7 inch single collection: Ringo Starr - Wrack My Brain

It's everybody's favourite Beatle, it's...


RINGO STARR


A: Wrack My Brain
B; Drumming is My Madness
(RCA 1981)


So, Ringo...hmmmm. I'm not sure how to start this one. I like Ringo, I'm sure many people do, he actually seems like the most personable member of The Beatles, but he seems to be the butt of so many jokes, and the popular perception is that he's not as good (musically) as the other three. Although this is not not uncommon perception with drummers. I reckon it's a bit unfair - I know that I couldn't do what Ringo does, and I've never heard a track on which he's performing and thought it sounded wrong, or too basic. In fact if his work is complementing and supporting melody, then actual he's doing his job and doing it well. Also he's not one of these jazz or rock drummers that think they's God's gift to percussion, and exercises it with lengthy, often interminable drum solos - nope - his work work is tight, and on the beat - just what is needed. Of course then he has to and go and sing...

Ringo Starr is unlikely to grace anyone's list of top 100 pop and rock vocalists - that's fine when making those kinds of lists many perfectly adequate and acceptable singers get left off, and Ringo is a perfectly adequate singer. This sounds like damning with faint praise, but there's plenty of mediocre singers out there who are more highly rated because the slack is taken up by the skill of their band, the orchestration and arrangement of their songs.

Wrack My Brain* is bright and breezy slice of pop. Honestly not much can be said, it's light, it's actually quite catchy. The guitar solo comes slightly from left field as it's a little (but not too much) country inflected. This goes for the little snatches of honky tonk sounding piano that pepper the arrangement. I quite like it, except just at they end when it ends in some very odd synthesised backing vocals - but that's a minor quibble.

Flipping the platter over we find Drumming is My Madness - which is good to know, that Ringo has a passion for his day job! Although the drumming here is doing nothing that particularly stands out - instead it's got a quirky groove, lead by a guitar, it's quite bassy, with some fun horns filling in. There's a couple of small drum breakouts, but actual there's a flute solo that stands out more. Ringo's singing is lesser than on the a-side of this disc. He alternately sounds either bored or amused at doing this, it's like this is just a fun piece that he's knocking off for himself, without ever anticipating that it'll see the light of day.

This record is light-hearted fun - never likely to trouble either the charts or serious musos, but as a snack between heavier bits of music it cleanses the palette, without filling you up.

*OK - so research is going against the ethos of this blog, but Wrack or Rack? I have a Yardbirds single called Rack My Mind (due on this blog one day!) - so surely one of these is wrong and I can get on my high horse about it! No - turns out that either are acceptable spellings, Wrack maybe slightly more old-fashioned, but it's just as acceptable.

Next Time some proper grunge...

7 inch single collection: Sandie Shaw - Puppet on a String

It's winner of the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest, it's...


SANDIE SHAW

A: Puppet on a String
B: Tell the Boys
(Pye 1967)


In England, at least, the Eurovision Song Contest seems to have become a bit of a joke. Public perception of it seems to have come round to the view that it's a slightly overlong camp-fest not worth taking seriously. Many people believe that it's only worth watching for the scores, and seeing how politically inclined they are. It's probably sour grapes - surely the nation that gave the world The Beatles, The Stones, Bowie, Queen and The Spice Girls should have no problems winning a song contest. Well, we do have problems, and we have done for a while, but it's not always been so - we've won it on a few occasions, and come second many more, and the shebang used to get taken relatively seriously.*

Puppet on a String was the winner in 1967, and was performed by popular singer Sandie Shaw - she'd had many hits before this time including a couple of number ones, and so was yer actual proper bona fide star. Popular myth is that Sandie hated this song (or maybe it's legacy and effect upon her career) - although she may have come to something of a rapprochement with it in the more recently. Back in those days a singer was chosen, and they were given a number of songs and the one that was the most popular was the chosen entry - so if you were the singer you could get landed with a right stinker of a song. Puppet on a String is not a right stinker, it's a pleasant upbeat number, that has a persistent oompah-oompah beat (just exactly how every Eurovision sceptic thinks every Eurovision song sounds!) I can imagine if this followed you round for years, it would stop being so pleasant, and could haunt your nightmares - so it's easy to forgive Sandie Shaw of any antipathy towards this song. Also I have to point out a bit of lyrically befuddlement - she sings about winning and losing on swings and roundabouts - both of these I've always held to be non-competitive activities. Surely winning on either of these is not ending up at your nearest spinal injuries unit.

On the flip-side Tell The Boys has a bit more to it. It's still up-beat and cheery lyrically, and makes full use of the brass section of the orchestra, but it has more nuance and shade to it - it's not so relentless. The verses have an accompaniment that feels almost minor key, this gives and edge to the optimistic lyrics. Also Sandie Shaw sounds invested in the emotion of this song. I think it's a little beauty, which is why (in a change from tradition) I've added a youtube link to this track too!

So a record of two halves, one half a bit of entertaining frippery, but the second a minor classic that should be me more widely celebrated.

* I don't mind the Eurovision - (I don't go out of my way to watch these days, though) - I quite enjoy hearing what other cultures think is the perfect distillation of a pop song.

Next time a solo Beatle, but probably not the one you're hoping for...