Ringo Starr: Avant-Gardist

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Anyone else a fan of this song? It's the B-side of "Back Off Boogaloo."

Blindman, with your piece of paper, what you gonna do?
Blindman, with your paper, can you see it through?
Your name on that paper means so much to you,
You made a promise, you would get them through.
The girls to the miners, you would fix them too.
They've been taken,
You've lost them all and the money too.
They've been taken,
You've lost them all and the money too.

Come on, blue, what you gonna do now?
Come on, blue, what you gonna do now?

Mexico, you've got to go, you know it just ain't fair-
To get your women back, now hurry because they're all there.
You're all alone but you'll make it alright,
You'll find your women there
But to get them, you'll have to fight.

Come on, blue, what you gonna do now?
Come on, blue, what you gonna do now?

Come on, blue, what you gonna do now?

I guess it was recorded for one of Ringo's movies, so maybe the lyrics have something to do with the plot of the film and aren't just total abstract f***ing weirdness. Even if this is so, the song is still really strange. It was recorded by Ringo and Klaus Voorman. The backing track is synth and echo-y acoustic guitar. Then, there's this musique concrete-like link to the 1st chorus (I swear). The chorus features these single electric guitar chords and gnarly, loud vibraslap hits.

Ringo was also apparently working on an electronic music album for Zapple (seemingly) back in '69. The only place I've EVER read anything about this is on Joseph Brennan's "Gibb Songs" Bee Gees site, which contains the following entry regarding Maurice Gibb's participation in the project:

personnel
Ringo Starr -- synthesizer
Maurice Gibb -- vocal

MODULATING MAURICE
writers: Richard Starkey, Maurice Gibb (1969)
recorded early 1969, Ringo Starr residence, London
lead vocal Maurice Gibb
stereo unreleased

Ringo Starr recorded enough pieces for a synthesizer album at home in early 1969. His next-door neighbor Maurice came by and recorded random words and phrases as "vocals" to Ringo's synthesizer riff on a track they called "Modulating Maurice", according to Ringo's statements in a March 1969 newspaper article. Ringo's album was abandoned.

This is not the countryish instrumental that has been bootlegged as "Modulating Maurice". That piece is really "To dance again", by all three Bee Gees, and has no relation to this recording with Ringo. See 1970.

― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 04:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Back off boogaloo was one of the first singles I owned, and I know "Blindman" well. The film came out a long time later, so I don't think it's directly related. It (the track) is quite wonderful though.

There's a documentary on Zapple records on BBC radio this weekend (forget which station, its Radio 2 or 4), this might clear this up /add something.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there streaming audio, or will this be archived somewhere?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I very much doubt it. It's unlikely to be on a CD either.

7" Apple single. Blue apple label.

The a-side was rumoured to be all Marc Bolan's work (song and all), but I'm pretty sure that's been disproven.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

i hope someone puts this up on soulseek at some point.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks for alerting me to the Zapple programme!! It's at 8pm on BBC radio 4 so it will at least be streamed, & possibly archived too. It's presented by Barry Miles, who, when it comes to the Beatles, knows his (glass) onions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20040612/20040612_2000_49700_53555_60
Looks unmissable.

― harveyw (harveyw), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a segment on Zapple in Miles' McCartney bio, but no mention of the Ringo album. Like I said, I've never seen any mention of the thing whatsoever except for the one thing I pasted above. I wonder if Ringo still has the tapes and if it's any good!

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 10 June 2004 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.negativebeats.com/r/ringo_starr/

This has "Blindman" on mp3, but it seems to want to install "components" so I dunno...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 11 June 2004 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i would consider his drumming on Yoko's Plastic Ono Band to be avant. or at the very least, very Magic Band, very proto-dub.

― Beta (abeta), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

So, anyway, the Zapple radio 4 programme was mostly about the american beat poets that Miles recorded back in 1968 or 1969. There was brief mention of Lennon's "Life with the lions" and Harrison's "Electronic Sound" albums, a bit of Macca messing around, and I don't think Ringo was even mentioned.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"Blindman" is from a film, a spaghetti western of the same title from 1970/71, that explains the reference to Mexico in the lyrics. Would love to see the film.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

"when you find the girl of your dreams in the arms of some scotsmen from hull"

― dave amos, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 11:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I was wrong about the film (must have been thinking of Caveman), the song is a description of the plot of the film entirely. The girls are 50 mail order brides.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Ognir Rrats: tsidrag-tnava.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Just remembered: "Spooky Weirdness" on Ringo's Rotogravure. Also, possibly some moments on Stop and Smell the Roses ("Drumming Is My Madness" and Ringo's spiel at the end of the title track).

