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Ringo the 4th
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Date Aired
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June 21, 2023
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Running Time
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25:23
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Website
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Intro[]
Todd: I got a comment once that said that... at the beginning of all these episodes, [The comment in question is shown] I tend to make every artist I cover sound like the Beatles of their era. We will not be doing that today, even though we are covering an actual Beatle.
Clip of...
- Ringo Starr: Hello, children. You know who I am, I know who you are.
Todd (VO): [as "Back Off Boogaloo" begins] That's right, the man, Ringo Starr. And believe me, I could easily make a big deal out of Ringo if I wanted. Like, people forget this, but even separate from the Beatles, Ringo was genuinely hot shit as a pop star, way more successful than...
Todd: ...than really makes any sense.
- Ringo: I'm the greatest, baby, and you better believe it!
Todd (VO): Two Top 10 albums, eight Top 10 singles, two of them #1s.
Todd: People just loved Ringo.
Video for "It Don't Come Easy"
Todd (VO): In fact, if you cherry-pick your stats a little, you could make the case that, right after the breakup, [Cover for Let It Be with zoom-in on Ringo's face] the most successful Beatle was Ringo, at least for a little while. When Ringo had his first hit, [Excerpt from Ringo: With a Little Help] all the other Beatles had singles out too. And the highest-charting one of them all - was Ringo's. [As he says this, "L + Ratio + Ringo outsold" appears]
Todd: But, I feel like hyping up Ringo's important and fame would do a disservice to why people liked him at all.
Footage of an early Beatles concert
Ringo: I'm thirty years old, out of key and nervous
Todd (VO): His whole deal was not being a figure of towering importance. Let's look at the knocks against him: he was, the worst singer in the Beatles, the worst songwriter, the worst [picture of...] looking, and most importantly...
Todd: ...the one who didn't seem like he was ever trying very hard to do much of anything.
Montage clips of Paul McCartney and the Wings performing "Band on the Run"; George Harrison playing the sitar; and John Lennon with Yoko Ono at a performance of "Give Peace a Chance"
Todd (VO): He wasn't a fiercely driven creative dynamo like Paul, or a spiritualist like George, or an activist like John. And that was his charm! People liked him because he was the underdog, the schlub among geniuses, the regular guy!
Todd: And how was he able to turn that into a solo career? Well, the glib answer is that he got by "with a little help from his friends", which is something everyone who writes about Ringo is obligated to say at least once. But it's true. And you know what, having friends is a skill! For some artists, [Clip of DJ Khaled feat. Meek Mill, J Balvin, Lil Baby, and Jeremih - "You Stay"] it's their only skill. All the other Beatles and tons of rockstars lined up to work with Ringo, write him songs, back him up, make him successful - and that couldn't have happened if Ringo hadn't just been this profoundly likeable guy, who knew he'd won the lottery and just wanted to share his good fortune with everyone.
Clip of Ringo leading a big celebrity sing-along of "The No No Song" on The Hoyt Axton Show
He was such a bad fit for pop stardom, and that's exactly what made him a star. Ringo was just good vibes. But after a good solid run of hits, the cheery atmosphere of Ringo-mania started to run out.
Clip of "Hey Baby"
Todd (VO): His third album was a commercial disappointment, with only one semi-hit that fell short of the Top 20. Times were changing, and Ringo's good fortune in life had started to seem less delightful and more grating and undeserved.
Todd: But Ringo was not ready to give up the limelight.
Todd (VO): So the decision was made - clearly, the whole "with a little help from my friends" shtick was getting old. So instead, why don't we try and get by with no help from our friends? No John, Paul, and George, no Eric Clapton, no Elton John. Just songs performed and mostly written by goddamn Ringo Starr.
Todd: Oh, and it's 1977, music is changing; we've got to keep up with the times! So, here we go. The singer's gonna sing a little song, and he wants you all to sing along. So let me introduce you, the one and only: [Todd strikes a pose] DISCO RINGO!
