Does Ringo know he was born on Mahler’s birthday?

Does Ringo know he was born on Mahler’s birthday?

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norman lebrecht

July 07, 2020

Ringo Starr was 80 today

Or put it another way: Mahler would have been 80 the day that Ringo was born.

I’m starting to see a resemblance.

Comments

  • Bill says:

    Mahler was the greater musician, but Ringo is more well adjusted and probably a better drummer.

  • Ed says:

    Gustav who?

  • In Italy one of bigest hit of the year is called “Ringo Starr” it s a very efficient and charming song. The song finished third at the Sanremo Festival.

  • RW2013 says:

    Does Ringo know who Mahler is?

  • Jan Kaznowski says:

    Well according to Wiki, NL is 72 next week (Happy Birthday ! ) on 11-July . So, using the Gustav/Ringo example, 72 years before that would have been 11-July-1876. Let’s look up what happened that day. Not much that actual day – but the US Centennial would have been only a week old and Edison was just about to patent the mimeograph

  • PaulD says:

    In Two Hundred Motels, Ringo was a doppelgaenger for Frank Zappa.

    (I can’t believe he’s 80.)

  • Ruben Greenberg says:

    Did Mahler realise he was born on Ringo’s birthday?

  • Mario RobertoLutz says:

    yeah we was inspiring by him
    https://bit.ly/2VUhC4j

  • John Borstlap says:

    Who is Ringo Starr?

  • buxtehude says:

    “Or put it another way: Mahler would have been 80 the day that Ringo was born.”

    Makes perfect sense. How could it be otherwise?

    For example, how could Ringo have been 80 on the day Mahler was born? Where would we be then?

  • Matthew B. Tepper says:

    I can just imagine Ringo wielding the hammer in the 6th.

  • fflambeau says:

    I don’t know if Mahler played the drums but he was probably better on them than Ringo.

  • Greg Bottini says:

    Happy birthday, Mr. Starkey!
    The Beatles certainly influenced worldwide culture *orders of magnitude* more than Mahler did. The four lads will be remembered as the catalysts for a major cultural upheaval – the unleashing of the power of youth – that is still being felt today.
    Mahler is remembered, if at all, only among classical music fans (a microscopic percentage of the total world population) as a by no means universally admired late romantic composer of mainly symphonies. And those fans are aging precipitously.
    Headlines announcing Ringo’s birthday have been featured in all the major media.
    I have seen no such headlines regarding Mahler’s birthday.

    • Gustavo says:

      Yes, John Lennon was once probably more popular than Jesus Christ, so the legend says.

      Only John Williams (the composer not the guitarist) has topped that by being confused with God.

      • Les says:

        “John Lennon was once probably more popular than Jesus Christ, so the legend says.”

        Yes, but if Jesus Christ had said something along the lines of: “Imagine no possessions
        I wonder if you can”, I think he would probably have meant it.

        • William Safford says:

          In effect, He did.

          “Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'”

          –Matthew 19:21

    • microview says:

      “Headlines announcing Ringo’s birthday have been featured in all the major media.
      I have seen no such headlines regarding Mahler’s birthday.”
      (1) Nothing better to write about then? (2) That’s because he’s dead and forgotten except by classical music lovers.

      • C Bayley says:

        I performed a rough experiment. Google search results:

        Ringo Starr – 13,800,000 results
        Mahler – 21,800,000 results

        Crude, yes, but maybe things are not that simple.

        • Jan Kaznowski says:

          ==Google search results:

          That’s an interesting metric. For example

          “Bob Dylan” 42.7m search results
          Beethoven 107m !

        • Allen says:

          Interesting. I decided to follow your example with the following results (entered as shown, within quotation marks):

          Rolling Stones 60,600,000
          Beethoven 107,000,000
          The Kinks 7,170,000
          Abba 80,600,000
          Mozart 117,000,000
          Led Zeppelin 43,100,000
          Berlioz 9,190,000
          Dvorak 26,200,000
          Tchaikovsky 22,400,000
          Deep Purple 35,000,000
          Liam Gallagher 8,120,000
          David Bowie 48,400,000
          Richard Wagner 12,300,000
          Brahms 39,100,000
          Vivaldi 39,400,000

          (No point searching “Oasis”, for example, as the word has numerous uses.)

          I wouldn’t read too much into this, other than the impression that interest in classical is not insignificant.

          And yes, I know I have too much time on my hands.

    • Allen says:

      “The Beatles certainly influenced worldwide culture *orders of magnitude* more than Mahler did.”

      Ahh here we go……

      Numbers don’t matter. More people read J K Rowling than Hegel. Relatively few people may be aware of Mahler, but take the classical influence away and pop/rock would not have turned out the way it has. I think even the Beatles would acknowledge that much – George Martin’s contribution, for instance.

      Lots of bands around at that time.The “cultural upheaval” would have happened anyway because it was about more than music, much of which was overrated anyway. Contrary to exaggerated claims, life continued much the same as before for a large part of the population.

      Paul McCartney seemed to aspire to become a classical composer with his Liverpool Oratorio, with a bit of help from Carl Davis. He obviously wanted more.

  • Gustavo says:

    Someone needs to photoshop a Star(r)bucks paper cup into that photo of Mahler.

  • Hilary says:

    The only photo of Mahler showing him smoking?

  • Greg says:

    Does Ringo know that he also shares a birthday with Doc Severinsen? I wonder what Doc would sound like playing Mahler 5.

  • Gustavo says:

    Or put it yet another way:

    Camille Saint-Saëns would have been 105 the day that John Lennon was born.

  • M2N2K says:

    An important difference: RS has been infinitely more fortunate in his life than GM was.

  • Barry Guerrero says:

    The more pertinent question is this: could Mahler have passed for the “clean old man” who was Paul’s Grandfather in “A Hard Day’s Night” – the one whom Ringo was put in charge of looking after? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvyAKJhOcI

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