RINGO STARR OLD WAVE2 N 10. |. In My Car (3:12) (Joe Walsh, Richard Starkey, Mo Foster, Kim Goody) HOPELESS (3:18) (Joe Walsh, Richard Starkey) ‘Atte (4:01) (Joe Walsh, Richard Starkey) . Be My Basy (3:47) (Joe Walsh) 3. SHe’s ABouT A Mover (3:53) (Doug Sahm) I Keep ForGermin’ (4:19) (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) Picture Suow Lire (4:17) (John Reid, John Slate) As Far As We Can Go (3:50) (Russ Ballard) Everyaoor’s In A Hurry Bur ME (2:33) (Richard Starkey, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Eric Clapton, Chris Stainton) Goine Down (3:33) (Joe Walsh, Richard Starkey) BONUS TRACK (Previously Unreleased) 12, As Far As We Can Go (Original Version) (5:33) (Russ Ballard) PRODUCED BY JOE WALSH MUSICIANS ROCK & ROCK REVIEW Ringo Starr: Drums, Vocals, Percussion Joe Walsh: Guitars, Background Vocals Mo Foster: Bass Gary Brooker & Chris Stainton: Keyboards Excep “SHE’S ABOUT A MOVER”: Ringo Starr: Lead Vocal Joe Walsh: Lead Guitar, Background Vocals Hollywood Rock and Roll Revue: Freebo: Bass, Tuba Sherwood Ball & Kal David: Guitars Peter Bunetta: Drums Bruce MacPherson: Organ Sam Clayton, Joe Lala, Jocko Marcelino: Percussion Garrett Adkins: Trombone Lee Thornburg: Trumpet David Wooford: Saxophone “| KEEP FORGETTIN": (same as above, except:) Russell Kunkel: Drums Ringo Starr & Ray Cooper: Percussion “PICTURE SHOW LIFE” (same as above, except:) Waddy Wachtel: Lead Guitars 72-29675“AS FAR AS WE CAN GO”: Ringo Starr: Lead Vocal Joe Vitale: Piano, Background Vocals Joe Walsh: Synthesizers, Background Vocals “EVERYBODY'S IN A HURRY BUT ME”: Ringo Starr: Drums Joe Walsh & Eric Clapton: Guitars John Entwistle: Bass Ray Cooper: Percussion “GOING DOWN* (same as above, except:) Mo Foster & Kenny Edwards: Bass Joe Walsh & Waddy Wachtel: Guitars Background Vocals on “In My Car,” “Hopeless” and “Picture Show Life”: Steve Hess, Mark Easterling, Patrick Maroshek “AS FAR AS WE CAN GO”: (Original Version) Ringo Starr: Lead Vocal Russ Ballard: Electric Piano Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra Arranged by John Cameron Produced by Russ Ballard Engineered by David DeVore at Sweet Silence Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 1978, Special thanks to David DeVore. Recorded at Startling Studios (UK) and Santa Barbara Sound Recording (USA) Mixed at Santa Barbara Sound Recording. Engineer: Jim Nipar Assistant Engineers: Magic Mike O’Donnell (UK), Terry Nelson (USA) THANK YOU Neil Bogart, Alan Rogan, Bill Harrison, Hilary, Bruce Special Thanks to Barb Love and thanks to Joe, who made this album possible -Ringo Joe Walsh, courtesy Asylum Records John Entwistle, courtesy Warner Bros. Records Eric Clapton, courtesy Warner Bros. Records Cover Coordinator: Jeff Alexander Front Cover Photo: Photobooth Somewhere in Northern England Cover Direction: Jeff Lancaster for Art Hotel Back Cover Photo: Ron SlenzakIn the beginning of 1982, Ringo Starr was still busy promoting his latest album, Stap and Smell the Roses released on Nei Bogar’s Boardwalk Records label the previous October, In mid-January, he and Paul McCartney filmed a 10-minute promo. tional film, “The Cooler,” featuring the McCartney-produced tracks from the album, which would not see the light of day until later that summer. Within a month, however, Ringo was already planning his next album, Joe Walsh had had an illustrious, hard-rocking recording career, beginning in 1969 with his membership in the James Gang, In the early ‘70s, he began a solo career, building his name on such rock classics as his Barnstorm and 1974's The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get LP's, the latter featuring his now-signature hit, “Rocky Mountain Way,” produced by Bill Szymezyk. While touring for the album that year as the opening act for the Eagles, the band learned of the album and Walsh, and by the end of 1975, Walsh joined had joined the group. Even while a member of the Eagles, Walsh managed to keep a successful solo career in motion, continuing with a string of sue- cessful albums, including Bur Seriously Folks in 1978, containing another hit single, “Life’s Been Good.” By the end of 1980, the Eagles had essentially broken up, with a