Podcasts about both john

In this week's episode of Talksicology, hosts Joseph Gordo and Jason Cabello extend a warm welcome to John Sadkin-DeLaGarza and Tyelur Watkins, hosts of the "Getting Sober Young Podcast." Both John and Tyelur got sober at the young age of 17, and this week's discussion centers on the many challenges they faced while navigating the path to recovery during adolescence. John and Tyelur take us through how they met in sober living, their first jobs, getting tattoos, therapy, and what ultimately led to their idea to collaborate and start their own podcast “Getting Sober Young.” This episode of Talksicology is proudly brought to you by Recovery Unplugged. For those in need of support, please call 855-206-6172 or visit recoveryunplugged. com

John Barrows sits down with guest Matthew Buchalski to discuss the challenges facing sales representatives in today's rapidly changing landscape. They explore the importance of critical thinking, business acumen, curiosity, and emotional intelligence as skills that computers cannot replicate. The conversation addresses the negative impact of over-reliance on technology and emphasizes the need for personalization and understanding of the market and buyers. Both John and Matt express their concerns about reps becoming robotic and being replaced by actual robots. They also offer insights into effective coaching, the role of AI in sales, and the balance between technology and human skills. This conversation tackles important issues facing the sales profession and offers valuable insights for sales leaders and representatives alike.Elevate your sales game with the JB Sales Membership that includes monthly live training by John Barrows, interactive workshops, insightful AMAs, and unlimited access to our comprehensive on-demand library. Certifications included! Visit www.jbarrows.com and let's Make It Happen together!Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/Connect with John on IG: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/Check out John's Membership: bit.ly/JBMembershipVisit the HubSpot Website: https://www.hubspot.com/Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbuchalski/Checkout Matt's websites: realpage.com, deepbluere.com, takeflytecapital.com

This week the guys do something different. Both John and Jai picked a random movie to review and did not tell the other what they were going to watch. Complete surprises for everyone. The guys also finish up their final thoughts on Ahsoka and the future of the Star Wars franchise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theydidntaskus/message

Title: We Will Not Comply Text: Acts 4:13-22 FCF: We often struggle obeying the commands of God when they conflict with the commands of men. Prop: Because the gospel is our unpopular mission, we must make disciples of all nations. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 4. We began this narrative section back in the beginning of chapter 3. Since then, we've seen a lame man healed by the power and authority of Jesus of Nazareth. We've heard Peter preach the gospel as receiving Christ alone by faith alone. We've seen the Sanhedrin assemble to test the apostles, only to reveal the depth of their own depravity in their self-righteousness and wickedness. Now we'll enter into this next episode of the narrative where the Sanhedrin will move to sentence Peter and John. Will they be convicted of a crime? Will they be imprisoned? Killed? What will happen to them? That is what we'll discover today. I'm in Acts chapter 4 and I'll begin reading in verse 13. I am reading once again from the LSB but you can follow along in the pew bible on page 1233 or in your preferred version. Transition: [Slide 2] What do you do when you are given two conflicting commands? When the whole dugout is screaming go, go, go and your third base coach is giving you the stop sign. What are some determining factors in deciding which command you will obey? Do you try to obey both? In a computer program if you put in two conflicting commands it throws an error, because the computer attempts to obey both and cannot. Today, we'll see the apostles given a command. Unfortunately, the command they are given is a command that conflicts directly to a previous command they were given. The narrative before us reveals more about the heart of natural man, and also gives us direction on what to do when we as God's people are told to do something God has forbidden or not do something God has commanded. I.) The gospel itself is offensive to ungodly men, but we must make disciples of all nations. (13-18) a. [Slide 3] 13 – Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, i. Notice what they observed. ii. First, they observed their confidence or their courage. iii. They observed that these men seemed to be willing to risk their lives and their safety in order to teach and do all they had taught and done. iv. They were bold. This is a positive trait. And one that even the Sanhedrin could appreciate. v. However, they also comprehended or seized on or grabbed onto an understanding of these men – that they were uneducated and ordinary men. vi. What does this mean? vii. Sometimes uneducated can mean that they were illiterate. They could neither read nor write. However, illiteracy in 1st century Judea was a fairly rare occurrence. Because of the synagogue schools, many young Jewish men would have been taught to read and write. viii. Also, how could the Sanhedrin have come to understand that these men could neither read or write from what Peter… said? ix. This indicates to us that we should look for an alternate interpretation of uneducated. x. And since “uneducated” is connected to another description by the word “and” we should look to that word to help us understand this one. xi. Ordinary means that they lacked any professional skill or formal training. xii. Putting these two words together, it means that the Sanhedrin realized that they were not formally educated in the Rabbinical traditions and Hebrew writings. xiii. In other words, the Sanhedrin recognized that they were not qualified to speak with any authority regarding the teachings of the law, the prophets, the