Customer Reviews

And His All Starr Band

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The 3 CD set The Anthology...So Far by Ringo Starr and the All-Starrs is an excellent compendium of the six All-Starr Band Tours. The set consists of 47 live selections from the twelve year span of the All-Starr Tours which began in 1989 and continued through 2000.Currently, Ringo Starr is rehearsing for the seventh All-Starr Tour with a new line-up.The All-Starr concept of bringing musical legends together into a group to tour around the world is a unique and novel one. There is at present a spin-off of the All-Starr concept called A Tribute to Abbey Road which consists of an all-star musical ensemble performing Beatles songs headed by All-Starr alumnus Todd Rundgren.The All-Starr concept is a perfect showcase for Ringo Starr. The songs are chronologically sequenced beginning with the first All-Starr Tour in 1989. The song selections consist of Beatles numbers on which Ringo Starr sang lead vocal, his solo hits, and selections by the All-Starr performers. From his solo career, "It Don't Come Easy", "Photograph", "I'm the Greatest", "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go","Back Off Boogaloo", and "You're Sixteen", are musical highlights. From the Beatles period, the songs included are "Yellow Submarine", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Boys", "Honey Don't","Act Naturally",and the anthem and signature song, "With a Little Help From My Friends" from the 1967 Sgt. Pepper album. John Lennon once referred to Ringo Starr as the "heart of the Beatles". The positive,self-deprecating, good natured mood of the songs shows why. The All-Starrs who accompany Ringo Starr in the ensemble consist of Billy Preston, Dr. John, Peter Frampton, John Entwistle of the Who, Jack Bruce of Cream, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, Simon Kirke of Bad Company and Free, Rick Danko of The Band, Joe Walsh of the Eagles, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman of the Guess Who, and many more. The All-Starr song selections include "American Woman" by Burton Cummings, "Life in the Fast Lane" by Joe Walsh, "I Feel Free" and "Sunshine of Your Love" by Jack Bruce, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Gary Brooker, and "Show Me the Way" by Peter Frampton. The performances are excellent. The musical talent assembled is unprecedented. The sound quality of the set is excellent. A booklet is enclosed with the set which features an essay on the Tours. A weakness of the booklet is that it does not give the venues and dates for the songs.There are,however, excellent biographies of the performers and a good listing of the song selections. The booklet is decent although not comprehensive.The CD packaging is good. This 3 set Anthology CD by Ringo Starr and the All-Starrs is highly recommended. Some of the greatest musicians and greatest songs of the Rock Era are included. Every Beatles fan should own a copy. This anthology is essential for any rock/pop collection.I highly recommend it.

This 3 CD set does an admirable job capturing the spirit of Ringo's live sets with his various All Star bands over past summers. I've seen a lot of concerts in my life and one of the most special was singing along with Ringo and the entire audience to Yellow Submarine. The live version of that song reflects the love Ringo's audience has for the man and his effervescent personality. My only criticism of the CD is in the mixing. Transitions from song to song are rough. I suppose the reason is that the material spans lots of concerts over several years yet technology has advanced to the point where that could have been done seamlessly. Still, I love to put the CD in the changer and sing along with all the rock stars that play with Ringo. He has aged gracefully and has lots of fun with his fans. This CD shows just how much fun!

I highly recommend you purchase this CD & the accompanying DVD. Great songs, (all of which you will know) played by musicians who obivously checked the own indivdual egos at the door. My only complaint about the CD (and the reason for 4 stars instead of 5) is first, the engineering & mixing of these songs. In some cases the volume level of these songs are so low, you really need to crank your stereo to hear properly. Then the next song will come on, and your speakers just shake your room because of the volume levels being set to high. Secondly, in some cases the vocals are lost behind the instruments. Lastly (and this is just my own personal opinion) the CD was great listening too, until the end of disc 3. I never was a fan of Eric Carmen, and his 2 songs at the end of the CD just ruin a fun filled CD. His songs just bring the CD to a screeching halt. I would have loved to hear Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way, or additional songs from Billy Preston and/or Burton Cummings, who only received 1 song from each. Other than that, I still highly recommend buying this CD. It's not only great listening, but it's historical too!

This is not simply Ringo Starr's greatest hits, but a huge assembling of some of Rock's most enduring stars. Ringo has packed top notch band leaders into concert performances that bring back fantastic memories. Highlights include Peter Frampton performing his famous 'live' "Show Me The Way" and "Baby I Love Your Way", Jack Bruce singing the classics, "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "I Feel Free" from Cream and Joe Walsh with "Life In The Fast Land" and "Desperado". This is just a sampling of great tight live performances that Ringo surrounds himself with. He doesn't forget all the classic Beatles hits that he sang, including "Yellow Submarine", It Don't Come Easy", his own "Photograph" and the incredible "With A Little Help From My Friends" as a closer!

With most of these acts unable to draw enough fans for a tour this late in their game, Ringo pulls them altogether for one big race down memory lane and the band members couldn't be tighter. This was a great idea and from the remarks made by the stars and the roar of the enthusiastic audience, you know a good time was had by all!

