OST - 2nd Part

Glad you could make it because you're just in time for the second part of my attempt at tracking down the soundtrack recordings to most of Ringo's filmography. And we enter the 70's.

The Point! is a very peculiar animation long-feature (the first to be made for TV) and it was born entirely out of Harry Nilsson's head (Nilsson is a name that pops up frequently when talking about Ringo's life and career as you will see, because the two of them were close friends and collaborated quite often during the 70's decade). He came up with the idea for it ("I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to points. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it." - Harry Nilsson)and even wrote and composed the entire soundtrack. On For the Love of Harry, a wonderful blog about Harry Nilsson, you can find and download the entire soundtrack in this link here. Am I or am I not your best friend right now? Of course I'm not. But I will be. Just bear with me some more paragraphs.

Moving on, we find Frank Zappa's first movie effort, 200 Motels. This particular title has the distinction of being the first feature film to be entirely shot on video and then transfered to 35 mm. And it's still not out on DVD. Vent away your frustrations, all you Ringo and Zappa fans because as things are right now, you will not see this one through legit ways in a long, long time. In other words, get it through the grey market. Anyway, the soundtrack is out on CD (a double-disc, no less) and I actually have it and can recommend it very highly (it even comes with a small poster inside and all). Get it here.

The Spaghetti Western Blindman (which is out on DVD and is one of the movies that I will be talking very soon about) score was written by Stelvio Cipriani and while not particularly memorable, it has its moments and if you like the genre, give it a try. Who knows, you might even like it. Check out more info at that amazing reference site I mentioned to you about on the just below post, Soundtrack Collector.

Next stop is the glam wet dream of Born to Boogie, a part movie/part documentary/part concert film about Marc Bolan and his T. Rex band, directed and produced by Ringo himself. It's a wonderful time capsule of a movie and it's thankfully out on DVD in a fantastically produced 2xDVD edition with all the bells and whistles. And yes, you can get it also on CD here. For fans or initiated, this stuff is glorious. Highly recommended, of course. And from Glam to Rock and Roll as we move into one of Ringo's best movies (no, seriously), That'll Be The Day, the David Essex vehicle. No CD soundtrack appears to be available at the moment, which is a shame considering the amount of old Rock 'n' Roll gems it contains. IMDB lists some of them. Definitely one to get your fingers on, both movie and music.

We've now reached roughly half-way through the 70's and I'll leave the other half to the next time but before I go, I'm going to provide a link for a free download of the complete soundtrack to Son of Dracula (that peculiar movie I talked about earlier on this blog), from that wonderful Harry Nilsson blog I mentioned above. It's currently Out of Print on CD, so grab it now! See, I told you I was going to become your best friend.

OST - Part One

Hello there! Missed me? Of course you all did! Want to know more about Ringo? Guessed you would! So here goes nothing.

Today, I'm going to sort of provide enough info and links to the soundtracks of most of Ringo's filmography. Am I up for the task? Well, that's what we are going to find out very, very soon.

Starting with The Beatles output, you can easily find them on any Amazon shop. Here are the links for Hard Day's Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine and Let It Be. Worth noting that these last two albums have alternate versions: here is the link for the former and the one for the latter.

As for Candy, as far as I know, there hasn't been any re-release on CD, although there definitely was one on LP format. Here is the link to a wonderful site I'll be linking more on this and other future posts that proves just that. Check out the cover artwork for the various LP releases too. Soundtrack Collector is a wonderful reference site for anyone even vaguely interested in Music written for the Cinema. Moving on, we have a tricky one. The Magic Christian did have a LP soundtrack release but sadly, there's been no sign of it on CD until now. Here's the link that proves it. However, if you want to listen to some of the songs written for it, you can find them at the Badfinger album, Magic Christian Music. Apparently, Paul McCartney was involved in it too, so I guess this is Beatles' completist heaven for some. Not for me, though.

Anyway, now that we've covered the 60's period and given you enough to google by, I promise to write about the 70's soundtracks tomorrow but before I leave, here's some more Ringo for thought (yup, I'll be talking about the movie this picture was taken from in the future as well, don't you worry):

Candy

The movie Ringo co-STARRed in that I'm going to write some words about today is readily available on DVD for quite a long time (though now currently Out of Print in the US but not in the UK), so if by the end of this post, you feel interested in checking it out, that particular task won't be as hard as the previously mentioned films in this little blog of ours.

It's called Candy, as you can see by the original theatrical poster on the left, and it was made in 1968 by frenchman Christian Marquand at the height of the hippie movement. And boy, does it show! Adapted from the novel by Terry Southern by the same name, it tells the story of a young ingénue named, you guessed it, Candy and her many adventures in search of... well, something. I've watched the movie quite a few times (rewatched it in fact just this weekend to prepare myself for these words) and I am still not sure what the movie is about.

