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From The Desk Of Scott McCaughey: Ringo Starr

Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows frontman Scott McCaughey has been blurring the distinction between his two bands for a while, to the point where many of the songs on either group’s LPs would be appropriate for the other. Both return this week with new efforts: the Minus 5’s Killingsworth and the Fellows’ I Think This Is. The tunes are more divergent, with Killingsworth featuring a heavy alt-country vibe and I Think This Is being a typically funny garage-pop workout. When he’s not fronting his own combos, McCaughey is a sideman for R.E.M. and Robyn Hitchcock, the latter of whom produced I Think This Is. McCaughey is guest-editing magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our Q&A with him.

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McCaughey: Ringo Starr is 69 years old today. And going strong, really.

“My Friend Ringo” (Charlie Chesterman, 1981):
Day by day, I think of things I’d like to say
And all the answers to the questions that are facing me
But sometimes I just get pissed
I’m never in time, I’m never in the right line
And I never go to the places that I should stay

I’m not quite right, my timing or my pace
And aggravation—it should show up on my face
But sometimes I just get pissed
I’m never in time, I’m never in the right line
And I never go to the places that I should stay

But sometimes when I’m down
I think of you, my friend Ringo …