September 4, 2025 • 44 mins
Author Gene Popa takes us inside the story of the Beatles' transformation from touring act to cultural icons with the release of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album.
Purchase a copy of The Colour of Your Dreams
Follow Gene Popa on Facebook
----------
BookedOnRock.com
The Booked On Rock Store
The Booked On Rock YouTube Channel
Follow The Booked On Rock with Eric Senich:
BLUESKY
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TIKTOK
X
Find Your Nearest Independent Bookstore
Contact The Booked On Rock Podcast: thebookedonrockpodcast@gmail.com
The Booked On Rock Music: “Whoosh” by Crowander / “Last Train North” & “No Mercy” by TrackTribe
Purchase a copy of The Colour of Your Dreams
Follow Gene Popa on Facebook
----------
BookedOnRock.com
The Booked On Rock Store
The Booked On Rock YouTube Channel
Follow The Booked On Rock with Eric Senich:
BLUESKY
TIKTOK
X
Find Your Nearest Independent Bookstore
Contact The Booked On Rock Podcast: thebookedonrockpodcast@gmail.com
The Booked On Rock Music: “Whoosh” by Crowander / “Last Train North” & “No Mercy” by TrackTribe
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this episode of Book Don Rock. The end of
summer nineteen sixty six, it marked the end of the
road for the Beatles, but the beginning of something brand
new and revolutionary. A look back at the Fab four's
most creative period with author Gene Polpa. We're totally booked
rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I mean, I'll leave you. You're reading. Little Hands says
it's time to rock and roll.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Rock band rout I totally booked. Welcome back to Book
Don Rock. It's the podcast for those about to read
and rock. I'm Eric Senach author Jene Pope, but he's
back on the podcast. He was last on the show
back in May to talk about his book British Invasion
(00:43):
sixty four. Today we talk about not just one of
those British Invasion bands, this is the British invasion band,
the Beatles. The book is titled The Color of Your Dreams,
Some Days in the Lives of the Beatles, which examines
a time in the history of the Beatles that has
often not been fully surveyed. And we're gonna do that today.
It's good to see again, Jane. How you doing great?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Sing you Eric, I'm doing good. How about yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I am doing great. This is an interesting story. There's
so many things I want to ask you about, and
we were just chatting a little bit about this before
we started recording. So let's get to this. This story
begins around this time in nineteen sixty six. We're recording
this September the third, It was late August of sixty six,
to be exact. And the words from George Harrison to
(01:27):
his bandmates are that's it. I'm not a Beatle anymore.
Is he kidding? Is he serious? Take us back to
that moment and where the Beatles are at, the rumors
that are swirling the band's demise. A lot is going on,
So take us back to where they're at at that point.
And if George was just saying this and jest, he was.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Almost certainly saying it as a joke. But like a
lot of jokes, there's a kernel of truth to it.
And even though it was probably unspoken by the Beatles,
I think they probably all felt deep down since they
made the decision then for the foreseable future and perhaps forever,
they weren't going to tour anymore. And we've got to
remember now that at that time, major bands had to
(02:10):
tour the only major artist who wasn't touring was Elvis President,
but he was making movies. If you weren't touring, what
were you doing? You're making records? But records were designed
to get people to buy tickets for your live shows.
And since the Beatles were going to tour, even they
had to ask themselves, well, are we still going to
be the band we once were? And they were going
(02:31):
into the great unknown, and a lot of people thought, well,
this is it. You can't possibly last if you're not
going to have that minding unity of being on the road,
And there could be some truth to that as well.
It took a couple of years, but we definitely saw
a shift the dynamics of the Beatles from when they
finished that last tour in August of sixty six and
what came afterwards. They were four different men and they
(02:54):
were a very different band.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Money to be made from albums didn't happen until maybe
late sixties early seventies. Them rock radio started to take off.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and certainly big artists like the Beatles made some money,
but let's remember they were making pennies, maybe less than
ten cents on every record being sold. The record companies
were making millions, but it was in live shows that
they made their real money, and John and Paul were
making good money from their songwriting royalties. But as far
as record sales go, nobody was going to be living
(03:24):
the life of a multimillionaire unless they were selling an
awful lot of records.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Boy sounds a lot like today with streaming services.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, sadly come right back.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Around full circle. The Beatles weren't happy with Brian Epstein,
their manager at this point. They felt there was no
need for him anymore and they were ready to confront
him with this, but he's ailing physically and mentally. To
talk about that, and where they're at with Brian Epstein, well, I.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Don't believe the Beatles are ready to sack Brian. They
trusted him, they loved him, he was one of them.
But they were definitely frustrated, and not just with him,
with a lot of others ccumstances. And they were so
used to Brian taking care of things for them that
when something would happen, they'd be angry that Brian hadn't
taken care of it. But he couldn't possibly protect them
(04:09):
from everything happening in the world. But yes, he believed
that he was very much hanging by a very slender
thread with them, and it caused him incredible anguish, not
helped by the fact that he was getting deeper involved
into drugs at that time. So it was a sad
time for Brian and he put himself through a lot
(04:30):
of emotional torment that probably could have been relieved if
the Beatles simply told him, Brian, we love you and
we're not going to let you go. But it didn't
occur to any of them to say that, so Brian
was left to tell a story in his own head
about what was happening, and it wasn't a very happy story.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
This is fascinating to me in terms of the influence
on Sergeant Pepper's because it's not talked about a lot.
I've heard it before, I've read about it before. But
the influence that Wilson had with that album Pet Sounds
by the Beach Boys that lit a fire under John
(05:06):
and Paul. That's one of those what if if that
album doesn't come out, what becomes of the next Beatles
album after Revolver because they heard Pet Sounds while they're
recording Revolver?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Correct, Yes, yeah, they were in the tail end of
recording Revolver, and what's interesting is Paul's reaction to it.
In particular, it remains his favorite album of all time.
But it so stunned him that even after the Beatles
finished Revolver, and it was at the printing plant and
they were printing out millions of copies of it the
ship around the world, he told the other Beatles, we
(05:39):
have to recall that album. We can't put it out.
It is not good enough. It is not as good
as pet sounds. And John George Ringo had to talk
him down. They said, trust us, it's a great album.
It's going to be fine. And when Paul first heard
god only knows, that is what really fired him up
to make Sergeant Pepper the greatest thing the Beatles had
ever done. He said, that song reveals what rock and
(06:04):
roll can be, and I want to be a part
of that.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And on November twenty fourth of nineteen sixty six, Paul
and John met with producer George Martin and a song
that John brought to George's attention was titled It's Not
Too Bad. It was still a work in progress, but
eventually became Strawberry Fields Forever. Talk about the intense recording
process they went through to get this song just right
and how it would embody the Beatles and what they
(06:29):
had hoped to accomplish what was now their post live
touring period.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, it's interesting, ordinarily, because the Beatles were under such
a time crunch to get their albums done because they
were constantly touring, and they would literally have days to
work in the studio and then get back on the road.
So the four of them would essentially come together in
the studio, John or Paul would introduce a new song
to them, the four of them would hash it out,
and usually by day's end they pretty much have the
song the basics worked out. But now that they had
(06:57):
unlimited time indulging in trying different ideas for the song,
he can never quite figure out exactly how he wanted
it to sound. George Martin, in his own mind, heard
it as a sequel of sorts to In My Life,
so he wanted to go in that softer direction, but
the other band members kind of worked up a more
rocking tune for it, and they recorded a couple versions
(07:19):
of that, and they went through take after take, and
eventually John came to George Martin and He said, I
really liked the first half of this one take we did.
I love the second half of this other take, so
I would like you to put them together and make
that the song. And Martin said, well, that's great, except
they're different tempos and different keys. And John never had
(07:44):
a good technical sense of the studio. He believed if
he can imagine it, it could be done. And he
just kind of smiled at George Martin and said, yeah,
but you could do it, George, can't you? And George said,
you know, I think I can. And the result is
an incredible piece of artistry, not just musically but just technically.
I mean, they that song, I think really introduces the
(08:06):
recording studio as an instrument in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Now let's get into the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album.
So the first song you cover in the book is
and You Go in order, I think as they're recorded.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
An order of recording is not an order of songs
as they appear on the album. Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So the first song you cover is one that Paul
McCartney had started writing as a teenager, and that was
when I'm sixty four.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Even before Paul met John he was interested in a
career in music, and he thought, well, maybe I could sing,
but I could also maybe write songs for people. And
he liked all sorts of music and one of the
things he liked was the old English music hall and
he started playing around with these lyrics. And this is
at the time his mother was diagnosed with cancer, which
(08:49):
sadly took her life. And he kind of poured his
emotions into writing this song, not so much in terms
of the lyrics, but in this incredible desire to create
this enty of music for himself and you know what
he's going to do with it. And as you mentioned,
they would play it on stage in their early career
when they play some of the dingy halls in Liverpool,
(09:09):
and they'd blow the fuse and the power would go out.
While they're changing fuses, Paul would go to the piano
and just start banging this out just to kill time.
And when they met to do Sergeant Pepper, George Martin
was concerned because ordinarily John and Paul would come in
with six, seven eight new songs and say here's what
we're working on. They both came in and you know,
(09:30):
John's like, well, I'm kind of working on this one song,
which turned out to be Starvey Fields Forever, but it's
not anywhere near done yet, and Paul's like, yeah, I
haven't written anything, but you know what, I got my
old school notebook from when I was in grade school,
and I'll see what I've got in there, and he
found this song and he said, yeah, let's do this.