Clip of "Drowning in the Sea of Love"
Ringo: I've been down one time
Backup singers: One time!
Ringo: I've been down two times
Backup singers: Two times!
Ringo: But I'm drowning
Drowning in the sea of love (Love-uaaaaaaaahhh)
Todd (VO): Oh, my my. No, no, no, no.
Todd: Disco sucks, or at least it sucks when Ringo does it.
Todd (VO): Ringo tried to get on the dance floor and found out it don't come easy, 'cause a king of boogie he was not.
Ringo: [sings in the most painfully off-key manner you've heard] You know I'm DROWN-ING!!!
Oh, God. I got blisters on me fingers, and blood coming out of my ears.
Todd: Ringo sings out of tune, and everybody stands up and walks out on him for good. This is Trainwreckords.
Trainwreckords intro followed by the album cover for Ringo the 4th
An Unlikely Legend[]
Todd: The problem with Ringo the 4th comes right with the title. [image of the cover art] It's called that because it's his fourth album. Allegedly. But that's actually not true. Right when the Beatles broke up, Ringo [images of Ringo's first two solo albums] released a couple quickie records that no one talks about, so technically this is actually his [cover art with a correction reading "Ringo the 6th"] sixth album. Oops. According to Wikipedia, it could also be a reference to him being the fourth Beatle - last and least.
Clip of the famous 1976 Saturday Night Live sketch where Lorne Michaels offers to pay for a Beatles reunion
Lorne Michaels: This check here is made out to the Beatles, you divide it any way you want. If you want to give Ringo less, that's up to you.
Ringo occupies a very strange place in rock history - kind of a legend, and kind of a joke.
Todd (VO): The two sides actually play off each other; he wouldn't be such a joke if he wasn't such a big part of the Beatles' legend, and since he's such a legend, it's okay to make jokes. I mean, Ringo plays into it himself; he's never had a problem with being the worst of the best. He's never looked jealous or resentful. He'll tell you straight up that just because he's successful doesn't mean he succeeded - it just kind of happened to him. And so to that end, he's kept up a large amount of goodwill by just being aware of his limitations and not trying to reach beyond his grasp. He's never wanted more.
Todd: But hold on. Is that actually true?
Audio from a radio interview with Ringo on Sep. 4th, 1977
Ringo: I only wanted to be #1, there's nowhere else...
Interviewer: #3 is no good?
Ringo: No, #3 is-is okay, but it's not #1. I want #1, 'cause that's the game; I'm not going out there to be forty-ninth!
Todd (VO): Ringo might be the least creative Beatle by far, but he's not a man completely devoid of creativity. He had some help, yes, but he did co-write several of his best known songs...
Todd: ...and when we got to 1977, he released a whole album where the majority of the songs were written by him. How did that happen?
Ringo Goes Solo[]
Todd (VO): Okay, in 1975, Ringo leaves Apple Records. After a fierce label bidding war...
Todd: ...for Ringo...
Todd (VO): ...he [image of newspaper article announcing...] signs with Atlantic Records in a seven album deal. Now, the approach to the third album [caption pops up reading "or fifth album, I guess"] was the same as the other ones: big, upbeat goofy songs with a lot of guest stars. It was called [cover art for...] Ringo's Rotogravure.
Todd: Uh, okay, a "rotogravure" is - you know what, don't worry about it. The record flops because no one knows what that is.
Todd (VO): And also probably, people were just tired of Ringo. The Sixties were over; no one's buying records just to get a whiff of Beatlemania anymore. People had figured out that the Beatles weren't getting back together and that this wasn't the next best thing. And it's not like the other guys were giving Ringo their A-material anymore, anyway.
Todd: Like, here's the last song Ringo got from John.
