Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mr. Obvious



Ringo Starr would be the first person to admit that even though he has helped compose some outstanding songs, he is the least prolific songwriter of the Beatles. Although he was given a partial writing credit on the song "What Goes On" (depending on which version of the album you possess) his first full composition credit was for the song, "Don't Pass Me By." Although he had most of the song written in 1964, it did not appear on record until the Beatles self-titled album of 1968. Interestingly, his song contains one of the most difficult to dismiss clues in the annals of Paul Is Dead mythology.

You have to pull the line out of context in order to get the full impact, but it is difficult to not cringe when you hear:

Sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair
You were in a car crash and you lost your hair


Although the line does arguably fit into the storyline of the song, that doesn't make it any less bizarre. It makes more sense as an "over the top" obvious PID clue.

Ringo never got that obvious again, or did he?

In 1976 Ringo wrote a song for an album called "Lies and Alibis" (How ironic!) by country rocker Guthrie Thomas.



The album credits reveal that Thomas had a lot of friends in the music business. It was a real rarity to have a song penned for you by Ringo Starr. The composer credit for the song "Band of Steel" surprisingly was "Ringo Starr" instead of the usual "Richard Starkey."



But it is the lyrics of the chorus that provide the bigger surprise. Like "Don't Pass Me By" the chilling lines make some sense in the context of the stream of consciousness song, but they make more sense when interpreted as a PID clue.

The lyrics, which are printed in the inner sleeve of the record are:

But they sang out their songs for all you people
Gave you everything they ever had
But nobody cares about a dead man
And sendin' wreaths is somethin' they don't understand





"Band of Steel" starts and finishes as a love song. In between, it pays homage to the late Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams, but that chorus still wreaks of Paul Is Dead to me.



You can find the full set of lyrics to Band of Steel here. Perhaps the lyrics were improvised, which would explain how strange they are, but you need to remember that this song was written and released the same year as Ringo's Rotogravure, which encouraged fans to use a magnifying glass on its back cover.



Be careful when exploring the clues of Ringo Starr that you don't overlook the obvious.



Update: Click the picture for larger version. The scan was borrowed from JoJo of Nothing Is Real, but I have the album and can scan a particular area if anyone thinks something significant is hidden there.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh....I think he's talkin' about Hank and Jimmie's songs. Criminy, you might as well say "Goodbye English Rose" is about paul too.

tia tita said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tia tita said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Does somebody have acopy of the back cover of Ringo's Rotogravure in high definition?

Anyway, there's a cross in the door :P

Felipegcs

Anonymous said...

When the buzz dies down, they like to start it back up again with something obvious. How much more obvious could Ringo be here? He may as well have the Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe in that picture.

Rotogravure- someone spinning in their grave?

Tafultong said...

anonymous wrote:
Criminy, you might as well say "Goodbye English Rose" is about paul too.

OBVIOUSLY. Thanks for the comment.

Tafultong said...

Larger version of Rotogravure Back Cover borrowed from JoJo of Nothing Is Real.

Felipegcs said...

Did you know that there is a variety of Roses called "McCartney" in honor of Macca? search in google for McCartney Rose.
Also, every Beatle has a Asteroid with his name.
Mmmmmm...

Anonymous said...

...so what might be gleaned from the magnified cover? i have trouble making out the finer print, even in this higher resolution copy....

Felipegcs said...

Thanks for uploading the bigger picture, Tafuktong. I saw a "Beatles 5" in the sign, a 3 in the doorframe, and below the 3 it says "We love the Beatles" inside a spark like the "Helter Skelter" message in that Charles Manson's door

http://www.thezodiacmansonconnection.com/images/helter-skelter_door.jpg

Aw... did I say A DOOR...written...like Manson's door.
Coincidence?

Felipegcs said...

Sorry, it said "Long Live the Beatles" into the spark.

Felipegcs said...

Check the sign... there are some letters superposed to the rest of the sign... Around "Allowed" a "S" and a "L", a "T" in "Building" I can't understand some letters...

SLT?OSI??? IPECIED BY UI


In the cross in the door i see maybe "Lily" at one side, and "Cheryl Gray" at the other side.
Lily Gray?

Anonymous said...

"SPOOKY WEIRDNESS"

-"HELLO!
GOOD EVENING.
GOOD EVENING.
WHO'S THERE?"

-"WELCOME TO MY DREAMS.
COME UP TO MY ROOM.
COME, LOOK INTO MY EYES."

-"OH!"

-"AND THAT'S HOW THE ALBUM ENDS...HA! HA! HA!...

who's there? who's here? i can't tell if this is obvious or not.

Pablo said...

We were talking in our forum (http://paulisdead.creatuforo.com) about the lyrics of the Ringo`s song Back Off Boogaloo. At first I thought that wasn`t about Paul, because, how Ringo want to talk bad about Paul who was producing his album! but... if you read the lyrics:

Wake up, meat head,
Don't pretend that you are dead,
Get yourself up off the cart.

Get yourself together now
And give me something tasty.
Ev'rything you try to do,
You know it sure sounds wasted.

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