Ringo Starr Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing is F.A.B. again

Ringo, Linda, Carlos, Alison, and Mick

Welcome to Sunday Stealing.

Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. We stole this from a blogger named Idzie, who called this the F.A.B. (film, audio, book) meme, so we’re F.A.B. again.

Movies

F. Film: What movie or TV show are you watching?

On Monday, my wife and I visited the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the comedy Caddyshack. Neither of us had ever seen it before, but we heard that it was very popular in 1980 when it came out. We were mostly unimpressed. Chevy Chase’s character was somewhat interesting, and Rodney Dangerfield was funny for a while, but Bill Murray seemed to be in another movie. I had to start looking at why so many find the film beloved.

The Wikipedia post was helpful: “The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release, with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield’s, Chase’s, and Murray’s comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, ‘Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began, there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration.'” If you’ve ever talked with a person who’s stoned, you’re not, and they think everything is hysterical? That may be this movie.

Harold Ramis, a first-time film director, noted that “In the DVD documentary, TV Guide had originally given the film two stars (out of four) when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time, the rating had gone up to three stars.” Maybe it’s better with repeated viewing.

Music

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

This being July, some of the birthdays are those of Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, Alison Krauss, Mick Jagger, and Jim Stewart. So I’ll play Linda, Santana, and the Rolling Stones. Who’s Jim Stewart? He co-founded the legendary STAX Records with his sister Estelle Axton. I also play a lot of compilations of Beatles covers, and I have many of them.

Photograph – Ringo Starr

Telling Me Lies -The Trio (Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris)

Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen – Santana

Maybe – Alison Krauss

I Am Waiting – The Rolling Stones

Green Onions – Booker T. and the MG’s

You Can’t Do That – Harry Nilsson

Text

B. Book: What are you reading?

My friend Fred Hembeck wrote so kindly about former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who died recently at age 73, regarding Fred’s participation in the Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, I thought I’d read the book The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck.

Please come back next week.

Finnish kids recognize fake news

AI manipulation

On CBS Sunday Morning, which continues to be one of my favorite programs, there was a September 30 segment about how Finnish kids recognize fake news. “Being able to identify hoaxes, avoid scams, and debunk propaganda is a civic skill required in today’s information society. That’s why the curriculum of students in Finland includes media literacy lessons, aimed at safeguarding a precious resource: the truth.”

There’s a similar story on CNA. Finland’s war against fake news starts at a young age. “With an ever-growing number of people getting their news online, being able to work out what’s true – and what’s not – has never been more important. In a world of digital disinformation, one country is often held up as the benchmark for having a media-literate population. Finland has topped the Media Literacy Index for the seven years the ranking system has been in existence.”

In 2019, CNN reported on the topic. “Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy.”

I will state the obvious here: we need this in the United States, and not just for children. As a citizen and a librarian, misinformation, and especially disinformation, distresses me.

I posted on Facebook a visual about the myth when people say, “Do your own research!” This post is credited to Linda Gamble Spadaro, a licensed medical mental health counselor in Florida. “You didn’t research anything. You read or watched a video, most likely with little or no objectivity. You came across something in your algorithm-manipulated feed, something that jived with your implicit biases and served your confirmation bias, and subconsciously applied your emotional filters and called it proof.”

My buddy J. Eric Smith wrote about this topic 14 years ago, and it’s still dead on.

Looking for nonsense

I pulled out my phone on October 2 to check my Facebook feed.

Rock Music World: “Ringo Starr turns 84 today!” No, he didn’t. He is 84, but his birthday is July 7. At least 78 people shared the post. Various feeds list the birthdays of actors and musicians, but they are often incorrect. You may think of this as inconsequential, but I guess I’m old-school enough to think that FACTS MATTER, especially easily verifiable ones. (Ssh: I’ve been known to use books.) A Google search would get you to Ringo’s website, but every other source in the search, such as Modern Drummer, confirms the real date.

Some guy from New Jersey is sharing something I’ve seen before: [SIC] “I’m no mathematician, but I’m not bad at math. Can someone please explain? AOC went into office broke and in five years she’s worth $29 million. on a $155K salary??? When does her investigation begin?” Never. Check out FactCheck, Politifact, USA Today, and other sources.

Then there was the photo showing djt in a lifejacket helping storm victims in floodwaters after Hurricane Helene. One Facebook user posted of the picture, “I think we should all repost it!!!!” Another person added, “‘He lives and cares for people, all people!” And “I don’t think Facebook wants this picture on Facebook. They have been deleting it.” The post received more than 150,000 shares in just 16 hours.” And it’s FALSE. “Odd-looking hands and fingers are one sign of AI manipulation in photos.”

Some folks need to make a minimum of effort to verify before they share.

The worst

Unfortunately, the biggest purveyor of falsehood, particularly in light of the Hurricane Helene disaster, is the 45th president. He lies about how money has been funneled from potential hurricane victims to immigrants. Not only does he harm the people who could use the help, but he also foments despair and immigrant phobia.

Extracted from Heather Cox Richardson, “Letters From an American,” 9/27/2024:

“Republican governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin told reporters that he was ‘incredibly appreciative of the rapid response and cooperation from the federal team at FEMA.’ Asheville, North Carolina, mayor Esther Manheimer told CNBC, ‘We have support from outside organizations, other fire departments sending us resources, the federal government as well. So it’s all-hands-on-deck, and it is a well-coordinated effort, but it is so enormous….’”

And the lies persist.

But my favorite bit of nonsense, because it’s so obvious, was in my email, with an attachment I did not open. “Good morning. When there are ambiguous conditions around a contract, Agreement-Number… can be used in the event that it is difficult to determine whether it was created, expired without being resolved, or is no longer valid as a result of the contract having expired. so long”

Electric Light Orchestra and the Beatles

a reasonable choice

For my next answer to Ask Roger Anything, our contestant once again is Kelly Sedinger, the fine Buffalo-area blogger at ForgottenStars.net.

I read somewhere that ELO did the kind of music that The Beatles WOULD have done had they remained together into the 70s. Agree? Disagree? (I’m not really equipped to assess the claim, but it kind of feels right to me, at least in part.)

First, I have to note that you wouldn’t have gotten this question from Kelly two decades ago because he wasn’t a fan of the Beatles at all and likely was unfamiliar with the Electric Light Orchestra. For some reason, I remember what I believe was his first Beatles song of the week, Don’t Let Me Down, a B-side.

In 2010, I asked him: “OK. How the heck could you dislike the entire oeuvre of The Beatles for so long? I can see if one doesn’t like the more avant-garde stuff or thought the early material wasn’t as good as the later tunes. But to reject the whole eclectic eight years? And how did you finally become enlightened?”

His reply: “The flip answer is, ‘Tastes change.’ The more serious answer is… ‘Tastes change.'”

Me? Obsessing?

Anyway, I started obsessing with this. I found a list of bands with three or more songwriters. Eh. The Band, the Eagles. Nah, not the right vibe.

Reddit has a list of Beatlesque bands, but of a later period. The only one I even considered was the Christine McVie/Buckingham/Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac, which is unrecognizable from the Peter Green Days. Heck, they even have their own white album, Tusk.

I thought the snake-bitten band Badfinger could have been it. The group was on Apple Records; their first hit, Come and Get It, was written by Paul McCartney. Day After Day has a lovely guitar line by George Harrison. And No Matter What is definitely of the Beatles genre.

I began fixating on When The Beatles Hit America by John Wesley Harding, the very strange song in which “John, Paul, George and Ringo are going to be reforming as The Beatles in 1993.” Which was, of course, impossible.

But it has this section, “And for anyone who didn’t realize or know, it sounded a lot like ELO, or ELP, or XTC, ABC, YMO, BTO. But it didn’t sound much like P.S., I Love You.”

The candidates

Well, not much like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, though the Billy Preston organ, especially on I Want You (She’s So Heavy), is very nice. Bachman- Turner Overdrive? Not really.

ABC is an interesting consideration. Wikipedia notes, “Their early-1980s success in the US saw them associated with the Second British Invasion.”

Yellow Magic Orchestra, I’ll admit I don’t know musically. It’s a “Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978… The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music… and effectively anticipated the “electropop boom” of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.”

XTC was actually the band I first considered. “The band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in a variety of styles that ranged from angular guitar riffs to elaborately arranged pop.” Eclectic, like the Beatles.

And, in the end

But Electric Light Orchestra is a reasonable choice. The group formed in 1970, the year the Beatles officially broke up. They were more commercially successful than many of the other candidates, selling “over 50 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music groups of all time.” They made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

John Lennon remarked that ELO were the “Sons of the Beatles.” George and Ringo played with ELO. Jeff Lynne played with Paul McCartney. And of course, Jeff shows up in the Traveling Wilburys with George and produced an album of his and the 1995 Beatles songs. This is a bit ironic because “In an article from the 1970s, when the writer described an ELO song coming on the radio, [George] said, almost dismissively, ‘Sounds like the Beatles.'”

Check out the 2008 article in The Guardian. ELO: The band the Beatles could have been. “Critics called them ‘dull’ and laughed at the spaceships. Did they not realise Jeff Lynne was a songwriter to rival Lennon and McCartney?” And Lynne visited the Abbey Road studios while the Beatles worked on the white album.

So, sure, ELO can claim the title. How are Jeff Lynne, ELO, and The Beatles connected?

Moody Blues, Dylan, the Boss, solo Fab

Smile Away

In response to my most recent Ask Roger Anything request – you can STILL ask! – TWO music questions.

My old buddy Kevin, who grew up in my area, but who I didn’t know until college, asked:
What are your favorite albums by 1) the Moody Blues, 2) Bob Dylan and 3) Bruce Springsteen?

The Moody Blues is easy. While I have a few albums on vinyl that I haven’t listened to in forever, I never got any on CD or as downloads, except for a greatest hits CD. So the only album I can remember without looking it up is Days Of Future Passed. And I liked it not just based on its themes of dayparts, but the fact that a 1967 album could generate a hit half a decade later. Nights In White Satin went to #103 pop in 1968, but to #2 pop for two weeks in 1972.

My first favorite Springsteen album was Born To Run, the album that got him on the cover of Time and Newsweek simultaneously. And Darkness On The Edge Of Town was a very strong follow-up. Born In The USA is, naturally a great album, but I heard it a bit too often in the 1980s.

I should note that c. 2000, my late brother-in-law John asked me what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday. I said any Springsteen CD prior to 1992, most of which I had on vinyl. He bought me Asbury Park, both Born albums, Darkness, and The River, the two-record set which I had never owned.

Around 2006, my sister Leslie bought me We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Some great songs, done well. But many of them appear in the two-CD Live in Dublin that came out in 2007, and they’re even better.

Zimmerman

Considering the vast number of Dylan CDs I now own, it’s peculiar that I never bought a Bob album in the 1960s. It’s due in part to the fact that I had belonged to the Capitol Record Club in 1966/67, where I got the bulk of my Beatles LPs, not to mention albums by the Beach Boys, Lovin’ Spoonful, and others. Bob was on Columbia. The ONLY Dylan song I owned was from a cheap compilation album, The Best of ’66, which had I Want You.

In fact, the first Dylan album I purchased was for my high school girlfriend, the double album Self-Portrait, which came out in 1970. I wasn’t impressed, and I’m not even sure whether SHE liked it.

Eventually, I bought a few LPs – John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. But it wasn’t until CDs came out that I started to backfill my Dylan collection: Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, and my favorite, Blood on the Tracks.

I had pre-ordered Love and Theft, which was to be released on September 11, 2001. After I left work early that day – we all did – I was riding my bike home and I went past the record store. I stopped, got the album, and stood around the store awhile as the television was recapitulating the awful news of the day.