formal announcement not coming until May 1982, In May 1981, Walsh released another record, There Goes the Neighborhood, engincered by a new sideman, fim Nipar. The album produced another hit, “A Life of Illusion,” and proved, once again, that Joe Walsh was a stellar rock musician with or without the Eagles Ringo had known Joe for years, as one of the crowd that he hung out with in L.A. in the 1970's. So how did Walsh come to produce the new album? “One day he just called me and asked me to do it,” says Walsh, Between two buddies, that’s all it took, With a great chemistry between them, which has lasted into the 90's, Joe was the perfect choice. Besides sharing a com mon sense of humor with Ringo, Walsh, asa producer, scemed to have a musical sense of Ringo’s “key”. In the early 1970's, Richard Perry produced what many consider Ringo’s two best albums, Ringo (1973) and Goodnight Vienna (1974) released on The Beatles’ Apple label. ‘The records were packed with many of the top recording artists of the day Ringo drew all three of his former Beatle bandmates together on one record, and for a public yearning for a Beatle “reunion,” the album seemed to produce the magic that fans missed so much. Since that time, Starr had been produced by some of the biggest names in the music business, Each produced recordings of unquestionable quality, but usually producing “Yor” Ringo, rather than with him, It was ofien the producer’s signature sound, with Ringo as the featured star, And, to his fans’ disappointment, none was able to recreate that “magic” of his two Apple albums. And few, if any, were able to capture a sound that was unquestionably Ringo’s own, as foe Walsh was able to do on Old Wave In mid-February 1982, Joe flew to England to join Ringo at his Tittenhurst Park estate to begin writing songs for the album, Ringo had purchased the mansion from John Lennon and Yoko Ono in September 1973, The hous came with builtin studio (the same one where John’s Imagine LP was recorded), which Ringo renamed “Startling Studios,” after his Startling Music publishing company. Starr soon began renting out the studio for commercial use. Studio at Startling.Such heavy-metal groups as White Snake, Judas Priest and Def Leppard were known to record at Tittenhurst, offen recording all over the house (the marble hallway produced an especially reverberant drum sound, according to studio manager Mike O'Donnell). There was, of course, the white Lennon “Imagine” piano, as well as the infamous downstairs bathroom through whose window Yoko had one day “came in through,” Photo by Robert Elis By the late 70°s, Ringo had moved himself out of England, temporarily at least, spending time in homes in both Monte Carlo and Los Angeles. His absence from home allowed Startling Studios to become a full residential st dio, serving up room and board, along with a lushly-gardened landscape (com: plete with life-sized dinosaurs!) and state-of-the-art 24-track facilites, After marrying Barbara Bach in 1981, the Starrs moved back to Tittenburst, making, the facility, once again, Ringo’s studio By the end of February, Starr and Walsh were ready to record. Joe quickly returned to California t0 collect his equipment and his engineer, Jim Nipar, and then promptly assembled a small core of top-notch musicians to play on the record. Mo Foster was (and stills) one of England's top session bass play crs, having records by such artists as Phil Collins, Gerry Rafferty, Jeff Beck and Dr. John among his credits, On the lat day in February, Foster was recording an album in Stockholm for singer Frida, formerly of Abba, who was being pro- duced then by Phil Collins. Percussionist Ray Cooper had referred Mo to Joe & Ringo, so the following week, he vwas on his way back to England for his next sesion, “It was rather nice to be working with that team,” says Foster, “then suddenly realizing 1 was going to be working with Ringo.” Mo Foster, 1982 Photo courtesy G. Brooker Keyboardist Gary Brooker was best-known as the leader of legendary British rock group Procol Harum, with its “Whiter Shade of Pale” hit now a rock classic, The stu dious-looking, pipe-smoking Brooker had first known Ringo when the two