Concert Review: Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band at the Ordway

Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band at the Ordway in Saint Paul, September 23, 2018. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Last night Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band rocked the Ordway in Saint Paul. The current version of the All-Starr Band included Steve Lukather from Toto, Colin Hay from Men at Work, Gregg Rolie from Santana and Journey, Graham Gouldman from 10cc, as well as Gregg Bissonette on drums and the excellent Warren Ham on tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, harmonica, keyboard, and percussion. 

At 78 years old, Ringo still looks great, bouncing around the stage with tons of energy. He opened with the Carl Perkins song “Matchbox,” which the Beatles covered in 1964, and followed with probably his most famous solo song, “It Don’t Come Easy.” Ringo then sang the only Beatles song that bears a Lennon/McCartney/Starkey writing credit, “What Goes On,” from Rubber Soul. 

The only song Ringo sang that wasn’t from the 60’s or 70’s was “Anthem,” from the 2012 album Ringo 2012. I wouldn’t have minded a couple of more recent Ringo songs. Obviously the Beatles songs are why everybody’s there, but Ringo could do whatever he wants as long as he still gives us “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.” 

I enjoyed all of the other band members’ songs—this version of the All-Starr Band has a pretty deep catalogue to choose from. I didn’t do any research on who was in this version of the All-Starrs before I went to the show, so I was pleasantly surprised each time someone was introduced. I didn’t recognize Colin Hay until he was introduced, and then I thought, “Men at Work, great! I’m going to hear ‘Land Down Under’!” And then I heard “Land Down Under” and happily sang along with one of my favorite lines in all of rock and roll, “He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.” Hay’s voice sounds great, and he can still hit all of the high notes. 

Gregg Rolie did an excellent job on keyboards, and I was quite impressed when I looked him up on Wikipedia and learned that he was a founding member of both Santana and Journey. Graham Gouldman did a great job on his songs from 10cc, which included the catchy “I’m Not in Love” and “The Things We Do For Love.” Steve Lukather is a superb guitarist, and his solos were full of flash, although I think sometimes he didn’t need to be quite so flashy. 

Throughout the evening it was evident how much fun Ringo was having, whether he was out in front or sitting behind the drums. It struck me last night, that’s Ringo’s personality. He’s never been about his own ego—I think that’s one reason why he was the perfect drummer for the Beatles. He wasn’t interested in playing flashy solos; he wanted to play what fit the song the best. He seems to be happy to be a sideman for his friends in the band. 

Another thought I had last night was that Ringo had to learn the drum part for these songs. Obviously he was probably familiar with all of the songs, but he must have practiced and rehearsed to get the drum part right. It’s just kind of funny to think of Ringo Starr learning someone else’s hit song in his late 70’s, but hey, it probably keeps him young. 

Last night was an enjoyable evening full of nostalgia. It would have been nice to hear a couple more songs from Ringo, like “Octopus’s Garden,” “Back Off Boogaloo,” and “The No No Song,” but you can’t complain too much when you get to see a Beatle in person. 

Setlist:

1. "Matchbox"
2. "It Don't Come Easy"
3. "What Goes On"
4. "Dreadlock Holiday" (Graham Gouldman)
5. "Evil Ways" (Gregg Rolie)
6. "Rosanna" (Steve Lukather with Warren Ham)
7. "Down Under" (Colin Hay)
8. "Boys"
9. "Don't Pass Me By"
10. "Yellow Submarine"
11. "I'm Not In Love" (Graham Gouldman w/o Ringo)
12. "Black Magic Woman"/"Gypsy Queen" (Gregg Rolie w/o Ringo)
13. "You're Sixteen"
14. "Anthem"
15. "Overkill" (Colin Hay)
16. "Africa" (Steve Lukather with Colin Hay)
17. "Oye Como Va" (Gregg Rolie)
18. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
19. "The Things We Do For Love" (Graham Gouldman)
20. "Who Can It Be Now?" (Colin Hay)
21. "Hold the Line" (Steve Lukather with Warren Ham)
22. "Photograph"
23. "Act Naturally"
24. "With a Little Help from My Friends" into "Give Peace a Chance"

Album Review: The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl (2016)

Album cover for The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 2016.

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, 1965.

The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl fills an important gap in the band’s discography. Remastered by Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin, and released to coincide with Ron Howard’s new documentary, Eight Days a Week: the Touring Years, which I reviewed here, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl was originally released in 1977, and has remained the group’s only official live album. And until now, it had never been released on CD. As a die-hard Beatles fan, I actually bought it on cassette around 1993, just to complete my Beatles collection. I idly wondered over the years if it would ever see the light of day on CD, and I’m glad that it finally has.

The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a time capsule, an artifact of that brief period when the group played countless concerts to stadiums full of screaming teenage girls. Recorded at the band’s three performances at the Bowl in 1964 and 1965, the album features good performances from the band, and a lot of screaming from the enthusiastic audience. Even with Giles Martin’s work, which allows us to hear the Beatles in greater clarity, the group is still overpowered by the audience. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy how good the Beatles were live. There’s a dynamic energy to their music that comes across strongly on these recordings. There’s a reason these girls were going nuts over the Beatles. 

