Podcasts about all too much

Episode 171 looks at "Hey Jude", the White Album, and the career of the Beatles from August 1967 through November 1968. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on "I Love You" by People!. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata Not really an error, but at one point I refer to Ornette Coleman as a saxophonist. While he was, he plays trumpet on the track that is excerpted after that. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. This time I also used Steve Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. I referred to Philip Norman's biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, to Graeme Thomson's biography of George Harrison, Take a Sad Song by James Campion, Yoko Ono: An Artful Life by Donald Brackett, Those Were the Days 2.0 by Stephan Granados, and Sound Pictures by Kenneth Womack. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of “Hey Jude” is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but a remixed stereo mix is easily available on the new reissue of the 1967-70 compilation. The original mixes of the White Album are also, shockingly, out of print, but this 2018 remix is available for the moment. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, a quick note -- this episode deals, among other topics, with child abandonment, spousal neglect, suicide attempts, miscarriage, rape accusations, and heroin addiction. If any of those topics are likely to upset you, you might want to check the transcript rather than listening to this episode. It also, for once, contains a short excerpt of an expletive, but given that that expletive in that context has been regularly played on daytime radio without complaint for over fifty years, I suspect it can be excused. The use of mantra meditation is something that exists across religions, and which appears to have been independently invented multiple times, in multiple cultures. In the Western culture to which most of my listeners belong, it is now best known as an aspect of what is known as "mindfulness", a secularised version of Buddhism which aims to provide adherents with the benefits of the teachings of the Buddha but without the cosmology to which they are attached. But it turns up in almost every religious tradition I know of in one form or another. The idea of mantra meditation is a very simple one, and one that even has some basis in science. There is a mathematical principle in neurology and information science called the free energy principle which says our brains are wired to try to minimise how surprised we are --  our brain is constantly making predictions about the world, and then looking at the results from our senses to see if they match. If they do, that's great, and the brain will happily move on to its next prediction. If they don't, the brain has to update its model of the world to match the new information, make new predictions, and see if those new predictions are a better match. Every person has a different mental model of the world, and none of them match reality, but every brain tries to get as close as possible. This updating of the model to match the new information is called "thinking", and it uses up energy, and our bodies and brains have evolved to conserve energy as much as possible. This means that for many people, most of the time, thinking is unpleasant, and indeed much of the time that people have spent thinking, they've been thinking about how to stop themselves having to do it at all, and when they have managed to stop thinking, however briefly, they've experienced great bliss. Many more or less effective technologies have been created to bring about a more minimal-energy state, including alcohol, heroin, and barbituates, but many of these have unwanted side-effects, such as death, which people also tend to want to avoid, and so people have often turned to another technology. It turns out that for many people, they can avoid thinking by simply thinking about something that is utterly predictable. If they minimise the amount of sensory input, and concentrate on something that they can predict exactly, eventually they can turn off their mind, relax, and float downstream, without dying. One easy way to do this is to close your eyes, so you can't see anything, make your breath as regular as possible, and then concentrate on a sound that repeats over and over.  If you repeat a single phrase or word a few hundred times, that regular repetition eventually causes your mind to stop having to keep track of the world, and experience a peace that is, by all accounts, unlike any other experience. What word or phrase that is can depend very much on the tradition. In Transcendental Meditation, each person has their own individual phrase. In the Catholicism in which George Harrison and Paul McCartney were raised, popular phrases for this are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." In some branches of Buddhism, a popular mantra is "_NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ_". In the Hinduism to which George Harrison later converted, you can use "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya" or "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". Those last two start with the syllable "Om", and indeed some people prefer to just use that syllable, repeating a single syllable over and over again until they reach a state of transcendence. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Jude" ("na na na na na na na")] We don't know much about how the Beatles first discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, except that it was thanks to Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's then-wife. Unfortunately, her memory of how she first became involved in the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement, as described in her autobiography, doesn't fully line up with other known facts. She talks about reading about the Maharishi in the paper with her friend Marie-Lise while George was away on tour, but she also places the date that this happened in February 1967, several months after the Beatles had stopped touring forever. We'll be seeing a lot more of these timing discrepancies as this story progresses, and people's memories increasingly don't match the events that happened to them. Either way, it's clear that Pattie became involved in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement a good length of time before her husband did. She got him to go along with her to one of the Maharishi's lectures, after she had already been converted to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they brought along John, Paul, and their partners (Ringo's wife Maureen had just given birth, so they didn't come). As we heard back in episode one hundred and fifty, that lecture was impressive enough that the group, plus their wives and girlfriends (with the exception of Maureen Starkey) and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, all went on a meditation retreat with the Maharishi at a holiday camp in Bangor, and it was there that they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead. The death of the man who had guided the group's career could not have come at a worse time for the band's stability.  The group had only recorded one song in the preceding two months -- Paul's "Your Mother Should Know" -- and had basically been running on fumes since completing recording of Sgt Pepper many months earlier. John's drug intake had increased to the point that he was barely functional -- although with the enthusiasm of the newly converted he had decided to swear off LSD at the Maharishi's urging -- and his marriage was falling apart. Similarly, Paul McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher was in a bad state, though both men were trying to repair their damaged relationships, while both George and Ringo were having doubts about the band that had made them famous. In George's case, he was feeling marginalised by John and Paul, his songs ignored or paid cursory attention, and there was less for him to do on the records as the group moved away from making guitar-based rock and roll music into the stranger areas of psychedelia. And Ringo, whose main memory of the recording of Sgt Pepper was of learning to play chess while the others went through the extensive overdubs that characterised that album, was starting to feel like his playing was deteriorating, and that as the only non-writer in the band he was on the outside to an extent. On top of that, the group were in the middle of a major plan to restructure their business. As part of their contract renegotiations with EMI at the beginning of 1967, it had been agreed that they would receive two million pounds -- roughly fifteen million pounds in today's money -- in unpaid royalties as a lump sum. If that had been paid to them as individuals, or through the company they owned, the Beatles Ltd, they would have had to pay the full top rate of tax on it, which as George had complained the previous year was over ninety-five percent. (In fact, he'd been slightly exaggerating the generosity of the UK tax system to the rich, as at that point the top rate of income tax was somewhere around ninety-seven and a half percent). But happily for them, a couple of years earlier the UK had restructured its tax laws and introduced a corporation tax, which meant that the profits of corporations were no longer taxed at the same high rate as income. So a new company had been set up, The Beatles & Co, and all the group's non-songwriting income was paid into the company. Each Beatle owned five percent of the company, and the other eighty percent was owned by a new partnership, a corporation that was soon renamed Apple Corps -- a name inspired by a painting that McCartney had liked by the artist Rene Magritte. In the early stages of Apple, it was very entangled with Nems, the company that was owned by Brian and Clive Epstein, and which was in the process of being sold to Robert Stigwood, though that sale fell through after Brian's death. The first part of Apple, Apple Publishing, had been set up in the summer of 1967, and was run by Terry Doran, a friend of Epstein's who ran a motor dealership -- most of the Apple divisions would be run by friends of the group rather than by people with experience in the industries in question. As Apple was set up during the point that Stigwood was getting involved with NEMS, Apple Publishing's initial offices were in the same building with, and shared staff with, two publishing companies that Stigwood owned, Dratleaf Music, who published Cream's songs, and Abigail Music, the Bee Gees' publishers. And indeed the first two songs published by Apple were copyrights that were gifted to the company by Stigwood -- "Listen to the Sky", a B-side by an obscure band called Sands: [Excerpt: Sands, "Listen to the Sky"] And "Outside Woman Blues", an arrangement by Eric Clapton of an old blues song by Blind Joe Reynolds, which Cream had copyrighted separately and released on Disraeli Gears: [Excerpt: Cream, "Outside Woman Blues"] But Apple soon started signing outside songwriters -- once Mike Berry, a member of Apple Publishing's staff, had sat McCartney down and explained to him what music publishing actually was, something he had never actually understood even though he'd been a songwriter for five years. Those songwriters, given that this was 1967, were often also performers, and as Apple Records had not yet been set up, Apple would try to arrange recording contracts for them with other labels. They started with a group called Focal Point, who got signed by badgering Paul McCartney to listen to their songs until he gave them Doran's phone number to shut them up: [Excerpt: Focal Point, "Sycamore Sid"] But the big early hope for Apple Publishing was a songwriter called George Alexander. Alexander's birth name had been Alexander Young, and he was the brother of George Young, who was a member of the Australian beat group The Easybeats, who'd had a hit with "Friday on My Mind": [Excerpt: The Easybeats, "Friday on My Mind"] His younger brothers Malcolm and Angus would go on to have a few hits themselves, but AC/DC wouldn't be formed for another five years. Terry Doran thought that Alexander should be a member of a band, because bands were more popular than solo artists at the time, and so he was placed with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Beach Boys soundalike group that had had some minor success. John Lennon suggested that the group be named Grapefruit, after a book he was reading by a conceptual artist of his acquaintance named Yoko Ono, and as Doran was making arrangements with Terry Melcher for a reciprocal publishing deal by which Melcher's American company would publish Apple songs in the US while Apple published songs from Melcher's company in the UK, it made sense for Melcher to also produce Grapefruit's first single, "Dear Delilah": [Excerpt: Grapefruit, "Dear Delilah"] That made number twenty-one in the UK when it came out in early 1968, on the back of publicity about Grapefruit's connection with the Beatles, but future singles by the band were much less successful, and like several other acts involved with Apple, they found that they were more hampered by the Beatles connection than helped. A few other people were signed to Apple Publishing early on, of whom the most notable was Jackie Lomax. Lomax had been a member of a minor Merseybeat group, the Undertakers, and after they had split up, he'd been signed by Brian Epstein with a new group, the Lomax Alliance, who had released one single, "Try as You May": [Excerpt: The Lomax Alliance, "Try As You May"] After Epstein's death, Lomax had plans to join another band, being formed by another Merseybeat musician, Chris Curtis, the former drummer of the Searchers. But after going to the Beatles to talk with them about them helping the new group financially, Lomax was persuaded by John Lennon to go solo instead. He may later have regretted that decision, as by early 1968 the people that Curtis had recruited for his new band had ditched him and were making a name for themselves as Deep Purple. Lomax recorded one solo single with funding from Stigwood, a cover version of a song by an obscure singer-songwriter, Jake Holmes, "Genuine Imitation Life": [Excerpt: Jackie Lomax, "Genuine Imitation Life"] But he was also signed to Apple Publishing as a songwriter. The Beatles had only just started laying out plans for Apple when Epstein died, and other than the publishing company one of the few things they'd agreed on was that they were going to have a film company, which was to be run by Denis O'Dell, who had been an associate producer on A Hard Day's Night and on How I Won The War, the Richard Lester film Lennon had recently starred in. A few days after Epstein's death, they had a meeting, in which they agreed that the band needed to move forward quickly if they were going to recover from Epstein's death. They had originally been planning on going to India with the Maharishi to study meditation, but they decided to put that off until the new year, and to press forward with a film project Paul had been talking about, to be titled Magical Mystery Tour. And so, on the fifth of September 1967, they went back into the recording studio and started work on a song of John's that was earmarked for the film, "I am the Walrus": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] Magical Mystery Tour, the film, has a mixed reputation which we will talk about shortly, but one defence that Paul McCartney has always made of it is that it's the only place where you can see the Beatles performing "I am the Walrus". While the song was eventually relegated to a B-side, it's possibly the finest B-side of the Beatles' career, and one of the best tracks the group ever made. As with many of Lennon's songs from this period, the song was a collage of many different elements pulled from his environment and surroundings, and turned into something that was rather more than the sum of its parts. For its musical inspiration, Lennon pulled from, of all things, a police siren going past his house. (For those who are unfamiliar with what old British police sirens sounded like, as opposed to the ones in use for most of my lifetime or in other countries, here's a recording of one): [Excerpt: British police siren ca 1968] That inspired Lennon to write a snatch of lyric to go with the sound of the siren, starting "Mister city policeman sitting pretty". He had two other song fragments, one about sitting in the garden, and one about sitting on a cornflake, and he told Hunter Davies, who was doing interviews for his authorised biography of the group, “I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song.” But the final element that made these three disparate sections into a song was a letter that came from Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Lennon's old school Quarry Bank, who told him that the teachers at the school -- who Lennon always thought of as having suppressed his creativity -- were now analysing Beatles lyrics in their lessons. Lennon decided to come up with some nonsense that they couldn't analyse -- though as nonsensical as the finished song is, there's an underlying anger to a lot of it that possibly comes from Lennon thinking of his school experiences. And so Lennon asked his old schoolfriend Pete Shotton to remind him of a disgusting playground chant that kids used to sing in schools in the North West of England (and which they still sang with very minor variations at my own school decades later -- childhood folklore has a remarkably long life). That rhyme went: Yellow matter custard, green snot pie All mixed up with a dead dog's eye Slap it on a butty, nice and thick, And drink it down with a cup of cold sick Lennon combined some parts of this with half-remembered fragments of Lewis Carrol's The Walrus and the Carpenter, and with some punning references to things that were going on in his own life and those of his friends -- though it's difficult to know exactly which of the stories attached to some of the more incomprehensible bits of the lyrics are accurate. The story that the line "I am the eggman" is about a sexual proclivity of Eric Burdon of the Animals seems plausible, while the contention by some that the phrase "semolina pilchard" is a reference to Sgt Pilcher, the corrupt policeman who had arrested three of the Rolling Stones, and would later arrest Lennon, on drugs charges, seems less likely. The track is a masterpiece of production, but the release of the basic take on Anthology 2 in 1996 showed that the underlying performance, before George Martin worked his magic with the overdubs, is still a remarkable piece of work: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus (Anthology 2 version)"] But Martin's arrangement and production turned the track from a merely very good track into a masterpiece. The string arrangement, very much in the same mould as that for "Strawberry Fields Forever" but giving a very different effect with its harsh cello glissandi, is the kind of thing one expects from Martin, but there's also the chanting of the Mike Sammes Singers, who were more normally booked for sessions like Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz": [Excerpt: Engelbert Humperdinck, "The Last Waltz"] But here were instead asked to imitate the sound of the strings, make grunting noises, and generally go very far out of their normal comfort zone: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] But the most fascinating piece of production in the entire track is an idea that seems to have been inspired by people like John Cage -- a live feed of a radio being tuned was played into the mono mix from about the halfway point, and whatever was on the radio at the time was captured: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] This is also why for many decades it was impossible to have a true stereo mix of the track -- the radio part was mixed directly into the mono mix, and it wasn't until the 1990s that someone thought to track down a copy of the original radio broadcasts and recreate the process. In one of those bits of synchronicity that happen more often than you would think when you're creating aleatory art, and which are why that kind of process can be so appealing, one bit of dialogue from the broadcast of King Lear that was on the radio as the mixing was happening was *perfectly* timed: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] After completing work on the basic track for "I am the Walrus", the group worked on two more songs for the film, George's "Blue Jay Way" and a group-composed twelve-bar blues instrumental called "Flying", before starting production. Magical Mystery Tour, as an idea, was inspired in equal parts by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the collective of people we talked about in the episode on the Grateful Dead who travelled across the US extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs, and by mystery tours, a British working-class tradition that has rather fallen out of fashion in the intervening decades. A mystery tour would generally be put on by a coach-hire company, and would be a day trip to an unannounced location -- though the location would in fact be very predictable, and would be a seaside town within a couple of hours' drive of its starting point. In the case of the ones the Beatles remembered from their own childhoods, this would be to a coastal town in Lancashire or Wales, like Blackpool, Rhyl, or Prestatyn. A coachload of people would pay to be driven to this random location, get very drunk and have a singsong on the bus, and spend a day wherever they were taken. McCartney's plan was simple -- they would gather a group of passengers and replicate this experience over the course of several days, and film whatever went on, but intersperse that with more planned out sketches and musical numbers. For this reason, along with the Beatles and their associates, the cast included some actors found through Spotlight and some of the group's favourite performers, like the comedian Nat Jackley (whose comedy sequence directed by John was cut from the final film) and the surrealist poet/singer/comedian Ivor Cutler: [Excerpt: Ivor Cutler, "I'm Going in a Field"] The film also featured an appearance by a new band who would go on to have great success over the next year, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They had recorded their first single in Abbey Road at the same time as the Beatles were recording Revolver, but rather than being progressive psychedelic rock, it had been a remake of a 1920s novelty song: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies"] Their performance in Magical Mystery Tour was very different though -- they played a fifties rock pastiche written by band leaders Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes while a stripper took off her clothes. While several other musical sequences were recorded for the film, including one by the band Traffic and one by Cutler, other than the Beatles tracks only the Bonzos' song made it into the finished film: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"] That song, thirty years later, would give its name to a prominent American alternative rock band. Incidentally the same night that Magical Mystery Tour was first broadcast was also the night that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band first appeared on a TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, which featured three future members of the Monty Python troupe -- Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Over the years the careers of the Bonzos, the Pythons, and the Beatles would become increasingly intertwined, with George Harrison in particular striking up strong friendships and working relationships with Bonzos Neil Innes and "Legs" Larry Smith. The filming of Magical Mystery Tour went about as well as one might expect from a film made by four directors, none of whom had any previous filmmaking experience, and none of whom had any business knowledge. The Beatles were used to just turning up and having things magically done for them by other people, and had no real idea of the infrastructure challenges that making a film, even a low-budget one, actually presents, and ended up causing a great deal of stress to almost everyone involved. The completed film was shown on TV on Boxing Day 1967 to general confusion and bemusement. It didn't help that it was originally broadcast in black and white, and so for example the scene showing shifting landscapes (outtake footage from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tinted various psychedelic colours) over the "Flying" music, just looked like grey fuzz. But also, it just wasn't what people were expecting from a Beatles film. This was a ramshackle, plotless, thing more inspired by Andy Warhol's underground films than by the kind of thing the group had previously appeared in, and it was being presented as Christmas entertainment for all the family. And to be honest, it's not even a particularly good example of underground filmmaking -- though it looks like a masterpiece when placed next to something like the Bee Gees' similar effort, Cucumber Castle. But there are enough interesting sequences in there for the project not to be a complete failure -- and the deleted scenes on the DVD release, including the performances by Cutler and Traffic, and the fact that the film was edited down from ten hours to fifty-two minutes, makes one wonder if there's a better film that could be constructed from the original footage. Either way, the reaction to the film was so bad that McCartney actually appeared on David Frost's TV show the next day to defend it and, essentially, apologise. While they were editing the film, the group were also continuing to work in the studio, including on two new McCartney songs, "The Fool on the Hill", which was included in Magical Mystery Tour, and "Hello Goodbye", which wasn't included on the film's soundtrack but was released as the next single, with "I Am the Walrus" as the B-side: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Incidentally, in the UK the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as a double-EP rather than as an album (in the US, the group's recent singles and B-sides were added to turn it into a full-length album, which is how it's now generally available). "I Am the Walrus" was on the double-EP as well as being on the single's B-side, and the double-EP got to number two on the singles charts, meaning "I am the Walrus" was on the records at number one and number two at the same time. Before it became obvious that the film, if not the soundtrack, was a disaster, the group held a launch party on the twenty-first of December, 1967. The band members went along in fancy dress, as did many of the cast and crew -- the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed at the party. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys also turned up at the party, and apparently at one point jammed with the Bonzos, and according to some, but not all, reports, a couple of the Beatles joined in as well. Love and Johnston had both just met the Maharishi for the first time a couple of days earlier, and Love had been as impressed as the Beatles were, and it may have been at this party that the group mentioned to Love that they would soon be going on a retreat in India with the guru -- a retreat that was normally meant for training TM instructors, but this time seemed to be more about getting celebrities involved. Love would also end up going with them. That party was also the first time that Cynthia Lennon had an inkling that John might not be as faithful to her as she previously supposed. John had always "joked" about being attracted to George Harrison's wife, Patti, but this time he got a little more blatant about his attraction than he ever had previously, to the point that he made Cynthia cry, and Cynthia's friend, the pop star Lulu, decided to give Lennon a very public dressing-down for his cruelty to his wife, a dressing-down that must have been a sight to behold, as Lennon was dressed as a Teddy boy while Lulu was in a Shirley Temple costume. It's a sign of how bad the Lennons' marriage was at this point that this was the second time in a two-month period where Cynthia had ended up crying because of John at a film launch party and been comforted by a female pop star. In October, Cilla Black had held a party to celebrate the belated release of John's film How I Won the War, and during the party Georgie Fame had come up to Black and said, confused, "Cynthia Lennon is hiding in your wardrobe". Black went and had a look, and Cynthia explained to her “I'm waiting to see how long it is before John misses me and comes looking for me.” Black's response had been “You'd better face it, kid—he's never gonna come.” Also at the Magical Mystery Tour party was Lennon's father, now known as Freddie Lennon, and his new nineteen-year-old fiancee. While Hunter Davis had been researching the Beatles' biography, he'd come across some evidence that the version of Freddie's attitude towards John that his mother's side of the family had always told him -- that Freddie had been a cruel and uncaring husband who had not actually wanted to be around his son -- might not be the whole of the truth, and that the mother who he had thought of as saintly might also have had some part to play in their marriage breaking down and Freddie not seeing his son for twenty years. The two had made some tentative attempts at reconciliation, and indeed Freddie would even come and live with John for a while, though within a couple of years the younger Lennon's heart would fully harden against his father again. Of course, the things that John always resented his father for were pretty much exactly the kind of things that Lennon himself was about to do. It was around this time as well that Derek Taylor gave the Beatles copies of the debut album by a young singer/songwriter named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson will be getting his own episode down the line, but not for a couple of years at my current rates, so it's worth bringing that up here, because that album became a favourite of all the Beatles, and would have a huge influence on their songwriting for the next couple of years, and because one song on the album, "1941", must have resonated particularly deeply with Lennon right at this moment -- an autobiographical song by Nilsson about how his father had left him and his mother when he was a small boy, and about his own fear that, as his first marriage broke down, he was repeating the pattern with his stepson Scott: [Excerpt: Nilsson, "1941"] The other major event of December 1967, rather overshadowed by the Magical Mystery Tour disaster the next day, was that on Christmas Day Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement. A few days later, George Harrison flew to India. After John and Paul had had their outside film projects -- John starring in How I Won The War and Paul doing the soundtrack for The Family Way -- the other two Beatles more or less simultaneously did their own side project films, and again one acted while the other did a soundtrack. Both of these projects were in the rather odd subgenre of psychedelic shambolic comedy film that sprang up in the mid sixties, a subgenre that produced a lot of fascinating films, though rather fewer good ones. Indeed, both of them were in the subsubgenre of shambolic psychedelic *sex* comedies. In Ringo's case, he had a small role in the film Candy, which was based on the novel we mentioned in the last episode, co-written by Terry Southern, which was in itself a loose modern rewriting of Voltaire's Candide. Unfortunately, like such other classics of this subgenre as Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Candy has dated *extremely* badly, and unless you find repeated scenes of sexual assault and rape, ethnic stereotypes, and jokes about deformity and disfigurement to be an absolute laugh riot, it's not a film that's worth seeking out, and Starr's part in it is not a major one. Harrison's film was of the same basic genre -- a film called Wonderwall about a mad scientist who discovers a way to see through the walls of his apartment, and gets to see a photographer taking sexy photographs of a young woman named Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin: [Excerpt: Some Wonderwall film dialogue ripped from the Blu-Ray] Wonderwall would, of course, later inspire the title of a song by Oasis, and that's what the film is now best known for, but it's a less-unwatchable film than Candy, and while still problematic it's less so. Which is something. Harrison had been the Beatle with least involvement in Magical Mystery Tour -- McCartney had been the de facto director, Starr had been the lead character and the only one with much in the way of any acting to do, and Lennon had written the film's standout scene and its best song, and had done a little voiceover narration. Harrison, by contrast, barely has anything to do in the film apart from the one song he contributed, "Blue Jay Way", and he said of the project “I had no idea what was happening and maybe I didn't pay enough attention because my problem, basically, was that I was in another world, I didn't really belong; I was just an appendage.” He'd expressed his discomfort to his friend Joe Massot, who was about to make his first feature film. Massot had got to know Harrison during the making of his previous film, Reflections on Love, a mostly-silent short which had starred Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and which had been photographed by Robert Freeman, who had been the photographer for the Beatles' album covers from With the Beatles through Rubber Soul, and who had taken most of the photos that Klaus Voorman incorporated into the cover of Revolver (and whose professional association with the Beatles seemed to come to an end around the same time he discovered that Lennon had been having an affair with his wife). Massot asked Harrison to write the music for the film, and told Harrison he would have complete free rein to make whatever music he wanted, so long as it fit the timing of the film, and so Harrison decided to create a mixture of Western rock music and the Indian music he loved. Harrison started recording the music at the tail end of 1967, with sessions with several London-based Indian musicians and John Barham, an orchestrator who had worked with Ravi Shankar on Shankar's collaborations with Western musicians, including the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack we talked about in the "All You Need is Love" episode. For the Western music, he used the Remo Four, a Merseybeat group who had been on the scene even before the Beatles, and which contained a couple of classmates of Paul McCartney, but who had mostly acted as backing musicians for other artists. They'd backed Johnny Sandon, the former singer with the Searchers, on a couple of singles, before becoming the backing band for Tommy Quickly, a NEMS artist who was unsuccessful despite starting his career with a Lennon/McCartney song, "Tip of My Tongue": [Excerpt: Tommy Quickly, "Tip of My Tongue"] The Remo Four would later, after a lineup change, become Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, who would become one-hit wonders in the seventies, and during the Wonderwall sessions they recorded a song that went unreleased at the time, and which would later go on to be rerecorded by Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke. "In the First Place" also features Harrison on backing vocals and possibly guitar, and was not submitted for the film because Harrison didn't believe that Massot wanted any vocal tracks, but the recording was later discovered and used in a revised director's cut of the film in the nineties: [Excerpt: The Remo Four, "In the First Place"] But for the most part the Remo Four were performing instrumentals written by Harrison. They weren't the only Western musicians performing on the sessions though -- Peter Tork of the Monkees dropped by these sessions and recorded several short banjo solos, which were used in the film soundtrack but not in the soundtrack album (presumably because Tork was contracted to another label): [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Wonderwall banjo solo"] Another musician who was under contract to another label was Eric Clapton, who at the time was playing with The Cream, and who vaguely knew Harrison and so joined in for the track "Ski-ing", playing lead guitar under the cunning, impenetrable, pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", with Harrison on sitar, Starr on drums, and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan on bass: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Ski-ing"] But the bulk of the album was recorded in EMI's studios in the city that is now known as Mumbai but at the time was called Bombay. The studio facilities in India had up to that point only had a mono tape recorder, and Bhaskar Menon, one of the top executives at EMI's Indian division and later the head of EMI music worldwide, personally brought the first stereo tape recorder to the studio to aid in Harrison's recording. The music was all composed by Harrison and performed by the Indian musicians, and while Harrison was composing in an Indian mode, the musicians were apparently fascinated by how Western it sounded to them: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Microbes"] While he was there, Harrison also got the instrumentalists to record another instrumental track, which wasn't to be used for the film: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "The Inner Light (instrumental)"] That track would, instead, become part of what was to be Harrison's first composition to make a side of a Beatles single. After John and George had appeared on the David Frost show talking about the Maharishi, in September 1967, George had met a lecturer in Sanskrit named Juan Mascaró, who wrote to Harrison enclosing a book he'd compiled of translations of religious texts, telling him he'd admired "Within You Without You" and thought it would be interesting if Harrison set something from the Tao Te Ching to music. He suggested a text that, in his translation, read: "Without going out of my door I can know all things on Earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven For the farther one travels, the less one knows The sage, therefore Arrives without travelling Sees all without looking Does all without doing" Harrison took that text almost verbatim, though he created a second verse by repeating the first few lines with "you" replacing "I" -- concerned that listeners might think he was just talking about himself, and wouldn't realise it was a more general statement -- and he removed the "the sage, therefore" and turned the last few lines into imperative commands rather than declarative statements: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] The song has come in for some criticism over the years as being a little Orientalist, because in critics' eyes it combines Chinese philosophy with Indian music, as if all these things are equally "Eastern" and so all the same really. On the other hand there's a good argument that an English songwriter taking a piece of writing written in Chinese and translated into English by a Spanish man and setting it to music inspired by Indian musical modes is a wonderful example of cultural cross-pollination. As someone who's neither Chinese nor Indian I wouldn't want to take a stance on it, but clearly the other Beatles were impressed by it -- they put it out as the B-side to their next single, even though the only Beatles on it are Harrison and McCartney, with the latter adding a small amount of harmony vocal: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] And it wasn't because the group were out of material. They were planning on going to Rishikesh to study with the Maharishi, and wanted to get a single out for release while they were away, and so in one week they completed the vocal overdubs on "The Inner Light" and recorded three other songs, two by John and one by Paul. All three of the group's songwriters brought in songs that were among their best. John's first contribution was a song whose lyrics he later described as possibly the best he ever wrote, "Across the Universe". He said the lyrics were “purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don't own it, you know; it came through like that … Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship, it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it … It's like being possessed, like a psychic or a medium.” But while Lennon liked the song, he was never happy with the recording of it. They tried all sorts of things to get the sound he heard in his head, including bringing in some fans who were hanging around outside to sing backing vocals. He said of the track "I was singing out of tune and instead of getting a decent choir, we got fans from outside, Apple Scruffs or whatever you call them. They came in and were singing all off-key. Nobody was interested in doing the tune originally.” [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The "jai guru deva" chorus there is the first reference to the teachings of the Maharishi in one of the Beatles' records -- Guru Dev was the Maharishi's teacher, and the phrase "Jai guru dev" is a Sanskrit one which I've seen variously translated as "victory to the great teacher", and "hail to the greatness within you". Lennon would say shortly before his death “The Beatles didn't make a good record out of it. I think subconsciously sometimes we – I say ‘we' though I think Paul did it more than the rest of us – Paul would sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song … Usually we'd spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul's songs, when it came to mine, especially if it was a great song like ‘Strawberry Fields' or ‘Across The Universe', somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in … It was a _lousy_ track of a great song and I was so disappointed by it …The guitars are out of tune and I'm singing out of tune because I'm psychologically destroyed and nobody's supporting me or helping me with it, and the song was never done properly.” Of course, this is only Lennon's perception, and it's one that the other participants would disagree with. George Martin, in particular, was always rather hurt by the implication that Lennon's songs had less attention paid to them, and he would always say that the problem was that Lennon in the studio would always say "yes, that's great", and only later complain that it hadn't been what he wanted. No doubt McCartney did put in more effort on his own songs than on Lennon's -- everyone has a bias towards their own work, and McCartney's only human -- but personally I suspect that a lot of the problem comes down to the two men having very different personalities. McCartney had very strong ideas about his own work and would drive the others insane with his nitpicky attention to detail. Lennon had similarly strong ideas, but didn't have the attention span to put the time and effort in to force his vision on others, and didn't have the technical knowledge to express his ideas in words they'd understand. He expected Martin and the other Beatles to work miracles, and they did -- but not the miracles he would have worked. That track was, rather than being chosen for the next single, given to Spike Milligan, who happened to be visiting the studio and was putting together an album for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. The album was titled "No One's Gonna Change Our World": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] That track is historic in another way -- it would be the last time that George Harrison would play sitar on a Beatles record, and it effectively marks the end of the period of psychedelia and Indian influence that had started with "Norwegian Wood" three years earlier, and which many fans consider their most creative period. Indeed, shortly after the recording, Harrison would give up the sitar altogether and stop playing it. He loved sitar music as much as he ever had, and he still thought that Indian classical music spoke to him in ways he couldn't express, and he continued to be friends with Ravi Shankar for the rest of his life, and would only become more interested in Indian religious thought. But as he spent time with Shankar he realised he would never be as good on the sitar as he hoped. He said later "I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm better off being a pop singer-guitar-player-songwriter – whatever-I'm-supposed-to-be' because I've seen a thousand sitar-players in India who are twice as better as I'll ever be. And only one of them Ravi thought was going to be a good player." We don't have a precise date for when it happened -- I suspect it was in June 1968, so a few months after the "Across the Universe" recording -- but Shankar told Harrison that rather than try to become a master of a music that he hadn't encountered until his twenties, perhaps he should be making the music that was his own background. And as Harrison put it "I realised that was riding my bike down a street in Liverpool and hearing 'Heartbreak Hotel' coming out of someone's house.": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"] In early 1968 a lot of people seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as if Christmas 1967 had been the flick of a switch and instead of whimsy and ornamentation, the thing to do was to make music that was influenced by early rock and roll. In the US the Band and Bob Dylan were making music that was consciously shorn of all studio experimentation, while in the UK there was a revival of fifties rock and roll. In April 1968 both "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around the Clock" reentered the top forty in the UK, and the Who were regularly including "Summertime Blues" in their sets. Fifties nostalgia, which would make occasional comebacks for at least the next forty years, was in its first height, and so it's not surprising that Paul McCartney's song, "Lady Madonna", which became the A-side of the next single, has more than a little of the fifties about it. Of course, the track isn't *completely* fifties in its origins -- one of the inspirations for the track seems to have been the Rolling Stones' then-recent hit "Let's Spend The Night Together": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"] But the main source for the song's music -- and for the sound of the finished record -- seems to have been Johnny Parker's piano part on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues", a hit single engineered by Joe Meek in the fifties: [Excerpt: Humphrey Lyttleton, "Bad Penny Blues"] That song seems to have been on the group's mind for a while, as a working title for "With a Little Help From My Friends" had at one point been "Bad Finger Blues" -- a title that would later give the name to a band on Apple. McCartney took Parker's piano part as his inspiration, and as he later put it “‘Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the  juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up." [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] That idea, incidentally, is an interesting reversal of what McCartney had done on "Hello, Goodbye", where the bass line goes down while the guitar moves up -- the two lines moving away from each other: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Though that isn't to say there's no descending bass in "Lady Madonna" -- the bridge has a wonderful sequence where the bass just *keeps* *descending*: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] Lyrically, McCartney was inspired by a photo in National Geographic of a woman in Malaysia, captioned “Mountain Madonna: with one child at her breast and another laughing into her face, sees her quality of life threatened.” But as he put it “The people I was brought up amongst were often Catholic; there are lots of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection and they are often religious. When they have a baby I think they see a big connection between themselves and the Virgin Mary with her baby. So the original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women.” Musically though, the song was more a tribute to the fifties -- while the inspiration had been a skiffle hit by Humphrey Lyttleton, as soon as McCartney started playing it he'd thought of Fats Domino, and the lyric reflects that to an extent -- just as Domino's "Blue Monday" details the days of the week for a weary working man who only gets to enjoy himself on Saturday night, "Lady Madonna"'s lyrics similarly look at the work a mother has to do every day -- though as McCartney later noted  "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." The vocal was very much McCartney doing a Domino impression -- something that wasn't lost on Fats, who cut his own version of the track later that year: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Lady Madonna"] The group were so productive at this point, right before the journey to India, that they actually cut another song *while they were making a video for "Lady Madonna"*. They were booked into Abbey Road to film themselves performing the song so it could be played on Top of the Pops while they were away, but instead they decided to use the time to cut a new song -- John had a partially-written song, "Hey Bullfrog", which was roughly the same tempo as "Lady Madonna", so they could finish that up and then re-edit the footage to match the record. The song was quickly finished and became "Hey Bulldog": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"] One of Lennon's best songs from this period, "Hey Bulldog" was oddly chosen only to go on the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine. Either the band didn't think much of it because it had come so easily, or it was just assigned to the film because they were planning on being away for several months and didn't have any other projects they were working on. The extent of the group's contribution to the film was minimal – they were not very hands-on, and the film, which was mostly done as an attempt to provide a third feature film for their United Artists contract without them having to do any work, was made by the team that had done the Beatles cartoon on American TV. There's some evidence that they had a small amount of input in the early story stages, but in general they saw the cartoon as an irrelevance to them -- the only things they contributed were the four songs "All Together Now", "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog" and "Only a Northern Song", and a brief filmed appearance for the very end of the film, recorded in January: [Excerpt: Yellow Submarine film end] McCartney also took part in yet another session in early February 1968, one produced by Peter Asher, his fiancee's brother, and former singer with Peter and Gordon. Asher had given up on being a pop star and was trying to get into the business side of music, and he was starting out as a producer, producing a single by Paul Jones, the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. The A-side of the single, "And the Sun Will Shine", was written by the Bee Gees, the band that Robert Stigwood was managing: [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "And the Sun Will Shine"] While the B-side was an original by Jones, "The Dog Presides": [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "The Dog Presides"] Those tracks featured two former members of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Paul Samwell-Smith, on guitar and bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Asher asked McCartney to play drums on both sides of the single, saying later "I always thought he was a great, underrated drummer." McCartney was impressed by Asher's production, and asked him to get involved with the new Apple Records label that would be set up when the group returned from India. Asher eventually became head of A&R for the label. And even before "Lady Madonna" was mixed, the Beatles were off to India. Mal Evans, their roadie, went ahead with all their luggage on the fourteenth of February, so he could sort out transport for them on the other end, and then John and George followed on the fifteenth, with their wives Pattie and Cynthia and Pattie's sister Jenny (John and Cynthia's son Julian had been left with his grandmother while they went -- normally Cynthia wouldn't abandon Julian for an extended period of time, but she saw the trip as a way to repair their strained marriage). Paul and Ringo followed four days later, with Ringo's wife Maureen and Paul's fiancee Jane Asher. The retreat in Rishikesh was to become something of a celebrity affair. Along with the Beatles came their friend the singer-songwriter Donovan, and Donovan's friend and songwriting partner, whose name I'm not going to say here because it's a slur for Romani people, but will be known to any Donovan fans. Donovan at this point was also going through changes. Like the Beatles, he was largely turning away from drug use and towards meditation, and had recently written his hit single "There is a Mountain" based around a saying from Zen Buddhism: [Excerpt: Donovan, "There is a Mountain"] That was from his double-album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, which had come out in December 1967. But also like John and Paul he was in the middle of the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and while he would remain with his then-partner until 1970, and even have another child with her, he was secretly in love with another woman. In fact he was secretly in love with two other women. One of them, Brian Jones' ex-girlfriend Linda, had moved to LA, become the partner of the singer Gram Parsons, and had appeared in the documentary You Are What You Eat with the Band and Tiny Tim. She had fallen out of touch with Donovan, though she would later become his wife. Incidentally, she had a son to Brian Jones who had been abandoned by his rock-star father -- the son's name is Julian. The other woman with whom Donovan was in love was Jenny Boyd, the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie.  Jenny at the time was in a relationship with Alexis Mardas, a TV repairman and huckster who presented himself as an electronics genius to the Beatles, who nicknamed him Magic Alex, and so she was unavailable, but Donovan had written a song about her, released as a single just before they all went to Rishikesh: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper"] Donovan considered himself and George Harrison to be on similar spiritual paths and called Harrison his "spirit-brother", though Donovan was more interested in Buddhism, which Harrison considered a corruption of the more ancient Hinduism, and Harrison encouraged Donovan to read Autobiography of a Yogi. It's perhaps worth noting that Donovan's father had a different take on the subject though, saying "You're not going to study meditation in India, son, you're following that wee lassie Jenny" Donovan and his friend weren't the only other celebrities to come to Rishikesh. The actor Mia Farrow, who had just been through a painful divorce from Frank Sinatra, and had just made Rosemary's Baby, a horror film directed by Roman Polanski with exteriors shot at the Dakota building in New York, arrived with her sister Prudence. Also on the trip was Paul Horn, a jazz saxophonist who had played with many of the greats of jazz, not least of them Duke Ellington, whose Sweet Thursday Horn had played alto sax on: [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, "Zweet Zursday"] Horn was another musician who had been inspired to investigate Indian spirituality and music simultaneously, and the previous year he had recorded an album, "In India," of adaptations of ragas, with Ravi Shankar and Alauddin Khan: [Excerpt: Paul Horn, "Raga Vibhas"] Horn would go on to become one of the pioneers of what would later be termed "New Age" music, combining jazz with music from various non-Western traditions. Horn had also worked as a session musician, and one of the tracks he'd played on was "I Know There's an Answer" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "I Know There's an Answer"] Mike Love, who co-wrote that track and is one of the lead singers on it, was also in Rishikesh. While as we'll see not all of the celebrities on the trip would remain practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, Love would be profoundly affected by the trip, and remains a vocal proponent of TM to this day. Indeed, his whole band at the time were heavily into TM. While Love was in India, the other Beach Boys were working on the Friends album without him -- Love only appears on four tracks on that album -- and one of the tracks they recorded in his absence was titled "Transcendental Meditation": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Transcendental Meditation"] But the trip would affect Love's songwriting, as it would affect all of the musicians there. One of the few songs on the Friends album on which Love appears is "Anna Lee, the Healer", a song which is lyrically inspired by the trip in the most literal sense, as it's about a masseuse Love met in Rishikesh: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Anna Lee, the Healer"] The musicians in the group all influenced and inspired each other as is likely to happen in such circumstances. Sometimes, it would be a matter of trivial joking, as when the Beatles decided to perform an off-the-cuff song about Guru Dev, and did it in the Beach Boys style: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] And that turned partway through into a celebration of Love for his birthday: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] Decades later, Love would return the favour, writing a song about Harrison and their time together in Rishikesh. Like Donovan, Love seems to have considered Harrison his "spiritual brother", and he titled the song "Pisces Brothers": [Excerpt: Mike Love, "Pisces Brothers"] The musicians on the trip were also often making suggestions to each other about songs that would become famous for them. The musicians had all brought acoustic guitars, apart obviously from Ringo, who got a set of tabla drums when George ordered some Indian instruments to be delivered. George got a sitar, as at this point he hadn't quite given up on the instrument, and he gave Donovan a tamboura. Donovan started playing a melody on the tamboura, which is normally a drone instrument, inspired by the Scottish folk music he had grown up with, and that became his "Hurdy-Gurdy Man": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man"] Harrison actually helped him with the song, writing a final verse inspired by the Maharishi's teachings, but in the studio Donovan's producer Mickie Most told him to cut the verse because the song was overlong, which apparently annoyed Harrison. Donovan includes that verse in his live performances of the song though -- usually while doing a fairly terrible impersonation of Harrison: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man (live)"] And similarly, while McCartney was working on a song pastiching Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, but singing about the USSR rather than the USA, Love suggested to him that for a middle-eight he might want to sing about the girls in the various Soviet regions: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Back in the USSR"] As all the guitarists on the retreat only had acoustic instruments, they were very keen to improve their acoustic playing, and they turned to Donovan, who unlike the rest of them was primarily an acoustic player, and one from a folk background. Donovan taught them the rudiments of Travis picking, the guitar style we talked about way back in the episodes on the Everly Brothers, as well as some of the tunings that had been introduced to British folk music by Davey Graham, giving them a basic grounding in the principles of English folk-baroque guitar, a style that had developed over the previous few years. Donovan has said in his autobiography that Lennon picked the technique up quickly (and that Harrison had already learned Travis picking from Chet Atkins records) but that McCartney didn't have the application to learn the style, though he picked up bits. That seems very unlike anything else I've read anywhere about Lennon and McCartney -- no-one has ever accused Lennon of having a surfeit of application -- and reading Donovan's book he seems to dislike McCartney and like Lennon and Harrison, so possibly that enters into it. But also, it may just be that Lennon was more receptive to Donovan's style at the time. According to McCartney, even before going to Rishikesh Lennon had been in a vaguely folk-music and country mode, and the small number of tapes he'd brought with him to Rishikesh included Buddy Holly, Dylan, and the progressive folk band The Incredible String Band, whose music would be a big influence on both Lennon and McCartney for the next year: [Excerpt: The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"] According to McCartney Lennon also brought "a tape the singer Jake Thackray had done for him... He was one of the people we bumped into at Abbey Road. John liked his stuff, which he'd heard on television. Lots of wordplay and very suggestive, so very much up John's alley. I was fascinated by his unusual guitar style. John did ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun' as a Jake Thackray thing at one point, as I recall.” Thackray was a British chansonnier, who sang sweetly poignant but also often filthy songs about Yorkshire life, and his humour in particular will have appealed to Lennon. There's a story of Lennon meeting Thackray in Abbey Road and singing the whole of Thackray's song "The Statues", about two drunk men fighting a male statue to defend the honour of a female statue, to him: [Excerpt: Jake Thackray, "The Statues"] Given this was the music that Lennon was listening to, it's unsurprising that he was more receptive to Donovan's lessons, and the new guitar style he learned allowed him to expand his songwriting, at precisely the same time he was largely clean of drugs for the first time in several years, and he started writing some of the best songs he would ever write, often using these new styles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Julia"] That song is about Lennon's dead mother -- the first time he ever addressed her directly in a song, though  it would be far from the last -- but it's also about someone else. That phrase "Ocean child" is a direct translation of the Japanese name "Yoko". We've talked about Yoko Ono a bit in recent episodes, and even briefly in a previous Beatles episode, but it's here that she really enters the story of the Beatles. Unfortunately, exactly *how* her relationship with John Lennon, which was to become one of the great legendary love stories in rock and roll history, actually started is the subject of some debate. Both of them were married when they first got together, and there have also been suggestions that Ono was more interested in McCartney than in Lennon at first -- suggestions which everyone involved has denied, and those denials have the ring of truth about them, but if that was the case it would also explain some of Lennon's more perplexing behaviour over the next year. By all accounts there was a certain amount of finessing of the story th

