Something About The Beatles

The official newsletter archive for Robert Rodriguez’s acclaimed podcast. Weekly updates featuring news, links, and deep archival material.

Newsletter #95

Published: September 1 2026

Welcome

Hello everyone. Looks like this week’s newsletter will be on the extra-long side. I hope everyone had a great weekend and, speaking for myself, the online event we had on Friday, commemorating the Candlestick 60th, was a most fab time: thanks to all who turned out for it and especially to my guests; more on this below.

Separately but with overlap is the release of episode 332, my conversation with Naomi Marcus, the young friend of Joan Baez who had a once-in-a-lifetime experience with peak Beatles on a most historic day, that of their final live concert. I hope you get a chance to listen – it’s a rare SATB that clocks in under an hour, but it is our good fortune that Naomi still possesses the qualities that Joan saw that make for such a compelling guest, with a great story and a fascinating life.

This was, of course, a big news week and in part a sad one, so let’s get to it…

NEWS

Linda McCartney USPS Stamps: The USPS announced this week the production of postage stamps honoring Linda McCartney, not for her musicianship but featuring her photography: art that she produced well before meeting Paul or the founding of Wings. The honor comes at around the week of what would’ve been her 85th birthday (imagine…). No word if Yoko will get a similar honor one day, though conceptual postage stamps would probably be the way to go. (Anyone else remember that old joke about the post office issuing stamps commemorating prostitution in the US? They were priced as marked, but cost more if you wanted to lick ‘em.)
The Who & Zak Starkey: The Who would not be The Who without ongoing drama, much of which was reported here with the on-again, off-again status of Ringo’s son Zak on the kit. As you recall, Zak, who’d been tutored early on by Keith Moon, first came on board with the band in 1996. It was a perfect fit, and given their years of off-and-on activity worked around his gigs with other bands, including Oasis and Johnny Marr. Amid much acrimony did it all come crashing down in 2025, with a series of headlines that pointed the finger at Roger Daltrey as being behind the sacking. (Concerned Dad Ringo weighed in on this.) But now the latest: while on tour as a soloist, Roger confirmed that Zak had been rehearsing with The Who for some upcoming dates and Zak concurred. How this will play out is anyone’s guess.
Sam Mendes Beatleflix Update: Following the release of the four films to theaters, a deal just announced will send them to Netflix, which aligns with what the director called the first “bingeable” cinematic experience.
Rubber Soul Tape: Another sample from the upcoming Rubber Soul set came this past week, a composing tape of John and Paul working on “Day Tripper.” It’s totally fab insight into them working through an arrangement, in this case pre-riff, which in itself is interesting. (You might have expected the riff to come first and for the song to be written around it.) The next time someone from Apple or Giles grimly assures us (as they have been since the ‘70s) that the vaults are empty, and that they’ve already scraped the bottom of the barrel, push back on them with the contempt they deserve. Not only are tapes like this gold for sheer listening pleasure, but they also impact our understanding of how these songs came to be.
Dodger Stadium Soundboard: And then there was this unsanctioned recording: a soundboard tape of The Beatles’ penultimate show, at Dodger Stadium on August 28 sixty years ago. Say what you want about their performances, but the very fact of this existing at all is huge. No word on what will happen or when we’ll get to hear the whole thing, but it’s a damned fine day when something in Beatles world surfaces that we had no reason to believe existed.
Top of the Pops 1964 Footage: Remember the Film is Fabulous discovery/recovery of the camera negative of the group’s 1964 debut on Top of the Pops? It depicted them performing both sides of their early 1964 single and captured what was sent out on the airwaves (versus being multiple camera prints - in other words, this was the finished broadcast). It’s been leaked and you can see it online, and what glorious footage it is. As fab as this is, I still hold out hope that the 1965 clips of “Ticket To Ride”/“Yes It Is” or the 1966 appearances for “Paperback Writer”/“Rain” will one day fall from the sky.

OBITS

Dolly Parton: The massive outpouring of adoration and appreciation following the death of Dolly Parton was, in a way, nice to see. This wasn’t like the usual response to a celebrity death, no matter how unexpected; this was as close to universal love as we may ever see, and had the genuine air of reverence associated with someone holy.

My awareness of her existence began at a very early age, when I noted her in TV commercials for Breeze detergent. While undeniably charming, I thought her reaction to discovering that the product was packing towels in their boxes was comic. (“Ya can't bomb?!”) Her recording of Mann-Weil’s “Here You Come Again” was an inescapable crossover hit, followed a few years later by the 9 to 5 film and single. Not my thing, but once you saw her in action, you had to appreciate what a singular character she was. When her trio collabs with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris arrived, she more fully got my attention, but really, it was her good works where I really took notice: she was a successful entrepreneur who put her money where her mouth was to leave the world a better place than where she found it.

She naturally crossed over into Beatle world: though you might’ve expected some interaction with the country Beatle, it was actually Paul she connected with first, in her late Porter Wagoner period while Wings were in Nashville in the summer of ‘74. (Strictly social and not a musical interaction.)

Paul, Mary, Linda, Heather, Dolly, and Porter in Nashville — In Nashville: Paul - Mary - Linda - Heather - Dolly - Porter

Decades later both surviving members (and Peter Frampton) joined her in a remake of “Let It Be” for her 2023 Rockstar album. In between, she had taken John's “Help!” even further away from his long-wished for slow arrangement with a bluegrass take. Dolly Parton was iconic for all the right reasons.

Tim Curry: Another celebrated 80-year-old transitioned on the very same day: actor/singer Tim Curry. For most, he’s best known for his role as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But Curry was in loads of other things, ranging from playing the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance to Pennywise in the first (TV) adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

In Beatle world, we know that: 1) John and May Pang were invited to see a Tim Curry stage performance in the premiere of Rocky Horror Picture Show in LA by producer Lou Adler on March 27, 1974; 2) George was photographed with him (alongside Eric Idle); and 3) Curry recorded a Beatles song on his 1978 debut.

Eric Idle, Tim Curry, and George Harrison — Eric - Tim - Lily Idle - George (date unknown)

SATB UPDATES

Candlestick Clip: Not the most spectacular footage but kinda neat anyway: this clip posted by Adambound of the final show at Candlestick, synched to ‘66 tour audio and featuring snippets of the opening acts.

Episode 332 Online Call: For anyone who missed it, it was a conversation hosted by Allison and myself, featuring Amelia Davis, Joel Selvin, and Naomi Marcus. We all had a great time and so did the attendees. Thanks to Troy Hubbard for support – I will try to get the video up on YouTube this week.

Naomi’s Recommendations: In our talk, she mentioned David Hajdu’s book Positively 4th Street (a history of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Fariña, and Richard Fariña). She also mentioned Russian musician Boris Grebenshchikov (band: Akvarium), whose story was the subject of Michael Apted’s documentary Long Way Home. I in turn mentioned the BBC documentary, When The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin.

Upcoming on SATB: A discussion of the One to One concert film that showed in theaters not long ago, with two guest perspectives.

Classic Rock Album Olympics: The pod with Gary Wenstrup has a new one out: Van Morrison’s Moondance.

SATB Website: As you may have noted, it has been a work in progress for a few months now. But of late there were some major problems requiring major surgery. To that end, there’s a placeholder there now and a fresh and revamped site coming in the next week or so. Once ready, there should only ever need to be a single sign-in, and that’s to access the past newsletters.

HISTORY

August 31, 1969: John, George and Ringo attended Bob Dylan’s concert at the Isle of Wight.
August 31, 1976: George was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” in the “My Sweet Lord” case.
September 1, 1963: The Beatles taped an appearance on Big Night Out.
September 1, 1997: George’s collaboration with Ravi Shankar, Chants of India, was released in the UK.
September 2, 1946: Billy Preston was born.
September 2, 1964: The Beatles’ concert in Philadelphia was broadcast on local radio.
September 2, 1978: George and Olivia Arias tied the knot.
September 3, 1979: Ringo made an appearance on Jerry Lewis’ annual Labor Day weekend telethon.
September 4, 1962: The Beatles recorded the “Ringo take” of “Love Me Do.”
September 4, 1968: The Beatles filmed promos for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution.”
September 4, 1972: John and Yoko performed on Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day weekend telethon.
September 5, 1964: While in Chicago on tour, Ringo was presented with a gold snare drum by officials from Ludwig Drum Company.
September 5, 1968: Eric Clapton contributed lead guitar to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
September 6, 1966: Just a week after The Beatles’ final show, John flew to Hanover, West Germany, where his Beatle-length locks were cut for his role in Richard Lester’s How I Won The War.
September 6, 1967: Paul demoed “The Fool on the Hill.”

Coming soon to SATB: a new sponsor: Quince!

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (starting from scratch)

🎧 Classic Rock Album Olympics podcast with Gary Wenstrup
💬 Join the SATB Discord!
📧 Enjoying the show? Say so here | Got an issue? Tell me here: [email protected] (Subject: Feedback)
🌐 Socials: Facebook | Instagram | BlueSky | Twitter

Newsletter #94

Published: August 24, 2026

Welcome

Hey there subscribers. This is going to be one of those past week summaries where a whole lot of nothing happened, except for a big announcement from Apple (below). But there is a new show out, another will be coming quicker than usual, and this Friday (the 28th) will be the online Zoom call commemorating the 60th of The Beatles' final bow at Candlestick (I think that might be literally true). So a few things to talk about here, plus the usual history stuff.

For those in the teaching profession or in school, it's that time of year again; for many of the rest of us, the wind down of summer is just beginning (depending on where in the world you are). But at SATB, there's a new wave of guests and books and releases coming this way, so there will be no lack of things to discuss anytime soon.

NEWS

Apple Corps & Universal Music Group: In an apparent effort to cut off any potential 21st century Seltaeb/Nicky Byrne-type of scams, Apple Corps inked a deal with Universal Music Group for licensing exclusivity rights. As noted in the article, there is plenty of precedent for this sort of thing, as witnessed in examples such as the Rolling Stones and Elton John. If there is anything to read into the terms of the deal at all, it may be that the surviving Beatles and their board room are succumbing to the economic reality that future generations are possibly more interested in fetishizing "Beatles" as a merchandising brand, with new opportunities on the horizon (the pending Sam Mendes films, for instance) than they are in further archival releases. This certainly aligns with the announced strategy shift toward "experiences" (and as artists whose income streams for music have dried up discovered, merch is always a reliable revenue stream). I would think we'd also see more moves toward licensing actual Beatle master recordings for commercial advertising, a practice regarded in The Beatles' day as shameful but that ship has long since sailed.
The Third Eye: A trailer of sorts for the upcoming George collection of photography, The Third Eye, was posted this past week.
Candlestick 60th Zoom: Last, the Zoom link for Friday's Candlestick 60th talk is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84664876430?pwd=x63mBFzq3odJDQIEwYMfzTxVLLMyOv.1. I have no idea how crowded the call will be, but just know that we will likely keep the mics silenced and take questions/comments in the chat, just to try and keep things manageable. Thank you!

OBITS

Shelley Fabares: Actress and hit-maker (1962's chart-topping "Johnny Angel") Shelley Fabares has passed away at 82. There's absolutely no direct Beatles connection with her that I could find, though it is interesting to look back and see that her peak of fan "mania," such as it was, was fading just as that of The Fabs was on the ascent.

She appeared in three Elvis movies, among other things. But Shelley was married to record producer Lou Adler during the '60s: he in turn got a credit on the 1964 Vee-Jay documentary release, Hear The Beatles Tell All. Adler also co-founded the 1967 Monterey International Pop festival, which included Paul McCartney on the advisory board, so there's that. During the initial LA phase of John's separation from Yoko in 1973, he stayed at Lou Adler's house. (Presumably Shelley lived there at some point too.)

UPDATE

Just a follow-up to last week's story about Beatlemania star Mitch Weismann's accident that occurred in July, mis-reported as resulting in his death. Sadly, the actual details are pretty grim, as reported by someone familiar with the real story.

SATB UPDATES

Episode 331 - Don Dannemann: If you have listened to 331 already, then you will know what a great pleasure it was for me to speak with Don Dannemann. Not only was he a witness to some really interesting times, but as you heard, is a terrific storyteller, and his accounts of recent audiences hanging on every word rings absolutely true.

THE LOOK

You can check out the band's website here and YouTube channel here, but there are a few things I wanted to call out. For anyone who wants to see the TV performances we talked about, here's the "Red Rubber Ball" debut on Hullabaloo and here's the "Turn Down Day" performance on Hollywood Palace. "Murray The Why," from The Minx, can be seen here. Finally, the Revival album featuring the reconstituted band and the song "We Thought We Could Fly" can be heard here.

Courtesy of Dan Coston, here are some of the pictures taken at Dodger Stadium on August 28, 1966 that show Don with The Beatles.

In both 330 and 331, New York attorney and Brian Epstein business partner (Nemperor) Nat Weiss has come up. Read a fascinating story here about what happened after his 2013 passing.

HISTORY

August 24, 1953: Wings drummer Steve Holley was born.
August 24, 1964: Capitol issued "Matchbox"/"Slow Down" as a US single.
August 24, 1965: The "She Said She Said" acid trip in Los Angeles took place, featuring three Beatles plus The Byrds and Peter Fonda.
August 24, 1989: George's "Cheer Down" was issued as a single in the US.
August 25, 1967: The Beatles traveled to Bangor, Wales to attend a TM seminar with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
August 25, 1977: Ringo's "Wings" was issued as a single in the US.
August 26, 1968: "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" was issued as a single in the US, as were three singles from Mary Hopkin, Black Dyke Mills Band, and Jackie Lomax, debuting the Apple label.
August 27, 1947: Barbara Bach (Goldbach) was born.
August 27, 1963: The Mersey Sound TV special commenced filming in the north of England.
August 27, 1965: The Beatles met Elvis at his Bel Air home.
August 27, 1967: Brian Epstein, 32, was found dead.
August 28, 1964: The date usually given for the famous Dylan-Beatles-weed meeting in NYC (but there's evidence that it happened later).
August 28, 1964: This was the date of the first Life magazine featuring The Beatles on the cover.
August 28, 1969: Mary McCartney was born.
August 29, 1965: The Beatles performance at the Hollywood Bowl was recorded for a later issue.
August 29, 1966: The Beatles performed their last full concert before a paying audience in San Francisco.
August 30, 1965: The Beatles' second show at the Hollywood Bowl of this tour was recorded for a later issue; it was the majority of this one that made it to the 1977 album.
August 30, 1972: Two One To One benefit concerts headlined by John and Yoko took place in NYC.

FEATURE: The Acid Trip That Produced "She Said She Said"

August 24: OTD in 1965, three Beatles took acid in Beverly Hills. When actor Peter Fonda passed in 2019, there were three things inevitably mentioned in his obit: his family, Easy Rider, and his connection to a certain Beatles song. Not the worst legacy to have, and - despite the group's distaste for their encounter - Fonda came to peace with it: "Who wouldn't want to be the subject of a Beatles song?" Though in the moment, the experience must've been just as unpleasant for him - he was trying to be helpful, after all - surely being directly quoted in a terrific recording by artists he admired more than made up for it.

John and George, along with their wives, had been unwittingly dosed with LSD by their dentist back in late March 1965, during a weekend off from shooting Help! Though they found the trip in some ways frightening, they were curious enough to want to try it again, this time on their own terms. They secured a supply while in New York and made plans to take Paul and Ringo along, feeling that, given what they'd experienced, they could no longer relate to their inexperienced band mates "on any level," as George noted. There were five days off in California built into their schedule, and John and George earmarked day two as THE day.

Paul, true to form, could not be badgered into anything he didn't want to do. (His own time would come, with Tara Browne, by years' end, in Liverpool, and resulted in broken teeth.) But Ringo was game, and - along with two of The Byrds, Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, they undertook the trip. Paul's unused portion was given to Neil Aspinall, who was STILL expected to perform his duties.

The immediate challenge was dealing with uninvited UK journalist Don Short, who in April 1970 would report "Paul quits The Beatles." As three Beatles and their guests tripped, Neil had to muster up enough coherence to keep Short at bay. George: "He'd been hounding us all through the tour, pretending in his phony-baloney way to be friendly, but was really trying to nail us." John: "We're thinking, 'How do we act normal?' Because we imagined we were acting extraordinary, which we weren't. We thought, 'Surely somebody can see?'" Ringo: "Neil had to deal with Don Short while I was swimming in jelly in the pool."

Crosby and McGuinn had invited Peter Fonda along to meet The Beatles, as he was a big fan. Though of Hollywood royalty, he had not yet done his best known work and therefore was a complete unknown to the Brits. (As it happened, his sister Jane's latest film, Cat Ballou, was being screened inside the house. This could not have enhanced the moment in any way, as George would say later, "I HATED Lee Marvin!")

The two Byrds were quite experienced by this time, and the three Beatles were not. They therefore did not recognize the importance of the environment while tripping, as well as having a supportive atmosphere. Fonda had a party trick, where he would jump into a swimming pool's deep end and proceed to walk across the bottom to the other end - this he performed by way of bonding with his idols. Neil reported their reaction: "Wow! Could you do that again?"

But later, George began having some dark issues, namely believing that he was dying. Recognizing he needed help (but apparently wishing to keep his own hands clean), Crosby engaged Fonda to walk him through it. Recalled Peter, "I don't know why Crosby thought I wasn't loaded, but he said, 'You have to go down and help George.' Why am I the tour guide? I went down and I said, 'George, don't worry about it. This is a drug that makes you feel like dying and your brain doesn't want to do that, so it's trying to stop and that's the conflict so just let it go and ease out.'

"Then I said, 'I know what it's like to be dead, because a month before I turned 11, I shot myself in the stomach by accident and I died three times on the operating table while my heart stopped, so I'm still here to tell you the story.'"

Given their condition, being presented with such a dark message (and being treated to a viewing of the scar in question) only exacerbated their discomfort. Recalled John: "We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and '60s, and this guy — who I really didn't know; he hadn't made Easy Rider (yet) or anything — kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, 'I know what it's like to be dead,' and we kept leaving him because he was so boring!...It was scary...Don't tell me about it! I don't want to know what it's like to be dead!"

His efforts at talking George through the experience having backfired, Fonda was tossed from the party. Still, John had presence of mind enough to retain the key line - "I know what it's like to be dead" - change the gender, and repurpose it into the acid-drenched "She Said She Said" (with considerable help from George).

The three Beatles never forgot this day, which came during a week which saw them meet Elvis as well as deal with an enterprising group of female fans who chartered a helicopter to buzz Zsa Zsa Gabor's estate, where they were staying.

Photo Gallery

KRWA Stage Setup

Stadium Field View

Live Performance

Portrait Session

Teen Magazines

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #93

Published: August 17, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. I am hoping by now that you have seen the public posting about the August 28th online talk about the Candlestick show's 60th anniversary (more below). I have been wanting to stage more online events, so consider this the first of a series. Your input is all welcome of course, so keep it coming, and on all things. Also FYI, I will be appearing at the FabFest in Charlotte, NC come October 1st, so hope to see some of you there. Until such time, here's some…

NEWS

Ringo's PBS Conversation: Nothing really huge to report this week. On the eve of his next run of tour dates, beginning in September and running through October, Ringo's conversation for PBS at the LBJ Presidential Library is running online. It was taped in July and runs just under half an hour. The All Starrs are headed for the east coast for a total of ten dates.
George's Book Update: Olivia will present talks on the upcoming volume of her late husband's Beatle-era photography, The Third Eye, in October. The first will be in Brooklyn alongside Martin Scorsese and the second in Los Angeles with Cameron Crowe.
Dhani Harrison & Nigel Godrich: As mentioned in previous newsletters, Dhani Harrison's collaboration with Nigel Godrich, Dragonflies, will be released on September 18. On that same day, they will be performing live in Los Angeles as part of the launch.
Yoko Ono Event: Also live and in LA: remember the Yoko Ono Music of the Mind exhibition currently in town? A separate (but equal) musical presentation is coming on September 19, courtesy of Yuka Honda (who has worked with Yoko and Sean in the past), entitled Ocean Child: I Am Yoko. Your ticket to this show gets you into the exhibition.
Sam Mendes Films: The Sam Mendes Beatles films in production shot at the EMI Recording facility on Abbey Road this past week, with the building reverting back to its old name for the shoot, which included a recreation of the Abbey Road album cover.
3 Savile Row: Meanwhile in Marylebone, continued reports of the locals not being happy about Apple's plans for making 3 Savile Row a tourist destination (which it already had been, but this really amps it up).
Wings Oral History: Wings in the news: the upcoming paperback edition of the band's oral history, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run will include Morgan Neville's talks with Macca.
Henry McCulloch: Meanwhile, as we observe the 57th anniversary of Woodstock, there's a movement afoot to honor the only Irish man to have played there, guitarist Henry McCulloch as part of Joe Cocker's Grease Band. Typically these things happen when the community invites it and there's funding for it. In this case, the cost could probably be easily covered by a sweep through Sir Paul's couch cushions.
Nicky Hopkins Documentary: Remember that documentary film on session pianist extraordinaire, Nicky Hopkins? It came out late last year apparently, but like the Billy Preston or Peter Asher docs, hasn't really seemed to land anywhere distribution-wise for very long to get seen on the big screen at least. However, it does look like it can be seen for free (with ads) on YouTube - check it out while you can.

AN OBIT AND A HALF

Dave Marsh: Rock criticism has been having a rough time of it in recent years, as well it should. As some critical thinking and fresh perspectives have come into the ongoing conversation, suddenly the decades of pseudo-intellectual and heavily-biased opining from a particular group sharing a particular demographic just doesn't seem so damned relevant anymore. Maybe the biggest voice leading the parade over the long haul was Dave Marsh. As a writer who got his start in the late '60s at Creem (mentored by Lester Bangs), he went on to Rolling Stone where his influential writings were accorded a substantial platform. This included not one but two "open letters" to John Lennon during his years of public silence; in 1977 and 1979. The first castigated him for not reclaiming his "rightful" place as leader of the counter-culture in the face of events that didn't make sense (to Marsh at least). The second doubled down on the plea. (Only John's murder seemed to prompt Marsh to take a step back and recognize the folly of reducing an admired artist to the status of "a vending machine.")

Marsh would go on to edit the Rock and Roll Confidential newsletter and pen a number of books, including several on Bruce Springsteen. Maybe the one that concerns us the most around here is the 2007 volume he published on The Beatles' Second Album, that 1964 Capitol release that arguably stands up today as the first Beatles concept compilation. That Marsh loved The Beatles there can be no doubt, but his book itself is fascinating, not least because of what it reveals about him specifically and rockist culture generally, however unwittingly.

I'm not here to unload on the recently deceased and would further point out that Marsh's writings, especially in the volumes of The Rolling Stone Record Guide profoundly impacted my own tastes. He could make you think when he wanted to, and sometimes his scathing reviews could make you laugh out loud. Like all of us, he was a mixed bag, but I think I can say without contradiction that he left his mark, and if steering young fans to music that they may otherwise have missed is his enduring legacy, that's no small thing.

