common up and down motion.
Castelli also noticed that “whereas 98 per cent of drummers like to sit low,” Ringo liked to sit up very high behind his drum kit to be seen by fans.
“He had a lot of style . . . a lot of these cats (other tribute musicians) can’t cop that style.”
If Castelli can, it’s because he’s had a lot of practice.
The California-born musician toured in some pop and new-wave bands before he was asked to play Ringo in the Broadway production of Beatlemania in the late 1970s.
He joined Rain in 1986 and, like four out of the show’s five performers, (including Joey Curatolo as Paul McCartney, Joe Bithorn as George Harrison, and keyboardist Mark Lewis) he has been touring for nearly 30 years.
Only Steve Landes, as John Lennon, is a relative newcomer, having joined 13 years ago after the previous John, Jim Riddle, died of a brain tumour.
Castelli, who is now 50, said he never tires of playing Ringo (“It’s a wonderful role”), or of performing Beatles music, which he believes will be as popular 100 years from now as it is today.
“It’s just like Mozart, Beethoven or Bach. It will live on for many years because it’s wonderful music that’s well written.
“It’s also been the soundtrack for our generation.”
Rain is a concert show that portrays all the stages of The Beatles career — from the Ed Sullivan Show to Abbey Road.
Promoters like to describe it as “the concert they never gave.”
Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $46.25, $56.25 or $66.25 from Ticketmaster.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com