psalms, or any religious matters whatsoever. b. [Slide 4] They were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. i. Why were they marveling? ii. Well looking at what is being said, the marveling comes from the confidence displayed despite the formal training they did not receive. iii. You would expect someone with no formal training or education to be less authoritative and less definitive. This is why the Sanhedrin marveled at Peter and John. iv. This of course was enough to remind them of a similar preacher they dealt with only a few short months prior. v. A carpenter of no formal training, speaking dogmatically and by His own authority in matters He was not qualified to speak on. vi. This allowed them to connect the dots that these two men, Peter and John, were disciples of Jesus. vii. As for the teaching of Peter and John – the Sanhedrin almost had all they needed to completely dismiss anything these apostles said. Because, after all, the person in whose name they are preaching… is dead. A failed Messiah. Indeed, a Messiah they are claiming failed on purpose. How ridiculous! viii. Now they are claiming he arose from the dead! Ridiculous! ix. It was all so silly! It was easy to dismiss…. x. Except for one rather pesky problem… c. [Slide 5] 14 – And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply i. Ah yes. The man who could walk. ii. They had no answer. They had nothing to say counter to the miracle. iii. Truly, miraculous signs tend to authenticate the message of any who teach it. iv. This was the paradox they were facing. This was their catch 22. v. On the one hand, they had every reason to dismiss what these men said as the ravings of fanatics of a failed Messiah, all of whom had no authority to say anything they've said. vi. But on the other hand, these men were able to cause the lame to leap by the authority and at the command of this same dead man – Jesus of Nazareth. vii. They were befuddled. They were trapped. viii. So… they sent them away. d. [Slide 6] 15 – But when they and ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they began to confer with one another. i. They needed time to consider the perplexing problem they all had. ii. What do we do with two men who teach things that they are not qualified to teach, from a Messiah we were able to kill, while at the same time being able to heal someone in the power of that same dead Messiah? iii. Luke reveals to us a little bit about their discussions. e. [Slide 7] 16 – saying, “what should we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy sign has happened through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it. i. First, we must address a logical and source critique in the text. ii. How did Luke have access to what was said inside the closed chambers of the Sanhedrin? There are several reasonable explanations. 1. Joseph of Arimathea was on the Sanhedrin council. Perhaps he still was. He was also a Christ Follower. 2. Nicodemus was a Christ follower also, and on the Sanhedrin council. 3. There is also some indication that Saul, who would later become Paul the apostle, was on the Sanhedrin council too. Perhaps he was on the council at this time and relayed the story to Luke later? 4. Or perhaps Luke surmises what they discussed based on their response. 5. Or perhaps the Spirit of God simply revealed it to Luke. 6. In any case – there is no reason to doubt Luke's accuracy even though he wasn't in the room. iii. But what do they discuss? iv. One the one hand – they cannot deny that a miraculous sign has been done. v. The man was lame – everyone knew it – and now he walks. vi. Not only this, but he was commanded to walk in the name of Jesus of Nazareth – which is the subject of the teaching of these men. vii. And if this were a secret that no one knew, things would be much easier – but the miracle was done publicly over several hours at the temple mount. viii. All of Jerusalem knew about this. ix. “All” of course not meaning every single person but rather a very large number. x. So, they can't hide it. They can't bury it. xi. So, what are their options? f. [Slide 8] 17 – but lest is spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name. i. Intimidation. That is their only option. ii. They are careful not to deny the miracle by simply ignoring it completely. iii. But the teaching they can't abide. That is the real problem. The teaching. iv. They cannot allow them to speak with the authority of Jesus of Nazareth. g. [Slide 9] 18 – And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. i. So, they execute their plan. ii. They summon them before the Sanhedrin – the ruling body in Judea – and command them - not suggest, not ask, command – to not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. iii. Any teaching that is done in the authority of, for the sake of, or by the power of Jesus is not permitted. iv. Whether that is privately or publicly. h. [Slide 10] Summary of the point: Though the ungodly may appreciate our logic, our argumentation, our winsomeness, our honesty, our confidence, our good deeds done, our love and our peacefulness – though we be a perfect and accurate defender of the gospel of Jesus Christ – we will still be muzzled, cancelled, shunned, imprisoned, persecuted, martyred, and silenced. Why? Because the world hates the gospel. It doesn't matter how well educated, how confident, how well spoken, how kind, how loving, or how approachable we are… because the gospel itself is offensive to sinful men. The gospel tells them they need to be saved from something they very much love… sin. The gospel tells them they must stop worshipping a god they very much love… themselves. The gospel is good news that they do not want. It is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles. Transition: [Slide 11] So, we have seen the hardness of the hearts of these men. We have seen that the gospel is the only thing men do not want about the Christian faith. They will gladly accept the miracles, the benevolence, even the confidence. But what will not do, is the message of Christ crucified for sinners. So how do Peter and John respond to the unbelief of the Sanhedrin? How do they respond to this command