The Wall Street Journal-20080129-Ringo Stars in His Own Life Story on CD
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Ringo Stars in His Own Life Story on CD
Full Text (1019 words)It feels unseemly to criticize Ringo Starr, whose new album, "Liverpool 8" (Capitol), was released earlier this month. An amiable presence, he readily shows his vulnerability, a rare trait in an artist who's been a celebrity for almost 45 years. As recently as 2006, during the recording of the "Love" remix album, he spoke of how he occasionally felt underappreciated by his Beatles colleagues. He recorded the Lennon-McCartney song "Love Me Do," conceding he still was hurt that he hadn't played drums on the version included on the band's debut album. Though Mr. Starr is 67 years old, his face bears the sad-eyed expression of his experiences as a sickly child who was separated from family and friends during repeated hospital visits. But his fellow musicians love him, guitarist and producer Dave Stewart told me recently. "With some people, when they walk into the room the temperature rises. That's Ringo," he said. "He keeps everybody's vibe up."
As a drummer, Mr. Starr has an unmistakable sound, making a little go a long way. "Starr possessed no more than a rudimentary technique on the drums," writes Jonathan Gould in his recent biography "Can't Buy Me Love -- The Beatles, Britain and America." "What distinguished him from Pete [Best, his predecessor in the band] was the authority and feeling with which he applied his rudimentary skills. Ringo's playing was much punchier and more syncopated . . . [and he] had learned to distribute the weight of his playing among the cymbals, bass and snare."
That's about right, but it omits how savvy and adaptable Mr. Starr was as a Beatle, serving three songwriters and producer George Martin with equal verve. He has a distinctive sound born not of bombast, but of the slightly behind-the-beat groove he sets. "What he does is what he feels" is how Mr. Stewart put it. It's pointless to compare him to Keith Moon and rock's other wild percussionists since that's not his game. The legendary New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer is a pretty good analogy.
On "Liverpool 8," Mr. Starr and his competent band, the Roundheads, give us plenty of Ringo the vulnerable, sentimental personality at the expense of Mr. Starr the drummer. Some of the album's best moments come when his kit, rather than his persona, is at a song's core, but the percussion is mostly buried under an overly bright, whirring wall of sound.
"Liverpool 8" does its best to touch on every aspect of Mr. Starr's career, quoting directly or alluding, in either music or lyric, to some part of his past, particularly with the Beatles. It's not a new strategy for Mr. Starr: The title track of his '05 release, "Choose Love," sounds like it was cobbled together from "Taxman" outtakes, and it mentions the Beatles'"Tomorrow Never Knows," "The Long and Winding Road" and "What Goes On" in the lyrics.
On the new disc, "Gone on the Days" has a faux, George Harrison-like Indian raga intro, a Lennon-like "oh no, oh no!" and the phrase "it don't come easy," the name of Mr. Starr's 1971 hit. "For Love" recalls Mr. Lennon's solo pop efforts, and Beatles-like vocal harmonies leap from the mix in several songs. Co-written by Mr. Starr and Mr. Stewart, the title track is an overview of the drummer's life. "Went to Hamburg with the red lights on/With George and Paul and my friend John," he sings. "In the USA when we played Shea/We were number one and it was fun."
If all this co-opting sounds unbecoming, Mr. Starr pulls it off, as far as it can be pulled off, with characteristic charm, drawing from a well of goodwill that he sees, perhaps rightly, as bottomless. But it doesn't seem the way for a talented musician to burnish his legacy.
Mr. Stewart told me that Mr. Starr wanted a distinctive sound on the new disc; he was brought in to work on "Liverpool 8" after Mark Hudson, its original co-producer and longtime Starr associate, withdrew late in the game. Best known for his work with the Eurythmics, Mr. Stewart is a Starr fan -- an interview he did with the drummer for an HBO special is now in post-production -- and a presence in his own right. Perhaps if he had been in on "Liverpool 8" from the beginning, it would have had a different concept -- maybe something like the Paul McCartney-Elvis Costello collaboration, "Flowers in the Dirt," issued in 1989, in which Mr. Costello nudged Mr. McCartney outside his comfort zone. Of Mr. Starr, Mr. Stewart told me: "He's great to play with. People don't realize what an amazing contributor he was to the Beatles. He's a serious player."
Yes, but if you come to "Liverpool 8" expecting to hear why Mr. Starr is a special drummer, you'll be disappointed. He has his moments. "Give It a Try" skirts close to Jimmy Buffett's brand of good-time pop, but Mr. Starr comes up with a clever pattern that fights off Mr. Hudson's additional percussion. He sets a groove on the high-hat and snare in "Think About You," which also features that instantly recognizable Starr sound on the splash cymbals. If you drill your way through the roar, Mr. Starr makes interesting choices in "Now That She's Gone Away," a song built on a variation of the Bo Diddley beat, which can take on an almost military rigidity in the wrong hands. But Mr. Starr's playing is relaxed, his toms have a warm, mellow tone, and his fills, which he's played sparingly and tastefully throughout his career, gives the song unexpected depth.
Liverpool 8 was the postal code of Mr. Starr's old neighborhood. When I heard rumors of the title of his new album, I thought he had started a jazz octet akin to one of the swinging bands Charlie Watts leads now and then. Wouldn't you love to hear Mr. Starr take on that challenge? But "Liverpool 8," it turns out, is more of the same: nothing new or special delivered as only our beloved Mr. Starr can.
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Mr. Fusilli is the Journal's rock and pop music critic.
