When They Was Fab: Electric Arguments About the Beatles

When They Was Fab: Electric Arguments About the Beatles episodes:

• 05.13.2024

  2024.19 Mind Games EP, McCartney Life in Lyrics 9-10

  Marv, Lonnie and I talk the new Record Store Day Mind Games EP and two more episodes from the "Life In Lyrics" podcast.  A nice preview of the box set coming later this summer, and we return to Paul McCartney's...

  
• 05.05.2024

  2024.18 The Lagos Tape and Crooked Boy!

  A review of the Geoff Emerick Lagos tape as auctioned off last September.     Two high-profile "Dutch Imports" have hit the market recently (confusingly, each coming from a different dub of the Emerick masters).    The variants were classified, artifacts removed and...

  
• 04.28.2024

  2024.17 Around the Beatles

  Kit O'Toole joins the show this week as we run through the voluminous Beatles news from the past week (Record Store Day, Ringo, Let It Be) and discuss the Beatles portion of "Around the Beatles."     Costumes, Shakespeare, Trevor Peacock...

  
• 04.21.2024

  2024.16 Wings in Kampuchea - December 29, 1979

  Lonnie Pena and I discuss Wings at the Hammersmith Odeon - the Concert(s) for the People of Kampuchea.     Through circumstance, December 29, 1979 would end up being the final Wings concert ever.     Got to Get You Into My Life, Coming...

  
• 04.14.2024

  2024.15 Oops - all Ringo! (and Rob Sheffields list)

  Marv and I sit down and chat about the Ringo selections on Rob Sheffield's "100 Best Solo Beatles Songs" list.    As Dana Carvey might say, "isn't it conveeeeenient" that each claims one of the top four.      More seriously, we discuss...

  
• 04.08.2024

  2024.14 Life in Lyrics Season 2 - episodes 6_7 and_8

  More of our thoughts on the "Life in Lyrics" podcast.    Martin Quibell and I discuss Episodes 6, 7, and 8.     The episodes are entitled "Silly Love Songs", "A Day in the Life" and "Hey Jude".    However, roughly fifteen different songs...

  
• 03.31.2024

  2024.13 The Beatles Forever (not that one) - 1977

  A Beatles special you might not know about.     In 1977, NBC purchased "The Beatles Forever", a variety-entertainment special from ITC Entertainment (aka: The company led by Sir Lew Grade).    The Toppermost gang "comes together" to discuss this Thanksgiving spectacular!

  
• 03.25.2024

  2024.12 Wings in Newcastle - July 10, 1973

  Martin Quibell and Sam Whiles (Paul or Nothing) join to discuss the final Wings show of the summer 1973 tour.      If your experience of Wings Live begins with Jimmy McCulloch, you are in for quite a different experience.     Excerpts have...

  
• 03.18.2024

  2024.11 Red Rose Speedway (sort-of Underdubbed)

  Martin Quibell joins this week as we discuss the recent "fan mixed" Underdubbed version of "Red Rose Speedway".    Sorry Paul, the term still is not going to catch on among the general public.        This mix is probably more accurately referred...

  
• 03.11.2024

  2024.10 Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session

  Welll...It's one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready now go cat go!    George "Don't Call It a Comeback" Harrison joined his buddy Carl Perkins and his other buddies Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton to pay...

  
• 03.04.2024

  2024.09 Life in Lyrics Season 2 - episodes 3_4 and_5

  A grand old painter died last night.     I must've done something wrong.    More life, more lyrics from McCartney and Muldoon.     Lonnie Pena and I run through three more episodes of the "Life in Lyrics" podcast, talking about their talking, but...

  
• 02.26.2024

  2024.09 Life in Lyrics Season 2 - episodes 1 and 2

  Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon return for the second season of the "Life in Lyrics" podcast.    We sit down to consider the first two episodes of the new season ("Love Me Do" and "Band on the Run"), and talk...

  
• 02.19.2024

  2024.08 The Ed Sullivan Show, Feb 9 and 16

  It was Sixty Years Ago Today...   Beatlemania finished its reach as the Fab Four use New York City, Miami Beach and the Ed Sullivan Show to broadcast across the United States.    We not discuss the Fab Four, but Fred Kaps,...

  
• 02.12.2024

  2024.07 Band on the Run Underdubbed (Review/Overview)

  Before he jetted off to New York, and then Vegas, Sir Paul and his team dropped the fiftieth anniversary release of "Band on the Run", highlighted by the "Underdubbed edition."     This week we consider the new release and look at...

  
• 02.05.2024

  2024.06 Beatles and the BBC (review/overview)

  Lonnie Pena and I consider the recent production "The Beatles and the BBC".     An interesting collection of BBC clips ranging the Beatles years and beyond with some effort putting the "Threetles" in the historic context of the band they once...

  
• 01.29.2024

  2024.05 Muldoon and McCartney, Life in Lyrics Podcast episodes 9-12

  Marv and I finish our review of episodes nine to twelve of the McCartney "Life and Lyrics" podcast and look forward to what we might find in the second series which is expected in the coming weeks!    Magical Mystery Tour...