(09:50):
And it's important to point out that later on in
his career, John would kind of slam Paul for what
he called his granny music, and he would kind of
slag off on songs like when I'm sixty four, but
John was perfectly fine with it. When they started the
Sergeant Pepper sessions. In fact, John helped contribute lyrics to it.
He came up with the names of Vera, Chuck, and
(10:11):
Dave for the grandkids. Oh okay, so he has fingerprints
on that song well.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
With the rumors of the Beatles breakup, EMI wanted to
release a single to ease fans worries, and the decision
was to release a double A side with Strawberry Fields
on one side and When I'm sixty four on the other.
The group didn't want that. Why was that? And what
ends up in its place?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, the group saw these tunes as being part of
the whole of the new album they were making, and
they weren't really interested in doing singles at that point
in time. They felt albums would elevate them as artists
and show that they were more mature now. But EMI
was and Capitol in the US were very adamant, and
if the Beatles hadn't have agreed to something, chances are
(10:51):
the labels would have gone back and pulled something off
a revolver, which the Beatles didn't want them to do,
because as far as they were concerned, that was the
past already, you know, it was like six months earlier.
But they were like, that's not us anymore. And they said, well, obviously,
when I'm sixty four isn't any side material. But Strawberry
(11:12):
Fields is maybe a little too bizarre to go out
on its own as an A side, And Paul said, well,
I'm working on something. Maybe we could put something together
with that and see if that works, and that ultimately
was Penny Lane and Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields both
came out as a double A side, the first time
that I'd ever been done in rock and roll, and.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
They both have similarities in terms of the song theme.
It's going back to childhood days, right, Strawberry Fields Forever,
Penny Lane. Penny Lane is an actual name of a
street where Paul grew up.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well, it goes back to the Liverpool days. It wasn't
the street where Paul grew up on. When Paul would
take the bus to John's house or vice versa, they'd
have to do a transfer on Penny Lane. So they
were all familiar with that inner in Liverpool. And as
a matter of fact, the barber shop that's there was
where John, Paul and George all got their haircut as children.
(12:08):
There is a firehouse there, there's a bank, so it's
really slice of life. When John originally wrote his original
lyrics with Strawberry Fields Forever was more of a travelog.
He's like, here's Strawberry Fields, here's the street I walk
on to get there. Here's the park across the street
from Strawberry Fields. And then he later went back and
made a little more Alice in Wonderland psychedelic. Paul was
(12:34):
initially thinking about, well, I'm going to write a song
about how I felt at that age, and he didn't
really care for how the lyrics were turning out, so
then he got a little more surreal as well. The
song diverts. It seems like a very straightforward song, but
it isn't. If you listen to the lyrics, you know
it's summer here, but then suddenly it's winter. You know,
there's all kinds of dichotomy going on in there. It's
(12:56):
a very interesting song.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The next song from Sergeant Pepper's that you cover in
the book is one of the most iconic of all
Beatles songs. A Day in the Life, initially titled in
the Life of the Inspiration begins when John is reading
London's Daily Mail. This stood up some emotions within him.
What was the story he was reading and what were
the other things that he drew on to help complete
the song's lyrics.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Tarah Brown was the heir to the Guinness fortune, and
he was a very good friend of the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones and moved in their circles. In fact,
the first time Paul McCartney took LSD, he took it
with Tara Brown and Tara unfortunately only sixty six, was
killed in an auto accident. He swove to avoid a
truck that had gotten into his lane, he was killed.
(13:39):
His passenger, his girlfriend survived, and John was ready distraught
over his death. You know, John was still a young
man and he hadn't seen that much death other than
his mother and a few other people, as is not uncommon.
But they have a close friend like that dies, so
tragically it stayed with him, and the papers were full
of ongoing stories about the inquest and the autopsy and
(14:01):
the funeral. The Beatles want to go to the funeral, but
they knew it would turn it into a media circus if
they did, so they stayed home and John was reading
this article about the latest developments and what was happening
with his estate, and it just inspired him to do
a song that was more slice of life, not just
(14:22):
the story of his dead friend. But he wanted to
make it sort of a recorded version of a newspaper,
to have various different stories pop up in the narrative
of the song. So he just literally started flipping through
the newspaper and picking random stories and said, Okay, I'm
going to write about this now.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And when they recorded the basic track, they left a
twenty four bar break between the end of John's first
segment and the start of Paul's interlude, and they didn't
know right away what they wanted to do there and
what they wanted to put in there. Several weeks go by,
then the idea comes up for an orchestra interlude, but
it wasn't an actual orchestra.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Well, it wasn't a full orchestra. The Beatles originally wanted
a full ninety piece orchestra, and George Martin, who was
always keeping an eye on the budget, said you know,
how about we just get forty pieces and I record
them twice. And they thought, well, that'll work, that'll be fine.
And it was Paul who came out the idea of
let's have each instrument go from its lowest to highest notes,
(15:20):
but get there in their own time, in their own pace,
however the musician wants to do it to create this
cacophony that is technically music obviously, but it's also apocalyptic.
It's like something deep within the recesses of your mind.
And when the Beatles originally created that empty space in
(15:40):
the song, they had no idea what they were going
to put in there. They figured at some point they'll
think of something. And whoever had the original idea of
having an orchestra. Kudos to them, because that was it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Podcasts will be back after this. Geen Pope is the
author of The Color of Your Dreams. Some Days in
the Lives of the Beatles and You're write in the
book quote. The question of how to conclude a day
in the life had been a nagging one, but at
last the Beatles believed they had come up with an
(16:13):
acceptable solution. They would spend much of the session on
February the twenty second recording a single solitary note. So
let's talk about that ending to the song.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, first of all, when they recorded that orchestral piece
and the ending, they did something very unique. The Beatles
tended to work in privacy in the studio. They didn't
like to be bothered. But on the night they did
this recording, they had a party in the studio. They
invite a lot of their friends like Mick Jagger and
Brian Jones and Mike Nesmith of the Monkeys was there,
(16:44):
and they had the orchestra members all wear their formal wear,
but then they also had to wear party hats and
rubber noses and animal pod gloves because they wanted a
festive atmosphere. The entire room was bathed and multicolors, and
they recorded the instrumentation, and then somebody said, well, how
(17:05):
do we end this? And the suggestion the first on
was let's get everybody who was in here around a
microphone and we'll all hum at the same time. And
they tried that, and I wish that still existed. I
don't think it does because I've not come across it anywhere,
but they scrapped that idea immediately after.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
That would have been cool.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, But then somebody decided, let's get some pianos and
let's all hit the same note at the same time,
and as it's playing out, crank up all the microphones
to pick up every sound, and then carry that all
the way through to the point where at the very
end you could hear the ductwork system in the MII studio.
(17:46):
You got really good headphones and you crank it up
you could hear it rumbling in the background. And at
the very end of that, John asked to insert a
single note that's audible only to dogs.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Wow. Alright, putting you to the test, how long is
that ending? Is there an exact.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh gosh, I think it's in the range of twenty
odd seconds.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Wow? See. I wonder how many radio stations actually let
that play out at the end, you know, because I
you know, it's it's it's a very long ending, and
it's like, what are we going to do here? And
I know, once becomes dead air, it becomes dead air.
And in my radio days, that was the thing they
and this is the songs that they would upload into
the system and so they would just queue up the
(18:30):
next song automatically on the computer and they could not
let it go that long because it was just this
feeling of like, what are is the listener just going
to go nuts? Here?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Listens? You know. I want to mention Sergeant Pepper was
almost a very different album. The initial plan was A,
it was going to be the soundtrack for their third movie,
whatever that movie was going to be, and B they
were going to record it at Stack Studios in Memphis, Tennessee,
and they wanted a grittier soul sound. So if you
(19:01):
can imagine, wow, that album sixty seven, you know, being
like a good, gut wrenching rock and roll album with
the Memphis horns in the background and right, and ultimately
you know, they went a different direction, but it could
have been a very different thing.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Do we know why they went into a different direction
and didn't go to Memphis.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I think the spile the talk about going to Memphis.
They liked the familiarity of VMI was it was easy
for them. They had almost gone to Memphis to record Revolver.
They had actually booked Stax Studios, but then there was
a bit of a kerfuffle with Stacks and the Beatles
already started recording at EMI, so they're like, well, we'll
save it for the next album, which again was supposed
(19:44):
to be the soundtrack.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
The Fascinating History of the Beatles, the story behind the
album and the song title Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This involves the band's Roady mal Evins and an offhanded
remark about Salt and Pepper.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah. In the break between the end of touring and
the start of the recording, the four Beatles went off
and actually lived separate lives for a month or two,
something they hadn't done in their adult lives. And one
of the things Paul did was he went to Kenya
and he had Mel joined him and on the flight
back to Britain they were being served their meal and
(20:22):
previous to that when you would get your tray back
in the gloriades of airline travel, you know, you get
the salt and pepper shakers and you know linnen napkins
and cutlery, except now they didn't have the salt and
pepper shakers. They just had these little packets and there
was an S and P on them. And mel openly said, well,
what does this mean? And then he thought of I said, oh,
(20:43):
salt and pepper, And he and Paul like to do
word games with each other, so it's they kind of
turned salt and pepper and calling it well past the
sogeant Pepper and Paul was already kicking around the idea
of doing their next album. They would be the Beatles,
but they wouldn't be the Beatles. They would advertise as
a Beatles album, but they would go into the studio
(21:03):
thinking stop thinking like Beatles, We're going to be somebody
different now. And his idea was we're going to be
searching Pepper's band, and the Beatles thought, well, that's a
good idea, is.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Any did you read the book on Mel Evin's by
Kenneth Womeck.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I've got it. I'm about to start it. I have
not read it. But everything I've heard about it is
it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
It's a phenomenal book. And he was on this show
to talk about that book. I can't remember which episode
it is, but if people want to listen to it,
you can go to bookd on rock dot com and
and search for it there. But yeah, what a story.
