The Fab 4 Free All Podcast discussion on ‘Rotogravure’. 158-'Ringo's Rotogravure': Analysis and Review from Fab 4 Free 4 All
I hear a couple of 'wrong' notes on the guitar solo, maybe that was one of the reasons George disliked it.
The first Ringo album I'd bought as an 11-year-old kid (it was only $1.99). I like most of it, and think Simple Love Song is a very underrated breezy pop song for Ringo. Still, if I never hear Tango All Night, Can She So It Like She Dances or Sneaking Sally Through The Alley again, I wouldn't mind a bit. At least the album's production gives life to the songs, unlike his follow-up LP Bad Boy, which is just so darn forgettable.
Happy Monday to you all or whatever day it is when you read this. Today we move on to our next album for discussion. As a disclaimer to all those who like this album . . . I mean no ill will. I'm glad you like it but I absolutely do not. When I choose to rank these albums, that means something has to go on the bottom. And Ringo The 4th is that album. I cannot be nice about this one. I was careful though in my words and always say the ranking is my "favorite to least favorite". I didn't say "best to worst" because you can't be objective with such a subjective term. Look forward to the discussion on what I am guessing is Ringo's most divisive album . . . Ringo the 4th From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Ringo the 4th is the sixth studio album by English musician Ringo Starr, released in 1977. Its title refers to the fact that it is his fourth rock album. Ringo the 4th has a more dance-oriented context. After the commercial disappointment of Ringo's Rotogravure (1976), Starr decided to shift his formula of using his well-known musician friends (notably his fellow ex-Beatles) to write songs and appear on his albums. Instead, he intensified his partnership with Vini Poncia, with whom he wrote several of the songs featured here, while using the input of different musicians. Sessions began on 5 February 1977, at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Arif Mardin.[1] The first songs recorded were two unreleased tracks, "Lover Please" and "Wild Shining Stars".[1] Near the end of the month, Starr recorded "Out on the Streets", "It's No Secret" and "Gypsies in Flight".[1] In June, recording sessions were held at Atlantic Studios in New York.[1] where the tracks that ended up on the album were recorded. In addition, the B-side "Just a Dream", as well as an unreleased track, "By Your Side", were recorded.[1] Starr moved back to Cherokee Studios, where he held more sessions towards the end of the month, where a few more unreleased tracks were recorded: "Birmingham", "This Party", and a different version of "Just a Dream".[1] David Foster played keyboards on a couple of songs, while Melissa Manchester and Bette Midler occasionally appeared on backing vocals. Nancy Lee Andrews used Rita Wolf as a model in the photo shoot for the album cover. The photo used on the album cover shows Wolf's legs and she is sitting on Ringo's shoulders. The back cover is a photo taken from the back of Ringo and Wolf showing her bottom in tight pink pants. Track listing Side one 1. "Drowning in the Sea of Love" 2. "Tango All Night" 3. "Wings" 4. "Gave It All Up" 5. "Out on the Streets" Side two 1. "Can She Do It Like She Dances" 2. "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley" 3. "It's No Secret" 4. "Gypsies in Flight" 5. "Simple Love Song" My thoughts: To start off with something positive, at the root of this album there are about three or four decent songs. I would wager if I heard someone’s demo of them with just one singer and an acoustic guitar, I’d probably buy in. What we ended up getting is a butchered and bloody mess of a production: …Pseudo-disco …More ill-fitting backup singers than you can shake a stick at …Good-times singalongs that are absolutely not a good time at all …Ringo screaming most of the opening tracks for some reason …Senseless references to Paul’s band Wings and Silly Love Songs And if there ever was evidence of my theory that people wanted to mold Ringo into being a novelty act, it's this album cover. How absolutely ridiculous. Ringo is not a joke. The guest star list continues to dwindle too but I don’t blame the lack of quality on them. Arif Mardin I think gets the sole blame. There are indeed still some great names on here: Dave Spinozza, Hugh McDonald (mini RAM reunion!), Lon Van Eaton, Tony Levin, David Foster, Steve Gadd, Michael Brecker, Luther Vandross, Bette Midler to name a few. I think this quote sums things up quite nicely: Music webzine Drowned in Sound contributor Hayden Woolley commented in 2015 that the disco-flavored album "sees Ringo climb aboard the booty-shaking bandwagon with all the grace of a rhinoceros mounting a swan." Not doing a song by song because it would all be the same comment. Highlights: Amazon says my CD is worth $68 Lowlights: I had to listen to this album again to write this review In closing, the greatest thing about being at the dead bottom of the list? It’s all uphill from here and Ringo will slowly make that climb to redemption as we shall see. Here are my rankings of proper studio albums listed from favorite to least favorite: Ringo Goodnight Vienna Ringo’s Rotogravure Sentimental Journey Beaucoup of Blues Ringo The 4th
time to talk a small bit of each song Drowning In The Sea of Love: I like the song and I feel like the song is only a little too long but other than that its good for the album opener Tango All Night: Its enjoyable and maybe could use less backup singers Wings: Its a catchy and memorable song and is for the most part perfect Gave It All Up: its a nice slower song and atleast in the second half seems to be slightly autobiographical with what was going on in Ringo's life Out On The Streets: its a nice song with a nice little mention of John and Yoko and the Dakota near the end of the song Can She Do It Like She Dances: I believe its the most embarrassing song on the album and the worst but its still listenable about half of the time but it should have been replaced with Just A Dream Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley: its better than the previous song but still bad comparing it to everything else on the album It's No Secret: I like it and its one of my favorites on the album Gypsies In Flight: if you like the country song Ringo usually does on an album then this is for you and its quite listenable Simple Love Song: When I first red the song title I thought it was a cover of a Wings song before listening and its ok for an album ending Overall its a good album but I agree that it has too much backup singing
And for completion's sake, the "Drowning In The Sea Of Love" single had b-side that I don't think is currently available anywhere else to date. "Just A Dream" is more disco and honestly a lot better than many of the tracks that ended up on the album. Ringo does not sound too great on it though.