  
• 01.22.2024

  2024.04 John Lennon - Life in Ten Pictures (review)

  Lonnie Pena and I sit down to consider the John Lennon episode of "A Life in Ten Pictures".     One hour is barely enough time to give an overview of a "regular person's" life, much less a complex superstar.     How well...

  
• 01.15.2024

  2024.03 Muldoon and McCartney, Life in Lyrics Podcast episodes 5-8

  More from the Muldoon and McCartney Life in Lyrics podcast.     "Penny Lane", "Here Today", "Uncle Albert" and "Live and Let Die".     A study in how Paul McCartney thinks about characters, both his own and those given to him...

  
• 01.08.2024

  2024.02 2023 in Review (July - December) and upcoming for 2024.

  Time continues to march on as Jon Stone, Martin Quibell and I (Naturally!) move through the latter half of 2023.    Not just "Now and Then", but a number of tremendous books, a new Ringo EP, more touring from Sir...

  
• 01.01.2024

  2024.01 2023 in Review (Jan - June)

  The "Gab Four" are together again for the first show of 2024.    A lot of Ringo, some chat on Beatle books from the first half of the year and "in memoriam" to folks like Royston Ellis, Chas Newby and...

  
• 12.25.2023

  2023.52 The Beatmas (review)

  This week: The "When They Was Fab" Christmas spectacular.     Three of the "Gab Four" review the 1995 "Rubber Band" album from Dutch band the Beatmas (featuring Soren Dahlberg).    The Fab Four were not the first to do Beatles-styled...

  
• 12.18.2023

  2023.51 Denny Laine (featuring Darin Murphy and Sam Whiles)

  Sam Whiles (Paul or Nothing) steps in as we discuss the life, loves and trousers of Denny Laine.    Also joining is Darin Murphy (who gets a few more words in than Roger McGough, the man who actually knew the...

  
• 12.11.2023

  2023.50 Red Album 2023 CD2 Overview and Review

  We continue with our look at the 2023 remixes of "The Beatles 1962-1966".    As with disc one, the percussion blows us away.     Join Martin Quibell and I as we consider the remixes and discuss some of the recent...

  
• 12.04.2023

  2023.49 Red Album 2023 CD1 Overview and Review

  Now we are channeling the SuperDeluxeEdition energy!    Nineteen new mixes on the first CD of 1962-1966.    Hear Ringo playing the bongos on "A Hard Day's Night".    Claves, handclaps, and drums as far as you can hear.   ...

  
• 11.27.2023

  2023.48 Macca in Mexico City

  Paul McCartney's "Got Back" tour hit Mexico City in mid-November 2023.    This is Paul and the band's first visit to "Ciudad de Mexico" in six years.     Despite being highly similar to the 2022 US version, a splendid time is still...

  
• 11.20.2023

  2023.47 Blue Album 2023 Review

  "Now and Then" was followed up by the sort-of 50th anniversary of "Red and Blue".     This week we look at three albums of goodness from the folks at Universal Music.      The blue album is very much a compilation in the...

  
• 11.13.2023

  2023.46 Living the Beatles Legend - Ken Womack

  The hits just keep on coming!    This week, friend of the show Doctor Kenneth Womack joins the show to discuss his just-released book "Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans."    "Big Mal" has been both part of...

  
• 11.04.2023

  2023.45 Now and Then

  I know it's true.     There's a new Beatles song and video and short documentary out in the wild.     Lonnie and I are joined by Kit O'Toole (Queen of all Beatles Media!), Tom Hunyady (one of the two legs)...

  
• 10.29.2023

  2023.44 A Life in Lyrics podcast (review, overview, summary)

  Lonnie Pena and I go through the first four episodes of the Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon podcast "A Life in Lyrics".    Paul goes through Eleanor Rigby, Back in the USSR, Let It Be, When Winter Comes and Mull of...

  
• 10.22.2023

  2023.43 Ringo (Side B)

  The record is flipped as we travel through "Devil Woman", the how's why's and extended versions of "Six O'Clock", right through to a bit more of the legend of Jack Nitzsche, Klaus Voorman, Vini Poncia, David Hentschel and the inimitable...

  
• 10.16.2023

  2023.42 Ringo (side 1)

  Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Harry Nilsson, Klaus Voorman, John Lennon and Ringo Starr join together to answer the question "What Shall we do with a Drunken Sailor"?    Tune in as Marv and I discuss and celebrate 49 years and 50-ish...

  
• 10.08.2023

  2023.41 - Fashioning the Beatles

  Jon Stone co-hosts as we chat with Deirdre Kelly, author of "Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks that Shook the World."   The topic is John Lennon as influencer, both inside and outside of the Beatles.    John Lennon liked to say that...

  
• 10.01.2023

  2023.40 The Space Within Us Commentary Track, Pt.2

  Lonnie and I return to talk more about 2005, as we finish up our "Space Within US" commentary track.    More about the crowd and families, a little bit of Steve Jobs (before the iPhone took him to the "topermost"...