本期是《Backyard 后院》月刊的特别增刊。 能让刚出了一期的月刊就临时发行特别增刊，那必然是出现了大事件。 The Beatles在本月初发布了他们的最后一首单曲《Now and Then》，所以本期增刊就是我们对于这首单曲跨越时空的回应。 I know it's true It's all because of you 本期主播： 直立猿、贼贼、小马、于落 Shownotes: 01:57 有生之年赶上一回The Beatles发新歌 08:10 关于Beatles的第一次接触记忆 21:00 披头四、披头士、甲壳虫，大家更喜欢哪一个译名？ 22:40 最早的Beatles行货正版 28:06 滚石为什么没能在中国达到beatles的影响力？ 47:04 小时候喜欢的歌1: Norwegian Wood 47:27 从挪威的森林到村上春树，从婚外恋到印度西塔琴 61:13 小时候喜欢的歌2：You Never Give Me Your Money 62:30 从MOOG合成器到唱片封套阴谋论 77:05 小时候最喜欢的歌3：Happiness Is A Warm Gun 78:30 John Lennon 对于 Yoko Ono 的一种情欲投射？ 85:49 小时候喜欢的歌4:Julia 87:00 送给小野洋子的情歌 94:21 长大后喜欢的歌1：Octopus's Garden 95:49 大家最喜欢的Beatles成员是谁？ 103:54 长大后喜欢的歌2：Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 104:45 许冠杰与印度超觉冥想 110:07 长大后喜欢的歌3：It's All Too Much 111:14 乔治哈里森和他的印度哥们姐们 118:35 长大后喜欢的歌4：When I'm Sixty-Four 120:01 等到老的那一天、布莱尔央视献唱、洞穴时期的Beatles 126:57 个人最喜爱01：Golden Slumbers 126:30 得到多少爱来源于你创造了多少爱 132:20 个人最喜爱02：Tomorrow Never Knows 134:00 Beatles的迷幻乐，成员们的老山东体验 138:50 个人最喜爱03：Please Mister Postman 140:00 老百姓乐队的视角关注百行百业 144:52 个人最喜爱04：Piggies 145:20 曼森家族扭曲解读当作杀戮指导思想 150:03 玩乐时光：「Record jacket junkie!」「周华健与披头士」「炸鱼锔豆薯条」「乔治哈里森活在物质世界」 157:16 感性和真挚的个人感想 Songlist: The Beatles - Now and Then The Beatles - Norwegian Wood The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun The Beatles - Octopus's Garden The Beatles - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da The Beatles - It's All Too Much The Beatles - When I'm Sixty-Four The Beatles - Golden Slumbers The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows The Beatles - Please Mister Postman The Beatles - Piggies The Beatles - A Day In The Life

Anden del af denne “Toppermost” om Yellow Submarine tager fat, hvor første del slap. Medvært Claus Pilegaard og Niels Harild skal i dybden med “Hey Bulldog”, der netop suverænt har vundet afstemningen om  "bedste sang" på “Yellow Submarine”-LP´en fra 1969. En afstemning afholdt i "Elsker The Beatles Facebook-gruppe": https://www.facebook.com/groups/464918250758804 Derfra bevæger vi os henover George Harrisons  monster-opus “It´s All Too Much”, til klassikeren “All You Need Is Love2, der fik et nyt liv på soundtrack-pladen. Derefter dykker vi (undskyld) ned i George Martins spændende soundtrack på side 2. Den nok mindst spillede pladeside i Beatles-kataloget, men også en virkelig interessant samling af filmmusik der fortjener en dybere undersøgelse. Og som har masser af fine momenter. The Yellow Submarine Songtrack fra 1999 får også en tur i maskinen, så der er rigeligt at glæde sig over i denne anden del af episoden, der virkelig tager lytteren med på en gyngende sørejse. Håbet er inspirere lytteren til selv at gribe fat i det anderledes Beatles-album, og finde lysten til at give BEGGE sider af pladen en ny chance.   Hey Bulldog video som omtales i episoden finder du her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vbJQ-MrKo Podcastens facebook side: https://www.facebook.com/elskerthebeatles/ Podcastens instagram:https://www.instagram.com/elskerthebeatles/ Podcastens X: https://twitter.com/ElskerThe              

July 2023 Update: Sarah is preparing to appear at the New York City Poetry Festival at the end of July. Sarah will read a poem and be interviewed as part of an appearance with the monthly poetry show "There's a Lot to Unpack Here". Sarah also has a new book of poetry, “The Familiar”, coming out from Texas Review Press in Spring 2024. Welcome to Episode 19 of Slush Pile! For this episode, we have two “creepy” poems submitted for our Monsters Issue by Sarah Kain Gutowski. While these poems, part of a suite, did not get unanimous votes, we all felt they enveloped us into a universe of magical realism. True to the tradition of scary stories, these poems demand to be read slowly, deliberately, and out loud. Additionally, Gutowski's work is more than simply scary. Like Kathy says, “Sometimes freaky shit happens,” and these poems force our team to consider the ambiguities of life, or pre-death, as Tim puts it. Listen to the outcome, but one thing is for sure: these poems are stronger together. Comment on our Facebook event page or on Twitter with #frogtongue and sign for our email list if you're in the area, and even if you're not! Read on!   At the table: Kathleen Volk Miller, Lauren Patterson, Tim Fitts, Caitlin McLaughlin, Jason Schneiderman, and Marion Wrenn   Sarah Kain Gutowski is the author of two books, The Familiar (forthcoming) and Fabulous Beast: Poems, winner of the 14th annual National Indies Excellence Award for Poetry. With interdisciplinary artist Meredith Starr, she is co-creator of Every Second Feels Like Theft, a conversation in cyanotypes and poetry, and It's All Too Much, a limited edition audio project. Her poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Threepenny Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Southern Review, and her criticism has been published by Colorado Review, Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, and the New York Journal of Books.   Chapter VI: The Children Have a Request The season stretched itself thin, weakened by storms and heat. Inside the damp, shadowy space of the children's fort, the woman with the frog tongue wove baskets and bowls with tight, interlocked laces, while her silk stitches began to fray and lengthen. The gap between her lips widened to where the children could see the white of her teeth. They stared at her, sometimes; she saw them clench their jaws and try to speak to each other without moving their mouths. Before long they'd begin to laugh, and she'd shake with relief at the sound. Then one day, when the trees broke into glittering shards of gold and red and green, and light spun pinwheels above their heads as they walked together between the falling leaves, the girl looked at the woman and asked if she had a name. At this, the woman jerked to a stop. The old surge, the impulse to speak that rose within her belly and chest, overwhelmed. She wanted the girl and boy to know her name. Her tongue, rolled tightly and barred from moving inside its cage, strained against her teeth and cheeks, contorting her face with its rage. The boy stepped back when he saw the change on the woman's face. The girl moved closer, though, to pat the hand she held like she might a frightened kitten or skittish, fallen bird. Let's guess your name, she said. The woman's jaw fell slack, as much as the stitches allowed. Her panic passed away. The boy saw her relax and began to hop around. A game, a game, he chanted. Across her eyes the sun sliced its blade, and though her vision bled with its light, she felt cheered by the girl's hand and the boy's excitement. Aurora. Jezebel. Serafina, guessed the girl. Her brother laughed and grabbed a fallen branch, whacking the moss-covered roots of the trees surrounding them. The woman laughed, too, short bursts of air through her nose. Her happiness shocked them all. The boy laughed again, a raucous sound, and she looked the little girl in the eye. A curve tested her mouth's seams, more grimace than grin, but the girl smiled back and sighed with some relief. Then she reached toward the woman and pulled her close, until they were cheek to cheek. The girl's face, cold and smooth, smelled of the moss and earth her brother lashed and whipped with vigor into the air. The woman with the frog tongue hugged the girl loosely, as if those little shoulder blades were planes of cloud, a shifting mist she could see and feel between her arms but couldn't collect, or hold, or keep for her very own. The girl stepped back yet kept her hands by the woman's face. Her small, thin fingers hovered before the fraying threads. Why don't you take these out? she asked, as she touched each ragged end. At this the boy stopped his joyful assault of the trees and ran to see for himself what they discussed each night when walking home: her muffled, choked murmurings, the gray lattice unraveling across her mouth. He peered closely at each loose stitch, searching beyond her lips for whatever monster she'd locked so poorly inside. He found no monster, just a hint of pink tongue. So he shrugged, said Yes, and spun on his heel to resume his game. The girl jumped up and down, shouting: And then you'll tell us your name! The woman watched the boy whip tree roots free of moss, the tufts spinning into the air and separating, becoming dust, the dark green spores like beaks of birds that plummet toward the rocky earth without fear. She watched the girl's hair lift and fly away from her head, the wind dividing its strands, the way it hung, suspended like dust in the sun, then sank like spores: a sudden drop. She worked her mouth from side to side, and by degrees opened her lips enough to burble a sound that said: Maybe.   Chapter VII: She Grows a Second Heart That night she woke to find another oddity: during sleep her heart had split or twinned itself, and where one muscle pumped before, now beat two. Her blood coursed through her veins twice as fast as before, and over those paths her skin buzzed and stammered, like wire strung tautly between two poles and charged with load. As if she'd run for miles across rolling hills, as if inside her chest two fists beat time all day, beneath the bone she sped at death in the most alive way. The day crawled while her two hearts raced. Above the fire she set a series of clocks to ticking. She watched the flames, sometimes leaning close enough to feel the heat singe her stitches a deeper shade, their fibers scorching until they curled, like dark froth spilling from her mouth. But when her hearts began to flicker more, and faster than she could stand, she turned her eyes to the clocks' marked faces and drew comfort from the second hands' neurotic twitch. Every minute witnessed meant another minute lived. Beneath her breastbone her strange second heart pulsed harder. She sensed the muscle, like her tongue, would leap and fly away from her body if her body let it go. She took the silver-handled knife and incised a cross above the cavity where her hearts ballooned together, jostling for room and dominance. The flaps of skin, pale as egg shell, trembled slightly. A head appeared. A bird with obsidian eyes emerged wet with her blood, shook to shed its burden, and leapt toward the rafters above. She watched the bird and felt air seep into the space it left behind, her single heart unrivaled but lonely in its great room. The wound bled slowly, healing fast to a pale silver scar, flaps falling back to close neatly over the bone, which laid itself again like lines of track or scaffolding across her chest. The bird flew to the window's sill, and ticked its head to look back at the woman. A slight breeze, cool and calm, caressed its dark wings, and it leapt for the steady branch of that arm.

