Something About The Beatles

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  • 232: Sam Brown and the Concert for George

    232: Sam Brown and the Concert for George

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    Long on the list of my coveted guests has been singer-songwriter Sam Brown. The daughter of Joe Brown – an early UK rock legend – and Vicki Brown – an astonishingly gifted singer herself – Sam’s career as an artist kicked off in 1988 with Stop!, the first of seven albums. (The first letter of the titles spell out her name – the 8th installment, titled Number 8 is due out this year.) Sam is also known for singing with Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, as well as on television and on tour with Jools Holland. It was with Jools that Sam took center stage at the 2002 Concert for George, stealing the show with her reading of George’s last recorded composition, “Horse To The Water.”

    She has remained active as a performer and a recording artist, despite tragically losing her ability to sing in 2007, following surgery. The mysterious condition forced a re-think of her career and led to her establishing a decade-long running group of clubs empowering folks to take up ukulele. In this conversation, we discuss her career and the struggles of being an artist – her friendship with the Harrisons and working with George – the concert – and how she’s managed the challenging events that followed.

    Sam is a resourceful and resilient artist whose rich catalog is worth exploring. You can check out her work here:
    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO1Tns40

    Vicki Brown’s farewell to fans: https://youtu.be/b0SCoEu_9oM
    Joe Brown sharing a 1964 stage with The Beatles: https://youtu.be/GjNB-2Bq6ag
    Sam at Concert for George: https://tinyurl.com/34un27f6

    “Stop!” live: https://youtu.be/WROOE-0IfjE

    “Valentine Moon” – fixed: https://tinyurl.com/548b7ssb

    Terri Hemmert’s Breakfast with The Beatles on Sunday at 8am CDT: https://www.audacy.com/wxrt/beatles

  • 231B Beatles Olympiad: Help! & Rubber Soul + part 2

    231B Beatles Olympiad: Help! & Rubber Soul + part 2

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    The conclusion of the discussion Gary Wenstrup and I had in rating individual tracks on the albums named here, as well as the 1966 Capitol release, “Yesterday”…and Today.

     

    I think, is so overlooked, both message-wise and musical construction-wise. It’s one of those songs, first of all, musically, based on piano. Not a lot of guitar, except those little stabbing, which was a 1965 sound in other people’s records that year. Nice block harmonies. Then John breaking out his own for the verses, starting this implicitly spiritual song, the first words out of his mouth of the verse in the beginning. Nice touch. That’s beautiful. It’s this precursor to certainly, All You Need is Love and Give Peace A Chance. It’s him. It’s messianic John for the first time, really wanting to use his platform to promote something good. They’d said that they’re all potheads at this point. I mean, they’d taken acid a couple of times at this point, but not the full immersion by the time of Revolver.
    That has to be what’s informing his wanting to evangelize on behalf of love at this point. It’s interesting that they didn’t use this one for Yellow Submarine, because that whole love thing at the end in pepper land, in the face of the mayonnaise, it seems like it would be enmeshed right in there. I guess, they had All You Need Is Love. That was what they went with. I think, it’s a great message, a great performance, nice arrangement. I love that organ. Then there’s that whole musical, we’re going to build a song around one note and it’s got that drone throughout it, so you’ve got that musical experimentation going on at the same time.
    Not a song that got a lot of airplay. I don’t know if anybody ever covered it. One, they never seemed to look back at it, but it’s an early clue to the new direction. It’s just this forerunner of lots of things that would come and they just pull it off. They don’t sound like you’re being preached to. It works as a pop ditty, but also, it’s like, wow, it’s got a really good message to it, that’s bigger than boy-girl relationships.

     

  • 231 Beatles Olympiad: Help! & Rubber Soul +

    231 Beatles Olympiad: Help! & Rubber Soul +

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    In which Gary Wenstrup and I return where we left off in offering our picks in ranking Bronze, Silver and Gold tracks off of The Beatles’ 1965 releases, as well as a little beyond. This show represents the first hour of our conversation – part two coming next.
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    We commence Beatles Olympiad 2, where we left off, which was starting with their fifth album released in the summer of 1965, Help! Got two albums out of them that year, one being a soundtrack, more or less. It certainly was in the States and Capitol. Then the year ended with a bang, with Rubber Soul; two versions of that. Then in the next year, we got only one new album of material out of them, Revolver. In the States, it being the States, we got another one of those Capitol-only issues, which I think we will talk about today. Because I don’t know if we’re going to talk about Oldies, which came out on Parlophone, the end of ’66, while they were working on Strawberry Fields, but we’ll see what we feel like. For the show, I think we can talk about the UK Help!, both Rubber Souls and Yesterday and Today.
  • 230: Erin Weber Q&A

    230: Erin Weber Q&A

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    Given Beatles author and historian Erin Weber’s recently announced sabbatical from Beatling these days, I wanted to share with SATB listeners the Q&A we held last year for Fab4ConJam, where she fielded questions on the Beatles’ literary canon.