The Roady guy was just working at a regular nine
to five job. He was a bodyguard, or he worked
a door at the at the Cavern Club and they
(21:43):
needed a ride to a gig and the person that
normally gave him a ride was six, So they said, hey, Mal,
do you want to drive us? And that was it
became the Roady and contributed to the songs over time
and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Now he should get a movie.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh, he should get a movie. You could base it
on that book. The tragic ending, very sad, but what
a fascinating story. Fixing a hole. Critics and fans would
say it was about heroin addiction. What is Paul writing about?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Well, at the time Paul insisted it was he was
literally fixing a hole in the new farm he had
bought in Scotland. He had a that roof and he
said there was a hole and I had to fix it.
Paul later admitted he said, well, actually it was a
result of my use of LSD. He said, I was
having a trip and I saw a tiny hole form
in the air that was a glimpse to a different reality,
(22:35):
and only I could see it, and I realized, you know,
I've got to repair this. I can't have this just
hanging in the air. I have to fix this hole.
And Paul can take anything and make a song off
of it, and.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So there is some deep meaning to it. But it
started out as just something simple, but then he saw
it as something deeper.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah. I think there are some deep moments in the lyrics,
but they're also just sort of like, don't read too
much into what I'm writing in this part. It's just words.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, and good luck with that. Fans right into everything
they did. George's contribution to the album is within You
Without You, and there was another song that he brought
to the table, but it wasn't using. It was called
only a Northern song within You Without You. Inspired by
an evening George spent with German artist, musician and record
(23:24):
producer Klaus Vorman. What were they discussing?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
They were discussing life literally, and they were both very
interested in Eastern philosophy. George and to a degree Ringo
afterwards felt that they weren't really a part of the
Sergeant Pepper sessions. They felt that there were more like
session men. To John and Paul, that was really their album,
(23:48):
and George admitted he said part of that problem was
he had just come back from India. He had gone
there for the first time and it had transformed him
and he was no longer really interested in being a
pop star. He didn't pick up his guitar for weeks
and weeks before the session started, he was just practicing
the guitar and being a beatle really did interesting shades
(24:10):
of his remark after the tour, I'm not a beatle anymore.
He kind of was disengaging, and John and Paul were
concerned about this because, you know, George had just had
three great songs on Revolver, and they thought the very
least he was going to bring in a couple more
for this album. But week after week went by and
George wasn't contributing anything, and he played the guitar parts
(24:31):
they asked for, he wasn't really getting deeply involved in
the nuts and bolts of arranging the music as he
had in the past, and finally John and Paul said,
bring us something. We want to record one of your songs.
So George brought in a song called only a Northern Song,
which not a bad song later shows up in the
Yellow Submarine soundtrack, but he recorded He wrote it on
(24:55):
an organ, so it has a very Dirge like sound,
and the Beatles went through their paces and recorded, you know,
multiple takes of it, but they weren't really satisfied with it,
and John and Paul asked George Martin to tell George
you can do better, and George agreed. He said, you
know what, You're right, let's shelve Only a Northern Song
(25:15):
for now. And a few weeks later he came in
Within You, Without You, and it was very philosophical. Of course,
is full of Indian instrumentation. It really stands out from
the rest of the album, but it's very much of
the feeling of that album, that universal feeling. It's a
divisive song for some people. Some people are like, it's
(25:37):
not one of my favorite George songs and it's not
my favorite song on the album. On the other hand,
not only was it John's favorite song on the album?
He said it was his favorite George song period. He
loved it, and he said he regretted that he didn't
get to play on it because it was all indiding musicians.
George said, well, you know, I'm going to bring one
song in and I'm going to make it a good one.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Was John the biggest supporter of George in terms of songwriting?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I would say John and Paul were both strongly encouraging George.
George Martin had said later on he said he felt
sorry that he wasn't more supportive of George. John and
Paul tended to treat George as their kid brother because
he was younger, and it was very much John and
Paul making a lot of the decisions for the band,
(26:20):
and so they didn't always pay that much attention to
George or give his music that much attention. But he'd
certainly impressed them with the tracks he brought to Revolver,
and they realized he was really blossoming as a songwriter,
and yeah, John and Paul would encourage him, but also
John and Paul would be more interested in recording their
own music than George's sometimes, so it was back and forth, and.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Isn't it true? The interesting piece of Beatles trivia isn't
George the first to have a number one album after
the Beatles broke up as a solo artist if you don't.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Count Paul's first album McCartney as having come out before
they broke up, because that did go to number one,
but as soon as the band was officially public split, Yes,
George went to number one. First number one single, first
number one album, All.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Things Must Pass. Yes, Booked on Rock Podcasts. We'll be
back after this.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I've seen the fits.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know what it is.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's a forty seven year old version sitting and run
of his base. But Joma is preaking a banana Brocolu
shakes thing, and I'm an Oscar Mayer Weiner.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Find the Bookdon Rock website at booked on rock dot com.
There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
the latest episode in video and audio, links to all
of the platforms where you can listen to the podcast,
plus all the social media platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
and x. Also check out the Booked on Rock blog.
Find your local independent bookstore. Find out all the latest
(27:42):
hot rockbook releases, and before you go, check out the
booked on Rock online store, pick up some booked on
Rock merch. It's all at booked on rock dot com.
Mister kite. John was inspired to write this after a
visit to an antique shop.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, he loved buying little antique do dads anything that
was really strange. And this was a poster from a
trained horse performance from the eighteen thirties.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I believe I think you have in the book a
circus poster from eighteen forty.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Three eighteen forty eight. And literally, John said, all the
lyrics are on the poster. I just had to assemble
him in the proper order. The only thing that really
changed was the name of the horse. He said, whatever.
I forget what their name was, but it was a
little strange, he said, I couldn't make it fit, so
it became Henry the Horse.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah. This is while they're filming the promo for Strawberry
Fields Forever that he in between takes.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
John wandered off and walked into this antique store.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Now here's an example of the new studio only beatles, right,
I mean, this is where they get creative. John had
wanted an old fashioned steam organ to be played during
a break in the song, but there weren't any available
on short notice.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What was done instead, George Martin got very creative. He
took a bunch of John Phillips Suza recordings on tape
and he them up into tiny pieces and threw them
up in the air wherever they landed. You pick them
up one a time and glue them all together, and
that became the caliope break in the song. As Martin
(29:12):
said at the time, said it can never be recreated.
Of course, these days with computers you could do anything.
But it's just showing how the Beatles would take take risks.
This wasn't the sort of thing that was really approved
of by em I, but they could take something as
simple as just an old John and Phillips SUSA March
(29:33):
and say let's let's reinvent this for our own use
and it created, you know, just an incredible soundcollage.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
How long did it take the normal Beatles album to
record prior to them coming off of the road.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well, they're very first album, please please me. They did
in nine hours.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Wow, that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Uh. They they had one day off between concerts and
John had a very sore Threa wrote, and he powered
through and they went back on the road. From that
point on, they tended to work in blocks of time
in between concert dates. They might get three, four or
five days in the studio, then they're gone for two
weeks and they come back with Revolver. They had a
(30:17):
largely uninterrupted span of time, but it was still fairly
short because they had to kick off their world tour
in the summer of sixty six, so they basically had
about two months time, which these days is nothing. Right
back then, that was almost luxurious.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Plus they're well rested, you know, they're not when they're
when they're recording it between gigs. I would think they're
burned out, tired. And yet, as we know, it didn't
affect the music. I mean, those albums are all brilliant too,
But just the fact that they had this time to
create these songs like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
and here we go, going back to reading into lyrics again, right,
so you write quote. A great debate began raging from
(30:54):
the moment of the song's release in nineteen sixty seven
about whether the lyrics that John wrote inspired by his
son's art were a drug song or not. So who
or what is this song about?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
There's no reason it can't be both. John had been
looking to write a song about his LSD experience and
Julian came in with a drawing of his schoolmate Lucy
in the sky with diamonds, and John liked the sound
of that and realized, oh, that's LSD. Well, let's go
ahead and write that song I wanted to do. So
it's very much a drug song, but it is also
(31:28):
inspired by Julian's art.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
With Little Help from my Friends is one that came
out of the intent to get a song for Ringo
to sing on the On the album, Ringo liked what
John and Paul had written, but there was one line
he refused to sing. What was the line and what
was it changed to?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well, the original line was will you stand up and
throw tomatoes at me? And tomato is the English pronunciation,
and Ringo remembered how several years earlier they had mentioned
in an interview that oh, we love jelly babies, which
in England are very soft jelly beans. In the US
they're harder, and unfortunately, when they would tour in the US,
(32:06):
American fans would throw hard jelly beans at them on stage.
