Podcasting

281: The Beatles and The Cars with Elliot Easton   It’s a pretty cool thing when an artist as accomplished as today’s guest also happens to be as big of a Beatles geek as the rest of us, but that’s what we have here. And as a first-generation fan, his memories of the exciting days of Beatlemania and how the phenomenon changed his life are fascinating. (Plus he’s just a cool guy to hang with.)Check it out!In this deep dive, we discuss the sociological, cultural, and class aspects depicted in the film, as well as an analysis of the humour and how…

280: All You Need is the Love You Make with Steven Gaines    As the first insider Beatles tell-all (not counting Francie Schwartz’s Body Count – because why would I) – 1983’s The Love You Make, a collaboration between Brian Epstein’s protege Peter Brown and today’s guest, shocked fans with what was perceived as an airing of dirty laundry. Drug use, infidelity, betrayal, wife-swapping, and overall bad behavior was chronicled in detail, and Brown’s insider status gave credence to the reporting. But many Beatle historians recognize the inaccuracies and questionable decision making, rendering what was once a best-selling book into something with considerably less esteem, to put it one way. But the original interviews with an array of insiders, many of them now dead, has arrived as a sort of unfiltered access to the source material. All You Need is Love is out now, and presents many witnesses, sum of questionable veracity, but with little comment, allowing the reader to judge their truthfulness for themselves.  Read it here – Erin Weber’s review of the earlier book (and Steven’s response in the comments): https://beatlebioreview.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/and-in-the-end-book-review-peter-browns-the-love-you-make/  

279: The Mal Evans Project Part One with Ken Womack   At last: the SATB conversation with the man who brought The Beatles’ road manager’s long missing manuscript to press. Living The Beatles Legend is the story Mal wanted to tell before his life ended at 40 in Los Angeles in a hail of gunfire in 1976. But perhaps the wait was worth it to get his insider eye-witness story augmented by research and interviews Ken has conducted to fully flesh out the story.  This talk covers the first volume of this must-read book. Another volume, presenting the Evans photo archive and diaries, is due out later this year     

278: An Hour With Pattie Boyd   Today is her 80th birthday, and given the attention being brought by the auction of some personal items through Christie’s (see https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/pattie-boyd-collection/lots/3508 ), the time was right for a conversation. We made the most of the hour, given the demand for interviews right about now, but among the things discussed were:  Meeting George on the set of A Hard Day’s Night Her views on how fans see her The Fool  Apple boutique Rishikesh  Get Back Philip Norman The happiest time and more…  

277: “Mike Tree” in Nutopia with Michael Medeiros   Listeners: you may recall my conversation with Robert Rosen (245), detailing the blocking of a pair of books by reputable authors that detailed the “househusband” years of John’s life; it evolved out of an essay Robert wrote. Well, one of those writers is here to tell his story himself.  Michael Medeiros was hired in 1977 to work on the indoor gardening at the Lennon’s Dakota apartments. But as he performed his assigned tasks, his role grew to ad hoc personal assistant and eventually, archivist. His memoir, Barefoot in Nutopia, remains unpublished – yet. But Michael wanted to share some stories and insights and we’re happy to have him, in what we project to be the first of at least two conversations. Subjects include day-to-day life, Yoko, Bermuda, Fred Seaman, and the night the unspeakable occurred, and its aftermath.   

273: My Private Lennon with Sibbie O’Sullivan   We have discussed the insights of 1st gen fans who, frankly, were screamers in the presence of The Beatles (Debbie Gendler, author of this upcoming memoir and Carol Tyler, author of this one); see thisfor a detailed discussion.     Then there’s Sibbie O’Sullivan – a high schooler when Deb and Carol were middle-schoolers. She too was swept up in the wave of mania in her native Maryland; like Deb, she witnessed an in-person Ed Sullivan Show taping, but unlike many girls, she did not scream. Her book, My Private Lennon: Explorations From A Fan Who Never Screamed, offers a series of essays, rich with insight and perceptive observations about her very personal fandom and what The Beatles meant to her, then and now. Leading the discussion is Dr. Allison Bumsted, who is cultivating a specialty in examinations of Beatles fandom.      An essay by Sibbie here.    Allison’s review of Sibbie’s book here. 

272: Born At The Right Time with Ray Connolly   My esteemed returning guest holds forth on The Beatles, Elvis, That’ll Be The Day (1973), “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and much more as he recounts his wonderful life, as presented in his new memoir.

