#I'm pretty sure there's also a quote out there of Ringo complaining about everyone asking him about the beatles when

[zilabee]

“He was my best friend,” says Ringo softly. “Yeah. I loved Harry.”

rolling stone interview

“Ringo and I spent a thousand hours laughing,” Nilsson said.

ringo: with a little help, by michael seth starr

Mark Hudson: “I think that Harry's friendship with John was also very very close, but I - I don't think it was as intimate as his relationship with Ringo Starr.”

Harry Nilsson: “I had a relationship with John - we were roommates a couple of times you know, short times […] But uh, Ringo and I are the, Ringo and I are friends. It's funny I always thought I would be closer to John but then over the years Ringo and I ended up being pals.”

Michael Seth Starr: Harry, born in Brooklyn, New York, in June 1941, was less than a year younger  than Ringo. They were both three years old when their fathers (Richard and Edward,  respectively) abandoned their families, never to return.  They both enjoyed alcohol and practical jokes and were garrulous in nature, at  least early in their relationship. Neither man had completed any semblance of an education. Ringo left school at the age of fifteen; Nilsson, who was extremely  bright, dropped out of school in the ninth grade. 

Ringo Starr: “I think I could always call Harry, night and day, and he would come and save me. I'm very lucky with friends like that.”

Chris O'Dell: “They became really, really close friends, and a lot of it was based on how much  alike they were. They shared a sense of humour. You can never  underestimate Ringo’s sense of humour. It’s there, it’s a huge part of who he is.  Harry was also like that. [...] They were like brothers.”

Harry Nilsson: “I saw Ringo in an interview once looking very nervous saying “Well I'm probably the best rock and roll drummer in the world” and the truth is he is. But he looked very scared saying it. I could see him being scared about it, not scared, but not comfortable about it. And I wanted to be right there and say “Yes! You are! It's okay! You are the best rock and roll drummer in the world ever. That's it. Period, the end.”

Doug Hoefer (Harry's Cousin): “They would fight about shit  and hang up on each other. Then time would go by and one of them would call the  other back and they would pick up where they’d left off. I’m not really sure exactly how they pissed each other off, but they would . . . because Harry had a very strong personality as well.” 

Stephanie La Motta: “He said, ‘I’m Harry’ and he goes searching all over the  place - and I’m screaming for Ringo - who comes out and hugs Harry, because he  loved Harry. They had a special bond. It was unbelievable this bond I saw between  them. He loved Harry as much as Harry loved him.”  (she was screaming because Harry was barging into their hotel room and she had no idea who he was)

Ringo Starr: “Harry’s no longer with us. He’s been gone 20 years now. I still miss him.”

Music played this way All I need is my imagination Take me far away Where I can be with everyone who loves me

Harry's Song, by Ringo, 2008

There's no more oyster bar There's no more Ringo Starr There's no one left to love but you and me

UCLA, by Harry Nilsson

Ringo paid for Harry to have cosmetic dentistry to straighten his front teeth. [...] Some of Nilsson's closest friends believed that self-consciousness about his crooked teeth had been a significant factor in his decision not to appear in live concerts. Samantha Juste, for example, said: "He didn't have great teeth. I remember when he had his teeth fixed, it did a lot for him. In the early days he didn't smile really. Those teeth made a big difference to him, and to his confidence."

- from "Nilsson, The Life of a Singer Songwriter" by Alyn Shipton

Most commentators have focused on "You're Breakin' My Heart" as the one song that expressed Nilsson's emotional torment about [his wife's] departure. However, there is another interpretation, which was that it represented his first quarrel with Ringo Starr. There are coded references to Starr and their social life together, notably in the lines, "You won't boogaloo - Run down to Tramps - Have a dance or two". The reference to the Beatles' Drive My Car [You won't drive my car, might be a star] is another clue to this possible interpretation.

- again from "Nilsson, The Life of a Singer Songwriter"

For reasons of his own, Ringo did not attend Harry���s funeral, which was held on  January 17, a day that was rocked by aftershocks from an earthquake in nearby  Northridge. He claimed to be too grief-stricken, and Barbara went in his place.

- from Ringo: With A Little Help, by Michael Seth Starr

"We tried every which way to get Ringo to talk on camera. What came back to us each time was that there are three people he just does not feel comfortable talking about in person: John Lennon, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson. It’s just too emotional for him and I totally respect his feelings on the matter. Ringo was, however, tremendously supportive of the film including providing us with photos and making it possible to use Son of Drac, a film that Ringo and Harry made in the early 1970s but has been locked away in a London vault since 1974. At the end of the day, we were happy to have his support and understood the decision he made. Sometime later we had heard that he saw the film and liked it but thought some things were missing from the story. And I said to myself, “Yeah, Ringo, you were missing…” (laughs).

- John Scheinfeld, about making 'Who is Harry Nilsson..?'

(I have found absolutely no evidence that ringo starr knitted this)

#harry nilsson #ringo starr #the beatles #the fact that the nilsson biography thinks the song about his divorce is probably actually about ringo #I googled and nobody else is claiming that song is about Ringo #just the person who has spent years researching Harry's life #and when you do that #you apparently come to the conclusion that #everything is ringo #(it reads much more to me like a song to his ex-wife complaining about the fact that she's *not* Ringo #so still very shippy) #and it's also the song that George made everyone sing at Harry's funeral because he clearly ships them too #there's a nice quote somewhere about how harry kind of worshipped john but he just loved ringo #I'm pretty sure there's also a quote out there of Ringo complaining about everyone asking him about the beatles when #there are people he loves more than the beatles #and I think he names Harry because of course he names Harry #but I can't find it anywhere #so I might have made it up