Ringo said they would hit like hail. So he said,
I'm not giving you any ideas should we ever go
back on the road to throw tomatoes at me? So
we're taking that line out of the song. So it
became will you stand up and walk out on me?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
That's a much better choice, don't you think us? Yes,
so many stories regarding the album cover. Emi was worried
about potential lawsuits and refused to print the covers unless
the Beatles got written permission from every single celebrity on it,
which I believe is fifty nine total, Yes, fifty nine.
(32:45):
So Brian Epstein went right to work on that first.
Who came up with the concept, what was their vision
for it? And I'm just curious, what's the most interesting
story or piece of trivia about that cover for you personally,
because there are so many Well.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Originally Paul's idea, and this is very much Paul's album
in this regard. He had a vision of the packaging
and he said, well, we're going to have these customized uniforms,
so we look like we're a nineteenth century military band,
and we'll pose in the front and like this Deraga
type cip A tone picture where we're standing there and
there's a loving cup that we've just received and we're
(33:20):
holding our brass instruments. And a friend of theirs said,
you know what this album is like a celebration. The
cover should be the same. You should show the world
celebrating your accomplishment. So then they became the Beatles would
turn and face the cameras that they've just finished their
(33:40):
performance and the audience is standing behind them, and the
audience is just completely populated with well known people from
past and present, and you know, the Beatles were invited
to submit names. Ringo said, whatever the other three come
up with, it's fine with me. George submitted the names
(34:01):
of a couple of Indian mystics because you're getting interested
in Eastern philosophy. So John and Paul basically selected the rest.
One of the most interesting would be We'rechi. Gandhi was
on the list, but e am I nixt to that
because they said we don't want any trouble in India.
He said that that will offend a number of people there,
(34:22):
so that he was removed. Also, Jesus Christ was to
be on there and for the same reasons and capital said, oh, no,
you would not put him on.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
The especially there more popular than Jesus Kind.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, they just come through that they needed to repeat
that experience. And John really wanted Hitler, not because he
admired that one, but he's like, it's audacious and I
want to do it. And I believe Hitler's there, but
he's been hidden behind the Beatles. You can't see him really. Yeah,
(34:56):
and no, they did not bother to get permission from
his estates since he was not visible, right, you know,
they had to rush out these letters to everybody either
who was still living or their estates and said will
you please let us use their picture? And the only
one who said no initially was Maywest because she said, well,
(35:19):
what are you doing in a lonely hearts club? And
the all four Beatles wrote her a personal letter and
said please, we love you, we love your films, Please
be on our cover and she said, well, how can
I say no to that? Yeah, And the only one
who was featured on the cover who was airbrushed out
was Leo Gorci or the Bowery Boys, because when he
(35:40):
was contacted he said, sure he could use my picture,
but you have to pay me, and he was the
only one who asked for money, so they said, well,
we're not paying anybody for this, see you later. Yeah.
So there's a next to his cohort hunts Hall. There's
a blank space in the back row, and that was
leol Gorsey.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I love the May West one because that's old school Hollywood,
always thinking about your image. Right, Yeah, that's the actress
famous for come up and see me sometimes. You know,
she was always you know, she got all the guys.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
She was never lonely.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
That's a great story. So following the albums, May of
sixty seven, released the Beatles record and release All You
Need Is Love in July of sixty seven. Clear message
to the world that love is everything. And you're right
about how By the summer of nineteen sixty seven, the
Beatles were at the apex of the mountaintop, a mountain
so towering no one had ever glimpsed this summit before.
(36:33):
But we know they still had some more creative energy
to release. And this is the most important era of
Beatles history, between the end of touring nineteen sixty six
and the summer of nineteen sixty seven. Right, I mean,
do you agree, I.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Think absolutely so, And there's a hard dividing line between
the Beatles as they initially were the mop tops, and
then they give up touring and they move away from
what they had been. You know, they all change their hairstyles,
they grow mustache, they become very different looking men. And
John actually he told me points is that I don't
want to be a mop top anymore. I'm done with it.
(37:07):
As far as he was concerning that with childhood, he
was an adult now. And it's important to remember we
tend to think of rock and roll now as a
lofty artistic endeavor. There's classic albums and people who even
aren't necessarily fans of rock will say, oh, yes, I
mean that album is just everyone knows that album. It's
a fantastic record. Rock and roll was garbage music up
(37:30):
to that point, Serious reminded people didn't pay it any attention.
Pepper changed that. The New York Times, the Times of London,
classical music critics were falling over themselves praising this record.
They're like, whatever you thought rock and roll was, forget
it and listen to this album because it's going to
(37:51):
change how you think things.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
The rapid change creatively for the Beatles, it's still mind blowing,
and it.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Makes you want wonder if that change would have been
accelerated if they hadn't had to focus so much of
their attention on touring for so long, if that was
building up inside of them and it had no outlet
until finally they were like, we could pursue our dreams
in the studio. Now we don't have to rush out
an album because we got to hit the road.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Kept the band together, I think for a little bit more,
because maybe they would have called the quits if they
didn't have that inspiration to create something together the way
they did.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
You know, writing this, I've kind of come around to
the idea that, you know, if you ask somebody, well,
when did the Beatles break up, you'd say, well, April
of nineteen seventy when Paul quit, although he didn't really quit.
That's just how it was interpreted. People who know a
little bit more will say, well, September sixty nine when
John secretly quit the band and it was done with them.
I would kind of argue that after the end of
(38:45):
touring in sixty six, if not a complete breakup, it
was a transformation and they became, as George would later complain,
you know, John and Paul and then he and Ringo
would just kind of be the guys they would call
in to play parts. He felt they had lost a
sense of camaraderie, that they weren't the unit they had
(39:05):
been before, and it allowed them to create some critical music,
but it also kind of set them on their four
different ways. So I think even without some of the
things that had happened, that had I think really made
the breakup more painful for them. I think by nineteen
seventy or so, the four Beatles who have been like,
it's time to not be a unit anymore. We need
(39:27):
to be our own men.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Booked on Rock podcasts, We'll be back after this.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Can we go now? Please people, A good plan today
is better than perfect plan tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Hey guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
and make sure you tell a friend, a family member,
share on social media and let people know about Booked
on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
sure you subscribe give a five star review. Wherever you
listen to the bo Dun Rock podcast. We're on Amazon Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
(40:04):
tune in in on YouTube music. You can check out
the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
to the show before I let you go, Gene, what
is the latest on these films? There's supposed to be
four separate films on each of the members. What do
(40:27):
you know about this? What's the latest?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Well, it's an interesting idea. They're doing four different films
focusing on each of the four Beatles. They haven't really
announced the subject matter. There's lots of rumors. Certainly it'll
cover their very earliest years. As to whether it'll move
beyond that and go deeper into their careers, we're not
really sure yet. They have unveiled the four actors playing
(40:51):
the Beatles, and there's been a lot of complaints on people.
They're saying, well, they don't really look like the Beatles,
but I don't know that's necessarily a bad thing. It's
not so much being a dead ringer for each of
the Beatles as it is capturing what we know to
be the Beatles. If they could get that persona and
really bring us in that way. Then I won't mind
(41:11):
if you know, the screen Ringo doesn't look like the
real Ringo.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
So are they unknowns?
Speaker 2 (41:16):
These actors unknown to me at least. They all seem
to be fairly young actors and not well known.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
What's do is it Disney?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
That's a good question. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't
be surprised if this Disney, because they're getting very deep into.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
The Beatle things these days, right, yeah, exactly, So we
don't know when they're coming out.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
They they haven't even be done filming yet. They're still
working on scripts, and like anything once, you know, until
it's finally finished, you can't say for certain it's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, if it does, they'll get ready for yet another
wave of Beatlemania, the other generation of fans that start listening,
you know, to their music. And I'll tell you that
reminds me. I went to the movies recently. This is
three four weeks ago, and I'm buying some popcord and
soda and there's this young girl behind the counter working there.
(42:09):
She must have been eighteen, nineteen twenty, and I was
wearing my yellow submarine shirt and she goes, oh, I
like that shirt. I said, oh, cool, you like the Beatles.
She goes yeah, yeah, and she goes and I just
saw that movie recently. Now I'm thinking, young person, probably
we got to be talking about the Disney Let it
be documentary. So you're talking about the one on Disney.
(42:32):
She goes, no, no, yellow subm read I saw the movie
from the sixties. I was like, right on, man, you know.
I was like, yeah, cool. So their music does transcend generations,
It's not I'm their music will will go on forever.
I think that's pretty safe to us.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I like the joke that we're all born in our
DNA knowing all the Beatles'.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Music exactly the color of your dreams some days in
the lives of the Beatles. If you want to read
a great story about an amazing time in Beatles' history,
this is the book. It's out now, it's been out
for a little while. You can find it wherever books
are sold Amazon, all the usable places. Your nearest bookstore.
You can find your nearest independent bookstore at bookdown rock
dot com and gene People can find you online where.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
You can look for me at gene Ploba. Author on Facebook.
That's usually the best way to find me, and you know,
discover me through my words. I have several books out.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
There, so yeah, you got any projects you're working on
right now? Beatles related.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I'm in the process of writing the last third of
a new book about entertainment in World War Two designed
to boost American morale. Wow.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Interesting, okay, because you've.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Written before the US could really get heavily involved in combat,
so in order to keep the American public motivated, you
had movies and songs and comic books, all of which
were designed to get people's patriotic spirit fired up.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Interesting because you've written other books outside of the music arena.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
My first book was about Kerry Grant.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, that's right. Another fascinating guy. Geane Popa. Thanks so much.