to not speak in Jesus' name? II.) God commands His people to make disciples of all nations, so we must make disciples of all nations. (19-22) a. [Slide 12] 19 – But Peter and John answered, and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, you be the judge. i. Peter's words remain bold. ii. Again, this council attempts to act like they are the judges, so Peter wants them to judge something else. iii. Is it right in the sight of God to listen to men, even religious men, even powerful men, even such men as the Sanhedrin, rather than to obey God? iv. The answer to this question is quite obvious. v. We must obey God rather than men. vi. In a sense, Peter claims that he and John are speaking by the authority of Yahweh. vii. Although it is subtle, he already answered the question as to who's authority they spoke. viii. Now he says – you judge if we should obey you or God. ix. So what authority are you speaking in, God or Jesus? Exactly! Yes! x. And this is the exact conclusion that Peter assumes and the reason that they cannot obey the command of the Sanhedrin. b. [Slide 13] 20 – for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” i. Peter says, unfortunately we cannot obey your command because it conflicts with one from God. ii. God has commanded us to speak and therefore we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. iii. The Greek here is a double negative which would be used for emphatic force. iv. We cannot NOT speak. v. In other words, we MUST speak about what we've seen and heard. Why? vi. Because it is from God and has been commanded to us by God. c. [Slide 14] 21a – And when they had threatened them further, they let them go i. Well, the intimidation wasn't working, but I guess they figured that anything worth trying was worth trying twice. ii. So, they again warned them not to speak in Jesus' name. Why would they do this? iii. Because the apostles announced to the entire council their intent to violate the command, the Sanhedrin is probably laying out for Peter and John the punishments they would incur upon themselves should they disobey the command. iv. But ultimately, the Sanhedrin had to let Peter and John go. v. Why? vi. Two reasons actually… d. [Slide 15] (finding no basis on which to punish them) i. First, although they were the judges of Israel and free to settle matters such as these themselves, they could not invent crimes against people. ii. Even with Jesus, they had to get him to admit that He was the Messiah. Jesus said, I AM. He claimed to be God. That is blasphemy – an actual punishable crime… if it weren't true. iii. Peter and John had broken no obvious law and there were two witnesses there to substantiate Peter's words. Both John and the formerly lame man. iv. But the Sanhedrin did issue a command now, and if the apostles disobeyed this command then the Sanhedrin could charge them with the crime of contempt of court. v. But there is another reason they cannot punish them, that probably cuts much closer to the bone… e. [Slide 16] 21b-22 - on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened. for the man was more than forty years old on whom the sign of healing had occurred. i. The thing they could not deny, the thing they could not dismiss, the thing they tried to ignore, is the very thing keeping them from truly punishing the apostles. ii. This was an undeniably miraculous event. One that had no other explanation. iii. This man was crippled since birth for 40 years. Now he is walking, running, jumping. iv. And what makes matters worse – he is standing next to the men who have claimed to do this in Jesus' name, affirming everything they said. v. In the end, to ignore such a sign and the certainty that it was by God's power, would be to leave them without the backing of the people. It would reveal that the leadership has no intention of listening to God. vi. They simply could not risk that. f. [Slide 17] Summary of the point: Jesus commands His people to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that Jesus has commanded. Even though the world will hate the message we bring – we have no other option but to bring it to the world. Some will hear and believe. Many will reject it and many will reject us. And many will be persecuted for preaching it. That doesn't mean we can be needlessly obnoxious in our presenting what is already a despicable thing for the ungodly to hear. But we must be faithful in bearing witness to our King and all that we have seen and heard. Conclusion: Pulling together all that we have seen today, it is easy for us to understand the doctrinal takeaway we have from this passage of scripture. What does God say and how then shall we live? [Slide 18] God has commanded us to make disciples of all nations even though the gospel is good news that natural man does not want. But the same Lord who gives this command tells us two things in that same passage in which He commands it. First, that He has all authority in heaven and earth. This makes His command of the utmost and highest importance. It comes down from the top. Second, he tells us to our comfort, that He will be with us to the end of the age. In another place He tells us that He sends us as sheep out among the wolves. My friends, our Lord sends us to a world that rejected Him. A world that will also reject us. Even if we are delightful, winsome, courageous, logical, and full of love toward them, they will reject us because we come to them in the name of Christ. It is a mission in which we should expect to be rejected by men. For Jesus was rejected by men. But it is one in which our Savior promises to go forth with us. Such a strong command and promise against such terrible odds culminates and expands itself into several applications for us today. And rather than simply listing them out, I have categorized them into five different kinds of applications. Applications: 1.) [Slide 19] First, Mind Transformation which answers the question, “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?”: Even undeniable miracles will not pierce the hardness of natural man's heart. a. Last week we dove deeply into the plight of natural man's heart. How he is both unwilling and unable to