Something About the Beatles

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With so many conflicting accounts and blame laid for the series of events that led to The Beatles' split, it's hard to detect a coherent narrative that, fifty years on, makes any sense as to exactly what went down and how. But Dr. Duncan Driver, in an article published earlier this year in Beatlefan magazine, has laid out a timeline detailing the sequence of events, from which some measure of patterns emerge. You can (and should) read the full-length piece here. 

We discuss the direction that things were moving in during the last years of the group (and past that point, too), toward a greater understanding of how events played out, maybe not exactly as we'd been led to believe. 

Back in May 2020, my guest Gary Wenstrup and I presented the first half of our conversation, where we offered up our respective lists of what people in Beatle world we would like to be able to sit down and interview: insiders who knew The Beatles well - worked with and for them - and essentially operated as part of the infrastructure; people who haven't been tapped out as interview subjects. 

Here are more names we came up with of folks still among the living that may end up on the show yet - time will tell. 

Gary is a lecturer and adjunct professor at College of DuPage, specializing in Beatles and classic rock.    

PS: Guess who's on an upcoming episode of the Fans on the Run podcast?  Ethan Alexanian and I just had a lengthy sit down.  

Also, remember Luther Russell evoking the Yesterday and Today podcast? He and I both contributed to their upcoming 100th episode. 

As you may recall: back in July, SATB featured the first part of a conversation covering The Beatles in the studio in 1968, during the White Album sessions and just before. Here's the continuation, featuring SATB semi-regular Luther Russell (singer-songwriter/producer/performing artist). As always, the talk goes where it goes, covering a lot of Beatle ground. 

Jerry's volume 5 of The Beatles Recording Reference Manual series will be out later this year; it covers all of the 1969 recordings, including the Let It Be sessions, the Yellow Submarine soundtrack and Abbey Road.   

Luther's music here: https://lutherrussell.bandcamp.com/ 

You may know her as the award-winning veteran rock journalist (Creem, Kerrang!, Mojo, and so forth) who also penned the best-selling biography of Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen (2011), as well as Debbie Harry's memoir, Face It (2019). But as a music-stricken child growing up in London during the 1960s, she became what she'd describe later as "Beatle damaged" at an early age. 

Here, Sylvie recounts that backdrop when music was absolutely everything; so much so that, starting in 2014 and after a successful career as one of rock's most thoughtful scribes, she became a recording artist: first with Sylvie and now - six years later - Blue on Blue. Her musical endeavors have won her further praise, but on this show, she offers up her perspective and insights on the Beatles as a group and solo, through the eyes (and ears) of a journalist and fan.   

Her books, archive and interviews can be found here: http://sylviesimmons.com/ 

In which this returning SATB fave (The Beatles and The Historians) and I expand from previous discussions focusing on books to cover the media specifically around the time of the break-up, and how the nonsensical "John vs Paul - who was the greater genius?" discussion got fueled and put forth into the world. The role of Allen Klein in their break-up is also discussed, in this two-hour conversation that drills deep into the dynamic between these two and hour the world viewed it.  

For SATB's 200th episode (more or less), we're doing something special: returning with guest photographer/writer Ethan Russell, one of this most storied individuals in rock history through his iconic visual documentation of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who, to name three (scores more as well). Ethan was the official rock photographer of the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, the Let It Be sessions, the final Beatles group photo shoot, as well as behind tons of other classic images, most of which have been gathered up and published in his latest book, Photographs - a singular monograph of superlative visuals presented in stunning quality. It's available only at his website: www.ethanrussell.com 

I spoke with Ethan last year and this follow on covers more details of his work with the Fabs: his impressions of them individually - of Yoko - of the Let It Be project and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, as well as of Peter Jackson (of whose upcoming work Ethan got a peek). Ethan came of age in San Francisco and went to London in 1967 - within a year he was in the orbit of the top British acts of the day. As a chronicler of the times, his work and observations are impeccable.   

In which my returning guest and I discuss this: what if The Beatles' songwriting credits were more accurately apportioned to reflect actual significant contributions from not-credited bandmates? Their recording career began with a singular "McCartney-Harrison" credit for "In Spite of All The Danger" - one can make the case (and we do) that their career was book-ended by "I Me Mine," which might have rightfully have bore the same credit. 

Anyway, as always, it leads down many rabbit holes...