As I mentioned in my review of Eight Days a Week, what’s so striking is how good the Beatles were live, despite the fact that they couldn’t actually hear themselves on stage. The album opens with the excitement of “Twist and Shout,” featuring John Lennon’s superb vocals. Unfortunately, the Beatles made this version shorter than their studio recording by omitting the guitar solo, meaning it’s only a minute and half long. Paul gets his turn to tear up a rocker next with “She’s a Woman,” followed by the group’s cover of Larry Williams’ “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.” Lennon changes some of the lyrics, as he implores Lizzy to “love me till I’m satisfied,” and “love me till the end of time,” lyrics not found on either the studio version of the song or Williams’ original recording. 

“Ticket to Ride” is a challenging song to play live, but Ringo nails the song’s distinctive drum pattern. George plays a great solo on “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and Paul’s vocal is loose and almost jazzy. As described in the liner notes, the moment when the band moves into the bridge on “Things We Said Today” and the crowd unleashes their screams is electric. “Roll Over Beethoven” is taken at a much faster tempo than the studio version.

Lennon has a funny bit as he intros “A Hard Day’s Night,” adding a Scottish burr to the song’s title. George nails the distinctive guitar solo, yet more proof of his live prowess. John sings the wrong line on “Help!” instead of singing “I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before” during the second chorus, he sings “Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.” As fans of the Beatles’ live performances know, “We’d like to carry on now with our next number” is the standard Beatle intro for a song, usually spoken by Paul, and here both George and Paul say it. The standard concert closer was Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” which also closed their last official concert at Candlestick Park in 1966. Fortunately we get four bonus tracks, John’s rocking “You Can’t Do That” and a rather ragged take of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from 1964, George’s cover of Carl Perkins’ “Everybody’s Trying to be My Baby” and John and Paul duetting on “Baby’s in Black” from 1965. 

The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl gives those of us who weren’t around in the 1960’s a taste of what Beatlemania sounded like, and it’s a glorious jolt of adrenaline.

Movie Review: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week-The Touring Years, Directed by Ron Howard (2016)

Poster for Eight Days a Week, 2016.

The Beatles at their first American concert, Washington, DC, February 1964.

Ron Howard’s documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week-The Touring Years, is a fun look back at the Fab Four’s early days, focusing on the period from 1963 to 1966. Of course, this material has been recalled in other places, like the Beatles’ own Anthology TV special, but Eight Days a Week features quite a bit of previously unseen footage of the Beatles on stage. 

Eight Days a Week features new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with several other talking heads. The film doesn’t seek to argue for the importance of the Beatles’ impact on popular culture; it’s aim is to entertain us. But we do get a peek at the Beatles’ firm stance against segregation when there were rumors that a show in Jacksonville, Florida was to be segregated. (The band stood firm, and played to an integrated audience.) What comes across most strongly in the film is the fun the Beatles brought to the world. Here were four adorable young men playing fantastic music and just having a great time. Their collective wit is on display throughout the movie-from George Harrison casually dropping his cigarette ash in John Lennon’s hair to Lennon introducing himself to a clueless American interviewer as “Eric.” As George Harrison said, “The Beatles saved the world from boredom.” 

What comes across so strongly in the film is how different the Beatles were from anyone else. There simply wasn’t anyone or anything quite like them in 1963 and 1964. Their impact on popular music was similar to Elvis Presley-they became a dividing line of “before the Beatles” and “after the Beatles.” If you go back and listen to “She Loves You,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” there is still an amazing vitality to those records today. When you couple those thrilling sounds with the Beatles’ very revolutionary visual style, (that long hair!) you understand why everyone went crazy for them. 

Performing live for the Beatles became very difficult, as they had to play to huge crowds of screaming fans, and the inadequate sound systems of the time meant that they couldn’t hear themselves on stage. Given those limitations, as Elvis Costello reminds us in the film, it’s really remarkable how often they were in tune. I’m always amazed at George Harrison’s playing, how in concert he was able to replicate note for note the solos from the records. By 1966, the magic of touring had worn off for the Beatles, and what had been fab fun in 1964 now seemed like an onerous slog. Their music was also becoming more complicated-on their 1966 tour they never attempted to play any of the songs from their latest record, Revolver, live. And Lennon’s comments about the band being “more popular than Jesus” caused outrage in the United States, making for an uncomfortable atmosphere as they embarked on their last tour in August, 1966.

The live footage in Eight Days a Week is great fun to watch-my only quibble with the film is that it looks like some of the footage from their first American press conference and their first American concert has been colorized, which is too bad. Also, there’s no mention of Jimmy Nicol, the drummer who was briefly a Beatle when he sat in for Ringo for 8 shows in June of 1964 when Ringo recovered from a tonsillectomy. Sharp-eyed Beatle fans will notice Nicol appears briefly in some of the footage from Australia in Eight Days a Week. 

