Ringo Starr has released his latest single "Gonna Need Someone" from his Crooked Boy EP, featuring guitarist Nick Valensi from The Strokes. Watch and listen below.
Ringo Starr - Gonna Need Someone
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The four songs on the EP – "February Sky," "Adeline," "Gonna Need Someone," and "Crooked Boy" were written and produced by Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Linda Perry. The five-time Grammy nominee worked with Starr on two previous songs, "Coming Undone" from his EP Change the World and "Everyone and Everything" from EP3.
"I love what Linda did and I think all the songs are all great but one thing I did ask her was to write me a rocker," Starr said in a statement. And that’s 'Gonna Need Someone' and I love it! Nick Valensi plays guitars on it — and on all of the EP — and he is great."
Crooked Boy dropped digitally April 26 and will have a vinyl and CD release on May 31, which you can pre-order here.
Beaucoups Of Blues
In other news, Starr revealed he is working on a country album. In a February video update he said, "I was gonna do a country EP, but as things are unfolding, it’s probably gonna be like a real CD. Ten tracks, can you believe it? Haven’t done one of them in a long time." And while some may be tempted to suggest that the 83-year-old drummer is jumping on the trend bandwagon, consider that he was already onboard – over 50 years ago with 1970's Beaucoup of Blues. In a 1995 re-issue review Q described it as "always likable and original" and "a collection of contemporary country songs, delivered by Ringo Starr in a languidly melancholic style curiously reminiscent of Michael Nesmith."
The Beatles with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg getting ready for the 'rooftop concert,' January 1969.
In addition to gearing up for a tour, Starr has offered his opinion on the upcoming restored version of the Beatles 1970 film Let It Be on streaming service Disney+. In an interview with the Associated Press, Starr said, "I think Peter Jackson has done an incredible job. For me, not a lot of joy in it. It’s from the point of view of the director, and that was up to him. We found 56 hours of unused tape, we found it and Peter Jackson put his heart and soul into it and it works really well. It’s great because you’ll get another chance to see us on the roof."
The Beatles 'Let It Be' will stream exclusively on Disney+.
The original intention of filming the Beatles in rehearsal for a forthcoming tour placed Lindsay-Hogg up against impossible time restraints and tension-filled hours as the group's infrastructure was crumbling in front of the camera lens. With the exception of the joyous gig on the rooftop at 3 Savile Row and the inclusion of good friend Billy Preston, the entire project was not looked at fondly for the next five decades.
Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg had this to say in a press release, "Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. One month before its release, the Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film."
However, with the positive reception to Jackson's Get Back docuseries, this re-release of the original film should place this film in a clearer and more honest perspective.
Let It Be premieres exclusively on Disney+ on May 8.
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