Audio plays for a very goofy, chipper song called "Cookin' in the Kitchen of Love"
Ringo: Well, I'm a-cookin', just a-cookin',
Cookin' in the kitchen of love,
Cookin' in the kitchen of life,
Lord, lord
Okay, so that's not working anymore. Maybe it's time for the next step. Maybe Ringo needed to prove himself to the public on his own, and finally separate himself from the other Beatles. Ringo [image of Ringo's head Photoshopped on the cover of J. Cole's album 2014 Forest Hills Drive] can go platinum with no features! Sure.
Todd (VO): And so he and his co-writing partner [photo of Ringo sitting with...] Vini Poncia got together and wrote a whole new batch of songs.
Todd: In August of '77, he released the first one, called... [Japanese single cover for...] "Wings." Yo-you know that's the name of [tour poster for...] Paul's band, right? [Brief performance of "Silly Love Songs"] So much for escaping his shadow. It's like he's trying to subliminally get you to think Paul and Linda are on this.
Let's Get Serious[]
Todd (VO): Anyway, "Wings" is a more rock, almost kind of blues track, of all things.
Todd: Well, let's hear the Ringo blues.
Audio plays for "Wings"
Ringo: If I had the wings of an eagle, over these broken dreams I will fly
If I could be shot like an arrow, straight to you in your arms I would lie
Don't you know I love you, don't you know I love you so
Todd (VO): Well, umm, this really isn't anything, is it? I mean, I guess it's not the worst thing ever, but like, the groove just isn't there; it's lumpy and awkward, and Ringo's flat warble doesn't help.
Ringo: [more terrible off-key singing] And with your touch
The music keeps going around and around in my
Yeah, I don't get it. Ringo doesn't have the muscle for this kind of track, it has no hook, it doesn't land. Why was this the single?
Ringo: Now I need you so
And also, this song is just kinda dour? Like say what you want about classic Ringo, he was fun. That's what people liked him for. Putting him on like, this gritty blues song is like [clip of "Hotel Room Service" by...] listening to Pitbull trying to do a trap song. Weirdly enough, though, Ringo seems to be surprisingly fond of this one, considering that he resurrected it thirty-five years later and redid it, but with like, reggae guitar on it?
Clip of 2012 episode of Conan where Ringo performed his new version of "Wings"
Ringo: If I had the wings of an eagle
Yeah, a reggae groove must be what it was missing in 1977, because this did nothing. Completely flopped, didn't chart. I'm sure he had to be disappointed. But hey, this kind of sound is not really up-to-date anyway.
Todd: It's '77, baby! It's time to get in touch with what the people are listening to!
Audio plays for "Best of My Love" by The Emotions, followed by a clip of The Trammps - "Disco Inferno"
Todd (VO): It's the late '70s, and disco fever has overtaken the world. Within the next year or so, disco will be so big that will crowd out basically every other form of music. Everyone [clip of Rod Stewart - "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"] will pivot to disco; disco is going [clip of Disco Stu from The Simpsons] up, up, up, baby! At this point in the story, [clip of...] Saturday Night Fever is still months away, so Ringo actually very early on the bandwagon, at least among rock stars who shouldn't be making disco. So why don't we see Ringo try and get his boogie on?
I'm Your Boogie Man[]
Clips play from the music video shot for "Drowning in the Sea of Love"
Ringo: I've been down one time, I've been down two times
But I'm drowning
Todd: Okay, Ringo the 4th has six Ringo originals and four covers - this is one of the covers.
Live footage of Joe Simon performing the original version of "Drowning in the Sea of Love"
Joe Simon: I've been down one time
It's an early Philly soul hit called [original singles cover for...] "Drowning in the Sea of Love". Originally by Joe Simon, reached #11 on the Hot 100 in 1972.
Joe Simon: But I'm drowning in the sea of love
Okay, it's umm-it's based around like, the idea...
Todd: ...that he's going down one time, two times, and then he's drowning, 'cause there was a myth [Old Wile E. Coyote cartoon illustrating...] that someone had to go under three times before you knew they were drowning or something like that; you'd see it in old cartoons.