271: Here and Now with “Now And Then” – A SATB Special   How else do you wrap your head around a “new Beatles single” being dropped in our laps 53 years after they disbanded but to gather together a group of knowledgeable pals to discuss. Hope you have five hours free to sit back and listen to a series of talks with guests ranging from age 83 to 24; from England and Canada to Australia and every corner of the states: east coast, west coast, Plains states, south and north. There are guests who knew the Beatles personally, as well as personas whose lives were changed at a distance by these guys, 1st gen to gen Z. Academics and authors, musicians and bloggers. There was too much gold to cut these talks down much shorter than I did, so ease in at your own pace. Today is a sad day – let’s make it better. In alphabetical order, my guests are: Nancy Lee Andrews (Photographer and Author, A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll) Dr. Allison Bumsted (Author, 1960s Teen Fan Magazines and The Beatles ) Ray Connolly (British journalist and Beatles insider, author of Born At The Right Time and Being John Lennon, etc.) Richard Courtney (Beatles radio host and author, From Me To You) Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) Dr. Duncan Driver (University of Canberra) Dr. Christine Feldman-Barrett (Author, A Women’s History of The Beatles) Debbie Gendler (Author, I Saw Them Standing There) Glenn Greenberg (Author of Beatles bookazines) Cameron Greider (Musician and musicologist, RPM-School.com ) Jerry Hammack (Producer/Author, The Beatles Recording Reference Manuel series ) Chip Madinger (Author, https://lennonology.com/ ) Skylar Moody (Beatles content creator) Dr. Sibbie O’Sullivan (Author, My Private John Lennon) Dan Rivkin (Blogger, https://theymaybeparted.wordpress.com ) Luther Russell (Those Pretty Wrongs, solo artist) Arion Salazar (Founding member of Third Eye Blind) Pat Sansone (Wilco, Autumn Defense) Carol Tyler (Cartoonist/author, Fab 4 Mania) Erin Weber (Author, The Beatles and The Historians) Gary Wenstrup (Music lecturer/cowbell)

270: Top Ten Important/Influential Beatles Sources with Erin Weber   Beatles historian Erin Weber and I convened at The Fest in August to review our picks for the most important and/or influential Beatle sources, which can include any media. Some picks overlapped and some didn’t, but you’ll get a good sense here of what we thought should get more attention, and what DID, but maybe doesn’t deserve it.

269: George Harrison in the 70s with Eoghan Lyng   There are a lot of fans – too many, I’d say – that believe the time between All Things Must Pass (1970) and Cloud Nine (1987) constituted one big boring wasteland in George’s career. Knowledgeable fans beg to differ, and so rock writer/journalist Eoghan Lyng (see https://eoghanlyngwriter.wordpress.com/ ) and I sat down to review those 70s releases, with an aim to shed light on some overlooked artistry.Eoghan has a book out, George Harrison In The 1970s, that details his insights even further. 

268: Buddy Holly and The Beatles with Luther Russell   In which we explore the artistry, legacy and impact of Buddy Holly, in particularly on the Beatles.Is it fair to say, no Buddy no Beatles? Perhaps, but we’ll try to avoid sweeping declarations we can’t back up in this conversation.

267: Sgt. Pepper’s Guitars   There are some real layers to this album on every level, and in this conversation we focus on guitars. Who better than my returning guests, the musicians and musicologists of RPM School? Walter Everett (The Beatles as Musicians vol 1 and 2), Cameron Greider (Sean Lennon, etc), and Jack Petruzzelli (Fab Faux) provide details, examples and insights in this deep dive, a precursor to their upcoming Sgt. Pepper class that begins on October 2.

266: Nowhere Man ’23   Author Robert Rosen returns to discuss the augmented contents found inside the new edition of his book Nowhere Man. Among the topics covered: – John’s journals (including the 1979 audio one)– Early 1970s politics– May Pang– Fred Seaman– Jack Douglas – John’s opinion of Double Fantasy– John’s murder and some of the theories around it. On October 4, Robert will be signing and answering questions in St Louis at Subterranean Books, 6pm. Details here: https://store.subbooks.com/event/author-event-robert-rosen

265: EMI Days with John Leckie and Friends   Renowned producer John Leckie has been a friend to me and to SATB in recent years. He’s returned for a new conversation, this time bringing along a couple of colleagues who also worked at the Abbey Road facility with The Beatles, Roger Ferris and Nick Webb. What ensued was a delightful hang among guys who’ve known each other for decades, recalling working in support of The Beatles alongside staff like George Martin, Norman Smith, Emerick, Scott, Townsend, Parsons, Thomas, Spector, et al. (There’s also a Rolling Stones story thrown in for good measure.)

263: Fab 4 On Film: The Dick Lester Films with Steve Matteo   Journalist Steve Matteo has a new book out – Act Naturally: The Beatles on Film.  It’s an all-encompassing volume detailing and contextualizing the making of every one of their cinematic projects, including a few that didn’t actually get filmed.  For this first discussion, we focused on their first two, both directed for United Artists by Richard Lester and produced by Walter Shenson. 