For a limited time, The Beatles at Shea Stadium will follow Eight Days a Week in theaters. Hopefully this will be an extra on the DVD. When the Beatles’ 1 DVD was released last year, we saw some footage from Shea for the “Eight Days a Week” clip, and it looked fantastic, which whetted my appetite for seeing the whole show. The Beatles at Shea Stadium is very high-quality color footage of an extremely important moment in rock and roll, as it captures the first big stadium rock concert, which would become a staple of the genre during the next decade. Before 55,000 fans, the Beatles played 12 songs, and the film captures their incredible charisma and talent. It’s amazing to watch John Lennon and Paul McCartney, two of the greatest songwriters of the 20^th century, or indeed any century, share a microphone and harmonize together on “Baby’s in Black” and “Ticket to Ride.” And listen to the band’s performance: they tackle complicated songs like “Ticket to Ride,” and “I Feel Fine,” and they sound magnificent. As I noted earlier, George Harrison’s solos are superb. 

Eight Days a Week is essential viewing for any Beatle fan, or anyone who enjoys great music.

Movie Review: The Beatles in Help! (1965)

Poster for Help!, 1965. Can you tell it's in color? For whatever reason, the Beatles are in a different order than they are pictured on the "Help!" album cover.

The Beatles in Austria for the filming of Help!

The Beatles on the Salisbury Plain, where they performed "I Need You" and "The Night Before."

"Ticket to Ride" single that shows the original title for Help! was Eight Arms to Hold You, which would have been a terrible title for a movie.

I recently watched the Beatles’ 1965 film Help! again, for about the 6^th time, probably. Help! was the Beatles’ second movie, after 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night. Both Help! and A Hard Day’s Night were directed by Richard Lester, and feature the Beatles’ zany sense of humor. Personally, I like A Hard Day’s Night more, and I think it’s a stronger movie. But that being said, Help! is a surrealist pop masterpiece. 

Help! is a really silly movie, but it wears that silliness on its sleeve. Help! knows that it’s being tongue in cheek, and that helps the movie immensely. I think part of the reason that A Hard Day’s Night and Help! have lasted is that their sense of humor is one that modern-day audiences can readily recognize. The humor in these films is based on sarcasm and satire, which have become the default modes for humor. Help! anticipates many different trends in comedy, from the joke-a-minute surrealism of Airplane!, to the pure goofiness of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. 

The plot of Help! concerns a ring that Ringo was sent by a fan that is actually quite important to a certain Eastern religious cult that sacrifices whoever is wearing the ring. Of course, Ringo can’t get the ring off his finger. (Did he try running warm water over his finger?) This leads to many attempts to steal the ring, and/or kill Ringo. The action moves from England, to the Alps, back to England, to the Bahamas, because the Beatles wanted to visit the Alps and the Bahamas. Help! is a zany spoof of James Bond movies. Help! throws everything and the kitchen sink at you, and it tries so hard to amuse the viewer that at some point it just becomes a little exhausting. 

The supporting cast is excellent, with veteran character actor Leo McKern playing Clang, the chief villain. Eleanor Bron plays Ahme, a member of Clang’s cult who is surprisingly helpful to the Beatles. Spoiler alert: She has a major crush on Paul. (Um, who didn’t have a crush on Paul McCartney in 1965?) Also appearing is Victor Spinetti as a high-strung, paranoid mad scientist, echoing his turn as a high-strung, paranoid TV director in A Hard Day’s Night. (“I see it all now, it’s a plot.”) Spinetti’s bumbling sidekick is played by the very funny Roy Kinnear. Beatles fans should look for Jeremy Lloyd, who plays the tall guy dancing with Ringo at the nightclub in A Hard Day’s Night, who has a cameo as a restaurant patron in Help!

The Beatles were smoking a lot of pot during the filming of Help! which meant that they were often beset by the giggles, and filming their dialogue proved to be a challenge. Maybe that’s why so many of their lines overlap each other in the finished film. As always, Ringo is the center of the movie, as he’s the center of every Beatles movie. Ironically enough, Ringo never sings in a live-action Beatles movie, as he doesn’t have any songs in A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, or Let It Be. (Of course he sings the title song to the cartoon Yellow Submarine.) While A Hard Day’s Night made some attempt to differentiate the personalities of the Beatles, there’s none of that in Help! None of the group really get any “solo” scenes the way they did in A Hard Day’s Night. 

The songs in Help! are fantastic, of course, and they are presented in an interesting way. There’s not much of an attempt to work them into the storyline, but visually they look great. One look at all the tanks protecting the Beatles on the Salisbury Plain during “I Need You” and “The Night Before” makes it clear that this is a bigger budget operation than A Hard Day’s Night was. “Ticket to Ride” fulfills the same purpose as “Can’t Buy Me Love” did in A Hard Day’s Night, as an upbeat song that sees the Beatles goofing off, happy and carefree. For that reason, “Ticket to Ride” is probably my favorite part of the film.  

Help! is obviously essential viewing for any Beatlemaniac, and the chances are high that you’ll find it fab and gear.