Just so you can get a better picture of it, it involves a constantly wind-swept poet, a mexican gardener who's studying to become a priest (our own Ringo Starr, no less!), false indian gurus, homicidal surgeons, underground temples, members of the U. S. Army, a flying hunchback and the Mob! To confuse matters even more, apparently Southern's novel was loosely basen on literary classic Candide, by Voltaire, also the story of a naif character (a man, this time around) in search of Optimism. Sounds too erudite to you? Well, it should: it was written by a philosopher, if you're still wondering who Voltaire was.

With this sort of material, it should've been easy to make a fantastic movie, right? Right. But not in this case, though. Candy is yet another glorious cinematic mess that leaves you dumbfounded at the end and viewing it 40 years on, I'm quite sure that even the hippie crowd (clearly the target audience this movie was fabricated for) had a hard time figuring it all out. Nevertheless, it features some amazing cinematography by Fellini regular, Giuseppe Rotunno which achieves the impossible: to keep us glued to the screen for its whole two hours. No mean feat, I tell you.

And what about Ringo's part in it? Well, let's just say that his mexican accent sounds too liverpudlian to be believable but to see him on the big screen is always a pleasure (for me, at least). He seemed to enjoy it too, judging by the picture below with newcomer Ewa Aulin...

Good Morning!

Top o' the morning to y'all! Hope you've been having a fantastic week. The weekend is just around the corner and make yourself a favour and enjoy it to the max, ok?

Now, while I'm still wondering which next Ringo movie to talk to you about on my next post (the choices are still so many and so juicily good that I'm really having trouble figuring out which one to choose), I'll leave you with the full picture from legendary cartoonist Al Hirschfeld that you can currently get a sneak peak at in my current profile. It's actually quite good, which coming from the author in question, is an understatement. Take a look -

Lisztomania

Hello, blog-goers (just made up this crappy new word on the spot)! Well, here I am again to tell you a little bit more about Lisztomania, a 1975 Ken Russell film starring The Who frontman, Roger Daltrey and co-STARRing our one and only Ringo Starr in a very peculiar role as we shall see.

Apparently, this is the movie that Ken Russell (himself belonging to that rare and dying breed that constitute the Great British Eccentrics) wanted to make before he was approached by The Who to transform their double-album Rock Opera, Tommy, into a moving musical picture. Because that particular project was so successful, Russell got the go-ahead signal from the folks at Warner Bros. to come up with a fantasized bio-pic on classic composer Franz Liszt. For anyone wondering, Russell did not come up with the title - it was borrowed from a biography with the same name. Perfect, don't you think?

Anyway, this movie, like most of Russell's, is a love it or hate it affair. Those who like to indulge in the dizzy realms of that grand art that is High Camp, will find plenty to enjoy here, be it from the over-the-top sceneries and performances or from the liberty the author grants himself to go past over such silly and impractical things as historical accuracy or narrative plausibility. Not to worry, dear readers: it's all done in excellent bad taste.

Yes, we have giant penises, Richard Wagner dying and ressuscitating as Hitler, Richard Wakeman as a sort of mixture of Asterix and a Viking, a heavenly spaceship in the full sense of the word (I won't ruin this one for you as you have to see it to believe it) and finally, Ringo as the Pope, wearing cowboy boots. With that said, if you still haven't ran to get this movie at all costs, you simply'll never know how much fun you are missing. Yes, it's another MODVD, folks.

That reminds me: one of these days, I have to start making online petitions for those damned MODVD movies. And that's a promise! I leave you with a poster for Lisztomania I just found and one I've never seen before. Enjoy it!

À escolha do freguês

Just a small, harmless plug here: I am in charge of a weekly showing of films on a very nice Cafe in the town where I live. It's called O Pátio and it's quite the melting pot, as coffee-shops go! Below, you'll find the poster and the movies that are being played this month (it's People's choice, all April long) -

Franz Liszt! Chop Sticks!

Question: what do Roger Daltrey, Franz Liszt, Ken Russell, giant penises, Hitler, Richard Wagner, Rick Wakeman, Ringo Starr and the Pope have to do with the movie from which the above poster comes from?

Find out all about it in my next post as we journey into the unknown territory of Ringo's MODVD (missing on DVD, for those who'd like to know) filmography! Stay tuned!

Son of Dracula

Well, as promised here I am to tell you a little bit about the movie from which the poster I posted (a little aliteration never hurt anybody) down below comes from.

