Tune In (The Beatles: All These Years, #1)

by Mark Lewisohn

They loved oddballs and eccentrics and he certainly was one. They didn’t always know which way to take him, but they made light of his gruffness or dour countenance (“I’m quite happy inside, it’s just the face won’t smile”) because they could pick on his big nose and that weird streak of gray in his hair. They were fascinated by his strictly simple diet and all the things his weakened stomach couldn’t tolerate; they were amused by the fallout from his fractured education, like his phonetic spelling and enjoyment of the weekly kids’ comics; they laughed when he signed LOVE AND LUCK above his autograph—his latest winning phrase; and they always cracked up at his strange sayings, like when he asked a restaurant waiter for “slight bread” because he wanted only a small portion. They came to call these things Ringoisms and, in time, as Paul would remember, “keep tabs on them, almost like writing them down: they were quite handy.”

John, Paul, and George's love for Ringo, other than his solid drumbeat.....from Tune In...