receive the truth of God's Word. b. I won't retread the same ground we did. c. But we will see several more layers this morning helping us to further see how lost natural man truly is. d. The first of these layers is that even the most evident and plain miracles done in God's power are not enough to convert them to Christ. e. We notice that the Sanhedrin could not deny, nor did they have any argument against the healing of the lame man. f. There was no natural explanation. There was no accounting for it. Nevertheless, they simply ignored it and rejected the message given by those who performed the miracle. g. Some modern preachers continually harp on the need for the church to press our advantage concerning the resurrection. That the resurrection is the key to wooing unbelievers to confess Christ. h. My friends it didn't work for the Sanhedrin who were searching all of Judea for the body of Jesus, when Peter and John stood before them that day. i. Yes, even the resurrection is a sign that does not defeat the stony heart of the unbeliever. j. So once again, we must conclude, that God must replace the stony heart with a heart of flesh in order to receive Spiritual truth. (Ezekiel 36:26) k. In order to call on the name of Jesus for salvation, they must believe. In order to believe, they must hear the word of God. In order to hear the Word of God, they need a preacher. But in order to understand the Word of God, they need God's Spirit showing it to them. (Romans 10 and I Corinthians 2) l. No mere miracle is enough. God must save us. God must prepare the heart to be given the gifts of repentance and faith. (Matthew 13:1-9; Acts 16:13-15) m. True the Lord MAY use a miracle to do this. After all, that is how the great number on the temple mount the previous day came to Christ. By the authenticating miracle. But these Sanhedrin who saw the same miracle – do not yield. That is why we must believe that miracles are not enough to bring a man to Christ. 2.) [Slide 20] Refutation: which answers the question, “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” : People couldn't care less about the good things Christianity does for the world. They'll at worst just ignore those things. What they cannot abide is the teaching of the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ. a. There is an aging philosophy that has had several children and grandchildren since its creation. b. The philosophy was named “The social gospel” c. In the social gospel it was espoused that if we simply do good to those around us and live lives that are just and pure and holy and loving, then people will come to Christ because of our good works. d. Going woke or becoming a woke Christian is a descendant of this philosophy. e. While it is true that the scriptures stress that our good works are often the means God uses to draw the attention of the world, and it is true that racism and favoritism are vile sins that God hates, the fact of the matter is that men are drawn to God by God. God draws and calls those whom He wills. f. Therefore, we should not expect our logical and passionate arguments for a creator, a Savior, or God's existence to be able to break through the stony hearts of men. g. We should not expect our charity, our winsomeness, our kindness, or our peacefulness to win over and melt the wicked hearts of children of wrath. h. We should not expect all our good deeds to be reciprocated by the world. i. Instead, we should realize that they will still hate us no matter how kind and loving we are. They will still despise us no matter how well we defend our arguments. They will still reject us no matter how much good we do for the world. Why? j. Because they rejected Christ. And what we are preaching to them is Christ crucified for sinners. We are preaching that Christ was killed and the wrath of God poured out on Him to pay for their sin and free them from it. k. In essence we are telling them, as Peter told every single group of people he's spoken to so far in Acts, You Killed The Lord of Glory! l. This is a message that is great beauty to those who believe… but a terrible offense to those who desire to love their sin and be their own god. m. Certainly, we should have well-reasoned arguments, be winsome, kind, loving, compassionate, and do good deeds for all the world to see. But not because these actions will draw men to faith. But rather because that is what our Lord has commanded us to do. n. So we must stop believing the lies that our good works will somehow convince people to convert to Christ or even that it will convince them to treat us well. 3.) [Slide 21] Exhortation: This application answers the question, “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” : Whenever there is a command given to us that is against God's commands, we must obey God not men. Therefore, we must obey the Lord and make disciples of all nations. a. Jesus Himself gave this great command to make disciples of all nations. b. He has commanded us to do this while going, baptizing and teaching. c. We go because we cannot possibly reach all the nations if we stay in Jerusalem. d. We baptize because it is the church's mission to administer the sacraments and adopt and hold accountable new members of Christ's body. e. We teach all that Christ has commanded because He is our pattern, our mold, our standard that all disciples must follow and grow up into. And it is the church's job to grow one another in the knowledge of Christ. f. We must do all of this because the Son of Man who has been given all authority has commanded it. g. And we must do so with the comfort that He goes with us until He returns to bring us home. h. But why do we need His comforting presence with us to obey this command? Because natural man is evil and wicked and desperately despises the preaching of the gospel of Christ. i. Natural men, who become authority figures, will eventually make it illegal to follow the explicit commands God. Why? Because God's laws contradict and demonize the very things that natural man loves and desires. j. The scriptures tell us that there is no fellowship with light and darkness. There is no harmony with the flesh and the Spirit. (II Corinthians 