Todd (VO): I-I don't know, it's old. That might be why it hasn't gone down as like, a beloved soul standard or anything. But you know, a lot changes in five years. Maybe that smooth Gamble and Huff groove needed a big disco makeover... for Ringo to be the one singing it.
Ringo: I've been down one time
Backup singers: One time!
Ringo: I've been down two times
Backup singers: Two times!
Ringo: But I'm drowning, drowning in the sea of love (Love-uaaaaaaaahhh)
Todd: Oh, he's drowning in something alright - strings and backup singers, mostly.
Ringo: But I'm in the middle of a bad love storm
It really took me by surprise
Okay, so about disco.
Todd (VO): Okay, we all know how a few years after this, there'll be a big disco backlash of terrifying ferocity, and obviously it was laden with heavy overtones of racism and homophobia; we all know that, that's all true.
Todd: But can I say here - there is a legitimate case against disco. [footage of Soul Train plays, with Wing & a Prayer Fife & Drum Corps - "Baby Face" playing] It's easy to defend disco when time has winnowed it down to a couple dozen stone classics, but most disco songs were not as tight as "Stayin' Alive" or "Love to Love You Baby". And we talk up disco's connection to outsider demographics, but please understand, disco was repulsively mainstream, and a whole lot of it was made for and by, lame white people. A whole ton of disco songs had no personality and they were horrifically overproduced. In other words, it sounded like this.
Ringo and Backup singers: I've been down one time (one time!)
And I've been down two times (two times!)
It's all way too much, and Ringo has to really strain to make himself heard over this, and that's really not a thing you want Ringo to do.
Ringo: You know I'm DROWN-ING!!!
Todd: [imitates Ringo's terrible crooning] DROWN-ING!!!
Todd (VO): I am really fascinated by this video, by the way. We have slammed the door on fun Uncle Ringo, and instead we got him here as some kind of...depressed playboy; dressed to the nines, surrounded by glamour and women - but looking miserable, drinking expensive Scotch with a sad expression, walking into the ocean. Ringo is like [album cover for Take Care by...] the Drake of 1977, apparently.
Todd: Yeah, believe it or not, I don't think Ringo as the portrait of moody, dissipated opulence is the image people really wanted from him.
Backup singers: Drowning
Drowning in the sea of love, drowning
Todd (VO): I like how the song ends with like, two straight minutes of no Ringo in it. Shockingly, this tanked too.
This All Feels Awfully Familiar...[]
Todd: Okay well, those were the first two singles. Let's travel down the album. [image of the album's back cover with the track listings] Track 1 was "Drowning"; track 2 is called "Tango All Night". Here we go.
Audio plays for "Tango All Night"
Ringo: Was dancin' on the tables, look our way
"I wanna tango all night, mambo till daylight."
That was all she said
Umm... you know, I don't actually have any like, live footage of this song, obviously, so uhh, I'm just gonna throw up a background I think fits.
The audio for the song continues to play over a clip from The Muppet Show
Ringo and Backup singers: We want to tango all night, ay ay ay ay ay
Todd (VO): I mean, you-you get it, right? There's like.... a Muppet-y atmosphere to this. This is one of the cover songs; the [single cover for the original version by La Seine] original's pretty obscure and probably no one had heard of it...
Todd: ...but you can still tell this is like, the variety show rendition of a real song. Like, "Our special guest is Ringo Starr, and he's gonna do a dance number in between some skits." And if it was the Muppets, that would at least make sense how annoying the background vocals are!
The audio for the song plays one last time over another clip from The Muppet Show featuring Elton John
Ringo and Backup singers: We're going to mambo all night, ay ay ay ay ay
Todd: [Muppet voice] Ay ay ay ay ay!!!