Mitch Weissman: And then there's Mitch Weissman. He burst into public consciousness in 1976 when his natural McCartney doppelganger characteristics landed him the role in the Broadway production of Beatlemania. The show would've likely run forever as this multimedia tribute to an act that was no longer doing it themselves collectively had Apple not shut it down on "right of likeness" grounds (meaning you can't just present yourself as another living person without permission and is only ever typically invoked when something is making money). But Mitch's talents were not to be denied, and he parlayed his looks and abilities (which did not, alas, extended into playing left-handed) into some notoriety (appearing in an episode of Joanie Loves Chachi and as a member of Beatlefest houseband Liverpool from 1991 through 2002).

But this past week, for some reason, word broke out on social media that our boy had passed at 73, the victim of a car accident. It spread with the lightning speed bad news usually does, until at last dialed back with the word that Mitch had in fact, back in July, been struck by a car and has been in the hospital ever since, recovering. But otherwise, this played out like a Mark Twain quote and it would be nice to think the word of the outpourings of love and care this week reached him, pushing that thumb aloft.

SATB UPDATES

Episode with Don Dannemann: Expect my conversation with Don Dannemann from The Cyrkle to post this week. If all goes well, you will get a bonus episode not long after. Meanwhile, there's this latest episode of Classic Rock Album Olympics with Gary Wenstrup on the 1980 Talking Heads album, Remain In Light.

HISTORY

August 17, 1960: The Beatles performed in Hamburg for the first time.
August 18, 1962: Ringo played with The Beatles as an official member for the first time.
August 19, 1943: Billy J. Kramer (William Howard Ashton) was born.
August 19, 1974: John's collaboration with Harry Nilsson, Pussy Cats, was released.
August 19, 1980: Two Double Fantasy tracks were filmed in the studio.
August 20, 1991: Julian Lennon's Help Yourself was released.
August 21, 1978: "London Town" was issued as a single by Wings in the US.
August 22, 1962: The Beatles were filmed by Granada at The Cavern performing "Some Other Guy."
August 22, 1968: Ringo walked out of the "White Album" sessions.
August 22, 1968: Cynthia Lennon countersued John for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
August 22, 1969: The Beatles were photographed as a group for the last time at Tittenhurst.
August 22, 1986: Paul's Press To Play was released in the US.
August 23, 1962: John and Cynthia were married in Liverpool.
August 23, 1963: "She Loves You"/"I'll Get You" was issued as a single in the UK.
August 23, 1964: The Beatles were recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl.
August 23, 1974: John and May Pang witnessed a UFO over New York.

CANDLESTICK AT 60

As discussed here previously, an online chat and Q&A is slated to happen a week from this Friday via Zoom. The time will be 9pm east coast - 8pm central - 7pm mountain - 6pm west coast, plus however this works out to where you are. It will be posted afterward on YouTube, so there's that, but you can see it in real time and ask a question if you want by using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84664876430?pwd=x63mBFzq3odJDQIEwYMfzTxVLLMyOv.1

DO NOT log in before the start time.

On the call will be Amelia Davis, Jim Marshall's photography curator, plus San Francisco music journalist Joel Selvin. Allison Bumsted and I will be hosting, plus there will be some rare video shared. I may have some other possible guests (like George and Bob Dylan at Bangladesh, I'll believe it when/if they show up). I have no idea what the turn out will be (like anyone who ever played in a band, what people tell you in advance and what the actual body count at the gig is are two different things) but it will be fun. If everything works as planned, expect more of these in the future.

Photo Gallery

Newsletter Feature

Mitch Weissman

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

🎧 Classic Rock Album Olympics podcast with Gary Wenstrup
Join the SATB Discord!
Enjoying the show? Say so here | Got an issue? Tell me here: [email protected] (Subject: Feedback)
🌐 Socials: Facebook | Instagram | BlueSky | Twitter

Newsletter #92

Published: August 10, 2026

Welcome

Hello friends. More Rubber Soul media coverage has followed the announcement of the upcoming (final?) SDE. Love him or hate him, Rolling Stone predictably put Rob Sheffield on the case, but Mojo (also predictably) went all in, with a suitable covermount CD and interior content of flexible accuracy. The first thing many of us will notice is the continued tradition (going back at least as far as the 90s issue of the "Real Love" single) of removing the dread tobacco products from The Beatles' fingers in Mojo's cover photo. (While thankfully the cover art of Abbey Road remains untouched, I wouldn't call it a safe bet that it will always remain so.)

NEWS

Rubber Soul SDE Coverage: It is not my intent or purpose to be one of those people who cannot be restrained from going full on negative whenever a new Beatles reissue package arrives. I noted a couple of inexplicable omissions in last week's newsletter, but thankfully I need not go any further, because someone else has done the heavy lifting (and I pretty much concur with most of what he has to say). If any of you care to weigh in, it would be great to get your takes.
"Little Girl": There's been a lot of hype about the "new" Beatles/Lennon song in the set, "Little Girl," which makes complete sense as a marketing hook - something never heard before. For those who don't know, it was a musical sketch John produced during the era, broadly speaking, consisting of four snippets but edited into a single take by the Giles team. It was uncovered by the late Alan Rouse, Beatles archivist, back in the '90s. To call it "a song" is a bit of a stretch, because it was clearly unfinished, and whatever else it is, it's not a "Beatles song" in the sense that it's not a group performance. But there were clues in plain sight as to the song's existence for years, going back at least as far as 2012 with the publication of the Hunter Davies book compiling John's correspondence. There, what appears to be the lyrics of "Little Girl" were first made public, jotted down on a post card.
Revolver at 60: It feels a little strange that this past week, Revolver turned 60 but all the Beatles news is (naturally) focused on Rubber Soul. Still, this piece from ten years ago was re-posted, written by journalist/musician Jeff Slate. Our friend Ken Womack also chimed in for Salon.
Beatles in Fiction: There will be an upcoming SATB episode covering The Beatles in fiction, which is an ongoing thing. For a recent example, a Brian Epstein-themed radio play just aired on BBC: A Portmeirion Love Affair with Life debuted this past week. It's set in the title north Wales town and takes place during the drama-filled summer of 1966.

SATB UPDATES

Candlestick Park 60th Anniversary Event: I had mentioned in previous newsletters an online event in the works to commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Beatles' final show at Candlestick Park. The event will take place on Friday August 28 at 9pm EDT/6pm PDT. I will provide a link in the next newsletter, but it will be hosted by myself and Allison Bumsted, and will feature Jim Marshall curator Amelia Davis and journalist Joel Selvin, both of whom were contributors to the recent book of photos just published. The idea is to have the opportunity for attendees to ask questions or comment. As part of this event, you will also hear from at least two people who were there at that last show: Don Dannemann from The Cyrkle, who I just interviewed, as well as Naomi Marcus. She was the 10 year-old girl seen backstage hanging out with The Beatles, brought down from Big Sur to San Francisco by her friend and neighbor, Joan Baez. She and Don will appear on "tape" at least and they had some terrific memories to share. Last, we will present footage and audio from the show.

Ringo, Naomi, Joan by Jim Marshall — Ringo - Naomi - Joan by Jim Marshall

Rubber Soul Dedicated Show: I had asked from you the listeners about whether or not I should have a dedicated show about the new Rubber Soul box set. The answer was a resounding "yes," and so I will get one put together for when the release arrives. I also have an idea of who the guest will be, and I suspect (if they say yes) it'll be someone none of you could ever have predicted.

Keven Howlett Critique: It so happens that I have in the can a conversation taped earlier this year, critiquing the scholarship of Keven Howlett over the course of the several Beatles SDEs he's written for. With Rubber Soul on the way, my guest and I will reconvene to add an insert on the new one to keep it up to date.

Classic Rock Album Olympics: Two episodes of the Classic Rock Album Olympics series were taped this week; one featuring an album from 1992, the other from 1974. Last week, the episode on Marvin Gaye's 1971 release, What's Goin' On, was posted.

Birthday Wishes: And a Happy Birthday today to Jack Petruzzelli of The Fab Faux, RPM School, and ManCamp.

HISTORY

August 10, 1985: Michael Jackson bought ATV music for $47.5 million.
August 11, 1966: The Beatles arrived in Chicago to begin their final North American tour.
August 11, 1967: The Beatles were photographed by Richard Avedon.
August 12, 1980: Pete Best joined The Beatles.
August 12, 1980: Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos joined the Double Fantasy sessions.
August 13, 1965: The Help! soundtrack album was released in the US.
August 13, 1971: "Back Seat of My Car" was released by Paul and Linda McCartney as a single in the UK.
August 14, 1965: The Beatles taped their final live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
August 14, 1978: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With A Little Help From My Friends" was issued as a single in the US.
August 14, 1979: "Arrow Through Me" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.
August 15, 1965: The Beatles kicked off their second North American tour at Shea Stadium.
August 15, 1974: Paul began filming One Hand Clapping with Wings.
August 16, 1960: The Beatles traveled to Hamburg for their first Reeperbahn stint.
August 16, 1962: Pete Best's tenure with The Beatles came to an end.

FEATURE: The Beatles Face the Press in Chicago (August 11, 1966)

There were two news conferences held this day, actually (here and here); the money quote being, "And now it's all this!" Posted here are some select interview segments with Brian and the group at various points. After arriving from London and changing planes in Boston, Chicago was the first stop on what ended up as the final tour, therefore presenting the first opportunity to face the press directly. As the tour proceeded, their degree of seriousness in addressing the attempts to put them on the defensive diminished. This is not to say that the entire experience left them unscarred, John especially. He was a nervous wreck going into it, and the sheer degree of hostility the public dished out along the way was unprecedented - and frightening. (Even the expressions of love they'd experienced in America could be scary.)

Also posted here is sampling of press coverage. Contrary to perceptions that outrage over the remarks was confined to the American Bible Belt, newspapers reported offense taken among the fans all over the country, though few regions went so far as to stage bonfires and boycotts. (Even San Francisco papers reported the possibility of canceling what would end up as their final show, given the controversy.)

The timing was a great pity. The Beatles found themselves knocked off message at this juncture, when what should have been asked about was the great artistic leap forward they'd taken with the newly-released Revolver. Few members of the press thought to bring it up.

Side note: that particular room at Astor Towers in Chicago saw some other rock star action during that period.

Photo Gallery

"Little Girl" Lyrics Postcard

Ringo, Naomi & Joan by Jim Marshall

Special Feature

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #91

Published: August 3, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. This past week saw a mostly positive response to word of the Rubber Soul box coming, ending speculation in that last 24 hours about what the teased announcement would be. But hardcore fans wouldn't be hardcore fans without griping about some aspect, and on that score, Apple did not disappoint, given the usual allotment of "what are they thinking?" aspects to the release. So without further delay, here's the…

BIG NEWS

Being confirmation and details surrounding the October 2 release of the Rubber Soul SDE. There'd been plenty of talk in recent years declaring "box sets are on the way out," countered by recent rumblings of equal surety asserting "Good things come to those who Wait" and that's the sentiment that prevailed this past week. (In the interim, there was a lot of online commentary suggesting, in the light of Power To The People SDE controversy, that any reissue of the album might be canceled outright in view of the album's closing track, "Run For Your Life," Gen-Z social values being what they are. This ended up not being the case, which one can see as progress or else maybe the perception of misogyny being more palatable than the perception of racism.)

In any event, details of all that's coming can be found here but to cut to the chase, here is the track list of mostly-unreleased content:

Sessions, demos and the single (* included on 2CD/2LP)

Wait (Take 3 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
Run for Your Life (Takes 1-5 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (First Version – Take 1)
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Third Version – Take 3)
Drive My Car (Takes 1-2 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape) *
Day Tripper (Take 1 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Day Tripper (Takes 2-3 – Instrumental Backing Track)
If I Needed Someone (Take 1 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
In My Life (Take 1) *
In My Life (Extract with Unused Organ Solo)
We Can Work It Out (Paul's Demo) *
We Can Work It Out (Take 1 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Nowhere Man (First Version – Take 2)
Nowhere Man (Second Version – Take 5 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
I'm Looking Through You (First Version – Take 1)
I'm Looking Through You (Second Version – Take 2) *
I'm Looking Through You (Third Version – Take 3)
Michelle (Guitar Rehearsal)
Michelle (Take 1)
What Goes On (Take 1 – Instrumental Backing Track)
The Word (Takes 1-2 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
Girl (Take 2 – Instrumental Backing Track) *
Beatle Talk (Think for Yourself vocal overdubs)
Little Girl (John's Demo)
Day Tripper (2023 Mix) *
We Can Work It Out (2023 Mix) *

Some omissions call themselves out (because of course they do.) If the package is being hyped on the breathless description of a "new, previously unheard John Lennon song" called "Little Girl," would it have been unreasonable to expect the demo of "What Goes On" to be included? It also features John and is historically important inasmuch as it showcases the track's transition from early Lennon composition to reworked Ringo vocal spotlight (with songwriting credit besides).

Even less defensible is the absence of "12-Bar Original." It was tracked during the sessions at a time when they were both working hard to scrape up enough material to complete the album in time for the holiday deadline and, in their way, honor their R&B fandom (as well as, perhaps, expand the album title's description beyond the opening track). Isn't it the purpose of archival releases to showcase the work done to arrive at the finished product? Giles doesn't think so, dismissing the recording as "not very good in the first place." This judgment is exactly besides the point if you are the archivist. He also pointed out that it had been already released (on Anthology 2), opening up a whole new avenue of criticism when it comes to re-presenting that which has "already been released." (Did he even listen to Anthology 4?) In this case, the argument especially holds no water in that what we got on Anthology 2 was an edit less than half the length of the track's 6:42 running time. If there's a place to officially release the entire recording, this was it.

In any event, Giles "Mr Bassman" Martin appeared on Sirius XM to explain his side of things; everyone can hear what he had to say here.

I don't want to sound completely negative though, and I will say I'm happy that the original "organ solo" take of "In My Life" is being included. (All that's been in circulation so far has been lo-fi versions.) Also, the inclusion of the dialogue recorded and preserved during the vocal session for "Think For Yourself" is most welcome. For those who don't already know, being as squeezed as they were to get the album done left little time to likewise shoehorn in the by-then-requisite Christmas message fan club recording. George Martin thought to keep the tape running on this day, just in case anything funny and usable emerged.

It was funny in that way The Beatles always were, but not usable for Xmas Message purposes. Only a few seconds emerged a few years later in the Yellow Submarine film of John, Paul and George attempting to nail the "and you've got time to rectify…" harmonies (just before the line, "Do I hear music?"). Its inclusion here is better than nothing, but with the available tape running nearly twenty minutes long, it'll be interesting to hear what Giles deemed "good."

While it is still in circulation, you can hear the session here and follow along with (most of) it here. Once the Rubber Soul set arrives, I will be happy to do a show discussing it if you, the listeners, would like to hear it. I feel like I've already discussed plenty of what should be happening with future archival releases with people who know what's what, but I am open to your input.

OTHER NEWS

Last week's newsletter noted a new video drop from Dhani from his forthcoming Dragonflies joint with Nigel Godrich.
There was a new Beatle-son video release this past week, from James, called "Dreams," and you can see/hear it here.
Meanwhile, his Dad just received another accolade for The Boys of Dungeon Lane; this time a nomination for the Mercury Prize, one of the few awards he hasn't yet won.

OBIT

Glen Hansard: It's always sad when an artist we admire going back to the '50s-'60s-'70s passes on, but there is at least an element of it not being unexpected; people are getting on and dying in your 70s-80s-90s doesn't necessarily qualify as tragic after a life well-lived. That's not the case for Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, just 56 when his life ended in a road accident this week. It isn't easy to describe his music easily - it really has to be experienced to be felt. Plenty of people obviously did with the tributes pouring in after the word came.

Like a lot of Americans I suppose, I first became aware of him through his casting as guitarist Outspan Foster in the 1991 film adaptation of Roddy Doyle's The Commitments. That led to discovering his band, The Frames, which I might not have otherwise known about, but for his having been in The Commitments. There was no missing his other film role, in 2007's Once, especially when the song "Falling Slowly" went on to score an Academy Award. He and his duet partner Markéta Irglová performed as a duo (The Swell Season) after that. But Glen never seemed to stray far from his street performer roots (what he was when discovered for The Commitments, which is worked into the film), performing an annual charity busking fundraiser.

A great overview of his life can be seen here. For our purposes, I wanted to highlight this, as well as his performance at a 2023 Carnegie Hall McCartney tribute show. The latter in return prompted this from Sir Paul.

Codladh go maith, a Ghleann a chara.

SATB UPDATES

I've been getting loads of positive feedback for the conversation with Merle Frimark, so thanks for that. Here's another picture from her trove, taken at Apple with Derek Taylor with the chair.

Merle Frimark & Derek Taylor at Apple London July 1969 — London July 1969 Photo © Merle Frimark

Says Merle: "I loved that chair so much that I ended up buying one and it was in my home for decades until it started to fall apart and dry up. Oddly enough at the time I donated it to a theatrical prop shop and (later) I went to see a talkback that my pal Derek Jacobi was doing in New York. And I'm sitting in the audience and lo and behold, I'm going, "geez, that's my chair!" Turns out it was my chair! I went onstage at the end to look closer at it, as there were specific areas that I would recognize. Sure enough, my friend Derek was sitting in my old fan chair. How about that for a coincidence?"

I'll have more to say about the online event penciled in for Friday August 28 to commemorate the 60th of Candlestick in the next newsletter. Stay tuned!

Something I wanted to draw attention to: Samira Ahmed - my guest in 329 - is part of an ongoing panel discussion and film series at BFI, in case you are reading this in the UK. You can follow it on her socials, but what I wanted to mention is an upcoming screening of the 1967 film Privilege, which she described in her A Hard Day's Night book as "the anti-A Hard Day's Night pop dystopia." That's a loaded description and entirely on point. It starred Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) and Jean Schrimpton (of Smithereens fame); for anyone curious, you can check it out here.

HISTORY

August 3, 1939: Jimmie Nicol was born.
August 3, 1943: David Peel was born.
August 3, 1963: The Beatles' final Cavern Club performance took place.
August 3, 1964: Follow The Beatles was broadcast on BBC TV.
August 3, 1964: George Martin's Off The Beatles Track was released in the US.
August 4, 1946: Maureen Starkey (Mary Cox) was born in Liverpool.
August 5, 1966: Revolver was released in the UK.
August 5, 1966: "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" was issued as a single in the UK.
August 6, 1965: Help! was released in the UK.
August 7, 1957: The Quarry Men first played the Cavern (minus Paul who was at scout camp).
August 7, 1980: The Double Fantasy sessions began.
August 8, 1963: Kyoko Cox was born.
August 8, 1966: Revolver was released in the US.
August 8, 1966: "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" was issued as a single in the US.
August 8, 1969: Iain MacMillan shot the cover of Abbey Road.
August 9, 1967: On the same day George and Judy Martin's daughter Lucy was born, playwright Joe Orton, in talks with The Beatles for scripting a third film script, was murdered by Ken Halliwell (with a hammer).

FEATURE: The Beatles' Final Cavern Show (August 3, 1963)

In the midst of many theatre dates as well as the sessions for With The Beatles, the group agreed to this return show for the locals, most of whom had supported them for years; just as they were poised to leave the scene that had nurtured them with no looking back. It wasn't pure nostalgia that motivated the homecoming: Brian Epstein had actually arranged it in part out of spite against a promoter who'd booked them for a string of shows in Liverpool (at Grafton Rooms) for the days proceeding. Contracted in January, their fee had gone up considerably in the time since; Brian asked to be let out of the agreement but the promoter stuck to the deal. A clause in the contract prohibited playing in Liverpool before the dates at Grafton Rooms but said nothing about after. For this reason, Brian asked if the Cavern would take them for the next day - Saturday - and at a fee commensurate with their current price, £300. This they agreed to, though it meant a financial loss for them.

Deejay Bob Wooler was a little put out at the request, as he'd already booked bands for the night in question, but he knew that the club's owner, Ray McFall, would not say no to Brian and The Beatles. The date was announced on July 21st and the 500 tickets sold out within 30 minutes.

The Beatles themselves approached the gig with mixed feelings: Lennon especially groused about it being beneath them at this juncture, and given the conditions they'd grown accustomed to versus what the Cavern represented, he wasn't wrong: the subterranean combination of smell and moisture (in fact, the power DID short out during their last set, as it often did: The Beatles entertained the attendees with an impromptu acoustic version of an anachronistic ditty Paul'd written but not yet finished off yet - the world would know it as "When I'm 64" years later) would have repelled anyone used to theater dressing rooms and professional sound and lighting by the time.

But they were also nothing if not loyal and certainly possessed a fondness for the regulars who'd been there for them even when they were less deserving of the adulation they now commended so effortlessly.

The number "292" has been ascribed to the number of Cavern dates they played there, beginning as Quarry Men in 1957. (Their Cavern debut as "Beatles" came three years to the day before they first played live on Ed Sullivan's stage.) Most who have researched the matter believe it was slightly lower - around 280 - but that's splitting hairs.

While we don't have a set list preserved for this very last Cavern date (and likely they would've been free-wheeling it anyway, per their pre-Brian habit), we do know that they recorded these songs for the BBC's Pop Go The Beatles show just two days earlier:

"Ooh! My Soul"
"Don't Ever Change"
"Twist and Shout"
"She Loves You" - scheduled to be released on August 23rd
"Anna (Go To Him)"
"A Shot of Rhythm and Blues"
"Lucille"
"From Me To You"
"I'll Get You"
"Money (That's What I Want)"
"Baby It's You"
"There's A Place"
"Honey Don't" (w/Lennon on lead vocals, not Ringo)
"Roll Over Beethoven"

Additionally, just days before they'd tracked these additional songs for With The Beatles:

"All My Loving"
"It Won't Be Long"
"Till There Was You"

Though Brian indicated to Wooler and McFall that "they'd be back," everyone knew that they never would.

Photo Gallery

What Goes On

Glen Hansard Tribute

Merle Frimark & Derek Taylor at Apple

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #90

Published: July 27, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. This reaches you as a new show has come out, #330: Working For The Beatles with Merle Frimark. If you haven't yet listened or saw my earlier mention in the last newsletter, Merle (yes, named for the star of the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights) was a New York teen, with the gumption and drive of someone who took a chance and was rewarded. She began working for The Beatles' US fan club in 1967; her role evolved as Nemporer Artists transitioned into Apple, and ran through the end of the group. The highlight of the experience may have been the visit to EMI arranged by Derek Taylor in July 1969 as The Beatles worked on Abbey Road, which she photographed. If you have or have not yet but intend to listen to the episode, I highly recommend you check out the two articles she wrote, which flesh out the story (here and here).