Ringo The Fourth strikes me as a successor to Beaucoups of Blues more than anything else. Not that much of it has a country sound. My reasoning is that it departs from the "Ringo with a lot of help from his friends" production approach that characterized Ringo, GV and Rotogravure. In its place we get a "hook Ringo up with an established group of session musicians who regularly work together and lay him over their sound" approach. Of course the key differences are 1. It is a late 70s NYC disco/soft rock sound rather than an early 70s Nashville country sound. 2. Ringo is a lot more involved this time, cowriting a majority of the songs and playing drums (alongside Steve Gadd) on the whole thing. 3. There are two covers of well known songs while Beaucoups tunes were all written just for the project. I find it a refreshing change from the "help from friends" approach which I felt had worked real well twice but grown tired by take three. Here instead of Arif trying to ape Perry's approach, Ringo let's Arif be Arif all the way. On Rotogravure I really only dug 2 (Hey Baby and Cookin) and slightly enjoyed 3 others (Dose of Rock & Roll, Pure Gold and This Be Called a Song), and found several of the others to be basically begging to be skipped. Here I would say there are 4 tunes I really dig - mostly the fast ones with disco/funk feels: Drowning In The Sea of Love - a very strong instrumental track with nice interplay between two of my favorite drummers, nice backing vox, and Ringo sounds into it an objects some personality. Out on the Streets - this track completely cooks, certainly more than anything he has done since Goodnight Vienna, Snookeroo and Oh My My. It is a real joy with a powerful groove, sweet guitar licks and dynamite horn charts. Love the breakdown section in the middle leading into Ringo's spoken word ad libs leading into the finale. Just had to spin this 2x in a row. Can She Do It Like She Dances - sure this is a cheesy concept, but I find it very fun and think Ringo's humorous delivery - especially on the ending ad libs - is just the thing to make it work. It is clear he is having a blast and the good time feeling is infectious. Sneaking Sally Through the Alley - awesome hearing the NYC cats in Stuff do their thing to the Meters/Toussaint groove. And Ringo's delivery really brings put a humorous quality in the lyrics that is less apparent in other versions. Love the sax solo from Michael Brecker. There are two more I enjoy, but not quite as much as the 4 above: Wings - a nice sincere straight ahead love tune with a good driving beat. Also a nice guitar solo and tasty guitar fills on this Starr-Poncia tune. Dont love the weird growly voice he puts on for the "strength of a lion" line. Simple Love Song A fun pop disco toe tapper. It sounds like a lot of tracks from the era. Nice that it is an original co-write showing Ringo coming along in his ability to create something so well crafted. 3 more tracks are largely innocuous. Gave It All Up - Sounds like a soft country biographical tune penned by Ringo, but hard for me to line much of it up to what I knkw of his bio, so it could be fictional. It is sung appropriately and is nice for what it is, but doesnt really blow me away. It's No Secret - not bad for 70s soft rock but pretty faceless other than Ringo's vocal, which is a bit buried in heavy backing vocals. Its professional and well done, but doesnt really move me. Gypsies In Flight - a sad slow country original. On a par with some of the stuff on Beaucoups. Nice for what it is, though a bit repetitive. Well placed in the typically filler 2nd to last slot on the LP. The only real misfire for me is: Tango All Night - this is a complete cheese fest- but it is at least more of a toe tapper than the Mexican influenced track on Rotogravure. If you imagine this to be a Zappa-esque parody it is at least a much more enjoyable listen ay-ay-ay-ay-ay. I would rank Ringo's albums to date as follows ( not counting CD bonus tracks) 1. Blast From Your Past 2. Goodnight Vienna 3. Ringo 4. Ringo the IVth 5. Beaucoups of Blues 6-7 tie. Sentimental Journey & Rotogravure
I love the song Wings, but that's about it on this album for me. I was excited when he re-did Wings for the 2012 album, but it doesn't have the energy of the original IMO.
The Fab 4 Free 4 All Podcast discuss ‘Ringo The 4th’, Heaven help us! 12-'Ringo the 4th': But Please Listen from Fab 4 Free 4 All
Ok, ‘Ringo The 4th’. I’ve got nuthin’. Goodnight Everybody! But, seriously Folk. This was definitely the nadir of Ringo’s recording career. After the moderate performance of ‘Rotogravure’, Ringo tried going in a different musical direction, following the Disco trend then popular and ended up falling flat on his face. He was obviously rudderless during this period which included heavy partying. There are admittedly a few good tunes sprinkled in it like ‘Wings’ and ‘Gave It All Up’ which is my favorite song on the album. But to say that this album is a disappointment is a major understatement. For me, ‘Ringo The 4th’ is his equivalent to Lennon’s ‘Sometime In New York City’, McCartney’s ‘Wings Wildlife’ and Harrison’s ‘Dark Horse’ as missteps in each ex-Beatles’ recording career. It could only get better after this, but it will take long while before it does.