By the way, even though his famous bandmates are not on here, there are in fact a couple notable names. We got background vocals from [clips and images of...] mid-tier pop star Melissa Manchester, the not-yet-famous Luther Vandross, the famous-but-not-yet-legendary Bette Midler; Bette Midler is on one song, and it is, of course, this one. God, biggest waste of Bette Midler since the [poster for...] Stepford Wives remake.
Arif Mardin Gives It All Up[]
Audio begins to play for "Gave It All Up"
Todd (VO): The fourth track is "Gave It All Up."
Todd: It's about a guy who gives up a life of crime, and then a life of booze for love.
Ringo: I gave it all up I gave it all up
I gave it all up, for love
Out of all the songs on here, this is the one I would like to hear from a person who could sing, 'cause it otherwise sounds very pretty. But again, Ringo is just not up for it.
Ringo: I gave it all up, for YOUUUUUUUU!!!!
Todd (VO): Who let Ringo do this?
Montage clips of The Average White Band - "Pick Up the Pieces"; Hall & Oates - "She's Gone"; The Bee Gees - "Jive Talkin'"; and Chaka Khan - "I Feel For You"
Todd: Okay, the producer for this is [studio footage of...] Arif Mardin. Super underrated guy, hits for decades. He helped many a white person get their R&B on; he's the one who got the Bee Gees to switch to dance music. Man made "I Feel For You" for Chaka Khan, so like, he's legit. He had produced Ringo's last album too, but uh, there he was mostly just following the Ringo playbook. On this record, he had a chance to flex. And like, I don't know, he's bringing his A-game!
Backup singers: You
Gave it all up, for you
Like, the tragedy of this record is that many of the songs sound very good...
Todd (VO): ...except for Ringo. I swear to God, you can hear the producer turning down the volume on Ringo's mic.
Audio for the song continues to play as Ringo's voice gradually gets less and less audible, represented by a TV monitor bar
Rolling Stone's review [screenshot of such] pointed out that producing for Ringo is a real challenge. [Clip of "Only You"] You have to be light enough to capture his charm, but heavy enough to cover for his singing.
Todd: Mardin doesn't seem to be trying to thread that needle at all. The music and the artist are completely at odds. A lot of reviewers think that he probably didn't care about Ringo or his music; this was just a paycheck for him. Yeah well, it sure sounds like it!
And the Beat Goes On[]
Todd (VO): Okay, here's one of the covers, "Sneakin' Sally Thru the Alley." Already recorded by [Live footage of the original song being performed by...] Robert Palmer earlier in the '70s. Not a hit at the time, but pretty well-respected now.
Todd: No thanks to Ringo.
Robert Palmer: Sneakin' Sally thru the alley
Tryin' to get away clean (yeah)
Trying to double talk, get myself in trouble talk, catching myself in lies
And...Ringo.
Audio plays from Ringo's overproduced cover
Ringo: Sneakin' with Sally, thru the alley
Tryin' to get away clean
Trying to double talk, get myself in trouble talk, catching myself in lies
Like-like, I'm sorry, I don't think there's a single song that [clip of "Addicted to Love"] could be recorded by "King of Suave" Robert Palmer and Ringo goddamn Starr!
Todd: [Imitates Ringo's singing over the clip] Might as well face it, you're addicted to love!
Yeah, I'm harping on his singing; I know, he's always sounded like that, it never bothered anyone before. Okay, but he was singing [film footage from the movie adaptation of...] "Yellow Submarine," not "Tomorrow Never Knows," and that was for a reason. Everyone was smart enough to put Ringo on simple and friendly songs.
Video for "You're Sixteen You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)"
Todd (VO): Ringo was successful during what I call "the Lame Seventies". It's the name I give to the very kitschy, corny style of AM pop that was big at the time. It lasted through the entire Seventies, but [clip of Andrea True Connection - "More, More, More"] midway through, it starts getting crowded out by disco as the main sound of pop, and even though disco could also be very lame, it was always dramatically hipper and sexier than this other stuff. I did an episode on the Carpenters during this timeframe, and while I was doing that, I had to watch Karen Carpenter try to sing "Boogie Nights" and "Do the Hustle" and uh, it really showed me how unequipped she was for that half of the decade. Ringo gives me the exact same feeling, but worse. Like, disco is flashy and glamorous; Ringo is the guy who sings "Octopus's Garden!"