Merle at John's Savile Row desk, July 1969, with that hat. (Photo © Merle Frimark)

NEWS

It's one of those things that seems too good - too perfect - to have happened without being scripted but I'll leave that to the cynics to ponder. This week, Sir Paul was back in Liverpool, as part of his role at commencement ceremonies taking place at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA), which he co-founded in 1996 at the site of his old (and disused) alma mater, Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. Maybe the big headline connected to the event would've been the bestowing of the honorary companionship to actor (and Liverpudlian) Stephen Graham (This Is England, Snatch, Boardwalk Empire, Adolescence, etc.) but for the cosmically righteous circumstance of the Magical Mystery Tour bus pulling up to a red traffic light alongside Sir Paul's car at the exact moment he happened to be facetiming his former bandmate. Hopefully their guide was tipped well that day.

Something a little less fleeting was resurrected this past week. On September 19, 1969 - one week before its UK release - Abbey Road was premiered visually on BBC2, as part of the Late Night Line-Up show. Reportedly, the group were fans of the show's "pop subjects" and saw the opportunity to promote the release, so they suggested marrying the album's songs to suitable visuals, as a sort of video album before there was such a thing. It aired exactly twice - once before and once after the album's release - and then was likely wiped, not to be seen again like so many other Beatles-related television broadcasts.

Come 2019 and a rough copy was discovered. You can read all the details here, but the takeaway is that technicians have been working on restoring the special, and that a premier of the restoration work in progress was staged this past week courtesy of the BFI. It's a helluva thing to be able to witness the recovery of these long believed to be lost artifacts: keep 'em coming.

In auction news: John's handwritten lyrics to his exquisite ballad, "If I Fell," were auctioned off by Heritage this past week, fetching well north of half a million dollars. Reportedly, work on the song began during the group's February 1964 US visit. Given their whirlwind of activity early that year, it's not surprising that they would've felt the pressure of using every spare minute wisely to compose the soundtrack to their cinematic debut, with work on the song beginning on February 27.

Speaking of Abbey Road, here comes the son: Dhani Harrison announced a new project this week, a collaboration with producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Paul's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard) to be called Dragonflies. A song has debuted on YouTube, "Slower." It's got a bit of a Wonderwall Music vibe to it, I think (I'm specifically thinking of the Remo Four track). For his part, Godrich cites SATB friend John Leckie as one of his influences. (Top man!)

SATB

I've got a couple of shows in the can, and several more in the planning stages (as always). I can share this: I had a fabulous conversation with Don Dannemann, surviving member of The Cyrkle, this past week. Look for that in September, probably. I can say no more.

HISTORY

Beatle-centric events occurring this (George-centric) week in the past include…

July 27, 1971: George held a press conference to announce his Bangladesh benefit shows.
July 27, 1971: Paul's "Eat At Home" was issued as a single in Europe.
July 27, 1976: John received his Permanent Resident status ("green card"), enabling him to live in and travel from the US without fear of being barred upon re-entry.
July 28, 1968: The day-long "Mad Day Out" Beatles photo session took place.
July 28, 1971: George's "Bangla-Desh" was issued as a single in the US.
July 29, 1965: The Beatles' second feature film, Help!, premiered in London.
July 29, 1966: The Maureen Cleave interviews were published stateside in Datebook, igniting a firestorm throughout the US Bible Belt.
July 30, 1968: The Beatles were filmed rehearsing "Hey Jude" by Tony Palmer for a TV documentary.
July 30, 1973: Braverman's Condensed History of The Beatles short film was broadcast on US late night TV.
July 30, 1976: A collection of interviews with each Beatle by journalist David Wigg was released in the UK as The Beatles Tapes two-record set.
July 30, 1979: George's "Faster" was issued as a single in the UK.
July 31, 1968: The Beatles liquidated the stock of their Apple boutique by giving it away to whoever showed up.
July 31, 2013: New York attorney Nat Weiss, Brian Epstein's partner in Nemporer Artists, passed away.
August 1, 1943: Wings drummer Geoff Britton was born.
August 1, 1965: The Beatles appear live on Blackpool Night Out.
August 1, 1971: George's two Bangladesh benefit concerts were held at Madison Square Garden.
August 1, 1978: Dhani Harrison was born.
August 1, 1979: HandMade Films was formed.
August 1, 2015: Cilla Black passed away at 72.
August 2, 1969: Paul produced The Iveys recording his composition, "Come and Get It."
August 2, 1971: Paul's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" was issued as a single in the US.

FEATURE: The "Come and Get It" Session (August 2, 1969)

As related in last week's newsletter, Paul saw the opportunity to give an Apple act a boost and at the same time shed a burden he was unenthusiastic about by handing off duties for writing three new songs for The Magic Christian film to these hungry proteges. He'd already written and demoed what would be the theme song, and left it up to them to do the rest. This was no problem, as all four members wrote and they were quite prolific. (In fact, "Come and Get It" would be the only cover ever recorded by The Iveys/Badfinger in the studio.)

His July 24 demo was handed over for them to learn and on this Saturday - one day after The Beatles began work on "Because" - Paul set aside Abbey Road work to track what would be issued as Badfinger's debut single. John (and Yoko) DID breeze through the studio at the start of the session, as recalled later by Tom Evans: "They were kind of walking through and Lennon stopped and looked over at Paul, bowed his head, and said, 'Oh, wise one, oh sage, show us the light.' The next thing I knew, he walked out the door. I thought, 'Wait a minute, that was John Lennon!'"

Paul had them gather round the piano as he detailed instructions on how to perform HIS song exactly as HE wanted it done. As he recalled later, he told them "Look, lads, don't vary, this is good, just copy this down to the letter. It's perhaps a little bit undignified for you, a little bit lacking in integrity to have to copy someone's work that rigidly, but this is the hit sound. Do it like this and we're all right, we've got a hit. No one will know anyway. And if they do say anything say 'Yes, Paul did the arrangement, big deal, it's not unheard of'."

In the end, they DID speed the tempo up slightly from the demo and added a tambourine. Mike Gibbins' drum fills were praised by Macca for enhancing the song; he also ribbed bassist Ron Griffiths for his stand-out bass run at the song's end. It took 26 takes to nail the keeper - not a bad day's work.

The song would remain in the can until issued to tie in with the release of The Magic Christian at the years' end in the UK, by which time Griffiths was out of the group and Joey Molland was in. (Evans, the song's lead singer, shifted from guitar to bass to accommodate the change. Because the accompanying Apple album, Magic Christian Music, was a transitional work straddling The Iveys and the beginning of Badfinger, Joey was listed in the liner notes but not pictured.)

Paul produced the two other songs The Iveys/Badfinger composed to fulfill the obligation: the wistful power ballad "Carry On Till Tomorrow" was recorded in Studio 2 at EMI on Friday, August 22: presumably just before or just after Paul joined the other Beatles at Tittenhurst for their final photo shoot. George Martin scored the orchestration.

The final McCartney/Iveys session took place on September 18 at IBC Studios - minus Griffiths, who was out with chicken pox - to knock out the Little Richard-esque "Rock of All Ages." Some mixes (including the non-Apple soundtrack LP released on Commonwealth United) featured Paul's "whoops" and screams much more prominently. (He is also believed to have handled piano.) Two days later, John requested his "divorce."

Photo Gallery

Merle at John's desk, Apple office London, July 1969

Come and Get It 45

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #89

Published: July 20, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. Every once in a while a week goes by without much in the way of big Beatle related happenings, and during weeks when my time is pretty tight, it's not an altogether bad thing. A slow news week, in other words, so maybe it's an opportunity for some listeners to catch up on older shows, especially if you're traveling or otherwise taking it easy. And if listening to podcasts is not an option, you can always go old school and read a book. Thankfully, you have some great options (see below)...

NEWS

Ringo's Album Talk: In the previous newsletter, I'd mentioned Ringo's album by album talk with Tom Frangione, available to hear on the Sirius XM app. I know that Sirius is not a platform accessible to those outside of North America, but now you can at least hear the Ringo talk here.
"Dear Prudence" Drumming Mystery: Obadiah McDoogall Jones is a musician, serious Beatles scholar, and a podcaster (Gimme Some Truth). Such was the occasion this week when Obadiah, who has done some deep research into specific unanswered questions, was part of a panel examining who exactly is playing the drums on "Dear Prudence." We were told as far back as Lewisohn’s Recording Sessions book that “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and DP were the two “White Album” tracks laid down while Ringo was out parading, commencing on August 22 and not to return until September 3, 1968. The story further stated that Ringo + family decamped to Sardinia, aboard Peter Sellers’ yacht. However, a paper trail demonstrates that the Sardinia trip actually occurred in October 1968, after the sessions ended; photos (by Cathy Sarver) show Ringo at exactly the right time and place to participate in the Trident session for DP, and Mal Evans’ contemporaneous documentation shows Ringo returned to a flower-bedecked drum kit at EMI within the week of his walk-out. I think what Obadiah and his panel uncovered is more than enough solid evidence to show that what we have believed to be true for decades isn’t necessarily so.
Women Who Influenced The Beatles: There’s a new Beatles book coming next year, focusing on a list of specific women who influenced The Beatles in significant ways. Helen Barrett has come up with two lists of recommended Beatles-adjacent reading and they look really interesting. List one and List two.
Australian Beatles Fest: Last: please forgive the last minute, Australian friends, but I just became aware of this, courtesy of our Australian correspondent, Andrew Shakespeare: https://www.beatlesfest.com.au/

Cathy Sarver with Ringo, 50 years apart.

SATB

Show 330 - Merle Frimark: Show 330 will be coming this week: my conversation with Merle Frimark. If her name rings no bells, it stands to reason: though she has had a tremendously successful career in her native NYC, on and around Broadway in PR/publicity for loads of successful shows, she hasn’t actually written a book (yet). She got her start in show business, as it were, sorting mail in her town for The Beatles’ fan club; pre-Apple and pre-Klein. This was an outgrowth of her fandom (she saw both Shea Stadium concerts) and one of those stories that no longer seems possible today: literally knocking on the right door at exactly the right time, leading to other doors opening, including ones by Derek Taylor and later, Tommy Smothers. Perhaps the high point of her tenure occurred on July 23, 1969: that’s when she was in London and was given access to the group at EMI while they were working on Abbey Road (which she photographed). It would probably be a good thing for you listeners to check out a couple of articles she wrote (and see some of her photos) here and here.

Also taped this past week: a delightful conversation with someone who attended the final show at Candlestick. That’ll be coming next month, possibly along with some other surprises…we’ll see.

HISTORY

Among the Beatles-related historic events of this coming week are…

July 20, 1964: Capitol released Something New (their alternative to UA’s A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack), plus a pair of singles: “I’ll Cry Instead”/“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” and “And I Love Her”/“If I Fell.”
July 20, 1968: Jane Asher announced her split with Paul on TV’s Dee Time talk show.
July 20, 1969: The Beatles (and guests including George’s parents) screened a rough cut of the Get Back/Let It Be film.
July 20, 1969: George watched the Apollo 11 moon landing with his father.
July 21, 1943: Guitarist Henry McCullough was born.
July 21, 1978: Ringo’s “Tonight” was issued as a single in the UK.
July 22, 1963: The purported release date for Vee-Jay’s Introducing…The Beatles album.
July 22, 1980: Paul’s “Waterfalls” was issued as a single in the US.
July 23, 1965: “Help!”/“I’m Down” was issued as a single in the UK.
July 24, 1967: The Beatles (and their manager) were among the names signed to an ad published in The Times calling for the legalization of marijuana.
July 24, 1978: Robert Stigwood’s Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band film opened in the US.
July 24, 1981: George’s “Teardrops” was issued as a single in the US.
July 24, 1997: George’s visit to VH-1 studios in New York with Ravi Shankar was broadcast.
July 25, 1975: “Fame,” John’s co-write with David Bowie, was issued as a single in the US.
July 26, 1943: Michael Phillip Jagger was born.

FEATURE: "Come and Get It" Demoed (July 24, 1969)

Independently of Ringo’s being cast (as “Youngman Grand”) in the cinematic adaptation of Terry Southern’s novel, The Magic Christian, Paul was tasked with his second bit of non-Beatles film work (after 1966’s The Family Way): writing music for the score. Unlike his previous effort, his brief did not include incidental cues, but rather actual compositions for use in specific scenes, including the title sequence.

For anyone familiar with the plot of TMC, “Come and Get It” fit the theme quite specifically, without being so direct that it couldn’t exist as a song separate from the film. Paul’s commission was for three original songs: whatever his original intent when he accepted the job - whether he intended to record and submit the songs as a solo, with The Beatles, or let the producers choose an artist - is not clear. What DID suggest a path to serve two ends occurred when he read The Iveys interview published in Disc and Music Echo on July 5th, where bassist Ron Griffiths expressed the band’s disappointment with Apple's “neglect” of their career. Paul had only gotten as far as the first song when he proposed to The Iveys that THEY take his custom-crafted tune and make it their next single - HE would produce it - and then THEY submit the remaining two tunes to the filmmakers. It was a deal too good for anyone to pass up, barring the caveat he laid down: they would have to record it exactly as he presented it, and not alter the arrangement.

In the meantime and in one hour, Paul laid down this demo, prior to George and Ringo showing up for work on “Sun King”/“Mean Mr. Mustard.” (John watched from the upstairs control booth in number 2 studio.) Paul laid down piano + vocals, more vocals, maracas, drums and bass, in that order. The tape was mixed and presented to the group, who convened a week later to lay down their take.

Paul’s demo was released on Anthology 3 (after a false start with Sessions in 1985), presented in Geoff Emerick's inexplicable fake stereo mix. The proper 1969 stereo mix arrived as part of the 2019 Abbey Road Deluxe set. Also caught on tape this day: The Beatles’ 1969 take on “Ain't She Sweet.”

Photo Gallery

Cathy Sarver with Ringo, 50 years apart

Helen Barrett's Recommended Reading Lists

Merle Frimark (Photo © Merle Frimark)

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #88

Published: July 13, 2026

Welcome

Hello everyone. I am hoping by now that most of you have started listening to my conversation with Samira Ahmed about A Hard Day's Night in episode 329. I really enjoyed our talk and if her social media posts are anything to go by, she did too. Her book really is terrific and smart and I hope everyone who's ever loved the film checks it out. I'm sure some of you found particular takeaways from the talk, but there's one in particular I wanted to highlight: she'd mentioned a film directed by Richard ("Dick") Lester that I hadn't seen, The Bed Sitting Room. Co-scripted by Spike Milligan, the 1969 dark comedy somehow did not find the audience Lester anticipated and marked a turn in his aspirations going forward. You can read about it here, and thanks to listener Clay Banes, you can see it here.

I also wanted to mention something just announced: Samira will be part of an event happening in West London at Chiswick House later this year, with Lewisohn as well as journalist/filmmaker Tony Palmer, who I have been wanting to get on the show for awhile now. If Tony's name is unfamiliar, you've certainly seen his work if you ever watched a Beatles documentary: the rehearsal sequences of "Hey Jude" originated with a TV documentary he did back in 1968. That same year, he directed the Cream farewell concert (which aired in January 1969 and that you hear The Beatles critiquing on the Nagra reels).

Better still is the ambitious series he produced circa 1976-1980 called All You Need Is Love. It was a 17-episode doc on the history of popular music, with each installment dedicated to one subject or another. The dedicated Beatles chapter, "Mighty Good," was one of those absolutely stunning things that left a mark on second-gen Beatles fans lucky enough to catch it on their local PBS stations. Pre-Anthology, pre-Compleat Beatles, pre-All You Need is Cash came this 55 minute impressionistic look at the group's history, including recent interviews with John and Paul. What the David Frost-produced 1975 Once Upon A Time project only hinted at, this film delivered, and for young Beatlemaniacs, I'm here to tell you that it really left a mark.

Tony also directed that bizarre concept piece, All This and World War II, described in detail in my Fab Four FAQ 2.0 book. Perhaps the only thing more inexplicable than its existence (and all star soundtrack which populated cut-out bins for years) is its recent SDE re-release. (I'm not implying any negative judgments - I find the whole notion of marrying newsreel footage of the second world war to Beatles tunes performed by everyone from the Bee Gees and Leo Sayer to Peter Gabriel and Keith Moon beyond fascinating.)

Last, Tony penned a terrific music book around 1970, Born Under A Bad Sign. It included art by Ralph Steadman and a foreword by John Lennon. Original editions are quite rare but he's since re-printed an affordable edition. Anyway, I am hoping to get him on the show at some point, as long as he's still doing some Beatling.

Also still Beatling: Hunter Davies

NEWS

Ringo's 86th Birthday: As you all know, on Tuesday Ringo celebrated his 86 years in traditional fashion: with the "peace and love" noontime gathering in Beverly Hills. But this years' event made news for a couple of additional reasons: first, new tour dates announced for later this year along the east coast, and second, for the honorary doctorate bestowed upon him from the University of Liverpool as a birthday surprise.

Ringo's Birthday Celebration — L-R Michaela Riches of University of Liverpool - Dr. Richard Starkey - your friend and mine, Gary Astridge

Sirius XM Ringo Conversation: On the subject of all things Ringo, Sirius Xm channel host Tom Frangione announced that his two hour conversation with him (taped last year) in which Ringo discussed every one of his albums (well, excepting the new one) will be made available to Sirius subscribers through their app.
Leslie Bryce Contact Sheets: Auction news: Leslie Bryce was a photographer connected to The Beatles through their monthly fan mag, for which he took hundreds of photos of them between 1963 and 1968. A collection of 400 of his contact sheets featuring any number of previously unseen images went up for sale, fetching a final price of $38K. (Bryce died in 2000.)

OBIT

Bonnie Tyler: The news that singer Bonnie Tyler had suffered a serious health issue while in Portugal, resulting in a month-long coma, took a sad turn when the singer, who had guardedly been expected to recover, slipped away at 75 on July 8. Born Gaynor Hopkins (plural, as distinct from Mary - singular - who also hailed from Wales and because of whom Bonnie changed her name for fear of confusing), she scored a worldwide hit in 1977 with "It's A Heartache," framing her as a female Rod Stewart with her raspy voice. Bigger successes followed of course, and the 1983 single, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" secured her status as a star for good.

Like many who sustain a long show biz career, Bonnie did have some Beatles overlap: the first album she ever bought was A Hard Day's Night, and in this anecdote, she reveals what happened when she crossed paths with a Beatle.

For Badfinger fans, she had an even more substantial connection: The Iveys started in the Swansea music scene, with Pete Ham, Mike Gibbins and Ron Griffiths all hailing from the Welsh locale (before Liverpudlians Tom Evans and eventually Joey Molland segued the band into Badfinger). Following Ham's death in 1975, drummer Gibbins, who'd returned to Wales, found work as a session player. It's his drums you hear on "It's A Heartache" and he then toured with the singer that first year after the break-out success as a member of her band. (Mike talked about it here.)

There's a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of him in this Top of the Pops performance, but luckily we have a frame grab:

Mike Gibbins with Bonnie Tyler on Top of the Pops (Courtesy of Beatlefan's Bill King)

As for Bonnie, she would frequently drop this song into her live performances. (Funnily enough, so did she.) By all accounts, Bonnie Tyler was a sweet and down-to-earth star and will be missed.

HISTORY

Beatle-esque occurrences from the past popping up this week include:

July 13, 1964: "A Hard Day's Night"/"I Should've Known Better" was issued as a single in the US.
July 13, 1985: Paul McCartney's live performance at Live Aid was marred by a dead mic for the first two minutes of "Let It Be."
July 14, 1944: Freda Kelly was born.
July 14, 1982: Pete Best appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
July 14, 1986: Paul's "Press" was issued as a single in the UK.
July 14, 1992: Live in Japan was released in the US.
July 15, 1958: Julia Dykins (John's mother) was killed in a road accident at 44.
July 15, 2009: Paul appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
July 16, 1968: Geoff Emerick walked out of the "White Album" sessions.
July 17, 1967: "All You Need Is Love"/ "Baby You're A Rich Man" was issued as a single in the US.
July 17, 1968: Yellow Submarine premiered in London.
July 17, 1971: John and Yoko appeared on the Michael Parkinson Show.
July 17, 1989: Paul's "This One" was issued as a single in the UK.
July 18, 1983: The Beatles At Abbey Road show began running (three shows a day) at EMI's St. John Wood facility.
July 19, 1965: "Help!"/"I'm Down" is issued as a single in the US.

SATB

After a little bit of a break, I'll be taping some new stuff this week. I have had to re-shuffle the intended order of things a little bit, but next up will be a conversation with someone who actually isn't an author (yet), but who nonetheless is filled with stories of Beatle experiences, ranging from Shea Stadium (twice) to employment with them to the Abbey Road sessions, and a 1980 postscript. That'll be 330. But in the meantime, a new episode of Classic Rock Album Olympics has dropped, this one on The Band's sophomore release.

As mentioned earlier, the SATB episodes #1 through 122 will be coming to the Discord community soon. Anyone who prefers that era of the show should be pleased.

But for anybody who's enjoyed the last nine years, I would really appreciate any online reviews you care to leave. If you look at Apple (and these reviews tend to make it to other platforms), most are overwhelmingly positive but there's also some stuff that carries undue weight when not counterbalanced by the positive. For a while, there were people complaining about technical glitches having nothing to do with the content of the show and even less to do with me that bring the overall average down, as well as the usual malcontents that are much more easily moved to post something negative about something than something positive.

Anecdotally, because I do hear from you, I know that most of you are greatly appreciative of the work that goes into these shows. It isn't me you need to win over (though I don't get tired of hearing your feedback, good or bad) but those who haven't listened yet. That's the crowd we need to raise awareness with, so while I am not ordinarily someone driven to run up "likes" per se, I also recognize that the way algorithms work is to reward that which gets good reviews and positive attention. So it would be greatly helpful and appreciated to leave a good review on Apple, Reddit, the regular social media or anywhere else you can, and "likes" on the shows published to YouTube especially (because it works like a search engine). All of which will help SATB get boosted, which can only be a good thing. Thank you in advance!

I'd mentioned something in previous newsletters coming up to commemorate the upcoming 60th anniversary of The Beatles' Candlestick Park show. I am happy to say that I have commitments from some people who were there to contribute to this, so the whole thing is shaping up beautifully. Stay tuned for further details, but maybe save the date of Friday August 28… (And thank you to everyone who left a review here - keep 'em coming!)

Last thing: SATB listener Jerry Guarino is a writer. He's launching a contest: "which Beatles song deserves its own short story?" If you want to check it out and participate, check out the links here and here.

Photo Gallery

Mike Gibbins with Bonnie Tyler on Top of the Pops

Ringo's 86th Birthday Celebration

Bonnie Tyler Tribute

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #87

Published: July 6, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. Whether you are in the northern or the southern hemisphere and listen to the show, I hope that you are currently enjoying a break in whatever form. Things are staying busy on my end, but knowing that a lot of you listen to the show while traveling or working out or otherwise while doing something fun makes it worth my time to keep the feed coming. Luckily this is a topic broad enough that there will never ever be a lack of things to talk about as far as I can see, and interesting people and things seem to arrive on a regular basis.

Newly arrived…stay tuned! All that said, if you are clamoring for any particular discussion, by all means let me know.

