Ringo Starr’s 20th solo album, What’s My Name, sees the former Beatle drummer on another in a recent line of homespun records featuring a cast of famous musician friends. From his home studio, Roccabella West, we get 10 tracks, including a few covers in the mix, plus a Beatles reunion of sort.
Opening with “Gotta Get Up To Get Down,” a swaggering lament on modern life co-written with Joe Walsh. Brace yourself because there’s some rapping going on here, but there’s a tasty clavinet solo from none other than Edgar Winter. For the cover John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me,” Starr is joined by Paul McCartney on bass and backing vocals. The song, one of the last ones Lennon ever wrote and later released posthumously on Milk and Honey, was reportedly intended for the drummer. To make it a complete Beatles reunion, producer Jack Douglas even planted an orchestral line from George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.”
Co-written with long-time All-Starr band member and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, “Magic” allows Starr to get in and out without much fuss so Lukather can slay on guitar. “Money” (That’s What I Want),” Motown’s first hit back in 1959, features Starr’s voice filtered through an Auto-Tune processor to provide a modern sheen. It does little to improve on what the Beatles did with it in 1963.
The album’s title track, written by Colin Hay, another All-Starr member more famously known as the singer in Men at Work, is a rousing rocker. Taking the title and overall concept from the familiar chant at Starr’s live shows, “What’s My Name,” with its loud slide leads, Warren Ham’s harmonica, and galvanizing big beat could easily become a Ringo Starr classic.
Altogether, What’s My Name allows Ringo Starr to write, sing, play and produce music for easy consumption. It rocks a little more with an impressive cast that not only includes the likes of McCartney and Walsh, plus All-Starrs like Lukather, Winter and Hay, but also guitarist and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, keyboardist Benmont Tench from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and bassist Nathan East, who’s played with everyone from Eric Clapton to Stevie Wonder. For a guy pushing 80, this is a solid record from a true legend.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
