Us - Something About The Beatles

210: The Beatles 1962 – 1970

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Big things take much time to execute: both this episode and the long-awaited event I’ve been teasing for the last few months….

First: the new show. SATB 210 features no guests and no host; instead, it depicts in rigid but scaled down time, the unfolding of their career from the October 5, 1962 issue of “Love Me Do” to the May 1970 issue of “The Long and Winding Road” as a final US single. What lies between are the sounds of their hectic pace, with interviews, concerts, projects, radio, film and TV populating their days. There is no greater way to get the context of their hard work and success than experiencing it in context.

(Want to hear a version, Beatles only? Click here . )

Next: the really big show – welcome to the first Fab4ConJam, coming February 20-21, 2021. It’s two days of global community, featuring speakers, panels and music celebrating the world’s greatest unifying force.

Check out the site now for details as they unfold.

January 24, 2021

209: The Wish List

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:04:45 — 236.8MB)

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In which Luther Russell and myself detail our picks for the things in the vault known to exist, group and solo, that we one day hope for Apple to release, in well-presented packages. This episode was the live round-the-world broadcast we did from Chicago back in September 2020, powered by in.live (thanks David Simon!) and that is why you get to hear a bit of the city in the background, along with loads of rare audio detailing what we’re talking about.

Happy Holidays to all and onward and upward in 2021!

December 22, 2020

208: The Beatles As Guitarists with Mike Pachelli

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If you aren’t already aware of this veteran jazz/blues guitarist’s Youtube channel with loads of deconstructions of their music, by all means, check it out. Mike has been performing and recording for decades (18 solo albums), as well as with artists ranging from Phil Keaggy to Micky Dolenz. Like so many others, his life was changed on the evening of February 9th, 1964. Much of the what he absorbed beginning then became the basis for his career, which he now shares in the form of informative videos.

In this discussion, he offers his insights into what The Beatles’ primary guitar players were up to and the basis of their brilliance.

Check out MikePachelli.com, and his most recent project – High Standards – which features Tony Levin and Danny Gottleib.

Mike Pachelli recordings heard in this podcast:
1) “What A Wonderful World” (excerpt) – from High Standards
2) “Swing 42” (excerpt) – from Impressions
3) “Skylark” (excerpt) – from High Standards
4) “These Are Soulful Days” – from High Standards

December 7, 2020

207: John Leckie/Plastic Ono Bands

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:22:25 — 253.2MB)

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This episode features a conversation between Luther Russell and I with producer John Leckie – if you aren’t familiar with his name, you may be with the acts he’s worked with (working backwards chronologically): My Morning Jacket – New Order – Radiohead – Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians – The Posies – Stone Roses – XTC – Dukes of Stratosphear – Human League – Simple Minds – Magazine – Be Bop Deluxe – Wizzard – Mott The Hoople – Barclay James Harvest – Syd Barrett – Pink Floyd – Roy Harper – Paul McCartney and Wings.

For the purposes of our discussion, we focus on three key albums he worked on at the onset of his career: the pair of Plastic Ono Band releases by John and Yoko, and All Things Must Pass. It’s those first two that we examine in detail, fifty years on (well, a little Pink Floyd too). John has the stories and the insights – it was our honor to host him (and keep him from his dinner).

November 24, 2020

206: Performing The Beatles

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:03 — 183.6MB)

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Returning guest Jack Petruzzelli of The Fab Faux has been playing Beatles music onstage all over the world since 1998. In this conversation, he goes into detail about what goes into the effort to replicate heavily-produced recordings not necessarily intended for live performance, by a core of five members.

Given the current conditions, the band is on hold, but Jack can be seen performing online on his Facebook page (“Thursday night service” November 19th 8pm ET), as well as his interactive Beatle class:

https://www.gowanusmusicclub.com/beatles-101

Thanks to Joe Chinnici for recording the Fab Faux in New York for the Sirius XM Beatles Channel.

November 10, 2020

205: Countdown to Break-Up

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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.

October 30, 2020

204: The Guest List Part 2

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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.

October 21, 2020

203: In The Studio 1968 with Jerry Hammack part two

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:20 — 119.8MB)

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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/

October 6, 2020

SATB Bonus show: JEM Records Celebrates John Lennon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:49 — 176.3MB)

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Coming on what would’ve been the 80th anniversary of his birth, this collection of Lennon material – Beatles and solo – is being presented by a number of artists associated with Beatles music, among them The Weeklings and The Gripweeds.

Consider this one a “new phase” SATB show – the first to feature a guest host: Tom Frangione. You may know him from his writings in Beatlefan magazine – his role twice annually at The Fest for Beatles Fans, or as one of the three hosts heard on the Sirius XM Beatles channel program, Fab Fourum. His guests on this episode are JEM Records’ president Marty Scott; veteran musician Glen Burtnik (Beatlemania, Styx, The Orchestra) of The Weeklings, and Kurt Reil (The Gripweeds). They discuss the process of putting this collection together, including song selection as well as the process of arranging such familiar material into something fresh.

http://www.jemrecordings.com/

September 28, 2020

202: Sylvie Simmons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:10 — 151.9MB)

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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/

September 25, 2020

Author: Us