Todd: Like, here's a song called "Can She Do It Like She Dances”.
Audio plays for "Can She Do It Like She Dances"
Ringo: And the boys had just one question on their mind
"Can she do it like she dances?"
Todd (VO): These songs are on the cornier, goofier end of disco, so you think Ringo could handle it. But it still hits completely wrong; like, [single cover for the Robert Palmer version of...] "Sneakin' Sally Thru the Alley" is a cheating song. And "does she do it like she dances”, you know...
Todd: ..."Can this hot dancing girl fuck?"
Todd (VO): You combine Ringo's energy with disco - he comes off like, this Benny Hill-style cheeky sex pervert. It's unwholesome, and I don't like it. Also, there was [singles cover for the Addrisi Brothers' version of "Does She Do It Like She Dances"] already a version of this song on the charts when this album dropped. Not an amazingly successful version, but it was there. Ringo does not improve on it.
Todd: Like, what even was the concept behind this record? Like, what's the theme? What's the basic hook?
Todd (VO): I tried to find out what he said about it, but even with all the information about everything Beatles out there, I couldn't find much. He didn't seem to do much [rare footage of Ringo at a record store promoting the album] promotion for it, or, you know, not anything that's been preserved at least. I did find one [screenshot of...] print ad, let's read that. "Ringo the 4th" is unmistakably Ringo".
Todd: Not necessarily a compliment, but going on: [reads the text of the ad] "Ringo the 4th" is Ringo's new album. It's warm and sparkling. It's friendly. And it's got a lot of punch. [soft guitar tones can be heard] It's the kind of music that makes you feel good about everything. And that's Ringo. Unmistakably Ringo. "Ringo the 4th", on Atlantic Records and Tapes." Okay, th-this is all very funny, because it makes Ringo sound, like, a [various images pop up for...] brand of butter; or like, tomato sauce; a new drink at Starbucks. Notably, what it did not say was: "Ringo wrote most of the album." I guess they realized that that was not a selling point.
Todd (VO): Nor does it talk about Ringo getting up-to-date with the new sounds of the Seventies - it's just banking on Ringo’s innate likability.
Todd: But that was kinda running out too.
Todd (VO): Being a likable guy who got lucky worked well for Ringo for a couple of years, but you can only be that guy for so long before people start resenting you. And eventually, "Ringo the plucky fun-lovin' guy" became "Ringo the bored, talentless buffoon drunkening up and down the Riviera". It gets hard to like a guy like that after a while. People were just kinda sick of him.
It's Really Not That Simple[]
Todd: Okay, but what about the Ringo originals, Todd? You haven't talked much about those. Okay, fine. Here's a country song Ringo wrote.
Audio plays for "Gypsies in Flight"
Ringo: Gypsies in flight
I look into your eyes and see
Gypsies in flight
"Look into your eyes and see"...what? Okay, surprise, surprise, Ringo's not a good songwriter. I haven't talked much about the Ringo originals because they really do not leave any impression at all.
Todd (VO): And his [image from before of Ringo sitting with...] co-writer Vini Poncia? Uh, he had [clip of Kiss - "I Was Made For Lovin' You"] some hits of his own in the Seventies, so he wasn't nobody, but he also wasn't John, Paul, or George. Ringo's best work as a songwriter was with George, and that's not only because George is a better songwriter than Vini, it's because he's a Beatles-y songwriter! And Ringo needs that connection to the Fab Four.