played on another clasie - George Harrison's “My Sweet Lord” in 1970, In the Spring of 1982, he was playing with Eric Clapton, and, when asked, set aside some time to record with Ringo. Chris Stainton had made his name playing keyboards behind Joe Cocker in the origi nal Grease Band, and had since played with everyone from Leon Russell to Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton (with whom he is sil associated) The sessions for the new album began on Sunday March 7, 1982 and continued through Friday March 12, skipping Saturday, and returning on Sunday March 14. ; i During that time, basic tracks for eight new songs were recorded by the band, The Gary Brooker‘group was typically composed of Ringo, Walsh, Foster and Brooker, with Chris Stainton occasionally replacing Brooker (Stainton performed on Wednesday March 10). With a few exceptions, itis today unknown, unfortunately, which keyboardist played on which ttle (neither recalls), though neither ever performed together on the same day Mo Foster brought his usual assortment of basses (“the complete golf set!” as he puts it}, including his Fender Precision, Fretless Jazz, “Bass VI" and 5-string basses, tuned to a variety of tunings to produce some quite unique sounds. Foster remem: bers the first day at Tittenhurst and his first meeting with Starr. “I remember when I frst walked into the studio and saw this face we'd all seen for years. I put out my hand and said, “Hello, 'm Mo.” Ringo said, “Hello, I'm Ringo.” I was struck by how after all these years, he had this incredible humility. He put me immediately at ease.” Engineer Jim Nipar began testing each of the several drum kits Ringo Kept at the house, trying to find the one which would produce the ideal sound for the album, ‘There were three: Ringo’s original black pear! Beatle Ludwig set;a larger “blonde” ‘woodl-finish Ludvig kit, which first saw the light of day in the Let It Be and Abbey Rond sessions (and sparsely used since}; and 4 clear plastic Ludwig Vistalite set given him by the company at the time of his “Ringo” TV special in 1978. “The older sets still had their original cal-skin heads on them,” recalls Nipar, noting the exception of the snare drums, which had moder plastic heads, Nipar decided to try a newer plastic head on one of the tom-toms on the Abbey Road set, and began removing the original. “I was in the process of unscrewing the thing when Ringo walked in and saw what I was doing. He got a look on his face Pll never forget. He said, ‘You don't do that.” The historic drum set “stil had a certain magic 10 it, even to Ringo.” Producer, drummer and eng neer concluded the Vistaltes would do just fine, Nipar began tuning them for Ringo. “I said “How do you like them tuned2”” Starr's reply was as basi as his drumming philos Photo courtesy Richard & Barbara Starkey —ophy: “I just hit ‘em.” The first song to be recorded was a new Starkey-Walsh composition, “Alibi.” The song's signature sound was produced by Mo Foster's fretless bass, played to pro duce a “erying” sound, He backed Walsh on a pair of Ovation acoustic guitars, with Brooker on piano. Walsh also added a pair of “twang” guitars with chorus, and a slide lead. Ringo later sang two lead vocals, which were mixed together (a practice common for these sessions), accompanied by three Joe Walsh backing vocals. “Hopeless” (originally “It's Hopeless”) was sort of a cross between Walsh's “Life's Been Good” and Ringo’s “Oh My My.” This humorous, punchy song featured Foster again on his fretless, this time with the low E-string tuned down to a D, some rocking piano by Gary Brooker and some fine slide by Joe, It also had one other unusual instrument spread throughout Between Ringo and wife Barbara, Tittenhurst Park was always full of children Joe Walsh enjoys a laugh “Ringo came in one day with this thing,” recalls Nipar, “It was a litle Suzuki toy as Ringo makes a point. keyboard that belonged to one of the kids.” He said, “P've always wanted to playthis on a record.” Walsh and Nipar looked the device over. “What were we gonna say?” Ringo got his wish (listen especially at the song’s fceout). The song was given a chorus ofa big crowd made up of everyone