Playlist: 19th June 2023 1). Cindy – The Price Is Right https://cindytheband.bandcamp.com/album/why-not-now 2). The Gabys – Theresa https://fruitsandflowers.bandcamp.com/album/the-gabys 3). Blades Of Joy – Be Free https://bladesofjoy.bandcamp.com/album/s-t 4). Red Pants – Century Phaser https://redred.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-centuries 5). Modern Blonde – Great Dining Hall https://modernblonde.bandcamp.com/album/dome-3 6). The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Best Sides https://theredspinksandpurples.bandcamp.com/album/unloveable-losers 7). Black Thumb – Come On https://blackthumbdeath.bandcamp.com/album/the-flying-propeller-group 8). Neu! – Hero 9). Ulrika Spacek – Compact Trauma https://ulrikaspacek.bandcamp.com/album/compact-trauma 10). Holodrum – Low Light https://holodrum.bandcamp.com/album/holodrum 11). Hattie Cooke – Mistaken https://hattiecooke.bandcamp.com/album/bliss-land-2 12). Tony Jay – Slow Death https://paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-wave-in-the-dark 13). Chime School – Radical Leisure https://chimeschool.bandcamp.com/album/chime-school 14). Whitney's Playland – Rain Song https://paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-sea-breeze 15). Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop (Restructure) https://www.factorybenelux.com/section25.html 16). Arthur Russell – Get Around To It https://arthurrussell.bandcamp.com/album/calling-out-of-context 17). Yes Today – Fell Too Far https://yes-today.bandcamp.com 18). Andy Bell & Masal – Tidal Love Conversation In That Familiar Golden Orchard https://andybell.bandcamp.com/album/tidal-love-numbers 19). April Magazine – Lost https://aprilmagazine.bandcamp.com/album/wesleys-convertible-tape-for-the-south 20). Flowertown – Time Trials https://paisleyshirtrecords.bandcamp.com/album/time-trials 21). The Beatles – It's All Too Much  

I'd like to begin this episode by acknowledging the land that I am learning and living on is the traditional unceded, un-surrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. I don't like clutter. I don't like having all kinds of extra things just laying around taking up space in my physical and emotional spaces.Now, that's not to say I don't have all kinds of things floating around in my mind, or that I live a physical minimalist lifestyle, but I do like things to be neatly placed in their spot. The trick with this is that I sometimes become overwhelmed when I feel as though I'm overly cluttered.  And these feelings and preferences are not specific for me, most often, new leaders feel as though their ‘workspace', in whatever way we are discussing, can feel cluttered, creating spaces where we can get tripped up.So... how can we become uncluttered?Well, I have good news because in this episode, you'll hear from Lisa Zawrotny, a productivity and accountability coach who will talk about decluttering and how this clarity can lead to stress management, giving new leaders clear mind and body.  Lisa will do this by offering her proven decluttering framework. Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front is humbled to have been named #7 in the Top 20 for Best Canadian Leadership-themed podcasts for 2023. Lisa's Episode Links:1. Website: https://positivelyproductive.com2. Facebook: https://facebook.com/positivelyproductive3. Instagram: https://Instagram.com/positively_lisa4. Twitter: https://Twitter.com/positively_lisa5. LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/positivelyproductiveLisa's Recommended Book/Movie/Podcast List:Books:1. For decluttering: Author Peter Walsh - "It's All Too Much" is a good place to start.2. For business/mindset: The Big Leap (Gay Hendrix)3. For life and clutter: Essentialism (Greg McKeown)4. Bonus round: The Four Tendencies (Gretchen Rubin), The PowerSupport the showLeadership Without Passion Limits the Depth of Your Vision. Connect to Trench Leadership:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYnaqOp1UvqTJhATzcizowATrench Leadership Website: www.trenchleadership.caLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trench-leadership-a-podcast-from-the-front/?viewAsMember=trueConcussion Legacy Foundation Canada Website: https://www.concussionfoundation.caAre you looking for a podcast editor/producer? Do you enjoy the quality of the show? The editor of Trench Leadership, Jennifer Lee, is taking new clients. Reach out at https://www.itsalegitbusiness.comI'm excited to share that Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front is partnering with The Critical Thinking Institute, offering affordable courses to help leaders unlock the limitless potential that critically thinking gives all of us. Head on over to CTinstitute.com and check out their courses. When you find a course that speaks to you, and trust me, you will, use discount code trenchleadership for a 20% discount and begin unlocking your full critical thinking potential!

Support MxG & REC: Get a shirt! Support @ $5/month Subscribe & see the videos! Listen to REC on Bandcamp Subscribe to REC on YouTube Get Nick's Newsletter! ~~~~ Season 5 Episode 27 - The Beatles Part 4 - Eclectic Experimenters FEATURED SONGS: REC – “It's All Too Much” (from IT WASN'T ME ! and Synergy for the Weird) The Drop feat. Nick DeMatteo – “I'm So Tired” (from IT WASN'T ME !) OR STREAM THEM ANYWHERE In this fourth edition of my six-part Beatles series, I go over their most experimental phase, focusing on Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (The White Album), and Yellow Submarine. This is the period (1967-69) when the Beatles' cohesion was starting to fracture in more ways than one, including the whole concept of what it meant to be “the Beatles”. While it ultimately caused their breakup, it also spurred three albums with the most eclectic array of music the Beatles ever did. And I explain why The Beatles is the one album that epitomizes everything they ever were. Are any of these albums your favorite? What about this era as a whole? Can you hear how both exploration & dissension went hand in hand? Discuss dammit! LIVE ACOUSTIC CONCERT OF ECLECTIC BEATLES TUNES ~~~~ *intro music credit: REC - "Wake Up High" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I accidentally "autoplayed" a concert of George Martin playing tribute to the Beatles and it was All Too Much. Support me on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's part 2 of George Fest! It rhymes with Pete Best, Bird's Nest, Math Test, Chest Crest, Crest Chest, and of course—and most importantly—Breast Fest, only at Kenny Rogers Roasters. Yeah, it's a chicken joke, perv. Sorry! “Merv”. This week, T.J. and Tony break down the second half of the film and record, and along the way consider:

Still reeling from last week's double classic takedown, this week we're back to quirky mix territory, with a ragtag bunch of oddities, curios, covers and harmonicas. Listen with interest as It's All Too Much, Words of Love, I Should Have Known Better, and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill go up against each other - one goes on, three go down. 

This episode is part of Pledge Week 2022. Every day this week, I'll be posting old Patreon bonus episodes of the podcast which will have this short intro. These are short, ten- to twenty-minute bonus podcasts which get posted to Patreon for my paying backers every time I post a new main episode -- there are well over a hundred of these in the archive now. If you like the sound of these episodes, then go to patreon.com/andrewhickey and subscribe for as little as a dollar a month or ten dollars a year to get access to all those bonus episodes, plus new ones as they appear. Click below for the transcript Transcript A few episodes back, we took a look at the Who's early records, and in passing we talked about the Ivy League, the studio group who sang backing vocals on their first single under that name. In this bonus episode, we're going to look at one of the biggest hits any of the members of the Ivy League were involved in -- a record that became a massive hit, won a Grammy, and changed the career direction of one of the most important comedy bands in Britain. We're going to look at "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band: [Excerpt: The New Vaudeville Band, "Winchester Cathedral"] In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald makes the point that the quintessential line in British psychedelia is from George Harrison's "It's All Too Much", where Harrison sings "Show me that I'm everywhere, and get me home for tea". Whereas American psychedelia is often angry and rebellious -- understandably, since it was often being made by people who were scared of being drafted to fight in a senseless war, and who were living through a time of great instability more generally -- British psychedelia was tinged with nostalgia, both for childhood and for a lost past of the Empire that had now ended. Now, we're going to get into that in much, much, greater detail when we look at the records the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who and others made in this period, but suffice to say that *one* of the several streams of thought that shaped the youth culture of Britain in the 1960s was a nationalistic one, partly in reaction to a perceived dominance by American culture and a belief that there were things about British culture that deserved celebrating too. And part and parcel of that was a celebration of the popular culture of the 1920s and thirties, the height of Britain's influence in the world. This nationalism, incidentally, was *not* necessarily an entirely regressive or reactionary thing, though it certainly had those elements -- there was a strong progressive element to it, and we'll be unpacking the tensions in it in future episodes. For the moment, just take it that we're not talking about the sort of flag-waving xenophobia that has tainted much of modern politics, but something more complicated. This complex relationship with the past had been evident as early as the very early 1960s, with acts like the Alberts and the Temperance Seven reviving 1920s novelty songs in what would now be considered a postmodern style: [Excerpt: The Temperance Seven, "You're Driving Me Crazy "] That had temporarily gone into abeyance with the rise of the Beatles and the bands that followed in their wake, making guitar music inspired by American Black musicians the new popular thing in British culture. But that stream of the culture was definitely there, and it was only a matter of time before music business professionals would notice it again and start to try to capitalise on it. And Geoff Stephens did just that. Stephens was an odd character, who had entered the music business at a relatively late age. Until the age of thirty he worked in a variety of jobs, including as a teacher and an air traffic controller, but he was also involved in amateur theatrics, putting on revues with friends for which he co-wrote songs and sketches. He then went on to write satirical sketches for radio comedy, writing for a programme hosted by Basil Boothroyd, the editor of Punch, and started submitting songs to Denmark Street publishers. Through his submissions, he got a job as a song plugger with a publishing company, and from there moved into writing songs professionally himself. His first hit, co-written as many of his songs were with Les Reed, was "Tell Me When", the debut single for the Applejacks, which made the top ten: [Excerpt: The Applejacks, "Tell Me When"] Many hits as a writer and producer soon followed, including writing "The Crying Game" for Dave Berry: [Excerpt: Dave Berry, "The Crying Game"] And signing Donovan and co-producing his first two albums and earliest hit singles: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Catch the Wind"] Stephens had been making hits for a couple of years when he conceived the novelty record "Winchester Cathedral", which he recorded with John Carter of the Ivy League on lead vocals, imitating the style of Rudy Vallee, one of the most popular singers of the 1920s, who sang through a megaphone -- he became popular before electronic amplification was a big thing. The record was made by session players, and released under the name "The New Vaudeville Band": [Excerpt: The New Vaudeville Band, "Winchester Cathedral"] The record immediately began to sell. It became a massive, massive, worldwide hit, selling three million copies and inspiring a cover version by Rudy Vallee himself: [Excerpt: Rudy Vallee, "Winchester Cathedral"] Oddly, this wasn't the last time in the sixties that a major hit would be inspired by the sound of Rudy Vallee... But Stephens had a problem. People wanted the New Vaudeville Band to tour, and he didn't actually have a touring act. So he turned to the next best thing. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band were a band of dadaist comedy performers who had a wonderful stage act, which among other things involved their lead singer Vivian Stanshall wearing a gold lame Elvis suit, their drummer Sam Spoons playing spoons and washboard, and comedy moments like band members holding up speech bubbles, so for example when someone took a solo, one of the other members might hold up a cardboard speech bubble saying "Wow! I'm really expressing myself!" Their repertoire largely consisted of novelty tunes -- some from the fifties, but mostly songs they'd learned from old 78s from the 1920s, like their first single: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies"] As Bonzos guitarist Neil Innes always told the story, Geoff Stephens was friends with the band's trumpet player Bob Kerr, and called him up asking if the Bonzo Dog  Doo-Dah Band wanted to be the touring New Vaudeville Band. Kerr was excited -- his band would get to be proper pop stars! But when he went to talk to the rest of the group, they were dismissive. They were conceptual artists and creative people, and didn't want to be a manufactured pop band. Bob Kerr, on the other hand, thought that being paid vastly more money to do exactly the same stuff he was doing for next to nothing sounded like a great idea, and quit the band. The next thing the rest of his bandmates knew, they were watching him on Top of the Pops, performing with a band with a spoons player, a lead singer who wore a gold lame suit, and band members holding up cardboard speech bubbles. Kerr had taken the group's entire act, and they had to reinvent themselves, turning from 1920s pastiche to modern rock music -- and the chances are very good that we'll be following them up in the future. But of course, as well as an act, the new group needed a singer, and for that Stephens turned to Alan Klein. Now, this is not the Allen Klein who we've mentioned in the main podcast, and who will be coming up again in future episodes. This Alan Klein was someone who had been on the margins of the music industry as a writer and performer for some time. He'd made records with Joe Meek: [Excerpt: Alan Klein, "Striped Purple Shirt"] and he'd co-written the musical What A Crazy World, which had been made into a film which featured his songs being sung by Joe Brown, Marty Wilde, Freddie and the Dreamers, and...Harry H Corbett: [Excerpt: Harry H Corbett: "Things We Never Had"] He'd also made a single solo album, "Well, At Least it's British", which took a satirical look at British life in the 1960s that was hugely influential on Britpop in the 1990s, though the record sold almost nothing at the time: [Excerpt: Alan Klein, "Twentieth-Century Englishman"] With Klein as the new lead singer, the New Vaudeville Band were a real band. And indeed, they had three more top forty hits in the UK, though their most successful song after "Winchester Cathedral" was a song that Stephens and Les Reed wrote for them which wasn't a hit for them: [Excerpt: The New Vaudeville Band, "There's a Kind of Hush"] That *did*, though, become a big hit for Herman's Hermits: [Excerpt: Herman's Hermits, "There's a Kind of Hush"] The New Vaudeville Band were shortlived -- they only had a handful of hits, and Bob Kerr soon left the group after falling out with their manager, Peter Grant -- another figure who we'll definitely be hearing a lot more from in future episodes of the main podcast. Kerr formed Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band with Sam Spoons and Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, two other former members of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and they had a quietly successful career doing the same act that the early Bonzos had -- all three men also joined in Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band reunion tours in 2006 and 2016. A revived version of the New Vaudeville Band, featuring only the drummer from the touring lineup, performed in the 70s and 80s to little success. But the group's biggest legacy remained their first hit, which actually won the Grammy for Best Contemporary (Rock & Roll) Recording in 1967, beating out a shortlist of "Eleanor Rigby", "Monday Monday", "Cherish", "Good Vibrations", and "Last Train to Clarksville". You can decide for yourselves if "Winchester Cathedral" was, in hindsight, a better record than those. But whether it was or not, it was a fun record that made a lot of people happy. Geoff Stephens, its creator, is unlikely to feature further in this podcast. He wrote many more hit records, but they were almost exclusively for artists like Dana, Tom Jones, Wayne Newton, Ken Dodd, and Mary Hopkin, whose careers lie largely outside the scope of a history of rock music, however broadly defined. He had a long and successful career, but died last Christmas Eve, aged eighty-six, from pneumonia, having been weakened by an earlier bout of covid. So as we enter a second Covid Christmas, I'd just like to say I hope you're all vaccinated, boosted, and otherwise safe. I'm hoping to get one more episode and bonus out before Xmas Eve, and I hope to see you all still here in the New Year. Vo-de-o-do [Excerpt: The New Vaudeville Band, “Winchester Cathedral”]

