Episodes
Monday Apr 04, 2022
2022.r14 Lennon Naked (BBC telefilm)
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
A wheezing grinding sound fades away as we close in on Christopher Eccleston wandering around in a moptop on the set of "A Hard Day's Night". Perhaps it is the plot for a lost episode of "Doctor Who", but it is also early on in the telefilm "Lennon Naked". Jon and I review the film, compare the reenacted scenes to their real-life counterparts (surprise! It's pretty good, for the most part), continuing on from last week's look the theatrical "Nowhere Boy".
Monday Mar 28, 2022
2022.r13 Nowhere Boy
Monday Mar 28, 2022
Monday Mar 28, 2022
The first of two weeks covering some John Lennon biopics from the 2009-2010 era. We start with "Nowhere Boy", a deep dive into the psychology of John Lennon as viewed through the lens of his half-sister Julia Dykins. A surprising amount of time is taken up covering the romantic relationships between older women and much younger men!
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Jon and I get back to the last (almost) thirty years of Paul McCartney's solo career. Pick at least song from each mainstream release, and one (or more) frp the others (live, classical and Fireman), then build a playlist. Here are ours. What are yours?
Monday Mar 14, 2022
2022.r11 The Beatles at the BBC - disc two - April 1963 - June 1963
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
We continue our look at the collected "Beatles at the Beeb" (Lord Reith 2021 edition) with disc two. It took the lads 14 months to generate a single disc worth of material, and now the BBC invites them back often enough that they can fill the second before the end of the summer. The disc closes with the momentous event of "Pop Goes the Beatles" (they had moved all the way to the top of the BBC radio food chain), as their album appeared atop the British LP charts!
Monday Mar 07, 2022
2022.r10 Wings and the Rock Hall
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Please ignore if you have seen/heard this episode already.
This week - Wings and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We move from Paul's induction in 1999 to questions about Wings and how they upheld "the spirit of rock and roll" with diversions wide and far including The Monkees, David Cassidy, the E-Street Band, the Traveling Wilburys and thoughts on the appropriateness of "Lumpy Trousers" as a (joke-) band name.
Monday Feb 28, 2022
2022.r09 The Beatles at the Washington Coliseum
Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
February 11, 1964. Fresh off their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles take a leisurely trip to Washington DC (via train) and blow the minds of several thousand teenagers including future Vice-President Al Gore. A CBS crew filmed the show for closed circuit distribution, and we are fortunate enough to have a record of this show to review.
Monday Feb 21, 2022
2022.r08 Fab Fools (Jem Roberts)
Monday Feb 21, 2022
Monday Feb 21, 2022
There's a lot of serious business to fooling around! This week, Jon and I sit down with humorist, author and man about town Jem Roberts. The audio version of his book "Fab Fools" is newly available on Audible. We touch on a number of comedy topics, with a lot of chat about Neil Innes and the Rutles. No Wom Direction though.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
2022.r07 Rubber Soul / Yesterday & Today
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
The twelve months between Fall of 1965 and fall of 1966 were difficult ones for the Beatles and their American record label Capitol records. While the Beatles prepared and released a single album, Capitol found a way to release two (creating a deficit for the forthcoming "Revolver" as well). We look at the material, the covers, the hours, the times and more in this week's episode.
Monday Feb 07, 2022
2022.r06 Ken Womack on Mal Evans, George Martin, Get Back and more...
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Dr. Kenneth Womack of Monmouth University and author of more (Beatle and other) books than you can shake a stick at joins us this week for a look back at George Martin questions that have emerged since "Get Back", and forward to Mal's diaries, the (unpublished) diaries/archives, and the two forthcoming books covering the life and times of "The Gentle Giant". A man quite possibly the closest to the group, and the only assistant worthy of working alongside the Beatles.
Monday Jan 31, 2022
2022.r05 The Beatles at the BBC - disc one - March 1962 - April 1963
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
This week we start a periodic (i.e.: not contiguous) series covering the Beatles at the BBC, using the Lord Reith "BBC Archives" series (available at finer Internet sites everywhere) as our basis. We run through the first volume of this 24-disc set (which roughly corresponds with their first year) watching the drummers change.