It's great to have you on. Hey, maybe we'll have
you back on someday. You got other music books you
want to talk about? You know, you have an open invite.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I would love to be back. Thanks, Eric. That's it,
It's in the books.
On this episode of Book Don Rock. The end of
summer nineteen sixty six, it marked the end of the
road for the Beatles, but the beginning of something brand
new and revolutionary. A look back at the Fab four's
most creative period with author Gene Polpa. We're totally booked
rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I mean, I'll leave you. You're reading. Little Hands says
it's time to rock and roll.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Rock band rout I totally booked. Welcome back to Book
Don Rock. It's the podcast for those about to read
and rock. I'm Eric Senach author Jene Pope, but he's
back on the podcast. He was last on the show
back in May to talk about his book British Invasion
(00:43):
sixty four. Today we talk about not just one of
those British Invasion bands, this is the British invasion band,
the Beatles. The book is titled The Color of Your Dreams,
Some Days in the Lives of the Beatles, which examines
a time in the history of the Beatles that has
often not been fully surveyed. And we're gonna do that today.
It's good to see again, Jane. How you doing great?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Sing you Eric, I'm doing good. How about yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I am doing great. This is an interesting story. There's
so many things I want to ask you about, and
we were just chatting a little bit about this before
we started recording. So let's get to this. This story
begins around this time in nineteen sixty six. We're recording
this September the third, It was late August of sixty six,
to be exact. And the words from George Harrison to
(01:27):
his bandmates are that's it. I'm not a Beatle anymore.
Is he kidding? Is he serious? Take us back to
that moment and where the Beatles are at, the rumors
that are swirling the band's demise. A lot is going on,
So take us back to where they're at at that point.
And if George was just saying this and jest, he was.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Almost certainly saying it as a joke. But like a
lot of jokes, there's a kernel of truth to it.
And even though it was probably unspoken by the Beatles,
I think they probably all felt deep down since they
made the decision then for the foreseable future and perhaps forever,
they weren't going to tour anymore. And we've got to
remember now that at that time, major bands had to
(02:10):
tour the only major artist who wasn't touring was Elvis President,
but he was making movies. If you weren't touring, what
were you doing? You're making records? But records were designed
to get people to buy tickets for your live shows.
And since the Beatles were going to tour, even they
had to ask themselves, well, are we still going to
be the band we once were? And they were going
(02:31):
into the great unknown, and a lot of people thought, well,
this is it. You can't possibly last if you're not
going to have that minding unity of being on the road,
And there could be some truth to that as well.
It took a couple of years, but we definitely saw
a shift the dynamics of the Beatles from when they
finished that last tour in August of sixty six and
what came afterwards. They were four different men and they
(02:54):
were a very different band.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Money to be made from albums didn't happen until maybe
late sixties early seventies. Them rock radio started to take off.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, and certainly big artists like the Beatles made some money,
but let's remember they were making pennies, maybe less than
ten cents on every record being sold. The record companies
were making millions, but it was in live shows that
they made their real money, and John and Paul were
making good money from their songwriting royalties. But as far
as record sales go, nobody was going to be living
(03:24):
the life of a multimillionaire unless they were selling an
awful lot of records.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Boy sounds a lot like today with streaming services.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, sadly come right back.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Around full circle. The Beatles weren't happy with Brian Epstein,
their manager at this point. They felt there was no
need for him anymore and they were ready to confront
him with this, but he's ailing physically and mentally. To
talk about that, and where they're at with Brian Epstein, well, I.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Don't believe the Beatles are ready to sack Brian. They
trusted him, they loved him, he was one of them.
But they were definitely frustrated, and not just with him,
with a lot of others ccumstances. And they were so
used to Brian taking care of things for them that
when something would happen, they'd be angry that Brian hadn't
taken care of it. But he couldn't possibly protect them
(04:09):
from everything happening in the world. But yes, he believed
that he was very much hanging by a very slender
thread with them, and it caused him incredible anguish, not
helped by the fact that he was getting deeper involved
into drugs at that time. So it was a sad
time for Brian and he put himself through a lot
(04:30):
of emotional torment that probably could have been relieved if
the Beatles simply told him, Brian, we love you and
we're not going to let you go. But it didn't
occur to any of them to say that, so Brian
was left to tell a story in his own head
about what was happening, and it wasn't a very happy story.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
This is fascinating to me in terms of the influence
on Sergeant Pepper's because it's not talked about a lot.
I've heard it before, I've read about it before. But
the influence that Wilson had with that album Pet Sounds
by the Beach Boys that lit a fire under John
(05:06):
and Paul. That's one of those what if if that
album doesn't come out, what becomes of the next Beatles
album after Revolver because they heard Pet Sounds while they're
recording Revolver?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Correct, Yes, yeah, they were in the tail end of
recording Revolver, and what's interesting is Paul's reaction to it.
In particular, it remains his favorite album of all time.
But it so stunned him that even after the Beatles
finished Revolver, and it was at the printing plant and
they were printing out millions of copies of it the
ship around the world, he told the other Beatles, we
(05:39):
have to recall that album. We can't put it out.
It is not good enough. It is not as good
as pet sounds. And John George Ringo had to talk
him down. They said, trust us, it's a great album.
It's going to be fine. And when Paul first heard
god only knows, that is what really fired him up
to make Sergeant Pepper the greatest thing the Beatles had
ever done. He said, that song reveals what rock and
(06:04):
roll can be, and I want to be a part
of that.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And on November twenty fourth of nineteen sixty six, Paul
and John met with producer George Martin and a song
that John brought to George's attention was titled It's Not
Too Bad. It was still a work in progress, but
eventually became Strawberry Fields Forever. Talk about the intense recording
process they went through to get this song just right
and how it would embody the Beatles and what they
(06:29):
had hoped to accomplish what was now their post live
touring period.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, it's interesting, ordinarily, because the Beatles were under such
a time crunch to get their albums done because they
were constantly touring, and they would literally have days to
work in the studio and then get back on the road.
So the four of them would essentially come together in
the studio, John or Paul would introduce a new song
to them, the four of them would hash it out,
and usually by day's end they pretty much have the
song the basics worked out. But now that they had
(06:57):
unlimited time indulging in trying different ideas for the song,
he can never quite figure out exactly how he wanted
it to sound. George Martin, in his own mind, heard
it as a sequel of sorts to In My Life,
so he wanted to go in that softer direction, but
the other band members kind of worked up a more
rocking tune for it, and they recorded a couple versions
(07:19):
of that, and they went through take after take, and
eventually John came to George Martin and He said, I
really liked the first half of this one take we did.
I love the second half of this other take, so
I would like you to put them together and make
that the song. And Martin said, well, that's great, except
they're different tempos and different keys. And John never had
(07:44):
a good technical sense of the studio. He believed if
he can imagine it, it could be done. And he
just kind of smiled at George Martin and said, yeah,
but you could do it, George, can't you? And George said,
you know, I think I can. And the result is
an incredible piece of artistry, not just musically but just technically.
I mean, they that song, I think really introduces the
(08:06):
recording studio as an instrument in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Now let's get into the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album.
So the first song you cover in the book is
and You Go in order, I think as they're recorded.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
An order of recording is not an order of songs
as they appear on the album. Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
So the first song you cover is one that Paul
McCartney had started writing as a teenager, and that was
when I'm sixty four.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Even before Paul met John he was interested in a
career in music, and he thought, well, maybe I could sing,
but I could also maybe write songs for people. And
he liked all sorts of music and one of the
things he liked was the old English music hall and
he started playing around with these lyrics. And this is
at the time his mother was diagnosed with cancer, which
(08:49):
sadly took her life. And he kind of poured his
emotions into writing this song, not so much in terms
of the lyrics, but in this incredible desire to create
this enty of music for himself and you know what
he's going to do with it. And as you mentioned,
they would play it on stage in their early career
when they play some of the dingy halls in Liverpool,
(09:09):
and they'd blow the fuse and the power would go out.
While they're changing fuses, Paul would go to the piano
and just start banging this out just to kill time.
And when they met to do Sergeant Pepper, George Martin
was concerned because ordinarily John and Paul would come in
with six, seven eight new songs and say here's what
we're working on. They both came in and you know,
(09:30):
John's like, well, I'm kind of working on this one song,
which turned out to be Starvey Fields Forever, but it's
not anywhere near done yet, and Paul's like, yeah, I
haven't written anything, but you know what, I got my
old school notebook from when I was in grade school,
and I'll see what I've got in there, and he
found this song and he said, yeah, let's do this.
(09:50):
And it's important to point out that later on in
his career, John would kind of slam Paul for what
he called his granny music, and he would kind of
slag off on songs like when I'm sixty four, but
John was perfectly fine with it. When they started the
Sergeant Pepper sessions. In fact, John helped contribute lyrics to it.
He came up with the names of Vera, Chuck, and
(10:11):
Dave for the grandkids. Oh okay, so he has fingerprints
on that song well.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
With the rumors of the Beatles breakup, EMI wanted to
release a single to ease fans worries, and the decision
was to release a double A side with Strawberry Fields
on one side and When I'm sixty four on the other.
