Something About the Beatles

If all you know about this sister act out of Austria is an array of Beatles covers on Youtube, then you don’t know the Mona Lisa Twins. They are the present-day embodiment of the ripples of waves begun when the Beatles entered popular consciousness over half a century ago; a manifestation of what Geoff Baker called “a good way of looking at the world.”

Lots of great artists emerged from the sixties and afterward, inspired by a force that The Beatles embodied and then set into motion. This puts the Mona Lisa Twins in good company. Listen and discover.

Home site: https://monalisa-twins.com/

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MonaLisaTwins

Thanks to Rick Wey and Trevor Beaumont

 

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There is no real perfection, a much-loved artist once sang. But in Beatle world, where excellence is the common consensus, the act of assessing how well they executed their art as distinguished by individual releases is – at the very least – ripe for a thoughtful discussion. Returning to the show is TV writer Jeff Martin (4th time around!), and new to SATB is sports reporter Andy Martino. It was his stray observation on the Shea Anything podcast that prompted this conversation.

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Ever wonder what the lives of those screaming legions of fans were like? Wonder no more: today, I speak with award-winning cartoonist, Carol Tyler, whose memoir of her Beatles adoration, Fab 4 Mania: A Beatles Obsession and the Concert of a Lifetime, has just been published. The book builds on the diary that she kept as 13-year old, vividly chronicling her devotion with the art and journals she kept from back in the day. Her journey articulates the fan experience of someone who grew up with The Beatles, while also serving as a love letter to the city of her birth (and mine): Chicago, and how local top 40 radio (WLS, WCFL, WVON) impacted young lives while shaping tastes.

Carol’s richly illustrated book transports readers back in time, capturing the immediacy of anticipating and witnessing a Beatles concert during those all-too-brief touring years. It features an Introduction written by Beatles biographer Hunter Davies.

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At last: SATB takes on a long-requested topic, comparing and contrasting two of the biggest acts out of the UK during the 1960s. Quantifying art is a fool’s errand, yet here we are because we can’t help ourselves. The conversation takes this article by Michael Salfino as a starting point, along with our Bill Wyman’s recent piece on the membership of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. These accomplished journalists join me and Ben Rowling in a conversation tracing the respective internal band dynamics and the arc of their respective artistry into the decades that followed.

Check out Bill’s work here:

http://www.vulture.com/author/bill-wyman/

Check out Michael’s work here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/writers?name=michael+salfino

Mashups courtesy of BDJ – hear his work here: https://bdj.podomatic.com/ Twitter: @MichaelSalfino Bill Wyman: @hitsville

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As an end-of summer two-fer, SATB presents a double bill: two different ways of “seeing” the Beatles.

First, on the 50 years since the Mad Day Out, my guest is photographer Tom Murray; author of the newly-published book, The Beatles: Tom Murray’s Mad Day Out – a colorful revisit to a summer’s day when all was Fab in the world.

Second, meet John Pring and Rob Thomas: graphic artists and authors of Visualizing The Beatles. Their book presents the Beatles’ story visually, laying out all manner of data in the form of colorful graphics, enabling the reader to grasp a lot of information quickly.

Tom Murray’s site

Visualizing The Beatles site

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In this expanded episode, I speak with Dr. Bob Hieronimus and Laura Cortner. The two have worked together for decades researching a number of topics, but in this instance: the Yellow Submarine film; interviewing every available participant in its creation. Dr. Bob published Inside the Yellow Submarine: The Making of The Beatles’ Animated Classic in 2002 – it remains the definitive telling, but they are preparing a follow-up volume of new research and interpretation later this year.

Check out their latest info and YS books here: https://yellowsubmarinebook.com/

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Television writer Jeff Martin makes his third appearance on the show, this time focusing the conversation on one of his vocations – playing keyboards in a band – and how The Beatles (Paul mainly) utilized an array of instruments in the studio: piano – electric piano – organ – harmonium – Mellotron – synthesizer, and so forth; and how their use evolved from doubling instrumental parts to adding color to forming the basis of some of their finest compositions.

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In which we welcome back to the show historian Erin Torkelson Weber. In this episode, we pick up where we left off; this time discussing older canon works like Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head and Peter Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money; (also Peter McCabe’s outdated Apple To The Core and the problematic memoir of Geoff Emerick) as well as new essential works like Riding So High by Joe Gooden. We also talk about how the Beatles’ historic narrative was shaped, countered and re-evaluated as Mark Lewisohn’s works represented a true revolution in Beatles scholarship. Erin’s previous appearance: http://somethingaboutthebeatles.com/116-beatles-historians/

Her blog: https://beatlebioreview.wordpress.com/

 

Erin in action:

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It isn’t often that we are given a firsthand account from somebody who set in motion events that literally changed the world. But there we are and here it is: Michael Hill was a classmate and friend of John Lennon’s, beginning at age 5. A keen observer and articulate narrator, he has set his recollections down for all of us in his book, John Lennon: The Boy Who Became A Legend.

As Michael himself points out, lots of boys went to school with John Lennon but only one – this one – stirred something inside the directionless 15 year-old and set him on the path to rock – and conquer the world in the process.

Check out Michael’s story – and his book – here: http://www.johnlennonlegend.com/

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It was 45 years ago that Beatle confidant and Apple Press Officer Derek Taylor published his first memoir, As Time Goes By. Long out of print, it has recently been re-published, this time with a contextualizing foreword penned by rock journalist Jon Savage (Mojo magazine, England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded, plus much more). Jon sat down with me to discuss Derek, As Time Goes By, The Beatles, the White Album, 1966, plus an array of offshoot topics. Check out Jon’s As Time Goes By playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/user/fabersocial/playlist/5q60ISNL0EZAhgP0vdrRQa Here’s Jon’s write-up on The Residents’ “Beyond the Valley of a Day in the Life” from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/jun/21/savage-song-residents-beatles

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