Ringo Starr - Stop and Smell the Roses
#489
October 27 1981
Ringo Starr
Stop and Smell the Roses
Genre: Pop Rock
1.5 out of 5
I would like a record deal. Just based on my name and my body of work. Hey, I fronted a band and I have a wee modicum of name recognition. Surely there is some record label that recognizes that I could move a couple units based on my name and face and such. Maybe not in the United States but…
That’s this entire record. It only exists to capitalize on Ringo’s name and move some units. By 1981 Ringo was having a resurgence of sorts. He starred in Caveman, which gave the world Shelly Long and also Dennis Quaid. And I thought it was funny. But that was 1981. I was a kid. I thought SNL was still funny in 1981. Anyone remember Charles Rocket? Denny Dillon? Didn’t think so. But this is the year of Ringo’s Star!
Ringo isn’t a songwriter so this is Ringo, a non singer, singing songs by (in order):
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Harry Nilsson
McCartney again
And then, finally, where it belongs at the end of Side One, a tune he wrote with Harry Nilsson
So, let’s look at em.
The McCartney tunes, “Private Property” and “Attention” are cast offs that either he recorded and I don’t know it, or were on the floor. (“Paul, mate, you got any tunes lying around, the label needs a record.”)
Harrison’s “Wrack My Brain” is actually not bad, almost Highlight worthy but the Nilsson, “Drumming is My Madness” is awful. First off, where’s the drumming, Richard?!?!? Saying that it is your driving thing and then showing nothing but straight forward 4 on the floor with a sloppy solo only serves to reinforce the believe that you were a bad drummer. Which you were decidedly not. So, why not gives a bit of show, ala Roger Taylor? ugh. Secondly, this is eerily reminiscent of so much Nilsson that it feels like he just pulled a song off the Popeye soundtrack and told Ringo to talk-sing about drumming over it. Garbage.
“Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses” is the sociopathy of Skidoo (movie) revisited on vinyl.
Side Two: (If I gotta, you gotta)
Ronnie Wood shows up to help Ringo out with his ominous “Dead Giveaway” a song deserving of a much better singer but it works as what you might get from a Creedence cover band.
“You Belong to Me”? As a honkey tonk? Man, Ringo…you’re a freaking old 41.
“Sure to Fall”. This is a Pomona State Fair afternoon jug band song. Pass.
Steven Stills shows up with You’ve Got a Nice Way” and I have to believe the reason this is the penultimate song on the record is cuz Ringo takes a perfectly good Stills tune and butchers it with a dull serrated chef’s knife.
And then Ringo covers HIMSELF with his 1972 tune, “Back Off Boogaloo”, which, unsurprisingly, is the second best song on the record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2wclnsbVo&list=PLlvn8uktX5LsdAvVQLxN4T3lNElLEZFVY
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