The group didn't want that. Why was that? And what
ends up in its place?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, the group saw these tunes as being part of
the whole of the new album they were making, and
they weren't really interested in doing singles at that point
in time. They felt albums would elevate them as artists
and show that they were more mature now. But EMI
was and Capitol in the US were very adamant, and
if the Beatles hadn't have agreed to something, chances are
(10:51):
the labels would have gone back and pulled something off
a revolver, which the Beatles didn't want them to do,
because as far as they were concerned, that was the
past already, you know, it was like six months earlier.
But they were like, that's not us anymore. And they said, well, obviously,
when I'm sixty four isn't any side material. But Strawberry
(11:12):
Fields is maybe a little too bizarre to go out
on its own as an A side, And Paul said, well,
I'm working on something. Maybe we could put something together
with that and see if that works, and that ultimately
was Penny Lane and Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields both
came out as a double A side, the first time
that I'd ever been done in rock and roll, and.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
They both have similarities in terms of the song theme.
It's going back to childhood days, right, Strawberry Fields Forever,
Penny Lane. Penny Lane is an actual name of a
street where Paul grew up.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well, it goes back to the Liverpool days. It wasn't
the street where Paul grew up on. When Paul would
take the bus to John's house or vice versa, they'd
have to do a transfer on Penny Lane. So they
were all familiar with that inner in Liverpool. And as
a matter of fact, the barber shop that's there was
where John, Paul and George all got their haircut as children.
(12:08):
There is a firehouse there, there's a bank, so it's
really slice of life. When John originally wrote his original
lyrics with Strawberry Fields Forever was more of a travelog.
He's like, here's Strawberry Fields, here's the street I walk
on to get there. Here's the park across the street
from Strawberry Fields. And then he later went back and
made a little more Alice in Wonderland psychedelic. Paul was
(12:34):
initially thinking about, well, I'm going to write a song
about how I felt at that age, and he didn't
really care for how the lyrics were turning out, so
then he got a little more surreal as well. The
song diverts. It seems like a very straightforward song, but
it isn't. If you listen to the lyrics, you know
it's summer here, but then suddenly it's winter. You know,
there's all kinds of dichotomy going on in there. It's
(12:56):
a very interesting song.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The next song from Sergeant Pepper's that you cover in
the book is one of the most iconic of all
Beatles songs. A Day in the Life, initially titled in
the Life of the Inspiration begins when John is reading
London's Daily Mail. This stood up some emotions within him.
What was the story he was reading and what were
the other things that he drew on to help complete
the song's lyrics.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Tarah Brown was the heir to the Guinness fortune, and
he was a very good friend of the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones and moved in their circles. In fact,
the first time Paul McCartney took LSD, he took it
with Tara Brown and Tara unfortunately only sixty six, was
killed in an auto accident. He swove to avoid a
truck that had gotten into his lane, he was killed.
(13:39):
His passenger, his girlfriend survived, and John was ready distraught
over his death. You know, John was still a young
man and he hadn't seen that much death other than
his mother and a few other people, as is not uncommon.
But they have a close friend like that dies, so
tragically it stayed with him, and the papers were full
of ongoing stories about the inquest and the autopsy and
(14:01):
the funeral. The Beatles want to go to the funeral, but
they knew it would turn it into a media circus if
they did, so they stayed home and John was reading
this article about the latest developments and what was happening
with his estate, and it just inspired him to do
a song that was more slice of life, not just
(14:22):
the story of his dead friend. But he wanted to
make it sort of a recorded version of a newspaper,
to have various different stories pop up in the narrative
of the song. So he just literally started flipping through
the newspaper and picking random stories and said, Okay, I'm
going to write about this now.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And when they recorded the basic track, they left a
twenty four bar break between the end of John's first
segment and the start of Paul's interlude, and they didn't
know right away what they wanted to do there and
what they wanted to put in there. Several weeks go by,
then the idea comes up for an orchestra interlude, but
it wasn't an actual orchestra.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Well, it wasn't a full orchestra. The Beatles originally wanted
a full ninety piece orchestra, and George Martin, who was
always keeping an eye on the budget, said you know,
how about we just get forty pieces and I record
them twice. And they thought, well, that'll work, that'll be fine.
And it was Paul who came out the idea of
let's have each instrument go from its lowest to highest notes,
(15:20):
but get there in their own time, in their own pace,
however the musician wants to do it to create this
cacophony that is technically music obviously, but it's also apocalyptic.
It's like something deep within the recesses of your mind.
And when the Beatles originally created that empty space in
(15:40):
the song, they had no idea what they were going
to put in there. They figured at some point they'll
think of something. And whoever had the original idea of
having an orchestra. Kudos to them, because that was it.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Podcasts will be back after this. Geen Pope is the
author of The Color of Your Dreams. Some Days in
the Lives of the Beatles and You're write in the
book quote. The question of how to conclude a day
in the life had been a nagging one, but at
last the Beatles believed they had come up with an
(16:13):
acceptable solution. They would spend much of the session on
February the twenty second recording a single solitary note. So
let's talk about that ending to the song.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, first of all, when they recorded that orchestral piece
and the ending, they did something very unique. The Beatles
tended to work in privacy in the studio. They didn't
like to be bothered. But on the night they did
this recording, they had a party in the studio. They
invite a lot of their friends like Mick Jagger and
Brian Jones and Mike Nesmith of the Monkeys was there,
(16:44):
and they had the orchestra members all wear their formal wear,
but then they also had to wear party hats and
rubber noses and animal pod gloves because they wanted a
festive atmosphere. The entire room was bathed and multicolors, and
they recorded the instrumentation, and then somebody said, well, how
(17:05):
do we end this? And the suggestion the first on
was let's get everybody who was in here around a
microphone and we'll all hum at the same time. And
they tried that, and I wish that still existed. I
don't think it does because I've not come across it anywhere,
but they scrapped that idea immediately after.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
That would have been cool.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, But then somebody decided, let's get some pianos and
let's all hit the same note at the same time,
and as it's playing out, crank up all the microphones
to pick up every sound, and then carry that all
the way through to the point where at the very
end you could hear the ductwork system in the MII studio.
(17:46):
You got really good headphones and you crank it up
you could hear it rumbling in the background. And at
the very end of that, John asked to insert a
single note that's audible only to dogs.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Wow. Alright, putting you to the test, how long is
that ending? Is there an exact.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh gosh, I think it's in the range of twenty
odd seconds.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Wow? See. I wonder how many radio stations actually let
that play out at the end, you know, because I
you know, it's it's it's a very long ending, and
it's like, what are we going to do here? And
I know, once becomes dead air, it becomes dead air.
And in my radio days, that was the thing they
and this is the songs that they would upload into
the system and so they would just queue up the
(18:30):
next song automatically on the computer and they could not
let it go that long because it was just this
feeling of like, what are is the listener just going
to go nuts? Here?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Listens? You know. I want to mention Sergeant Pepper was
almost a very different album. The initial plan was A,
it was going to be the soundtrack for their third movie,
whatever that movie was going to be, and B they
were going to record it at Stack Studios in Memphis, Tennessee,
and they wanted a grittier soul sound. So if you
(19:01):
can imagine, wow, that album sixty seven, you know, being
like a good, gut wrenching rock and roll album with
the Memphis horns in the background and right, and ultimately
you know, they went a different direction, but it could
have been a very different thing.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Do we know why they went into a different direction
and didn't go to Memphis.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I think the spile the talk about going to Memphis.
They liked the familiarity of VMI was it was easy
for them. They had almost gone to Memphis to record Revolver.
They had actually booked Stax Studios, but then there was
a bit of a kerfuffle with Stacks and the Beatles
already started recording at EMI, so they're like, well, we'll
save it for the next album, which again was supposed
(19:44):
to be the soundtrack.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
The Fascinating History of the Beatles, the story behind the
album and the song title Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This involves the band's Roady mal Evins and an offhanded
remark about Salt and Pepper.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah. In the break between the end of touring and
the start of the recording, the four Beatles went off
and actually lived separate lives for a month or two,
something they hadn't done in their adult lives. And one
of the things Paul did was he went to Kenya
and he had Mel joined him and on the flight
back to Britain they were being served their meal and
(20:22):
previous to that when you would get your tray back
in the gloriades of airline travel, you know, you get
the salt and pepper shakers and you know linnen napkins
and cutlery, except now they didn't have the salt and
pepper shakers. They just had these little packets and there
was an S and P on them. And mel openly said, well,
what does this mean? And then he thought of I said, oh,
(20:43):
salt and pepper, And he and Paul like to do
word games with each other, so it's they kind of
turned salt and pepper and calling it well past the
sogeant Pepper and Paul was already kicking around the idea
of doing their next album. They would be the Beatles,
but they wouldn't be the Beatles. They would advertise as
a Beatles album, but they would go into the studio
(21:03):
thinking stop thinking like Beatles, We're going to be somebody
different now. And his idea was we're going to be
searching Pepper's band, and the Beatles thought, well, that's a
good idea, is.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Any did you read the book on Mel Evin's by
Kenneth Womeck.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I've got it. I'm about to start it. I have
not read it. But everything I've heard about it is
it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
It's a phenomenal book. And he was on this show
to talk about that book. I can't remember which episode
it is, but if people want to listen to it,
you can go to bookd on rock dot com and
and search for it there. But yeah, what a story.
