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

263: Fab 4 On Film: The Dick Lester Films with Steve Matteo

Hosted by award-winning author Robert Rodriguez, Something About The Beatles is an intelligent but entertaining examination of The Beatles' music and career. Smart, funny and surprising - just like the Fab Four.

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My guests are three very special ladies whom have all appeared on the show before, but this time, all three have memoirs out. Debbie Gendler was the first to appear on SATB (121: New York Stories) and her story as the 1st US fan (as far as I’m concerned) was initially laid out there. But now HER memoir has been published, I Saw Them Standing There: Adventures of an Original Fan During Beatlemania and Beyond. 
Debbie joins returning guests Carol Tyler (146: Fab 4 Mania) and Sibbie O’Sullivan (273: My Private Lennon) as they react to each other’s books. What ensued though was something bigger than what we anticipated, as the notion of collating their stories and those of other 1st-generation fans into something bigger and grander took shape. 
Something About The Beatles is now an Evergreen podcast.

282: The Women’s Revolution (Or: The Beatles’ Effect)

Of the 73 million Americans who viewed The Beatles’ live debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, we know with absolute certainty that a high percentage had their lives changed forever – this is not hyperbole. And of those, many were moved to take up instruments or start bands. And of that fraction, a handful went on to stellar careers in music, producing art that became a part of our lives in the years to come. 
Today’s guest is one such example. Elliot Easton was the lead guitarist in The Cars, but he was put on a path to music as a livelihood at the tender age of three; The Beatles merely codified the trajectory he was on. Elliot went on to hit virtually every checkmark a musician could desire: a successful career with hit singles and albums, induction into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, even recording with a Beatle. And Elliot also happens to be student of music and rock history, The Beatles especially. He comes to the show as a fellow fan as well as an artist inspired by The Beatles to live his dream.

281: The Beatles and The Cars with Elliot Easton

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

280: All You Need is the Love You Make with Steven Gaines

At last: the SATB conversation with the man who brought The Beatles’ road manager’s long missing manuscript to press. Living The Beatles Legend is the story Mal wanted to tell before his life ended at 40 in Los Angeles in a hail of gunfire in 1976. But perhaps the wait was worth it to get his insider eye-witness story augmented by research and interviews Ken has conducted to fully flesh out the story. 

This talk covers the first volume of this must-read book. Another volume, presenting the Evans photo archive and diaries, is due out later this year

279: The Mal Evans Project Part One with Ken Womack

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

263: Fab 4 On Film: The Dick Lester Films with Steve Matteo

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