It has been “revealed” (the word is in inverted commas because it implies some degree of anticipation) that Ringo Starr will be putting together an autobiographical album. Here’s what he had to say:
“I am actually making a record about Liverpool. It’s about me and Liverpool. It’s like I’ve decided to do mini-autobiographies, instead of writing a book, I’m doing it on record.”
“I have been offered autobiographies but they only really wanna know about is those eight years in The Beatles and there would be three volumes before I even got to that. Right now, I’d rather put it quickly in a song, snippets of part of my life. Everybody talks about the Cavern Club, but in this new track, I actually mention the Iron Door, which was a much better club, it was more of a real rock club.”
Now there’s a couple of problems with this. The largest is that he shouldn’t be making an album at all. He was an add on to The Beatles. Plus even if some ardent fans can adduce some evidence that he contributed to the band, he did so as the drummer. Unless your Dave Grohl, it’s very rare for a drummer to be able to turn his hand to being a solo artist. Ringo Starr though has the platform, but not the talent, to do this.
The second problem is that he’s decided to make it about Liverpool. As someone who grew up there (and ventured to he Iron Door), it’s a fairly well worn path. The city is packed with nostalgia nodding to this period. Going over it again is frustrating and sad.
Ringo has been seemingly snubbing Liverpool in recent years though – famously pointing out he misses nothing about the city. How strange then he would choose to trade on its past. The only answer seems to be it will play to a fairly loyal fan base who will be more likely to buy up the album.
Now we know this is all a bit unfair. We’ve panned the album before it’s even come out. However, it allows us to sit back and watch others do the same when it does come out.
