June 5, 2025

Hello all and welcome to June! First off, a lot has gone on behind the scenes this past week: for upcoming shows and the general SATB infrastructure, which I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself in discussing publicly, except to say some good things are coming from unexpected places. Stay tuned once they assume concrete form. RE the website, revisions should be done in the next couple/few days. I have a new tech at work, modifying the SATB site a bit with the goal of eliminating all the issues previously plaguing it, so just a little more patience please. Once ready, there should only ever need to be a single sign-in, and that’s to access the past newsletters (this will be fully updated) and nothing else. This wouldn’t be a SATB newsletter without the Grim Reaper making an appearance. As all of you doubtless know by now, Rick Derringer (The McCoys, Edgar Winter Group, solo and All-Starr) passed away at 77. Perhaps best known in the US for the hits “Hang On Sloopy” (1965) and “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” (1973), the obvious Beatle connection is his membership in Ringo’s touring outfit circa 2010-2011 (where he played both of those hits), alongside former bandmate Edgar Winter; here’s some rehearsal footage. Rick was interviewed about his career here. The lesser-known Beatle connection is to George’s 1957 Gibson Les Paul. This is the guitar gifted to George by Eric Clapton in August 1968; you can see it used in “Revolution” promo, or perhaps even more memorably, in the Get Back film, where it took a tumble during a rehearsal of a tune sailors might call a “Jonah.” Because of its unusual (for a Les Paul) cherry red finish, George dubbed the guitar “Lucy,” as in Ball. Come to find out, among its earlier owners was John Sebastion of the Lovin’ Spoonful, who gifted it to – Rick Derringer. It had originally come in a gold finish, and was, by the time it reached Rick, the worse for wear, so he brought it to a Gibson shop in Kalamazoo, asking that it be painted in a finish matching their popular SG model. But he didn’t care much for it after the work was done, and he traded it for a sunburst Les Paul at Dan Armstrong’s Guitars in Greenwich Village. There, Clapton bought it days later and kept it as a back-up before presenting it to George. For most guitars, that would have been plenty, but Lucy wasn’t through yet: she was stolen from George’s LA digs in 1973 and essentially held for ransom: read about that here. Less reported than the death of Derringer was the passing of Klaatu’s Terry Draper. To many people reading this, the name of that band will mean nothing, but for a time in the 70s, it rivaled “Paul is dead” for the biggest Beatles rumor circulating, likewise spawning loads of clues pointing to the inscrutable Canadian band’s debut actually being a secret Beatles reunion album (on Capitol yet) upon its August 1976 release. Most anything you’d want to know about the story can be found here (or by picking up a copy of this fab book). Here’s a sample from the album – judge for yourself whether or not it’s The Beatles or an incredible simulation. Outside the imagined fab ties, perhaps what they are best remembered for was a tune on that first album that was later picked up by The Carpenters (their penultimate top 40 single). Here’s the late Mr. Draper giving his take on the song. To go back to the living: first, we are a month out from the most fabulous Magical Mystery Camp, held in the Catskills. I’ve mentioned these four days of fun, music, interactive lessons and jamming previously, plus the guests ranging from Peter Asher to myself (check the link for the full rundown). The new news is the addition of Wings guitarist Laurence Juber to the proceedings. It’ll be a blast, amidst a scenic outdoor setting with all the attractions a lake-and-mountain-and-forest setting can offer. Author/artist/cartoonist Carol Tyler is having a big year. You know her on SATB from several shows (and this video), as well as from her books, which include Fab4Mania (sample here). Carol – with her husband Justin Green – was the subject of this amazing documentary. Anyway, she passed this along to me to share. Just thought I’d pass along some news about my big show and a book coming out. First the show. Yes, I have lived long enough to have been given a retrospective of my comics career at the prestigious Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. It’s called “Write it Down, Draw it Out.” You can go to this link and find out more, including directions to the Billy Ireland and their hours. https://www.facebook.com/TheBillyIrelandCartoonLibraryAndMuseum Today a terrific article came out in the Columbus paper about the exhibit. Read all about it here: https://matternews.org/culture/art/comics-artist-carol-tyler-still-feels-compelled-to-tell-her-story/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKkfNxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFKTVQxbjRpV1JsS3BEVzkwAR5wH_ZTEK6zWwTv6rpVvQm5I4Id9u7q_1S3bG0Xsua89k5FcQu7tt6mvT-zGw_aem_SGm5pUFjCBiIFbRMQyFy5g So please plan on coming to see the exhibit sometime this summer or fall. You will be thrilled. It’s up until November 9. My book comes out in September. ‘The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief’ will make its debut at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, aka CXC. Hope to see you there, but if you cannot make it and still want to get a book you can pre-order using the huge barcode the lovelies at Fantagraphics have provided below. A few episodes back, Allison Bumsted was on, presenting a conversation about teen fan mags of the 60s, very Beatles-specific ones as part of her groundbreaking research into the subject. We mentioned a major article she had in the works and now it has arrived. (You can download it here.) ^ This fab artwork ^ (drawn from Ms. B’s collection) provides terrific visual accompaniment. Can’t wait for the doc… I’d recently mentioned the Chris O’Dell documentary here (I think you know what it’s called…) I just caught it on Prime, and yes, we will be