This week's episode looks at “All You Need is Love”, the Our World TV special, and the career of the Beatles from April 1966 through August 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a thirteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Rain" by the Beatles. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ NB for the first few hours this was up, there was a slight editing glitch. If you downloaded the old version and don't want to redownload the whole thing, just look in the transcript for "Other than fixing John's two flubbed" for the text of the two missing paragraphs. Errata I say "Come Together" was a B-side, but the single was actually a double A-side. Also, I say the Lennon interview by Maureen Cleave appeared in Detroit magazine. That's what my source (Steve Turner's book) says, but someone on Twitter says that rather than Detroit magazine it was the Detroit Free Press. Also at one point I say "the videos for 'Paperback Writer' and 'Penny Lane'". I meant to say "Rain" rather than "Penny Lane" there. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. Particularly useful this time was Steve Turner's book Beatles '66. I also used Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. Johnny Rogan's Starmakers and Svengalis had some information on Epstein I hadn't seen anywhere else. Some information about the "Bigger than Jesus" scandal comes from Ward, B. (2012). “The ‘C' is for Christ”: Arthur Unger, Datebook Magazine and the Beatles. Popular Music and Society, 35(4), 541-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978 Information on Robert Stigwood comes from Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins. And the quote at the end from Simon Napier-Bell is from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, which is more entertaining than it is accurate, but is very entertaining. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of "All You Need is Love" is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but the stereo mix is easily available on Magical Mystery Tour. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I start the episode -- this episode deals, in part, with the deaths of three gay men -- one by murder, one by suicide, and one by an accidental overdose, all linked at least in part to societal homophobia. I will try to deal with this as tactfully as I can, but anyone who's upset by those things might want to read the transcript instead of listening to the episode. This is also a very, very, *very* long episode -- this is likely to be the longest episode I *ever* do of this podcast, so settle in. We're going to be here a while. I obviously don't know how long it's going to be while I'm still recording, but based on the word count of my script, probably in the region of three hours. You have been warned. In 1967 the actor Patrick McGoohan was tired. He had been working on the hit series Danger Man for many years -- Danger Man had originally run from 1960 through 1962, then had taken a break, and had come back, retooled, with longer episodes in 1964. That longer series was a big hit, both in the UK and in the US, where it was retitled Secret Agent and had a new theme tune written by PF Sloan and Steve Barri and recorded by Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But McGoohan was tired of playing John Drake, the agent, and announced he was going to quit the series. Instead, with the help of George Markstein, Danger Man's script editor, he created a totally new series, in which McGoohan would star, and which McGoohan would also write and direct key episodes of. This new series, The Prisoner, featured a spy who is only ever given the name Number Six, and who many fans -- though not McGoohan himself -- took to be the same character as John Drake. Number Six resigns from his job as a secret agent, and is kidnapped and taken to a place known only as The Village -- the series was filmed in Portmeirion, an unusual-looking town in Gwynnedd, in North Wales -- which is full of other ex-agents. There he is interrogated to try to find out why he has quit his job. It's never made clear whether the interrogators are his old employers or their enemies, and there's a certain suggestion that maybe there is no real distinction between the two sides, that they're both running the Village together. He spends the entire series trying to escape, but refuses to explain himself -- and there's some debate among viewers as to whether it's implied or not that part of the reason he doesn't explain himself is that he knows his interrogators wouldn't understand why he quit: [Excerpt: The Prisoner intro, from episode Once Upon a Time, ] Certainly that explanation would fit in with McGoohan's own personality. According to McGoohan, the final episode of The Prisoner was, at the time, the most watched TV show ever broadcast in the UK, as people tuned in to find out the identity of Number One, the person behind the Village, and to see if Number Six would break free. I don't think that's actually the case, but it's what McGoohan always claimed, and it was certainly a very popular series. I won't spoil the ending for those of you who haven't watched it -- it's a remarkable series -- but ultimately the series seems to decide that such questions don't matter and that even asking them is missing the point. It's a work that's open to multiple interpretations, and is left deliberately ambiguous, but one of the messages many people have taken away from it is that not only are we trapped by a society that oppresses us, we're also trapped by our own identities. You can run from the trap that society has placed you in, from other people's interpretations of your life, your work, and your motives, but you ultimately can't run from yourself, and any time you try to break out of a prison, you'll find yourself trapped in another prison of your own making. The most horrifying implication of the episode is that possibly even death itself won't be a release, and you will spend all eternity trying to escape from an identity you're trapped in. Viewers became so outraged, according to McGoohan, that he had to go into hiding for an extended period, and while his later claims that he never worked in Britain again are an exaggeration, it is true that for the remainder of his life he concentrated on doing work in the US instead, where he hadn't created such anger. That final episode of The Prisoner was also the only one to use a piece of contemporary pop music, in two crucial scenes: [Excerpt: The Prisoner, "Fall Out", "All You Need is Love"] Back in October 2020, we started what I thought would be a year-long look at the period from late 1962 through early 1967, but which has turned out for reasons beyond my control to take more like twenty months, with a song which was one of the last of the big pre-Beatles pop hits, though we looked at it after their first single, "Telstar" by the Tornadoes: [Excerpt: The Tornadoes, "Telstar"] There were many reasons for choosing that as one of the bookends for this fifty-episode chunk of the podcast -- you'll see many connections between that episode and this one if you listen to them back-to-back -- but among them was that it's a song inspired by the launch of the first ever communications satellite, and a sign of how the world was going to become smaller as the sixties went on. Of course, to start with communications satellites didn't do much in that regard -- they were expensive to use, and had limited bandwidth, and were only available during limited time windows, but symbolically they meant that for the first time ever, people could see and hear events thousands of miles away as they were happening. It's not a coincidence that Britain and France signed the agreement to develop Concorde, the first supersonic airliner, a month after the first Beatles single and four months after the Telstar satellite was launched. The world was becoming ever more interconnected -- people were travelling faster and further, getting news from other countries quicker, and there was more cultural conversation – and misunderstanding – between countries thousands of miles apart. The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the man who also coined the phrase “the medium is the message”, thought that this ever-faster connection would fundamentally change basic modes of thought in the Western world. McLuhan thought that technology made possible whole new modes of thought, and that just as the printing press had, in his view, caused Western liberalism and individualism, so these new electronic media would cause the rise of a new collective mode of thought. In 1962, the year of Concorde, Telstar, and “Love Me Do”, McLuhan wrote a book called The Gutenberg Galaxy, in which he said: “Instead of tending towards a vast Alexandrian library the world has become a computer, an electronic brain, exactly as an infantile piece of science fiction. And as our senses have gone outside us, Big Brother goes inside. So, unless aware of this dynamic, we shall at once move into a phase of panic terrors, exactly befitting a small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence.… Terror is the normal state of any oral society, for in it everything affects everything all the time.…” He coined the term “the Global Village” to describe this new collectivism. The story we've seen over the last fifty episodes is one of a sort of cultural ping-pong between the USA and the UK, with innovations in American music inspiring British musicians, who in turn inspired American ones, whether that being the Beatles covering the Isley Brothers or the Rolling Stones doing a Bobby Womack song, or Paul Simon and Bob Dylan coming over to the UK and learning folk songs and guitar techniques from Martin Carthy. And increasingly we're going to see those influences spread to other countries, and influences coming *from* other countries. We've already seen one Jamaican artist, and the influence of Indian music has become very apparent. While the focus of this series is going to remain principally in the British Isles and North America, rock music was and is a worldwide phenomenon, and that's going to become increasingly a part of the story. And so in this episode we're going to look at a live performance -- well, mostly live -- that was seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world as it happened, thanks to the magic of satellites: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "All You Need is Love"] When we left the Beatles, they had just finished recording "Tomorrow Never Knows", the most experimental track they had recorded up to that date, and if not the most experimental thing they *ever* recorded certainly in the top handful. But "Tomorrow Never Knows" was only the first track they recorded in the sessions for what would become arguably their greatest album, and certainly the one that currently has the most respect from critics. It's interesting to note that that album could have been very, very, different. When we think of Revolver now, we think of the innovative production of George Martin, and of Geoff Emerick and Ken Townshend's inventive ideas for pushing the sound of the equipment in Abbey Road studios, but until very late in the day the album was going to be recorded in the Stax studios in Memphis, with Steve Cropper producing -- whether George Martin would have been involved or not is something we don't even know. In 1965, the Rolling Stones had, as we've seen, started making records in the US, recording in LA and at the Chess studios in Chicago, and the Yardbirds had also been doing the same thing. Mick Jagger had become a convert to the idea of using American studios and working with American musicians, and he had constantly been telling Paul McCartney that the Beatles should do the same. Indeed, they'd put some feelers out in 1965 about the possibility of the group making an album with Holland, Dozier, and Holland in Detroit. Quite how this would have worked is hard to figure out -- Holland, Dozier, and Holland's skills were as songwriters, and in their work with a particular set of musicians -- so it's unsurprising that came to nothing. But recording at Stax was a different matter.  While Steve Cropper was a great songwriter in his own right, he was also adept at getting great sounds on covers of other people's material -- like on Otis Blue, the album he produced for Otis Redding in late 1965, which doesn't include a single Cropper original: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Satisfaction"] And the Beatles were very influenced by the records Stax were putting out, often namechecking Wilson Pickett in particular, and during the Rubber Soul sessions they had recorded a "Green Onions" soundalike track, imaginatively titled "12-Bar Original": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "12-Bar Original"] The idea of the group recording at Stax got far enough that they were actually booked in for two weeks starting the ninth of April, and there was even an offer from Elvis to let them stay at Graceland while they recorded, but then a couple of weeks earlier, the news leaked to the press, and Brian Epstein cancelled the booking. According to Cropper, Epstein talked about recording at the Atlantic studios in New York with him instead, but nothing went any further. It's hard to imagine what a Stax-based Beatles album would have been like, but even though it might have been a great album, it certainly wouldn't have been the Revolver we've come to know. Revolver is an unusual album in many ways, and one of the ways it's most distinct from the earlier Beatles albums is the dominance of keyboards. Both Lennon and McCartney had often written at the piano as well as the guitar -- McCartney more so than Lennon, but both had done so regularly -- but up to this point it had been normal for them to arrange the songs for guitars rather than keyboards, no matter how they'd started out. There had been the odd track where one of them, usually Lennon, would play a simple keyboard part, songs like "I'm Down" or "We Can Work it Out", but even those had been guitar records first and foremost. But on Revolver, that changed dramatically. There seems to have been a complex web of cause and effect here. Paul was becoming increasingly interested in moving his basslines away from simple walking basslines and root notes and the other staples of rock and roll basslines up to this point. As the sixties progressed, rock basslines were becoming ever more complex, and Tyler Mahan Coe has made a good case that this is largely down to innovations in production pioneered by Owen Bradley, and McCartney was certainly aware of Bradley's work -- he was a fan of Brenda Lee, who Bradley produced, for example. But the two influences that McCartney has mentioned most often in this regard are the busy, jazz-influenced, basslines that James Jamerson was playing at Motown: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "It's the Same Old Song"] And the basslines that Brian Wilson was writing for various Wrecking Crew bassists to play for the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"] Just to be clear, McCartney didn't hear that particular track until partway through the recording of Revolver, when Bruce Johnston visited the UK and brought with him an advance copy of Pet Sounds, but Pet Sounds influenced the later part of Revolver's recording, and Wilson had already started his experiments in that direction with the group's 1965 work. It's much easier to write a song with this kind of bassline, one that's integral to the composition, on the piano than it is to write it on a guitar, as you can work out the bassline with your left hand while working out the chords and melody with your right, so the habit that McCartney had already developed of writing on the piano made this easier. But also, starting with the recording of "Paperback Writer", McCartney switched his style of working in the studio. Where up to this point it had been normal for him to play bass as part of the recording of the basic track, playing with the other Beatles, he now started to take advantage of multitracking to overdub his bass later, so he could spend extra time getting the bassline exactly right. McCartney lived closer to Abbey Road than the other three Beatles, and so could more easily get there early or stay late and tweak his parts. But if McCartney wasn't playing bass while the guitars and drums were being recorded, that meant he could play something else, and so increasingly he would play piano during the recording of the basic track. And that in turn would mean that there wouldn't always *be* a need for guitars on the track, because the harmonic support they would provide would be provided by the piano instead. This, as much as anything else, is the reason that Revolver sounds so radically different to any other Beatles album. Up to this point, with *very* rare exceptions like "Yesterday", every Beatles record, more or less, featured all four of the Beatles playing instruments. Now John and George weren't playing on "Good Day Sunshine" or "For No One", John wasn't playing on "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Eleanor Rigby" features no guitars or drums at all, and George's "Love You To" only features himself, plus a little tambourine from Ringo (Paul recorded a part for that one, but it doesn't seem to appear on the finished track). Of the three songwriting Beatles, the only one who at this point was consistently requiring the instrumental contributions of all the other band members was John, and even he did without Paul on "She Said, She Said", which by all accounts features either John or George on bass, after Paul had a rare bout of unprofessionalism and left the studio. Revolver is still an album made by a group -- and most of those tracks that don't feature John or George instrumentally still feature them vocally -- it's still a collaborative work in all the best ways. But it's no longer an album made by four people playing together in the same room at the same time. After starting work on "Tomorrow Never Knows", the next track they started work on was Paul's "Got to Get You Into My Life", but as it would turn out they would work on that song throughout most of the sessions for the album -- in a sign of how the group would increasingly work from this point on, Paul's song was subject to multiple re-recordings and tweakings in the studio, as he tinkered to try to make it perfect. The first recording to be completed for the album, though, was almost as much of a departure in its own way as "Tomorrow Never Knows" had been. George's song "Love You To" shows just how inspired he was by the music of Ravi Shankar, and how devoted he was to Indian music. While a few months earlier he had just about managed to pick out a simple melody on the sitar for "Norwegian Wood", by this point he was comfortable enough with Indian classical music that I've seen many, many sources claim that an outside session player is playing sitar on the track, though Anil Bhagwat, the tabla player on the track, always insisted that it was entirely Harrison's playing: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] There is a *lot* of debate as to whether it's George playing on the track, and I feel a little uncomfortable making a definitive statement in either direction. On the one hand I find it hard to believe that Harrison got that good that quickly on an unfamiliar instrument, when we know he wasn't a naturally facile musician. All the stories we have about his work in the studio suggest that he had to work very hard on his guitar solos, and that he would frequently fluff them. As a technical guitarist, Harrison was only mediocre -- his value lay in his inventiveness, not in technical ability -- and he had been playing guitar for over a decade, but sitar only a few months. There's also some session documentation suggesting that an unknown sitar player was hired. On the other hand there's the testimony of Anil Bhagwat that Harrison played the part himself, and he has been very firm on the subject, saying "If you go on the Internet there are a lot of questions asked about "Love You To". They say 'It's not George playing the sitar'. I can tell you here and now -- 100 percent it was George on sitar throughout. There were no other musicians involved. It was just me and him." And several people who are more knowledgeable than myself about the instrument have suggested that the sitar part on the track is played the way that a rock guitarist would play rather than the way someone with more knowledge of Indian classical music would play -- there's a blues feeling to some of the bends that apparently no genuine Indian classical musician would naturally do. I would suggest that the best explanation is that there's a professional sitar player trying to replicate a part that Harrison had previously demonstrated, while Harrison was in turn trying his best to replicate the sound of Ravi Shankar's work. Certainly the instrumental section sounds far more fluent, and far more stylistically correct, than one would expect: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Where previous attempts at what got called "raga-rock" had taken a couple of surface features of Indian music -- some form of a drone, perhaps a modal scale -- and had generally used a guitar made to sound a little bit like a sitar, or had a sitar playing normal rock riffs, Harrison's song seems to be a genuine attempt to hybridise Indian ragas and rock music, combining the instrumentation, modes, and rhythmic complexity of someone like Ravi Shankar with lyrics that are seemingly inspired by Bob Dylan and a fairly conventional pop song structure (and a tiny bit of fuzz guitar). It's a record that could only be made by someone who properly understood both the Indian music he's emulating and the conventions of the Western pop song, and understood how those conventions could work together. Indeed, one thing I've rarely seen pointed out is how cleverly the album is sequenced, so that "Love You To" is followed by possibly the most conventional song on Revolver, "Here, There, and Everywhere", which was recorded towards the end of the sessions. Both songs share a distinctive feature not shared by the rest of the album, so the two songs can sound more of a pair than they otherwise would, retrospectively making "Love You To" seem more conventional than it is and "Here, There, and Everywhere" more unconventional -- both have as an introduction a separate piece of music that states some of the melodic themes of the rest of the song but isn't repeated later. In the case of "Love You To" it's the free-tempo bit at the beginning, characteristic of a lot of Indian music: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] While in the case of "Here, There, and Everywhere" it's the part that mimics an older style of songwriting, a separate intro of the type that would have been called a verse when written by the Gershwins or Cole Porter, but of course in the intervening decades "verse" had come to mean something else, so we now no longer have a specific term for this kind of intro -- but as you can hear, it's doing very much the same thing as that "Love You To" intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] In the same day as the group completed "Love You To", overdubbing George's vocal and Ringo's tambourine, they also started work on a song that would show off a lot of the new techniques they had been working on in very different ways. Paul's "Paperback Writer" could indeed be seen as part of a loose trilogy with "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", one song by each of the group's three songwriters exploring the idea of a song that's almost all on one chord. Both "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To" are based on a drone with occasional hints towards moving to one other chord. In the case of "Paperback Writer", the entire song stays on a single chord until the title -- it's on a G7 throughout until the first use of the word "writer", when it quickly goes to a C for two bars. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sing to show you how little the chords actually change, because the riff disguises this lack of movement somewhat, but the melody is also far more horizontal than most of McCartney's, so this shouldn't sound too painful, I hope: [demonstrates] This is essentially the exact same thing that both "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" do, and all three have very similarly structured rising and falling modal melodies. There's also a bit of "Paperback Writer" that seems to tie directly into "Love You To", but also points to a possible very non-Indian inspiration for part of "Love You To". The Beach Boys' single "Sloop John B" was released in the UK a couple of days after the sessions for "Paperback Writer" and "Love You To", but it had been released in the US a month before, and the Beatles all got copies of every record in the American top thirty shipped to them. McCartney and Harrison have specifically pointed to it as an influence on "Paperback Writer". "Sloop John B" has a section where all the instruments drop out and we're left with just the group's vocal harmonies: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Sloop John B"] And that seems to have been the inspiration behind the similar moment at a similar point in "Paperback Writer", which is used in place of a middle eight and also used for the song's intro: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Which is very close to what Harrison does at the end of each verse of "Love You To", where the instruments drop out for him to sing a long melismatic syllable before coming back in: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love You To"] Essentially, other than "Got to Get You Into My Life", which is an outlier and should not be counted, the first three songs attempted during the Revolver sessions are variations on a common theme, and it's a sign that no matter how different the results might  sound, the Beatles really were very much a group at this point, and were sharing ideas among themselves and developing those ideas in similar ways. "Paperback Writer" disguises what it's doing somewhat by having such a strong riff. Lennon referred to "Paperback Writer" as "son of 'Day Tripper'", and in terms of the Beatles' singles it's actually their third iteration of this riff idea, which they originally got from Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step": [Excerpt: Bobby Parker, "Watch Your Step"] Which became the inspiration for "I Feel Fine": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Feel Fine"] Which they varied for "Day Tripper": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] And which then in turn got varied for "Paperback Writer": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] As well as compositional ideas, there are sonic ideas shared between "Paperback Writer", "Tomorrow Never Knows", and "Love You To", and which would be shared by the rest of the tracks the Beatles recorded in the first half of 1966. Since Geoff Emerick had become the group's principal engineer, they'd started paying more attention to how to get a fuller sound, and so Emerick had miced the tabla on "Love You To" much more closely than anyone would normally mic an instrument from classical music, creating a deep, thudding sound, and similarly he had changed the way they recorded the drums on "Tomorrow Never Knows", again giving a much fuller sound. But the group also wanted the kind of big bass sounds they'd loved on records coming out of America -- sounds that no British studio was getting, largely because it was believed that if you cut too loud a bass sound into a record it would make the needle jump out of the groove. The new engineering team of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott, though, thought that it was likely you could keep the needle in the groove if you had a smoother frequency response. You could do that if you used a microphone with a larger diaphragm to record the bass, but how could you do that? Inspiration finally struck -- loudspeakers are actually the same thing as microphones wired the other way round, so if you wired up a loudspeaker as if it were a microphone you could get a *really big* speaker, place it in front of the bass amp, and get a much stronger bass sound. The experiment wasn't a total success -- the sound they got had to be processed quite extensively to get rid of room noise, and then compressed in order to further prevent the needle-jumping issue, and so it's a muddier, less defined, tone than they would have liked, but one thing that can't be denied is that "Paperback Writer"'s bass sound is much, much, louder than on any previous Beatles record: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] Almost every track the group recorded during the Revolver sessions involved all sorts of studio innovations, though rarely anything as truly revolutionary as the artificial double-tracking they'd used on "Tomorrow Never Knows", and which also appeared on "Paperback Writer" -- indeed, as "Paperback Writer" was released several months before Revolver, it became the first record released to use the technique. I could easily devote a good ten minutes to every track on Revolver, and to "Paperback Writer"s B-side, "Rain", but this is already shaping up to be an extraordinarily long episode and there's a lot of material to get through, so I'll break my usual pattern of devoting a Patreon bonus episode to something relatively obscure, and this week's bonus will be on "Rain" itself. "Paperback Writer", though, deserved the attention here even though it was not one of the group's more successful singles -- it did go to number one, but it didn't hit number one in the UK charts straight away, being kept off the top by "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra for the first week: [Excerpt: Frank Sinatra, "Strangers in the Night"] Coincidentally, "Strangers in the Night" was co-written by Bert Kaempfert, the German musician who had produced the group's very first recording sessions with Tony Sheridan back in 1961. On the group's German tour in 1966 they met up with Kaempfert again, and John greeted him by singing the first couple of lines of the Sinatra record. The single was the lowest-selling Beatles single in the UK since "Love Me Do". In the US it only made number one for two non-consecutive weeks, with "Strangers in the Night" knocking it off for a week in between. Now, by literally any other band's standards, that's still a massive hit, and it was the Beatles' tenth UK number one in a row (or ninth, depending on which chart you use for "Please Please Me"), but it's a sign that the group were moving out of the first phase of total unequivocal dominance of the charts. It was a turning point in a lot of other ways as well. Up to this point, while the group had been experimenting with different lyrical subjects on album tracks, every single had lyrics about romantic relationships -- with the possible exception of "Help!", which was about Lennon's emotional state but written in such a way that it could be heard as a plea to a lover. But in the case of "Paperback Writer", McCartney was inspired by his Aunt Mill asking him "Why do you write songs about love all the time? Can you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?" His response was to think "All right, Aunt Mill, I'll show you", and to come up with a lyric that was very much in the style of the social satires that bands like the Kinks were releasing at the time. People often miss the humour in the lyric for "Paperback Writer", but there's a huge amount of comedy in lyrics about someone writing to a publisher saying they'd written a book based on someone else's book, and one can only imagine the feeling of weary recognition in slush-pile readers throughout the world as they heard the enthusiastic "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. I can make it longer..." From this point on, the group wouldn't release a single that was unambiguously about a romantic relationship until "The Ballad of John and Yoko",  the last single released while the band were still together. "Paperback Writer" also saw the Beatles for the first time making a promotional film -- what we would now call a rock video -- rather than make personal appearances on TV shows. The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who the group would work with again in 1969, and shows Paul with a chipped front tooth -- he'd been in an accident while riding mopeds with his friend Tara Browne a few months earlier, and hadn't yet got round to having the tooth capped. When he did, the change in his teeth was one of the many bits of evidence used by conspiracy theorists to prove that the real Paul McCartney was dead and replaced by a lookalike. It also marks a change in who the most prominent Beatle on the group's A-sides was. Up to this point, Paul had had one solo lead on an A-side -- "Can't Buy Me Love" -- and everything else had been either a song with multiple vocalists like "Day Tripper" or "Love Me Do", or a song with a clear John lead like "Ticket to Ride" or "I Feel Fine". In the rest of their career, counting "Paperback Writer", the group would release nine new singles that hadn't already been included on an album. Of those nine singles, one was a double A-side with one John song and one Paul song, two had John songs on the A-side, and the other six were Paul. Where up to this point John had been "lead Beatle", for the rest of the sixties, Paul would be the group's driving force. Oddly, Paul got rather defensive about the record when asked about it in interviews after it failed to go straight to the top, saying "It's not our best single by any means, but we're very satisfied with it". But especially in its original mono mix it actually packs a powerful punch: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"] When the "Paperback Writer" single was released, an unusual image was used in the advertising -- a photo of the Beatles dressed in butchers' smocks, covered in blood, with chunks of meat and the dismembered body parts of baby dolls lying around on them. The image was meant as part of a triptych parodying religious art -- the photo on the left was to be an image showing the four Beatles connected to a woman by an umbilical cord made of sausages, the middle panel was meant to be this image, but with halos added over the Beatles' heads, and the panel on the right was George hammering a nail into John's head, symbolising both crucifixion and that the group were real, physical, people, not just images to be worshipped -- these weren't imaginary nails, and they weren't imaginary people. The photographer Robert Whittaker later said: “I did a photograph of the Beatles covered in raw meat, dolls and false teeth. Putting meat, dolls and false teeth with The Beatles is essentially part of the same thing, the breakdown of what is regarded as normal. The actual conception for what I still call “Somnambulant Adventure” was Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. He comes across people worshipping a golden calf. All over the world I'd watched people worshiping like idols, like gods, four Beatles. To me they were just stock standard normal people. But this emotion that fans poured on them made me wonder where Christianity was heading.” The image wasn't that controversial in the UK, when it was used to advertise "Paperback Writer", but in the US it was initially used for the cover of an album, Yesterday... And Today, which was made up of a few tracks that had been left off the US versions of the Rubber Soul and Help! albums, plus both sides of the "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" single, and three rough mixes of songs that had been recorded for Revolver -- "Doctor Robert", "And Your Bird Can Sing", and "I'm Only Sleeping", which was the song that sounded most different from the mixes that were finally released: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping (Yesterday... and Today mix)"] Those three songs were all Lennon songs, which had the unfortunate effect that when the US version of Revolver was brought out later in the year, only two of the songs on the album were by Lennon, with six by McCartney and three by Harrison. Some have suggested that this was the motivation for the use of the butcher image on the cover of Yesterday... And Today -- saying it was the Beatles' protest against Capitol "butchering" their albums -- but in truth it was just that Capitol's art director chose the cover because he liked the image. Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol was not so sure, and called Brian Epstein to ask if the group would be OK with them using a different image. Epstein checked with John Lennon, but Lennon liked the image and so Epstein told Livingston the group insisted on them using that cover. Even though for the album cover the bloodstains on the butchers' smocks were airbrushed out, after Capitol had pressed up a million copies of the mono version of the album and two hundred thousand copies of the stereo version, and they'd sent out sixty thousand promo copies, they discovered that no record shops would stock the album with that cover. It cost Capitol more than two hundred thousand dollars to recall the album and replace the cover with a new one -- though while many of the covers were destroyed, others had the new cover, with a more acceptable photo of the group, pasted over them, and people have later carefully steamed off the sticker to reveal the original. This would not be the last time in 1966 that something that was intended as a statement on religion and the way people viewed the Beatles would cause the group trouble in America. In the middle of the recording sessions for Revolver, the group also made what turned out to be their last ever UK live performance in front of a paying audience. The group had played the NME Poll-Winners' Party every year since 1963, and they were always shows that featured all the biggest acts in the country at the time -- the 1966 show featured, as well as the Beatles and a bunch of smaller acts, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Seekers, the Small Faces, the Walker Brothers, and Dusty Springfield. Unfortunately, while these events were always filmed for TV broadcast, the Beatles' performance on the first of May wasn't filmed. There are various stories about what happened, but the crux appears to be a disagreement between Andrew Oldham and Brian Epstein, sparked by John Lennon. When the Beatles got to the show, they were upset to discover that they had to wait around before going on stage -- normally, the awards would all be presented at the end, after all the performances, but the Rolling Stones had asked that the Beatles not follow them directly, so after the Stones finished their set, there would be a break for the awards to be given out, and then the Beatles would play their set, in front of an audience that had been bored by twenty-five minutes of awards ceremony, rather than one that had been excited by all the bands that came before them. John Lennon was annoyed, and insisted that the Beatles were going to go on straight after the Rolling Stones -- he seems to have taken this as some sort of power play by the Stones and to have got his hackles up about it. He told Epstein to deal with the people from the NME. But the NME people said that they had a contract with Andrew Oldham, and they weren't going to break it. Oldham refused to change the terms of the contract. Lennon said that he wasn't going to go on stage if they didn't directly follow the Stones. Maurice Kinn, the publisher of the NME, told Epstein that he wasn't going to break the contract with Oldham, and that if the Beatles didn't appear on stage, he would get Jimmy Savile, who was compering the show, to go out on stage and tell the ten thousand fans in the audience that the Beatles were backstage refusing to appear. He would then sue NEMS for breach of contract *and* NEMS would be liable for any damage caused by the rioting that was sure to happen. Lennon screamed a lot of abuse at Kinn, and told him the group would never play one of their events again, but the group did go on stage -- but because they hadn't yet signed the agreement to allow their performance to be filmed, they refused to allow it to be recorded. Apparently Andrew Oldham took all this as a sign that Epstein was starting to lose control of the group. Also during May 1966 there were visits from musicians from other countries, continuing the cultural exchange that was increasingly influencing the Beatles' art. Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys came over to promote the group's new LP, Pet Sounds, which had been largely the work of Brian Wilson, who had retired from touring to concentrate on working in the studio. Johnston played the record for John and Paul, who listened to it twice, all the way through, in silence, in Johnston's hotel room: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"] According to Johnston, after they'd listened through the album twice, they went over to a piano and started whispering to each other, picking out chords. Certainly the influence of Pet Sounds is very noticeable on songs like "Here, There, and Everywhere", written and recorded a few weeks after this meeting: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Here, There, and Everywhere"] That track, and the last track recorded for the album, "She Said She Said" were unusual in one very important respect -- they were recorded while the Beatles were no longer under contract to EMI Records. Their contract expired on the fifth of June, 1966, and they finished Revolver without it having been renewed -- it would be several months before their new contract was signed, and it's rather lucky for music lovers that Brian Epstein was the kind of manager who considered personal relationships and basic honour and decency more important than the legal niceties, unlike any other managers of the era, otherwise we would not have Revolver in the form we know it today. After the meeting with Johnston, but before the recording of those last couple of Revolver tracks, the Beatles also met up again with Bob Dylan, who was on a UK tour with a new, loud, band he was working with called The Hawks. While the Beatles and Dylan all admired each other, there was by this point a lot of wariness on both sides, especially between Lennon and Dylan, both of them very similar personality types and neither wanting to let their guard down around the other or appear unhip. There's a famous half-hour-long film sequence of Lennon and Dylan sharing a taxi, which is a fascinating, excruciating, example of two insecure but arrogant men both trying desperately to impress the other but also equally desperate not to let the other know that they want to impress them: [Excerpt: Dylan and Lennon taxi ride] The day that was filmed, Lennon and Harrison also went to see Dylan play at the Royal Albert Hall. This tour had been controversial, because Dylan's band were loud and raucous, and Dylan's fans in the UK still thought of him as a folk musician. At one gig, earlier on the tour, an audience member had famously yelled out "Judas!" -- (just on the tiny chance that any of my listeners don't know that, Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the authorities, leading to his crucifixion) -- and that show was for many years bootlegged as the "Royal Albert Hall" show, though in fact it was recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. One of the *actual* Royal Albert Hall shows was released a few years ago -- the one the night before Lennon and Harrison saw Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone", Royal Albert Hall 1966] The show Lennon and Harrison saw would be Dylan's last for many years. Shortly after returning to the US, Dylan was in a motorbike accident, the details of which are still mysterious, and which some fans claim was faked altogether. The accident caused him to cancel all the concert dates he had booked, and devote himself to working in the studio for several years just like Brian Wilson. And from even further afield than America, Ravi Shankar came over to Britain, to work with his friend the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, on a duet album, West Meets East, that was an example in the classical world of the same kind of international cross-fertilisation that was happening in the pop world: [Excerpt: Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, "Prabhati (based on Raga Gunkali)"] While he was in the UK, Shankar also performed at the Royal Festival Hall, and George Harrison went to the show. He'd seen Shankar live the year before, but this time he met up with him afterwards, and later said "He was the first person that impressed me in a way that was beyond just being a famous celebrity. Ravi was my link to the Vedic world. Ravi plugged me into the whole of reality. Elvis impressed me when I was a kid, and impressed me when I met him, but you couldn't later on go round to him and say 'Elvis, what's happening with the universe?'" After completing recording and mixing the as-yet-unnamed album, which had been by far the longest recording process of their career, and which still nearly sixty years later regularly tops polls of the best album of all time, the Beatles took a well-earned break. For a whole two days, at which point they flew off to Germany to do a three-day tour, on their way to Japan, where they were booked to play five shows at the Budokan. Unfortunately for the group, while they had no idea of this when they were booked to do the shows, many in Japan saw the Budokan as sacred ground, and they were the first ever Western group to play there. This led to numerous death threats and loud protests from far-right activists offended at the Beatles defiling their religious and nationalistic sensibilities. As a result, the police were on high alert -- so high that there were three thousand police in the audience for the shows, in a venue which only held ten thousand audience members. That's according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle, though I have to say that the rather blurry footage of the audience in the video of those shows doesn't seem to show anything like those numbers. But frankly I'll take Lewisohn's word over that footage, as he's not someone to put out incorrect information. The threats to the group also meant that they had to be kept in their hotel rooms at all times except when actually performing, though they did make attempts to get out. At the press conference for the Tokyo shows, the group were also asked publicly for the first time their views on the war in Vietnam, and John replied "Well, we think about it every day, and we don't agree with it and we think that it's wrong. That's how much interest we take. That's all we can do about it... and say that we don't like it". I say they were asked publicly for the first time, because George had been asked about it for a series of interviews Maureen Cleave had done with the group a couple of months earlier, as we'll see in a bit, but nobody was paying attention to those interviews. Brian Epstein was upset that the question had gone to John. He had hoped that the inevitable Vietnam question would go to Paul, who he thought might be a bit more tactful. The last thing he needed was John Lennon saying something that would upset the Americans before their tour there a few weeks later. Luckily, people in America seemed to have better things to do than pay attention to John Lennon's opinions. The support acts for the Japanese shows included  several of the biggest names in Japanese rock music -- or "group sounds" as the genre was called there, Japanese people having realised that trying to say the phrase "rock and roll" would open them up to ridicule given that it had both "r" and "l" sounds in the phrase. The man who had coined the term "group sounds", Jackey Yoshikawa, was there with his group the Blue Comets, as was Isao Bito, who did a rather good cover version of Cliff Richard's "Dynamite": [Excerpt: Isao Bito, "Dynamite"] Bito, the Blue Comets, and the other two support acts, Yuya Uchida and the Blue Jeans, all got together to perform a specially written song, "Welcome Beatles": [Excerpt: "Welcome Beatles" ] But while the Japanese audience were enthusiastic, they were much less vocal about their enthusiasm than the audiences the Beatles were used to playing for. The group were used, of course, to playing in front of hordes of screaming teenagers who could not hear a single note, but because of the fear that a far-right terrorist would assassinate one of the group members, the police had imposed very, very, strict rules on the audience. Nobody in the audience was allowed to get out of their seat for any reason, and the police would clamp down very firmly on anyone who was too demonstrative. Because of that, the group could actually hear themselves, and they sounded sloppy as hell, especially on the newer material. Not that there was much of that. The only song they did from the Revolver sessions was "Paperback Writer", the new single, and while they did do a couple of tracks from Rubber Soul, those were under-rehearsed. As John said at the start of this tour, "I can't play any of Rubber Soul, it's so unrehearsed. The only time I played any of the numbers on it was when I recorded it. I forget about songs. They're only valid for a certain time." That's certainly borne out by the sound of their performances of Rubber Soul material at the Budokan: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "If I Needed Someone (live at the Budokan)"] It was while they were in Japan as well that they finally came up with the title for their new album. They'd been thinking of all sorts of ideas, like Abracadabra and Magic Circle, and tossing names around with increasing desperation for several days -- at one point they seem to have just started riffing on other groups' albums, and seem to have apparently seriously thought about naming the record in parodic tribute to their favourite artists -- suggestions included The Beatles On Safari, after the Beach Boys' Surfin' Safari (and possibly with a nod to their recent Pet Sounds album cover with animals, too), The Freewheelin' Beatles, after Dylan's second album, and my favourite, Ringo's suggestion After Geography, for the Rolling Stones' Aftermath. But eventually Paul came up with Revolver -- like Rubber Soul, a pun, in this case because the record itself revolves when on a turntable. Then it was off to the Philippines, and if the group thought Japan had been stressful, they had no idea what was coming. The trouble started in the Philippines from the moment they stepped off the plane, when they were bundled into a car without Neil Aspinall or Brian Epstein, and without their luggage, which was sent to customs. This was a problem in itself -- the group had got used to essentially being treated like diplomats, and to having their baggage let through customs without being searched, and so they'd started freely carrying various illicit substances with them. This would obviously be a problem -- but as it turned out, this was just to get a "customs charge" paid by Brian Epstein. But during their initial press conference the group were worried, given the hostility they'd faced from officialdom, that they were going to be arrested during the conference itself. They were asked what they would tell the Rolling Stones, who were going to be visiting the Philippines shortly after, and Lennon just said "We'll warn them". They also asked "is there a war on in the Philippines? Why is everybody armed?" At this time, the Philippines had a new leader, Ferdinand Marcos -- who is not to be confused with his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, also known as Bongbong Marcos, who just became President-Elect there last month. Marcos Sr was a dictatorial kleptocrat, one of the worst leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century, but that wasn't evident yet. He'd been elected only a few months earlier, and had presented himself as a Kennedy-like figure -- a young man who was also a war hero. He'd recently switched parties from the Liberal party to the right-wing Nacionalista Party, but wasn't yet being thought of as the monstrous dictator he later became. The person organising the Philippines shows had been ordered to get the Beatles to visit Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at 11AM on the day of the show, but for some reason had instead put on their itinerary just the *suggestion* that the group should meet the Marcoses, and had put the time down as 3PM, and the Beatles chose to ignore that suggestion -- they'd refused to do that kind of government-official meet-and-greet ever since an incident in 1964 at the British Embassy in Washington where someone had cut off a bit of Ringo's hair. A military escort turned up at the group's hotel in the morning, to take them for their meeting. The group were all still in their rooms, and Brian Epstein was still eating breakfast and refused to disturb them, saying "Go back and tell the generals we're not coming." The group gave their performances as scheduled, but meanwhile there was outrage at the way the Beatles had refused to meet the Marcos family, who had brought hundreds of children -- friends of their own children, and relatives of top officials -- to a party to meet the group. Brian Epstein went on TV and tried to smooth things over, but the broadcast was interrupted by static and his message didn't get through to anyone. The next day, the group's security was taken away, as were the cars to take them to the airport. When they got to the airport, the escalators were turned off and the group were beaten up at the arrangement of the airport manager, who said in 1984 "I beat up the Beatles. I really thumped them. First I socked Epstein and he went down... then I socked Lennon and Ringo in the face. I was kicking them. They were pleading like frightened chickens. That's what happens when you insult the First Lady." Even on the plane there were further problems -- Brian Epstein and the group's road manager Mal Evans were both made to get off the plane to sort out supposed financial discrepancies, which led to them worrying that they were going to be arrested or worse -- Evans told the group to tell his wife he loved her as he left the plane. But eventually, they were able to leave, and after a brief layover in India -- which Ringo later said was the first time he felt he'd been somewhere truly foreign, as opposed to places like Germany or the USA which felt basically like home -- they got back to England: [Excerpt: "Ordinary passenger!"] When asked what they were going to do next, George replied “We're going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans,” The story of the "we're bigger than Jesus" controversy is one of the most widely misreported events in the lives of the Beatles, which is saying a great deal. One book that I've encountered, and one book only, Steve Turner's Beatles '66, tells the story of what actually happened, and even that book seems to miss some emphases. I've pieced what follows together from Turner's book and from an academic journal article I found which has some more detail. As far as I can tell, every single other book on the Beatles released up to this point bases their account of the story on an inaccurate press statement put out by Brian Epstein, not on the truth. Here's the story as it's generally told. John Lennon gave an interview to his friend, Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard, during which he made some comments about how it was depressing that Christianity was losing relevance in the eyes of the public, and that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus, speaking casually because he was talking to a friend. That story was run in the Evening Standard more-or-less unnoticed, but then an American teen magazine picked up on the line about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, reprinted chunks of the interview out of context and without the Beatles' knowledge or permission, as a way to stir up controversy, and there was an outcry, with people burning Beatles records and death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. That's... not exactly what happened. The first thing that you need to understand to know what happened is that Datebook wasn't a typical teen magazine. It *looked* just like a typical teen magazine, certainly, and much of its content was the kind of thing that you would get in Tiger Beat or any of the other magazines aimed at teenage girls -- the September 1966 issue was full of articles like "Life with the Walker Brothers... by their Road Manager", and interviews with the Dave Clark Five -- but it also had a long history of publishing material that was intended to make its readers think about social issues of the time, particularly Civil Rights. Arthur Unger, the magazine's editor and publisher, was a gay man in an interracial relationship, and while the subject of homosexuality was too taboo in the late fifties and sixties for him to have his magazine cover that, he did regularly include articles decrying segregation and calling for the girls reading the magazine to do their part on a personal level to stamp out racism. Datebook had regularly contained articles like one from 1963 talking about how segregation wasn't just a problem in the South, saying "If we are so ‘integrated' why must men in my own city of Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, picket city hall because they are discriminated against when it comes to getting a job? And how come I am still unable to take my dark- complexioned friends to the same roller skating rink or swimming pool that I attend?” One of the writers for the magazine later said “We were much more than an entertainment magazine . . . . We tried to get kids involved in social issues . . . . It was a well-received magazine, recommended by libraries and schools, but during the Civil Rights period we did get pulled off a lot of stands in the South because of our views on integration” Art Unger, the editor and publisher, wasn't the only one pushing this liberal, integrationist, agenda. The managing editor at the time, Danny Fields, was another gay man who wanted to push the magazine even further than Unger, and who would later go on to manage the Stooges and the Ramones, being credited by some as being the single most important figure in punk rock's development, and being immortalised by the Ramones in their song "Danny Says": [Excerpt: The Ramones, "Danny Says"] So this was not a normal teen magazine, and that's certainly shown by the cover of the September 1966 issue, which as well as talking about the interviews with John Lennon and Paul McCartney inside, also advertised articles on Timothy Leary advising people to turn on, tune in, and drop out; an editorial about how interracial dating must be the next step after desegregation of schools, and a piece on "the ten adults you dig/hate the most" -- apparently the adult most teens dug in 1966 was Jackie Kennedy, the most hated was Barry Goldwater, and President Johnson, Billy Graham, and Martin Luther King appeared in the top ten on both lists. Now, in the early part of the year Maureen Cleave had done a whole series of articles on the Beatles -- double-page spreads on each band member, plus Brian Epstein, visiting them in their own homes (apart from Paul, who she met at a restaurant) and discussing their daily lives, their thoughts, and portraying them as rounded individuals. These articles are actually fascinating, because of something that everyone who met the Beatles in this period pointed out. When interviewed separately, all of them came across as thoughtful individuals, with their own opinions about all sorts of subjects, and their own tastes and senses of humour. But when two or more of them were together -- especially when John and Paul were interviewed together, but even in social situations, they would immediately revert to flip in-jokes and riffing on each other's statements, never revealing anything about themselves as individuals, but just going into Beatle mode -- simultaneously preserving the band's image, closing off outsiders, *and* making sure they didn't do or say anything that would get them mocked by the others. Cleave, as someone who actually took them all seriously, managed to get some very revealing information about all of them. In the article on Ringo, which is the most superficial -- one gets the impression that Cleave found him rather difficult to talk to when compared to the other, more verbally facile, band members -- she talked about how he had a lot of Wild West and military memorabilia, how he was a devoted family man and also devoted to his friends -- he had moved to the suburbs to be close to John and George, who already lived there. The most revealing quote about Ringo's personality was him saying "Of course that's the great thing about being married -- you have a house to sit in and company all the time. And you can still go to clubs, a bonus for being married. I love being a family man." While she looked at the other Beatles' tastes in literature in detail, she'd noted that the only books Ringo owned that weren't just for show were a few science fiction paperbacks, but that as he said "I'm not thick, it's just that I'm not educated. People can use words and I won't know what they mean. I say 'me' instead of 'my'." Ringo also didn't have a drum kit at home, saying he only played when he was on stage or in the studio, and that you couldn't practice on your own, you needed to play with other people. In the article on George, she talked about how he was learning the sitar,  and how he was thinking that it might be a good idea to go to India to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar for six months. She also talks about how during the interview, he played the guitar pretty much constantly, playing everything from songs from "Hello Dolly" to pieces by Bach to "the Trumpet Voluntary", by which she presumably means Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March": [Excerpt: Jeremiah Clarke, "Prince of Denmark's March"] George was also the most outspoken on the subjects of politics, religion, and society, linking the ongoing war in Vietnam with the UK's reverence for the Second World War, saying "I think about it every day and it's wrong. Anything to do with war is wrong. They're all wrapped up in their Nelsons and their Churchills and their Montys -- always talking about war heroes. Look at All Our Yesterdays [a show on ITV that showed twenty-five-year-old newsreels] -- how we killed a few more Huns here and there. Makes me sick. They're the sort who are leaning on their walking sticks and telling us a few years in the army would do us good." He also had very strong words to say about religion, saying "I think religion falls flat on its face. All this 'love thy neighbour' but none of them are doing it. How can anybody get into the position of being Pope and accept all the glory and the money and the Mercedes-Benz and that? I could never be Pope until I'd sold my rich gates and my posh hat. I couldn't sit there with all that money on me and believe I was religious. Why can't we bring all this out in the open? Why is there all this stuff about blasphemy? If Christianity's as good as they say it is, it should stand up to a bit of discussion." Harrison also comes across as a very private person, saying "People keep saying, ‘We made you what you are,' well, I made Mr. Hovis what he is and I don't go round crawling over his gates and smashing up the wall round his house." (Hovis is a British company that makes bread and wholegrain flour). But more than anything else he comes across as an instinctive anti-authoritarian, being angry at bullying teachers, Popes, and Prime Ministers. McCartney's profile has him as the most self-consciously arty -- he talks about the plays of Alfred Jarry and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti (for magnetic tape)"] Though he was very worried that he might be sounding a little too pretentious, saying “I don't want to sound like Jonathan Miller going on" --

