Something About the Beatles
Hosted by award-winning author Robert Rodriguez, Something About The Beatles is an intelligent but entertaining examination of The Beatles' music and career. Smart, funny and surprising - just like the Fab Four.
Episodes
May 10, 2024 • 94 mins
My guests are three very special ladies whom have all appeared on the show before, but this time, all three have memoirs out. Debbie Gendler was the first to appear on SATB (121: New York Stories) and her story as the 1st US fan (as far as I’m concerned) was initially laid out there. But now HER memoir has been published, I Saw Them Standing There: Adventures of an Original Fan During Beatlemania and Beyond.
Debbie joins returning...
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April 28, 2024 • 98 mins
Of the 73 million Americans who viewed The Beatles’ live debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, we know with absolute certainty that a high percentage had their lives changed forever – this is not hyperbole. And of those, many were moved to take up instruments or start bands. And of that fraction, a handful went on to stellar careers in music, producing art that became a part of our lives in the years to come.
Today’s gue...
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April 26, 2024 • 87 mins
As the first insider Beatles tell-all (not counting Francie Schwartz’s Body Count – because why would I) – 1983’s The Love You Make, a collaboration between Brian Epstein’s protege Peter Brown and today’s guest, shocked fans with what was perceived as an airing of dirty laundry. Drug use, infidelity, betrayal, wife-swapping, and overall bad behavior was chronicled in detail, and Brown’s insider status gave credence to the reporting...
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April 25, 2024 • 92 mins
At last: the SATB conversation with the man who brought The Beatles’ road manager’s long missing manuscript to press. Living The Beatles Legend is the story Mal wanted to tell before his life ended at 40 in Los Angeles in a hail of gunfire in 1976. But perhaps the wait was worth it to get his insider eye-witness story augmented by research and interviews Ken has conducted to fully flesh out the story.
This talk covers the first v...
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March 17, 2024 • 63 mins
Today is her 80th birthday, and given the attention being brought by the auction of some personal items through Christie's (see https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/pattie-boyd-collection/lots/3508 ), the time was right for a conversation. We made the most of the hour, given the demand for interviews right about now, but among the things discussed were: Meeting George on the set of A Hard Day's Night Her views on how fans see her ...
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March 10, 2024 • 102 mins
Listeners: you may recall my conversation with Robert Rosen (245), detailing the blocking of a pair of books by reputable authors that detailed the "househusband" years of John's life; it evolved out of an essay Robert wrote. Well, one of those writers is here to tell his story himself. Michael Meideros was hired in 1977 to work on the indoor gardening at the Lennon's Dakota apartments. But as he performed his assigned tasks, his...
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February 25, 2024 • 120 mins
Picking up where we left off (259: Sgt. Pepper Olympiad ), lecturer/professor Gary Wenstrup and I resume the Olympiad series with a pair of releases featuring film score music, the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour EP/album and 1969's Yellow Submarine release. Owing to the unique issues, with the latter representing only four new Beatle songs and the former being a six-song double 7" set, we got creative with the tracks reviewed. Previou...
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February 9, 2024 • 105 mins
There's no joy to be had in this subject, but it is an important topic for an open discussion. We have been fed a narrative for 43 years regarding the murder of John, yet there were aspects that either lacked detail or, upon closer inspection, made little sense. At least a couple of of authors have published books on the case, but documentary-maker David Whelan has approached the subject with fresh eyes, resulting in three years of...
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January 25, 2024 • 80 mins
The author of Shout: The Beatles In Their Time has brought out his third Beatles individual biography, forty plus years after the publication of his group one. George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle was put together tapping Norman's body of old interviews (with witnesses now beyond reach) as well as fresh research and new conversations (including his star witness, Pattie Boyd). The complexity of the subject matter is matched by the ...
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January 9, 2024 • 129 mins
We have discussed the insights of 1st gen fans who, frankly, were screamers in the presence of The Beatles (Debbie Gendler, author of this upcoming memoir and Carol Tyler, author of this one); see thisfor a detailed discussion. Then there's Sibbie O'Sullivan - a high schooler when Deb and Carol were middle-schoolers. She too was swept up in the wave of mania in her native Maryland; like Deb, she witnessed an in-person Ed Sull...
