page_title: Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond) / Recording
caption_attribution_description: English: The Band, Hamburg, May 1971. Left to right: Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel.
context_page_description: "Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)" is a song by English musician Ringo Starr that appears on his 1973 solo album Ringo. It was written by George Harrison, Starr's former bandmate in the Beatles, and was one of several contributions Harrison made to Ringo. Recording for the song took place in Los Angeles in March 1973, with Richard Perry producing the session. In addition to Starr and Harrison, the musicians on the track include Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson of the Band, and multi-instrumentalist David Bromberg.
  Harrison wrote "Sunshine Life for Me" in Ireland while staying with Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. In a contrast with the reconciliatory mood among the four ex-Beatles when the song was recorded, the visit occurred shortly after the British High Court's ruling on the dissolution of the band in March 1971. The composition reflects the influence of Irish folk music, as well as aspects of country, hootenanny and the sea shanty tradition. In his lyrics, Harrison espouses an escape from modern life for the tranquility of nature.
context_section_description: In March 1973, following the completion of his album Living in the Material World, Harrison offered "Sunshine Life for Me" to Starr for inclusion on the latter's first rock solo album, Ringo. The main sessions for Ringo took place in Los Angeles that same month and coincided with a spirit of reconciliation among all the former Beatles, after Harrison, Starr and Lennon had grown disaffected with Klein as a manager. In addition to "Sunshine Life for Me" and individual contributions from Lennon and McCartney, Starr received co-writing assistance from Harrison on "Photograph", which became Starr's first number 1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart when released as the album's advance single.
  With Richard Perry as his producer, Starr recorded the basic track for "Sunshine Life for Me" at Sunset Sound Recorders in early March. He later referred to Ringo as his "accidental album", since the project was planned at the last minute, and many of his collaborators were in Los Angeles for other reasons. In the case of the musicians on "Sunshine Life for Me", Harrison was there primarily to join Starr and Lennon for business meetings at Capitol Records before producing Ravi Shankar's Shankar Family & Friends album, while the Band were in Los Angeles to record Moondog Matinee. The line-up on the track included four members of the Band –  Levon Helm (on mandolin), Robbie Robertson (guitar), Rick Danko (fiddle) and Garth Hudson (accordion) –  and multi-instrumentalist David Bromberg (on banjo and fiddle). A friend of the Beatles since their years in Hamburg, Klaus Voormann played upright bass.
  Pop culture author Robert Rodriguez describes "Sunshine Life for Me" as a song "custom-crafted" for Starr, who had previously demonstrated an affiliation for country music in his White Album composition "Don't Pass Me By" and in his 1970 country album Beaucoups of Blues, which he recorded in Nashville with producer Pete Drake. Harrison recalls in I, Me, Mine that it was "a fun session and a good track". Both avowed fans of the group since the late 1960s, Starr and Harrison recorded with the Band for the first time on "Sunshine Life for Me". In Starr's case, the association continued with his appearance at the Last Waltz in November 1976 and subsequent live performances with Helm and Danko in 1989.
  Overdubbing on the songs recorded for Ringo, including Starr's lead vocals, took place at Sunset Sound and other studios in Los Angeles from late March to July 1973. The other vocal parts on "Sunshine Life for Me" were sung by Harrison and Vini Poncia, Starr's regular songwriting partner during much of the 1970s. Leng highlights these multiple harmonies as both a "shared inheritance" of the Beatles and the Band, and a precursor to Harrison's later work with the Traveling Wilburys.
caption: The Band's Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel performing in 1971
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