Happy Birthday Ringo Starr. And Thank You.

Today is Ringo Starr's birthday.

He is 75. A very young 75. Check out the footage of his birthday deal and you will see a young moving, young minded, young at heart former Beatle.

Ringo was born on July 7, 1940. I was negative fourteen years old.

However, when Ringo and the lads made their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, I was 10.

I have told you before and I will tell you again. I can close my eyes and picture in my diseased mind that explosive February night.

As I remember it my parents had a house full of people. This is not reliable testimony. Call my brother Ed - he will better remember it.

But, my recollection is of a house full of people SHOCKED at this disreputable spectacle on stage.

I was smugly satisfied and enormously excited.

I did not envision on that night that in 2015 Ringo would be 75 and I would be 61.

I did not envision that both John and George would be dead.

I had no conscious thought of rebellion but I do remember an emotion that was rebellious.

I accepted that my life would be entirely different than my parents and I was excited about that.

Then I went out and became an accountant.

I will not wallow in thoughts of potential debased.

Ringo ended up being the best ambassador The Eternal Beatles could ever have.

John was too caustic, George too deep and Paul is too superficial.

Ringo wears the mantle of drummer for the world's greatest band lightly, but exudes the regal magnificence of a band that will never be eclipsed. Not in any genre, not in any generation, not in any situation.

Ringo has an excellent sense of humor and a deeply grounded sense of self.

Exactly at noon in LA, Ringo encouraged the crowd to shout his motto: Peace & Love.

These words are not dated, they are not laughable - they are a blueprint for life. We are just too stupid or selfish or greedy to recognize that simple truth.

And that is why the world is the way it is.

Thank you, Ringo, for being 25% of a band that gave me so much joy and stimulated so much thought and created hope from the ashes of a previous generation's misconceptions.

Thank you, Ringo, for being the happy go lucky guy that you are, to recognize your enormously influential place in history while living your life and connecting with people in the honest, down to earth way that you do.

Goddamn it - I love you, man.

Twenty five more.