6:14) k. The light of God's word and law will always make those who dwell in darkness hiss and hide their eyes at the light. (John 3:19) l. And so, my friends, we should expect a nation led by the ungodly will eventually craft ungodly laws. m. What then is our choice? When pressed, what shall we do? n. We must do as the apostles did. We must obey God and disobey the ungodly laws of men while submitting ourselves to their unjust punishment for doing so. o. Peter and John do not lead a revolution. They submitted to going to prison. They will submit in chapter 5 to even more. What they cannot submit to, is laws that contradict what God has commanded. p. So must we also passively obey our ungodly rulers. We must disobey their ungodly laws that directly contradict God's laws – but in so doing, submit to their perverted justice and the punishment that they have decreed against us for disobedience. q. This is the only pattern we have in scripture. We are never taught to revolt. We are taught to passively submit. 4.) [Slide 22] De-Exhortation: This application answers the question, “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” : We must be careful not to disobey when we should obey, or to obey when we should disobey. a. Since leading an outright revolt or revolution is not an option, that limits greatly what we should disobey. b. When the stakes are set to being punished by our governing authorities for disobedience, we must think critically about when it the proper time to disobey and therefore be punished. c. But this naturally leads us to two specific things we should not do. Two sides of the same coin. d. First, we should not rebel or disobey our governing authorities for things that are not clearly defined as a command of God in scripture. i. The apostles had a clear command from Christ to make disciples. ii. They were clearly directed by Christ in Acts chapter 1 that they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. iii. The Sanhedrin told them directly to not teach in his name. iv. These are mutually exclusive commands. And because of this, the apostles must obey God rather than men. v. But Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael give us another example. (Daniel 2:7;49) 1. Most people don't even recognize these names because these were their Hebrew names. Most of us know them as Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-nego. 2. But all three of these names mean blasphemous things. 3. Hananiah whose name meant beloved of the Lord was now named Shadrach meaning illuminated by Rak the sun god, or possibly commanded of Aku the moon god. 4. Mishael whose name meant “who is as God?” is now called Meshach. The meaning of his name is uncertain but some guesses are “who is like Shak” which is the Babylonian fertility God like Venus. Or perhaps Who is like Aku the moon god. 5. And Azariah, whose name meant The Lord is my help is now named Abednego which means the servant of Nebo or Nego or Nebu who is the god of intelligence and teaching. 6. Thus, each Babylonian name is not only blasphemous but a direct attack on the meaning of their Hebrew name. It is the antithesis of their Hebrew name. 7. Why do I bring up their example? 8. Even though these three young men refused to obey the edict of Nebuchadnezzar and to worship the statue (Dan 3). Even though they passively obeyed by submitting to be punished for this. They did not resist being renamed with blasphemous names. Why? Because there was no direct command of God in question here. 9. God specifically says to not make idols to not bow down before them and to not worship any God but Him. For this they refuse. But they accepted blasphemous names. vi. Therefore, we must be careful to obey laws that though they may be corrupt, are not directly contrary to God's laws. vii. An example of this would be if our government mandated that we no longer have bathrooms assigned to specific genders. viii. In the letter, such a law does not violate any commands we have as believers. ix. We are not blind to the spirit of this law. That the ideology of the LGBTQA+ community is being pushed on the church. x. Yet we can creatively obey this law by turning each bathroom in our church into a family bathroom with a lock. This way, we obey the letter of the law, but resist the spirit which is antithetical to the truth of scripture. e. But at the other extreme of this, we must be careful not to bow to pressure and give in to disobeying God so that we can escape punishment from our governing authorities, or to mitigate unpleasant outcomes. i. Do you realize how easy it would have been for the apostles to have not taught in Jesus' name? ii. They could teach the same concepts about having faith alone in the Messiah alone without mentioning the name of Jesus. iii. But the law itself was ungodly because it directly contradicted God's command. iv. God told them to preach Jesus Christ crucified for sinners. Jesus said, and I quote “You shall be MY witnesses in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.” v. How can they truly be His witnesses if they never use His authority or preach in His name? vi. Therefore, we must be courageous enough to disobey the laws of our governing officials when they directly contradict what the Lord has commanded us. vii. An example of this would be, as they did in California, the prohibition of singing in churches for fear of spreading an infectious disease. viii. How easy it would be to compromise on this. And many churches did. “We can sing in our heads. We can hum the tune. We can pray the words. We can be fully mentally engaged! We don't need to sing.” ix. And yet the scriptures command us …TO SING psalms hymns and spiritual songs to God and to one another! x. Therefore, such a command issued by a governing body, no matter the reason, is an unjust and unlawful law – and must be disobeyed regardless of the cost. And that cost could be either punishment by authorities or even the spread of a communicable disease. xi. Would you risk contracting a disease so you can obey the command of God? xii. I find it interesting that some might easily be thrown in jail to obey – but to get sick, they would balk. f. And so, on