Written by: Hoyt Axton, David Jackson
Recorded: July; August; 18 September 1974
Producer: Richard Perry
Released: 15 November 1974 (UK), 18 November 1974 (US)
Available on:
Goodnight Vienna
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, percussion
Jesse Ed Davis: electric guitar
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Nicky Hopkins: electric piano
Trevor Lawrence, Bobby Keys: horns
Harry Nilsson: vocals
‘No No Song’ is the eighth track on Ringo Starr’s 1974 album Goodnight Vienna.
It was written by Hoyt Axton and David Jackson. Some versions of the album list the song title as ‘No No Song/Skokiaan’, due to its similarity with the 1947 tune of that name by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa.
Hoyt Axton is a close personal friend of mine and he’d written ‘No No Song’. I had him change the melody to the verses and then it seemed right for Ringo.
Circus, March 1975
In 1975 Axton released his own version of the song, featuring Cheech and Chong, on the album Southbound.
‘No No Song’ warns of the dangers of marijuana, cocaine, and moonshine whiskey – an ironic commentary, given Starr’s proclivities in 1974. Cocaine was ubiquitous in the music industry at the time, and Starr was in Los Angeles during John Lennon’s Lost Weekend period, during which drink and drugs were never far away.
Everybody believes the song is ‘anti’ – which the lyrics are – but they have to remember that the people who were actually working that day were brain damaged. Hoyt Axton who co-wrote the song was so great. All sorts of people were hanging out in the studio at that point. We all thought this was funny – Ringo doing this anti-dope song. As far as I know, I was the first to record ‘No No Song’ but I can be proved wrong on many things about the seventies.
Photograph – The Very Best Of Ringo Starr
‘No No Song’ was issued as a single in the US on 27 January 1975, with ‘Snookeroo’ on the b-side. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
We don’t think they’d play it over here. I asked at Capitol, and they said no, and I don’t think the BBC would play it. I’ve never ’eard it on the radio, and it’s on the album, so they could play it if they wanted to. It’s interesting because in America we checked out all the stations, and they said they wouldn’t play it there either. So, we put out ‘Snookeroo’ as the a-side, but everyone played ‘No No Song’, which freaked us all out. I mean, there’s been no problems at all. Anyway, it’s an anti-drug song!
New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
Shortly after the release of his 1992 album Time Takes Time, the now-sober Starr recorded several new songs. They included ‘Some Folks Do’, effectively a follow-up to ‘No No Song’. It featured the key line “Some folks do but I don’t,” and was intended as a celebration of Starr’s sobriety.