Hello folks, and welcome to all the new subscribers! First off, it’s Memorial Day in the US today: to all who gave this last full measure of devotion we owe a debt of gratitude, thanks and remembrance. There seems to be some common misunderstanding as to what exactly this is all about – it’s not that hard. Personally, a number of my family members have served, but only in the last year when doing genealogy research did I become aware of one who died in battle; at Bastogne in December 1944. As of 2025, he leaves one living sibling. But this newsletter is about The Beatles, not me: one notable aspect of their story concerns National Service in the UK. Following the war, compulsory peacetime military service for young men was mandated in 1949 – you can read the particulars here. Think about that for a second: there but for fortune, the four who became Beatles sidestepped a disruption in their career momentum – who knows if they ever would’ve regained it and in what form? But for the program ending in late 1960 (just when their first Hamburg hitch ended – badly), they were spared a fate like this. Interesting but seldom commented upon: at the height of the Vietnam war, which many of their generation fervently opposed, Ringo was the one who recorded a song commemorating the fallen. The toll that armed conflicts take on loved ones as well as those who love them is rarely expressed so eloquently in song, at least among The Beatles’ peer group. But getting political in song was nothing that The Beatles (or at least John) were shy about post-Brian. One can argue about what constitutes “politics” in song (“The Word”? “All You Need Is Love”?), but overt politics, inspired by contemporary events, was out in the open by 1968. Paul has taken a lot of flack through the years for his evolving origin stories RE “Blackbird” and the Civil Rights movement: getting so specific in recent years as to cite the Little Rock Nine as inspiration. While his explanations have typically fused women (“birds”) and people of color (“Black”), plenty have met the claims with mountains of skepticism, among them, Hunter Davies, who was certainly around at the time, as well as Paul’s step-mother: Angie is quite vehement that the initial inspiration came from some “blackbirds” who were keeping her mother, Edie, from sleeping one night/morning. (As evidence, they cite the recording of numerous attempts at performing the song by Paul that he dedicates to “Edie.” This tape, bootlegged in the ’70s on this release, was recorded in 1974 at Elstree Studio, in connection to the One Hand Clapping project.) On the other side of the argument, the timing works out: if Paul initially conceived the tune (itself inspired as Bach-influenced finger exercise) in India, Paul was back in Scotland in time for the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, as well as the subsequent rioting that followed in the US. Paul was aware of these events (though he never seems to have evoked King in his explanations, merely the rioting). But the most compelling evidence of some kind of civil rights connection more or less contemporaneously came just after the release of The Beatles, in late 1968 when Paul was taped in the studio with Donovan, working on Mary Hopkin’s Post Card album. He performs the song for Donovan (who had a vested interest: did you know that he was in Rishikesh with The Beatles that year, and that he taught them Travis-style fingerpicking? Just ask him – you just might be able to pry it out of him…) In this non-public documentation, Paul makes a joke about Diana Ross before earnestly asserting that the song was in fact inspired by civil rights. (Look for a deep dive into this and related topics on an upcoming episode featuring two special guests…) John led the way with overt politics with the first tune tracked for the “White Album” sessions at EMI, “Revolution 1.” Per the lore, it was freshly composed, inspired by the recent student riots in Paris (which incidentally impacted George directly: in France with Ringo for the Wonderwall premiere, the Cannes Film Festival was cancelled one day after the film was screened). Per his wishes, The Beatles laid down a bluesy, slow-paced version, that the words (including his “out/in” ambivalence) might be clearly understood. John pushed for this take to be issued as a single, that their audience might see what side they were on (both/neither). But as he would assert later, Paul and George didn’t think this approach was commercial enough for product going out under their collective name: it was momentarily shelved, while the extended coda would be repurposed as the foundation for his Musique concrète depiction of the sound of a revolution, “Revolution 9,” until the group re-cut the familiar fast version in July. Recorded on May 30, 1968, it was the attempt designated as “take 18” that became the foundation of both White Album “Revolution”s. Worth noting is the way the song was received in its day by those for whom the message may have been directly intended, especially when contrasted with the take issued by “arch-rivals,” the Rolling Stones at around the same time. In response to criticism from the “New Left” about the song, John was defensive, although his position – like so much else – was susceptible to outside influence over time. See this terrific post from Erin Weber on the subject. (Karen Hooper’s money quote: “It’s interesting to me that although John claimed retrospectively that his time with the Beatles was stifling, the truth of the matter is that the Beatle years represented a time with John was the most capable of thinking and acting independently.”) Mortality report: there are things in this world I don’t care about and one of them is football. (“You commie, you!”) Therefore, but for a mutual friend bringing it to

