scapp70's Full Review: Goodnight Vienna by Ringo Starr
This solo venture of Ringo’s is the follow up to the multi-platinum, super successful LP, Ringo. Part of Ringo’s success was that fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison co-wrote and sort of produced a good part of that album. On this solo album, George is not found, and actually neither is Mr. McCartney is nowhere on this LP either. Maybe they got a little miffed that Ringo was the biggest selling Beatle that year. Who knows?
It’s a good thing that he still had one ex-Beatle he could rely on in John Lennon. John's one song contribution starts off this CD just like it did its predecessor Ringo. The first song is the title song, Goodnight Vienna. You can hear John count the song in and then fast piano chords played by Lennon and then the rest of the band kicks in, which features Billy Preston on clavinet, another member of Beatles history. The song is passable, it’s not very bad, and in fact it is almost catchy.
Of course Ringo has a couple of covers here, the first is Occapella written by the great Allen Toussaint. Ringo does a pretty good version of this classic song. The late Lee Dorsey originally recorded this song in the 60s. Another cover is Husbands and Wives written by Roger Miller.
OO-Wee written by Starr and his left hand man at the time, Vini Poncia is also not too shabby. The lyrics take off where 1973 Ringo’sDevil Woman leaves off, you know, silly. This song features 70s quasi-superstar Dr John on the piano. The song is like all the rest pretty much, it sounds OK, the ears are not repulsed, your toe may be even tapping, but will OO-Wee be getting a lot of replays? The answer is heck no. I suppose this is what Elton meant when he would call his music ‘disposable pop’. Of, course Elton’s music has many classics, not all disposable. Speaking of Elton, he and Bernie Taupin were nice enough to write a song for Ringo.
Snookeroo was not only written by Elton and Bernie, but the band features Elton on piano and Robbie Robertson on guitar. The song sounds like it is struggling to put forth the personality that wants to shine. Elton’s unmistakable piano playing versus the usual brass instruments boogie that Ringo makes sure is prominent on all of his songs is also a struggle, but it's Elton who wins the battle. Elton' s song writing style is evident, when Ringo is singing the chorus you can tell this is an Elton song. Having said that, the song is one of the better ones here on Goodnight Vienna, but if this one was placed on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Captain Fantastic it would be one of the songs that you would hit the skip button.
Here, Ringo attempts a composition on his own without any Beatles around to help him, and out comes Call Me. I do not like this song, the melody is intoxicatingly drone as well as Ringo’s voice, and the lyrics are nonsensical. Not only does the song suck, but also it’s the second longest track here. The background vocals that sound like they may have tried to put some thought and a lot of effort is wasted, as it sucks just as much as the rest of the song.
Yet somehow out of the blue comes a great song, No No Song. It was written by Hoyt Axton and David P Jackson. Hoyt Axton had written other great songs like Three Dog Night’s Joy To The World and David P Jackson was his songwriting partner I suppose, I’m not sure who he was. This lyrics sound like Nancy Reagan’s inspiration for the 'Just Say No To Drugs' campaign from the 80s. The lyrics are funny and clever, and the music has a Caribbean ear-friendly ambiance. The song is simple and classic, and the song was specifically written for Ringo.
Another hit from this album is the remake of the 50s classic Only You (and You Alone) written by Buck Ram and Andre Rand. Ringo recorded this song at the insistence of John Lennon. It’s not awful, but I’m sort of surprised it charted in the top 10. What was happening in 1974, where there any other good songs released? The vocals hardly sound like Ringo as he whisper sings the lyrics to the band removed the soul found on the original recording and made it more laid back.
I don’t really know who Harry Nilsson as an artist, just that I knew he had gotten drunk with John Lennon a lot, as well as Ringo. I also know that he appeared on some Lennon tracks as well as Ringo tracks over the years as well. He wrote a song for Ringo here called Easy For Me. It starts off sounding like piano from Rhapsody In Blue, and then Ringo’s voice comes in crooning. The song is actually pretty good, no drums, just piano and strings. This is a highlight for this album.
The original album closed out with an outro of Goodnight Vienna called Goodnight Vienna (Reprise). It only lasts 1:21 seconds long, and I like it better than the first version. You can hear Lennon again starting the song asking for a bit more “gusto” this time.
Bonus Tracks
This CD has three bonus tracks. The first is a single from 1972, Back Off Boogaloo. The song was surprisingly very successful in England where it rose to number 2 in the pop charts and remained in the charts for 10 weeks, (it didn’t do too badly this side of the Atlantic either), I say that this is surprising, because the song is sort of mediocre. George Harrison has production credit and also for playing the guitar. My guess is that George had a lot to do with this single’s writing, although it is just credited to Ringo, since it talks about the bad blood between the three Beatles and Paul McCartney. Boogaloo is apparently Paul McCartney, and he had better back off with his lawsuits or else.
Included is the original b-side to Boogaloo, and it’s called Blindman. This song was only found on the flip side to until this CD, and this song is also just credited to Ringo. This song bears the same title as the motion picture that Ringo starred in back in 1971. Ringo portrayed a Mexican thief, who stole fifty wives of some blind guy. I’m guessing that these insane and stupid lyrics make more sense when you have watched the movie. The song is a lot like Call Me except it possibly is even worse. It moves like a slow drunk that can’t really get out of bed.
Six O’clock (Extended Version) was featured on the album Ringo already, but this version has an extra minute of an ending reminiscent of Hello Goodbye from Magical Mystery Tour. Paul and Linda can be heard a lot more plainly in this adlibbed jam added to the original. The version from Ringo is so perfect, and this doesn’t really take away from the song’s perfection, but it is still unnecessary.
CD rating: 2 1/2 stars
the songs
1. Goodnight Vienna (It's All Da-Da-Down To) 2. Occapella 3. Oo-Wee 4. Husbands And Wives 5. Snookeroo 6. All By Myself 7. Call Me 8. No No Song 9. Only You (And You Alone) 10. Easy For Me 11. Goodnight Vienna (Reprise) 12. Back Off Boogaloo (bonus track) 13. Blindman (bonus track) 14. Six O'Clock (extended version)
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