Ringo Hopes ‘Time’ Will Turn the Tide : Pop: Since the late ‘70s, the ex-Beatle has been struggling in the music world, but now he’s trying to re-establish himself as an artist.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Beatles’ pioneering concept album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” For the four working-class rockers from Liverpool, it triggered a transformation from teen idols to a mighty creative force that reshaped the nature of pop music.

“We were on top of the world,” said drummer Ringo Starr recently, wistfully recalling those glory days.

Since the late ‘70s, however, Starr has been looking at the pop music world from the bottom end, and his new attempt to re-establish himself faces formidable obstacles, ranging from his age (51) to the small size of his current record label to his spotty track record in the ‘80s.

After the Beatles split up in 1970, Starr (born Richard Starkey) became a solo star with a string of peppy, novelty-style hit singles--”The No No Song,” “You’re Sixteen,” “Only You,” “Photograph” and “Oh My My.” But by the late ‘70s he was one of many rockers who had been wiped out in the disco blitz.

Now he hopes that the slide may finally be over.

“This is the best chance I’ve had to get back into the mainstream and do something that matters, something that might rebuild my career,” Starr said during an interview in a Bel-Air hotel suite.

His optimism is based on “Time Takes Time,” a pop-oriented rock collection that’s his most musically satisfying work since 1981--and his first studio album since 1983. It was produced by a team with illustrious pop-rock credits--Don Was, Jeff Lynne, Phil Ramone and Peter Asher. The promotion of the album, on Private Music Records, was launched with the single “Weight of the World” and continues with a national tour that began this week in Florida. It comes to the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa on Aug. 9 and the Greek Theatre on Aug. 11 and 12.

Starr will be accompanied by a band that includes such rock luminaries as Dave Edmunds, Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren and Nils Lofgren, as well as Starr’s son, drummer Zak Starkey, 27.

Three years ago, Starr assembled a similarly designed band that went on a tour in hopes of attracting a record deal.

“All that came out of it was a live album of the tour,” Starr said. “I thought we’d get a deal right away but no one wanted to sign us. They wanted good songs, and I guess we didn’t have any.”

That sums up most of the ‘80s for Starr. First there was the 1981 album “Stop and Smell the Roses,” for Boardwalk Records. “It wasn’t that good,” Starr concedes. A 1983 album, “Old Wave,” produced by Walsh, got only limited foreign release, and a late-’80s project with producer Chips Moman was tangled in lawsuits and never released. “That one wasn’t very good either,” Starr added.

Part of his problem during the decade was drug and alcohol abuse. “I wasn’t very pleasant to be around,” recalled Starr, who kicked his habits with his wife, actress Barbara Bach, at a rehab center in 1988. “Some of my musical judgments weren’t that good either. I guess I was hard to work with. Record companies didn’t trust me and I don’t blame them.”

Today’s inhospitable musical climate adds another obstacle in the path of “Time Takes Time.”

“I’m optimistic about all this, but I know the odds aren’t in my favor,” said Starr, who will be 52 in July. “I’m not a rapper. I don’t play heavy metal and I’m not a teenager.”

The one credential that only Starr and two others can claim is the credit ex-Beatle . But that doesn’t matter to radio programmers, according to radio consultant Jeff Pollack.

“It’s not enough for it to be a Ringo record,” Pollack said. “The bottom line is that it has to be good and memorable to get played. Most stations aren’t likely to play this kind of record by an older rock star who’s been off the scene for over 10 years. . . . But radio is so fragmented that there’s a place for older artists somewhere in some format in some city.”

But Starr and his production team had a different aim from making what’s known as a “radio record.”

Says co-producer Don Was, who did the bulk of the album, “We didn’t do these tracks with radio in mind. We didn’t do any of the things people do when they concentrate on making a record that will get air play. I just wanted to make sure none of the songs were silly. We did serious rock songs. When we were choosing songs, we wanted to get away from his old image of doing novelty songs.”

While a major record company might have the clout to make radio more aware of such a record, Private Music is a tiny label known mostly for New Age music. Label president Ron Goldstein signed Starr because he wanted to give the company more of a pop image.

“Having a hit record with Ringo would be very pivotal to that transition process,” he said. “Sometimes being on a smaller label is an advantage because they can focus on a record easier and work it much longer.”

And if Private Music can’t make “Time Takes Time” a hit?

Starr, who has homes in Monte Carlo and Los Angeles, put it in perspective. “I’m happy to get a shot at making a record--at my age with no track record. It’s humbling when no one wants you. Coming from the Beatles and all that, it’s quite hard to take. I’m indebted to Private Music for giving me a chance, which is all I wanted.

“But if the record doesn’t make it, don’t worry--I’m not going to starve.”