Ringo Starr – "It Don't Come Easy" (1971)

Forget about the past

And all your sorrow

Despite the fact that I’ve been vaccinated no fewer than seven times, I came down with my third case of COVID-19 last week. 

I’m guessing that happened because there’s a new highly-mutated variant – nicknamed “Cicada” – that’s beginning to make its presence felt in the U.S.

Once I tested positive, I called my doctor and got a prescription for Paxlovid, which did wonders for me when I had COVID before.  

Initially, Paxlovid was free.  But unbeknownst to me, Uncle Sam stopped picking up the tab for the antiviral a couple of years ago.

The current list price for a 5-day supply of Paxlovid is . . . are you sitting down? . . . $1797.  I have insurance, so it didn’t cost me that much.  But the out-of-pocket cost was still hundreds of dollars – so much that I thought about white-knuckling it.

But I’m having trouble spending all the money that this wildly successful little blog generates, so I figured what the hell – after all, you can’t take it with you . . . right?

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The Paxlovid regimen involves taking three tablets – two pink ones (nirmatrelvir) and a white one (ritonavir) – twice a day.

I’ve been taking a couple of ibuprofens along with the three Paxlovid pills before hitting the hay this week:

If you were me, I’m guessing that you would first knock back the two ibuprofens, then gulp down the three Paxlovid pills – or perhaps vice versa. 

Not me!  I don’t do things willy-nilly.  (Nor do I do them helter-skelter.)

As far as I’m concerned, there are two and only two acceptable ways to take my medicine.

One option is to lay the pills out this way and swallow them left to right:

Here’s the other acceptable option:

I prefer the latter choice – I find ingesting the pills in that particular order to be somehow more satisfying

Despite that, my therapist continues to insist that I’m not really obsessive-compulsive.  I like my therapist, but maybe I should get a second opinion.

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I’m surprised that 2 or 3 lines has never previously featured “It Don’t Come Easy” – which is my favorite Ringo Starr song.  (Is that comment an example of damning with faint praise?  Maybe.)

One thing that obviously doesn’t come easily to Ringo was correct grammar.  (Admit it – you knew it should have been “doesn’t” instead of “don’t,” but did you also know that it should have been “easily” instead of “easy”?) 

Click here to listen to “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Click here to buy “It Don’t Come Easy” from Amazon.

Ringo Starr – "Back Off Boogaloo" (1972)

Wake up, meathead

Don’t pretend that you are dead

Ringo Starr has had a surprisingly successful solo career.

He’s released no fewer than 19 studio albums – plus a number of live albums and compilations.

And while his first post-Beatles single (“Beaucoups of Blues”) went nowhere, his next eight singles were all top ten hits in the U.S.  (Two of the eight – “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen” – made it all the way to #1.)

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Ringo Starr was born Richard Starkey in Liverpool in 1940.  

“Ritchie” Starkey’s first proper drum kit – a gift from his stepfather – consisted of a snare drum, a bass drum, and a cymbal that was really a modified trash-can lid.  

When he was 19, he joined Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, which achieved considerable popularity in and around Liverpool.  Starkey adopted the stage name Ringo Starr while he was with the Hurricanes.  (He loved to wear rings, and wanted a name that sounded country and western.)

Ringo (holding the drumstick) on stage
with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes

The Hurricanes and the Beatles were hired to play in Hamburg, Germany, in 1960.  (The Hurricanes got top billing over their fellow Liverpudlians.)

John Lennon invited Ringo to join the Beatles in 1962.  A month after he signed on, the Beatles recorded their first UK single – “Love Me Do.”  (The flip side was “P.S. I Love You.”)

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

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“Back Off Boogaloo” is thought by many to have been an attack on Paul McCartney.  McCartney was persona non grata with John, George, and Ringo after the Beatles broke up in 1970 because he refused to delay the release of his debut solo album until after the release of the Beatles’ final studio album, Let It Be.

The lines quoted at the beginning of this post seem to be referring to the “Paul is dead” nonsense.

Click here to listen to “Back Off Boogaloo,” which Starr co-wrote with former bandmate George Harrison.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: