RINGO STARR: SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY (1970)
1) Sentimental Journey; 2)
Night And Day; 3) Whispering Grass (Don't Tell The Trees); 4) Bye Bye
Blackbird; 5) I'm A Fool To Care; 6) Stardust; 7) Blue Turning Grey Over You;
8) Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing; 9) Dream; 10) You Always Hurt The One You
Love; 11) Have I Told You Lately That I Love You; 12) Let The Rest Of The World
Go By.
General verdict: So, not a fan of
the avantgarde liaison between John and Yoko? Go back to Ringo singing Hoagy
Carmichael, you pop slut!
In the place of the age-old and fairly boring
«Paul is dead» conspiracy theory, I offer you a new one: The Beatles were
broken up not by the egotism of John Lennon, not by the stubbornness of Paul
McCartney, not by the resentment of George Harrison, not by the ruthless business
deals of Allen Klein, not even by the witchcraft of Yoko Ono. Instead, The
Beatles were broken up by Elsie Starkey, who had been patiently waiting for ten
years only to plant a carefully planned and perfectly targeted strike at a time
when it hit the deadliest — so that her allegedly misled and misguided
offspring could finally come to his senses and start recording decent music for a change. What else
could explain the irrefutable fact that Sentimental
Journey, Ringo's grand entry into the world of bearded pop oldies, became
the first «properly musical» album by any solo Beatle, even beating McCartney's
self-titled debut by about three weeks?.. Nothing, and in a world of simplified
logic, this proves the theory beyond the slightest shred of reasonable doubt.
Now, in general, Ringo's solo career should not
be slighted too much. Ringo's always
had charisma, solid drumming potential, and decent taste in pop music. As a
songwriter, he came to the table fairly late and never engaged in the deed too
often, but when he did write, he was
a bit above average (I mean, you'd have to be mentally challenged to work with
John and Paul for so long and not having at least a tiny bit of all that talent
rub off on you). And even the very idea of Ringo doing some Cole Porter and
Hoagy Carmichael on the side is not abominable per se: his limited singing
skills could be effectively attuned for comic effect, which could have been a
refreshing change from hearing so many crooners overkilling the material.
The problem with Sentimental Journey is that no effort was undertaken to try and
make it «special» in any way. The one and only gimmick of the album was the idea
to give each of the twelve songs to a different arranger — ranging from close
allies (Paul himself on one track, and George Martin on another) to more distant
friends such as Maurice Gibb to classical-pop dignitaries such as Elmer
Bernstein to truly unpredictable choices like Quincy Jones (who, apparently,
remembers this incident largely in the context of Ringo not being able to
properly hold a simple percussion groove — grumpy old man). Unfortunately, it
is as if the invisible and terrifying presence of loving Mum haunted the studio
day and night, night and day, because in the end, despite heavier orchestration
on some tracks and lighter on others, you'd have to be a wizard of perception
to tell which track was arranged by Maurice Gibb and which one by Quincy Jones.
(Cue: ʽBye Bye Blackbirdʼ begins with a strummed banjo and ʽLove Is A Many
Splendoured Thingʼ opens with a bass flourish — your associations?).
Furthermore, Ringo's biggest strength — his
friendly goofiness — is totally wasted here, since it is painfully clear that,
while he most certainly loves his Mum and probably respects this material, he
has very little by way of «true intimate connection» with it. (I mean, if he
had, what would be the chances of his joining a skiffle band back in 1957?). He
is neither able to sing these songs professionally (which is predictable), nor
to put a properly goofy spin on them — the best he can do is try to stay in
tune (most of the time) and maintain a moderately cheerful attitude. I'm sure
Mum and Stepdad must have been delighted, but the rest of the world could only
take this as one further sign of Ringo's general incompetence and lack of
direction as an artist.
"The great thing was that it got my solo
career moving", Ringo later said of the album himself, which, I guess, is
as close to an implicit agreement that the album was shit as possible. Technically,
he might be right, because Sentimental
Journey sold well — after all, it was a Beatle album, and a Beatle album with no genitalia on the front cover and with an
actual, obvious song list on the back cover, which was enough to propel it to
#7 on the UK charts, a higher position than any
subsequent Ringo solo album with the exception of the self-titled Ringo from 1973. Of course, this does
not explain why it could not have been possible to get his solo career moving
with something just a tiny bit more exciting than a bunch of boring covers of
standards. Neither is it a matter of time healing all wounds: the arrangements
and vocal performances remain just as corny in retrospect as they were in innovation-heavy
1970. You'd really have to be in
(peace and) love with Ringo to be able to get your kicks here.
These days you see two other familiar faces watching out of the upper windows: https://www.google.de/maps/@53.3886014,-2.9608058,3a,75y,310.19h,106.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7IniCjjij5g5IdNS8liS7A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
ReplyDelete'Bye Bye Blackbird' is pleasant enough - The rest is bilge.
ReplyDelete