www.iconsandoutlaws.com   The band Journey came together in San Francisco in 1973 under the auspices of former Santana manager Herbie Herbert who also managed The Steve Miller band, Roxette, and Europe. They were initially called the Golden Gate Rhythm Section and were backup players for established Bay Area bands. Originally, it included Santana alumni Neal Schon on lead guitar and Gregg Rolie on keyboards and lead vocals. Completing the band were bassist Ross Valory and rhythm guitarist George Tickner, both from the band Frumious Bandersnatch. Prairie Prince of The Tubes served as drummer. After one particular performance in Hawaii, the crew quickly abandoned the "backup band" idea and began developing their own distinctive jazz fusion style. After an unsuccessful radio contest to name the group, roadie John Villanueva suggested the name "Journey."   The band's first public gig was at the Winterland Ballroom on New Year's Eve 1973 to an audience of 10,000, and the following day, they flew to Hawaii to perform at the Diamond Head Crater to an even bigger audience. Prairie Prince returned to The Tubes shortly after. On February 1, 1974, the band hired British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, who had recently worked with the one and only David Bowie and was also a member of the second version of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. On February 5, 1974, the new lineup debuted at the Great American Music Hall, showcasing in front of Columbia Records executives. They signed a recording contract with the label following the performance and later performed at venues around the Bay Area.   Journey went into CBS Studios in November 1974 with grammy award-winning producer Roy Halee to record their debut album "Journey." It was released in April 1975, entering the Billboard charts at number 138. This record was a jazzy progressive rock album focused mainly on the band's instrumental talents. It featured songs like "Of A Lifetime" and the instrumental, "Kahoutek,"; both songs pushing the 7-minute mark. Rhythm guitarist Tickner left the band shortly after due to the heavy touring the band was promoting the album, allowing Schon to take on the complete guitar duties.    Journey entered the studio again in late 1975 to record "Look into the Future," released in January 1976 and hit the Billboard Top 200 charts at number 100. The band promoted the album with a two-hour performance at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, which later aired on the radio as touring continued to promote their second album. For this second album, the members of Journey toned down the overt progressiveness of their first release in favor of a more straightforward sound. The album also features a cover version of The Beatles' "It's All Too Much" from the 1968 Yellow Submarine film and 1969 soundtrack. The title track, "Look Into The Future," was the longest recorded Journey song at 8:10 until 1980, when "Destiny" from Dream, After Dream would claim that honor.   From May to October 1976, the band went to "His Master's Wheels" Studios to record their third studio album, "Next," which, just like the previous album, was produced by the band. However, they brought a much more commercial sound while keeping their jazz fusion and progressive rock roots. The album was released in February and charted on the Billboard Top 200 at 85. It would be the last album to feature Gregg Rolie as the lead singer. "Spaceman" with the instrumental "Nickel and Dime" was the single, and, unfortunately, sales did not improve, which led Columbia Records to almost dropping the band.   About these times in the band's career, lead guitarist Neal Schon has said: "I still think some of the stuff we did then was great. Some of it was self-indulgent, just jamming for ourselves, but I also think a lot of other things hurt us in the early days. It took a while for the politics to sort of shape up."   Journey's album sales did not improve, so Columbia Records requested they change their musical style and add a lead singer who would share lead vocals with Rolie. In comes Steve Perry, right? Nope! The band hired Robert Fleischman from the Los Angeles-based band "Staggerwing" and began transitioning toward a more popular style, similar to that of Foreigner and Boston. Journey went on tour with Fleischman in 1977, opening for bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Fleischman and the rest of the band began writing and rehearsing new songs, including the hit "Wheel in the Sky." However, this new lineup would be short-lived because the band was introduced to that guy I mentioned earlier, Steve Perry, during a performance before approximately 100,000 at Soldier Field in Chicago. This chance encounter was significant because differences between Fleischman and manager Herbie Herbert resulted in Fleischman's departure from the band within the year.   Steve made his live debut with the band at the Old Waldorf in October 1977, stepping into His Master's Studios and Cherokee Studios from October to December. Herbie hired Roy Thomas Baker as the new record's producer to add a layered sound approach similar to a band Baker had previously worked with, a little English band called "Queen." With a new lead singer and new producer in tow, the band's fourth studio album, Infinity, was released in January 1978, and peaked at number 21 on Billboard. "Lights", "Anytime," and "Wheel In The Sky" were the album's singles, and it has sold over 3 million copies. Journey then set out on tour supporting the album and headlined a full tour for the first time.   According to Herbie, tensions were high between Aynsley Dunbar and the rest of the band due to the change in music direction from the jazz-fusion sound. Guitarist Neal Schon said: "We would talk about it, and he'd say he'd be willing to simplify things. But we'd get out there, and after five shows he wasn't doing that at all." Finally, Dunbar's resistance came to a head when he started playing erratically and talking crap about the other members, which later resulted in Herbie axing Dunbar after their headline tour. He was replaced by Berklee-trained drummer and Montrose member Steve Smith.   Perry, Schon, Rolie, Smith, and Valory returned to the studio at Cherokee Studios in late 1978 to record their fifth album, Evolution, which was later released in March 1979, peaking at number 20 on Billboard and selling another 3 million copies. This album, which would be a milestone for the band, gave the band their first Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 single, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'," peaking at number 16, and was all over the radio. Following the tour in support of Evolution, the band expanded its operation to include a lighting and trucking operation for future gigs. The tour had grossed more than $5 million, making the band as popular as it had been in five years. Journey later entered Automatt Studios to record their sixth studio album, Departure, released in March 1980, peaking at number 8 on Billboard. The first single, "Any Way You Want It," peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980. The album featured an edgier sound, thanks partly to the "live in studio" way the songs were recorded. They initially went into the studio with 19 tracks, eventually trimming down to 12. This record would also go on to sell over 3 million copies!   Founding member and keyboardist Gregg Rolie left the band following the Departure tour to start a family and undertake various solo projects. It was the second time he had departed from a successful act in his career. Yep, he left Journey and Santana. Keyboardist Stevie "Keys" Roseman was then brought in to record the lone studio track, "The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)," on the band's live album "Captured." Rolie suggested pianist Jonathan Cain of The Babys as his permanent replacement so, with Cain's synthesizers replacing Rolie's organ, Cain had become the band's newest member. With Cain joining as the new keyboard player, the band entered Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, in late 1980, releasing their seventh studio album, "Escape," in July 1981. Escape became their most successful album, charting at number one in the United States. In addition, the album had a ton of hit singles, including: "Who's Crying Now," "Still They Ride," "Open Arms," and the iconic "Don't Stop Believin'." In July of 2021, it was certified diamond, selling over 10 million copies!!   Oh, and "Escape" had its own video game! Journey Escape was a video game developed and manufactured by Data Age for the Atari 2600 console and released in 1982.    Want to hear the plot of the game?   You're on the road with Journey, one of the world's hottest rock groups. A spectacular performance has just ended. Now it's up to you to guide each Journey Band Member past hordes of Love-Crazed Groupies, Sneaky Photographers, and Shifty-Eyed Promoters to the safety of the Journey Escape Vehicle in time to make the next concert. Your mighty manager and loyal roadies are there to help, but the escape is up to you!   These other bands may have been successful, but not Atari 2600 successful.   Journey began another lengthy yet successful tour on June 12, 1981, supported by opening acts Billy Squier, (My Kind of Lover) Greg Kihn Band, Point Blank, and Loverboy. They then opened for one and only The Rolling Stones on September 25 of the same year. MTV videotaped one of their two sold-out shows in Houston on November 6, 1981, in front of over 20,000 fans, later released on DVD, which for 1981 was HUGE.   Following the success of the 1981 tour, the band's entire establishment as a corporation, and the formation of a fan club called "Journey Force," the band released "Only Solutions" and "1990s Theme" for the 1982 Disney film Tron.    At this point, Journey was absolutely killing it, so they entered Fantasy Studios again in the middle of their 1982 tour to record their eighth studio album, Frontiers. Released in February 1983, "Frontiers" was the band's second-biggest selling album, selling over six million copies. Peaking at number 2 on the Billboard charts, it spawned the hit singles "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," "Send Her My Love," "After the Fall," and of course, "Faithfully," and you can hear our version of Faithfully wherever you listen to new music and at the end of this episode.   Journey began the tour supporting "Frontiers" in Japan and continued in North America alongside the Canadian Crooner, Bryan Adams, as the opening act. During the tour, NFL Films recorded a video documentary of their life on the road called "Frontiers and Beyond," shooting scenes at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than 80,000 fans in attendance.   After the success of the Frontiers tour, the band decided to take some well-deserved time off. Steve and Neal both tried their hands at solo projects, and in 1984 Steve Perry, with the help of band manager Herbie, recorded and released his first solo album, Street Talk. Street Talk released Perry's biggest hit as a solo artist, "Oh Sherrie," written for his then-girlfriend Sherrie Swafford. The song hit #3 on the billboard hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Rock chart, and the accompanying music video (also featuring Swafford) was a hit on MTV.   Neal Schon toured briefly in 1984 with his supergroup HSAS, supporting their sole album, "Through the Fire, released that year on Geffen.    Sidenote, what does "HSAS" stands for? Any guesses?   Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve featured lead vocalist Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), lead guitarist Neal Schon, bassist Kenny Aaronson (The Yard birds), and drummer Michael Shrieve. (Santana). The group reportedly rehearsed for less than a month before playing in concert.   Who are the Yardbirds? (For Your Love) Well, they were an English rock band formed in 1963 and launched the careers of a few notable guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck   Also, At age 20, drummer Michael Shrieve was the second youngest musician to perform at Woodstock while playing for Santana. His drum solo during "Soul Sacrifice" in the Woodstock film has been described as "electrifying."   When asked by the press if Journey was finished after selling their properties at the end of 1984, guitarist Neal commented, "No way Journey's ending. We're all too committed to this band to ever let that happen. In fact, one of the reasons we decided to go off in separate directions for a while was to keep the band as strong as ever."   After a productive phone call between Cain and Perry, the band returned to Fantasy Studios in late 1985 to record their ninth studio album "Raised on Radio," but with Steve Perry acting as the album's producer. Unfortunately, things were pretty tense within the band leading Herbie and Steve to fire both bass player Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith for musical and professional differences. This booting took place only a few months into the recording sessions for the album, though Valory later admitted he left the band on his terms.    Bassist and future American Idol judge Randy Jackson, bassist Bob Glaub, and established drummer Larrie Londin were brought in to continue the album's recordings. If you're not familiar with Larrie Londin, check out his credentials. He's done session work with everyone from the Supremes and Marvin Gaye to Elvis and Dolly Parton. He is an absolute legend in the business—an "icon" for sure.   "Raised on Radio" was released in May 1986, peaking at number four on Billboard's album chart but underperforming compared to the band's previous two albums. It featured five singles: The top ten hit "Be Good to Yourself" along with "Suzanne," "Girl Can't Help It," "I'll Be Alright Without You," and "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever?".   The Raised on Radio support tour began at Angels Camp, California, in August 1986. The band performed sold-out shows throughout the United States before concluding with two shows in Anchorage, Alaska, in early 1987, with selected dates supported by Honeymoon Suite (New Girl Now), The Outfield (Your Love), and Glass Tiger (Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone.) The tour featured Randy Jackson on bass and Mike Baird on drums, and was videotaped by MTV for a documentary that included interviews with the band members called Raised on Radio, just like the album. MTV apparently loved themselves some Journey!   With tensions between Perry, the band, and manager Herbie at an all-time high following the tour's conclusion, Perry was unable or unwilling to remain actively involved and was tired of touring as it affected his health and his vocals.   Steve said: "I called Jon and Neal together. We met in San Rafael, we sat on the edge of the marina, and I just told them, 'I can't do this anymore. I've got to get out for a while.' And they said: 'Well, what do you mean?' And I said: 'That's exactly what I mean, is what I'm saying. I just don't want to be in the band anymore. I want to get out; I want to stop.' And I think Jon said: 'Well, just take some time off, and we'll think,' and I said: 'OK, fine.' And I just sort of fell back into my life. I looked around and realized that my whole life had become everything I'd worked so hard to be, and when I came back to have a regular life, I had to go find one."   He also stated: "The truth is, that I thought music had run its course in my heart," Perry explains in a statement on his website. "I'd had an amazing time in an amazing band, and then the chance to express myself as a solo artist too. But I had to be honest with myself, and in my heart, I knew I just wasn't feeling it anymore." "For a long time, I could barely even listen to music. My last show with Journey was February of 1987. Then one day, it hit me that I couldn't do this anymore. I felt as if I had to jump off this merry-go-round — this big beautiful mothership that we had all worked so hard together to build."   Following the "Raised on Radio" tour, the band went into a hiatus. However, Columbia Records released the Greatest Hits compilation in November 1988, which became one of the biggest selling greatest hits albums, selling over 15 million copies and continuing to sell half a million to a million copies per year. The compilation spent 750 weeks on the Billboard album charts until 2008. To date, their greatest hits album has sold almost 21 million copies worldwide.   Here's something else I wasn't aware of. While Steve Perry had retreated from the public eye, Schon and Cain spent the rest of 1987 collaborating with other profound artists. They worked with artists like Jimmy Barnes and Michael Bolton before teaming up with Cain's ex-Babys bandmates John Waite and Ricky Phillips. They, in turn, formed the supergroup Bad English (When I See You Smile, Price of Love) with drummer Deen Castronovo in 1988, releasing two albums in 1989 and 1991.    Steve Smith, however, devoted his time to his jazz bands, Vital Information and Steps Ahead, and teamed up with former bassist Ross Valory and original Journey keyboardist Gregg Rolie. They formed the band "The Storm" with singer Kevin Chalfant and guitarist Josh Ramos, and guess who their manager was? Herbie, of course!!   On November 3, 1991, Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Perry reunited to perform "Faithfully" and "Lights" at the Bill Graham tribute concert 'Laughter, Love & Music' at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, following the concert promoter's death in an unfortunate helicopter accident.    In October 1993, Schon, Rolie, Valory, Dunbar, Smith, and Cain reunited and performed at a private dinner for manager extraordinaire Herbie Herbert at Bimbo's in San Francisco, with Kevin Chalfant (Allen Parsons Project live singer) on lead vocals.   After the breakup of Bad English in 1991, Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo formed the glam metal band Hardline (Takin Me Down) with brothers Johnny and Joey Gioeli, releasing only one studio album before his departure. Neal later joined Paul Rodgers (Bad Company vocalist) in 1993 for live performances, alongside Castronovo. In 1994, Steve Perry had released his second solo album, "For the Love of Strange Medicine," and toured North America in support of the album, though his voice had changed since the last time he had performed. Those high notes weren't as easy to hit anymore. Steve Perry ultimately decided to reunite with Journey under one condition. He demanded that there be a bowl of peanut M&Ms backstage at all times and that they HAD to be all brown with one, just one, green NON-peanut M&M on top.    Yeah, that's not true. Steve's one condition was that Herbie Herbert would no longer be the band's manager. Instead, the band hired Irving Azoff, longtime Eagles manager, as the new manager for the band in October 1995. Steve Smith and Ross Valory reunited with the band and started writing material for their next album, with rehearsals beginning that same month.   The band began recording their tenth studio album, "Trial by Fire" in early 1996 at The Site and Wildhorse Studio in Marin County and Ocean Way Recorders where they recorded under producer "The Caveman" Kevin Shirley (Mr. Big, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater.) This album was released in late October that year, peaking at number three on the Billboard album charts. The album's hit single "When You Love a Woman" reached number 12 on the Billboard charts and was nominated in 1997 for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album also produced three top 40 mainstream rock tracks, "Message of Love," reaching number 18, "Can't Tame the Lion," hitting number 33, and "If He Should Break Your Heart," reaching number 38. It sold roughly 1.5 million units.   Plans for a support tour failed when Steve Perry, while hiking in Hawaii on a ten-day break in August 1996, discovered he had a degenerative bone condition and could not perform without hip replacement surgery. The accident resulted in the album's release date being delayed.   Upon its release, "Trial By Fire" was considered the band's worst-selling album and failed to match the originality and playability of the band's previous work. Neal Schon later admitted that the album had too many ballads and fans just wanted to hear that sweet, sweet rock and roll saying: "Even on our last record, the Trial By Fire record, a lot of the rock stuff just got shelved and ended up being like twenty ballads, I don't know how many ballads."  The band took another break following the album's dismal release to work on more solo projects, waiting for Perry to decide if he was able to or wanted to tour. Schon released his solo album Electric World in 1997, later creating Abraxas Pool with former Journey member Gregg Rolie, drummer Michael Shrieve and a few former Santana members. Jonathan Cain released his two solo albums, Body Language and For A Lifetime in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Following the reunion album's long-awaited release, Journey was becoming restless and tired of waiting for an answer from Steve Perry and touring. Following a phone call between Cain and Perry, Steve announced that he would again depart from Journey, releasing himself from the band's contracts and deciding to semi-retire from the music business. Steve Smith later quit the band, saying that Journey would not be the same without Perry and returning to his jazz career and his project "Vital Information."   The band hired the familiar drummer Deen Castronovo, Schon's and Cain's Bad English bandmate, to replace Steve Smith. After auditioning several high-profile candidates, including Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Kevin Chalfant, and John West (Royal Hunt), Journey replaced Perry with Steve Augeri, formerly of Tyketto and Tall Stories.  The band later recorded the song "Remember Me," featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 film Armageddon. Upon the song's release, the song showed fans that the band made the right decision in hiring Augeri. That soundtrack has sold over 5,392,500 copies.   Following a rehearsal with Augeri and Castronovo, the band went to Japan to perform four gigs, where they had still held an enormous fanbase. When asked how he felt about touring again in over a decade, Neal Schon commented: "It's a little like we are reborn again." Next, Journey embarked on a tour in the United States titled "Vacation's Over" which began in October and concluded at the end of December in Reno. They continued the tour with another leg in 1999, starting in Minnesota in June and finishing in Michigan in September.   From March to August 2000, the band entered Avatar Studios to record yet another studio album, "Arrival" with producer Kevin Shirley. The album was released in Japan later in the year, with a North American release in April 2001. The album had peaked at number 56 on the Billboard charts. However, the single "All the Way" failed to boost sales for the album. It was considered a disappointment with mixed opinions regarding the album, resulting in Sony dropping the band from the label. Upon the album's completion, the band set off on tour supporting the album in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.   In response to the attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001, Journey joined various bands at a major fundraising event on October 20 and 21 at the Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas, Texas, to raise money for the victims and families of the tragedy. The event raised around one million dollars.   The Journey camp was quiet in 2002 as Neal Schon formed ANOTHER band, "Planet Us," with Castronovo, Sammy Hagar, and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony until 2004, when they disbanded. Schon also co-wrote songs alongside the band Bad Company, while keyboardist Jonathan Cain released another solo album.  Recording a few songs between 2001 and 2002, Journey released a four-track EP titled "Red 13" in November under their new label "Journey Music." The band chose the album cover design through a fan contest with the online cover designed by fan Kelly McDonald. However, the retail cover was only made available at the band's shows and was designed by Christopher Payne. Journey only performed one club gig in support of the EP but later began another tour of the United States from May to August 2003.  They continued touring the following year with another summer tour titled "Summer Detour" which began in June and concluded in September 2004. In November of that year, Journey joined REO Speedwagon and Styx for a tour around the Caribbean aboard the Triumph cruise ship. Sounds miserable. I'm not too fond of boats.   In 2005, the members of Journey were inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside former members Steve Perry, Dunbar, George Tickner, Steve Smith, and Fleischmann. Rolie was the only member who did not appear at the ceremony. Surprised to see Perry joining them to accept the induction with the band, Valory commented that it was a pleasant surprise to see him.   Following their addition to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the band began recording at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, for their twelfth studio album, "Generations," which featured producer Kevin Elson who had collaborated with the band before. The album was released on August 29 in Europe, with a North American release following on October 4. The album peaked at number 170 on the Billboard charts. To promote the album and celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, the band embarked on a tour starting in Irvine, California, in June and concluding in Phoenix in October. Each concert on tour was three hours long with an intermission and featured many of their classic hits and included the new songs from the album. "Generations" sold less than 100,000 copies.   In 2006, the band toured Europe and joined Def Leppard on a North American tour. During the tours however, there was talk that Augeri was not singing but instead using backing tracks to cover up his deteriorating vocals. Those allegations resulted in him getting attacked by the fans. Augeri had suffered from vocal attrition problems before the band began the tour with Def Leppard. In addition, Journey had been accused of using pre-recorded lead vocals before, an accusation that former manager Herbie Herbert insists was true. SHOCKER. Valory denied the allegations, stating that it was a myth, a lie, an all-out fabrication, and that Augeri's vocals did not give out!    In a later press statement, the band announced that Augeri had to step down as Journey's lead singer and leave the tour to recover. Augeri performed his last show with Journey on July 4 in Raleigh.   With the tour still happening and successful, the band quickly hired Jeff Scott Soto from Talisman as their lead vocalist for the tour. He performed as Journey's vocalist on July 7 in Bristow for the first time. Because of its success and popularity, The band later extended the tour to November. Soto was officially announced as the band's new vocalist in December 2006. If you're keeping track, that's five lead singers.   Following tours of Europe and the United States in 2007, the band announced on June 12 that Scott Soto was no longer with them. In a statement, Neal Schon stated: "He did a tremendous job for us, and we wish him the best. We've just decided to go our separate ways, no pun intended. We're plotting our next move now." Cheeky. I love it.   Following Soto's exit from the group, the band was without a lead vocalist again. So Neal Schon began searching YouTube for a new lead vocalist, with Jeremey Hunsicker of the Journey tribute band "Frontiers" auditioning and spending a week with the band writing material. Hunsicker claims to have been formally offered the position, but it fell through shortly following tension with Schon. However, one of the tracks co-written with Hunsicker, "Never Walk Away," later appeared on the Revelation album. Neal Schon later found Filipino singer Arnel Pineda of the cover band The Zoo, covering the song "Faithfully." (Our version is arguably better, just saying.) Schon was so impressed that he contacted Pineda to set up two days of auditions with him. The auditions went well, and they later named him the official lead vocalist of Journey on December 5, 2007. In 2007, the hit song "Don't Stop Believin'" gained coverage and sharp growth in popularity when it was used in The Sopranos television series final episode, prompting digital downloads of the song to skyrocket. But, unfortunately, the Soprano's finale also pissed a lot of people off.   In November 2007, Journey entered the studio with Pineda to record the studio album "Revelation." The album was released on June 3, 2008. It debuted at number five on the Billboard charts, selling more than 196,000 units in its first two weeks and staying in the top 20 for six weeks. As a multi-disc set (2-CD), each unit within that set counts as one sale, which I didn't know. Journey also found success on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, where the single "After All These Years" spent over 23 weeks, peaking at number 9. "Revelation" has sold over 1 million copies.   On February 21, 2008, Pineda performed for the first time with Journey in front of 20,000 fans in Chile. The band began the "Revelation" tour in the United Kingdom in June, continuing the tour into North America, Asia, Europe, and South America, concluding in October. Receipts from the 2008 tour made Journey one of the top-grossing concert tours of the year, bringing in over $35,000,000. On December 18, 2008, Revelation was certified platinum by RIAA.   The band performed at the Super Bowl 43 pre-game show in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009. The band continued their Revelation tour in May and concluded it in October 2009. They also performed in Manila in front of 30,000 fans, recorded for a live release, "Live in Manila."   In 2009, "Don't Stop Believin'" became the top-selling song on iTunes among those released before 2000, with over 500,000 downloads.   Journey then entered Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, in 2010 with Pineda to record their next studio album, "Eclipse." The album was released on May 24, 2011, and debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 charts with the singles "City of Hope" and "Human Feel." Unfortunately, "Eclipse" could not match the success of Revelation, barely selling 100,000 copies—an 1/8th of the previous album's sales. They later toured the United Kingdom in June 2011 with Foreigner and Styx. Journey was awarded the "Legend of Live Award" at the Billboard Touring Awards in October. The band later released Greatest Hits 2 in November of 2011.   In June 2015, drummer Deen Castronovo was arrested following a domestic altercation. Journey fired him in August and was replaced by Omar Hakim on the band's 2015 tour. He was sentenced to four years probation after pleading guilty to domestic violence charges.    In 2016, Steve Smith again returned as Journey's drummer, reuniting all of the Escape-Frontiers-Trial by Fire lineup members except lead singer Steve Perry. In 2018, during the North American tour with Def Leppard, Journey topped the Billboard Hot Tours List for grossing more than $30 million over 17 shows.   On March 3, 2020, Schon and Cain announced that they had fired Smith and Valory and were suing them for an alleged "attempted corporate coup d'état," seeking damages over $10 million. The lawsuit alleged Smith and Valory tried to "assume control of Nightmare Productions because they incorrectly believe that Nightmare Productions controls the Journey name and Mark" to "hold the Journey name hostage and set themselves up with a guaranteed income stream after they stop performing." Valory and Smith contested the firings with the support of former manager Herbie Herbert and former lead singer Steve Perry. Court filings revealed that Steve Perry had been paid as a band member for years despite not performing. In an open letter dated that same day, Schon and Cain stated Smith and Valory "are no longer members of Journey; and that Schon and Cain have lost confidence in both of them and are not willing to perform with them again." Valory counter-sued Schon and Cain for their partnership's claim of owning the Journey trademark and service mark.   In June 2020, Neal Schon announced via his social media page that a new album with Jackson and Walden was "starting to take shape." The following month, he confirmed the album's progress and that they would release new music in early 2021. In January 2021, he announced that the album's first single would be released later that year, with the possibility of a worldwide tour to follow. In April 2021, the band reached an "amicable settlement" with former members Valory and Smith, confirming they were no longer a part of Journey. The single "The Way We Used to Be" was released on June 24, 2021.   In July 2021, Neal Schon confirmed that Deen Castronovo, had rejoined as a second drummer.   On February 16, 2022, the band announced the title and track listing of their upcoming fifteenth studio album "Freedom," which is set to be released on July 8, 2022. On March 1, 2022, Cain confirmed that neither Walden nor Randy Jackson remained in the lineup, with Walden's dipping out following a minor heart attack following a live show in Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, they both still played on Freedom, as they had completed their parts on the album before departing. The second single, "You Got the Best of Me," was released on April 26, 2022. The third single, "Let It Rain," was released just recently, on May 17, 2022. So be on the lookout for Journey's new album!   According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Journey has sold 48 million albums in the U.S., making them the 25th best-selling band. In addition, their worldwide sales have reached over 80 million records globally, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.