I didn’t listen to the album for well over a week. But when I did, I LOVED it, especially the run that began with the third track, Summer Days. I played this album a lot, and it made me happy in a very sad time.

Solo Fabs

Julie, who I’ve known for a few years – I have a pic of her holding my daughter when L was a baby – wants to know:
What is the best solo Beatles album?

Oh, my, I have been musing on this forever. Conventional Wisdom would put All Things Must Pass by George and Plastic Ono Band by John at the top of the list. These would be totally legitimate choices, especially ATMP, which proved that John and Paul underestimated their younger bandmate. I just watched Concert For George from 2002, and it reminded me just how much I loved Wah Wah.

Yet, and maybe it’s because I’ve listened to it recently, that I’m picking Paul’s (and Linda’s) Ram. Your folks would know that when it came out in 1971, it was savaged by much of the music press. Part of this was a function of the less-than-kind things John said about the album.

Really? Yes

As this 2021 review noted, “The record… saw the singer lay down a blueprint that would eventually help build some of the most notable genres around. You can trace everything from Britpop to pure jangle indie back to this record.” Too Many People, for instance, was a jab at John, much more subtle than John’s How Do You Sleep on his Imagine album.

From All Music: “In retrospect, it looks like nothing so much as the first indie-pop album, a record that celebrates small pleasures with big melodies, a record that’s guileless and unembarrassed to be cutesy. But McCartney never was quite the sap of his reputation… There’s some ripping rock and roll in the mock-apocalyptic goof Monkberry Moon Delight, the joyfully noisy Smile Away, where his feet can be smelled a mile away, and Eat At Home, a rollicking, winking sex song.”

When I played it recently for the first time this century, I said, pretty much to myself, “Damn, I really LIKE this album!” And I remembered it amazingly well.

Oh, and I have a great affection for the Ringo album, which featured all four of them, not all at the same time. Do the Travelling Wilburys count as “solo”? Because I’d stick that first album in the mix.

Ringo Starr, Beatle, is 80

Tanglewood in June 2021

Ringo Starr has been mentioned at least a couple hundred times in this blog. Unsurprising, given my unabashed affection for the Beatles. And I see that, 50 years after the band broke up, the Beatles and Ringo generate a lot of comments online.

Questions such as whether he is a good drummer. “Dave Grohl, frontman of Foo Fighters and former drummer of the legendary grunge band Nirvana, said about him: ‘Define ‘best drummer in the world’. Is it someone that’s technically proficient? Or is it someone that sits in the song with their own feel? Ringo was the king of feel.'”

Of course, he was picked to replace Pete Best. Ringo himself said his best drumming for the Beatles was on Rain.

The Beatle also known as Richard Starkey had his particular brand of charisma. The other Beatles insisted he was the best actor in their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night. The storyline of the second film, Help!, was centered around him.

Ringo still tours with his All-Starr band. I have never seen him play, though the tour has been in my neck of the woods a few times. In fact, he was supposed to have been at Tanglewood last month, but that program was postponed a year.

Ringo was scheduled to play with Steve Lukather (Toto guitarist), Colin Hay (Men at Work singer), Gregg Rolie (Santana keyboardist), Warren Ham (vocals/sax/flute), Gregg Bissonette (drums), and Hamish Stuart (Average White Band bass/guitar/vocals),

Previously…

Back in 2018, I wrote about his country album Beaucoups of Blues, which I think is pretty darn good. Unfortunately, many of the links are not working. So check out the album here or here.

In 2016, I discussed Ringo’s “peace and love” initiative, and how we should still do it, even if we’re not sure it’s working.

In 2011, I noted that, around Ringo’s birthday, I play Beatles cover albums. And I have a lot of them.

Finally, back in 2010, I listed my favorite songs by Ringo Starr. Many of the links no longer worked, but I’ve replaced them.

Happy 80th birthday, Ringo. Peace and love to all of us.