I just got this CD today and all I can say is leave it up to Ringo Starr to get a little help from his friends. From Billy Preston of the 'Get Back' sessions, to Mark Farner of Grand Funk, Randy Bachman of BTO and his old friend Burton Cummings of the Guess Who it seems to be a various artist collection. However, Ringo provides us with some of his biggest hits from his solo career along with the old favorite Beatle tunes he sang. A few songs left off of the album of importance is 'Oh My My' and 'La De Da'. There are a few more off of the Ringo album he should have put on there. However, the fun is on this album and you can tell that a splendid time was guaranteed for all.

This Ringo Starr music-lover has been buying tunes from Amazon for almost as long as they've been selling them but this is the first review I've cared to write. I often turn to Amazon for its "complete" musical selection -- particularly for performers like Ringo Starr -- which brick-and-mortar music stores often don't carry. This album of Ringo's though, is less than I would've expected, far less, particularly in quality of audio. There are some groups, like Pink Floyd, whose live concert recordings are the equal of studio recordings. This album doesn't even come close and it becomes apparent from the get-go with one of Ringo's anthem songs, "It Don't Come Easy."

Simply put, the instruments more often than not overwhelm voices. Some of the era's finest rock stars perform some of their finest respective songs on this album but are so woefully recorded that you have to wonder if any forethought, whatsoever, went into planning the recording.

In "It Don't Come Easy" it's as if the dudes sitting at the mixer controls -- at about Ringo's second stanza -- all-of-a-sudden realize that his voice is barely heard and make noticeable adjustments at that time.

Peter Frampton's "Show Me The Way" is a tune in which the integration of his guitar playing is an essential part of the song's popularity. While discernable, it does not have the prominent role found on Frampton's studio or "live" albums.

Ringo's voice has never been particularly robust or forceful. While other album producers have been careful to capture the essence of his enjoyable style, this album fails miserably in that department. On "You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful And You're Mine," one frequently cannot hear Ringo's complete enunciation of "sixteen" and "... you're mine" as his voice trails and is overwhelmed by the instruments.

Being a longtime Ringo fan -- I even very much enjoy his very country "Beaucoups of Blues" album -- I had eagerly awaited this compilation but now wish I hadn't wasted the money, for it won't get another play on any of my systems.

The other reviews are probably right suggesting this is truly a fun evening with Ringo and the boys, but as one who enjoys a great or even good recording, I can't recommend this collection in the least. This is the most uneven, muddled recording I have heard in a very long time. It is very evident these recording were done in many places and many different ways and that's what the listener has to deal with. One track maybe twice as loud as the previous one. Burton Cummings' American Women, the guitar in the right speaker overpowers the singer. I didn't even recognize Todd Rundgren's voice, besides Bang the Drum playing darn near twice the speed of the studio version. To me there were only a couple of gems in this package. And regrettfully, Ringo is no singer. Either time has been his enemy, or as I suggested, the recording blows, but in reality I think the engineer on his studio albums probably did some major help.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoy most of Ringo's stuff. So... Go buy the studio stuff, because this live recording would be hard to sit through, twice.

If you're a Ringo fan, hopefully you have had or will have the opportunity to see Ringo and his All-Starr Band live. It is always a marvelous time, with great classic songs performed by Ringo and the other artists. Some of the greatest concerts I've ever attended have been Ringo's shows. So this 3- cd set which includes material from most, if apparently not all, the tours is a real blast to listen to. Some of the highlights include 'Weight Of The World', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'I'm The Greatest', 'It Don't Come Easy', 'You're Sixteen', 'Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go', 'Boys', 'No No Song', 'Yellow Submarine', 'Back Off Boogaloo' and 'Photograph' by Ringo, 'Groovin' by Felix Cavaliere, 'Black Maria' by Todd Rundgren, 'Raining In My Heart' by Rick Danko, 'All Right Now' by Simon Kirke, 'I Can't Tell You Why' by Timothy B. Schmidt, 'I Feel Free' by Jack Bruce, 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' by Randy Bachman, 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' by Gary Brooker, 'All By Myself' by Eric Carmen, 'I Hear You Knocking' by Dave Edmunds, 'Shine Silently' by Nils Lofgren and certainly all three of Joe Walsh's tunes ('Life In The Fast Lane', 'In The City' and his wonderfully off-kilter take on 'Desperado'). And there is much more great music on here which also deserves heard. The entire set is capped off 'With A Little Help From My Friends', as accurate a summation of the essence of the All-Starr Band tours as you will ever get. This really is a great and inexpensive set that all of Ringo's fans need to add to their collections.

With so many different versions of some songs available, and some left off competely (Octopus' Garden, Goodnight, Conquistador, etc.), this is a huge and welcome addition to any Ringo (or classic rock) collection--but even at the risk of repeating several songs, the alternate versions of some of Ringo's classics with different line-ups, plus the extra material not used (partially for that reason) beg for a sequel!

This neat and convenient 3-CD package contains the best of his All-Starr Band tours from 1989-2000. You get to hear all of Ringo's big songs, including "Photograph," "It Don't Come Easy," "Yellow Submarine," "Back Off Boogaloo" and more. Ringo sounds stronger on this CD than he did on his 2001 or 2003 tours. Maybe age really can hit a Beatle! After all, he is 65 now. The other performers are quite good too. I really liked John Entwistle's "Boris The Spider" (I am a huge fan of the Who also). Other reviewers have complained about sound quality, but I don't think it's that bad. But then again, I spend a lot of my time listening to bootlegs, so maybe I'm just used to it.