around, which was later complemented by true background vocals, Altera few days into the sessions, suggestions were taken for songs, in case the group ran low, “I brought along a couple of songs that were already written,” says Mo Foster, “I had one called ‘Stop the Car’ had written with a lady named Kim Goody.” Foster played it for Ringo & Joe. “Joe liked the idea, but not the song as it stood.” He said, “Why don’t we start again with a new concept and doa co-write, That’s how ‘In My Car’ started. We just worked it out inthe studio,” Piano and organ were played to a fretless bass and countless guitars by Walsh (“Joe played that whole song,” says Nipar), including an electric 12-string. A favorite method of Walsh’s was to play through a small amplifier, similar to a Pignose, From small machines sometimes come big sounds. The song, one of Walsh’s favorites (he later recorded it again on his 1987 LP Got Any Gum), features Joe singing the in my car’ refrain ine, with some background vocals added later in Santa Barbara, “Be My Baby” was a song written especially by Walsh for Ringo, and is among Walsh’s eatchiest writings (just try and Keep your foot still). It fea tures Joe on guitar with one of his trademark sounds, produced by a device called 2 “talk box.” The talk box combines the sound of the guitar with sounds produced by the mouth, through an air tube the guitarist “talks” into while playing, Walsh was among the first to use the device, which Peter Frampton later utilized on his hit *Show Me the Way.” Two guitar lines using the device were recorded, accompanied by a Prophet synthesizer added later in the year by Walsh's drummer, Joe Vitale (a later guitar over: dub by Waddy Wachtel remained unused) Photo courtesy Richard & Barbara Starkey Walsh and Ringo sang the ‘be my baby” chorus vocals, with another back ing added by Walsh, Towards the end of the song, during the long build up, Ringo was called on to ad-lib some “baby baby” type lines. Ad-libbing ‘was not one of Start’s favorite chores (escpevally on this tune), and at the end of the song, he can be heard yelling to Nipar, “Let me outta here - A pensive Joe Walsh jots down a few turn the tape off,” which he did. notes, Startling Studios Control Room. “I Keep Forgettin’® was one of Ringo’s favorite old Chuck Jackson hits One day he brought in an LP of Jackson's containing the song, and played it for Walsh and Nipar, after which it was agreed it ‘would make an excellent addition to the new album, ‘The first decision Ringo made was that instead of playing drums on the track, he would play percussion instruments to someone else’s drumming. But whose? In the Starkey household, drums run in the family, so son Zak was recruited for the first time to play on one of his dad’s records (Zak would later show the world his drumming prowess touring as the main drummer in Ringo’s 1992 “AllStarr” tour). ‘Though considered by all an excellent track, it was decided that a different type of sound was required for the song, so Zak’s drum track was et aside. A click track was placed elsewhere on the tape for timing purposes, to be used by another drummer who would have another go at it sometime later.Photo courtesy Richard & Barbara Starkey Ringo’s percussion, recorded live during the basic track recording, consisted of conga, tom-toms, tambourine, shaker, and a wood block. He was accompanied by none other than Ray Cooper. Cooper, who had been playing for years with Elton John and Eric Clapton, followed Ringo’s playing precisely, giving the song a fller percussive sound. Joe added several guitars to the track, playing a pair in high and low octaves. ‘The distinctive sound of his searing lead guitars was produced by a litle trick per- formed by Nipar. “After Joe played his guitar leads, I flipped the tape over and ran the guitar track through the reverb system and placed the reverb on another track When it’s played back with the tape going in the right direction, you hear the reverb first.” The unique “clicking” sound was produced by Mo Foster on his Fender Bass VI 4 6-string bass. The instrument is exactly one octave below the tuning of a guitar, giving ita distinctive sound Another oldie was