NEWS

George Martin Memorial: Remember Orange amplifiers? The company was started in 1968 by one Cliff Cooper. I am not aware of any Beatles use of this particular brand, but the young company did manage to secure some product placement on West Germany's Beat Club music TV show. Fast forward many decades and Cooper is now not only the majority shareholder in The Beatles Story museum at Albert Docks, but this past week dedicated the first public memorial to Sir George and Lady Judy Martin at the Strawberry Fields former Salvation Army home, chronicled in song. ("Especially 'Strawberry Fields!'") On hand for the dedication were Cooper and two of Martin's favored children.
Paul at Taylor Swift Wedding: The Taylor Swift nuptials in NYC this weekend reportedly featured Sir Paul as a musical guest, delivering what for him is indeed a rarity: a performance of "I Want To Hold Your Hand." According to the data I consulted, the song was first performed by The Beatles at Colston Hall in Bristol, two weeks to the day before it was released as a single on November 29, 1963. It was retired less than a year later, after a September 20, 1964 performance at New York's Paramount Theater for a cerebral palsy benefit. If Paul ever played it again - even at a sound check, where he is known to go deep - it has gone undocumented. But in 2026, the song apparently did at last get played, in the same venue.

Paul at Taylor Swift Wedding — Yeah YOU got that something??? (Courtesy of Beatlefan's Bill King)

Ed Sullivan Archive: It was announced this week that the Ed Sullivan Show archive, owned by SATB guest Andrew Solt, has reached one billion streams. This comes along with the status of Ed being honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November later this year. It's worth noting that there was one unsung man in particular who was responsible for getting The Fabs booked in that career-making three straight weeks booking in February 1964 and his name was not Ed. You can read that story here.
Joe English: This was a bit of random: one-time Wings drummer Joe English was noted for turning 77 in the venerable Parade magazine. It begs the question, "where is he now?" but this is something the article does not answer.
Peter Asher Documentary: I wish I had more definitive news for anyone reading this outside of the US, but for the rest of you, the Peter Asher doc Everywhere Man has been popping up in theaters across the country. You can look for a screening near you here.
Ringo's 86th Birthday: Last: Ringo will turn 86 on Tuesday. We live at a time when it's becoming less rare for performers to keep going at ages unheard of not that long ago, but no one could've imagined he'd still be recording and performing live at this age, did we? But the stuff he delivers is no embarrassment either. Like Sir Paul, he's doing what he does because he can, and he still loves it. Maybe that's the best all of us can hope for. With that thought in mind, Ringo's tradition of putting "peace and love" into the world on his birthday each year since 2008 doesn't sound like a bad idea.

SATB

My conversation with Samira Ahmed on A Hard Day's Night will arrive any moment now, so stay tuned. Next in line will be my conversation with a 1st-gen British fan who penned a memoir, and featuring a 1st-gen American fan as co-host. This will be followed by my conversation with an employee at Apple in New York who very likely most of you have never heard of; an American girl who also happened to be in London during the Abbey Road sessions.

In the last newsletter I mentioned the guests I've had on the show who have since passed away, and the count stood at six. Sad to say, there are two more to add to the list, both of whom appeared during the show's previous iteration and that I lost track of along the way. As noted above, Andrew Solt came to the show in 2017. We first connected at the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival; this is where I also first met Marshall Crenshaw, but it was Andrew who in turn connected me with Debbie Gendler, a 1st-gen Liverpudlian fan named "Rita," plus TV producer Vince Calandra. Every one of these folks became a guest on the show, and it was Vince who appeared on the same episode as Andrew, fleshing out the story of The Beatles' Sullivan show appearances. Vince passed away last year at 91.

Also now departed: there was another episode that featured a couple of guys with Beatle encounters in London. One was David Stark, who maintains a steady social media presence, and the other was an American by the name of David Goggin, known to some as "Tahuti Bonsai." He worked in the music industry, inspired by his Beatles encounter in 1967. In his talk, he related tracking down the Beatles on a visit to England and that he knew a thing or two about TM. It so happened that the day of his encounter, John and George were headed out to tape an appearance on The David Frost Show to talk up meditation, and according to David, it was their talk in the car that John and George used as talking points with Frost. Later that evening, they invited him to EMI, where he witnessed the tracking of "I Am The Walrus." David penned a few books of interest, which you can find here. Sadly, after years of some health issues, David passed away at 78 in April 2026.

Right now some of you will be asking, "But Robert - how can I hear these shows?" The answer is, as part of the show's earlier iteration, I am not very proud of a lot of them. Most of them are opinion-laden nonsense, long on self-indulgence and short on meaningful content. All that said, there are a handful that I think are worthy and in any event, since some of you have been asking and also since some of you came forward and made available what I didn't have at hand, I will, as I noted last week, make them available on the Discord channel at least. I put some time in this week cataloging them (adding dates and titles to files only ID'd by number), and once they are all ready, they will be posted. To anyone thinking, "geez, now I gotta sign up for Discord?!?," well yeah - that's not too high a bar, is it? But if it is, let me know and we'll work something out. If you can imagine people clamoring for something from a part of your life you'd just as soon forget, you wouldn't want to make it too easy to get at, would you? On the other hand, a good number of guests availed themselves at the time and delivered and they should be heard.

More in the Classic Rock Album Olympics series with Gary Wenstrup tapings happened in the past week. Keep the suggestions coming!

HISTORY

Beatle-centric events occurring this week in the past include…

July 6, 1957: John Lennon was introduced to Paul McCartney.
July 6, 1964: A Hard Day's Night premiered in London.
July 6, 1978: Ringo's "Heart on My Sleeve" was issued as a single in the US.
July 7, 1940: Richard Starkey (junior) was born.
July 7, 1967: "All You Need Is Love" was issued as a single in the US.
July 7, 1970: Louise Harrison, George's mother, passed away at 59.
July 7, 2010: Paul joined Ringo onstage in NYC for a 70th birthday surprise.
July 8, 1966: The Nowhere Man EP was issued in the UK.
July 8, 1968: The Beatles minus John attended a press screening of Yellow Submarine.
July 9, 1969: John rejoined The Beatles at EMI for then Abbey Road sessions after his car accident.
July 10, 1964: A Hard Day's Night was released in the UK.
July 11, 1968: John and George attended the wedding of "Magic Alex" Mardas in London.
July 12, 1958: The Quarry Men record two songs at the Percy Phillips studio in Liverpool.
July 12, 1963: The Twist and Shout EP was released in the UK.

ONE LAST THING

I was doing some troubleshooting on the newsletter platform, in response to dozens of listeners reaching out to me and saying they'd made multiple attempts to subscribe and hadn't received anything. I'm not super tech-savvy, no matter what they tell you, but nonetheless I found a weird glitchy thing - sort of the equivalent of a spam filter - that meant, for me, a couple of extra hoops to jump through, but the good news is I think I have it resolved now. So if this is the first newsletter you are getting, after months/weeks of trying, congratulations - I think we have it figured out now. I'll police this more closely going forward, but honestly I don't know why obstacles like this even exist. I swear, nothing can ever be easy, but I guess if you look at everything as a character test, it'll all start to make sense (maybe). The good news is you'll have loads of back issues to catch up on, which I recommend!

Photo Gallery

George Martin Memorial at Strawberry Fields

Paul at Taylor Swift Wedding

Andrew Solt

Ringo's Peace and Love

Ringo Once Said...

July 6 - John Meets Paul

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #86

Published: June 29, 2026

Welcome

Hello everyone! We are just now passed the first sanctioned Global Beatles Day, which is to say that Apple recognized the fan-initiated commemoration and got it on the act: first by hyping what they claimed was the first posting online of the colorized "All You Need is Love" performance clip from Our World (it's not - the first time by them maybe...), and second by curating a playlist of ostensibly love-themed songs, which in Beatleworld covers a lot of ground. (Did we once have a double album about this?) Being a cynical Beatles fan is a really easy thing to do, so I guess maybe the best thing to do is not take it too seriously and hope they do better next time. Otherwise, a pretty slow news week, which is not a bad thing every once in a while.

NEWS

New Footage Surfaces: It's fantastic that stuff we haven't seen before continues to trickle out. We'd discussed the recent find of never-before-seen footage of The Beatles' first appearance on Top of the Pops in the last couple of newsletters; this 1976 interview with George by Bob Harris recently surfaced as well.
Hamburg Days Re-casting: I'd mentioned the death of actress Luna Jordan back in May here; she was to play Astrid in the Hamburg Days production, based on Klaus Voormann's memoir. It appears as though they have since re-cast that part and announced others.
Sam Mendes Production: And as far as the Sam Mendes production goes, new production photos have leaked depicting the 1965 Shea Stadium concert re-staging.

HISTORY

Beatle-centric events occurring this week in the past include…

June 29, 1982: Paul's "Take It Away" was issued as a single in the US.
June 30, 1966: The Beatles performed the first of five shows in Tokyo at Budokan.
July 1, 1968: John and Yoko staged "You Are Here," their first public art happening at London's Robert Fraser Gallery.
July 1, 1969: John and Yoko crashed their car in Scotland, resulting in hospitalization.
July 2, 1963: The Beatles recorded a number of otherwise unrecorded songs for the BBC, including "That's All Right Mama," "Clarabella," and "Soldier of Love."
July 3, 1969: The Plastic Ono Band was launched in London, minus John and Yoko.
July 4, 1966: The Beatles performed two shows in Manila.
July 4, 1969: "Give Peace A Chance" was issued as a single in the UK.
July 4, 2009: Allen Klein died at 77.
July 5, 1966: The Beatles left The Philippines under threat of assault and flew to New Delhi.

AND A SAD FAREWELL TO…

Michael Hill: John's school pal Michael Hill, 85. It is inevitable as SATB is produced that guests I've had on who were contemporaries of The Beatles will pass away, and now we've lost the second one this year. Michael was a classmate of John's, who played a pivotal role in John's musicality: he introduced him to Little Richard by purchasing (while on holiday in Holland) a copy of "Long Tall Sally," then unknown in the UK, and playing it for John back in Liverpool and therein rocking his world. John would tell this story in interviews and the Anthology book, while years later Michael told his side of the story in his book detailing his friendship with John.

Michael was an articulate and thoughtful observer of what he witnessed and we are the richer for his having penned a memoir. He now joins the list of others I was lucky enough to speak to (and in the case of Ken Mansfield, become friends with) who have since transitioned on:

Ramsey Lewis (jazz legend)
Bill Rotari (Montreal Capitol Records exec who facilitated the recording of "Give Peace A Chance" and later launched the English-language career of Celine Dionne)
Ken Mansfield (US Apple Records manager and Beatles biographer)
Vic Flick (session guitarist extraordinaire who played on the soundtracks of The Beatles' first two films, among other credits)
Ivor Davis (journalist and Beatles author)
Michael Hill (friend of John's and author)

OTHER OBITS

Much less Beatles specific, as it happens. The first is record executive Clive Davis, a legend in a long line of folks including everyone from Dick Clark to Don Kirshner to Simon Cowell: non-musician music guys who were able to identify marketable talent. You can't argue with the ability of these people to be responsible for presenting acts that moved units by the truckload, though I would observe that few of their successes were actually innovators, which makes The Beatles' successes all the more staggering: very rarely are the most popular artists on the planet at any given time actually the same ones moving the artistic goal posts and shaping the paradigm going forward.

You can glean all you need to know here. Certainly he crossed paths with The Fabs (see pic here from 1973, or the introduction at the start of this 1975 Midnight Special where Davis was the host). Oddly, Davis was one of the few folks called out by name in the scathing screed penned by former Apple "house hippie" Richard DiLello in the wake of Pete Ham's suicide, though this may be for what he represented within an industry insensitive to the fragility of artists rather than anything he was actually directly involved with.

Then there's former Blood, Sweat and Tears vocalist David Clayton-Thomas. Again, no direct Beatles connection but: probably best to remember him for stuff like this rather than this. According to Canadian Beatles historian Piers Hemmingsen, Clayton-Thomas was hugely influenced as an artist by the Revolver album specifically. For anyone interested in his fine band, Blood, Sweat and Tears, this doc is highly recommended. Clayton-Thomas was 84.

SATB

My conversation with Erika White regarding Robert Whitaker and the infamous photo shoot, best known as the original cover of Capitol's "Yesterday"...and Today collection is out now, although her book is not yet. Side note: do you know which SATB guest has a copy of that record, signed by the photographer? Another Beatles witness/author, Debbie Gendler (I Saw Them Standing There).

Also out now: the CRAO conversation on David Bowie's Station To Station, suggested by a listener. If you have any suggestions for future talks, by all means shoot me an email.

Last week I asked if anybody had any of the old shows and boy did you come through: a big thank you for all who responded. For anyone interested in primordial SATB, I will make them available on the Discord eventually (look for the link in the sig here), along with the original cuts of all the old shows (prior to being told we had to take the music out for Spotify, who continued to ignore us anyhow). To me, the old shows are absolute cringe on multiple levels, but I know some people like them (sigh) and there are a handful that I am genuinely proud of (Erin Weber's 1st appearance, for example, or the "Revolution 9" deep dive).

I am deeply appreciative that a number of you took the time to respond. We've built a great community and all of it works both ways: I respond to your input and thankfully I feel like I'll get a response anytime I put a "call to action" out there. Here's another instance: a couple of shows back, I presented my conversation with Amelia Davis about Jim Marshall and the fabulous book she produced on their final show at Candlestick. It's gorgeous and content-rich, in terms of Jim's photos as well as the information presented. Well, it turns out that the one person on this planet who might be expected to feel not so kindly toward someone doing something much better than he once did has raised his hand and posted a scathingly petty 1-star review on Amazon, where such things do have an impact. Really a case of sour grapes that says more about him than it does about the new book, and so I am asking: if anyone here has bought/read the book and enjoyed it, by all means please leave a positive review. The book doesn't deserve what this person wrote and should be given its due by all serious Beatle fans. Thank you!

Photo Gallery

George Harris Interview 1976

Michael Hill - John's School Pal

Global Beatles Day - All You Need Is Love

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #85

Published: June 22, 2026

Welcome

Hello everyone. First, yesterday was Father's Day in the US, and I hope everyone who IS a father or has one they love had a fine day. Second, this week was my second Magical Mystery Camp, which, if anything, was even more joyous than my first. I know it isn't practical for everyone who wants to attend, TO attend, but I do hope that everyone interested will have the opportunity, because I can truly say without qualification that it is a profound and thoroughly enjoyable experience: from the presentations to the live acts to the sense of community and ongoing vibe. You can turn off the darkness and stresses of the world for a while and immerse yourself in a real life Pepperland where you connect with old friends, make new ones, and make music yourself if you're so inclined. All in the lovely setting of the Catskills and the surrounding area. To anyone curious who has thought about it but isn't sure, I am certain you will love it and wish it could last longer. And it was also the week of Sir Paul's 84th too, which means...

NEWS

Paul's 84th Birthday Lists: ...there were media platforms that HAD to produce lists. Here is one ranking Macca's albums, and another his best songs. I know that EVERYONE has opinions, but I like seeing other fans use these sorts of things as conversation starters. Which is exactly what the SATB discord is for, BTW (more below).
Richard Ogden Book: Other McNews: his former manager Richard Ogden has a book out.
Cavendish Property: Other (literally) McCartney-adjacent news: the property adjoining his home on Cavendish is up for sale for the price of what you could buy more than a dozen former Louise Harrison homes in Benton, Illinois. I am not certain if he currently spends much time there; there's been talk that he's more or less given it to Stella, but a lot of history for sure.
Peter Asher Documentary: The Peter Asher documentary, Everywhere Man, tells the story of how this singular fellow who enjoyed a 1960s pop career in The Beatles' orbit managed to parlay his momentum into a career at the center of 1970s West Coast pop as producer to James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. To anyone who's a fan of popular music of that era, it's a fascinating story. The film, based on Peter's live one-man-show presentations, looks to be getting some distribution going.
El Topo Reassessment: Then there's this: does anyone remember (or even heard of) the 1970 film by Alejandro Jodorowsky, El Topo? As a collector of Apple vinyl back in the day, I duly picked it up (along with the soundtrack to another Apple related film called Come Together). The score was re-recorded from the film for this album by Harrison collaborator John Barham. Don't think I ever cracked the seal on either one, but the film stayed in my consciousness, partly because of its reputation as the kind of bizarre art house project it was, championed by John and Yoko, and partly because it was one of those curiosities I'd hoped to see one day, despite its reputation as something less than high art. Like so much else, it seems like the Lennon connection was a double-edged sword: it gave the filmmaker heightened visibility but putting him in Klein's orbit meant a bad outcome, which in this case meant his work was taken out of distribution for decades. Nonetheless, it had its admirers, including David Lynch. All this as a way of saying: an article ran this week presenting a reassessment. Hopefully this means it'll get wider accessibility. (It can be rented on Prime in the US, at least.)
Top of the Pops Footage: Now for the best news of last week: The Top of the Pops film footage story was absolutely real and here are the details.
International Beatles Day: Last: Thursday June 25 is International Beatles Day - celebrate wisely.

MAGICAL MYSTERY CAMP

The announced guests for this year's camp, in addition to the revamped Fab Faux (seen here with another guest artist, blue harp player Rob Paparozzi), were Martin Sexton, Cindy Cashdollar, and Gail Ann Dorsey. This last artist, as David Bowie's bassist/vocalist from 1995 onward, may have had the highest profile, but even the descriptions provided through the camp's website could not do them justice. ALL of them gave beautiful, sublime performances.

I am by nature a documenter: I know that you're supposed to live in the moment and not keep a camera in your hand at all times, but I also recognize that I represent everyone at a given event who wanted to be there and couldn't. Therefore, it's my nature to at least capture a part of these things to share later. I will say that I found it very hard to do this at the camp, mostly because what was happening onstage at any given moment was so captivating that the last thing you wanted to do was peel your eyes away from the stage and dig out your phone. Nonetheless, I did get a few pieces to share:

Martin Sexton performed, for the very last time, his one-man Abbey Road show, and also sat in with the Fab Faux.
Cindy Cashdollar played an array of lap steel guitars and dobros with Jack during the Too Many Guitars set.
Gail Ann Dorsey performed a couple of originals and this Beatles cover with TMG.

Deep thanks to Jack Petruzzelli and everyone at MMC for bringing these amazing artists to the camp. Whatever they may have lacked in immediate familiarity as names they more than made up for in the unforgettable performances they delivered.

HISTORY

Among the Beatle-centric events in the past that occurred this week are…

June 22, 1944: Peter Asher was born.
June 22, 1961: The Beatles, backing Tony Sheridan in Hamburg, tracked "My Bonnie" and "Cry For A Shadow," the latter the first band composition issued to the public.
June 22, 1968: Paul attends the Capitol Records conference in LA to promote Apple.
June 22, 1973: Living in the Material World was released in the UK.
June 23, 1940: Stuart Sutcliffe was born.
June 24, 1965: The Beatles played Milan, Italy.
June 24, 1966: The Beatles played in Munich, West Germany.
June 25, 1970: The Beaucoups of Blues sessions began in Nashville.
June 25, 1967: The Our World global satellite broadcast featured The Beatles tracking "All You Need is Love."
June 25, 1976: The "Back in the USSR"/"Twist and Shout" single was issued in the UK.
June 26, 1964: United Artists released the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack in the US.
June 27, 1969: Billy Preston's "That's the Way God Planned It" was issued as a single in the UK.
June 28, 1974: "Band on the Run" was issued by Wings as a single in the UK.
June 28, 1976: "Let 'Em In" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.

SATB

RE the SATB Discord: I wanted to make sure that we had clarity on this for anyone who may not understand the status of this online community that was established earlier this year. First, absolutely everyone with an interest in talking with their fellow listeners is encouraged to join. It is intended as a place for discussion and, if you have any projects (or podcasts) of your own, things you want to share. The only thing I would ban outright is uncivil language, politics, and AI generated images or video. To join, first get the Discord app on your device and then use this link to connect: https://discord.gg/TPycW3wuSX

When you join, there is a brief onboarding process to guide you through the "Rules" and the "Server Map" that shows where everything lives. It really isn't any more complicated than that, and you are free to chat; new shows and newsletters get posted as new topics, and we have the potential for staging online events as well. Some have asked, "where are you, Robert?" The truth is that I am typically too busy to hang out much, but I will respond to any tag if anyone wants to talk directly.

There will occasionally be someone who asks "what about your old shows, Robert? The ones with the previous co-host?" To me, they are for the most part cringeworthy as the show found its feet. I don't think most of you very willingly like to share projects you created while you were still in grade school once you leave university, but that said, there were a handful I thought were okay. But really, if you are interested, I wouldn't withhold them.

Here's the thing: one might conclude that they are offline because of some kind of deep animosity. It's not that at all, but a decision was made awhile back, with the show's executive producer exercising his veto power, that when we switched platforms from Libsyn to Evergreen, that a serious run would be made to get on Spotify, which a lot of you had asked for. I have a lot of issues with them as a corporate entity while recognizing that it is the biggest platform for podcasts. A demand they made was to get rid of all musical clips, or at least the lengthy songs, used in past shows back when we started; a licensing thing to keep them from running afoul of the record labels that they work with.

At the cost of a couple of thousand dollars and change, we had this editing done, and at the time, the EP was unwilling to pay out of pocket for something that stood to benefit or otherwise promote someone who left the show voluntarily and then proceeded to make things ugly. Fair enough. All this work got done, and then Spotify decided they weren't going to add SATB back to Spotify after all (or at least make it a priority). In the meanwhile, those old shows had been stored on an external hard drive which had gone bad. Through a substantial amount of time and effort, I was able to recover all but a handful. It's unfortunate, because one of the missing shows was the "Revolution 9" one, which I did think was worthwhile. There is at least one show that will remain dead and buried, but the missing ones now are the ones numbered:

01: The Storm Before The Storm
02: Mark Lewisohn Tunes In
03: With The Beatles Live at the BBC 2
04: And When I Touch You: Some mono/stereo Variations
06: The Beatles Live!
34: John Lennon - Vocalist
61: The Beatles and The Monkees - It Goes Like This
82: Our Favorite Solo George Songs
94: The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away: Allan Williams Remembered
106: Deconstructing The Beatles: "Revolution 9"
108: The Beatles and Ed Sullivan
109: Desert Island Solo Discs

I know that there are some listeners who go back to Day One with the show - if any of you has any of the missing shows and is willing to send me a copy, I would greatly appreciate it - thank you! Once the set is intact, I will make them available through the Discord.

Other SATB news: I should clarify the status of the long-discussed/promised Illustrated Record discussion show, since some of you are asking and I probably wasn't as clear as I should have been. It has already been started, but it's a back-burner project. Once I realized the scope that it would entail, I decided to cut it piecemeal in bits with a guest or two at a time when I could. Once I get through everyone who offered themselves up, it will be edited and posted, very much like the "Now and Then" discussion, which ran almost four hours. So it is happening, but will take some time - you'll be summoned at some point. With so many other timely topics coming at me, I had to prioritize accordingly.