All of us have our favorite band or artist we love to listen to. Most of us can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to actually meet their idol, let alone hang out with them. David Stark did just that… and more. Author of the book “It's All Too Much”, David describes what it was like growing up in North London in the 1960's as a dedicated fan of The Beatles. From riding his bike to Abbey Road Studios to seeing John Lennon get out of his Rolls Royce limousine and entering the legendary studio (and telling David to move his bicycle in the process), to gatecrashing the Yellow Submarine film premiere in 1968 at the age of 15, eventually winding up sitting in the second row next to Keith Richards, right behind Paul and John, to meeting Sir Paul years later when he inducted David as a ‘Companion of LIPA' in Liverpool for his work with songwriter students. He shares his stories of hanging out with John and Yoko, how he was invited to their final concert, but due to the last minute change of venue (the now legendary “rooftop concert”) missing it because of being in school, but receiving a consolation prize of sorts, along with a signed letter from Ringo. In addition to being an author, David is a life-long drummer who plays with the Trembling Wilburys tribute band, as well as having played with The Quarrymen. The Business Side of Music ™ © 2022 Lotta Dogs Productions LLC Showrunner and Executive Producer Emeritus: Tom Sabella Producer and Host (the guy who has a face for podcasting): Bob Bender Co-Producer - Audio/Video Editor (the man behind the curtain): Mark Sabella Director of Video and Continuity (the brains of the entire operation): Deborah Halle Marketing and Social Media (all knowing): Sarah Fleshner for 362 Entertainment All Around Problem Solver (and Mental Health Therapist for us): Connie Ribas Recorded inside an old beat up Airstream Trailer located somewhere on what's left of Music Row in Nashville TN (except during pandemics, then it's pretty much been accomplished VIA Zoom or over the phone, with the exception for those fearless enough to come to Bob Bender's dining room… and there have been a few that have survived). Mixed and Mastered at Music Dog Studios in Nashville, TN Editing and Post at Midnight Express Studio located in Olian, NY Production Sound Design: Keith Stark Voice Over and Promo: Lisa Fuson Special Thanks to the creator and founder of the podcast, Tom Sabella, along with Traci Snow for producing and hosting over 100 episodes of the original "Business Side of Music" podcast and trusting us to carry on their legacy.  Website: If you would like to be a guest on the show, please submit a request to: musicpodcast@mail.com If you're interested in becoming a sponsor for the show, let us know and we'll send you a media / sponsorship kit to you. Contact us at musicpodcast@mail.com

For the fifth year, Lanea Stagg of The Recipe Records Series and Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series host their lively "Best Beatles Books of 2021" show. (Number) Nine distinguished Beatles experts from all over the world discuss their new Beatles books and give you the inside track on getting these books and how to follow the authors on social media. You'll hear from Dr. Kenneth Womack of John Lennon 1980 and Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of The Beatles, Janice Mitchell of My Ticket To Ride, Bruce Spizer of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, Debbie Greenberg of Cavern Club: The Inside Story, John Borack of The Beatles 100, Olivia Savvas and Michael X. Savvas, One Dream Ago: The Beatles' South Australian Connections, Leslie Cavendish of The Cutting Edge: The Story of The Beatles' Hairdresser Who Defined an Era, David Stark of It's All Too Much, and last, (but FAR from least) Jim Berkenstadt whose best-seller The Beatle Who Vanished (the story of Jimmie Nicol) is being made into a full-length feature film...and whose new book Mysteries in the Music: Case Closed is destined to be a sure hit! Meet each of these noted authors and get the quick scoop on their excellent books for your holiday shopping! Shine on and Happy Holidays!

It's episode 35 and we kick it into high gear by discussing that famous Beatles-Canada collab, the second best second place victory of all time, Pauly and Rocky's robot, how many Beatles podcasts there are, our absurd stupidity as a compliment, the introduction of our friend Tim Clark, Scotty's use of primal scream therapy as a sleep aide, the Beatles Village Green Submarine, the difference between a luthier and a Lutheran, our extra special guests in Mr. Big, what we offer in terms of craft service to our guests, and the feedback-introduced "It's All Too Much."As always, you can find Team Blotto Beatles on Instagram (@blottobeatles) and Twitter (@blottobeatles), by emailing us (blottobeatles@gmail.com), or on the web (blottobeatles.com).  We want to hear from you!Please also take the time to rate and review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.We have a shop!  Grab some merch.  You can also drunk dial us (tel:+18572339793)  or leave us a tip in our new tip jar (don't forget to include a message telling us what drinks we should drink with the money).See the canonical, argument-ending list of Beatles songs we are assembling here: https://www.blottobeatles.com/list; listen to it on Spotify here.Please remember to enjoy Blotto Beatles responsibly.Peace and Love.Hosts: Becker and TommyExecutive Producer: Scotty C.Guest: Tim Clark (@nodisassemble)Additional Musical Supervision: RB (@ryanobrooks)#PeteBestGetThatCheck

Welcome to the Big Beatles Sort Out. Each episode we explore and score 5 songs drawn at random from the Beatles full recording catalogue. If you are enjoying this podcast please let us know at @Big_Sort on Twitter and Instagram, and please leave us a review! Garry is also an author, and all his books can be found on his Amazon Author Page. Please listen out for Paul's other Podcasts, 'The Head Ballet' - all about novelty music, and 'Hark! 87th Precinct Podcast' - all about Ed McBain's seminal police procedural novel series. You can listen along to the songs featured in this episode on this handy Spotify playlist: Episode Playlist Keep up with the scoring charts, or start your own using the blank-master, with this handy google sheet: Big Sort Ranking Table This Week's Songs: The End, Twist & Shout, Boys, It's All Too Much, She's Leaving Home PLUS RUTLES BONUS! Number 1

FOR BEATLES FANS ONLY. Outro song: Goodnight by The Beatles After show outro song: It's All Too Much by The Beatles

David Stark is a London-based music industry veteran and a big Beatles fan since 1963. He was lucky enough to meet all members of the group on various memorable occasions during the 1960s and beyond - often as the result of gate-crashing their events!!Hear how he got to sit next to the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and the time he popped round to Ringo Starr's house to invite him for a drink!Fascinating stories for any Beatles fan - or anyone interested in music and celebrities - as told in David's new book It's All Too Much.Find out more at: www.itsalltoomuch.net They Wrote The Book is presented by Steve Randall and produced by Communication Generation. Find out more at: theywrotethebook.com and communicationgeneration.co.uk

Jasmin and Giuseppe discuss this week’s Grey’s Anatomy episode entitled ‘It’s All Too Much’ where they talk about Derek’s return to the beach, Meredith’s scenes with Hayes, and DeLuca’s memorial. They also discuss the unconventional drinking game that Jackson, Jo, and Link play, Teddy’s guilt, and next week’s promo. You can find us on Twitter at @danceitoutpod and on Instagram at @danceitoutgreysanatomy

Sunday Evening Service - 10 Jan 2021 It's All Too Much by Crescent Church

Welcome to the 2020 Spark Joy highlights show! Make sure you listen all the way through because we share an important announcement towards the end. This year was a wild one and really unlike no other, so we look forward to highlighting some positive moments of joy for the show and announce and celebrate our giveaway winners. Our show wouldn’t be possible without each and every one of you…. our listeners...many whom have been with us from day one. YOU spark the most joy! We are so grateful for your thought-provoking questions, inspiring stories of tidying highs and lows, and your dedicated listenership over the past 3 1/2 years. Book a custom Virtual Tidying Experience with For the Love of Tidy (https://fortheloveoftidy.com/konmari-tidying-lesson/tidy-a-z-what-to-expect-from-a-konmari-virtual-tidy/) Join The Spark Joy Club today! (https://www.patreon.com/sparkjoy) But first, a Joy Check! What Sparked Joy this year for Karin: As hard as this year was, I have been inspired by the perseverance and determination of people everywhere. That has helped me to keep going and has helped me see what I gained and learned this year. Hopefulness! What Sparked Joy this year for Kristyn: Leaning on the Spark Joy and For the Love of Tidy communites as we collectively got stuff done (https://fortheloveoftidy.com/konmari-tidy-tips/i-reached-the-end-of-my-to-do-list/) during a trying season. Joyful Show Highlights 2020 Spark Joy Ep 131 | Getting Things Done with David Allen (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/ep-131-getting-things-done-with-david-allen) Spark Joy Ep 144 | Essentialism with Greg McKeown (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/episode-144-essentialism-greg-mckeown) Spark Joy Ep 127 | Taking a Look at Why It's All Too Much with Peter Walsh (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/ep-127-taking-a-look-at-why-its-all-too-much-with-peter-walsh) Spark Joy Episode 132 | Where Does all the Stuff Go with Secondhand Author Adam Minter (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/episode-132-where-does-all-the-stuff-go-secondhand-author-adam-minter) The 3rd Annual Spark Joy Giveaway! Each of our three winners will receive a special KonMari Prize Bundle that includes: • A signed copy of Marie Kondo’s tidying sequel, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up (https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Joy-Illustrated-Organizing-Changing-ebook/dp/B00Y6QG5D0) • A fifty-dollar gift card to the KonMari Shop on konmari.com • On behalf of For the Love of Tidy, a 2-hour Virtual Tidying Lesson (https://fortheloveoftidy.com/konmari-tidying-lesson/tidy-a-z-what-to-expect-from-a-konmari-virtual-tidy/) And here are our winners! Vapeters A Yooper Learning to Let Go! Spark Joy is the only podcast I listen to weekly - others that I have found around simple living or minimalism either is too much of just a general conversation that I get bored, has too many ads or clearly their agendas are to sell and pitch their guests books etc. I love that Kristyn and Karin have guests that have skills and professions that cover a range of topics and I appreciate their style of asking them specific questions about what they do. I live in the Midwest and would love to hear more from people who live in areas with extreme weather and how they deal with their tools, winter equipment and wardrobe etc. Keep up the good work and inspiration! KerieSue New Listener & Ready to Let Go! "I only discovered this podcast recently. I reluctantly subscribed thinking, “Oh, goodie. ANOTHER decluttering podcast.” *eye roll After the first 5 minutes, I realized, it was SO MUCH MORE than that. The advice offered here by the hosts, combined with the interviews is absolutely priceless! I am hooked and fully intend to “binge-listen” each and every episode as I begin my KonMari journey." Kimmykannonz So informative! Despite having read Marie Kondo's books and watched the Netflix show, I wanted more KonMari content as I completed my Tidying Festival. Kristyn and Karin are so kind, and I love their variety of guests. I have learned a lot from the episodes, and have been able to carry the lessons into my own life. Congratulations to our winners! The Spark Joy Podcast is saying goodbye! After three years, 161 episodes, over 95 hours of KonMari themed tips and over 2.5 million downloads, we’ve decided to end this run of the Spark Joy podcast. Your dedication to our mission has been absolutely incredible. While new episodes are paused, our mission continues. Here are some ways you can continue to listen while you tidy and access our show and community: • All 161 episodes will remain live and available to you during your tidying event. You can revisit your favorites or start from Episode 0 (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/episode-0-who-are-we-and-what-is-konmari) to binge-listen all of our episodes. • The Spark Joy Club will remain active and live! You can request to join by heading over to sparkjoypodcast.com and clicking Join the Club (https://www.patreon.com/sparkjoy) to gain exclusive access to the community, The Tidy Home Joy Journal (https://fortheloveoftidy.com/joy-journal/), monthly live videos, accountability, advice from organizing experts, and inspiration from hundreds of active tidying companions. • If we have updates about the show in the future we’ll announce them via Spark Joy's Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sparkjoypodcast), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sparkjoy_podcast/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/SparkJoyPodcast), so make sure to follow us on your favorite platform. You can also join our mailing list (https://www.sparkjoypodcast.com/about) or reach out to us driectly at contact@sparkjoypodcast.com Karin and I will continue to serve clients in-person and virtually through The Serene Home (https://theserenehome.com) and For the Love of Tidy (https://fortheloveoftidy.com), respectively. Make sure to connect with us via our individual social media accounts, subscribe to our mailing lists, or reach out to us directly so we can continue to address your burning tidying questions. You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home (https://www.theserenehome.com/) You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy (https://fortheloveoftidy.com/)

Episode 22 in which Patrick and Philip discuss the mascot of South Stokes High School. The Sauras were an indigenous group that lived in part along the Dan River in what is now known as Southern Virginia and Stokes County. The Stokes County Boys discuss the morality of having a native mascot, even if it is a specific local tribe versus a blatant stereotype (a la Washington's NFL team). Does it honor or degrade the Saura to be the mascot of this high school? Listen to our discussion and let us know what insight you have (stokescountyboys@gmail.com). This was originally going to be a short first segment but ended up being its own episode! Links to sources: https://www.ncpedia.org/saura-indians http://www.ncai.org/proudtobe https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/indian-mascots https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2128-native-american-mascots-people-arent-talking-about/ Rate, Review, and Subscribe. Do not miss that next episode, now! Where to find us online! Twitter: @SCBoysPod Instagram: @stokescountyboys Email: stokescountyboys@gmail.com Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2db8mudoCDDZj0vsm6UCDP?si=Qk-U6MPxSEqibf61x1CS_A Support the show! Help us keep the pod going and you can choose the topic of a future episode!: https://anchor.fm/scboys/support Cover Art: Gorgeous George Music in the episode: "Change Clothes" by Danger Mouse, Jay-Z, The Beatles "It's All Too Much" by The Beatles --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scboys/support

Overwhelm - It's All Too Much.  We have some simple recommendations for dealing with and overcoming overwhelm.   ----more---- Show Notes Two friends, brought together through unforeseen events to talk business and have some fun too! SelfControl App https://selfcontrolapp.com/?fbclid=IwAR0E2BXii-kUr6GrtGGgQ_Ckl6M9edqZwYCFchzpPK82rkyC9j1MxgqcyAs Party Element Sponsored by the Rah Rah Spirit Team: If you are someone who has a hard time in their day finding time for the things that matter this free Time Tracker can help. Over the course of your week, keep track of what you do with your time and find the gaps that matter! Crush your to-do list by finding extra time in your day. Download it here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5f20b21378145600266f68e5 Hot tips for digging your way out of overwhelm:  https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/three-steps-overcoming-overwhelm.html Contact Business and Party Podcast with your questions or feedback: Email: businessandpartypodcast@gmail.com Business and Party Instagram https://www.instagram.com/businessandpartypodcast Business and Party Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Businessinthefrontpartyinthebackpodcast Meet your hosts: Michelle Price in her own words: I have been working in commercial radio for over 20 years and in the past couple of years have been mostly focused on the digital arena. Digital news is fast-paced and immediate and gives me the chance to put everything I can into a story. Two years ago I created a role from the ground up, delivering local, state and national news to the masses across Queensland. My passion is getting the news you need to know to you, with a positive spin where possible. There's enough doom and gloom out there without me adding to it. I am now offering Mentorship and Spiritual PR courses.  Get in touch with me below.   Contact Michelle Michelle R Price The Lightworker on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellerprice76/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellerprice/ Linked In:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brewer-65b49538/ Lauren Tuck: Runs Rah Rah Consulting and the Rah Rah Spirit Team Membership alongside three podcasts, The Rah Rah Podcast, The Afterlight and Business in the Front, Party in the Back. Lauren has over 15 + years of experience in marketing, sales, event production, online and media. She teaches small and medium-sized businesses strategies for building a profitable, successful and stress-free business and life (because you are more than your business)! Lauren specializes in Time Management, Marketing, Content Creation and Mindset work. Contact Lauren Rah Rah Consulting and the Rah Rah Spirit Team https://rahrahconsulting.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rahrahconsulting Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rahrahconsulting Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/RahRahConsulting/boards/ Lauren's Podcasts: The Afterlight https://theafterlight.podbean.com/ The Rah Rah Podcast https://rahrahconsulting.com/the-rah-rah-podcast/845/

Clickbait: Are TJ and Tony in a Beatles cult? The answer may dumbfound you!!In this Labor Day Spectacular (not that spectacular really) TJ and Tony comb the floor of the Sea of Holes in search of the least fab Beatles songs. Listen for adjectives like "treacly" and "loathsome"(!).Also included are hot takes on R.E.M. vs Bare Naked Ladies, and a very brief tribute to short form improv.Meanwhile, TJ discloses one of his "Beatle nightmares" while Tony wears out his “Beatle bag.”Fact cheque: "It’s All Too Much" was recorded at De Lane Lea Studios and "Baby, You’re A Rich Man" at Olympic Sound Studios.Neither TJ nor Tony can remember what a clavioline is.Listen to the Beatle Bottoms playlist here. 