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December 25, 2023 • 93 mins
This British journalist/author/screenwriter/playwright is a SATB fave and was heard most recently among the 21 guests in the "Now and Then" discussion. But here he is alone in the spotlight, recounting his fabulous life as a chronicler of creators and a creator himself. Check out his website for a full accounting of his works - https://www.rayconnolly.co.uk/ - and this show for a discussion of his 2023 memoir. Ray was friends wit...
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December 8, 2023 • 295 mins
The release of a new Beatle recording in our lifetime warrants a special approach. To that end, I assembled a group of some of your favorite podcast guests, plus a few new ones to discuss, critique, and analyze the new Beatle record. Folks representing a number of geographical and generational perspectives weigh in with their insights and observations. In alphabetical order, they are: Nancy Lee Andrews (Photographer and Author, A...
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November 16, 2023 • 120 mins
The first half hour+ was taped live at The Fest in August 2023, as you can doubtless tell. The rest was done in the usual way, and you'll note we didn't necessarily cover everything we listed in great detail, but that's showbiz. Here's Erin's list: 1. A Hard Day's Night film 2 and 3. The Internet. Two slots because I see it impacting the historiography in two major ways: First, it has vastly increased accessibility to prim...
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November 1, 2023 • 87 mins
Between 1970 and 1979, George issued six studio albums (plus one triple-live one), followed by a second draft of his 1980 album the following year. Rock scribe Eoghan Lyng and I re-examine these works with fresh ears - we hope you will too. Eoghan's book: https://www.amazon.com/George-Harrison-70s-Eoghan-Lyng/dp/1789521742
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October 20, 2023 • 118 mins
The Beatles were the end result of an array of confluences, circumstances and influences. On the short list near the very top (if not THE top) was American rocker Buddy Holly. In his short career, he wielded his influence on the budding Liverpool rockers in an array of ways, which returning guest Luther Russell and I discuss here. Though his time on earth was brief, the impact he made casts a long shadow, as he provided an unwittin...
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September 17, 2023 • 83 mins
The author of Nowhere Man (2000) returns for a conversation prompted by the book's recent re-publication, augmented with an array of new material and appendices. Robert will also be making a rare personal appearance in St Louis on October 4th in St. Louis - details here. Among the subjects we talked about this time round were: May Pang
Fred Seaman
Early 1970s US politics and its coverage in Observation Post
His upcoming b...
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September 2, 2023 • 87 mins
Returning guest and renowned producer John Leckie is back on SATB and this time he brought his friends; colleagues from EMI with impressive credentials of their own, who also worked with The Beatles: Nick Webb and Roger Ferris. It was a real delight to be a fly-on-the-wall as three guys who've known each other for decades spun stories about working at the most famous recording facility on earth, and the clients they supported. Am...
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August 10, 2023 • 95 mins
As a follow-on to my last conversation with author Glenn Greenberg, we sat down to explore the Harrison-Lennon dynamic. A couple of things referenced in the show can be found below: Here's John's 1974 note to George. Here's John's 1976 Q&A. Glenn Greenberg's Making of the White Album bookazine can be found here. "I Know It's True" (end song) by Iamaphoney can be found here.
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July 31, 2023 • 99 mins
Journalist Steve Matteo has a new book out - Act Naturally: The Beatles on Film. It's an all-encompassing volume detailing and contextualizing the making of every one of their cinematic projects, including a few that didn't actually get filmed. For this first discussion, we focused on their first two, both directed for United Artists by Richard Lester and produced by Walter Shenson.
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June 10, 2023 • 99 mins
My guest today has recently completed the first volume of an exhaustive study of Paul's body of work in Paul McCartney: Music is Ideas 1970 - 1989. Luca Perasi is a Beatles historian who specializes in the group's bassist, post-split. He was a consultant hired by MPL for the recent 7" single box set, as well as the Italian translator for Paul's The Lyrics book. For our first discussion, we focused on the broad parameters of Paul'...
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