Todd: If I can use a Star Wars analogy like I tend to do: [various clips of the Star Wars prequels play in the background] I don't hate the prequels, but my affection for them is entirely dependent on its connection to the original trilogy. The further we get from that, the more I'm just not interested. And I think that's how people felt about Ringo the further we got from the Sixties and into more modern production. This album is [poster appears for...] the Clone Wars movie of the Beatles.
Todd (VO): Let's close out with the final track, "Simple Love Song".
Audio plays for "Simple Love Song"
Ringo: Right now, I still wonder how
I keep asking myself, "Am I dreaming?"
You know what, honestly, this is the closest thing to a good song on the album - which makes me annoyed at the rest of it.
Ringo and Backup singers: Doo-doo-doo-doo, it's a simple love song
See, Ringo can write a decent song, make Seventies pop that fits him, find a style that's just Ringo enough. Why wasn't this the single? I think we went with "Wings" and "Drowning" in an attempt to look cooler, which...why? Why would you do that?
Todd: To tell the truth, I came in expecting a world-ending disaster; you know, Ringo does disco. But honestly, Ringo the 4th just kinda flatly sucks. And that's how it was received. [image of album review trashing the record] The reviews were brutal. And if you want to know how this did on the charts, well; [screenshots of Billboard Top 200 listings from the period] Okay, the third album underperformed by only reaching #28. By comparison, Ringo the 4th charted at #179! Ringo the 4th got out-charted that year by [album cover for...] an instrumental jazz-fusion album dedicated to the book Dune! That happened.
Todd (VO): How Ringo felt about the album's failure, we'll never know, but from what I can tell, I'm gonna guess it was something like:
Todd: [does an impression of Ringo drunk off his ass] "Eh heh heh heh, why I, heh heh... Harry, pour me another one."
Outro[]
Clip of Ringo doing a commercial for Sun Country Classic wine coolers
Todd (VO): Ringo would remain a boozed-up partying idiot until the late Eighties, when he did rehab, got sober, and started his [live concert footage of...] All-Starr Band, which has stayed his main gig for the last thirty years and earned back most of the goodwill he had squandered. He's also [clip of "Weight of the World"] never stopped recording, including with some guys who got his vibe much better, I'd say, but it really didn't matter; Ringo the 4th killed his recording career dead forever, which makes him honestly kind of unique. Lots [footage of the Beach Boys performing on The Midnight Special] of people made really ill-advised disco albums in the late Seventies; most of those bombed too, and almost [clip of the Beach Boys - "Kokomo"] all of these people recovered.
Todd: Ringo didn't, and I think that's because his shelf life was just up. He was powered by Beatlemania, and once that was done, so was he. But like I said, if he's ever been hurt by the lack of success, he's barely ever shown it.
Live footage of present-day Ringo performing with the All-Starr Band
Todd (VO): Very admirably, he has just decided to stay Ringo.
Todd: Ringo brought his All-Starr Band into town recently. I went, and he just seems happy; you know, he's happy being with his mates, playing the drums - and honestly, isn't that enough? Rock on, Ringo. [throws up Ringo's signature "peace" sign] Peace and love.
The performance ends to thunderous applause
Sponsor[]
Todd: And speaking of people who crisscrossed between pop culture icon and punching bag.
Clip of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Todd (VO): You know this clown right? Well, Lindsay Ellis has a new video up about the rise, fall, and redemption of one Guy Fieri. The Food Network host who survived being clowned on for years to become oddly wholesome. And you can watch that video exclusively on...
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Todd: ...but you will get it for a little over $2.50 a month. And you'd also be directly supporting me, which...you know, I'd appreciate it.
Todd (VO): So click the link in the description and check it out below.
Todd: Thank you for listening, and goodnight.
Closing Tag Song: Todd plays "Drowning in the Sea of Love" on the piano
THE END
"Ringo the 4th" is owned by Atlantic Records
This video is owned by me
THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL PATRONS!!
Trivia[]
- Most of the clips used for the songs in this video are taken from Ringo, a 1978 film that includes several performances of songs from Ringo's albums.