When It's All Too Much for Me (Psalm 3) - Dr. T. J. Betts

Jimmy "Bo" Horne - If You Want My Love (1972) Jimmy "Bo" Horne - Get Happy (1977) Jimmy "Bo" Horne - Hey There Jim (1970) Jimmy "Bo" Horne - If We Were Still Together (1973) Jimmy "Bo" Horne - Don't Worry About it (1974)  Crack The Sky - Ice (1975) Crack The Sky - Surf City (1975) Crack The Sky - Nuclear Apathy (1978)  Buckingham Nicks - Don't Let Me Down Again (1973) Christine Perfect - Crazy 'Bout You Baby (1970) Kool & The Gang - Kool & The Gang (1969) Average White Band & Ben E King - A Star In The Ghetto (1977) Bobby Goldsboro - Me Japanese Boy I Love You (1964) An infrequently heard Bacharach-David composition.  Frank Zappa - Wind Up Working In A Gas Station (1976) Wild Cherry - Get Down (1972)  From Discogs: Wild Cherry started as a straight rock band, playing Ohio style melodic hard rock with proto power pop influences. They cut a couple records on their own, before getting signed to Terry Knight's Brown Bag label. These records did not have much impact, and the band broke up for a while. In 1975 or thereabouts original Wild Cherry leader Rob Parissi recruited some musicians from the Pittsburgh area, and started a new Wild Cherry. This band tried to crack the rock clubs, but in the time since the original band's breakup, musical tastes, and clubs were changing to more dance music. Parissi wrote a song from experience called "Play that Funky Music", and in doing so, the band followed their lead and became a funk/disco/dance band. Wild Cherry - Living and Loving (1972) Wild Cherry - Baby, Don't You Know (1976) Wild Cherry - If You Want My Love (1978) The Original Animals - Fire On The Sun (1977) Frank Sinatra - High Hopes (1960)  Gary Burbank - Who Shot J R? (1980) George Harrison - The Answer's At The End (1975) The Citizens - Goldwater (1964) Gord Lightfoot - Daisy-Doo (1962) O C Smith - Blowin' Your Mind (1972) From "Shaft's Big Score" Journey - It's All Too Much (1976) The Incredible Kim Fowley - Fluffy Turkeys (1968) Kris Kristofferson - Golden Idol (1967) Kris Kristofferson - Killing Time (1967) Lawrence Hilton Jacobs - Larry's Theme (1978) Les Humphries Singers - Mexico (1972) 

In this episode we turn to our archive of con panels and pull one of the earliest recordings that we have for the 42cast. The year was 2016, but the content is still relevant today. In this one we discuss how prolific Doctor Who media is and what our strategies are for deciding how much and in what ways we keep up with it. Since this was a con panel there is no five-minute controversy. This week Nathan Skreslet from PixelWho and John Clarke from the Caffeinated Comics Podcast are part of the panel. Like what you heard? Follow us […] The post The 42cast Episode 77: Chicago TARDIS 2016 – It’s All Too Much…Or Is it? appeared first on The ESO Network.

In this episode we turn to our archive of con panels and pull one of the earliest recordings that we have for the 42cast. The year was 2016, but the content is still relevant today. In this one we discuss how prolific Doctor Who media is and what our strategies are for deciding how much... The post The 42cast Episode 77: Chicago TARDIS 2016 – It’s All Too Much…Or Is it? appeared first on The 42cast.

Kathleen's situation proves perilous on a scale scarcely imagined by her comrades, and the cell discovers that there's far more than the sentient rain to fear in this strange place. Music Credits: City-Hunter - Cassiopeia Three Chain Links - Magic Hour Three Chain Links - It’s All Too Much.Kevin MacLeod - Aunt TagonistHeadlighter - Dystopia Headlighter - City of Eternal NightDEgITx - Grim ReaperDEgITx - Dead SpaceKevin MacLeod - The HiveKevin MacLeod - The House of LeavesDid You Just Hex Me? - At the Derry International CircusSergey Cheremisinov - Dybbuk’s White Eyes Cocour - Todd’s ArrivalNaoya Sakamata - 無の鼓動と月 - DARK PIANO MUSICKevin MacLeod - Long Note TwoOpening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith Director's Note: The ORPHEUS Protocol is supported by our generous backers on Patreon: Visit http://www.patreon.com/orpheusprotocol for details. If you enjoy The ORPHEUS Protocol, please consider dropping us a review on iTunes. This is the best way for us to reach a broader audience. The ORPHEUS Protocol attempts to release every Monday, and is almost always successful.

George contribuyó con dos canciones para el álbum Help! "I Need You" y "You Like Me To Much". Y para la película: Yellow Submarine: It's All Too Much.

Fanfics read: The Secret of the scopius doll (by Daddy of Dumptruck Chreg Bortz) It’s All Too Much (by Beatle Babe) Forza Horizon 3.docx Readers: Stevo, David, Val, Logan, Shawn, Matt, Sara What a weird way to spend a Wednesday, huh? We only finished two stories, one of which we had less than two pages left to go on, but what we failed to accomplish by reading a lot we made up for with laughing a lot! Also, can you turn your mic gain up a little bit and stop leaning back so far, David? Please? We hope you enjoy the totally serious not at all lampooned Forza Horizon 3 review. The wonderful Matt and amazing Sara joined us this time around. To grab the fanfics and more, go to https://www.fridaynightfanfiction.com/2019/09/21/season-9-episode-11-isnt-desperation-just-another-word-for-friendship/

Habíamos dejado al grupo saboreando las mieles del éxito de su Sgt. Pepper’s pero… éste éxito abrió la caja de los truenos y ya nada fue igual. John andaba con su nueva pareja, la artista conceptual Yoko Ono, y Paul pronto rompería lazos con el pasado y se enamoraría de la fotógrafa Linda Eastman. En 1968, tras el lanzamiento de su discográfica Appel, se habían convertido en un monstruo y antes de que este monstruo les devorara, quisieron recuperar sus propias identidades. Se reunieron para grabar, pero John y Paul ya no trabajaron juntos. Cada uno aportaba sus propias canciones (George hacía lo mismo) y las grababan como grupo, nada más. En este caldo de cultivo, nada propicio, se cocieron los últimos álbumes de la banda. El primero, Magical Mystery Tour, que era la banda sonora de su próxima película, apareció como un doble EP de seis temas a principios de diciembre de 1967. En los Estados Unidos las seis canciones aparecieron en un LP titulado de la misma manera, en el que se incluyeron también los temas de sus últimos sencillos. Allmusic, que es una guía de referencia para los aficionados, decía que las canciones contenidas en el Magical Mystery Tour americano eran: « «enormes, gloriosas e innovadoras». Pero amigos, no siempre se acierta y, aunque el álbum estableció un nuevo récord en sus primeras tres semanas de venta inicial en los Estados Unidos, la película, Magical Mystery Tour, dirigida básicamente por McCartney, les trajo la primera crítica negativa por parte de la prensa del Reino Unido, con artículos bastante duros. El Daily Express la calificó de «una indudable basura» y la describió como «una sucesión de imágenes sin editar mostrando a un grupo de gente subiendo y bajando de un autobús y viajando todo el tiempo». El Daily Mail la calificó como «un proyecto vanidoso», mientras que The Guardian la calificó como «una especie de juego de fantasía moral sobre la grosería, la calidez y la estupidez de la audiencia». Les fue tan rotundamente mal que fue cancelada en Estados Unidos. Hay en este disco, en la edición americana, una canción editada también en sencillo sobre la que merece la pena detenerse, es Strawberry Field. Strawberry Field era el nombre de un orfanato del Ejército de Salvación, muy cerca de la casa de John Lennon en Woolton, un suburbio de Liverpool. Lennon y sus amigos de la infancia solían jugar en el jardín arbolado que se encontraba detrás de la casa. Allí, en ese jardín, todos los veranos se celebraba un fiesta donde el niño Lennon se lo pasaba en grande escuchando la música de la banda del Ejercito de Salvación. Él mismo dijo que esta canción refleja la nostalgia y el recuerdo de aquellos primeros años vividos en Liverpool. A pesar de que se está refiriendo a lugares reales, también se detectan fuertes connotaciones surrealistas y psicodélicas. El productor George Martin dijo que cuando escuchó por primera vez la canción, pensó en un «mundo de sueños brumoso e impresionista». Para Lennon el periodo de tiempo en el que compuso la canción fue, por decirlo de alguna manera, complicado. A la controvertida frase «somos más populares que Jesucristo» y el desaire a Imelda Marcos, tenemos que añadir que el matrimonio de Lennon con Cynthia Powell estaba fallando y que había comenzado a consumir LSD de forma habitual. Con todo, la canción es preciosa. Entre tanto, apareció lo que sería el álbum The Beatles, un doble LP popularmente conocido como el White Album —Álbum Blanco— debido a su funda totalmente blanca. En contraposición a las anteriores fundas o cubiertas, el Álbum Blanco —publicado con el plus del diseño minimalista de Richard Hamilton— contrastaba con anteriores diseños de las cubiertas de estilo pop-art como los que realizaba Peter Blake. La inspiración creativa para este álbum llegó de la mano de su nuevo gurú Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. El caso es que el grupo participó en un «curso-guía» de tres meses de meditación transcendental que se convirtió en uno de sus períodos más creativos, produciendo allí un gran número de canciones, incluyendo la mayor parte de las treinta grabadas para el álbum. Pero pronto se cayeron del guindo: Ringo se marchó después de diez días de estancia allí, comparando aquel lugar con un campamento familiar de verano, y McCartney finalmente se aburrió con el comportamiento de sus compañeros en aquel lugar y se fue un mes después. A Lennon y Harrison les tuvieron que abrir los ojos gente de su entorno. Al constatar la manipulación a la que estaban siendo sometidos, Lennon quedó convencido y se fue abruptamente, llevándose a Harrison y al resto de la comitiva consigo. McCartney dijo: «Hemos cometido un error. Pensábamos que había algo más en el Maharishi de lo que realmente había». Durante las sesiones de grabación para el álbum, que se extendieron desde fines de mayo hasta mediados de octubre de 1968, las diferencias y los desacuerdos comenzaron a dividirlos. Ringo los dejó por un tiempo, lo que hizo que siguiesen adelante con McCartney tocando la batería en varios temas. El romance de Lennon con la artista vanguardista Yoko Ono contribuyó a crearles tensiones, haciendo que Lennon perdiese el interés en escribir canciones con McCartney. Desobedeciendo el acuerdo que ellos mismos establecieron de no llevar parejas al estudio, Lennon insistió en llevar a Ono a todas las sesiones de grabación, situación que no le agradaba a Harrison. También era cada vez más despectivo con los aportes creativos de McCartney, al que empezó a identificar como «autor de música para abuelitas», calificando la canción «Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da» como «música-basura para abuelitas». Recordando las sesiones del White Album, Lennon ofreció un abreviado resumen de la historia que había vivido con sus compañeros a partir de ese momento, diciendo: «Es como si sacaras cada tema de ahí y lo convirtieras en todo mío y todo de Paul [...] solamente yo con músicos de acompañamiento por un lado y Paul igualmente por otro; y me lo pasé bien. Entonces fue cuando nos disolvimos». McCartney también recordó que las sesiones marcaron los comienzos de la ruptura, diciendo: «Hasta ese momento, el mundo era un problema, pero nosotros no lo éramos», lo cual siempre había sido «la mejor cosa de The Beatles». Publicado en noviembre, el White Album fue el primer álbum de The Beatles editado por Apple Records. El sello discográfico era una de las divisiones de la empresa Apple Corps, formada por el grupo a su regreso de la India. El álbum tuvo más de dos millones de pedidos anticipados, vendiendo casi cuatro millones de copias en los Estados Unidos en poco más de un mes, y sus temas dominaron las listas de las emisoras de radio estadounidenses. A pesar de su popularidad, el doble álbum no tuvo, en los primeros días, una buena acogida. La crítica osciló entre la confusión y el desencanto. Finalmente, la opinión general de la crítica se decantó a favor del White Album, y en 2003 la revista Rolling Stone lo consideró el décimo mejor álbum de todos los tiempos. Esta es una de las mejores aportaciones de Harrison al album. Para ese entonces, el interés por las letras de The Beatles estaba tomando un aspecto más serio. Cuando la canción de Lennon «Revolution» se había publicado en un sencillo, como anticipo del White Album, su mensaje parecía claro: «libera tu mente» y «no cuentes conmigo» para cualquier conversación sobre la destrucción como medio para alcanzar un fin. En un año caracterizado por protestas estudiantiles que se extendían desde Varsovia hasta París y Chicago, la respuesta de la izquierda radical fue mordaz. Sin embargo, la versión de la canción en el White Album, «Revolution 1», añadía una palabra extra: «count me out... in» (traducible por: «no cuentes conmigo..., cuenta conmigo»), lo que implicaba un cambio de ideas desde la publicación del sencillo. De hecho, la cronología se había invertido: la ambigua versión del álbum se había grabado antes, pero algunos creyeron que The Beatles ahora decían que la violencia política podía ser, a pesar de todo, justificable. El LP Yellow Submarine apareció finalmente en enero de 1969. Contenía sólo cuatro de sus canciones inéditas, junto a la pista del título, ya aparecida en Revolver; una canción editada en sencillo en 1967; y siete piezas instrumentales compuestas por George Martin e interpretadas con su orquestada. Debido a la escasez de música nueva que la agrupación proporcionaba, Allmusic sugirió que quizás el álbum «no fuese esencial», salvo por el tema «It's All Too Much» de Harrison, «la joya de las nuevas canciones [...] resplandecida por un mellotron envolvente, una percusión increíble, y un feedback de guitarra fastuoso [...] una excursión virtuosa en la por otra parte confusa psicodelia reinante». Aunque Let It Be fue el último álbum que lanzaron, la mayor parte de su contenido fue grabado antes de Abbey Road. Inicialmente llamado Get Back, Let It Be se originó de una idea que Martin atribuye a McCartney: preparar nuevo material e interpretarlo por primera vez en un concierto, grabarlo para un nuevo álbum y filmar sus sesiones de grabación. En este caso, mucho del contenido del disco vino del trabajo en estudio, muchas horas de las cuales fueron capturadas en película por el director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Martin dijo que los ensayos y la grabación para el proyecto, que ocuparon gran parte de enero de 1969, «no fue en absoluto una experiencia feliz. Fue una época en la que las relaciones entre los miembros de The Beatles estaban en su punto más bajo». Agravado por las relaciones entre McCartney y Lennon, Harrison abandonó los ensayos durante una semana. Regresó con el teclista Billy Preston, que participó en los últimos diez días de las sesiones del álbum y que fue acreditado en el sencillo «Get Back», el único músico en recibir tal reconocimiento en una grabación oficial de The Beatles. Pensando en la localización para realizar el concierto, a los miembros de la banda se les agotaron todas las ideas, rechazando, entre otros escenarios, un barco en el río Támesis, el desierto de Túnez y el Coliseo de Roma. Finalmente, acompañados por Preston, llevaron a cabo y filmaron la actuación en la azotea del edificio de Apple Corps en el 3 de Savile Row, Londres, el 30 de enero de 1969. Pero había que hacer el disco. Martin se sorprendió cuando McCartney se puso en contacto con él y le pidió que produjera un nuevo álbum, ya que las sesiones de Get Back habían sido —según el productor— «una experiencia desagradable» y que había «pensado que era el final del camino para todos nosotros [...] se habían convertido en personas desagradables - para ellos mismos como para las demás personas.» Las sesiones de grabación de Abbey Road se iniciaron a finales de febrero de 1969. El 4 de julio, mientras iba progresando el trabajo en el álbum, apareció el primer sencillo de un miembro de The Beatles en solitario: «Give Peace a Chance» de Lennon, acompañado por la Plastic Ono Band. El día que terminaron de grabar «I Want You (She's So Heavy)», de Abbey Road, el 20 de agosto, fue la última vez que los cuatro Beatles estuvieron juntos en el mismo estudio. Lennon anunció su retirada de la formación el 20 de septiembre de 1969, pero se llegó a un acuerdo por el cual no se haría ningún anuncio público hasta que no se resolvieran algunos asuntos legales aún pendientes. Lanzado seis días después de la declaración de Lennon, Abbey Road vendió cuatro millones de copias en dos meses y encabezó las listas del Reino Unido durante once semanas. Su segundo corte, la balada «Something», se publicó también como sencillo, la primera y única composición de Harrison en aparecer como un lado A en los sencillos de The Beatles. Abbey Road recibió críticas muy variadas: Allmusic considera que es «un oportuno canto de cisne para el grupo» con «algunas de las mejores armonías que pueden ser oídas en cualquier disco de rock». Por otro lado, MacDonald, un importante crítico de la época, lo resaltó como «errático y, a menudo hueco»: «Si no hubiera sido por la aportación de McCartney, Abbey Road carecería de la semblanza de unidad y coherencia que hace que parezca mejor de lo que es». Martin lo colocó como su favorito entre todos los álbumes de The Beatles y Lennon dijo que era «competente», pero «no tenía vida en él», tildando a las aportaciones de Paul como más música de abuelas. El 3 de enero de 1970 se grabó la última nueva canción de The Beatles, «I Me Mine», de Harrison, para el aún incompleto álbum Get Back. No había participado Lennon, que se encontraba entonces en Dinamarca. Para completar el álbum, ahora retitulado Let It Be, dieron las cintas de grabación de Get Back al productor estadounidense Phil Spector. Conocido por su característico muro de sonido, Spector había producido recientemente el sencillo en solitario de Lennon «Instant Karma!». Además de remezclar el material de Get Back, Spector editó, empalmó y sobregrabó varias de las pistas que The Beatles habían concebido como grabaciones «en vivo». McCartney estaba insatisfecho con el tratamiento que Spector le dio al material, y particularmente con la orquestación en «The Long and Winding Road», que involucró a un un coro y una orquesta de treinta y cuatro músicos. Por ello, intentó sin éxito detener el lanzamiento del álbum en la versión de Phil Spector. Finalmente, McCartney anunció públicamente la separación del grupo el 10 de abril de 1970, una semana antes de la publicación de su primer álbum en solitario. El 8 de mayo se lanzó el álbum Let It Be, y la película documental del mismo título le siguió más tarde. En la ceremonia de los Premios Óscar del siguiente año ganaría el Óscar a la mejor banda sonora. Pero los Beatles ya no eran un éxito seguro. The Sunday Telegraph la calificó como «una película muy mala, pero tierna al mismo tiempo, sobre la ruptura de esta tranquila, perfecta, y a veces atemporal familia de compañeros». Let It Be es el único álbum de The Beatles que ha recibido reseñas negativas, incluso hostiles. Paul McCartney presentó una demanda para la disolución de The Beatles el 31 de diciembre de 1970. Las disputas legales continuaron mucho tiempo después de la ruptura, y la disolución de la asociación no surtiría efecto hasta 1975. Esta versión de Don’t let me down es la del concierto en la terraza. Al final, cada uno de ellos recuperó su individualidad, y por primera vez en su vida, pudieron ser ellos mismos en lugar de ser un Beatle. Y entonces, como si el manto mágico que siempre les había protegido se esfumase de golpe, descubrimos que John era un grosero que se compadecía de si mismo, que Paul era malicioso y transmitia tensión por donde pasaba, que George, con sus barbas y su postura de loto era un pedante redomado y un roñoso y que Ringo, que se bebía el Nilo, cantaba country sensiblero acodado en la barra. Pero es que siempre habían intentado decírnoslo y, al final, no tuvimos más remedio que aceptarlo: solo eran cuatro seres humanos que hacían muy buena música. Y esto, queridos oyentes, es el fin. The End, The Beatles. Hasta aquí llegaron los Beatles y hasta aquí hemos llegado nosotros en el día de hoy. El final del mito dio paso a otros muchos músicos que, con el mismo genio, con el mismo talento, nos han proporcionado momentos musicales memorables y de los que nos ocuparemos. Eso si, ellos fueron los primeros. Amigos oyentes, disfrutad de la semana lo máximo posible y el próximo día os espero a todos aquí, en vuestra casa, en Radio La Granja. Hasta entonces… Buenas vibraciones!!!

Un día como hoy pero de 1967 comenzaron a grabar la canción Too Much, pero se terminaría llamando "It’s All Too Much", eran otros estudios y no los míticos Abbey Road.

Un día como hoy pero de 1967 comenzaron a grabar la canción Too Much, pero se terminaría llamando "It’s All Too Much", eran otros estudios y no los míticos Abbey Road.

Metallica - "The Unforgiven" [Loops] Ken - "Introduction / It's time to change" Metallica - "The Unforgiven" [Loops] Mike Post and Pete Carpenter - "The A-Team" [Loops] Bryan Adams - "Summer of 69" [Vocals only] Barney Cranes - "Happy Christmas" R.E.M. - "Driver 8" [Vocals only] David Guetta feat. Sia - "Titanium" [Intro loops] Electric Youth - "Another Story" [Intro, layers] Zero Mostel - "Fiddler on the Roof" - Fiddler on the Roof s.t. [Loops] Sean Gullette, Ben Shenkman - "There's math everywhere" - Pi Electric Youth - "Another Story" [The rest] John Ratzenberger - "The History Channel" Tom Petty - "Free Fallin' (separate isolated tracks)" - Full Moon Fever Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down (separate isolated tracks)" - Full Moon Fever Tom Petty - "Runnin' Down a Dream (separate isolated tracks)" - Full Moon Fever The Manhattans - "Shining Star" [Loops] Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down (drunkenly misaligned)" - Full Moon Fever Bryan Adams - "Summer of 69 (drunkenly misaligned)" The Beatles - "Here Comes the Sun (instrumental mix)" The Beatles - "Here Comes the Sun King (vocals only)" - Abbey Road The Beatles - "Mean Mr. Mustard (vocals only)" - Abbey Road The Beatles - "Medley (vocals only)" - Abbey Road The Manhattans - "Shining Star" [Loops] Toto - "Rosanna (drunkenly misaligned)" Judy Garland - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow (partial take)" - The Wizard of Oz - "If I Only Had a Heart (unused version)" - The Wizard of Oz - "The Bionic Woman" - "The Six Million Dollar Man" Live phone call (Rich in Washington) - "There's no business like show business" Kim Kriswell - "There's No Business Like Show Business (Reprise)" - Annie Get Your Gun Kim Kriswell - "There's No Business Like Show Business" - Annie Get Your Gun [(after live phone call)] Electric Youth - "Another Story" [Intro layering] Ken - "Even this (with Electric Youth, and The Manhattans)" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "A lot of people don't know" - One-Minute Vacations [Field recording, Brooklyn subway station] The Who - "I'm Free" - Tommy The Who - "I'm Free" - Tommy s.t. Magnetic Fields [Piano loop] Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene - "Suddenly Seymour" - Little Shop of Horrors s.t. [Layers] John Williams - "Star Wars Theme (alternate version)" Disney - "If you can dream it, then you can do it, yes you can" - New Horizons (EPCOT center) Barney - "Look both ways when you cross the street" Barney - "You can always count on a police officer whenever you need help" Tom Hulce - "Mozart playing backwards" - Amadeus Metallica - "The Unforgiven" [Loops] - "The Bionic Woman" Tom Hulce - "Mozart plays as Bach, with crowd laughter" - Amadeus F. Murray Abhraham - "That was god laughing at me. Show my mediocrity for all to see." - Amadeus [One day I will laugh at you. Before I leave this earth, I will laugh at you.] Ken - "Embrace your mediocrity. Give everything away" Mozart - "Don Giovanni" - Amadeus [Loop] Ken - "Once you know, you're completely free" Mozart - "Don Giovanni, Act II, Commendatore Scene" - Amadeus s.t. [Brief] Mozart - "Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466, 2nd Movement" - Amadeus s.t. [Layered] Ken - "I feel much appreciation" Mozart - "Requiem Introitus" - Amadeus s.t. Toto - "Rosanna (vocals only)" Foreigner - "Waiting for a Girl Like You (vocals only)" Tommy Tutone - "Jenny (867-5309) (vocals only)" Radiohead - "Creep (vocals only)" [Radio edit ("very special"), at that] Cranes - "Happy Christmas" Radiohead - "Creep (drunkenly misaligned)" Hampton the Hampster - "Hampsterdance Song" Donald Pleasance (written by George Lucas, Walter Murch) - "Things don't seem to make sense" - THX-1138 Schoolhouse Rock - "Walkin' on Wall Street" Fiona Apple - "Across the Universe" The Beatles - "It's All Too Much (extended mix)" - Studio Mystery Tracks Wes Craven - "It's warm, just like a real hand" - Wes Craven's New Nightmare [a.k.a. Nightmare on Elm Street 7] John Ratzenberger - "Made in America (Ohio episode)" - History Channel 4/04 [Looking for the soul of America. You know what? I found it everywhere.] Sean Gullette, Ben Shenkman - "Hebrew's all math" - Pi Schoolhouse Rock - "Presidential Minute 1" Judy Garland - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow (partial take)" - Wizard of Oz Zero Mostel - "Tradition" - Fiddler on the Roof s.t. [Loops] Liz Phair - "Uncle Alvarez" - Whitechocolatespaceegg Ken - "Ken's Last Ever spoken backwards" Tori Amos - "Silent All These Years" - Little Earthquakes [loops] Antonin Dvorak - "New World Symphony, 3rd movement" - From the New World Murray Hamilton - "Find out where I went wrong, years spent getting all the things I was told were important" - Seconds [They made the same decisions for me all over again. I know it's going to be different.] Pink Floyd - "My memory of it is just this room full of tapes running 'round" - Classic Albums: Pink Floyd - The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon Van Morrison - "Stranded" Donald Pleasance - "They don't fit, or people don't seem to see them, and they don't know what to do" - THX 1138 film [Sometimes a little adjustment can make all the difference. I can start again. I can change.] Van Morrison - "Tupelo Honey" [Loop] Metallica - "The Unforgiven" [Loops] Ken - "It was here" Metallica - "The Unforgiven" [Rest of song, fade out] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Can I Help Someone?" - Show #271, from Sept. 30, 2003 [Not in today's audio archive. Go here for full playlist and audio.] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "They Ignore Me" - Show #280, from Dec. 2, 2003 [Not in today's audio archive. Go here for full playlist and audio.] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/77632

