"Vertical Man" carries on the good work Ringo began on "Time Takes Time"...and began a musical 'partnership' with Mark Hudson. Hudson shares producer's credit with Ringo and plays a wide variety of instruments on the record. As with most other Ringo albums, guest appearances are the norm...the list is long, including: Paul McCartney, George Harrison (sadly the last time George played with Ringo), Tom Petty, Steven Tyler, Alanis Morissette (
), Joe Walsh and Steve Cropper.
And what of the music? All but two of the numbers were written by Ringo and Mark, with Mark's band, the Roundheads. The two covers merit a mention: "Love Me Do" and "Drift Away"....the former is a re-working of the Beatles' first hit single while the latter covers the Dobie Gray early 70's hit.
I remember thinking, "How in the world is Ringo gonna cope with "Drift Away"?" He gets some able assistance from Tom Petty and Alanis Morissette, that's how.
The originals here are mostly jangly in the Beatles tradition....my only quibble with "Vertical Man" is that there seems to have been an attempt to capture a kind of 'party' atmosphere, much like some of his earlier solo work. One feels as if Ringo isn't taking this too seriously, and that's ok, but one of the aspects I enjoyed most about "Time Takes Time" was that it felt like Ringo was really concentrating on his work, both vocally and drum-wise. The results on "Vertical Man" are much better than the earlier albums mainly because of better song writing...and there are some really good ones here.