Last, Erika White is next in line with the discussion of the "Butcher cover" release, followed by Samira Ahmed and A Hard Day's Night. Also, I have almost finished reading David Whelan's volume 2, and he will be coming on at some point probably in late summer. Thanks to everyone who weighed in about it.

Photo Gallery

Magical Mystery Camp 2026

MMC Performance

MMC Guest Artists

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #84

Published: June 15, 2026

Welcome

Hello Beatle people. The fact of this being a slow news week in Beatle world suits my purposes just fine as I am still working non-stop to get ready for my trip East for Magical Mystery Camp. So pardon me if this newsletter seems a little extra lightweight by normal standards. In this past week, Paul was still getting some press for his latest and Ringo is still on the road: a couple of things you aren't always able to truthfully say. But let's hit the ground running with what we do have…

NEWS

Höfner Bankruptcy: Remember several newsletters back (#59) where I mentioned the fact of Höfner going bankrupt? Given that what's probably been keeping them afloat in recent decades is Beatle tribute bands, at best, this probably isn't very surprising. And it might have been an easy thing for Paul to dip into his pocket and bail them out of sheer goodwill, but this did not happen. Instead, bankruptcy has been forestalled by another group of investors coming in. So in the short-term at least, they're going to keep going at a time when their profile was raised with the recent documentary about the recovery of Paul's long missing instrument.
Sam Mendes Films - Murray the K: I have been reporting on developments in the Sam Mendes films as they pop up. This week, the casting for New York DJ Murray the K was announced: Ben Schwartz, possibly best known as the voice of Sonic in big screen adaptations, is taking on the role. (For the record, Murray Kaufman was just turning 42 when he jumped on the Beatle bandwagon but looked considerably older. Ben Schwartz, on the other hand, is 44 but looks younger. There are people who will get this reference: "You look like what happened. A long time ago…")
Julian Lennon Video: And for the sake of being comprehensive we can take note of: Julian Lennon is part of a newly released video, very unlike any music he's ever released under his own name. It's part of an ongoing collab with "Italian designer and intellectual cultural figure" Sandrina Rubelli and Mark Thompson Ashworth. I honestly don't know a ton about it, other than it's been going on for awhile and it reminded me vaguely of Ken Nordine's long running Word Jazz, kinda sorta.

HISTORY

Among the Beatle-centric events that occurred this coming week long ago are…

June 15, 1941: Harry Nilsson was born.
June 15, 1966: "Yesterday"...and Today was released by Capitol in the US.
June 16, 1966: The Beatles made an appearance on Top of the Pops.
June 16, 1967: The Beatles were the subject of a major feature in Life magazine.
June 16, 1998: Vertical Man was released.
June 16, 2009: Let It Roll was released.
June 17, 1964: The Beatles performance in Melbourne is filmed for TV and broadcast as The Beatles Sing for Shell.
June 18, 1941: One time Beatle bassist Chas Newby was born in Liverpool.
June 18, 1942: James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool.
June 18, 1942: Producer Richard Perry was born.
June 18, 1965: John Lennon appeared on BBC's Tonight.
June 19, 1964: The Long Tall Sally EP was released in the UK.
June 19, 1967: Paul was interviewed on TV about his LSD use.
June 20, 1965: The Beatles were filmed performing in Paris.
June 20, 1986: Paul appeared at the Prince's Trust benefit concert.
June 20, 1989: Ringo appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
June 21, 1947: Joey Molland was born.
June 21, 1966: On the last day of the Revolver sessions, Paul walked out while tracking "She Said She Said."
June 21, 1982: Paul issued "Take It Away" as a single in the UK.

SATB

My conversation with Amelia Davis regarding the magnificent Jim Marshall photography at The Beatles' final concert 60 years ago was posted, in case anyone missed it. It was a lot of fun, and as indicated in last week's newsletter, some kind of online event commemorating that last show will be taking place in August - watch this space.

But up next is my talk with Erika White, whose book on the Robert Whitaker photo shoot known universally as the "Butcher cover session" will be out later this year. She has covered the story with depth never before seen or told. After that is Samira Ahmed with our A Hard Day's Night discussion, and as I'd noted earlier, though I did not plan it this way, there will be a lot of female guests coming on the show this summer pretty much non-stop, given what has been taped and what is planned. Not contrived, just worked out that way.

One of the most divisive subjects on SATB has been the work of author/journalist David Whelan on John's murder. It's certainly not a pleasant subject, and while I generally try to keep the show as a kind of respite from the horrors of our times, this is one topic where given the choice of staying silent about what you know, or allowing people to make the choice about whether they want to listen or not, I chose the latter. His research has been ongoing, so much so that a volume 2 of his findings is set to be published. I have a copy and will be reading it soon, but I am confident that he and I will be talking soon and wanted to let you know this.

On a lighter note, my conversation with Gary Wenstrup for that other show went live this week, on the second album by The Police, Regatta de Blanc, one of those works I was only too happy to discuss, though the suggestion came from one of you. (Keep 'em coming!)

I will get to work on finishing the next show once I am back in town, and expect I'll have some pix and video to share from the camp. Looking forward to meeting all of you who will attend!

Photo Gallery

Meat the Beatles Cover

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #83

Published: June 8, 2026

Welcome

Hello Beatle people. In just over a week, I'll be heading east for this year's edition of the Magical Mystery Camp in Big Indian, New York (the Catskills), hosted by The Fab Faux. I hope to see some of you there, given how much fun it was last year. I will be doing a Revolver-centric presentation, Let Me Tell You How It Will Be, a talk on the convergence that led to the creation of their seventh album. And seeing as how this is a year of 60ths, I would be remiss in missing out on EverythingFab4 Fest come November in Asbury Park, where Revolver will once again be the star attraction. So even without a Fest in Rosemont, there's still some good things to look forward to, involving seeing old friends and making new ones.

NEWS

International Beatles Day - Official Sanction: Back in 2009, a Beatle fan named Faith Cohen started up what she called International Beatles Day, choosing June 25, the anniversary of the Our World performance of "All You Need Is Love." The commemoration was boosted along through the years by like-minded fans since that time as a pleasant opportunity to post things sharing one's love for the group and feel connected to others around the world. Really, there was no further reason to expect anything like an official sanction for this conceptual annual occurrence, but come Apple Corps Ltd's new regime, it has apparently been given the stamp of official approval: they've announced that they are coming on board and furthermore, will offer up some "online and in-person events" on that day. (It probably doesn't hurt that June 25 falls on the calendar between the birthdays of the two remaining Beatles, so there's that.)
Top of the Pops 1964 Negative Discovered: Do you remember when that elusive-but-much-photographed June 1966 appearance of The Fabs on Top of the Pops was, in very small part, recovered by a fan who remembered he'd filmed his TV during the performance? Something probably even better just occurred with the discovery of the 35mm camera negative of their debut appearance on TOTP from March 1964. At that time, they came on miming to their latest single, "Can't Buy Me Love"/"You Can't Do That" - to this point, all that was in circulation were poor multiple-generation removed from the source copies like this. But this would be a first-gen version (explained here). Curiously the news did not (so far) seem to get picked up in the usual media platforms that break such stories, but was instead announced in an apparently legit Facebook post as follows: NEWS: Beatles 35mm Negative Donated. Film is Fabulous! were present in force at the British Film Collectors' Convention, which was held on Saturday 30th May 2026, at The Barn Theatre, Oxted, Surrey. Trustees, Prof. Justin Smith, John Franklin, and Simon Nicholls, were joined by a team of volunteers, to meet with film collectors and to buy and sell films. One of the highlights of the day was the presentation by John Clancy, the long-time organiser of BFCC events, to John Franklin of Film is Fabulous, of several items from the estate of a deceased film collector. The last of these items was a 35mm BBC negative of The Beatles, recorded on the 19th March 1964. It was still in the original BBC film can. On that day, The Beatles were at the BBC's Television Theatre (since renamed the Shepherd's Bush Empire) in west London, to film their debut appearance on Top Of The Pops. The show was normally broadcast from studios in Manchester, but The Beatles were allowed to pre-record two songs in London, without an audience. They mimed to both songs from their new single, 'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'You Can't Do That'. The show was first broadcast on the 25th March 1964. In addition to The Beatles negative, other items, including four recordings of the popular BBC Radio show 'Hancock's Half Hour', on reel-to-reel tape, were also donated to Film is Fabulous! by the family of the deceased collector. The full details of the recordings, and various items donated by the collector's family, will be provided in a future update. I am hoping that wasn't just some legit-looking fraud, as tends to happen from time to time, and that some kind of distribution occurs where everyone interested can see it. (If you are thinking that surely Apple will take control and make it available in some kind of sanctioned way, historically this has not been the case: whenever The Beatles' company takes control of any newly-recovered material - recordings or film - their habit has been to lock it away and let no one experience it, or, as with the case of the 1963 Stowe School live performance tape, simply to ignore it and let it slip through in an unsanctioned fashion. (This one currently can be heard on YouTube.)
"She Said So" Animation: This was a new one on me: apparently some time in 1964, John met an artist in London named Stephen Verona. One thing led to another and the two soon found themselves collaborating on a series of drawings that, when put together in a stop action sequence, were later inaccurately described as "the first music video" after being synched to The Beatles' (apparent) current release, "I Feel Fine." The two-minutes-and-change clip, dubbed "She Said So," went on to win numerous awards and was screened pretty much exclusively at museums. The original artwork was sold at auction back in 2000, but the story was revisited recently when some of the drawings were sent to the Liverpool Beatles Museum where they will be exhibited for three months. As for the film: one version has been available on YouTube for years and another just surfaced; one has a sharper image (I think), the other better audio. But here are both, so see what you think… Old YouTube and Newer alternate.
Lennon Promo Films: On the subject of Lennon and promo films, a couple were just posted on YouTube this week, given that we are upon the anniversary of the recording of the A-side and B-side of John's first musical project outside The Beatles. This one depicts a rehearsal of the Plastic Ono Band debut single, "Give Peace A Chance," while this one features Yoko's "Remember Love."
Dungeon Lane Review: I am going to suspect that for some of you a certain Dungeon Lane hype fatigue may be setting in, given the avalanche of press it's been given in recent weeks and irrespective of the album's actual merits. All that said, here's a good review that folds in Ringo's latest while judging the vinyl quality (!). The opening paragraph really covers my perspective, while any judgment of the individual tracks is in the ear of the beholder. All that said, it looks like Paul has officially achieved the goal evidently set by issuing DL in so many collectible iterations: another number one album.
Wings ICA Rehearsal: If one has an appetite for going back to Sir Paul's beginnings as a soloist (well technically the founding of Wings), you can check out this recently posted footage of what's known as the ICA Rehearsal. This essentially documents the band just before their first road trip: Paul's concept for getting in a van and just showing up, offering to play at universities, which commenced at Nottingham on the 8th anniversary of his debut with The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. To those who saw the David Frost TV special that aired on US TV in 1975, the performance of "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" will be familiar, but this appears to be the most complete collection yet of this footage.
Beatlemania Waves: If you are a listener of SATB (and why else would you be reading this?), you surely are hardcore enough of a fan to accept as a fact of life that "Beatles" is something that is always relevant, irrespective of how the rest of the population feels about it at any given moment. As a guest on the show once expressed it, "waves" of what we may describe as "Beatlemania" crest and trough: usually one big event will spark it, and it will carry on for a time with a life of its own. According to author (and SATB guest) Ian Leslie, we are in one such occurrence now, but come the arrival of the four Sam Mendes films in 2028, we may be seeing a "Barbenheimer" moment. You've been warned!

SATB

Another taping for an upcoming show took place this week: UK journalist Samira Ahmed and I had a terrific conversation about A Hard Day's Night, the subject of her new book for the BFI Film Classics series. I can say without reservation that after reading her book (which at under 20 US dollars is a total bargain), you will never see this much-loved film the same way again, no matter how many times you've seen it. Samira is a smart and savvy observer and a hardcore fan: the perspective she brings to a familiar subject as well as deep contextualization for The Beatles' debut cinematic project is an eye-opener, even after all the discussion we have had on the show thus far (which includes this and this).

In previous newsletters I've mentioned the book depicting Jim Marshall's photography at the last Beatles concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966: it's just been published. My conversation with Amelia Davis, who has been the curator of Jim's archive since his death and worked at his side during his final years, is next, coming this week.

I cannot recommend enough checking out the 2019 documentary, Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall. (It is available for free in the US on Tubi and is probably accessible elsewhere on other platforms.) Anyway, the book is more beautiful than any art book sold for $40 US has any right to be. Also as mentioned previously, I had a small role in assisting Amelia in getting this book produced, courtesy of Allison Bumsted. To that end, we have an online event in the planning stages now, targeted for the late August 60th anniversary of this final show. More details to follow as they become available…

Philip Norman's bio of Brian Epstein is imminent. Should I have him back on, listeners?

HISTORY

And during this week long ago in Beatles history…

June 8, 1968: Paul served as Best Man at his brother Michael's wedding.
June 8, 1981: Yoko's Season of Glass was released in the UK.
June 8, 1983: Old Wave was released in Europe (but not the UK or US).
June 10, 1966: "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" was issued as a single in the UK.
June 10, 1968: George was filmed in Big Sur taking sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar for the Raga film.
June 10, 1976: The Rock 'n' Roll Music Beatles compilation was released in the UK.
June 10, 1981: The Back To The Egg TV special aired in the UK.
June 10, 1989: The Put It There TV special aired in the UK.
June 11, 1960: Drummer Tommy Moore quit The Beatles.
June 11, 1962: Pete Best was recorded for the last time with The Beatles for BBC's Teenager's Turn.
June 11, 1965: Buckingham Palace announced that The Beatles would be recipients of the MBE.
June 11, 1966: A photo from Robert Whitaker's "butcher" session first appeared publicly on the cover of the UK's Disc magazine.
June 11, 1968: Apple produced a promotional short film.
June 11, 2002: Paul married Heather Mills.
June 12, 1972: Some Time in New York City was released in the US (intact).
June 12, 1978: "I've Had Enough" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.
June 13, 1975: A Salute to Sir Lew Grade, featuring John's last televised musical performance before an audience, aired on US TV.
June 13, 1980: Paul's "Waterfalls" was issued as a single in the UK.
June 14, 1949: The late drummer Alan White was born.
June 14, 1964: Ringo rejoined The Beatles on tour in Melbourne.
June 14, 1965: Beatles VI was released in the US on Capitol.
June 14, 1966: Capitol issued a recall of copies of the "Yesterday"...and Today album bearing the controversial Robert Whitaker cover photo.
June 14, 1969: John and Yoko appeared on The David Frost Show to launch their acorns for peace campaign.
June 14, 2016: Wings guitarist Henry McCullough passed away at 72.

As always, anyone new to the newsletter who's interested can check out months' worth of the most recent editions at the Beehiiv site and the earliest ones at the SATB site. That's all I got for now. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Photo Gallery

Top of the Pops 1964 Reel

Wings ICA Rehearsal 1972

Beatles Union Jack Banner

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #82

Published: June 1, 2026

Welcome

Hello friends. It's a pretty fine thing to have so many people in the world grooving along to a new album from an ex-Beatle. There are plenty who will insist that a man well past his peak voice needs to hang it up already (we saw their commentary on his recent TV appearances) but there are plenty more that are thoroughly enjoying this moment and doubtless will be savoring it for more than a few years down the road. Hard to argue with anything that lifts spirits in a time when the world could use it.

NEWS

Paul's Media Blitz: If anyone thought that the media appearances by Sir Paul following the Friday release of his newest album were going to slow down after the burst of activity described in last week's newsletter, they were very much mistaken. He's made far too many in the past week to keep track of, but the beauty of them is that they varied throughout: this wasn't the usual trotting out the same stories on every platform. I'm sure those of you who are interested enough to take in everything will have no problem doing so, but if I could float a few that are worth time to check out for those of more casual interest, you have these:
- First, there was the Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg. Pretty unique, this one.
- This one breaks a bit of news.
- This one pitted Sir Paul against the actor portraying him for Sam Mendes, courtesy of the world's largest retailer.
- This one for BBC 2 discusses some fave recordings.
- And then there's this one for NME.
Vinyl Variants: For those with bottomless pockets or that simply enjoy variety, you have loads of vinyl variants of The Boys of Dungeon Lane to choose from. I suspect this won't be the final tally but we have this so far. I'm sure plenty of you are aware that there were Record Store Day release day events at shops all over the place, where listeners to the new album could not only buy it on vinyl, but also receive PBS-pledge-drive-style tote bags emblazoned with the album cover design. If this release ends up topping charts (as did Egypt Station), it won't be for any lack of trying, marketing-wise.
Ringo's Tour: And then there's the Ringo All-Starr roadshow in progress. Here's a write-up of the debut show in Temecula, California. His dates through Flag Day run as shown here.
Steal My Sunshine: This didn't take long.

SATB

My recent conversation with Sam Popkin touched on George's rooftop rosewood Fender Telecaster. No sooner had that show gone live, then this post began appearing on social media.

I am hoping that most of you have had the chance (or soon will) to hear the conversation with Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's, the mystery guest I hinted at in previous newsletters. Much thanks to our mutual friend John Roecker for making it happen and for sitting in to facilitate the strange world (to Jane) of podcasting. She was as charming and delightful as I'd hoped, and perhaps she will return when the time comes to promote her memoir and new record.

Another week, another show taping, another regarding an upcoming book. Some of you may know Erika White as a podcaster but come later this year you can add published author to her credits. Her book - Meat The Beatles - is a deep dive history of what we've known for decades as the "butcher cover": that Robert Whitaker photo on the initial pressings of Capitol's 1966 release, "Yesterday"... and Today. Viewed on the trajectory of that year, it makes sense that the Beatles would not only go along with Whitaker's concept for the shoot, but also press for it to be used for something that was never intended as: an album cover. But Erika's book widens the lens to a much larger scope, and there's a lot more to consider about how this all came about. Anyway, her show will likely follow my conversation with Amelia Davis regarding Jim Marshall and his documenting the group's last live concert.

Also coming soon: my conversation with Samira Ahmed about A Hard Day's Night. Other things in the pipeline as well but the way things are looking, this may be a summer of women guests by without interruption for the next couple of months at least. Good times!

It is the 60th anniversary of The Beatles recording and release of the Revolver album, of course. My appearance at the Magical Mystery Camp in Big Indian, New York is coming right up. I will be talking about the context of Revolver's creation there, as well as at the Everything Fab4 Fest coming to Asbury Park in November. Revolver talk has already started with the conversation I had with Joe Silva for Athens public radio, which I'll post once it goes live.

Last: any Silk Degrees fans?

HISTORY

Beatle-related events occurring in the past during this calendar week include:

June 1, 1969: On the same day as his hostile encounter with Al Capp, John recorded "Give Peace A Chance" at the Montreal Bed-In.
June 1, 1973: "Live and Let Die" was issued by Wings as a single in the UK.
June 1, 1979: "Old Siam, Sir" was issued by Wings as a single in the UK.
June 2, 1967: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the US.
June 2, 1975: Ringo issued "(It's All Down To) Goodnight Vienna" as a single in the US.
June 2, 2024: Beatles insider Tony Bramwell passed away.
June 3, 1964: Ringo collapsed during a photo shoot, resulting in hospitalization and his being replaced briefly by Jimmie Nicol.
June 4, 1953: Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch was born.
June 4, 1980: John's sailing trip to Bermuda aboard the Megan Jayne began.
June 4, 1991: Paul's MTV Unplugged show was released as The Official Bootleg in the US.
June 5, 1947: Iveys/Badfinger Tommy Evans was born.
June 5, 1966: The Beatles appear via videotape on The Ed Sullivan Show.
June 5, 1979: "Getting Closer" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.
June 5, 1981: George's Somewhere in England was released in the UK.
June 5, 1987: George and Ringo perform at The Prince's Trust concert in London.
June 5, 1989: Paul's Flowers in the Dirt was released in the UK.
June 6, 1962: The Beatles held their first recording session at EMI.
June 6, 1968: The Beatles were interviewed during the "White Album" sessions by Kenny Everett.
June 6, 1971: John and Yoko performed live with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the Fillmore East.
June 6, 1992: George appeared in the UK TV documentary, Mr. Roadrunner.
June 6, 2006: Billy Preston died of kidney failure at 59.
June 6, 2019: Mac Rebennack ("Dr. John") died at 77.
June 7, 1976: The Rock 'N' Roll Music compilation was released in the US.

FEATURE: Ed Sullivan Promo Videos (June 5, 1966)

On this Sunday in the US, The Beatles plugged both sides of their newest single virtually on Ed Sullivan's TV stage. Which is to say: they sent over the two promo videos directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg taped back on May 19th - one day before the concept videos were filmed at Chiswick House. They did do Ed the courtesy of taping a custom intro on set: the opening image of the four Beatles playing peekaboo with sheets of celluloid invites further exploration once one realizes exactly what they were holding up in front of their faces. (ALL of this is explained in Erika White's book.)

The Beatles were amidst a great flurry of activity that precluded an actual in-person in time to promote the new release, issued stateside on May 30th. (Though opportunity presented itself to debut the A-side at least live in the UK at the May 1st NME Poll Winners concert at Wembley, they declined to do this, as the record would not reach the British public until 10 June. Thus "Paperback Writer" earned the distinction of being played live by The Beatles on three other continents but NOT in the homeland.)

They were still in the middle of crafting Revolver: excepting mixes of previously tracked songs and minor overdubs needed to complete them, there were still three more songs out of the final fourteen that had not yet been started: "Good Day Sunshine," "Here, There and Everywhere," and "She Said She Said." Upon the completion of the album, there was barely time to catch their breath before heading out to West Germany to begin the first leg of their final string of live dates.

Theoretically, they might have plugged the next single, "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine" live in New York in August when they were in town but this did not happen, despite precedent for performing a string-laden ballad on Sullivan's stage the previous summer ("Yesterday"). Henceforth, sending over films of performances would be the way to go, though curiously, they skipped Ed stateside in favor of American Bandstand and Hollywood Palace, Ed's rival, to air the promos for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" in 1967. By years' end, however, they were back (virtually) with Ed for "Hello Goodbye."

Photo Gallery

Sir Paul on BBC2

Ringo Live Performance

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #81

Published: May 25, 2026

Welcome

Hello all. Even though I hear the phrase spoken with the best of intentions, saying "Happy Memorial Day" to people (as it is commemorated today in the states) doesn't feel right to me. The intent behind it was a day of mourning for those lost in military conflicts, so a little more solemnity and a little less jovial, "Hey guys - happy summer!" seems more fitting, but no one wants to be a downer and maybe I just overthink things, but in any event, I'll have more to say on this a little later on. In the meantime, let's sum up the past week's Beatlesque events...

