LISTEN: Ringo Starr is 80!
We celebrate the oldest living Beatle with a submarine ride through his overlooked 70s solo catalogue
Ringo Starr had John Lennon by five months when he was born on July 8, 1940–making him the old man of The Beatles from the moment he replaced Pete Best in the drummer’s seat.
Now the man known to Her Majesty as Sir Richard Starkey MBE is 80, and shows no signs of letting the beginning of his golden years get in the way of singing his songs with his friends. And that’s just what he did yesterday, in fact, with a charity livestream featuring performances by Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Gary Clark Jr., Sheila E., Sheryl Crow and others to benefit such worthwhile causes as Black Lives Matter Global Network, the David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid.
VIDEO: Ringo Starr’s Big Birthday Show
To celebrate 80 years of this funny, witty, caring and ridiculously talented man who helped raise us all, the Rock & Roll Globe offers you this mixtape centered around Ringo’s unfairly maligned solo output in the 1970s from Sentimental Journey to Bad Boy. It would be the hope of the small cult fanbase surrounding this catalogue may one day see the reissue campaign it deserves.
Happy 80, Ringo. We love you. #PeaceandLove
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Ringo’s early 70s work, not to mention a few surprisingly good later albums (Time Takes Time, Vertical Man, and Ringo Rama) are due for reappraisal.
Some good choices here, but some real duds too. Sorry, but Ringo’s version of “Sneakin’ Sally” just isn’t very good. His later 70s work is pretty bad. He was drunk the whole time, and the fun of his first few solo albums just isn’t there.
And “Devil Woman” is just a nasty, ugly song. The whole idea of the “Evil” or “Devil” woman in songs is bad enough, but lines like “ I wanna beat you up then I wanna be kind” ?? Um, NO. Awful, awful song. What was he (Or you) thinking?
A shame, because the rest of the album (Simply titled “Ringo”) is pretty great. “Photograph,” “Oh My My,” “Six O’ Clock” (Written by Paul), “You and Me (Babe),” “Have You Seen My Baby,” and best of all “Sunshine Life For Me” (Written by George, and backed by The Band). “You’re Sixteen” is maybe a bit cringy now, lyrically, but it’s a great tune. I still like it.
Beaucoups of Blues, his country album, is seriously underrated. Incredible lineup of Nashville Cats backing him up, and some really good songs. “$15 Draw” just might be my favorite Ringo song, period. You included a couple of tunes though, so that’s cool.
Lots of other 70s gems: “Early 1970,” “Blindman” (Which you included), “Only You,” “Snookeroo” (Written by Elton and Bernie) to name a few. Once you get past the Goodnight Vienna album though, Ringo’s output becomes hit and miss, with more misses than hits until he got to his mini-comeback in the late 80s/early 90s. Not that he’s had any bonafide “hits” since, but those aforementioned later albums are pretty good.
Guy, as always I look forward to your response mixtape. I was just trying to put together some of the funkier and weirder Ringo songs. You are entitled to your opinion, but I’ll always be confident in my choices. But I can’t wait to see your mix!
I will take you up on replacing Devil Woman with 6 O’Clock or Sunshine, however!