Episode contains fragments of: Johann Johannsson, Circular Ruins, Westworld, Sweet Valley, Joe Frank, Alan Watts, THX-1138, possibilitywaves, Kenny Rankin, Gabor Mate, Lambchop, Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, thirtySomething, Jared Leto, Clare Danes, My So-Called Life, David Wingo, Michael Linnen, Jack Kornfield, Whiz Kids, Evan Doorbell, Robert Plant, WarGames, Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick, War On Drugs, Live phone callers, BBC Horror, sound effects, U2, Brian Eno, Gyorgy Ligeti, Philip Glass, Alan Rudolph, The Beatles, Matthew Modine, Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Charlie Kaufman, 3-2-1 Contact, Gabe Kaplan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Julie Haggerty, Albert Brooks, Al Pacino, Beth Orton, Devon Gummersall, William Shatner, Peter Schaffer, Milos Foreman, Mendy Holliday, Jackie, Matthew Mathis, and other bits. Johann Johannsson - "Dis 8 ynnkudagur" Circular Ruins - "Time Without End" Ken - "You just have to go on instinct. You can't control it. Just make it up." Westworld - "Please feel free to endulge your every whim" [Please go to the color-coded tram which will take you to the world of your choice] Sweet Valley - "Sentimental Trash" Joe Frank - "Bad Karma" Alan Watts - "Limits of Language" [You can't bite your own teeth] THX-1138 - "Stay Calm" possibilitywaves - "night emotions and paint" Kenny Rankin - "The Dolphin" - Mind Dusters [Thanks to Doug Schulkind] Gabor Mate - "ReWild Yourself" [Children crying it out] Lambchop - "About My Lighter" - No You Cmon [Loops] Lambchop - "The Problem" [Piano loop] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" - Your Turn to Be Happy: Show #525 from 6/14/17 [Prior week's show. Lots and lots of samples are in here!] Jared Leto, Clare Danes - "I have this philosophy. Plans blow" - My So-Called Life [(You have a philosophy?)] Rolling Stones - "She's A Rainbow" Van Morrison - "Tupelo Honey" Ken - "Talking in other show" thirtySomething actors - "thirtySomething samples" David Wingo, Michael Linnen - "Factory loops" - All the Real Girls Jack Kornfield - "A dedication to be present" [Via Joe Frank's Bad Karma] Whiz Kids actors - "6 digit password penetrator" - Whiz Kids, season 1 episode 8 (The Wrong Mr. Wright) Evan Doorbell - "QC514-285ESS1 (Phone phreaking)" [Via Neighbors Noise with Jesse Kaminsky: Playlist from May 23, 2017] Robert Plant - "Imagination and ingenuity can't get its nose in there" [Even more Whitesnake] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" [Prior week's show. Lots and lots of samples are in here!. Incl. Albert Brooks] Melvin - "that system probably contains new data encryption algorithms,you'll never get in there" - WarGames Robert Plant - "College radio is great, has the right motives, funny music" Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick - "I was trying to break into ProtoVision" - WarGames [Can they tell you what that printout means? I wanted Jim to see that.] Jim and Melvin - "Mr. Potatohead, Mr. Potatohead!" - WarGames Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick - "These guys can get a little nervous (Can you wait here?)" - WarGames Ken - "You won't know what to say. Don't think." Jim and Melvin - "They probably programmed a backdoor" - WarGames Live phone caller - "Lullabye" War On Drugs - "Loops from prior week's show" Ken - "Call with lullabyes, make beans, share your dreams" thirtySomething actors - "Maybe there's no problem at all, It's just your turn to be happy" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Uncertainty is OK" [Hear this classic here. Includes Tony Shaloub scene from The Man Who Wasn't There] Live phone caller - "Laughing" BBC Horror vol 2 - "Lunatics Laugh" Sound effect - "Mischievous Laugh" Sound effect - "Laughing Man Insane" Ken - "That's some of the things that are here. It comes out all different ways." Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" Live phone caller (vision fairie) - "Laughing" U2 & Brian Eno - "With or Without You" [Loops] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "A Weird Sense of Cognitive Dissonance" [Hear this classic here. The polarized quality of life these days can stir up a weird sense of cognitive dissonance. With callers, Brian Eno] Live phone caller - "Wake up, go to work, go to sleep, dream" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Layered Laughter Brings New Closure to the Guy" [Hear this classic here. With Matthew Mathis and 3-2-1 Contact] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "No Tomorrow Life" [Hear this classic here. With Her Space Holiday] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "None of This is What I Intended" [Hear this classic here. With Blue Oyster Cult, Tanya, John, Mendy] Gyorgy Ligeti - "Atmospheres (Overture from A Space Odyssey)" - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Limited edition) Live phone caller - "Singing" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Sometimes, out of nowhere, it's like this moment of clarity." - None of This is What I Intended: 5/17/05, show #365 [With Mendy and Philip Glass] Gyorgy Ligeti - "Jupiter and Beyond" - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Limited edition) Ken - "Raw, terrible, gorgeous, cacaphonic, euphonic" [After midnight, after 6pm] Live phone caller & Ken - "Good night, time to catch a train: Stream feedback echo chamber" Philip Glass - "Abandoned Factory" - Undertow Stream feedback echo chamber - "Kenzo & phone caller goodnight train continues" Live phone caller (vision fairie) - "There's actually nothing wrong with you. Nothing. Not even one thing. Not a single thing at all." Alan Rudolph - "Your whole life is about searching for one thing" - Equinox Kenzo & phone call echo chamber - "We're searching for nothing, we find what we look for" The Beatles - "It's All Too Much (vocals overdub)" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "It's Too Much (8-minute excerpt)" [Layered. This classic WFMU episode with live Beatles and Necks remixes can be heard here] Matthew Modine - "Pushing and Pulling" - Equinox - "Equinox: That's where light and dark are equal" - Equinox Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer - "In the morning when the sun rises, it's hard to believe there ever was a night" - Gaslight Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer - "They don't hang a man for that" - Gaslight Clare Danes - "It's just so obvious she's looking for someone to blame" - My So-Called Life Charlie Kaufman - "Failure is a badge of honor: it means you risked failure" Charlie Kaufman - "I wanted to do something that I don't know how to do" [The experience of watching someone fumble. I don't know anything. An opportunity to recognize our common humanity and vulnerability.] Robert Plant - "College radio motives are right. I tune into 91.1 and hear some very funny music and some great stuff" [They think listener will switch channels.] Ken - "Shows within shows within shows. lastever.org has longevity" Sweet Valley - "One" [I've got everything I want] 3-2-1 contact - "You do have a tendency to regard the computer as your friend" [From earlier episode] Gabe Kaplan - "Vote for the dude with the most balloons" - Welcome Back Kotter, season 1 episode 5 Trader - "Dreams of recession, it's an opportunity to make money" - BBC U2 & Brian Eno - "With or Without You" - The Joshua Tree [Loops] Westworld - "Nothing can go wrong" Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins - "Crazy people don't ask if they're crazy, unless they're dead" - Proof Julie Haggerty, Albert Brooks - "I held things in so long, I just burst. Felt like I was going crazy" - Lost in America Al Pacino and woman - "King didn't drink from the poisoned well, didn't go crazy" - Serpico Beth Orton - "Mystery" [Loops] Devon Gummersall, Clare Danes - "You have no concept of anybody else's life. Are you completely insane? You have option of insanity" - My So-Called Life [That makes me crazy] Grandmother - "Being young is just as confusing as being old. You're just browsing through time" - Peggy Sue Got Married William Shatner - "Am i afraid of losing my job to that computer?" - Star Trek TOS-The Ultimate Computer (Season 2 episode 24, #53) Ingrid Bergman - "He said I was going out of my mind!" - Gaslight Peter Schaffer, Milos Foreman - "The division in the artist between light and dark" - Amadeus Director's Commentary Beth Orton - "Mystery" [Loops] Ken - "Speed relationships: How close can you get in 9 minutes?" Lambchop - "The Problem" Matthew Modine, and other guy - "Reminds me of something I heard on the radio" - Equinox Company - "The Island of Taste" [(after show, not in archive)] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/76943

Na alle shows die we over 1967 hebben gemaakt, zijn er nog steeds een paar nummers die we nog niet hebben uitgeplozen. In dit deel leggen we All Together Now, You Know My Name en It's All Too Much op de operatietafel.

In this final installment of the STTS ‘White Album’ trilogy, Erik and Richard team up with musician Craig Bartock and musicologist Allan Kozinn to discuss the contributions by The Beatles’ lead guitarist and drummer – as well as what might have been in terms of tracks that didn’t make it onto the album. In so doing, they prove that, between them, the pair would have been capable of creating far more than just an EP! Once again, Craig doesn’t have a track listing – but the other three do… Erik 1. It’s All Too Much (long version) 2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 3. Don’t Pass Me By 4. Savoy Truffle 5. Piggies 6. The Inner Light 7. Dehra Dun 8. Circles 9. Not Guilty 10. Sour Milk Sea 11. Long, Long, Long 12. Only a Northern Song 13. Good Night 14. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Take 1) Richard 1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (acoustic & electric) 2. Piggies 3. Long, Long, Long 4. Don’t Pass Me By 5. Savoy Truffle 6. Not Guilty 7. Dehra Dun 8. Sour Milk Sea 9. Circles/Only a Northern Song 10. It’s All Too Much (long version) 11. Good Night Allan 1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps 2. Piggies 3. Don’t Pass Me By 4. Long, Long, Long 5. Savoy Truffle 6. Circles 7. Only a Northern Song 8. Not Guilty 9. The Inner Light 10. Dehra Dun 11. Sour Milk Sea 12. It’s All Too Much (long version) 13. Good Night  

Clem Leek - "Memories of Japan" - Seasons: Volume One Ken - "Airing simultaneously" Clem Leek - "Memories of Japan" - Seasons: Volume One [Layers] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Please Call Stella: Part 2 of 3" - Show #310, from 4/30/2004 Sawako - "White Sky Winter Chicada" - Hum Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Please Call Stella: Part 2 of 3" - Show #310, from 4/30/2004 [George W. Bush, phone callers, Neutral Milk Hotel, Air Supply, Wendy Carlos CD skipping, telephone noises, and any of: Valentino Sound Effects Libary, woman screaming, man screaming, Explosions in the Sky, Your Hand in Mine, The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean, American Psycho, Christian Bale, Mary Harmon, Monologue 1, Monologue 4, Huey Lewis and the News, The Teaching Company, Let There Be Light, Relativity and Quantum, The Beatles, It's All Too Much, Jeremy, Sidonie, Steve Hillage, Violet Burning, Sandra Beckmeier, 7% Solution, All About Satellites and Spaceships, Disneyland The First 50 Years A Retrospective, Preamble to the Constitution, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Monsanto's House of Plastics, George W. Bush, Columbia Shuttle disaster speech, Address to Congress 9/20/2001, Evening of 9/11/2001, Jackson Browne, Lawyers in Love, The Buddy System, backyards_p1, sss1_v2, Steffen Schleiermacher, At the Deck-table, Mechanic New Composition for Vintage Fairground Organs, Negativland, Downloading, No Business, Philip Glass, Organic, Koyaanisqatsi, The Fog of War, Across the World, True Romance, Hans Zimmer, Amid the Chaos of the Day, Bright Eyes, An Attempt to Tip the Scales, Fevers and Mirrors, George Mason University, Accents, ask her to bring these things with her from the store, six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob, we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids, she can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station, phone ring-bell, phone ring-new electronic, phone ring-electronic, phone busy, KVRX Sign-on, Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, Brian Tracy, The Science of Self Confidence, Prioritizing Your Values, Tony Robbins, Anthony Robbins, The Power of a Transformational Vocabulary, Ordinary People, Timothy Hutton, Judd Hirsch, What did I do, Think about it, You know the rules, What rules, can't I have a few minutes, Jesus, typingsounds, return, space, keypunch, tappytype, Neutral Milk Hotel, The King of Carrot Flowers, Can I help someone, Hal Hartley, Realaudio feedback, Beautiful Terror, What Is It About, Hannah-Barbera, Pic a Nic 4 Greatest Cartoon Sound FX, Jetson's Phone Ring, Air Supply, Making Love Out of Nothing At All, Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You, Didn't We Almost Have It All, Greatest Love of All, Greatest Hits, Alcoholics Anonymous, Big Book Working With Others, Fridge, Cut Up Piano and Xylophone, Cylons, David DeAngelo, Advanced Dating and Seduction, Fears and Evolution of Sex, Richard Pipes, Communism, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jon Brion, Theme, Production Music, Music for TV Dinners the '50's, Laurie Johnson, Shopping Spree, The '60's, James Clarke, The Free Life, Manfred Minnich, Shopping Centre, Wendy Carlos, E.A.R., Experimental Audio Research] Steven Soderbergh - "Here's what I need" - Schizopolis Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Please Call Stella: Part 2 of 3" - Show #310, from 4/30/2004 [A different part of it The rest of the show] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Why Go On? (Despair)" - Show #330, from 8/31/2004 [(Please Call Stella slowly fades out)] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Why Go On? (Despair)" - Show #330, from 8/31/2004 [Contains any of: Ilana Wexler from the 2004 DNC, dogs, chainsaws, cats, creaking doors, elections, haunted houses, cows, bats, live phone calls about aliens, The Xerox Singers, Disney, FDR at UVA, Conversations with God, Brad Fiedel, explosions, thunder, drizzles, Sandra, Matthew, Steve Roach, Halloween, Hanna-Barbera, Johnson, JFK, MacArthur, Reagan Full playlist and the rest of the show] Ken - "This started out so happy. How'd it turn so scary?" MC Yogi - "Shanti (Peace Out)" [Mixed with Ken's Last Ever: Why Go On?] Ken - "These presidents are ruining our dreams" MC Yogi - "Shanti (Peace Out)" Ken - "Sometimes we only have our memories" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Pure Imagination (Inaugural)" - Show #350, 1/18/2005 ["God wants us to be free (and to maintain full productivity)." Contains reversed loops of Bright Eyes - An Attempt to Tip the Scales...and a whole lot of other stuff I've no record of.] Ken - "with Bright Eyes backwards loops" Ken - "We're not bound by that same limitation" Ken - "Divining rod" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Pure Imagination (Inaugural)" - Show #350, 1/18/2005 [Reagan, Bright Eyes, and more] Ken - "While the blood flows in the streets" Ken - "12 years ago" Big City Orchestra - "Confident" - Chimpy https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/75294

We are still pinching ourselves after we had the honor of interviewing Peter Walsh and asking him loads of burning questions about organizing, purging, and minimizing. He is a best selling author whose titles including It's All Too Much, Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight, Lighten up, and his latest book Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life. You can find the complete set of show notes on AtoBpodcast.com/26.  

The inscrutable lines and angles of an impossible labyrinth appear within the ORPHEUS Chicago facility, unleashing unspeakable terrors from within its folded omnipresence. Mitch must determine what to do with the unconscious Assistant Director, while Pierce and Kiera find themselves in more immediate peril. With the facility flying apart around them, will our operatives find each other, or even a way out? Music Credits: Three Chain Links - Magic Hour Three Chain Links - It's All Too Much. THE WARHORSE - LOL She's Fluent in Sarcasm (Matthew Bauer Remix) Kevin MacLeod - Heart of the Beast Three Chain Links - Bindings Three Chain Links - Shadows Tristan Lohengrin - Le Manege des Damnes Myuu - Carnival Freaks Myuu - Pop Goes the Weasel (Traditional Cover) Alexander Nakarada - Stygian Rise ROZKOL - Hoenikker De Fyras Tecken -Ninth Anticipate Moog Minotaur Free Dramatic Scores - The Strangers Kai Engel - Life's Composing Myuu - Living in the Dark Kevin MacLeod - The House of Leaves Opening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith Director's Note: The ORPHEUS Protocol is supported by our generous backers on Patreon:  Visit http://www.patreon.com/orpheusprotocol for details. If you enjoy The ORPHEUS Protocol, please consider dropping us a review on iTunes. This is the best way for us to reach a broader audience. The ORPHEUS Protocol releases every Monday.

The moving and real estate industries have a lot in common. I recently spoke with Julie Woolslayer about some tips and tricks of the moving process. Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale I was recently joined by Julie Woolslayer of Great Day Moving, who you may remember from past conversations we’ve had. She and her husband have a great business that I’ve used personally and also that I’ve referred to multiple clients. The moving industry is very much related to the business of real estate, so I wanted to give Julie the chance to present some tips and tricks for moving. First of all, Julie recommends that you should always start early in the process. If you think you’re moving, decluttering will help you for a number of reasons. Not only does it prepare a home for showing but it also makes it easier on you when it comes time to move your belongings. Get as much help as you can from friends and family members when you undertake the task of organizing and decluttering your home. One tip that Julie recommended on the matter was to read the book “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh. It’s full of great tips on how to organize and get rid of items in your home. You may even want to enlist the help of professional organizers. The bottom line is that there is a lot of help available—you just need to get motivated and get started. “THERE IS A LOT OF HELP AVAILABLE—YOU JUST NEED TO GET MOTIVATED AND GET STARTED.” This process is especially helpful for sellers who are downsizing. Julie and her team are more than happy to talk to people undergoing the downsizing process in order to assess what kind of help will be most useful to them. She also mentioned Settled In—a company she’s worked with in the past that helps clients decide what to take and what to leave in a move. Julie also has a plan for people who are unable to move into their new home right away but need to move their items out of their old home. In situations like these, Great Day Moving partners with another Tulsa business: Premier Logistics. Premier Logistics has trucks and trailers available for rent, which Great Day Moving then loads and stores at their 24-hour secured lot for as long as the seller might need. Then, once it is time to move, Great Day Moving brings the truck on site to the new home and unloads it as they would during any other moving process. Overall, Julie works hard to offer moving solutions. In fact, if you call and tell our scheduler Kelsey that you saw this video, you can save $75 off on any move over two hours. If you’d like to reach out to Julie you can contact her by calling (918) 877-1971 or by visiting GreatDayMoving.com. If I can answer any other questions or you’d like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you, soon.

Johann Johannsson - "Dis 8 ynnkudagur" Circular Ruins - "Time Without End" Music behind DJ: - "You can't control it. Just make it up" Westworld - "Please feel free to endulge your every whim" [Please go to the color-coded tram which will take you to the world of your choice] Sweet Valley - "Sentimental Trash" Joe Frank - "Bad Karma" Alan Watts - "Limits of Language" [You can't bite your own teeth] THX-1138 - "Stay Calm" possibilitywaves - "night emotions and paint" Kenny Rankin - "The Dolphin" - Mind Dusters [Thanks to Doug Schulkind] Gabor Mate - "ReWild Yourself" [Children crying it out] Lambchop - "About My Lighter" - No You Cmon [Loops] Lambchop - "The Problem" [Piano loop] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" - Your Turn to Be Happy: Show #525 from 6/14/17 [Last week's show. Lots and lots of samples are in here!] Rolling Stones - "She's A Rainbow" Van Morrison - "Tupelo Honey" Ken - "Talking in other show" thirtySomething actors - "thirtySomething samples" Jared Leto, Clare Danes - "I have this philosophy. Plans blow" - My So-Called Life [(You have a philosophy?)] David Wingo, Michael Linnen - "Factory loops" - All the Real Girls Jack Kornfield - "A dedication to be present" [Via Joe Frank's Bad Karma] Whiz Kids actors - "6 digit password penetrator" - Whiz Kids, season 1 episode 8 (The Wrong Mr. Wright) Evan Doorbell - "QC514-285ESS1" - Phone phreaking [Via Neighbors Noise with Jesse Kaminsky: Playlist from May 23, 2017] Robert Plant - "Imagination and ingenuity can't get its nose in there" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" [Last week's show. Lots and lots of samples are in here!] Melvin - "that system probably contains new data encryption algorithms,you'll never get in there" - WarGames Robert Plant - "College radio is great, has funny music" Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick - "I was trying to break into ProtoVision" - WarGames Jim and Melvin - "Mr. Potatohead, Mr. Potatohead!" - WarGames Ally Sheedy, Matthew Broderick - "These guys can get a little nervous" - WarGames [Can you wait here?] Jim and Melvin - "They probably programmed a backdoor" - WarGames Live phone caller - "Lullabye" War on Drugs - "Loops from last week's show" - "Maybe there's no problem at all, It's just your turn to be happy" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Uncertainty is OK" [Hear this classic here] Live phone caller - "Laughing" BBC Horror vol 2 - "Lunatics Laugh" Sound effect - "Mischievous Laugh" Sound effect - "Laughing Man Insane" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Your Turn to Be Happy" Live phone caller - "Laughing" U2 & Brian Eno - "With or Without You" [Loops] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "A Weird Sense of Cognitive Dissonance" [Hear this classic here. The polarized quality of life these days can stir up a weird sense of cognitive dissonance] Live phone caller - "Wake up, go to work, go to sleep, dream" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Layered Laughter Brings New Closure to the Guy" [Hear this classic here] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "No Tomorrow Life" [Hear this classic here] Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "None of This is What I Intended" [Hear this classic here] Gyorgy Ligeti - "Atmospheres (Overture from A Space Odyssey)" - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Limited edition) Live phone caller - "Singing" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "Sometimes, out of nowhere, it's like this moment of clarity." - None of This is What I Intended: 5/17/05, show #365 Gyorgy Ligeti - "Jupiter and Beyond" - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Limited edition) Music behind DJ: Kenzo - "Raw, terrible, gorgeous, cacaphonic, euphonic" [After midnight, after 6pm] Live phone caller & Ken - "Good night, time to catch a train: Stream feedback echo chamber" Philip Glass - "Abandoned Factory" - Undertow Stream feedback echo chamber - "Kenzo & phone caller goodnight train continues" Live phone caller - "There's actually nothing wrong with you. Nothing. Not even one thing. Not a single thing at all." Alan Rudolph - "Your whole life is about searching for one thing" - Equinox Kenzo & phone call echo chamber - "We're searching for nothing, we find what we look for" The Beatles - "It's All Too Much (vocals overdub)" Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza - "It's Too Much (8-minute excerpt)" [Layered. This classic WFMU episode with live Beatles and Necks remixes can be heard here] Matthew Modine - "Pushing and Pulling" - Equinox - "Equinox: That's where light and dark are equal" - Equinox - "In the morning when the sun rises, it's hard to believe there ever was a night" - Gaslight Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer - "They don't hang a man for that" - Gaslight Clare Danes - "It's just so obvious she's looking for someone to blame" - My So-Called Life Charlie Kaufman - "Failure is a badge of honor: it means you risked failure" Charlie Kaufman - "I wanted to do something that I don't know how to do" [The experience of watching someone fumble. I don't know anything] Robert Plant - "College radio motives are right. I tune into 91.1 and hear some very funny music and some great stuff" [They think listener will switch channels.] Music behind DJ: - "Shows within shows within shows. lastever.org has longevity" Sweet Valley - "One" [I've got everything I want] 3-2-1 contact - "You do have a tendency to regard the computer as your friend" [From earlier episode] Gabe Kaplan - "Vote for the dude with the most balloons" - Welcome Back Kotter, season 1 episode 5 Trader - "Dreams of recession, it's an opportunity to make money" - BBC U2 & Brian Eno - "With or Without You" - The Joshua Tree [Loops] Westworld - "Nothing can go wrong" Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins - "Crazy people don't ask if they're crazy, unless they're dead" - Proof Julie Haggerty, Albert Brooks - "I held things in so long, I just burst. Felt like I was going crazy" - Lost in America Al Pacino and woman - "King didn't drink from the poisoned well, didn't go crazy" - Serpico Beth Orton - "Mystery" [Loops] Devon Gummersall, Clare Danes - "You have no concept of anybody else's life. Are you completely insane? You have option of insanity" - My So-Called Life [That makes me crazy] Grandmother - "Being young is just as confusing as being old. You're just browsing through time" - Peggy Sue Got Married William Shatner - "am i afraid of losing my job to that computer?" - Star Trek Ingrid Bergman - "He said I was going out of my mind!" - Gaslight Peter Schaffer, Milos Foreman - "The division in the artist between light and dark" - Amadeus Director's Commentary Beth Orton - "Mystery" [Loops] Music behind DJ: Ken - "Speed relationships: How close can you get in 9 minutes?" Lambchop - "The Problem" Matthew Modine, and other guy - "Reminds me of something I heard on the radio" - Equinox https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/73244

Pierce contends with the extraordinary arcane characteristics of the Long Legged Larry children's book, and ponders who could be trusted with such an enormous power. Meanwhile, Kiera takes up for Neveah, hoping to help her either quit the paranormal life altogether, or ease her transition into ORPHEUS's sphere of influence. Later, Mitch receives news from higher up that the Chester mission is being declared complete... Music Credits: Three Chain Links - Into Darkness Three Chain Links - Magic Hour Three Chain Links - It's All Too Much. Kai Engel - Highway to the Stars Natus - Into the Wind Somewhere off Jazz Street - If I Could Tell You Try-Tachyon - Edge of the Wastelands WARHORSE - Remote Control Dad Prelude Opening and Closing Themes by Nathan Kross and Rob Stith Director's Note: The ORPHEUS Protocol is supported by our generous backers on Patreon:  Visit http://www.patreon.com/orpheusprotocol for details. If you enjoy The ORPHEUS Protocol, please consider dropping us a review on iTunes. This is the best way for us to reach a broader audience. The ORPHEUS Protocol releases every Monday.

You want to take your paper and turn it into electronic documents. You also want to be able to find those electronic documents when you need them. And it would be nice if those electronic documents are backed up and secure. How do you do that? In this jam-packed episode, paperless expert Brooks Duncan shows us the three-part system needed to get your paperless system going. Brooks also shares the software and hardware you will need to find success with your paperless goals. In this episode we cover: Reasons why you may want to reduce the amount of paper in your life. How to choose a scanner that fits your needs. How to start going paperless. (hint: avoid scanning boxes of old paper first) Best way to organize your digital documents once they are scanned. Costs and benefits of batch scanning. Why you should name files and documents for 'future you.' What you need to do to protect your digital life. Quotables: When going paperless, my goal was to get rid of the paper I didn't need. Now my goal is to be able to access my information quickly.Click To Tweet Links and resources mention: Courtney Carver, minimalist at bemorewithless.com It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh Collect Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD by Susan Pinsky Smart Phone App Scanners: Scannable (iPhone only) Scanbot (iPhone and Android) Portable Two Sided Scanners: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i - A personal scanner that works on both Mac and Windows. It scans 12 pages per minute and can hold 10 sheets of paper at once. Doxie Go Home Office Scanner: Fujitsu xi500 - A desktop scanner that works on both Mac and Windows and has wireless scanning capabilities. It scans 25 pages per minute and can hold 50 sheets of paper at once. Organize Software: Hazel File Juggler  DropIt TextExpander $10 Going Paperless With Hazel Webinar Brett Kelly, name for future self. Zachary's Google Drive File Structure Protect Off site Backup: CrashPlan Backblaze External HardDrive: Time Machine (Built-in Mac software) File History (Built-in Windows software) Seagate (Brook's recommended external HardDrive) Cloud Backup: Dropbox Google Drive Box Evernote OneNote Encrypt Your Computer's HardDrive: FileVault 2 (Mac) Bitlocker (Windows native app) Veracrypt (Windows open source) Veracrypt vs Bitlocker Connect with Brooks: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/documentsnap/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/brooksduncan Website: http://www.documentsnap.com/ Free going paperless cheat sheet over at DocumentSnap.com. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, PocketCast or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show gain exposure. The shownotes can be found at zacharysexton.com/13

In this episode, Richard and Robert revisit the theme they’d first explored on show 21 – recasting the Beatles’ mid-period albums (Help! – Rubber Soul – Revolver – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) in their own image. Songs include “Every Little Thing,” “Day Tripper” and “It’s All Too Much.” Red = dropped tracks Blue = added tracks May 2016 is upon us and so are the Something About The Beatles 2016 calendars, featuring hundreds of Beatles history dates and 24 full color original illustrations – get one of the last remaining copies in stock here and specially priced! The post 52: Second Guessing The Beatles #2 appeared first on Something About The Beatles.

In this episode, Richard and Robert revisit the theme they’d first explored on show 21 – recasting the Beatles’ mid-period albums (Help! – Rubber Soul – Revolver – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) in their own image. Songs include “Every Little Thing,” “Day Tripper” and “It’s All Too Much.” Red = dropped tracks Blue = added tracks May 2016 is upon us and so are the Something About The Beatles 2016 calendars, featuring hundreds of Beatles history dates and 24 full color original illustrations – get one of the last remaining copies in stock here and specially priced! The post 52: Second Guessing The Beatles #2 appeared first on Something About The Beatles.