Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band-With A Little Help From My Friends (The Anthology...So Far) (2000)
Artist: Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band
Title: With A Little Help From My Friends (The Anthology...So Far)
Label: Rokarola Records/Music Avenue
Format: 3XCD
Cat #: 250275
Year of Release: 2000
Country and Year of Edition Issue: Europe 2010
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 4/23/25
Sell Price: $11.11
Discogs Last Sold: 3/21/25 M/M $11.36
Low: $3.41
Median: $10.23
Average: $10.97
High: $17.99
Current low price: $6.24
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 14
Have/Want: 100/18
Where Sold: Fort Wayne, IN
Time it took to sell: 1 year
Where and When Bought: Facebook $3 lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C
Sad To See It Go: No
Ringo has been a proven road warrior since the late 80's taking an endless concept on permanent tour. Classic rockers back him up and do their own hits between Ringo's own highlights from his Beatles and solo career. I saw the first tour in 1989 and haven't been back. Ringo has. Year in and year out. Maybe this will be the year I return since he is coming to Radio City in June after canceling on the date I was planning to see last year.
This edition was a 2010 overhaul of the 2000 package with revised artwork. This version of With A Little Help From My Friends had a glossy foldout design to hold 3 cd's and a booklet. The blue design is swapped for an orange one. The streams still have the original blue artwork spread out over three volumes. I picked it up a year or two ago in a lot of heavily discounted CD's, $2 or $3 each, I can't remember. Honestly, I never even knew this anthology existed the first time around let alone this one.
What this anthology lacks in casual listenability it makes up in summarizing what Ringo did roughly his first decade on the road without repeating songs over three compact discs. That's a long amount of time to hear hits redefined as established hits for an arena stage meant to be experienced in a summer outdoor amphitheater. There are a couple exceptions. Ringo did a couple songs from his Time Takes Time album from 1992: "Weight of the World" and "Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go." Clarence Clemons took on Gary U.S. Bonds "Quarter To Three" and Rick Danko tackled Buddy Holly "Raining In My Heart." There were really only a couple "deep cuts" from the classic rockers on this sampler: Gary Brooker doing Procol Harum's "A Salty Dog" (though looking at setlists from 1997 there was quite a bit of Procol Harum) and Todd Rundgren digging into Something/Anything with "Black Maria." I'm sure the concession stands bustled, and the bathroom lines swelled during some of those songs.
Ringo was in his 50's for the brunt of this decade of touring. His voice sounds a little lower than the Beatle years, but he still sounds one-of-a-kind. If anything, it blows one's mind how Ringo still stands in good health and on the road year after year while so many of his All-Starrs have passed away: Dr. John (1989; guest 2008; died 2019) , Levon Helm (1989; guest 2008; died 2012), Clarence Clemons (1989; died 2011) , Rick Danko (1989; died 1999), Billy Preston (1989, 1995; died 2006) , John Entwistle (1995; died 2002) , Gary Brooker (1997–1999; guest 2010; died 2022) , Jack Bruce (1997–2000; guest 2010; died 2014) and Eric Carmen (2000; occasional guest 1989–2019; died 2024) have all passed. Quincy Jones is here for an intro (presumably at the 1992 Montreux Jazz Festival mentioned right before "I'm The Greatest") though he was never in the band, and he is gone too. Ringo changes the lyrics to go "now I'm only 52..." which he was in 1992 when he played that esteemed festival.
Survivors of the first decade contained on this set include Nils Lofgren (1989–1992, occasional guest 1995–2019) , Joe Walsh (1989–1992; occasional guest 1995–2024), Timothy B. Schmidt (1992; guest 1997), Dave Edmunds (1992, 2000) , Felix Cavaliere (1995; guest 2012), Burton Cummings (1992) Randy Bachman (1995), Todd Rundgren (1992, 1999, 2012–2017) , Peter Frampton (1997–1998; guest 2012) and Simon Kirke (1997–2000; guest 2003). Recently fired/rehired Who drummer Zak Starkey also played for his Dad in 1992-1995 and has shown up from time to time over the years.
As for listening to all of this, there isn't really an arrangement that unquestionably "stands out." "Yellow Submarine" is probably the most interesting because Ringo is shouting out the indecipherable commands in a way that is a bit more decipherable. Less interesting is when he says words like "life," "waves" and "aboard" and "ease." The piano heavy musical arrangement and harmonies aren't so hot on this one.
When Peter Frampton recorded Frampton Comes Alive, "Show Me The Way" and "Baby I Love Your Way" weren't big hits so they weren't performed on that record the way he performs them here with the assumption every last person knows those songs. When Ringo does it, these types of observations don't matter so much because...it's Ringo! He can do whatever he wants, and we are lucky he is still here at 84 and wants to do it.
It is Ringo's show, after all.
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
The Beatles Second Album (1964)
Songs Pictures and Stories of The Fabulous Beatles (1964)
Hear The Beatles Tell All (1964)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Hey Jude b/w Revolution (1968)
Jackie Lomax-Is This What You Want (1969)
The Beatles vs. The Third Reich (1985, unofficial)
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