recorded during these sessions, which did not make it onto the final album. It was the old Ketty Lester hit, “Love Letters.” The song was written in the 1940's by Edward Heyman and Victor Young. Lester had had a hit with the song in 1962, and the title got a see ond run in 1966 by Elvis Presley. “Ketty Lester's version was more of a ballad,” says Startling Studios studio manager Mike O’Donnel, who assisted Nipar on the Old Wave sessions, “Ringo’s was much more up-tempo.” Ringo & Barbara listen to playback after a hard night's work. Again, Mo Foste’s distinctive fretless bass leads the song through a catchy rhythm track, with Gary Brooker on piano and Joe on some nicely distorted guitar. Walsh sung a guide vocal for Ringo to sing to, which was then followed by a A master recording reel from cratch vocal by Starr Startling Studios. (with a rather colorful fadeout), to be replaced later with a more concentrated effort. The song was, it was thought, temporarily set aside for completion. Upon returning to the studio later to complete vocal recordings for the album, it was determined that “Love Letters” wasn’t going to fitin afterall, and the song was left uncomplet: ed One of the highlights of the album is a song written by John Reid and John Slate titled “Picture Show Life.” The song depicts the tough Hollywood life, through some wonderful vocals by Starr, more doubled Mo Foster fretless bass (in harmony this time) and some beautifully-recorded guitar work by Waddy Wachtel. Walsh played two guitars himself on the track, but later decided it would be a good idea to add the playing of another guitarist to give the song a different sound. Wachtel, one ofLAs busiest session guitarists, was suggested by Nipar, and his contributions were added later in the summer in Santa Barbara Walsh had Wachtel layer his guitars over and over to produce an almost “crying” sound, which is quit stirring to the listener, and complements the song perfectly A final tune, “Going Down,” written by Walsh and Ringo, completed the songs recorded with this lineup of masicians. One of 4 few rare blues recordings by Ringo Starr, the song contains several bass parts. One was originally played by Walsh, though used only as a guide, followed by a “real” bass line recorded by Mo Foster on his fretless bass. Again, as was the case with “Picture Show Life,” Walsh later felt that the addition of another musician might best fit the bill, So when overdubs were recorded in Santa Barbara, a thire bass track was recorded by Kenny Edwards, formerly with Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. Both Foster’s and Edwards's bass lines are heard in tandem on the final recording, Walsh added two guitars, as did Waddy Wachtel later. A background chorus of Ringo, Barbara, Walsh, Brooker & Mo Foster was also added. Joe filed in with a little harmonica, and Ringo added a finishing touch, “Joe and I were adding some guitar overdubs one night,” recalls Nipar. “At around 4 in the morning, Ringo strolled in in his bathrobe and started whistling, so we decided to add it onto the song. I'll never forget him standing there in the studio in his bathrobe, whistling!” As they say, man’s home is his studio, Or something like that. Affer the basic tracks for the album were recorded, Ringo decided to do one of his favorite activities in the studio: have his mates in fora jam, Joe Walsh had played on John Entwistle’s Too Late the Hero LP the year before, and he came down to Tittenhurst to play his famous bass. Joe \was joined on guitar by Eric Clapton, who was accompanied by his wife Patti (the former Mrs. George Harrison). Chris Stainton returned to join his bandmates and play some very fast piano. And Ray Cooper came along to add some additional drums. Photo courtesy Richard & Barbara Starkey The day was spent working out parts for an instrumental (save for a few lines by Ringo) called “Everybody's In a Hurry But Me.” ‘The main body of the song featured Clapton’s answering riff (heard on the right when listening in stereo) to Walsh’s own, Walsh later added an addition- al guitar and played lead, Several practice takes were recorded throughout the day, and, after a dinner break, a final take