Hello all; First off, I want to apologize to anyone who’s had trouble accessing the SATB site. My tech, who built it (and if it looks a little geocities to anyone, LMK – there’ll be a re-design!), is a fellow who’s suffered some health issues in the last month, taking him out of availability, though he initially thought otherwise. Consequently, things needing fixing (like access and password issues) haven’t yet been sorted out for some of you. I spent the last week auditioning other techs and expect to have all of it sorted out this week. So patience please and again, if I could do this stuff myself, I would. Newsletters on the site will be made current too. On the subject of technical stuff: you listeners have long been assured that SATB’s full arrival on Spotify would be coming “soon.” That was the best knowledge I had at the time, but this has been an unduly drawn out process not of my making – what should’ve been simple has been a case of the goal posts being moved repeatedly. We’re at the point now where I was told this week that there’s a “glitch” on their end – at least they are owning up to that much, and it will be addressed this week in a “high level meeting.” So again, for those to whom this is important, . What I would advise everyone is that one of their conditions was that full or lengthy “quotes” from commercially available songs used in the shows be removed; therefore, if you wanted to download them in their original form, it may be too late (but you can always hit me up). I have been keeping new episodes for the last year or so clear of segments running to a minute or less – this should be acceptable – but everything from #123 onward was subject to a re-edit to bring them up to speed. You trade the ideal listening experience for added reach, I suppose. Not my preference at all, but I don’t make the rules…. Upward! In the news this past week, Barbra Streisand is releasing a new duets album. For context, she is a couple of months older than Sir Paul, and has been recording professionally for nearly as long. Like other song interpreters, she’s done her share of Beatles covers; she’s also turned in some bold solo choices. As you might expect, they have occasionally crossed paths through the years, but now she’s issued a collaboration with Sir Paul on a song that may shape up as his final “standard.” It is a joint effort that IMHO gels better than other such attempts (I know lots of people are fans of Santana and Rob Thomas but I never was…) – see what you think. Other news: Chris O’Dell is the subject of a documentary just made available for streaming this week in the US and UK. If you aren’t exactly sure who or what she is, Chris was a Tucson, AZ native who, around 1967, fell into the orbit of Derek Taylor in LA, during the period he was working with The Byrds and The Beach Boys. Once he was re-recruited by The Beatles to run the Apple Press Office in 1968, he took her with. Chris became an absolute insider with the group, George and Ringo especially. She was on the rooftop in January 1969 (as you all have heard here) and later, stayed close, living at Friar Park for a time, becoming the subject of a non-album solo Beatle B-side, and in 1974, managing the Dark Horse Tour. She also worked with Dylan, the Stones, Clapton, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, if being among The Fabs wasn’t enough. She’s had lifelong friendships with Pattie, May and Nancy Andrews, the latter of which we commemorated here. Her memoir is a fantastic read to anyone even slightly interested in those times and that world. Is a return visit to SATB in the cards? We shall see… On the subject of George: Mo Foster was a renowned bassist during the years coinciding with the rise of British rock. He worked with loads of artists both well known and less so; Ringo being one of the former (for Old Wave). He also penned an absolutely terrific memoir/account of the rise of British rock, entailing sitting a number of well-known friends down and collecting their anecdotes. The result was published as 17 Watts: The Birth of British Rock Guitar, a fabulous and entertaining account of those years from a number of luminaries, including George. This week, video of George taken at EMI in 1995 (while Anthology was being produced) was made public from the late Mr. Foster’s archive. This is just a teaser: apparently more will be forthcoming! May 20, 1966 was when The Beatles convened at Chiswick House under the direction of Michael Lindsay-Hogg, an American working as a director on Ready Steady Go, to shoot promotional films for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” He quickly made a name for himself for his pioneering work outside the show, including for acts like The Kinks, The Who and the Rolling Stones before being tabbed for Rock and Roll Circus, followed quickly by the Get Back project. Anyway, here’s a collection of the extant Chiswick House footage. Speaking of the Stones: as mentioned in passing previously, the first episode of the Classic Rock Album Olympics podcast series is here and now on Apple. Hoste by Gary Wenstrup, I am along for the ride as side-kick, so it’s not exactly SATB – just a fun gabfest between fans about albums we all know and love, rated Olympiad-style. Do check it out if you are so inclined! Last, Who fans generally (and Zak Starkey in particular) may find themselves suffering from whiplash of late. One would expect as a loving father that Ringo would be more than a little perturbed at the shabby treatment his firstborn has received by the chaotic-in-their-dotage principles: Pete Townshend