NEWS

Paul's Media Blitz: As we're getting closer to the release of Paul's The Boys of Dungeon Lane (Friday this week), his media appearances have amped up. Last week's newsletter reported on his performances on the season finale of Saturday Night Live (see all of them here, including a couple of songs after the show ended), and this week we have his guesting/performing on the finale of Stephen Colbert's Late Show. It was an open secret that he would be the final guest and this made complete sense: Sir Paul is in New York, he's got a new album to promote, and then there's the full circle aspect of closing out the Ed Sullivan Theater with someone famously connected to that building. (The only way to better this would've been to invite the other ex-Beatle with a new album on to join him, but I am certain that this idea was floated and didn't take, for whatever reason.) So on this score, he delivered: for the chat part and then the musical one. Here's part two of the talk (wherein he confirmed a story daughter Stella told on another late night show, that her Dad enjoys a Margarita after ending a concert).
Colbert Performance: Then there was the musical performance, and he chose fittingly. After a performance of Elvis Costello's "Jump Up," Paul joined his former collaborator, plus bandleader Louis Cato, former Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste, and now former late night host Colbert for a spirited performance of "Hello Goodbye." If the joyous drawn out coda wasn't enough, Sir Paul contributed a trumpet performance of "When The Saints Come Marching In," simultaneously evoking the vibe of a New Orleans funeral, coming full circle musically by playing an instrument his father had given him initially (before he switched to guitar), and - for the trainspotters who note such things - calling out "I Saw Her Standing There," a composition informed by "Saints" as well as Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You" that he once performed on that very stage.
James McCartney Video: James McCartney, not to be outdone by his father's burst of activity, has released a new music video this week.
Soderbergh Lennon Documentary: The documentary directed by Stephen Soderbergh, John Lennon: The Last Interview, was screened at Cannes this week. Reaction to his publicized use of AI with certain sequences was largely met with negativity, but the critical response to the film's existence at all seems to lean toward "inessential." Personally, if the December 8, 1980 RKO interview was to be source material for a project, I think it would've been a far more interesting exercise to do what few journalists did during John's lifetime: push back on the obvious nonsense and offer a critical examination into what was behind the messaging, so often at odds with the reality. (By the way, did you know that Laurie Kaye has a book to sell?)
Pattie Boyd on Sam Mendes Films: I haven't mentioned the Sam Mendes four-part film event thing currently in production lately, mostly because there's been nothing new to say, but this week one-time SATB guest Pattie Boyd chimed in, on the debut episode of another SATB guest's podcast. She told Chris O'Dell that she was a little surprised that no one connected to the Mendes production had reached out to her for input, since, she told Chris, she was full of stories. I am hoping that whatever stories she wants to volunteer that she hasn't already told in her book or elsewhere don't get lost in the shuffle: she will find a ready audience anywhere she cares to take them (in particular, a documentary maker, which Sam is not).

OBIT

Luna Jordan: On the subject of Beatle films, this story is heartbreaking. Production on the BBC Hamburg project, based on Klaus Voormann's memoir, has come to a halt after the death of actress Luna Jordan, 25. She'd been cast as Astrid, and while the cause of death has not been disclosed, it was described as sudden and unexpected, leading some to conclude she'd taken her own life. Luna, an award-winning star of the German adaptation of Euphoria, had spoken frankly about psychological issues as well as sexual abuse in the workplace.
Rex Reed: Longtime film critic and journalist Rex Reed passed away at 87. There's little reason to take note of this at all, given that he subsisted for most of professional years by trafficking in catty insults directed at people far more accomplished and famous than he was (check his wiki page for examples of this, with targets ranging from Frank Sinatra to Melissa McCarthy). But he stirs our interest simply for this: he was a neighbor of the Lennons at the Dakota. At best, Reed was a raconteur who loved an audience, but at worst he was a guy who loved to spin fictions that put himself at the center of the action, and this interview he gave is no exception (scroll down for the Lennon stuff).
Jack Ellory: Flautist Jack Ellory passed away at 89 in 2009. This British musician was a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra, recording for EMI, but mostly what he's remembered for was playing on James Bond scores, as well as a 1967 session with The Beatles for "Fool on the Hill." The flute is just now coming up for auction, and while it's perhaps not as appealing as a guitar, I'm sure it will find a taker somewhere.

SATB

My new conversation with Sam Popkin came out this week, offering stories behind a number of guitars once owned by Beatles (and in most instances, played on their recordings). One thing I've gotten a ton of response to was an aside made by Sam on Australian-made Maton guitars. As this wasn't one of the instruments we'd mapped out in advance but rather came up organically, I hadn't really looked into it (and neither had Sam), but - we wondered aloud if the company was even around anymore. The answer from a number of you was a resounding "yes," which makes me happy because it means people are listening. Here's all you'd want to know.

George with Maton guitar — George onstage with his temp guitar, the Maton MS-500 Mastersound, summer of '63. It sold at auction for $485,000.

On the subject of errata: I make every effort to get everything accurate in the shows as well as in this newsletter, but recognizing the need for speed in production sometimes means that things aren't always subjected to the same rigor I would apply to, let's say, a book project. So I am always gratified when someone writes in with the spirit of helpfulness (and not one of those people - guys mostly - on social media who weaponize knowledge and begin every comment with "actually…") to offer a correction, in this case the birth year of Olivia Harrison as noted in newsletter #80. I'd used the commonly reported year - 1948 - when in fact, per the California birth records, it was 1947. Not a huge distinction, but accuracy matters and I appreciate anyone moved to offer positive support to the greater good of this community. I have found in my own family history research, fudging a birth year is still a thing (but usually by several, not just by one). The family joke in the case of one individual was that apparently this person's younger siblings must've passed them in the birth canal like a homeward-bound commuter, since the "new" year they claim comes after their younger sibling's recorded dates. The point being, don't be shy about offering clarity where you see it - it's appreciated and not received like an insult.

HISTORY

Events occurring this week include…

May 25, 2020: John's driver, Les Anthony, passed away at 86.
May 26, 1965: The Beatles' last BBC live performance is taped.
May 26, 1967: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the UK.
May 26, 1970: George's All Things Must Pass sessions begin.
May 26, 1977: Beatlemania opened in NYC at the Winter Garden Theater.
May 27, 1935: Mal Evans was born.
May 27, 1943: Priscilla White, known professionally as "Cilla Black," was born.
May 27, 1963: "From Me To You"/"Thank You Girl" was released on Vee-Jay in the US.
May 27, 1975: Venus and Mars was released by Wings in the US.
May 27, 1979: John and Yoko's "Love Letter" to fans, a full-page update for the public, was published in the press.
May 27, 1989: Paul's "My Brave Face" was issued as a single in the US.
May 28, 1909: Harold Hargreaves Harrison was born.
May 28, 1969: The first draft of the Get Back album, compiled by Glyn Johns, is completed.
May 29, 1972: "Mary Had A Little Lamb"/"Little Woman Love" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.
May 30, 1966: "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" was issued as a single in the US.
May 30, 1968: Sessions for The Beatles ("White Album") begin with "Revolution 1."
May 30, 1969: "The Ballad of John and Yoko"/"Old Brown Shoe" was issued as a single in the UK.
May 30, 1973: Living in the Material World was released in the US.
May 30, 1975: Venus and Mars was released by Wings in the UK.
May 31, 1976: "Got To Get You Into My Life"/"Helter Skelter" was released as a single in the US.
May 31, 1977: George's "It's What You Value" was released as a single in the UK.
May 31, 1977: Linda McCartney's "Seaside Woman" was released in the US as a single under the name "Suzy and the Red Stripes."

ART AND LITERATURE

It was a year ago on Memorial Day that I noted in the newsletter the distinctions between veteran holidays as observed in the US, but I wanted to recognize today in a different way. I'm sure all longtime listeners of the show are familiar with my occasional guest, Carol Tyler. A first-gen fan originally from my neck of the woods, she first came on the show to discuss her memoir of seeing The Beatles in 1965, Fab4Mania. It's been my great honor to have her back several times since, because as an accomplished painter, cartoonist, author and all-around creative, her insights on anything I've wanted to talk about have been fascinating. And if you've read this far, you are likely aware of Carol's latest, the stunning memoir on "Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief," The Ephemerata.

Carol's father, Charles, served in World War II; in North Africa, France, Italy and at the Battle of the Bulge. Like many of that generation, his wartime service wasn't anything he cared to revisit, least of all with the people closest to him. Also like many who have served in wars before and since, he suffered from untreated PTSD, which manifested itself throughout his remaining years and on his loved ones. At some point in chronicling her family history, Carol took it upon herself to explore her father's service, prompted by his years of silence but then spurred on by an unexpected phone call where in the course of two hours he unburdened himself of decades of suppressed memories. The results were published initially as a trilogy under the overarching title, You'll Never Know, with volumes 1 through 3: A Good and Decent Man - Collateral Damage - Soldier's Heart. Subsequently, these were re-published as a single volume, Soldier's Heart: The Campaign To Understand My WWII Veteran Father - A Daughter's Memoir ("Soldier's heart" being the Civil War-era term for PTSD).

All this said, you can read about the work here, what one reviewer called "...a tribute to servicemen and women, dramatizing the trauma of the war on the Greatest Generation and those who followed. Tyler's ink and watercolor narrative is in turns sprawling and gimlet-eyed: compassionate and enraged. Her father's memories are woven into her own, which span her Catholic, Midwestern childhood; her troubled marriage; her daughter's struggles; and her efforts to care for her aging parents. Even though Tyler's work has an accessible, homemade feel (the organizing metaphor of the book is a photo album with 'snapshots' of Tyler family life), Soldier's Heart is a sophisticated graphic work about war, love, and loss."

Photo Gallery

Paul on Colbert Finale

George with Maton MS-500

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #80

Published: May 18, 2026

Welcome

Hi folks. This really has been a week marking the launch of Sir Paul's The Boys of Dungeon Lane album, officially arriving on May 29, if the amount of news and activity is anything to go by. He appeared on the season finale of SNL and gave a number of interviews which went live (see below). Then there were the other big stories concerning the loss of Jack Douglas and plans for the opening of a Beatles destination in London. Let's start with first things first…

SO LONG, JACK

I was really hoping that Jack Douglas' online goodbye note wasn't as grim as it seemed - that he was suffering from something that he could emerge from - but the worst came to pass on Monday May 11 when he succumbed to complications of lymphoma at 80. Besides producing the Double Fantasy/Milk and Honey tracks (the latter of which Yoko declined to give him credit for upon its initial release, despite his undeniable hands-on involvement), Douglas worked on a rich array of rock albums as producer, many of them classics:

Aerosmith: Get Your Wings - Toys in the Attic - Rocks - Draw the Line
Cheap Trick: self-titled 1977 debut
Alice Cooper: Muscle of Love
The Knack: Round Trip
John Lennon/Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy - Milk and Honey - Double Fantasy Stripped Down
New York Dolls: One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This
Graham Parker: Another Grey Area
Patti Smith Group: Radio Ethiopia

Douglas worked as engineer with many more acts and suffice to say, his name will live on with music fans for a long time. For anyone who doesn't know his backstory as a musician influenced mightily by The Beatles, and how as a young man he was moved to make an insane newsmaking trek across the Atlantic to meet them, this 2017 article covers a lot of the bases most succinctly. You can also check out this, and this. Luckily for us, the man did love to talk, which makes me feel less bad about not inviting him onto the show as I have with other departed notables.

NEWS

3 Savile Row Museum: No sooner had SATB Newsletter #79 been put to bed for the Monday morning posting when the news was released by Apple, regarding the "experience" the new regime is launching at 3 Savile Row: a London Beatles museum at their former building, including access to the site of the basement studio and rooftop recording session. It sounds like an obvious idea in plain sight all this time, but not without some caveats. First, the area itself is rather small and confined by the standards of most attractions in the world: look no further than the Let It Be film to see how quickly traffic became tied up in the district just on the basis of loud performance noise emanating from The Beatles' office building (and not because everybody knew they'd be welcomed to a Beatles museum). It'll be interesting to see how they address that problem. 3 Savile Row became a tourist destination as soon as the group took occupancy in 1968, so formalizing what has existed in decades since and sweetening the deal with rotating exhibits and access to the roof and the basement is a Beatle hardcore's fondest dream, but: managing the throngs through what is, to repeat, a most confined space will be a challenge. All interiors as the Beatles knew them were long ago gutted, so experiencing it as they did will be at best, a Cavern-like re-creation. Also interesting will be seeing if a new generation of scruffs will be tolerated on the steps outside.
Paul's Media Blitz: As mentioned, Sir Paul handed out headlines to a number of media outlets this past week, including work as a session man with The Stones, turning down a Netflix roast, his take on a Dylan concert, a snafu with the upcoming Wings exhibit in Cleveland, and his current refusal to take selfies with fans (apparently Micky Dolenz doesn't share this particular problem). If this isn't enough, find more recent talks here and here.
SNL Finale: Then there was the season finale of Saturday Night Live. As some of you may recall, he performed similar duties at the February 2025 SNL50 special, but this time he promoted his new album with a performance of "Days We Left Behind," followed on with "Band On The Run," and - for the show's closing - "Coming Up." (This fragment is all that's been posted online as of now, but the entire performance was cut short anyway.) If this wasn't enough, Sir Paul also lended support to host Will Ferrell's opening monologue as well one of the sketches, "Mechanics." For those who didn't watch the whole show and were wondering what happened to drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. (or possibly why Will Ferrell was on the kit), no: this was Ferrell doppelgänger Chad Smith, drummer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He appeared earlier in the show, and it must've been a real treat for him to step into that role, playing behind Sir Paul. Also helping out the band: singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, who added the high backing vocals normally coming from Abe (who, word was, was dealing with a family emergency). For a beyond-the-scenes view of the broadcast, check out this write-up from Beatlefan's Bill King.
Geoff Emerick Tape Dispute: Last, not a lot of details (because the most comprehensive account of the current state of things is paywalled): remember the June 1962 tape of The Beatles at EMI that ended up in the hands of engineer Geoff Emerick, that he somehow failed to mention when he worked on Anthology in 1994, but turned up in his possession after his death? To be brief: his estate is claiming ownership of these Beatles recordings because, in their view, finders keepers, but Universal Music, owners of EMI, assert that the tape belongs to them, and that Emerick, as an employee of EMI, knew that liberating a taped performance, even one designated as scrap, amounts to theft and that Emerick knew this as a condition of employment. Jerry Hammack and I discussed the tape in detail in Ribbons of Rust; it's believed to contain the missing performances from their June 6, 1962 session with Pete Best that failed to yield a releasable debut single (but you did get to hear "Love Me Do" on Anthology). One thing is certain: the very fact of it being in Geoff's possession is one more blow against the credibility of his memoir, which not only fails to mention the tape (naturally) but also claims that he didn't begin work at EMI until September, making his custody of a tape laid down months before his employment began even more shady. You can read a bit about it here (and note: the recordings on the tape were not what we normally think of as "demos.")

SATB

Episode 326 is thisclose to being finished and features a return from Sam Popkin, newly-minted father and guitar/gear nerd, co-host of the Gear, There and Everywhere podcast. We discuss the array of Beatle-played guitars in the news that have come up for auction, including the Jim Irsay collection as well as the instruments owned by John and George that went up for sale at Julien's in recent years. In the meantime, another episode of the Classic Rock Album Olympics podcast went live this week, with an album near and dear to me, The Clash's London Calling.

I had a terrific conversation with Amelia Davis this week for an upcoming show. If any of you have already seen the 2019 documentary, Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall, then you will know who she is: his right-hand woman and curator. If you haven't, I highly recommend it: you will know far more of Marshall's images than you realize, and currently, it can be seen for free in the US on Tubi. (Elsewhere, you'll have to look around…) For our purposes, his role as the Beatles' handpicked photographer for their very last show, at Candlestick, is the centerpiece, but really the whole talk is about Jim by the one person left who knew him best. I really enjoyed connecting with her and there may be an event in the cards down the road that will include your participation.

OTHER OBITS

Rory Best: It was announced this week that Rory Best, younger brother of Pete (and older brother to Roag) passed away at 81. Few details have emerged, besides those detailing memorial services. Rory had been, in recent years, one of the hosts of the Casbah Club destination in Liverpool alongside Roag. He is also credited alongside his brothers as co-author of 2003's The Beatles: The True Beginnings book, which I can recommend without reservation. (As a 12 year-old, it was Rory who had spotted the Victorian home in West Derby for sale; telling his mother about it, she reportedly pawned her jewelry and bet it all on a 33-1 horse that won, leading to her purchase of the future home of the Casbah Coffee Bar with her winnings. So in that way, it was Rory who set the table for Pete's eventual entry into The Beatles…)
Claudine Longet: Also passed: singer Claudine Longet, 84. If you don't see an obvious Beatle connection, there is one. Her name will likely mean nothing to most younger people nowadays, but back in the '70s she stirred enough of a cause celebre to warrant both a very dark SNL sketch and a Rolling Stones song. The French-born Claudine had been the wife of Canadian crooner Andy Williams, perhaps best known for his recording of "Moon River" (and who one day would cannily tackle a George Harrison deep track). Williams was ubiquitous on TV during the '60s and '70s, which meant the telegenic Claudine also got her share too. But the marriage broke up, and while Andy made time first with the widowed Ethel Kennedy and eventually re-married, he and Claudine stayed friendly. In March 1976, Claudine shot and killed her boyfriend, Olympic skier Spider Sabich. An accident, she said, and Andy stood by her during the trial, which eventually ended up reduced to criminal negligence. (Meanwhile, Claudine took up with her defense attorney, who she later married.) There were many at the time who felt the entire affair was a farce, and one month after it happened, it was satirized on SNL. Here's one Beatle link: it aired in the same April 1976 episode that John and Paul were watching together when Lorne Michael made the reunion offer. (See it at 19:56 here.) Okay, if that's too tenuous, read on. As noted, the story was the kind of thing that the tabloids love, and the Rolling Stones, with Mick at the helm, couldn't resist taking a shot at her specifically, not when they were working at the time on an album called Some Girls. Taking her to task by name, they recorded "Claudine," fully intending it to make the final cut, but after being advised by their legal counsel that maybe it was a little too on the nose, they shelved it, instead issuing it years later on a deluxe edition of Some Girls, long past the point where anyone could object. You can read about the whole thing here. You might well ask, what could've gotten up their nose about Claudine to react with such disdain? Maybe they objected to her cover of "Let's Spend The Night Together," the title track to her most recent album. With cover art by Dean Torrence, the collection also contained Paul's "Every Night" as well as a medley of "Jealous Guy"/"Don't Let Me Down." (More Beatle connections!) But perhaps the most striking thing about an album brimming with ambition that few people bought was the mastermind behind it: Beatles insider Ken Mansfield, who produced it (and also contributed an original tune). I wish I had known while he was alive about this footnote in his career; I would have loved to have asked him about it (though I suspect it only would've embarrassed him).

HISTORY

Among the other events occurring this week in Beatles history are these…

May 18, 1948: Olivia Trinidad Arias was born.
May 18, 1970: The Let It Be album was released in the US.
May 19, 1966: The Beatles filmed promo films for "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" at EMI studios.
May 19, 1967: The Sgt Pepper launch party was held at Brian Epstein's home.
May 19, 1979: Paul, George, and Ringo jammed onstage at the wedding reception of Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd.
May 19, 1980: Ringo wrecked his Mercedes-Benz while driving with Barbara Bach.
May 20, 1931: Harold Harrison married Louise French.
May 20, 1938: Astrid Kirchherr was born.
May 20, 1960: The five-man Silver Beatles began a series of gigs in Scotland backing Johnny Gentle.
May 20, 1967: The Beatles filmed promo films for "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" at Chiswick House.
May 21, 1940: Tony Sheridan was born.
May 21, 1964: "Sie Liebt Dich"/"I'll Get You" was released in the US on the Swan label.
May 21, 1971: Ram was released in the UK.
May 21, 1975: A Salute To The Beatles: Once Upon A Time, hosted by David Frost, aired on US TV.
May 22, 1977: The Beatles Live! At The Star Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 is released in the UK.
May 22, 1980: McCartney II was released in the US.
May 22, 1992: Time Takes Time was released.
May 23, 1957: The earliest photograph of a Beatle performing was taken at Wilson Hall, Garston, showing Ringo with the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group.
May 23, 1975: Paul's "Listen To What The Man Said" was issued by Wings as a single in the US.
May 24, 1962: The Beatles' second recording session with producer Bert Kaempfert was held in Hamburg.
May 24, 1941: Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born.
May 24, 1979: Back To The Egg was released in the US.
May 24, 1982: The Beatles' "Movie Medley" single was issued in the UK.
May 24, 1982: The Cooler, a short film comprised of Ringo music videos and co-starring Paul, was screened at Cannes.
May 24, 2003: Paul performed live in Red Square, Russia.

That's all for now…

Photo Gallery

Paul on Colbert

George's Maton Guitar

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #79

Published: May 11, 2026

Welcome

Hello everybody. Hope everyone in the US who celebrates Mother's Day (because they are one, had one, or love one) had a fabulous day. As most of you should know by now, the latest podcast is up, with Glenn Greenberg and I discussing the broad topic of The Beatles playing live. He, of course just published a bookazine on their North America tours, but really the conversation discussed the pluses and minuses of performing live for the group and what they lost when they quit the road. So the Get Back project is discussed as well, originally conceived as a substitute for full-blown touring. A lot of what-ifs in this talk (plus Benton, Illinois).

NEWS

BBC Hamburg Project Casting: The biggest Beatles-related news this past week was the casting announcement for the BBC's Hamburg project. I expect there to be more of the same reaction as was with the Sam Mendes films, with people critiquing how closely (or not) they resemble who they're playing. But maybe a more valid criticism might be a news outfit in 2026 still apparently unable to distinguish Stuart Sutcliffe from Pete Best (see link). The five Beatles stand-ins at left, followed by Astrid (and presumably Klaus and/or Jurgen Vollmer….?)
"Home To Us" Released: Bruce Sugar had mentioned the Ringo/Paul duet on The Boys of Dungeon Lane, news of which went public with Paul's first listening party in LA. The track, "Home To Us," was released last week - you can hear it here. (I personally made the choice not to listen to it yet until the full album comes, when I can hear it in the context of the entire thematic release.)
Paul's EMI Listening Party: But Paul was in the news for his latest listening party, this time held in studio 2 at EMI in London. (Imagine being in that room under those circumstances.) This is exactly the kind of thing you would have wished was filmed and recorded for everyone else to experience.
Ringo's Chart Performance: Last year's album from Ringo, Look Up, did reach number one in the charts briefly. This year's Long Long Road is reported as peaking at number two in both the Americana and Country charts, blocked by a pair of insurmountable releases. As you can expect, reviews of Long Long Road have run about exactly the way you would expect: some appreciative of an artist who's already given us plenty, continuing to do what he loves; others less so.
Rolling Stones New Album: The new Rolling Stones album, Foreign Tongues, has a producer in common with Paul, Andrew Watt. Watt also produced their previous Hackney Diamonds, as well as hit releases from Ozzy Osbourne, Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and so forth. Sir Paul makes a guest appearance as well, as he did on their last one. This new Stones release also features the last group recording with the late Charlie Watts. Tour plans for this year were scrapped, reportedly due to Keith Richards' arthritis, but some kind of less demanding live appearances may still be in play.
Soderbergh Lennon Documentary: Director Steven Soderbergh has been giving press in advance of his upcoming documentary, John Lennon: The Last Interview. It depicts that December 8, 1980 conversation John and Yoko had with RKO radio. Earlier stories concerning Soderbergh's use of AI for the project are clarified in these recent remarks.
Ed Sullivan Theater Future: Stephen Colbert's last show for CBS comes on May 21st. That leaves an open question regarding the fate of the Ed Sullivan Theater, a historic venue laden with Beatle-centric history. Despite its title, this article does nothing to clarify but it does detail the building's backstory.
Tokyo 60th Anniversary: Last: we've just recently got through Record Store Day but for collectors out there for whom buying music they already own many times over is no dealbreaker: look to the east and the 60th anniversary of The Beatles live shows in Tokyo, on the cusp of 60 years ago. In 1966, their heretofore unreleased first two albums (Please Please Me and With The Beatles) were at last issued: now they're being reissued with suitable bells and whistles.