was recorded All recording up to this point, withthe exception ofthe odd background Ringo in bathrobe with Walsh & Nipar chorus, was for basi instrumental track recording, Ringo decided to take affer the late-night whistling session for a break for about a month, during which final lyrics would be written, “Going Down.” Before leaving, Nipar prepared rough mixes of each of the completed tracks at Startling on March 18, after which, he and Joe returned to the States Walsh, Nipar and the rest of the basic band returned to Startling Studios on Monday April 19 to add additional overdubs Work continued through Friday, April 23. It was during this week that Ringo recorded af of his lead vocals. In fact he addedhis vocal to another song his studio band had not even recorded. In the late 1970's, one might recal, there was a growing number of all-star concerts, particulary in Southem California, sup porting the elimination of nuclear energy as a power source and asa weapon of war, L.A. bassist (and proficient tuba pl well!) Freebo had been playing with Bonnie Raitt for nearly ten years, and decided to put a band together to back up artists playing at the shows, He assembled a massive band of hot studio players, which became known as the Hollywood Rock ‘n’ Roll Revue. (Note Walsh’s poking a little fun at the group by referring to the Startling studio band as the “Rock and Rock Review” on the Old Wave album sleeve!) as The band performed behind numerous stars at many “No Nukes” shows throughout the L.A. area, including 1980's “Survival Sunday” show at the Hollywood Bowl, which featured Jackson Browne and other Southern California favorites (other shows featured the likes of Bruce Springsteen, among others). On January 29, 1982, The Revue performed at a concert at Santa Barbara's Arlington Theater, on a show called the “Pacific Alliance Presents a Water for Life Benefit Concert for a Non-Nuclear Future.” The title of the show wasn’t quite as catchy as, say, “Woodstock,” but it did feature some big stars, including comedh an Martin Mull, and a guy named Joe Walsh, Joe did his set backed by the band, who played some of their own favorites, including the 1965 Sir Douglas Quintet hit, *She’s About a Mover.” Walsh was so taken with the sound of the band that he invited them to come to his favorite local studio, Santa Barbara Sound, the following day to record a few songs, for which Photo courtesy Gene Vano Joe would find some future use Freebo and gang showed up the fol lowing day as promised. Freebo brought his bass and, of course, his tuba, Sherwood Ball, son of guitar string magnate Ernie Ball, came to play guitar, as did Kal David, another Bonnie Raitt veteran, who vwas subbing on this date for regular Brian Ray. Producer/drumm Bunetta played drums, accompanied on percussion by Little Feat’s Sam Clayton and former Manassas member Joe Lala (who ally appeared on Ringo’s last album on several songs). Jocko Marcelino, drummer and founding member of Sha Na Na, also played percussion instruments and sang. He brought along organist Bruce MacPherson, ‘The band’s usual horn sec tion came as well: trombonist Garrett Adkins, who had come out to L.A. from Washington, D.C. at the urging of friend Freebo, trumpet player Lee Thornburg, who had also played on Stop and Smell the Roses and jazz saxophonist David Woodtord, another friend of Ereebo’s from Boston. And everybody sang, The Hollywood Rock'n'Roll Revue eter incide‘The band recorded two songs, engineered by Nipar, “She's About a Movet® and one other tune whose identity, unforcunately, has long since been forgotten. Walsh had the band perform several rehearsal takes and finaly settled on a final version, with the catire band playing live, as they had on stage. After the final take was selected, Walsh bad the horn section perform a second horn break, in the song’s middle section, this time as a “Dixicland” version. It was later decided to keep both horn versions, and the two hom takes appeared in tandem on the final release. During overdubs, Freebo added his tuba, and Walsh added his ‘own lead guitar, as well as contributed to the chorus, No lead vocal was recorded as yet. With no new album in the works