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 15 June 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

http://www.ideal-hosting.co.uk/~go-quick/mp3s/Ringo%20Starr%20-%20Blind%20Man.mp3

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 10:24 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...

I saw the weirdest show on PBS last night. It was Ringo Starr and his Friends performing a show in Chicago. The set began AND ended with "A Little Help From My Friends". He stood and swayed like an idiot half of the time when he sang, sat on the drums 49% of the time, and played the piano on the intro of "Don't Pass Me By".

Some more "highlights":

* Telling the crowd to SAY MY NAME and the crowd firing back with RINGO! This was repeated three or four more times.

* Telling the crowd that he usually doesn't perform this next song, but tonight's an exception and ripping into "Octopus' Garden".

IT'S LIKE ONE OF ONLY TWO BEATLE SONGS THAT YOU ACTUALLY WROTE, RINGO! "DOESN'T USUALLY PERFORM THIS..." IS BULLSHIT.

* Telling the crowd that they were the best crowd that he had seen all night.

* And at the end of Yellow Submarine, where an auditorium full of AARP members danced to a children's tune, he said that usually he and the rest of the band would duck backstage and wait for the crowd to cry ENCORE. But this one night only, he wasn't going to do that [because of the cameras filming], but he still wanted to hear the crowd MAKE SOME NOISE.

And somewhere in there, he introduced Colin Hay who sang "Who Can It Be Now?" for the 46,825th time. After that, the wife and I kept our eyes peeled for Howard Jones, Paul Young, or any of the Finn Brothers to suddenly appear as well.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 26 August 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

It doesn't take an Einstein to guess the author of this thread.

Ognir Rrats: tsidrag-tnava.
Pretty good. But not a patch on the pants of Eivets Rednow.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 26 August 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

twenty years pass...

Confirmation bias perhaps but I have noticed Goodnight Vienna, the CD of which I bought as a Beatles obsessed child, popping up in more and more hip vinyl videos.

It does have a stacked cast of players tbf but I do not remember the music living up to it.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 13:19 (four months ago)

it's maybe the best Ringo LP, so like a 6.5/10

― in the realm of the essence of Tong (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 13:23 (four months ago)

Weren't kidding about the players on the record, but I suspect the LP cover alone provides some kitsch value.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 14:21 (four months ago)

I thought the general consensus was his self titled third album was his best.

― The Olde, Old, Very Olde Man. (Tom D.), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 14:51 (four months ago)

The s/t album is also a 6.5, ditto Beaucoups of Blues.

― in the realm of the essence of Tong (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:42 (four months ago)

Sentimental Journey meanwhile is 0.65

― The Olde, Old, Very Olde Man. (Tom D.), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:46 (four months ago)

Yeah Sentimental Journey is representative of the bulk of his discography.

― in the realm of the essence of Tong (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:48 (four months ago)

I don't think he has any other albums that sound like it tbf?

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:50 (four months ago)

he might've had a decent career as a country crooner

― The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:51 (four months ago)

I like the 1973-76 albums quite a lot - Rotogravure is the dark horse, but not the Dark Horse - and some of the later albums (at least of those I have heard) like Time Takes Time, Vertical Man and (especially) Ringo Rama all have their moments. They're all essentially the sound of mates patting each others' backs but that's the appeal of solo Ringo, and also why I only visit once every now and then.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:52 (four months ago)

xxp representative in terms of quality that is

― in the realm of the essence of Tong (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:53 (four months ago)

Ringo's Rotogravure is the record I'm partial to, yeah! And the front cover is uglier than Goodnight Vienna's. (But I'm serious that Rotogravure is my Ringo of choice.)

― TheNuNuNu, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 15:56 (four months ago)

mates patting each others backs is not something I usually find of any interest unfortunately. would give rotogravure a 5.

― in the realm of the essence of Tong (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 11 February 2026 16:00 (four months ago)

It's not something that inspires me to push through a 20-album discography at anything other than a snails pace

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 16:06 (four months ago)

re:Rotogravure cover, I can't believe it's from 1976 and not 86

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 16:08 (four months ago)

Beaucoups of Blues is my favorite Ringo solo LP. Produced by Pete Drake and engineered by Scotty Moore, with Charlie Daniels and Jerry Reed on guitars and the Jordanaires on backing vocals. Sounds like a typical Nashville country record from that era, the songs aren't super special but it's just nice to put on. Also amazing cover art

― Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Wednesday, 11 February 2026 16:48 (four months ago)

I like Stop and Smell the Roses more than Rotogravure!

― timellison, Thursday, 12 February 2026 03:08 (four months ago)

His last album is good too! Nice companion piece yo ‘Beacoups of Blues’.

― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 12 February 2026 11:30 (four months ago)

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