He refused to record for two years, although his work for Ric-Tic was reissued by Motown on the album Soul Master (1968).In 1968 a Motown executive heard Starr performing one of his own songs, "25 Miles", on television and persuaded him to record it. "I didn't understand their politics," said Starr: They wouldn't let me produce it and said I would have to work with Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol. They thought the song needed a better intro and I said, "OK", but they were then on the song as writers. End of story, what could I do?"25 Miles" made the US Top Ten in 1969, but a soul ballad about ghetto life, ironically called "I'm a Strugglin' Man", failed to consolidate the success.The Motown writer and producer Norman Whitfield had recorded "War" as an album track for the Temptations, but it was not released as a single.

"The song was controversial," said Starr, and Motown did not want a smear campaign against one of their top groups. I didn't have much of a career for them to be concerned about. If the record went down, I would have been dead as an artist, but it became one of the biggest records they ever put out.Starr transformed "War", deservedly winning a Grammy for his performance, but the song was not as controversial as he maintained as there was already considerable opposition to the war. When I spoke to Starr in 1990, he had acquired a different take on the song: The song was not about the Vietnam War It was about any kind of war. It can be the war you have in your neighbourhood trying to survive. It can be about the war you have in your job or the problems you have because of your colour."War", with its combination of soul music and psychedelic fuzz guitars, topped the US charts and reached No 3 in the UK, but the follow-up, "Stop the War Now", was simply more of the same and in Starr's words, "totally redundant".Starr made two fine albums, War and Peace (1970) and Involved (1971), but, besides social protests, he sang "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and "Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On".

One of his best performances was an insidious rendering of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord". Starr criticised Wilson Pickett, whom he felt had stolen his arrangement of "Hey Jude" for a hit single.Motown could have done more with Starr, but he was a difficult artist and they did have another stentorian vocalist with Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. His best work with Motown included some duets with Blinky ("Oh How Happy", "Ooo Baby Baby") and the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Hell up in Harlem (1973). "Take Me Clear from Here" (1972) "Love (The Lonely People's Prayer)" (1973) were excellent tracks and potential hit singles if Motown had got behind them.