for Walsh, he instructed Nipar to “put that in a bos,” and the tape was shelved for a short period. Upon returning to England in April to finish up work with Ringo, the reel was brought along with the others, On the plane over, while discussing the week's recording plans, Walsh brought the song up to Nipar. “We gotta get Ringo to record a vocal on this.” Suddenly, the pieces fit together, “You son of a gun!” exclaimed Nipar. “You had this planned out all along!” Indeed he had. As mentioned, all vocals for the album were recorded that week in April, including “Mover, On that track, Ringo did two Vocals lines, including some rather funny ad-libbing toward the end of the song, which, unfortunately, was omitted when the song was edited down during final mixing. He also gave several tries at what appeared to be a fairy difficult vocal to get right: his ‘everybody's in a hurry but me’ fine from the song of the same name. Four takes were recorded in England, with three more recorded later in the summer on August 6 in Santa Barbara With basic recording work completed in England, Joe Walsh and Jim Nipar returned to the U.S., where they soon began work on Walsh’s own new album, later issued as You Bought It - You Name It. During the second week in June, and again on June 21 & 23, the two performed mixes at Santa Barbara Sound of “Alibi,” “I Keep Forgettin,” “I'm Going Down,” “Everybody's In a Hurry But Me” and “In My Car.” Then in the second half of July, Walsh added several overdubs (during his work at Santa Barbara Sound, Nipar was assisted by Terry Nelson, now Kenny Loggins’s engineer). ‘The original 24-track tapes were given a time code “stripe” and a second ree! of tape for additional overdubs for each was synched up on a second machine, rented by the studio just for the occasion, Walsh added several miscellaneous guitars, effects and background vocals (Walsh utilized the studio’s tile bathroom for a vocal room, due to its natural reverberation, according to studio manager Andy Chapman). It was also at this time that Waddy Wachtel added his guitars to “Picture Show Life,” “Be My Baby” (again, his track on the latter was not used in the final mix) and “Goin’ Down.” Russell Kunkel, who had known Joe since the James Gang days and had toured with Walsh in 1981, was the selected drummer to fill the gap on “I Keep Forgettin,” adding both drums and percussion/tom-toms. (Fans of the original Old Wave album should note, by the way, that Wachtel & Kunkel were incorrectly credited as playing on “Everybody's In a Hurry But Me;” neither performed on that title.) Kenny Edwards added his bass line to “Going Down” during this time, as well ‘The early mixes of “In My Car,” “Hopeless” and “Picture Show Life revealed the need for additional background vocals. ‘Walsh discussed this with Wachtel, who suggested a group of three young fellows from Los Angeles, Pat Maroshek, Steve Hess and Mark Easterling, who were in a band called Hardchoir (or, as they were more often referred to by everyone, “those kids”), ‘Waddy had seen the band play at Madame Wong’s in L.A.’s Chinatown, while playing on the same bill in his own band, Ronan,Four years later, however, Ringo had not forgotten about Ballard’s lovely song. During the March 1982 sessions at Tittenhurst, he brought Ballard’s tape out to play for Walsh and Nipar, hoping somehow to include the song on the new album. “He was particularly fond of his vocal,” says Nipar. So on April 9, during the March to April break, Walsh and Nipar dropped into Santa Barbara Sound with Walsh’s drummer, Joe Vitale, to see if the song could be salvaged. Walsh had Vitale, who was also an accomplished pianist, record a piano demo of the song on that date, to determine if a complete re-recording might be most appropriate. The tape was then brought back to Ringo to hear, and it was decided to procede in some way with Ballad’s original recording, ‘The original 24-track tape was then sent over to Joe Walsh at Santa Barbara Sound on May 13, It was determined thatthe lush instrumentation might not fit together with the other songs. Another sample mix with just the homs was attempted on May 31, but even without the orchestra, things just