2025

Hi folks! This one will be a bit brief, as I am battling a touch of flu at the moment, but I wanted to get something out to you as soon as I could. Normally, a new show would’ve dropped by now, but I am hoping that taking a bit of rest will get me past this sooner rather than later. I expect it’ll be out by the weekend, so 🤞. Boy, what a difference a week makes. To our west coast friends, the year has gotten off to a horrific start, and knowing that it has directly affected both SATB listeners and guests alike, I can only extend the deepest condolences for what you are going through. If anything emerges that I/we can do to help, count on us. In the meantime, maybe carrying on with the show can at least serve as some kind of pocket of respite from what will be an ongoing recovery. I am so sorry for what you are dealing with, and sincerely hope the show can be at least a momentary diversion.       Besides the Get Back project anniversary this month represents, it is also the anniversary of the first US broadcast of the Shea Stadium concert film, which came in early January 1967. It’s astonishing to consider the progress the group had made in the eighteen months since the show took place; a time when they were still playing “oldies” like “Twist and Shout” and “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” onstage. This broadcast arrived just as the “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever” single was about to be issued, a foretaste of what the end of touring meant for them creatively. Being as this will be the 60th anniversary year, it would be nice to think that Apple has plans for some kind of comprehensive Shea release. Until such time, this one will have to do. (Note the special added features!) In the last newsletter, I’d mentioned the Magical Mystery Tour Revisited documentary and noted that it could probably be tracked down, at least in the states. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me in the moment that it was already in my holdings and I could easily share it here, which I just did!  In other news, Ringo is in Nashville, presenting Look Up, a follow-up almost 55 years in the making to Beaucoups of Blues. He will be the subject of an upcoming show. My book project with Jerry Hammack has hit a technical snag, which we are remedying as we speak – it won’t be out on the 21st but should be not long after. I’ll keep you posted. That’s about it for now, except to say I am extending the deadline for anyone wanting to contribute anything at all (audio or video) to the upcoming 300th episode, which I may push back a little if I need more time to prepare it. We’ll see. 

Happy January, folks!  Thanks to all the new sign-ups, and by all means, hip your Beatle pals if they aren’t already. The “why?” is easy – I really enjoy sharing with like-minded fans, and if I am going to put in the time, we might as well try to reach as many people who would enjoy it as possible. Some sixty+ years ago, the world discovered that challenging times could be made a little easier with some Beatles joy, and that hasn’t changed one bit. We can’t manufacture more time, but we can certainly choose how we spend it.  To that end, being January and all, what comes to mind is the 1969 sessions we’ve been commemorating on the show in depth in recent years. I would be curious as to how many people have reached the saturation point on the Get Back/Let It Be stuff….have we had enough or is there more to suss out? I recently came into contact with someone with another take, and am seriously thinking about producing a show on it. For those who can’t get enough of the subject, you can’t do better than our own Dan Rivkin of the They May Be Parted blog, which if you haven’t followed to this point, do check it out.  And for the hardest of the hardcores, check this out: Adambound has long provided one of the best YouTube channels for Beatles-related footage, which he scrupulously collates, curates and re-assembles to provide the most thorough collections of film on virtually anything Beatles caught on camera you can think of. In collaboration with LedZepFilms, he has produced the most complete collection of the Let It Be project footage assembled. For those wishing for a long trip down that rabbit hole, here’s the Twickenham set. (The Apple Studios part is a work in progress.)  Speaking of shared footage, time now for another installment of the Seederman Chronology, part three. This one commences with the 1966 Tokyo shows and ends just before January 1969 with some Beatles covers as performed on TV, providing a good context for how ubiquitous their music was during the 1960s, even when it wasn’t them performing it.  On the day after Thanksgiving, four winners of the Beatles ’64 mono vinyl sets were selected entirely at random. They were:  John Jagler of Watertown, WI Amy Flanagan of NYC Michael Roth of Santa Monica, CA, and  Marc Stewart of Vancouver, BC Canada Here’s Marc with his set.  Congrats to all the winners and it is gratifying in the 21st century to have something – anything – new(ish) from The Beatles under the Christmas tree.   The next podcast will be coming soon – 296 – (yes, it got skipped over for reasons that don’t make sense even to me – let’s put it that way). It’s a conversation with Richard Mills, and if you don’t yet know the name, you probably will. This book is out and another is on its way. Frankly, I don’t yet have a title or theme for the discussion, because it was unclassifiable, but a lot of fun nonetheless. You SATB listeners have not heard the last of him.  Also in the works are several shows on topics ranging from Ringo to US fan mag coverage of The Fabs (can you guess who?) and other stuff I don’t want to reveal just yet.  And then there’s the 300th episode. I have been thinking about staging a group Zoom call with past guests and a few listeners. I can see it erupting into a free-for-all, which personally I quite enjoy but I’m sure you guys can share your thoughts on whether you think it’s a good idea. Anything usable would then get edited into the actual show. Thanks for all the contributions received so far – keep ’em coming if you are so inclined, and they will get used. I’m looking for your thoughts on the show, specifically stand out moments. Getting your contribution in by the 10th would be fab. And gear as well, if I’m being honest.