Hello all;   Welcome to the second half year of the SATB Newsletter. I first want to thank everyone who has reached out with their response to episode 304, my conversation with Bob Jackson of Badfinger – it really seems to have touched a nerve with people on many levels, but as I’ve noted before: the show is as good as its guests, and he was absolutely terrific. Their story is so compelling and ultimately at once sad and enraging over their ill-treatment and the utter lack of justice. A few documentaries have been made, but one day the time will be right for a dramatic depiction of their story – all the material is there already. On the subject of dramatic tellings of true history, the writers of the Sam Mendes “four film cinematic event” (their description) were announced this week, and they are, predictably, no slouches. You can read about their work in the link above, but perhaps what was even more noteworthy was the reaction to the news, specifically this article in what is, to be sure, not a particularly highly-regarded news platform. The writer has a valid point in asserting that, for far too long, Beatles history (and indeed, rock history) has been presented through the voice of white male writers – now this in and of itself may not be problematic per se, so long as the viewpoints of other perspectives are investigated, presented and honored, and that those “other” (non-male, non white) voices are validated as legitimate rather than, what has been the case far too often and far too long, marginalized and depicted as silly, unserious and reduced to the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” I am going to presume that the writer of the Independent article, as a woman herself, had sincere intentions at making a valid point on a sensitive issue. Here at SATB, I have strived to help remedy decades of a warped perspective by availing the platform for as much diversity as I can, especially inclusive of women scholars. But my take is that she tripped over her own message in her depiction of SATB guest (and friend) Christine Feldman-Barrett, suggesting that her scholarship was limited to the scope of her singular book, namely “women-and-the-Beatles,” as if one simply leaped into that niche without first earning cred as a scholar of rock AND Beatles. (I suppose by this criteria, I am only qualified to write about the 1950s if this, this and this is anything to go by.) Further, the Erin Thorkelson Webers and Candy Leonards of the world (to name but two) must have been astonished to learn that the only academic Beatles work by a female this author could bring to mind was Christine’s. Good on Christine – it’s a top notch work – but I suppose it illustrates what all these worthy women adding mightily to the conversation and study (you know their names just by listening to this podcast: Debbie Gendler – Carol Tyler – Sibbie O’Sullivan – Allison Bumsted, et al and coming soon Katie Kapurch, Sara Schmidt and Beth Easton) are up against: a world where not even women journalists who you would think would take a moment to familiarize themselves with what’s out there already are in effect perpetuating the issue. RE her prediction that the scripts for these four films will simply tow the establishment line by repeating the white male perspective on Beatles history: we don’t know that, but we do know that Jann Wenner, perhaps the single most influential rock journalism figure of the era in imposing a limited paradigm (which lives on in the “hall of fame” he architected), paid a price when called out on this in the 21st century. If the Mendes writers are at all paying attention, they will take heed and at the very least, invite female researchers into the mix. That’s half their audience, after all. Back to the past: the last couple of newsletters were living in 1975 to a large degree, but I thought I would fast-forward this one five years, to a mere 45 years ago and specifically, May 17, 1980. This was the day when Saturday Night Live aired an episode featuring a running gag, building to an interview with Paul (and Linda). The occasion was the release of the “Coming Up” video from McCartney II, but contextually, it was on the heels of his January 1980 Japanese drug bust, hence the joke. I always feel that to get the real feel of the times, it’s best to see things like this in full context: the guest that night was Steve Martin, and the would-be interviewer is “Father Guido Sarducci,” Vatican correspondent, played by Don Novello. Here’s the show and if you want to follow along with some annotation, here’s a transcript. This past week was the anniversary of the famous Lorne Michaels offer of $3000 for The Beatles to reunite on the show, watched in real time by John and Paul at the Dakota (though in recent years, Paul – ever the revisionist – is lately claiming that he wasn’t there and that John merely told him about the offer later. His latter-day denial doesn’t hold water for reasons I have enumerated on social media). In any event, I thought that for anyone interested, seeing the entirety of the show as they experienced it would be fun, so picture John and Paul watching this , a show that begins with host Raquel Welch (who’d starred alongside Ringo in The Magic Christian seven years earlier) duetting with Joe Cocker (via John Belushi). The Lorne Michaels segment comes at around the 42:30 mark, just after a musical performance by a contemporary of theirs, John Sebastian, who was on his way to scoring a US number one single with his Welcome Back, Kotter theme. It would’ve been interesting to have seen their reaction to Sebastian and the song, no less than their reaction to what came next… (Here’s a transcript to that