both sides of the coin we must be careful and courageous to only disobey a command that clearly contradicts a direct command from the Lord. 5.) [Slide 23 (end)] The final application concerns our own peace and comfort. It answer the question, “What comfort can we find here?” or “What storm of concern does Jesus calm with this passage of scripture?” : It is not up to us to save men. God does the saving. This is a comfort. a. This sermon has still focused greatly on the depth of natural man's depravity. b. I hope in these last two sermons you have seen the Sanhedrin with great pity – but have also come to realize that the Sanhedrin are an example of how sinful we really are from birth. How scarred we are by sin right out of the womb. How far we are from God before we can even speak. c. But even amid the depravity of natural man – God gives us comfort here. d. If man's heart is so wicked and so far from God that i. Miracles will not break them ii. Good deeds, kindness, logic, and charity will not woo them iii. That they would create laws specifically against God's laws iv. That they would punish those who would disobey their unjust laws e. Yet in all this we still must obey the command of our Savior to make disciples, we may conclude that if man's wickedness is so great – we cannot possibly do anything that would draw them to Christ. f. And if we conclude this… we are right. g. I saw a post this week from a friend. It helps us greatly, I think. The post said… i. It is not our job to convert people. ii. It is not our job to save people. iii. It is not our job to convict people. iv. It is not our job to convince people. v. Our job is simply… to tell people vi. The convincing, convicting, converting, and saving is the work of the Holy Spirit. h. That is why Christ does not command us to make converts or to secure salvations. For we are incapable of this. Instead, we are His witnesses, reporting what we have seen and heard. We tell others what Christ has done. And if God moves upon them and changes their heart… that is when we make a disciple out of them. i. So, take comfort my friends. The saving is not up to you. God will bring what was dead to life. God will birth His children. God will restore sight to the blind. God will make lame men leap. He simply commands us to care for His dear children and help them grow into the full stature of His Son. j. And since that is where we all should be going anyway… we can simply have them walk with us on the way.

If you have a dog, you may be wondering what you should be doing during pregnancy to get your dog ready for your baby on the way. The good news is there are simple steps you can take to prepare your dog for a harmonious transition when your baby arrives. Learn how to focus on positive attention and avoid negative reinforcement to modify your dog's behavior, not just suppress it. This episode/article covers everything from dog behaviors to work on while pregnant to introducing your dog to your baby and having a seamless transition in your postpartum period. Plus, learn how to plan for your dog for when you go to the hospital or birth center and what to do with your dog if you plan a home birth.   Thank you to John and Jaime Caponetta of Pawsome University for sharing their expertise for this episode. Jaime has her certification as a K9 trainer from the Animal Behavior College in California and earned the title of Associate Certified K9 Behavior Consultant by the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. John Caponetta is a former humane law enforcement officer and is a certified instructor in pet first aid & CPR. Both John and Jaime are on boards or support multiple non-profit organizations that provide dog training to families facing financial hardship or support fostering dogs and keeping them out of shelters or euthanized due to a lack of services. Together, these two run Pawsome University, which offers one on one in-home professional dog training using only positive and fear-free training methods. Plus, they have a podcast called the Podcast for Dog People. John and Jaime are experts in dog behavior. They are the perfect resource to help guide you on how to get your dog ready for your new baby and ensure that everything goes smoothly after your baby arrives.   Save 15% the Dogs & Babies Course from Pawsome University. Say goodbye to stress and hello to harmony. This is a complete course for new and expecting parents that teaches you everything you need to know for a seamless transition with your dog as your family grows.   Thank you to our sponsors   Pregnancy Podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp.  Visit BetterHelp.com/pregnancy today to get 10% off your first month. You are going through a significant life transition during pregnancy and preparing for a baby. Many changes during and after pregnancy put you at risk for baby blues and postpartum depression. You can be proactive in taking care of your mental health now. BetterHelp is convenient and flexible and all online. To get started, complete a short questionnaire to get matched up with a licensed therapist. You can always switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Let therapy be your map with BetterHelp.   FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. AG1 is a Foundational Nutrition supplement with a science-driven formulation of 75 high-quality vitamins, probiotics, and whole-food sourced nutrients. It is a simple and easy solution to fill nutrient gaps, promote gut health, support immunity, and boost energy. (As a friendly reminder, pregnant or nursing women should seek professional medical advice before taking this or any other dietary supplement.)   Read the full article and resources that accompany this episode.   Join Pregnancy Podcast Premium to access the entire back catalog, listen to all episodes ad-free, get a copy of the Your Birth Plan Book, and more.   Check out the 40 Weeks podcast to learn how your baby grows each week and what is happening in your body. Plus, get a heads up on what to expect at your prenatal appointments and a tip for dads and partners.   For more evidence-based information, visit the Pregnancy Podcast website.