HISTORY

Beatles-relevant events occurring during this week in the past include…

May 11, 1964: Four By The Beatles was issued as a US EP.
May 11, 1970: "The Long and Winding Road" was issued as a single in the US.
May 11, 1972: John and Yoko appeared on the Dick Cavett Show.
May 11, 1981: George's "All Those Years Ago," featuring contributions from Paul, Linda and Ringo, was issued as a single in the US.
May 11, 1984: John's "Borrowed Time" was issued as a US single.
May 11, 2001: The Wingspan documentary was broadcast on US TV.
May 12, 1972: Paul's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" was issued by Wings as a single in the UK.
May 12, 1988: George's "This Is Love" was issued as a single in the US.
May 12, 2020: Astrid Kirchherr passed away at 81.
May 13, 1969: The Beatles convened at EMI in Manchester Square to replicate their Please Please Me album cover shoot.
May 13, 1970: Let It Be premiered in New York City.
May 14, 1947: Nancy Lee Andrews was born.
May 14, 1968: John and Paul were interviewed on The Tonight Show.
May 15, 1967: Paul met Linda Eastman at London's Bag O'Nails club.
May 15, 1968: George and Ringo attended the premier of Wonderwall in Cannes.
May 16, 1975: In his last public appearance, John participated in the WFIL Helping Hand charitable event.
May 16, 1975: Paul's "Listen To What The Man Said" was issued by Wings as a single in the UK.
May 16, 1980: McCartney II was released in the UK.
May 17, 1971: Ram was released in the UK.
May 17, 1980: Paul and Linda appeared on SNL, interviewed by "Father Guido Sarducci" (Don Novello).
May 17, 2006: Paul and Heather Mills separated after four years of marriage.

SATB

Another week and another several tapings. One was for the Classic Rock Album Olympics series, but another was for SATB, plus another conceived as a SATB special. More tapings scheduled for this week: if I were to predict, I would think episode 326 may be up by this weekend, followed by a special.

One of the things long on my list of things to do has been to get some shorter video pieces produced: excerpts from shows but also even briefer quotes from episodes to stir interest from Beatle people who have no idea the show even exists. So you may be seeing this kind of content soon as I play around with some apps: it isn't really directed toward you but instead toward everyone else who isn't now a listener and needs some prodding to discover the SATB world and to catch up on things.

A ton of work goes into producing each show from the front end of research and conducting interviews to the back end of editing and inserting clips and finally whatever meager promotion I do. The point being, I frankly think the effort should be reaching a wider audience: numbers are good but could be better. When you see the kind of valueless junk out there now drawing a substantial audience, it makes no sense that something worthwhile isn't bigger.

All this to say: a rising tide lifts all boats, so that means when the SATB audience grows, so too do the followings of my esteemed guests and their projects. Part of the joy of producing this podcast is to shine a light on folks and projects that aren't already well known but should be. As with everything, the mainstream discourse tends to focus on the same personas over and over again, but even at a time when old narratives are at last being challenged, I see my job as pushing voices and perspectives that don't already get a ton of exposure. That being the brief, I've got a lot of work to do and with your continued support, we can continue this mission indefinitely.

SOMETHING "NEW"

Here's something from the archive that may be of interest. In 2009, for the 40th anniversary of Abbey Road, the BBC put together an hour-long program culling from its vault a variety of performances from non-Beatles of Beatle songs. The artists range from contemporaries like Cilla Black and Petula Clark to later acts like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Oasis. A mixed bag depending on one's tastes to be sure, but interesting in a detached way to see how others approached this material in an effort to make it their own. You can see it for yourself here.

A WORD ABOUT JACK DOUGLAS

A cryptic Facebook announced this week that producer Jack Douglas, 80, was being hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment. There was no explanation, but what he looked like (considerably older than his years) left those who were not immediately traumatized mightily concerned.

For anyone who doesn't know, Jack was a hardcore Beatle fan who went on to live his dream of working with one of them - John - first as an engineer on Imagine and later as producer on Double Fantasy. He became one of the '70s most renowned producers, working with Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and Alice Cooper, among many others. Anyone who wants to can seek out the Tomorrow show interview he gave to Tom Snyder 24 hours after John's murder, when a shellshocked Douglas came on to talk briefly.

He's gained notoriety for asserting in interviews that, while surreptitiously recording the studio conversation during John's last sessions, John had said some disturbing things during his final hours that left Douglas so unnerved that he wiped the tape so that no one else could ever hear it. He was also later forced to go after Yoko to collect his unpaid royalties for Double Fantasy. (He prevailed, even after a series of LenOno toadies testified in court that Douglas was a "nobody" rather than the esteemed collaborator that the Lennons sought out in the first place.)

You might well ask: why haven't I ever sought him out as a guest on the show? Because, for as much as I enjoy his work and find him to be a likeable enough guy, I also find that he has some credibility issues: specifically, when he claimed that while working with John, the call came to the studio of Paul's Japan pot bust, going to vividly describe how John reacted to it. As is well-documented, the arrest happened in January 1980 and Jack did not enter a studio of any kind with John in 1980 until August. (His exact words: "…when Paul got busted for pot in Japan, we were in the studio, when that call came in that he was in trouble, man, you oughta see John flippin' out.")

I've had plenty of folks on the show that I didn't always find credible, but in the case of Jack, knowing that 1) he shades the truth in favor of a good narrative and 2) he is not going to answer the question everyone wants the answer to (what did John say that last night?), I just didn't pursue it. All that said, I wish him the best for a speedy recovery for whatever is ailing him.

Photo Gallery

Hamburg Days Production

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #78

Published: May 4, 2026

Welcome

Hello everyone. As those who subscribe to the podcast should know, the latest SATB Special, my Ivor Davis conversation, is up and out now and the next show is in the queue, and should be out this week. Even more taping and scheduling has gone on this past week, so there will be a steady stream of content (more or less) coming this year.

Just want to tell you all that if you've written to me ([email protected]) directly and haven't received a response, DO NOT think you're being ignored: I try to get back to everyone as fast as I can - just realize it takes time sometimes and I appreciate anyone who takes the time. I don't have a staff and have to allocate time as it makes sense at the moment. The most labor-intensive thing I do is cut the show, and that's when I tend to be the most tuned out, because it takes the most focus and concentration to do a decent job. Hopefully the results are worth it.

To start this week's message off, let's note a passing from this past week...

OBIT

Tony Wilson (Hot Chocolate): The British band Hot Chocolate lost their last co-founder, bassist Tony Wilson, this past week. To most, they're remembered for their 1975 hit, "You Sexy Thing," used a lot in commercials and films. I'm not sure how many people know of their Beatles/Apple connection: when the band started their recording career, they hadn't settled on a name but they HAD settled on a song, a cover of John's recent outside-The-Beatles recording of "Give Peace A Chance" (credited to Lennon-McCartney at the time but not anymore). The band, co-led by vocalist Errol Brown, were under the impression that they needed permission from the composer and sought this at the Savile Row office. John heard their reggaefied treatment, liked it, and they were duly offered a recording contract. They accepted a name suggestion from Mavis Smith of the Apple press office (and married at the time to journalist Alan Smith): Hot Chocolate Band. They dropped the "band" eventually and went on post-Apple to score a string of hits (including "Emma" and "Everyone's A Winner"). Wilson, 89, was considered to be the superior vocalist but their producer Mickie Most pushed Brown forward, leading to the discord that prompted Wilson to eventually leave the band, even though he'd co-written their biggest hits (including "Brother Louie," recorded with success by Stories).

Note: I noted Nedra Talley's passing last week, the last original Ronette. Maybe worth adding (for those keeping score) was that she too technically was an Apple recording artist with this 1972 reissue.

NEWS

Ringo's Video: For anyone who felt a ping of alarm when watching the title track video of Ringo's latest and was thinking, "I hope this 85 year-old wasn't actually behind the wheel…," fear not - the "making of" video makes the subterfuge all pretty clear. The video was directed by Barbara Bach's daughter Francesca. Ringo's been doing a lot of press behind the album and in advance of some upcoming live dates. You can check out some here and here. Bonus: the cover shoot.
Power to the People Film: The Power to the People concert film was twice screened in theaters around the world this week, and I of course like many of you took it in, recalling how great the concert sequences looked in the One to One film last year on the big screen. I'm inclined to do at least some kind of special episode to discuss it, but another thought is occurring to me: was anybody reading this a witness to the actual shows back in 1972? If so, I want to hear from you. Especially if you've seen this film now. Reviews have been mostly positive. Other reviewers seem late to the party about what this is actually about. (As noted on the podcast at various points, the finale performance of "Give Peace A Chance," featuring that Stevie Wonder cameo heard at the end of the Shaved Fish compilation, was a reggae arrangement echoing Hot Chocolate's, making it in effect a cover of a cover.)
Set List Changes: For anyone wondering, the indefensible edit to the "reimagined" New York City set issued last year remains in place for the film, with no explanation offered or any defense suggested by spokesman for his parent's work, Sean (who granted, has a project of his own to promote).
BBC Hamburg Documentary: I'd mentioned in a previous newsletter the BBC documentary on the Beatles' Hamburg epoch based on Klaus Voormann's memoir. But there will be an exhibition of letters written by band members in Hamburg, in part, contributed by Mike McCartney's archive. You can read about it here.
Apple Restructuring: For any one of us who has been holding out hope that there will be some kind of Rubber Soul SDE as well as future Beatle archive releases, news this week of a "restructuring" at Apple doesn't really tip their hand in any way. I guess we'll know by year's end, because historically it has never been their policy to let a holiday season go by without promoting some new product.
1964 San Diego Footage: Remember last month when I talked about that newly-discovered piece of news footage from 1964, interviewing teens about The Beatles in San Diego? Remember further that I suggested someone in the area maybe try and track down one of those teens and get their story? Well, someone did.

BOOKS

Mal Evans Volume 2: You may recall upon the publication of Ken Womack's wonderful Mal Evans memoir the promise of a second volume culled from Mal's photo and document archive. It has been announced for publication at year's end, and you can now check it out here.
Jim Marshall Candlestick Book: I was privileged to offer an assist on the production of a book coming out this year, covering the Jim Marshall photography of the Beatles' last public performance, at Candlestick in August 1966. (No, the Apple rooftop was not the same thing so don't even...) Amelia Davis has curated a deep photographic dive into the event, covering the Beatles' arrival, the backstage activities before they took the stage, and the show itself. Most of you are familiar with at least a few of the pictures taken at the concert, which they knew would be their last but they did not reveal this to the attendees. I just received my copy this week and it really is a beautiful book. In the past, that last tour was the subject of a couple of long-out-of-print books, one titled Tomorrow Never Knows by Eric Lefcowitz (which also featured the Jim Marshall photography) and Ticket to Ride by Barry Tashian, a '66 tour memoir by a member of The Remains, an opening act. But this new volume supersedes the previous works certainly in terms of the scope of the photography. I was brought into the project by Allison Bumsted. To anyone who hasn't yet pulled the trigger on purchasing her marvelous TeenSet book, the University of Mississippi press is having a sale this week, more than half off by my calculation. Do it now!
George Harrison Photography Book: Last: I'd mentioned the George book of pix coming later this year. We just got a little more detail: it will come (in the deluxe editions) with an undisclosed recording on 7" vinyl. See details here.

HISTORY

Beatle-related history occurring this week includes…

May 4, 1973: Red Rose Speedway was released in the UK.
May 5, 1990: A Tribute to John Lennon was held at Pier Head, Liverpool to commemorate his 50th.
May 5, 1997: Flaming Pie was released in the UK.
May 6, 1964: The Around The Beatles TV special aired on UK TV.
May 6, 1977: The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl was released in the UK.
May 6, 1997: Paul's "The World Tonight" was issued as a single in the US.
May 7, 1932: Derek Taylor was born.
May 7, 1973: George's "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" was issued as a single in the UK.
May 7, 1981: Newlywed Ringo appeared on Good Morning America with his bride.
May 8, 1970: Let It Be was released as a deluxe package in the UK.
May 9, 1969: Zapple's two albums - John and Yoko's Life with the Lions and George's Electronic Sound - were released in the UK.
May 9, 1969: The "cracking of the Liberty Bell" argument took place, pitting three Beatles against Paul over Allen Klein.
May 10, 1944: Jackie Lomax was born.
May 10, 1960: The five-man (Silver) Beatles auditioned for Larry Parnes to back Billy Fury on tour (and settled for Johnny Gentle).

SATB

I mentioned above a request for any attendees of the one-to-one shows, please get in touch! If we get a good response, we'll do a deep dive on it.

The upcoming episode features returning guest Glenn Greenberg, who has just published a bookazine on the Beatles North American tours. This should be available to anybody interested at your local Barnes and Nobles or online. But I also wanted to mention Chuck Gunderson, who published the Some Fun Tonight deluxe slipcased two volume set a while back. For anybody really wanting to go deep into the weeds on the subject, he is currently running a Substack with a series of articles covering a number of aspects falling under that broader topic.

The Glenn Greenberg Show is next, but there's other things in progress I'm pretty excited about. That includes the Illustrated Records book show, and I will be reaching out this week to everyone who offered themselves up and hasn't yet heard from me. Stay tuned for that!

In the latest installment of the Classic Rock Album Olympics series, Gary Wenstrup and I discussed Carole King's Tapestry. It's out now.

Back in 2024, I reached out to guitarist Robben Ford, who was a part of the Dark Horse tour; he also contributed to the album of the same name. I thought it would be a really cool thing to discuss on the 50th anniversary, and honestly most of the main players have departed. The response I received wasn't what I'd hoped for: he flat out declined to speak about it. Well, he's talking now - just not to me.

Photo Gallery

Jim Marshall Candlestick Book

Jim Marshall Photography

Book Cover - Beatles by Jim Marshall

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (nearly there!)

Newsletter #77

Published: April 27, 2026

Welcome

Hello folks. I was expecting to have my Ivor Davis SATB special up by now, but decided the audio could be improved and I'm about halfway through it. It will be posted before you know it, as will SATB 325, which I mentioned in the last newsletter. A lot of shows are currently being planned, some of which I mentioned in the past, others I didn't, and certainly enough to keep me busy through the end of summer, so stay tuned. First though, luckily so far this year hasn't shaped up like other ones with a lot of casualties, but there are a couple we need to discuss...

OBITS

Dave Mason: Dave Mason, one of the founders of Traffic and long a solo careerist, passed away this week at 79. Mostly he's known for a handful of times he wrote: "Feelin' Alright?" - "Only You Know and I Know" (also the title of his memoir) - and his 1977 hit, "We Just Disagree." But he also had a number of collaborators during the post-Traffic years, ranging from Jimi Hendrix (Dave plays on Jimi's cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower"; he also turned in a fine version on his own). He also recorded a well regarded 1971 album with Cass Elliott. Dave Mason - not to be confused with the trumpeter of the same name who contributed to several Beatle recordings, most notably "Penny Lane" - did work with three of the Fabs, two of them successfully, during the '70s. George recruited him for the platoon of guitar players heard on All Things Must Pass (and later returned the favor). Further, Mason was in on the first draft of Derek and The Dominoes (playing on the initial aborted take of "Tell The Truth" alongside George and produced by Phil Spector). Paul employed him in 1975 when tracking "Listen to What the Man Said," prior to bringing in another Harrison collaborator, saxophonist Tom Scott, to put the icing on the cake for that recording. And then there was the time Dave was recruited for Ringo's All-Stars. This is the one that didn't quite take: apparently with a solo gig commitment, he necessarily had to leave a rehearsal early to catch a flight. This message somehow, according to Mason's memoir, didn't make it to the ensemble's leader and he was summarily dismissed before the tour began. Mason also was a one-time substitute for Lindsay Buckingham in one of the post-Rumours iterations of Fleetwood Mac. His book is worth a read and if composing standards that could be covered by other bands stands for anything, he certainly left his mark.
Nedra Talley Ross: On Sunday came word that the last surviving original member of The Ronettes, Nedra Talley Ross, had passed away at 80. Along with her cousins, Veronica and Estelle Bennett, Nedra and The Ronettes score three top thirty hits in the sixties, including the deathless #2 hit, "Be My Baby." Recall that The Ronettes traveled on the same flight out of London bound for New York City on February 7, 1964 (along with their producer, Phil Spector) and that the group shared a bill with The Fabs during their last North American tour in 1966. Ronnie Spector later would record a George Harrison composition (while George briefly dated Estelle), but Nedra bowed out by 1967 and later transitioned into Christian music.

The Ronettes and The Beatles 1966 — L-R: John - Estelle - George - Nedra, on tour in 1966

NEWS

Calendar Coincidence: I haven't noticed anyone else pointing this out, but 2026 uses the same Gregorian calendar that 1970 did, meaning the days of the week match the dates of that year. As a consequence, Ringo's latest, Long Long Road, was released (Friday, April 24th) on the 56th anniversary of the US release of Sentimental Journey back in 1970. Recall that the release of his debut solo album and Paul's near simultaneously led to some famous discord involving a Ringo visit to Cavendish that ended badly for the drummer. Although Paul's 2026 album has an imminent release, it doesn't appear that history is repeating and the two octogenarian's won't be getting physical this time around.
Ringo's Promotional Push: Ringo's new release was underscored with the issue of more music videos: the title track and seven others. He also trumpeted its release with an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show this week as well as other outlets. (In this lull before the release of his album, Paul seems to have stood down for Ringo and remains low-key but certainly we can expect his visibility to crest in the month ahead. We already know he'll be the musical guest on SNL for the season finale in May.)
Power to the People Screening: Just as a reminder, as noted in previous newsletters, Wednesday, April 29th marks the day when the Power to the People concert film will be screened around the world in theaters.

HISTORY

Beatle-related events of this week:

April 27, 1942: Jim Keltner was born.
April 27, 1947: Pete Ham was born.
April 27, 1981: Ringo married Barbara Bach.
April 28, 1997: Paul's "Young Boy" was issued as a single in the UK.
April 27, 1964: "Love Me Do" was at last issued in the US (on Tollie).
April 28, 1974: Sam Goody Records store manager Mark Lapidos approached John Lennon to get his blessing for a Beatles convention.
April 28, 1975: Ringo performed Hoyt Axton's "No No Song" on The Smothers Brothers Show.
April 29, 1967: The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream happening took place in London, with John in attendance and Yoko Ono on the bill.
May 1, 1966: The Beatles performed live in the UK one last time at the NME Pollwinners show.
May 1, 1970: While in NYC, George taped an interview with Howard Smith and recorded with Bob Dylan.
May 2, 1977: The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl album was released in the US.
May 3, 1950: Mary Hopkin was born.
May 3, 1976: Paul's Wings Over America tour began in Ft Worth, TX.
May 2, 1975: Apple Studios closed for good. (Some sources say May 16 but it was in this window anyway.)

FEATURE: Apple Studios Closes (May 2, 1975)

As is well documented, initial plans for the Beatles' Savile Row recording studio to be outfitted by "Magic Alex" Mardas in early 1969 proved ill-conceived, if not downright fanciful. (A seventy-two track recording console when sixteen was considered top-notch.) The group made-do with mobile recording gear rented from EMI to complete Let It Be. Ultimately, the studio was completed - though not in time for the group to use it as a collective - and opened on September 30, 1971. George was in attendance that evening, as was Badfinger, the Van Eaton brothers (Derrek and Lon), Klaus Voormann, and others.

The studio quickly found itself a popular facility, with Apple artists Badfinger and Mary Hopkin making use of it, as well as non-Apple acts like T-Rex, Stealers Wheel, Roger Daltrey and Harry Nilsson. But as the Apple label disintegrated and its owners lost interest in one of the few fully-functional assets it had, the studio was closed forever on this date. (The building itself, long emptied of Apple's offices, had been gutted circa 1972-73.)

Badfinger was one act that found the Savile Row environs comfortable, even after they'd moved on to Warner Brothers. In December 1974 - after their masterpiece Wish You Were Here was withdrawn from distribution, in the face of pending litigation - they were pushed back into the studio to quickly record another album (!), in the hopes of getting a new advance from their label (per their criminal manager Stan Polley). It represented a full circle moment, for as The Iveys, they'd recorded their first music video in the familiar basement studio.

Apple Studios Reopening 1971 — Apple Studios' formal re-opening on September 30, 1971. Pictured L-R: Klaus - Derrek and Lon Van Eaton with George between them - Pete Ham. Wisely departing the frame at right: Geoff Emerick, while in the back left talking to the bald guy, Tom Evans.

Now, in late 1974, they returned to Apple one last time, the band now consisting of Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and keyboardist/singer Bob Jackson. This musical interlude was named for the locale, and eventually issued along with the rest of their work there in a glorious remix/remastering by Jackson of Head First. Apple Studio closed just after Pete Ham's suicide.

SATB

This week I recorded two new shows: this brings a total of two full episodes, plus four SATB specials in the can (including a marathon one with Jeffrey Spirit - you'll all be wondering "who's that?" right about now). I also taped another Classic Album Olympics episode with Gary Wenstrup, this one another listener suggestion (can you guess which Boz Scaggs album?).

The updated website is just about done, at long last, and sessions for the ultimate SATB special on The Beatles Illustrated Record book have at long last just begun. That one will take forever to edit but will be worth it!

So lots of stuff in progress - the pipeline is ever full - and I'll be pushing these out as fast as one person can. So hang in there, join the Discord, and tell your friends, yada yada. Two living ex-Beatles have new albums out - appreciate these things while you can.

Photo Gallery

Apple Studios Reopening 1971

The Ronettes and The Beatles 1966

Get Back Sessions

All best,
RR

www.somethingaboutthebeatles.com (the site's getting rehabbed - almost finished!)

Newsletter #30 June 2, 2025

Published: June 2, 2025

Welcome & Site Updates

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.

In Memoriam: Rick Derringer & Terry Draper

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.

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. 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 Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful, who gifted it to Rick Derringer.

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.