    Authors covered included:

    Lewisohn (of course)

    Michael Braun
    Peter McCabe
    Barry Miles
    Mark Hertsgaard
    And much more…Also revealed: her favorite Beatles music – favorite Beatle – and why she detests “Jet.”

  • 228B: A Women’s History of The Beatles part two

    228B: A Women’s History of The Beatles part two

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    “Every aspect of what they put out there just became so attractive to people who encountered it, whether it was in the 60s, (when) it was all new, or later generations interfacing with that material, and still being dazzled by all the aspects of it. Not just the music, but the evolving style that they had. Again, as Brian Epstein said so beautifully, he was overwhelmed by their personal charm. Everybody is overwhelmed by The Beatles’ personal charm. Everybody.”
    The concluding hour of my conversation of Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett (A Women’s History of The Beatles) covers
    • The role of women in setting examples for The Beatles when they were young.
    • The effects that The Beatles had on the women who enjoyed watching them.
    • Perspectives on screaming at concerts and what it expressed.
    • How The Beatles held themselves played a role in changing cultural norms for women.
    • How The Beatles have helped people to see the beauty in everyday life.
  • 229: Something Deconstructed

    229: Something Deconstructed

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    A new phase SATB episode: audio with full video accompaniment!

    My guests are returning musician Jack Petruzzelli (Fab Faux, Joan Osborne, Patti Smith), joined by Cameron Greider (Freedy Johnston, Sean Lennon, Rufus Wainwright), who in the past year developed a series of online Beatles classes. For the latest, The Beatles and You, they are joined by musicologist Walter Everett (The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men to Rubber Soul and The Beatles As Musicians: Revolver to Anthology).

    RPM School is presenting a holistic approach to getting inside Beatles music, combining lecture and discussion, music instruction and recording and performance sessions, geared to your individual level. Their approach is unique and individualized, as shown with the demonstration here on George’s “Something.” Learn the influences that informed its construction (and where else they were used), as well as the technique utilized to capture the song as we know it.

    As this is an interactive presentation, you can see ALL of the conversation here.

    Check out Walter’s lecture here.  (password: SATB )
    His slides here.
    Sign up for The Beatles And You here.
    RPM School site
    Also discussed: their take on Peter Jackson’s Get Back
  • 228A: A Woman’s History of The Beatles part one

    228A: A Woman’s History of The Beatles part one

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    My guest today is Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett, author of A Women’s History of The Beatles – an essential new work exploring the group’s story through the lens of the women they interacted with and influenced, as well as how they were received and experienced by female fandom. Christine was also once a musician herself, and listen as she describes both her journey as well as what was experienced by young women and girls during the group’s lifetime.
  • 227B The Girls’ Get Back part two

    227B The Girls’ Get Back part two

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    In this continuation of the conversation with Debbie Gendler (1st US Beatles fan) and cartoonist/author Carol Tyler (Fab 4 Mania), Dr. Allison Bumsted and I explore the 1st generation fan’s perspectives on:

    • Supporting players in Get Back Mal Evans and Billy Preston
    • How Get Back may influence future generations
    • The life-changing force of The Beatles
    • Carol’s missing original albums

     

    Check out this excerpt from the I Was A Teenage Screamer panel at the first Fab4ConJam

  • 227A: The Girls’ Get Back part one

    227A: The Girls’ Get Back part one

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    In the latest of the SATB series examining Peter Jackson’s Get Back, we bring on returning guests Debbie Gendler (first in heard in 121: New York Stories); the first US Beatles fan, plus cartoonist/author Carol Tyler (first heard in 146: Fab 4 Mania). In so doing, we present a first generation fan perspective and reaction to the documentary.
    My special guest co-host: Dr. Allison Bumsted, who herself previously guested in 2019 in 176A and 176B: Critiquing The Critics: A Case Study with Wings
  • 226C The Musician’s Get Back part three

    226C The Musician’s Get Back part three

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    In this concluding hour of the conversation with Dennis Diken (The Smithereens), Pat Sansone (Wilco), Arion Salazar (ex-Third Eye Blind) and Luther Russell (Those Pretty Wrongs), we discuss:

    The Get Back film as therapy for fans (and the world)
    Billy Preston

    Ringo and Paul observations
    Jamming with Heather