Written by: Buzz Rabin
Recorded: 25 June 1970
Producer: Pete Drake
Engineer: Scotty Moore
Released: 25 September 1970 (UK), 28 September 1970 (US)
Available on:
Beaucoups Of Blues
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals
Charlie Daniels, Chuck Howard, Jerry Kennedy, Dave Kirby, Sorrells Pickard, Jerry Shook: guitar
Ben Keith/Pete Drake: pedal steel guitar
Charlie McCoy: harmonica
Roy Huskey Jr: upright bass
Buddy Harman/DJ Fontana: drums
Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Neal Matthews Jr, Ray Walker: vocals
‘Beaucoups Of Blues’ is the title track and first song on Ringo Starr’s second solo album.
It was written by Buzz Rabin, who also wrote songs for artists including Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe, as well as performing solo.
George was doing his album in England, and he flew Pete Drake in to play pedal steel. I sent my car to pick Pete up and I had a lot of cassettes in the back in those days – a lot of them were country. Pete said, ‘You’ve got to come to Nashville and make a country album.’ I said, ‘Six months in Nashville, I don’t know.’ Because The Beatles were taking a long time to make records in the end, and this was just after that. Pete said, ‘We made Nashville Skyline in two days.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ In the morning, we’d pick five tracks, and in the afternoon we recorded five tracks. The next day, we did the same thing.
Photograph – The Very Best Of Ringo Starr
‘Beaucoups Of Blues’ was released as in the US on 5 October 1970, with the Nashville outtake ‘Coochy Coochy’ on the b-side. It peaked at number 87 on the Billboard chart. It was also released in Australia, Canada, and Germany, but fared only slightly better.
In the studio
Beaucoups Of Blues was recorded at Music City Recorders in Nashville, TN, with a number of local musicians, some of whom had appeared on Bob Dylan’s albums Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. The album was produced by Pete Drake, with Elvis Presley’s guitarist Scotty Moore engineering.
The sessions took place from 6pm-9pm and 10pm-1am over three nights, from 25-27 June 1970. ‘Beaucoups Of Blues’ was recorded during the second session on the night of 25 June.
Lyrics
I left Louisiana, I had me big plans
To go out and take me all over this land
To see me the world, I left my sweet girl
And gave it a whirl, but now here I stand
Alongside the road with holes in my soul and my shoes
And beaucoups of blues
Oh, sweet magnolia
Breath carried over the marsh by a breeze from the gulf
I’m coming home (coming home)
I’ve had me enough
Oh, where are the things I saw in my dreams?
Where’s the happy that freedom should bring?
I see me today and know yesterday
That I threw away my most precious things
I see me a man who’s lonely, wants only to lose
Beaucoups of blues
Oh, sweet magnolia
Breath carried over the marsh by a breeze from the gulf
I’m coming home (coming home)
I’ve had me enough
I’m coming home (coming home)
I’ve had me enough
