I never saw the Beatles in concert, but I spent an evening with Ringo

I never saw the Beatles in concert.

At least not all four of them. Their last tour of the United States was in 1966, when I was 16. I went to my first rock concert in 1967, when I saw the Lovin' Spoonful in Charlottesville, Va.

One thing strange about the Beatles in looking back is how short their time in the spotlight was. They came to America for the first time when I was 14 and they broke up before my 21st birthday.

They toured the United States just three times, not counting their February 1964 visit. That initial visit was for three appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and single concerts at the Washington Coliseum and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

February 1964

The concerts were more celebrations than actual concerts. Nearly every time the Beatles performed, the screaming from girls in the audience made it very difficult to hear them.

They came back to Washington and performed at what was then D.C. Stadium in August 1966. I still wasn't going to concerts, but the funniest thing about it looking back was that tickets were only $5.

Even if you figure inflation, that would put the price between $35 and $40.

Not bad.

I did see the Spoonful for just $3 in '67. They were good, but they weren't the Beatles.

By the time I started going to concerts regularly, the Beatles were a thing of the past. I saw so many great concerts in the '70s, but one I missed in May 1976 stuck with me. My first wife and I were going to be spending two years in Austria for her job. She was going over two months before me, and on the day she left, there was a concert scheduled that evening at Capital Centre.

1976

I had really wanted to see the Wings Over America tour, but I couldn't bring myself to go alone. So I missed my one chance to see Paul McCartney in concert.

Then John Lennon died in 1980 and it was apparent there would never be a Beatles reunion.

The only concert I saw in the mid '80s was Bruce Springsteen in 1984 in St. Louis. I went to Colorado and then on to Nevada and I wasn't bothering with concerts anymore.

But in the summer of 1989, an interesting possibility arose. I was living in Reno, about a two-hour drive from Sacramento. The California State Fair was scheduled for late August, and one of the concerts on the schedule was Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band.

Ringo, 1989

Now Ringo took a lot of crap over the years, and it was pretty obvious that musically, his songs were the least memorable of anyone in the group.

But he has toured for 25 years now with 12 different incarnations of his band, and 1989 was the first.

I bought two tickets, called my lifelong friend Mick in Los Angeles and invited him to come up for the show. Mick was the biggest Beatles fan of any non-girl I knew in the '60s, and I knew he would enjoy it.

The band was made up of Joe Walsh, Nils Lofgren, Dr. John, Billy Preston, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Clarence Clemons, Todd Rundgren and Jim Keltner. The way the concert worked was each of the band members played the song they were best-known for and then Ringo did his catalogue.

It was a good show, and if it turns out to be the only time I ever see a Beatle, so be it.

I've seen a lot of great concerts in my lifetime. I can really only think of three or four acts I wish I hadn't missed -- Elvis, John Fogerty and the Who.

And of course those other Beatles.