Sometimes the boys are forced to get real with the residents and this is one of those episodes.  Both John and Nick had one of their close friends pass away this weekend and are both dealing with it pretty hard.  James Raniolo was a staple in the Long Island Comedy and most importantly a great friend.  He will be missed and you can tell it on the episode.  But, we still try to provide a happier episode towards the back half but thank you for all that you do for the Nauti House and we appreciate all of you every day.

Aiden Aslin joined the Ukrainian Marines in 2018. Four years later, he was stationed at the front line in Mariupol, where he was part of a mass surrender. He was singled out for his British passport and was taken as a prisoner of war. Now, he, along with the help of John Sweeney, has written a book about his experience in their book 'Putin's Prisoner: My time as a prisoner of war in Ukraine'. Both John and Aiden joined Kieran on The Hard Shoulder to discuss...

In this episode, John and Vanessa answer a listener's question while they're on the go: how do I stop thinking about my ex? Both John and Vanessa give advice on what to do if you're always thinking about an ex, explain what it means, and give personal examples of how they stopped thinking about their exes. John and Vanessa are launching their second ever couples retreat on Sept 8-10th! Escape to Idyllwild, California, for an unforgettable weekend retreat tailored exclusively for couples. Nestled amidst nature's tranquil embrace, this retreat promises an enriching experience designed to strengthen your bond and foster deep connection. You can sign up and find out more information here: https://theangrytherapist.circle.so/c/inmiy-retreat-mainfeed/Roughly ten minutes of self help in a shot glass. If you're looking for a wine glass, you've come to the wrong place. Marriage family therapist and best-selling author, John Kim, shares his life and love revelations as well as insights from his sessions. He pulls the curtain back and documents his journey as a therapist but more importantly, as a human being.   Meet him at -> https://www.theangrytherapist.com Join his private communities -> https://theangrytherapist.circle.so/home Get his daily texts here -> https://www.theangrytherapist.com/text

Dr. John Ackerman, Nationwide Children's Clinical Manager for the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research joins Dr. Jamie Jones, Clinical Supervisor at Boundless Health, for a broad and frank discussion on mental health and suicide prevention, with special attention paid to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Both John and Jamie discuss effective ways to have tough conversations on these subjects with people you love.  Host, Scott Light, also asks them about the state of mental health in America: what concerns them?  And what gives them hope?   

Ooh wee, first we have to give a public announcement if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure please take your pills before you watch this show. This show is off the chain! John made a statement that he has had enough he's done. Both John and Yancy take turns tag-teaming Ron DeSantis and the Republican fascist party. John made a decoration that he is a revolutionary. Yancy said that the Democrats have to come out fighting and quit complaining about their play. I can't even explain this just watch it and listen to it this is a one-of-a-kind show! Make sure you subscribe and infoblips.com, and infoblips LLC --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john3058/message

Throughout the years we have heard some crazy, sometimes shocking stories on Food Heals and this is the third installment of our shocking series. Last time you heard from Milo Runkle and Cody Carlson, two undercover investigators for Mercy for Animals who were able to shed light on animal cruelty and continue to fight to change the laws around animal abuse on factory farms. And today, we have two incredible guests sharing their stories of healing through the power of food and lifestyle changes. Our first guest is John Salley, a former NBA player turned vegan activist and restaurant owner. You may know him from his basketball career, but what you may not know is how he used a vegan diet and colonics to heal himself from high cholesterol and a compacted colon. John's journey to health inspired him to help others, including our second guest, Megan Brophy. Megan's story is truly amazing. Despite feeling healthy and energetic while living on a diet of burgers and junk food, her chance meeting with John Salley changed her life. After going vegan and making major lifestyle changes, Megan discovered her body was full of parasites, causing severe acne and other health issues. With perseverance and a parasite cleanse, Megan's skin cleared up and she continues to thrive on her healing journey. Both John and Megan offer incredible insight into the power of nutrition and lifestyle changes to transform our health and wellbeing. So sit back, relax, and enjoy these inspiring conversations on Food Heals. Thank You to Our Sponsors! Organifi Organifi, is a line of organic superfood blends that offers plant based nutrition made with high quality ingredients. Organifi takes pride in offering the best tasting superfood products on the market at a price that works out to less than $3 a day. You can experience Organifi's high quality superfoods without breaking the bank. Go to www.organifi.com/foodheals and use code foodheals for 20% off. CURED Nutrition You deserve to take control of your mental and physical health. CURED Nutrition is trying to make it easier for you to do exactly that. Formulated with their trinity of ingredients – a blend of full-spectrum cannabinoids, functional mushrooms, and adaptogens – Serenity gummies are your answer to finding the calm in every storm. You can grab your CURED favorites for 20% off by visiting www.curednutrition.com and using coupon code foodheals at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. It's so precious that God will prepare for us the marriage supper of the Lamb. Both John chapter 14 and Hebrews chapter 11 tell us that the Lord is preparing a better place for us, the New Jerusalem. The Lord had already prepared for us His salvation. As written in Luke chapter 2, Simeon said that he had seen God's salvation when he saw the child Jesus. During our life journey, the Lord also prepares many feasts for us. He is the bread of life, who fills our spirit. God's preparation caused the veil to be rent, so that we can come before God to deeply enjoy Him. At the same time, He also deeply enjoys us. We ought to draw near to the Lord always, and make ourselves ready as a bride adorning herself.