didn’t seem to fit So after the week of mixes in August, Walsh, who had assembled his own band at Santa Barbara Sound for work on his own record, took a another crack at the song, Ringo’s wonderful vocal track would be kept, but as far as Walsh was concerned, everything else would be replaced or deleted. Nipar made a copy of the 24-track tape and essentially did just that, First, the song was trimmed from its original 5:32 length to the final 3:52, by editing outa verse. Walsh then asked Joe Vitale to add a now piano track to the song, which was recorded on August 11. “It was tough,” recalls Vitale, “because the original Fender Rhodes piano was sightly out of time, so I couldn't use it as a guide, I essentially played solely to Ringo’s vocal - that’s it ‘That was a tricky one!” Walsh then added a “string” section, using a combination of a mellotron and a Prophet synthesizer, replacing what had been, con the original version, a fairly straightforward orchestral break in the song. Vitale recorded some light drums/percussion, and the two then sung the moving background vocals heard on the final recording, A mix was done the following day (along with yet another go at “I Keep Forgettin,”” now featuring Kunke’s new drum tracks), and the song was considered complete Two last mixes of “I Keep Forgettin’” and “Be My Baby” were made on August 30, and with that, the album was done Between the time the album was started and the time it was finished, Neil Bogart, the founder of Ringo’s record label, real Records, died of cancer, on May 8, 1982 at age 39. Bogart’s absence left the company without the kind of charismat- -ader required to keep an independent label afloat, and it soon folded up. ‘This, in tur, left Ringo without a record company. ‘The next step up the ladder was RCA, which distributed Ringo outside the U.S. (part of the deal set up when Starr originally signed with Boardwalk in August 1981). RCA would distribute the new album worldwide, except in certain territories, such a5 Germany, where it was sold by Bellaphon (under an odd arrangement which produced albums still with the Boardwalk label). Though it finally released the album on June 8, 1983 in Canada, Japan and South America (neatly a year aftr it was completed}, RCA did't have enough faith in the record to risk issuing it inthe U.S. or Great Britain, and, sadly, it went unnoticed by a major- ity ofthe public in the two biggest record markets, Original copies ofthe LP today are among Ringo’s most collectable records. With the newest trend in music, New Wave, in full swing in the late 70’s and carly 80's, it seemed only fitting that an album by ‘one of rock's legends should be ttled to reflect Ringo’s stance on whether the veterans can still rock. Sporting a cover photo of Ringo from his days as the youthful Liverpool drummer who would help shape the sound of rock and roll as we know it, Old Wave proves the best stil can. —Matt Hunwitz, Good Day Sunshine MagazineREISSUE CREDITS: REISSUE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Tom Cartwright, Eli Okun SUPERVISING PRODUCER: Cheryl Pawelski COORDINATING PRODUCER: Matt Hurwitz RESEARCH, LINER NOTES AND COMPILATION: Matt Hurwitz CLEARANCES: Dawn Van Patten DESIGN: Marlene Bergman's Firesign Design PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: Margaret Goldfarb, Kathy Kinslow, Malia Kleppinger, Charles Levan, Frank Lopez REISSUE MASTERING: Jeff Rach SPECIAL THANKS: Jim Nipar, Mo Foster, Freebo, Garrett Adkins, Gene Vano, Bruce Grakal, Joan Woodgate, Mike O'Donnell, Ruthann Supnick, Joe Vitale, Russ Ballard, David DeVore, Sherry Manning, Steve Hess, Pat Maroshek, Andy Chapman, Snark, Colleen Graven, Cary Baker & PLA Media, Bruce Harris, Michael Roden, Michael Schwartz, Pete Welding and everyone at CEMA For comments or information on other The Right Stuff releases, please address ail correspondence to: The Right Stuff, 1750 N. Vine St., Hollywood, CA 90028 Under license from Ringo Starr 12-29675 © 1994 Montego BV. © 1994 The Right Stutf Manufactured by The Right Stuf dhsion of Capitol Records, ne. 150 N.Vine St, Holywood, CA 90028 ‘Alright reserved, Unauthorized duplication a volaton of applicable laws.bros Te)