The Roady guy was just working at a regular nine
to five job. He was a bodyguard, or he worked
a door at the at the Cavern Club and they
(21:43):
needed a ride to a gig and the person that
normally gave him a ride was six, So they said, hey, Mal,
do you want to drive us? And that was it
became the Roady and contributed to the songs over time
and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Now he should get a movie.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh, he should get a movie. You could base it
on that book. The tragic ending, very sad, but what
a fascinating story. Fixing a hole. Critics and fans would
say it was about heroin addiction. What is Paul writing about?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Well, at the time Paul insisted it was he was
literally fixing a hole in the new farm he had
bought in Scotland. He had a that roof and he
said there was a hole and I had to fix it.
Paul later admitted he said, well, actually it was a
result of my use of LSD. He said, I was
having a trip and I saw a tiny hole form
in the air that was a glimpse to a different reality,
(22:35):
and only I could see it, and I realized, you know,
I've got to repair this. I can't have this just
hanging in the air. I have to fix this hole.
And Paul can take anything and make a song off
of it, and.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So there is some deep meaning to it. But it
started out as just something simple, but then he saw
it as something deeper.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah. I think there are some deep moments in the lyrics,
but they're also just sort of like, don't read too
much into what I'm writing in this part. It's just words.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, and good luck with that. Fans right into everything
they did. George's contribution to the album is within You
Without You, and there was another song that he brought
to the table, but it wasn't using. It was called
only a Northern song within You Without You. Inspired by
an evening George spent with German artist, musician and record
(23:24):
producer Klaus Vorman. What were they discussing?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
They were discussing life literally, and they were both very
interested in Eastern philosophy. George and to a degree Ringo
afterwards felt that they weren't really a part of the
Sergeant Pepper sessions. They felt that there were more like
session men. To John and Paul, that was really their album,
(23:48):
and George admitted he said part of that problem was
he had just come back from India. He had gone
there for the first time and it had transformed him
and he was no longer really interested in being a
pop star. He didn't pick up his guitar for weeks
and weeks before the session started, he was just practicing
the guitar and being a beatle really did interesting shades
(24:10):
of his remark after the tour, I'm not a beatle anymore.
He kind of was disengaging, and John and Paul were
concerned about this because, you know, George had just had
three great songs on Revolver, and they thought the very
least he was going to bring in a couple more
for this album. But week after week went by and
George wasn't contributing anything, and he played the guitar parts
(24:31):
they asked for, he wasn't really getting deeply involved in
the nuts and bolts of arranging the music as he
had in the past, and finally John and Paul said,
bring us something. We want to record one of your songs.
So George brought in a song called only a Northern Song,
which not a bad song later shows up in the
Yellow Submarine soundtrack, but he recorded He wrote it on
(24:55):
an organ, so it has a very Dirge like sound,
and the Beatles went through their paces and recorded, you know,
multiple takes of it, but they weren't really satisfied with it,
and John and Paul asked George Martin to tell George
you can do better, and George agreed. He said, you
know what, You're right, let's shelve Only a Northern Song
(25:15):
for now. And a few weeks later he came in
Within You, Without You, and it was very philosophical. Of course,
is full of Indian instrumentation. It really stands out from
the rest of the album, but it's very much of
the feeling of that album, that universal feeling. It's a
divisive song for some people. Some people are like, it's
(25:37):
not one of my favorite George songs and it's not
my favorite song on the album. On the other hand,
not only was it John's favorite song on the album?
He said it was his favorite George song period. He
loved it, and he said he regretted that he didn't
get to play on it because it was all indiding musicians.
George said, well, you know, I'm going to bring one
song in and I'm going to make it a good one.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Was John the biggest supporter of George in terms of songwriting?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I would say John and Paul were both strongly encouraging George.
George Martin had said later on he said he felt
sorry that he wasn't more supportive of George. John and
Paul tended to treat George as their kid brother because
he was younger, and it was very much John and
Paul making a lot of the decisions for the band,
(26:20):
and so they didn't always pay that much attention to
George or give his music that much attention. But he'd
certainly impressed them with the tracks he brought to Revolver,
and they realized he was really blossoming as a songwriter,
and yeah, John and Paul would encourage him, but also
John and Paul would be more interested in recording their
own music than George's sometimes, so it was back and forth, and.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Isn't it true? The interesting piece of Beatles trivia isn't
George the first to have a number one album after
the Beatles broke up as a solo artist if you don't.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Count Paul's first album McCartney as having come out before
they broke up, because that did go to number one,
but as soon as the band was officially public split, Yes,
George went to number one. First number one single, first
number one album, All.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Things Must Pass. Yes, Booked on Rock Podcasts. We'll be
back after this.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I've seen the fits.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know what it is.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It's a forty seven year old version sitting and run
of his base. But Joma is preaking a banana Brocolu
shakes thing, and I'm an Oscar Mayer Weiner.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Find the Bookdon Rock website at booked on rock dot com.
There you can find all the back episodes of the show,
the latest episode in video and audio, links to all
of the platforms where you can listen to the podcast,
plus all the social media platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
and x. Also check out the Booked on Rock blog.
Find your local independent bookstore. Find out all the latest
(27:42):
hot rockbook releases, and before you go, check out the
booked on Rock online store, pick up some booked on
Rock merch. It's all at booked on rock dot com.
Mister kite. John was inspired to write this after a
visit to an antique shop.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, he loved buying little antique do dads anything that
was really strange. And this was a poster from a
trained horse performance from the eighteen thirties.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
I believe I think you have in the book a
circus poster from eighteen forty.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Three eighteen forty eight. And literally, John said, all the
lyrics are on the poster. I just had to assemble
him in the proper order. The only thing that really
changed was the name of the horse. He said, whatever.
I forget what their name was, but it was a
little strange, he said, I couldn't make it fit, so
it became Henry the Horse.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah. This is while they're filming the promo for Strawberry
Fields Forever that he in between takes.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
John wandered off and walked into this antique store.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Now here's an example of the new studio only beatles, right,
I mean, this is where they get creative. John had
wanted an old fashioned steam organ to be played during
a break in the song, but there weren't any available
on short notice.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What was done instead, George Martin got very creative. He
took a bunch of John Phillips Suza recordings on tape
and he them up into tiny pieces and threw them
up in the air wherever they landed. You pick them
up one a time and glue them all together, and
that became the caliope break in the song. As Martin
(29:12):
said at the time, said it can never be recreated.
Of course, these days with computers you could do anything.
But it's just showing how the Beatles would take take risks.
This wasn't the sort of thing that was really approved
of by em I, but they could take something as
simple as just an old John and Phillips SUSA March
(29:33):
and say let's let's reinvent this for our own use
and it created, you know, just an incredible soundcollage.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
How long did it take the normal Beatles album to
record prior to them coming off of the road.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well, they're very first album, please please me. They did
in nine hours.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Wow, that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Uh. They they had one day off between concerts and
John had a very sore Threa wrote, and he powered
through and they went back on the road. From that
point on, they tended to work in blocks of time
in between concert dates. They might get three, four or
five days in the studio, then they're gone for two
weeks and they come back with Revolver. They had a
(30:17):
largely uninterrupted span of time, but it was still fairly
short because they had to kick off their world tour
in the summer of sixty six, so they basically had
about two months time, which these days is nothing. Right
back then, that was almost luxurious.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Plus they're well rested, you know, they're not when they're
when they're recording it between gigs. I would think they're
burned out, tired. And yet, as we know, it didn't
affect the music. I mean, those albums are all brilliant too,
But just the fact that they had this time to
create these songs like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
and here we go, going back to reading into lyrics again, right,
so you write quote. A great debate began raging from
(30:54):
the moment of the song's release in nineteen sixty seven
about whether the lyrics that John wrote inspired by his
son's art were a drug song or not. So who
or what is this song about?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
There's no reason it can't be both. John had been
looking to write a song about his LSD experience and
Julian came in with a drawing of his schoolmate Lucy
in the sky with diamonds, and John liked the sound
of that and realized, oh, that's LSD. Well, let's go
ahead and write that song I wanted to do. So
it's very much a drug song, but it is also
(31:28):
inspired by Julian's art.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
With Little Help from my Friends is one that came
out of the intent to get a song for Ringo
to sing on the On the album, Ringo liked what
John and Paul had written, but there was one line
he refused to sing. What was the line and what
was it changed to?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well, the original line was will you stand up and
throw tomatoes at me? And tomato is the English pronunciation,
and Ringo remembered how several years earlier they had mentioned
in an interview that oh, we love jelly babies, which
in England are very soft jelly beans. In the US
they're harder, and unfortunately, when they would tour in the US,
(32:06):
American fans would throw hard jelly beans at them on stage.
Ringo said they would hit like hail. So he said,
I'm not giving you any ideas should we ever go
back on the road to throw tomatoes at me? So
we're taking that line out of the song. So it
became will you stand up and walk out on me?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
That's a much better choice, don't you think us? Yes,
so many stories regarding the album cover. Emi was worried
about potential lawsuits and refused to print the covers unless
the Beatles got written permission from every single celebrity on it,
which I believe is fifty nine total, Yes, fifty nine.
(32:45):
So Brian Epstein went right to work on that first.
