On This Day in 1968, The Beatles Lineup Underwent a Major Change, Foreshadowing the Next Two Years

You know things were getting bad in the Beatles when Ringo Starr, arguably the most affable of the four musicians, walked out of the studio in a huff, leaving behind a gaping hole in the band’s lineup that served as an unsettling foreshadowing of the next two years. Ego clashes were normally reserved for more forward-facing members, like John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

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But on August 22, 1968, Starr decided he couldn’t take it anymore. Not only was he watching his long-time friends and collaborators passively (and not-so passively) bicker with one another. But he also didn’t even feel like he was part of the “group.” The emotional tension and mental isolation became too much.

So, he left without saying goodbye.

The Beatles Lineup Underwent a Major Change During ‘White Album’

Tensions were already high by the time the Beatles began working on their 1968 eponymous “White Album.” John Lennon and Paul McCartney were becoming increasingly dismissive and resentful toward one another. Yoko Ono’s presence was becoming a point of contention. George Harrison was tired of the constant egoism and, perhaps ironically, his lack of recognition as a worthy songwriter and musical contributor. From behind the kit, Ringo Starr watched all of these dynamics shift and sizzle, feeling very much like the odd man out. 

“I remember Ringo being uptight about something,” engineer and producer Ken Scott recalled in Mark Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. “I don’t remember what. The next thing I was told was that he’d quit the band.”

Starr answered Scott’s musings in Anthology. “I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn’t playing great. And I also felt that the other three were really happy, and I was an outsider. I went to see John, who had been living in my apartment in Montague Square with Yoko since he moved out of Kenwood. I said, ‘I’m leaving the group because I’m not playing well, and I feel unloved and out of it, and you three are really close.’ John said, “I thought it was you three!’”

The drummer then paid a visit to McCartney’s house and said the same thing. McCartney had the same surprising reaction: “I thought it was you three!”

“I didn’t even bother going to George then,” Starr said.

The Band Made Up, but the Event Foreshadowed Years To Come

Perhaps to Ringo Starr’s chagrin, the train didn’t stop rolling just because he left the studio. The rest of the band continued to work on “Back in the U.S.S.R.”. Meanwhile, Starr went on a sunny Mediterranean holiday on Peter Sellers’ yacht, which is where he wrote “Octopus’s Garden”. Finally able to relax, recenter, and stretch his creative muscles on his own, Starr left his vacation feeling more assured than ever about his role in the band.

“It wasn’t just me,” he reflected. “The whole thing was going down. I had definitely left. I couldn’t take it anymore. There was no magic, and the relationships were terrible. I’d come to a bad spot in life. It could have been paranoia, but I just didn’t feel good. I felt like an outsider. But then I realized that we were all feeling like outsiders, and it just needed me to go around knocking to bring it to a head.”

Although this event would foreshadow the band’s official split in the coming years, by the fall of 1968, the Beatles restored their original lineup. Starr eventually returned to the studio, amazed to see that his colleagues had decorated the entire space with fresh flowers. His arrival came after Starr received a telegram that read, “You’re the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the world. Come on home. We love you.”

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