Peak Ringo

The ubiquity and adulation of the Beatles makes it difficult to cover their songs: one tends to mimic the arrangements and fail to recapture the magic, or else stray too far and fall flat (except in the presence of transcendent talent). Likewise, while many artists have revisited old songs late in their career, precious few rerecordings have offered value beyond their inherent novelty. A number of rock's legends are by now far enough into their 70s to have had one, or even a few, releases that have addressed aging with grace, and even elegance. With Ringo Starr recently releasing Give More Love, appended with 4 rerecorded back catalog tracks, it was easy to wonder whether he could follow his contemporaries' lead and produce a late-career curveball.

Ringo's discography features only one overt foray into introspection, which followed on the heels of Paul McCartney's nostalgic Memory Almost Full and borrowed from it liberally, thematically and musically. Almost by definition, it was a kindhearted look at a remarkable early career that offered little insight into its author. There's no doubting the song's sincerity, but it sounds like Ringo attempting a reflective Paul McCartney song, which in its heart it probably is. By all accounts, in Give More Love Ringo has produced his eighth-or-so consecutive amiable and largely indistinguishable studio offering. It was perfectly unsurprising for Ringo to revisit the well for 4 bonus tracks to please old fans on a nineteenth solo album. It is at least a bit surprising that one rerecording offers something different from the original.

"Don't Pass Me By" was written in 1962 and released on The Beatles 6 years later. It's a typical White Album recording, sharply arranged and more than a little frantic (especially in its sped-up mono incarnation). It's a simple song that perfectly suited a 1968 Ringo, earnest and immersed in the lovable sad sack persona he'd cultivated in the band's movies. While it was written as a raucous country and western number, it's been retrofitted into a gentle bluegrass arrangement, in keeping with 5 decades of changes to the genre and years lived by the performer. Where the other 2017 rerecordings are happy to retrace the originals' steps, "Don't Pass Me By" was shrewdly allowed to amble, affording Ringo an opportunity to sound not only laid back, but quietly dignified.

Ringo presumably never will release a Memory Almost Full: it's not just that his musical stylings aren't suited to a statement album, but that statements exceeding "Peace & Love" in complexity are not part of his personality. When he ends his own 55 year old song with a reprise of "Octopus's Garden," he sounds at 77 like a man at peace with himself and still content to sit in quiet safety with his friends. We should all be so lucky.