  
• 09.25.2023

  2023.39 The Space Within Us Commentary Track, Pt.1

  Lonnie and I celebrate the (separate) returns of the twotles to the concert stage by looking back to 2005/6, and the US (pronounced "us", not "U.S.") tour from 2005, as represented by the 2006 concert film.    Paul, Wix, Abe, Brian,...

  
• 09.18.2023

  2023.38 Brian and NEMS acts

  Brian Epstein and NEMS were frequently viewed as the "golden ticket."     A shiny new record contract, a song from Lennon-McCartney, and a hit record was assured.    Or was it?     Tune in this week as we look into some of the...

  
• 09.11.2023

  2023.37 Stowe School Show - part2

  More from the "Gab Four" as we continue our look at April 4, 1962 - The Beatles at the Stowe School.    George Harrison's guitar comes through loud and clear, but a bout with the cold or flu has limited what...

  
• 09.03.2023

  2023.36 Stowe School Show - part 1

  The "Gab Four" come together (and join the party).     Lonnie Pena, Jon Stone and Marv Quibell join me for the first of a two-parter where we go in depth on Ringo's new release ("Rewind Forward"), his appearance in the Nils...

  
• 08.28.2023

  2023.35 Kent Blazy - From the Beatles to the Bluebird

  This week, Lonnie Pena and I are joined by Nashville Hall of Fame songwriter Kent Blazy.     We discuss his recent trip to Liverpool, and how visiting the Beatles sites inspired him to write and record his new collection: "From the...

  
• 08.20.2023

  2023.34 Live-ish from the Fest for Beatles Fans, Chicago. August 12, 2023

  A very special live edition of When They Was Fab.     I am joined by "The Co-Pips" - Dr. Kit O'Toole (Queen of all Beatles Media, Talk More Talk, Toppermost of the Poppermost) and Dr. Kenneth Womack (Everything Fab Four, the...

  
• 08.11.2023

  2023.33 Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago Preview!

  August 11, new show!    Kit O'Toole and Martin Quibell join me to preview our various appearances at Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago!    Tune in, turn on, and join us as we do live renditions of this very show (Red and...

  
• 08.07.2023

  2023.32 White Album Gear (mostly, but not exclusively guitars)

  Frequent and beloved guest Darin Murphy (Skyrocket, HeartByrne, Cotton Mather) joins us to obsess a bit more on the guitars that The Beatles used on "The Beatles" (aka: "The White Album").     Diversions into the Fender VI (bass), Ringo and his...

  
• 07.31.2023

  2023.31 Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) - A Review

  Aubrey "Po" Powell and Storm Thorgerson were once known as "Hipgnosis".     It is not an exaggeration to say that their collective was responsible for much of the significant album cover artwork of the 1970's.     This includes Wings from "Band on...

  
• 07.23.2023

  2023.30 Eyes of the Storm, A Life in Lyrics and More

  Martin and I sit down to go through the rest of Paul McCartney's "1964: Eyes of the Storm".     Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, DC and Miami.     A Beatle's eye view of a much too serious world.     We also get a...

  
• 07.16.2023

  2023.29 Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatles (a Review)

  Stuart Sutcliffe is remembered as the one-time bass player of the Beatles, and artist who happened to die under tragic circumstances, but is that all their is to the young man?    Jon Stone and I look at a BBC Four...

  
• 07.09.2023

  2023.28 Paul and Conan and Stanley Tucci

  Paul McCartney has done two major interviews supporting his show at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the global release of "1964: Eyes of the Storm"    We look at the highlights of his program with Stanley Tucci, and the...

  
• 07.06.2023

  2023.b01 Happy 83 to Ringo Starr!

  Ringo Starr hits 83.      Download this episode and start it at 11:45 AM local time and we will guide you to the big moment at noon on July 7!

  
• 07.03.2023

  2023.27 Ringo’s All Starr Band 2006

  Ringo Starr,  Rod Argent, Sheila E, Billy Squier, Edgar Winter, Hamish Stuart.    On July 16, 2006 Ringo and the All-Starrs joined the High Rollers at the Mohegan Sun, transforming another Sunday night at the tables into a bit of rock...

  
• 06.25.2023

  2023.26 Fathers and Sons

  Lonnie Pena co-host as we discuss (mostly) Beatles fathers and father figures.    "It Takes a Village", and John, Paul, and Ringo are examples of what that phrase means.    Jim, Johnny, Charles, Richard, Freddie, Harry, Harry, Henry, and Harold as well...

  
• 06.18.2023

  2023.25 One-Two-Three-Four

  One, Two, Three, Four.    Can I have a little more?     Yes, you can.      Jon Stone, Lonnie Pena and Martin "Marv" Quibell are all here for the start of WTWF, Mk. IV (or is it V?).     We chat about a number...

  
• 06.11.2023

  2023.24 Pianos and Moog and Mellotrons (oh my!)

  People don't necessarily think of the role of keyboard instruments in the Beatles beyond Billy Preston and a few other obvious examples.   This week, we dive a little deeper, starting with Roy Young, through the harmonium, the mellotron, the moog...