Ringo Starr - Liverpool 8 Review
by Scott Homewood
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Another year, another Beatle-related project. This time, Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr has decided to release his latest solo album. Long-delayed due to Starr's sacking of his long-time collaborator Mark Hudson (Do you remember the Hudson Brothers from that corny kiddie television show of the mid-70's? Yep, he was one of them and though their career floundered, Hudson became a sought after songwriter and producer and has racked up tons of hits as a songwriter for bands like Aerosmith and others including Starr.) for not wanting to tour when his previous album was released, this new album is a bit different from what we've been used to hearing from Starr for the past decade or so. While an artist shaking up their act is not a bad thing, sometimes labels and artists forget fans may be hesitant to immediately hop on the bandwagon. In Ringo's case, however, shaking up his act maybe just what he needs. Though everyone loves that lad from Liverpool, the long shadow of the Beatles' greatness and the perceived one-hit-wonder-ness of his All-Starr tours have led many people to think he's a musical lightweight.
Not so. And the current perception of his career has not always been the prevailing one as his post-Beatles history shows.
Since his stint in that little band from Liverpool, Starr has remained one very busy rock and roller. Releasing his first solo album in 1970, Starr had hits right out of the gate and racked up plenty of them over the seven or so albums he released in the '70's. In fact, though few remember since McCartney and Lennon also ended up with plenty of hits, Starr was once on track to be the most successful solo Beatle. While all of the ex-Beatles had a modicum of solo success, between 1970 and 1974 Starr racked up more solo hits than any of them. It took an album of no less greatness than McCartney and Wings' Band On The Run to start the ball roilling in Macca's direction. Of course, each of Starr's albums during this time featured help from all three of the ex-Beatles, playing together as if the acrimony leading to the spilt of the band never happened. Still, people loved it as Starr's albums were as close you could get to Beatle reunion records. Eventually, however, Starr's inspiration dried up and by the beginning of the '80's he was floundering and more content to appear in movies like Caveman than put out viable music. Add to that a very nasty substance abuse problem and Starr was pretty much musically quiet for most of the '80's.
Thankfully, by the time the '90's rolled around, Starr figured out a way to market himself. He decided to create a sort of rock and roll revue in which he would gather a bunch of two-to-three hit wonders who also happened to be talented musicians and let them be a part of his backup band while also allowing them each a chance to sing their hits. These songs by his bandmembers would be interspersed between Ringo singing his own song, both from the Beatle years and his later solo hits. All of a sudden Rigo Starr and his All-Starr Band became one of the biggest concert tours to come down the pike. He became a hot commodity again and put out a comeback album Time Takes Time in 1993 with members of Jellyfish and Mark Hudson helping out. Sure, it didn't sell great amounts, but his tours did great business and the heavyweight studio dudes on his albums kept them high quality affairs, if still vanity projects. Starr continued to tour throughout the '90's and '00's all the while releasing new albums at a fairly prolific pace. The weird thing is, Starr's albums keep getting better and better. Starr's steady growth into a competent lyricist compliments his naturally pleasant singing voice and Hudson's proclivity for being able to ape the Beatles' musical characteristics without descending into outright parody keep Starr's music familiar and fresh at the same time.
Starr's new album, however, is a departure for the ex-Beatles' skinsman and also features a major departure as well,. It seems this album may be Hudson's last album with Starr. In fact, Hudson was fired from the project before it was completed, causing about a year's delay in it's release. Seems Hudson did not want to tour two years ago for Ringo's last album outside of a few select shows. This angered Starr, whose label at the time (Koch Records) wanted to put a lot of promotional money into the record but required the promise of a tour before it would invest big money into the promotion. Without his right hand man Hudson, Starr had to instead gather up enough has-beens for a All-Starr Band tour which scuttled the album's promotion and caused the break-up of their 15-year working relationship. Scrambling to save the album, Starr has recruited Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics to pick up the guitar and production slack. While Hudson's playing and songwriting remains on a lot of songs, Stewart and Starr have reconfigured and re-done a lot of the album, replacing the more overt Beatleisms favored by Hudson with a more darker tone. While the more outright original sound separates this Starr album from the rest of his work since his comeback in the early '90's, a lot of the joy usually present in Starr's albums has been stripped away for a slightly more ominous, darker feel. While I don't necessarily feel this is a bad thing, Starr's fans will no doubt feel a bit off put and disoriented by his new sound. Whether Starr's collaboration with Stewart will be ongoing or if this is a one-album deal remains to be seen but, it is an interesting path and Starr has nothing to lose by becoming a bit more adventurous with his sound. At this point in his career, he is not going to get radio airplay so his standing as a hitmaker is not at risk at this point. What would be weird is if once again Starr rises to the occasion and becomes the ex-Beatle making the best albums in the twilight of his career as he did when he first struck out on his own post Beatle breakup in the early '70's and he was the ex-Beatle having all of the big hits.
Let's face it: if you're a Beatles' fan you're going to want to pick up this record. It just goes without saying. Luckily, though, odds are if you love the melodic rock music the Beatles were best at, you'll probably actually dig this album. While it can be safely said Starr was never the architect of the band's sound or one of the band's main songwriters (though he did end up writing a couple of the band's songs and sang on at least one song on every album) Starr was there when the magic was being made and therefore has a more than adequate ability in recreating some of the band's sonic touches. Also, over time Starr has become a very competent lyricist in his own way. Not a great album, but an album most would surely enjoy and Starr's growing talents are very surprising. Well worth the money.
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Ringo Starr - Liverpool 8
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