Upcoming Events & News

To go back to the living: first, we are a month out from the most fabulous Magical Mystery Camp, held in the Catskills. The new news is the addition of Wings guitarist Laurence Juber to the proceedings.

Author/artist/cartoonist Carol Tyler is having a big year. You know her on SATB from several shows, as well as from her books, which include Fab4Mania. She passed this along 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.' ... So please plan on coming to see the exhibit sometime this summer or fall. You will be thrilled. It’s up until November 9."

Her book comes out in September. ‘The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief’ will make its debut at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, aka CXC.

Research & Media

A few episodes back, Allison Bumsted was on, presenting a conversation about teen fan mags of the 60s. We mentioned a major article she had in the works and now it has arrived.

Can’t wait for the doc… I’d recently mentioned the Chris O’Dell documentary here. I just caught it on Prime, and yes, we will be covering it soon.

Newsletter #29 May 26, 2025

Published: May 26, 2025

Welcome & Memorial Day

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.

The Beatles & UK National Service

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. 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.

The Politics of "Blackbird" & Civil Rights

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, 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 a 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's "Revolution" and Overt Politics

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.

“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 when John was the most capable of thinking and acting independently.”
– Karen Hooper

Mortality Report

There are things in this world I don’t care about and one of them is football. (“You commie, you!”)

View Original Source on SATB Website →

Newsletter #28 May 19, 2025

Published: May 19, 2025

Site Updates & Apologies

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.

Spotify & Audio Re-edits

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.”

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!

Barbra Streisand & Paul McCartney

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.

Chris O'Dell Documentary

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. Her memoir is a fantastic read to anyone even slightly interested in those times and that world.

George Harrison & Mo Foster's Archive

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!

Chiswick House Footage (1966)

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.

Classic Rock Album Olympics Podcast

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. Hosted 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!

The Who & Zak Starkey

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.

Newsletter #27 May 12, 2025

Published: May 12, 2025

Welcome & Episode 304: Bob Jackson of Badfinger

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.

The Sam Mendes "Four Film" Beatles Project

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. Perhaps what was even more noteworthy was the reaction to the news, specifically an article in the Independent. 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.”

Women in Beatles Scholarship

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.

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 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.

Among those adding mightily to the conversation (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.

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.

SNL 1980: Paul, Linda & Father Guido Sarducci

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. The show 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 $3,000 Reunion Offer

This past week was the anniversary of the famous Lorne Michaels offer of $3,000 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 features the Lorne Michaels segment 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…

Newsletter #26 May 5, 2025

Published: May 5, 2025

Welcome & Episode 304 Update

Hello all, I guess from the number of this newsletter it means that we're half a year in – doesn't feel like six months at all, but maybe that's because fun things tend to go by fast. I really enjoy putting these together, even if it's later in the day than maybe you are expecting, but I am committed to Mondays (here) and so with your indulgence, sometimes it'll be a late night thing.

It's been a busy week on my end, but we're hours away from 304 dropping, which has taken a little longer than anticipated. Bob Jackson and I had a long conversation – well past two hours – but I like to keep the edits tight. It should hit by this time tomorrow, and then I have 305 to look forward to – that taping ran to three hours…

Books & Film News

Anyway, not a ton in the news this past week but a few things to note: first, not anything I would consider to be major news, but the cover for the upcoming book on Wings was released; different in North America than Europe.

On the subject of books and McCartney, it was announced just today that the animated adaptation of Paul's children's book, High in the Clouds, will feature an all-star cast (including Ringo) for the voice casting. (Also cast: Himesh Patel of 2019's Yesterday). As you hardcores will already know, Macca and children's entertainment/animation goes way back, encompassing a number of projects that started with grand intentions before falling short of their initial ambitions (Bruce McMouse comes to mind, as does Rupert the Bear). Maybe third time's the charm.

In other film news, Alan G. Parker's Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade is just out in the UK. I was told by Alan that he believes it will be out in the states in August; I expect we will talk sometime before….

Badfinger: 50th Anniversary of Pete Ham

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the main theme of this newsletter will be Badfinger as we observe the sad 50th anniversary of Pete Ham's suicide. This is not to belabor tragedy but rather to offer recognition of one of rock's unsung talents who left us far too soon.

I am not sure how many of you are Badfinger fans or are necessarily interested in their story per se. In 304, I attempt a thumbnail history before my conversation with Bob Jackson begins (it runs about 10 minutes). If you want to skip that, there are articles that catch things up pretty succinctly. There are also a few documentaries out there worth seeing if you really want to catch up on their music and story. I recommend checking out their TV showcase from 1972 at what was probably their commercial peak, supporting the Straight Up album.

Something I will likely be doing going forward: creating playlists to accompany shows. Here's the one I did for 304, including several songs from Head First as well as footage from the Bob Jackson 1982 iteration of the band, one each of Pete and Tommy's last songs (plus a pair of tunes Tommy wrote about their bad business goings on).

Richard DiLello & The Longest Cocktail Party

Everyone here should be familiar with Richard DiLello or at least his 1972 book, The Longest Cocktail Party. The self-described "house hippie" at Apple, he worked in the press office alongside Derek Taylor, who is largely the star of his memoir of those insane and all too brief years. While at Apple, he befriended Badfinger and was pressed into service to photograph them: he shot the cover of Straight Up as well as the gatefold portrait for No Dice.

Richard went on to a career as a writer for TV, including the early 90s show Midnight Caller (that name is a song on the No Dice album and it's hard not to see its use as a tribute of some sort).

In 1975, after Pete's death, Richard was a guest at the Los Angeles Beatlefest. While there, he delivered an absolutely blistering editorial against the music industry that he blamed for the tragedy. I don't know if it appears anywhere in print, beyond perhaps the late Dan Matovina's Without You Badfinger bio, but here it is transcribed.

Seederman Chronology #7

Last: a new month means a new installment of the Seederman Chronology: #7. This one runs from July 1976 to (sigh) December 1980…

Gary Wenstrup Announcement

PS: Remember Gary Wenstrup, most recently heard in our One To One recap? I had alluded to an announcement he had up his sleeve and here it is…

Newsletter #25 April 28, 2025

Published: April 28, 2025

Welcome: A Young Fan in 1975

Hello folks, First off, because you are all here and appreciated for the ongoing support, I want to present something cool that I've shared in the past, but not in the newsletter. In 1975 – 50 years ago – I was a very, very young Beatles fan. People around at that time will tell you that, beyond the limited books available on the group, imagine a world with no internet/YouTube or home video. (Arguably, HBO and local cable existed in some places but certainly was not accessible to all, least of all me).

Limited Options for Seeing The Beatles

To see any video of The Beatles at that time, you had limited options. One was to trek out to a midnight showing of Beatle films when they came around (that was how I first saw Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be – thankfully on a big screen and with the added value/ambience of a room full of very vocal fans). Another was at the fan conventions beginning a year earlier, produced by Joe Pope or Mark Lapidos, but they were certainly not yet ubiquitous – Chicago didn't get its first until 1977. These events hosted ballroom screenings of the Fab films, as well as the promo films in circulation. (For example, seeing Ringo's "Hey! Baby" on a big screen amongst fans is an experience that anyone who's ever had will never forget.)

But for the most part, you were at the mercy of TV broadcasters to catch any form of Beatles, typically limited to whatever guest appearances they made (we've just passed the 50th of John's Tomorrow show visit as well as the taping of the Sir Lew Grade tribute special – a time capsule if ever was). Around that same time, Ringo appeared on the reboot of The Smothers Brothers. George, apart from his 1971 Dick Cavett Show appearance, almost never came on US TV, until his 1976 blitz for Thirty-Three and 1/3rd. And Paul, excepting his curious 1973 TV special, didn't really warm to the medium until later in the decade; in the ensuing years, he could be counted on for any number of chat show appearances (and the occasional SNL).

The 1975 TV Landscape

Beyond this, there were periodic TV screenings of A Hard Day's Night and Help!, which – while incredibly enjoyable – were scripted and not the same thing as seeing them in performance mode. (This did not stop me and my ilk at such times from running cassette recorders in front of the TV and angrily shushing anyone who happened into the room.)

US late night TV in 1975 was dominated by Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. CBS ran their Late Movie while ABC struggled to compete against NBC's juggernaut, offering a catch-all time block labeled ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. This could encompass the occasional talk show (among them Geraldo Rivera's Good Night America, where in March 1975 Robert Groden first presented the Zapruder film to the American public, therein stretching the word "entertainment" to its breaking point). Later in 1975, Americans got their first look at Monty Python's Flying Circus in this ABC slot before it was then syndicated on PBS.

"A Salute To the Beatles: Once Upon A Time" (May 21, 1975)

On May 21, ABC turned the airtime over to David Frost and a special on the group, formally titled, A Salute To the Beatles: Once Upon A Time. I discussed this in detail in my Fab Four FAQ 2.0 book, but to sum up: it was a documentary hosted by Frost and comprised of footage ABC had at hand (ranging from various news segments to their appearance on Shindig! to the Al Brodax cartoon to various segments they controlled, like the 1973 Elliot Mintz interview with John on the beach or the 1972 footage of Wings rehearsing), as well as newly-taped interview segments with appropriate luminaries (George Martin – Mal Evans – Derek Taylor – Peter Brown) as well as, seemingly, anyone else who randomly wandered into camera range (David Essex, Bobby Vinton, Chuck Berry).

The Impact on Young Fans

For 1st-gen fans it was a sweet exercise in nostalgia, but for newly-minted young fans, it was a godsend. It was one thing to read about them in whatever books or magazines you could track down, but to actually see and hear them back then was an indescribable experience to those raised in an era where anyone interested is a few touches away on a smartphone from feasting their eyes and glutting their souls. The Shindig! footage (kinda-sorta live) was one thing, but seeing "Some Other Guy" at The Cavern was life-impacting at that time.

So in short, it was something we never forgot, and now you too can revisit 1975 anytime you want. This was all before Tony Palmer's Mighty Good, or The Rutles, or Compleat Beatles. While we know how 1995's Anthology presentation stirred fandom among younger generations, I seriously wonder if May 21, 1975 had any lasting impact at all on anyone besides myself….

Roy Thomas Baker (1946-2025)

Other stuff: producer Roy Thomas Baker passed away on April 12, 2025 at 78 and I wanted to acknowledge it; not because he worked with any Beatles per se (though he did work at Trident Studios at the same time they were doing some work there, apparently) but because he did produce some acts we care about (Queen, The Cars, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick), as well as many others (Journey, Foreigner, Ron Wood, and so forth). Safe to say, there was no hotter producer on the planet circa 1978-1979 and it was at that time that he was in contention for what became the "comeback" album for Badfinger, Airwaves. He was their choice, and apparently declined due to scheduling conflicts. Had he (instead of Elektra house producer David Malloy) done the honors, would it have marked a return to their fortunes? It's impossible to know, but remains a footnote.

Episode 304 Preview

And speaking of Badfinger, episode 304 will feature my conversation with Bob Jackson, truly the last surviving member of the group to have recorded an album with Pete Ham.

Newsletter #24 April 21, 2025

Published: April 21, 2025

Welcome: The Year of the Drummer

Hello all, Welcome to the SATB Newsletter, to subscribers new and legacy. Who knew this would become the year of the drummer? 2025 started strong with Ringo in Nashville with Look Up, his shows and TV special, before news of the death of Blondie's Clem Burke (also Judas Priest's Les Binks), coinciding with the announced retirement of Pete Best.

Zak Starkey & The Who Drama

Then there was last week: the whiplash-quick termination and then reinstatement of Ringo's firstborn, Zak Starkey, percussionist par excellence with The Who. He's been on board since 1996 and his role was won not through nepotism but with talent. In 1995, Who bassist John Entwistle was a member of Ringo's All-Starr Band, and it was there that he first met Zak, also among the entourage. The Who was drummer shopping at the time, having shed Kenney Jones after their 1988 performances. (Simon Phillips took the chair for the 1989 "Final" tour.) Zak fit like a hand in a glove for their Quadrophenia shows in '96 and stayed with them ever after, including the 2001 Concert for New York, Entwistle's last stateside performance.

In March 2025, The Who played a Teen Cancer charity gig at the RAH, and that's where the trouble started. There's no need to re-litigate the details here, but when singer Roger Daltrey was having troubles onstage hearing himself, he blamed the drummer (rather than the tech who was in charge of the monitors). The news sparked outrage around the world, most of it directed at Roger, while others suggest that perhaps the band's time had come and gone. The normally loquacious Pete Townshend stayed uncharacteristically silent, until breaking the news on the third day that Zak in fact was back in the fold, and all mis-communications remedied. (Pity that Mr. Best is newly-retired, since his commentary on a Starkey firing would've been so worth it.)

One To One: John and Yoko

In other news, One To One: John and Yoko has been playing to positive reviews in US theaters. Forbes announced this week that it will be made available for purchase and streaming. As noted in newsletter #23, Gary Wenstrup and I produced a "reaction" video of sorts. It turned out well, so in addition to being posted as a YouTube video, I also dropped it into the feed for the usual audio/podcast access (though I consider it to be something less than an episode – consider it bonus content).

Episode 303: Ian Leslie

The actual new episode is just out: 303, the conversation with Ian Leslie, author of John and Paul: A Love Story in Song. It's gotten tons of attention and I am really looking forward to what you listeners/readers think about it.

In Memoriam: Wink Martindale

This wouldn't be a SATB newsletter without a passing to note: in this case, deejay and TV personality Wink Martindale. He was a fixture in media ranging from radio to game shows (and even had a hit record himself). For our purposes, we remember him for his interview with the Fabs in Nassau, during the filming of Help! Wink was 91.

Books & Podcasts

In other stuff: that David Sheff bio of Yoko was the subject of an online essay by SATB guest Christine Feldman-Barrett. And whilst speaking of new books, newly-posted is my conversation with Joe Wisbey on the fab Beatles Books podcast.

Archive & Closing Notes

Last: I am sitting on a mountain of video and audio – most of it Beatles-related. If any of you have any requests for anything specific, let me know – I am happy to share! As noted last time, all past newsletters are now archived on the SATB site – just create a sign-in. Thanks for being here – all reviews are welcomed and encouraged – and tell your friends!

Newsletter #23 April 14, 2025

Published: April 14, 2025

Welcome & Pete Best's Retirement

Hello folks and welcome to Monday! (Though I acknowledge that it's already Tuesday in some places this is being read…) Not a ton of new news to report but a couple of things warrant attention. First, buried in the shock of Clem Burke's passing was news about another drummer: Pete Best. On Sunday April 6, a statement was issued through his brother (Neil Aspinall's son) Roag that effective immediately, Pete was retired from performing. No specifics were given, beyond a vague "personal circumstances," which of course is a jarring enough declaration.

The Pete Best Band had just finished their stint on the Flower Power Cruise, alongside other luminaries of the '60s, a week before. The band had been gigging fairly regularly of late, including in the US (Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, NY) and had an upcoming Liverpool gig in August (now canceled). To anyone who saw them, good on you, because it all appears to be a thing of the past.

The Pete Best Combo: 1965 & 2024

To anyone who hasn't, I put together an mp3 file containing 1) two sides of a 1965 single by the Pete Best Combo, featuring a pair of tunes well known by their Beatles covers, followed by a 2024 gig in Liverpool by his most recent iteration.

The interesting thing about the 1965 single: first, it claims on the sleeve that he sings: maybe he did somewhere but not here. Second: the label, Cameo, later merged with Parkway and in 1967 was purchased by a certain Alan Klein, who renamed it ABKCO. Third: this PBC release came out the same year as another oddball US release from his former bandmates, pairing the same songs. Someone will need quite the argument to assure me this was a total coincidence.

Reflecting on Pete Best

I did try to get him on the show once but he didn't bite. Nonetheless, interviews with him are plentiful on YouTube. He did pen a couple of books: a memoir and another that I recommend more highly.

Pete Best is a guy who, while clearly not on a Beatles level of talent and vision (but who else is?), was dealt a bad hand in life. That he endured and was willing to share his story, presence and music with fans all over the world speaks well of him. Others would have suffered his fate with far less grace (and on that thought, why wouldn't it be a good idea for he and Paul to share a drink and a talk some time?), and if only for enduring a lifetime of having a terrible blow thrown in your face over and over again, maybe there's something admirable there.

One To One: John and Yoko

Onward! The other big news is the stateside release of One To One: John and Yoko. Whatever else you may think/expect about this film, it is absolutely worth checking out on the big screen if you can, preferably IMAX. You'll thank me, I am confident in saying.

I'd reached out to the director, Kevin Macdonald, months ago for a conversation but never heard back and now I am certain he's up to his eyeballs. Maybe someone connected with the film will manifest later, but in the meantime, here's my quick-and-dirty YouTube reaction conversation with Gary Wenstrup to offer our take (and spoilers abound – be forewarned!).

April 14, 1969: The "Get Back" Session

As I write this, I am reminded of the historic nature of April 14: Lincoln, Titanic, and in 1969, Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand tied for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. But over in London on that last date, two Beatles convened to track an A-side for a new single, despite the fact of their latest such release, "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down" having only been issued three days before. (It came as relief within the longest drought between singles: over seven months since "Hey Jude"/"Revolution.")

Nonetheless, just back from his honeymoon, John was raring to go with a newly-penned "journalistic" account of the experience, and therefore, like a newspaper account, wanted it out ASAP, notwithstanding the absence of two bandmates. The session went well, with Paul eager to facilitate John's wishes, availing himself on bass, piano, maracas and drums.

A holy grail of the day was described in print as the evocation of the two absent Beatles by the two present ones ("Go a bit faster, Ringo!" "Okay, George!") but the 2019 Abbey Road set reveals something slightly diminished: John's light-hearted critique of the drummer (Paul) – "It got a bit fast there, Ringo!" – followed by Paul's apparent call out to their producer…

The "Get Back" Promo Film

In any event, someone once took the trouble of doing a random remix of the song, showcasing the censorship of the word "Christ" and various elements. Here it is, married to the official promo film, which was shown in the UK on Top of the Pops and in the US on Music Scene. (Yes, the synch between music and visual was always a bit loose.)

The clip was notable for 1) being an early glimpse into the footage shot in January 1969 and 2) offering the illusion that the song was a full band performance (see 1). As has been noted elsewhere, it would be John's last song issued as a Beatles A-side (though not the last one offered…)

One Year Later: A Chillier Atmosphere

One year to the day later, the atmosphere was considerably chillier. To circle back to One To One: it would appear that the difficult decision of what to do with the remastered Some Time in New York City set, on the shelf since it occurred to the powers that be that it could be problematic.

Newsletter #22 April 7, 2025

Published: April 7, 2025

In Memoriam: Clem Burke (1954–2025)

Hello folks; Welcome to another week. I was hoping to make it two in a row without something sad to report but might as well get this out of the way now: the passing of drummer Clem Burke, best known for his work with Blondie (but he’s played with an astonishing array of artists nearly beyond measure). He was 70 and suffering from cancer.

Clem was, in the parlance, a musician’s musician: he could drum with the maniacal energy of a Keith Moon but with control in place of complete abandon. His hyper-kinetic style was very much a defining element of his band’s sound. By all accounts, he was a sweet and humble guy, and best of all, he was one of us: belonging to that 1st-generation of US fans whose lives were transformed as one of the 73 million that tuned in that February night. He spoke often of his fandom and, as he relates, met three of his heroes (while the 4th, John, documented his fandom of Blondie). Also – he was a left-hander who played with a right-handed set-up. (Remind you of anyone?) His playing always made me smile and I know it must have for millions of other fans. Shine on!

Sam Mendes' Beatles Films Casting

The big Beatles story of the week though was the announced casting of the four leads in director Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films, ETA 2028. Everyone of course had to weigh in, including tons of people who know nothing about acting or filmmaking. The reaction across social media was as though they’d announced the finalists in a look-alike contest.

There was a time in my immaturity that I might have been inclined to agree with the curious choices made based on physical appearance alone, but – I think we’re past the point where looks are the primary driver in such situations. It’s a rare thing when someone looks the part and has acting chops (does anyone else think that Cillian Murphy in his youth would’ve made a splendid Klaus Voormann?), but usually the success of projects based on real life well-known personas is based more on the script and direction rather than the capacity to resemble their character. (Daniel Day-Lewis was a rare exception in a long line of Lincoln biopics where he really did nail performance and looks.) And David Bowie’s lack of resemblance to Joseph Merrick wasn’t a deal breaker either.

I guess my point is that, before everyone loses their minds over this and starts hating on it frame-unseen, we should trust that Mendes knows what he’s doing.

John Patrick Byrne Painting Auction

In other news: a painting by the late Scottish artist John Patrick Byrne went up for auction. It has often been reported as commissioned by The Beatles at some point between A Doll’s House and the arrival of Richard Hamilton as the cover art for what we call the “White Album.” This is not true: what is, is that it was commissioned by artist Alan Aldridge for use as a frontispiece to his Beatles Illustrated Lyrics book (1969), which indeed it was. (Apparently there was a small and a large version: this auction was of the smaller version, while the larger piece was used in 1980 for the cover of The Beatles Ballads compilation.)

Episode 302: Allison Bumsted & TeenSet

302 arrived this weekend: a conversation with Allison Bumsted about her book, covering TeenSet magazine and teen lit generally, and where the Beatles specifically interacted with the publishers. Also discussed: the story of DateBook and the “more popular than Jesus” controversy. She’s got an article that will be published online for free at any moment now, and the Q&A portion of her book launch is also posted.

Episode 303: Ian Leslie on John and Paul

Next up is my conversation with Ian Leslie, he of the recently published John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs. Like so much else, it too has stirred some strong reactions from people, possibly louder from those who haven’t actually read it yet. I would again suggest patience and give this talk a listen: I think it’s an important book that connects some dots and at the very least, can influence the way you will hear their music going forward. Don’t take my word though…

David Sheff's Yoko Biography

David Sheff’s recently published Yoko biography has been mentioned here previously. I haven’t yet read it but fully intend to; nonetheless, the Guardian once again says in print what I am inclined to believe, based on the personas involved. Yoko (and John, and in fact, all of the Beatles…) are all worthy of balanced, fair-minded explorations in print, based on data and not specific agendas/reactions to other things going on. I am hoping that we get there someday, but it may take many more years, beyond the lifetimes of the subjects, for this to happen. In the meantime, this is a big deal. You can bet I will be checking it out.

Ribbons of Rust Book Launch & Backlash

On the subject of writers and the past: this week was the book launch for my latest (with Jerry Hammack), Ribbons of Rust. Video of the call, which included the esteemed John Leckie, Sibbie O’Sullivan and Richard Mills, plus a supporting cast of innocent bystanders, will be posted in due course.

Rather, it was the announcement of the event that drew unasked for attention, from a name that will likely be familiar to all subscribers to this newsletter. Said correspondent had this to say:

“Please…. I think you guys are about 30 years late to the Beatles book business” before adding: what I see is people who have an obsession for a rock band that broke up over 50 years ago. I got in in 1984. I wrote the books that I wrote. I had my relationship with the people involved from both the inner and outer circle and moved on.