Ringo Starr: Back Off Boogaloo (Drum Cover)

Say what you want about Ringo Starr’s solo career. To me, he has released some great records and his music is rather fun to listen to. While it may not be as great as the other three’s careers, I often find myself listening to Starr’s (and Harrison’s) music more than Lennon and McCartney. Of course everyone talks about his 1973 album Ringo, but he has other great albums as well. Ringo’s Rotogravure from 1976 is full of great gems and even 1981’s Stop and Smell the Roses can be enjoyed. His newer releases like 2010’s Y Not and his newest EPs aren’t too bad either. These are just my opinions as I’m sure many others may disagree.

The second solo Ringo cover to be featured on the channel is 1972’s “Back Off Boogaloo”, a non-album single that was written by Ringo Starr and George Harrison, though he remained uncredited as a writer until 2017. The song has a glam rock sound to it and was inspired by Marc Bolan, the guitarist for the band T. Rex. Starr also directed the T. Rex documentary film Born to Boogie around this same time. It has been theorized that the song is an attack on McCartney, but Ringo has said that this is not true, though the lyrics could be interpreted as such.

The song was recorded in September 1971, shortly after his appearance at The Concert for Bangladesh at Apple Studios in London. Like “It Don’t Come Easy”, George Harrison produced the recording and contributed acoustic guitar and an impressive slide guitar part. Gary Wright performs the song’s piano part, and Beatles friend and frequent collaborator Klaus Voorman plays bass and saxophone. Starr’s drum track is quite impressive as it’s all played on the snare drum, no regular beat is heard in the song, except during the song’s bridges where a hi hat can be heard, but he’s only using the pedal, not hitting it with a stick. This is my interpretation of the drum track, Starr switches the pattern up ever so often and it was hard to keep track where each change appeared. While it may not be 100% note for note, I’d say it’s pretty close. The song was a massive hit reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart on #9 on America’s Top 100 and is Starr’s highest charting single in the UK. Ringo has also re-recorded the song twice since it’s first release. The first re-recorded version can be found as the final track on Stop and Smell the Roses and the second version can be heard as a bonus track on 2017’s Give More Love. Radically different versions from the original, but still pretty good.

I’m using a Remo Diplomat Classic Fiberskyn drum head on the snare. This is the same drum head I have used on every video of mine from “You Won’t See Me” up until “Tell Me Why” except for “Ticket to Ride.” I wanted to experiment with an older drum head I have that was pretty beat up, and I must say, it doesn’t sound too bad. It sounds great if you tune it rather low.

I have a little story regarding this song. In 2011, I was in fifth grade and had to go to Maryland for a school trip. I brought a few CD’s along with me, one of them being Photograph: The Best of Ringo Starr. We were in Maryland for only a long weekend, but I must have played that same CD every day. Now every time I hear this song, and any song from that CD, it always reminds me of that one weekend.

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