As you can easily tell, it's called Son of Dracula and reputedly, it's one of the worst movies ever made (which instantly makes it a "must see" in my book), having only played for a week in Atlanta in 1974, the year of its release (and my birth year, coincidently). It was directed by none other than Freddie Francis, cinematographer extraordinaire and the man behind the visuals of such great masterpieces such as The Innocents and The Elephant Man, just to name a couple of movies he was behind the camera.

Anyway, feeling a little bit lazy here so I'll just quote a small synopsis from Wikipedia:

Son of Dracula is a musical comedy film released in 1974 by Apple Films, starring Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr. It is also the title of a Harry Nilsson album released in conjunction with the film. It includes Nilsson songs that were showcased in the film as well as portions of dialogue, used as bridging sequences. All song tracks with the exception of "Daybreak" are from Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) and Son of Schmilsson (1972), albums previously released.

Ringo Starr appears as Merlin the Magician, who follows the birth and rise of young Count Downe, played by Harry Nilsson. Starr and Nilsson were longtime friends, and Starr had played drums on Son of Schmilsson, which had spoofed horror movie motifs. A year or so later, Starr decided to make a rock and roll Dracula movie, and invited Nilsson to come on board. Nilsson thought at first the whole idea came from his recent album; as it turned out, Starr hadn't followed its release, and until then-wife Maureen brought him a copy, he didn't even know Nilsson had already used a similar theme.

Intrigued? So am I. Want to watch it? So would I. But sadly there's never been any release of Son of Dracula on any home video format. Over at YouTube land, there used to be a way to watch it in its entirety but that option is now no longer available (I guess it must have been pulled down due to rights issues). The only way out is to find a decent bootleg DVD and buy it. Not that I'm endorsing bootlegging or anything like that but in extreme cases like these anything goes, me guesses.

One last thing: notice the similarity between the cover artwork for Harry Nilsson's The Son of Schmilsson and the soundtrack for Son of Dracula -

Help!

Just a quick post today (and I know I'm cheating, I should be talking about Son of Dracula instead... rest assured, I will!) but I just wanted to share with you this earth-shattering fact: I went out and finally got myself the new Help! DVD [earth crumbles into oblivion noises]. Wow, my life is full, isn't it?

Anyway, the DVD is great, it's fantastic even, and already went through all the extras and booklet, with foreword by the director himself (Richard Lester) and an appreciation of the film by none other than Martin Scorsese. Yup. We're in the big league here, gentlemen.

Must dash now. See you all next time.

Q & A

So, in case you haven't guessed the mini-quizz on the post below, yes, it's The Beatles. No prizes for this one, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I think I should clarify in a more... um, clarifying way, what the purpose of this blog really is. You see, for years the mere vision or mention of Mr. Starr was a kind of baffling one. I mean, he's the odd one out, isn't he? And yet, the world would have been a poorer and sadder place without him. Being a sort of cinema buff, once in a while I would happen to catch or watch a film in which he STARRed in. And most of the time, he wasn't to be found amongst the best examples of the 7th Art, as it has come to be called. In fact, he's been in quite a number of cinematic misfires. The ones that are so off the beaten track that they cannot help themselves turning into cult classics. Just the kind I happen to love, actually.

So, what I'm trying to say is that my real appreciation for his talents came from watching those very same movies. And just like the world we live in, they would have been a lot poorer and sadder without Mr. Starr STARRing in them. I'll cut to the chase: for the duration of this blog, I will try to make my readers aware that Ringo (if he doesn't mind me calling him that) has had one of the most peculiar film careers ever and we're all the ones who should be thankful for that. Putting a little bit of fun in everything he touches. That's one of the main reasons I'm his fan.

Oh, and occasionally you can also expect to find some reviews of mine for his solo albums (also a most peculiar side to his overall career). And since I'm still a long way until I see each and every one of his movies and listen to each and every one of his albums, this blog will be just an adventure for me as it will be (maybe) to you, the reader. Are you up for the ride?

I leave you with the poster of a quite obscure movie that I will talk in more detail next time (and one I still haven't watched yet, though I'm dying to!).

Hello!

Hi, there!

First ever post on a(nother) blog being inaugurated this instant on the place we now have come to call second home (yes, you guessed it: the www). One born every minute. Just like crap ideas.

With that out of the way, I'd just like to say that this will be a place where you will be able to find all sort of things and up-to-date news and reviews connected with that all-too familiar face (and body!) behind the drums of the most famous band to ever grace pop-dom. No, I'm not talking about The Spice Girls. They don't even have a drummer. Hey, they're not even a band, you know? In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'll tell you all about in on my second post.

Until then, I leave you with my favorite photo of Mr. Starr himself: I give you ...[drum roll]... RINGO!