Who came up with the concept, what was their vision
for it? And I'm just curious, what's the most interesting
story or piece of trivia about that cover for you personally,
because there are so many Well.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Originally Paul's idea, and this is very much Paul's album
in this regard. He had a vision of the packaging
and he said, well, we're going to have these customized uniforms,
so we look like we're a nineteenth century military band,
and we'll pose in the front and like this Deraga
type cip A tone picture where we're standing there and
there's a loving cup that we've just received and we're
(33:20):
holding our brass instruments. And a friend of theirs said,
you know what this album is like a celebration. The
cover should be the same. You should show the world
celebrating your accomplishment. So then they became the Beatles would
turn and face the cameras that they've just finished their
(33:40):
performance and the audience is standing behind them, and the
audience is just completely populated with well known people from
past and present, and you know, the Beatles were invited
to submit names. Ringo said, whatever the other three come
up with, it's fine with me. George submitted the names
(34:01):
of a couple of Indian mystics because you're getting interested
in Eastern philosophy. So John and Paul basically selected the rest.
One of the most interesting would be We'rechi. Gandhi was
on the list, but e am I nixt to that
because they said we don't want any trouble in India.
He said that that will offend a number of people there,
(34:22):
so that he was removed. Also, Jesus Christ was to
be on there and for the same reasons and capital said, oh, no,
you would not put him on.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
The especially there more popular than Jesus Kind.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, they just come through that they needed to repeat
that experience. And John really wanted Hitler, not because he
admired that one, but he's like, it's audacious and I
want to do it. And I believe Hitler's there, but
he's been hidden behind the Beatles. You can't see him really. Yeah,
(34:56):
and no, they did not bother to get permission from
his estates since he was not visible, right, you know,
they had to rush out these letters to everybody either
who was still living or their estates and said will
you please let us use their picture? And the only
one who said no initially was Maywest because she said, well,
(35:19):
what are you doing in a lonely hearts club? And
the all four Beatles wrote her a personal letter and
said please, we love you, we love your films, Please
be on our cover and she said, well, how can
I say no to that? Yeah, And the only one
who was featured on the cover who was airbrushed out
was Leo Gorci or the Bowery Boys, because when he
(35:40):
was contacted he said, sure he could use my picture,
but you have to pay me, and he was the
only one who asked for money, so they said, well,
we're not paying anybody for this, see you later. Yeah.
So there's a next to his cohort hunts Hall. There's
a blank space in the back row, and that was
leol Gorsey.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I love the May West one because that's old school Hollywood,
always thinking about your image. Right, Yeah, that's the actress
famous for come up and see me sometimes. You know,
she was always you know, she got all the guys.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
She was never lonely.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
That's a great story. So following the albums, May of
sixty seven, released the Beatles record and release All You
Need Is Love in July of sixty seven. Clear message
to the world that love is everything. And you're right
about how By the summer of nineteen sixty seven, the
Beatles were at the apex of the mountaintop, a mountain
so towering no one had ever glimpsed this summit before.
(36:33):
But we know they still had some more creative energy
to release. And this is the most important era of
Beatles history, between the end of touring nineteen sixty six
and the summer of nineteen sixty seven. Right, I mean,
do you agree, I.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Think absolutely so, And there's a hard dividing line between
the Beatles as they initially were the mop tops, and
then they give up touring and they move away from
what they had been. You know, they all change their hairstyles,
they grow mustache, they become very different looking men. And
John actually he told me points is that I don't
want to be a mop top anymore. I'm done with it.
(37:07):
As far as he was concerning that with childhood, he
was an adult now. And it's important to remember we
tend to think of rock and roll now as a
lofty artistic endeavor. There's classic albums and people who even
aren't necessarily fans of rock will say, oh, yes, I
mean that album is just everyone knows that album. It's
a fantastic record. Rock and roll was garbage music up
(37:30):
to that point, Serious reminded people didn't pay it any attention.
Pepper changed that. The New York Times, the Times of London,
classical music critics were falling over themselves praising this record.
They're like, whatever you thought rock and roll was, forget
it and listen to this album because it's going to
(37:51):
change how you think things.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
The rapid change creatively for the Beatles, it's still mind blowing,
and it.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Makes you want wonder if that change would have been
accelerated if they hadn't had to focus so much of
their attention on touring for so long, if that was
building up inside of them and it had no outlet
until finally they were like, we could pursue our dreams
in the studio. Now we don't have to rush out
an album because we got to hit the road.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Kept the band together, I think for a little bit more,
because maybe they would have called the quits if they
didn't have that inspiration to create something together the way
they did.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
You know, writing this, I've kind of come around to
the idea that, you know, if you ask somebody, well,
when did the Beatles break up, you'd say, well, April
of nineteen seventy when Paul quit, although he didn't really quit.
That's just how it was interpreted. People who know a
little bit more will say, well, September sixty nine when
John secretly quit the band and it was done with them.
I would kind of argue that after the end of
(38:45):
touring in sixty six, if not a complete breakup, it
was a transformation and they became, as George would later complain,
you know, John and Paul and then he and Ringo
would just kind of be the guys they would call
in to play parts. He felt they had lost a
sense of camaraderie, that they weren't the unit they had
(39:05):
been before, and it allowed them to create some critical music,
but it also kind of set them on their four
different ways. So I think even without some of the
things that had happened, that had I think really made
the breakup more painful for them. I think by nineteen
seventy or so, the four Beatles who have been like,
it's time to not be a unit anymore. We need
(39:27):
to be our own men.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Booked on Rock podcasts, We'll be back after this.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Can we go now? Please people, A good plan today
is better than perfect plan tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Hey guys, thanks so much for checking out the Booked
on Rock podcast. If you've just found the podcast, welcome.
If you've been listening, thank you so much for your support,
and make sure you tell a friend, a family member,
share on social media and let people know about Booked
on Rock. And if you do like the podcast, make
sure you subscribe give a five star review. Wherever you
listen to the bo Dun Rock podcast. We're on Amazon Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Spreaker,
(40:04):
tune in in on YouTube music. You can check out
the full episodes on video, along with video highlights from
episodes on the Booked on Rock YouTube channel. Find it
at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back
to the show before I let you go, Gene, what
is the latest on these films? There's supposed to be
four separate films on each of the members. What do
(40:27):
you know about this? What's the latest?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Well, it's an interesting idea. They're doing four different films
focusing on each of the four Beatles. They haven't really
announced the subject matter. There's lots of rumors. Certainly it'll
cover their very earliest years. As to whether it'll move
beyond that and go deeper into their careers, we're not
really sure yet. They have unveiled the four actors playing
(40:51):
the Beatles, and there's been a lot of complaints on people.
They're saying, well, they don't really look like the Beatles,
but I don't know that's necessarily a bad thing. It's
not so much being a dead ringer for each of
the Beatles as it is capturing what we know to
be the Beatles. If they could get that persona and
really bring us in that way. Then I won't mind
(41:11):
if you know, the screen Ringo doesn't look like the
real Ringo.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
So are they unknowns?
Speaker 2 (41:16):
These actors unknown to me at least. They all seem
to be fairly young actors and not well known.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
What's do is it Disney?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
That's a good question. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't
be surprised if this Disney, because they're getting very deep into.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
The Beatle things these days, right, yeah, exactly, So we
don't know when they're coming out.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
They they haven't even be done filming yet. They're still
working on scripts, and like anything once, you know, until
it's finally finished, you can't say for certain it's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, if it does, they'll get ready for yet another
wave of Beatlemania, the other generation of fans that start listening,
you know, to their music. And I'll tell you that
reminds me. I went to the movies recently. This is
three four weeks ago, and I'm buying some popcord and
soda and there's this young girl behind the counter working there.
(42:09):
She must have been eighteen, nineteen twenty, and I was
wearing my yellow submarine shirt and she goes, oh, I
like that shirt. I said, oh, cool, you like the Beatles.
She goes yeah, yeah, and she goes and I just
saw that movie recently. Now I'm thinking, young person, probably
we got to be talking about the Disney Let it
be documentary. So you're talking about the one on Disney.
(42:32):
She goes, no, no, yellow subm read I saw the movie
from the sixties. I was like, right on, man, you know.
I was like, yeah, cool. So their music does transcend generations,
It's not I'm their music will will go on forever.
I think that's pretty safe to us.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I like the joke that we're all born in our
DNA knowing all the Beatles'.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Music exactly the color of your dreams some days in
the lives of the Beatles. If you want to read
a great story about an amazing time in Beatles' history,
this is the book. It's out now, it's been out
for a little while. You can find it wherever books
are sold Amazon, all the usable places. Your nearest bookstore.
You can find your nearest independent bookstore at bookdown rock
dot com and gene People can find you online where.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
You can look for me at gene Ploba. Author on Facebook.
That's usually the best way to find me, and you know,
discover me through my words. I have several books out.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
There, so yeah, you got any projects you're working on
right now? Beatles related.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I'm in the process of writing the last third of
a new book about entertainment in World War Two designed
to boost American morale. Wow.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Interesting, okay, because you've.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Written before the US could really get heavily involved in combat,
so in order to keep the American public motivated, you
had movies and songs and comic books, all of which
were designed to get people's patriotic spirit fired up.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
Interesting because you've written other books outside of the music arena.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
My first book was about Kerry Grant.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, that's right. Another fascinating guy. Geane Popa. Thanks so much.
It's great to have you on. Hey, maybe we'll have
you back on someday. You got other music books you
want to talk about? You know, you have an open invite.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I would love to be back. Thanks, Eric. That's it,
It's in the books.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com