Ringo Starr
Ringo The 4th

THE REVIEW

"Ringo The 4th", or the beginning of the commercial decline of Ringo Starr as a solo artist. From 1977 onwards, his albums would have minimal commercial success, disappearing from both American and European charts, entering the circuit of Beatles enthusiasts and die-hard fans.

Things had already gone a bit poorly with the previous album, "Ringo's Rotogravure", but this record is different because the good drummer is a co-writer of all the original tracks together with Vini Poncia. There are no longer contributions from former bandmates, and this decisively affects the product's appeal. However, when you listen to a Ringo Starr album, you are still surprised, immediately thinking about how he managed to put together yet another album under disastrous conditions. In fact, in '77 Starr spent most of his time at L.A. parties where he dangerously abused hard liquor. The sessions for his albums were huge ongoing parties where they played, recorded, ate, and drank, and the result, paradoxically, is that often his LPs, as in the case of this "Ringo The 4th," are played and produced very well, incredibly. However, the album is just passable, Ringo veers towards disco and R'n'B sounds with decidedly unconvincing results. Another style where the voice is everything; blaring brass sections and basses emitting flowing low frequencies are not enough; charisma and vocal power are needed. That’s why the album fails miserably despite songs with good potential like "Out On The Streets" and "Tango All Night" which are decent examples of how even Ringo Starr, if he wants, can write something good.

Notable collaborations with Tony Levin and Steve Gadd make the musical base excellent, but the rest of the work passes by without much excitement, and the cover is one of the most horrible things ever done in this field.