My guest today has recently completed the first volume of an exhaustive study of Paul’s body of work in Paul McCartney: Music is Ideas 1970 – 1989. Luca Perasi is a Beatles historian who specializes in the group’s bassist, post-split. He was a consultant hired by MPL for the recent 7″ single box set, as well as the Italian translator for Paul’s The Lyrics book. For our first discussion, we focused on the broad parameters of Paul’s art, pre-Beatles through the first Wings album. Luca’s book discusses every McCartney session and the music it yielded, whether released at the time or not, for a greater context into Paul’s musical development. You can find out more at Luca’s site, and I encourage you to follow him on Twitter (@LucaPerasi ) for daily postings featuring amazing rare photos of Paul at work.

Hired as a tape op by EMI in February 1970, Leckie quickly found himself among rock royalty when his career began with work on Ringo’s Sentimental Journey, followed quickly after with McCartney.

Tony King was general manager of Apple US in the early 70s, but thereafter worked directly with John and Ringo, promoting their work from 1973 through 1975. Beyond that, he was a true British rock Zelig figure, partying with The Beatles the night before they flew to America for their 1964 Ed Sullivan Show debut; working with Andrew Oldham and the Stones during their “Satisfaction” heyday; thereafter for George Martin and AIR Studio, and then Apple. He also befriended Elton John (before he was) as well as tons of others. His story has just been published in “The Tastemaker: My Life with the Legends and Geniuses of Rock Music.” (He’s also in the May Pang doc, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story.)You can get his backstory here: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/music/article/tony-king-interview and see him as “the Queen” in this 1973 Mind Games TV ad: https://youtu.be/lx-DNpoKfVg We covered a ton of topics, including all the aforementioned plus the AIDS tragedy and his favorite music.

The series with professor/lecturer Gary Wenstrup continues as we rate tracks on each Beatles album in Olympic style: Gold – Silver – Bronze. This episode introduces a modification, adding in for consideration the singles that bookended the 1967 release: “Strawberry Fields Forever”/”Penny Lane” and “All You Need Is Love”/”Baby You’re A Rich Man.” Check out Gary’s upcoming lectures at garywenstrup.com

“The Lost Weekend” was the handle John implemented (picked up by subsequent narrators) to describe the period of his separation from Yoko, during which time a romantic relationship began with his 22 year-old personal assistant, May Pang. Once the couple reconciled, May’s impact on his life was swept under the rug in all sanctioned tellings, in the service of a narrative propping up the John and Yoko love story as the ultimate double fantasy: literally describing themselves as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning incarnate.Others beg to differ and among them is May herself. Her story was told twice in book form (Loving John and Instamatic Karma) but now a new documentary film chronicles their time together on the big screen, supported by other witnesses and loads of photos, footage and writings. The Lost Weekend: A Love Story is coming to theaters, while an exhibit of May’s photos has already hit the road across the US. Here’s where to track the latest on May’s photo exhibit and the film: https://www.maypang.com/

I asked for your questions last summer and you responded, so here you go! Aided by Gary Wenstrup (SATB regular of Olympiad series fame), we tackle the following subjects: 

Fifty years on, Ringo’s third solo album (or first, as he counted it in 1977) remains a stunning achievement, not just for the near-Beatles reunion but also on its own musical merits. With Richard Perry in the producer’s chair, an array of talent was rallied in support of the beloved ex-Beatle, resulting in something greater than the sum of its parts. At Perry’s side was engineer Bill Schnee, who’d worked with him on hits by artists like Streisand, Nilsson, Carly, Leo Sayer and many others. Schnee has penned a memoir, Chairman at the Board, detailing a career that began with Three Dog Night and encompassed artists ranging from Steely Dan and Neil Diamond to Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Schnee has been a mixer/remixer, engineer and producer in support of the rich soundtrack of life for anyone enjoying music during the 70s and 80s and beyond. Bill was there at the right place and the right time to take full advantage of his gifts and creativity. His book is rich with stories, and in this conversation, we discuss his work with all four ex-Beatles, mostly but not entirely in support of Ringo. Check out his website – https://www.billschnee.com/ This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to betterhelp.com/satb for 10% off your first month of treatment.

No one on the planet knows more about the contents of The Beatles’ Nagra reels than Beatle scholars Doug Sulpy (Drugs, Divorce and A Slipping Image) and Dan Rivkin (They May Be Parted blog). We convened to review the Get Back film and discuss how well it depicted the events revealed by the extant audio. Doug’s works can be found at www.dougsulpy.com Dan’s blog is here: https://theymaybeparted.com/

Returning guest Glenn Greenberg (216 Dear Friend; 223 The Beatles 1971 – 1973; 235 Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson at 80) is back for another discussion, this one examining the complex relations between George and Paul – the longest running friendship in the band. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to betterhelp.com/satb for 10% off your first month of treatment.