Al Fadi and Dr Jay Smith discuss the book written by Daniel Janosik, John of Damascus; The First Apologists to the Muslims.  John of Damascus is a Christian monk and apologist whose father served in the Umayyad Caliphate  in Damascus.  John does not use the word Islam, but instead he calls it the heresy of the Ishmaelites. Al and Jay also talk about Emperor Leo the third correspondent letters with Omar the Second.  Both John and Leo indicate that the Quran we have today is different than the Quran in the 7th and 8th centuries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Led by Molly Otis & Ed Willet, the Blue Canvas Orchestra take on the work of John Prine and Nanci Griffith in this Big Top original show. John Prine and Nanci Griffith were both humble masters of the story. They dug deep into the places where we were afraid to go. Emotional depth, keen observations and wry humor brought their music to life and hit an emotional bone. These are the writers who gave us “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” “Love at the Five & Dime,” “Trouble in These Fields, and many more. It's the Blue Canvas Orchestra's great honor to present a tribute to our lost songsmiths. Both John and Nanci performed at the Big Top several times – amazing memories! This episode features Blue Canvas Orchestra members Ed Willett, Molly Otis, Severin Behnen, Phil Anich, Tom Mitchell, Jack Gunderson, Billy Knoblauch, Danielle Diamond, Betty Ferris, Yazmin Bowers, and Scott Kirby.   First broadcast in 1994, Tent Show Radio is a weekly one-hour radio program showcasing the best live recordings from acclaimed music acts and entertainers who grace the Big Top Chautauqua stage each summer in beautiful Bayfield, WI. In the program's nearly 30-year history it has featured artists like Johnny Cash, B.B King, Brandi Carlile, Willie Nelson, Don McLean, and many more. Hosted by celebrated New York Times best-selling author Michael Perry-who weaves stories and humor throughout each episode - Tent Show Radio features performances from renowned national & regional artists, with regular appearances featuring Big Top's own unique brand of shows that feature songs and stories performed by its acclaimed house band, The Blue Canvas Orchestra. Tent Show Radio is independently produced by Big Top Chautauqua, a non-profit performing arts organization, with a mission to present performances and events that celebrate history and the environment - along with their annual summer concert series - nestled in the woods on the shores of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands.   EPISODE CREDITSMichael Perry - Host Phillip Anich - Announcer Jaime Hansen - Engineer Gina Nagro - Marketing Support FOLLOW BIG TOP CHAUTAUQUA https://www.facebook.com/bigtopchautauqua/ https://www.instagram.com/bigtopchautauqua/ https://www.tiktok.com/@bigtopchautauqua https://twitter.com/BigBlueTent FOLLOW MICHAEL PERRYhttps://sneezingcow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/sneezingcow https://www.instagram.com/sneezingcow/ https://twitter.com/sneezingcow/ 2023 TENT SHOW RADIO SPONSORSAshland Area Chamber of Commerce - https://www.visitashland.com/  Bayfield Chamber and Visitor Bureau - https://www.bayfield.org/  Bayfield County Tourism - https://www.bayfieldcounty.wi.gov/150/Tourism  The Bayfield Inn - https://bayfieldinn.com/  Cable Area Chamber of Commerce - https://www.cable4fun.com/  Washburn Area Chamber of Commerce - https://washburnchamber.com/ SPECIAL THANKSWisconsin Public Radio - https://www.wpr.org/ 

Want to learn more on how to realize your potential and live your best life? Check out our eBook at https://www.pursuinggreatnesspodcast.comIn this episode of The Real Estate Investing Club I interview Scott Poirier and John Gerstenlauer, John and Scot have been real estate investors since 2013. They have vast experience in all things real estate such as multi-units, fix and flip, wholesaling, buying properties on terms (owner financing & lease options), and short-term rentals. Both John and Scot have mentored well over a hundred Ron Legrand students, helping them to learn and build a thriving real estate business. Since 2021 they have had the privilege to teach the Short-Term Rentals business each month at all of Ron Legrand's Quick Starts around the country. Back in 2019 they discovered the KEY to creating sustainable financial independence renting apartments, and single-family homes, most of which they don't even own, using the Airbnb platform to build their Short-Term Rental business.. Scott Poirier and John Gerstenlauer is a real estate investor who has a great story to share and words of wisdom to impart for both beginning and veteran investors alike, so grab your pen and paper, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Want to get in contact with Scott Poirier and John Gerstenlauer? Reach out at www.reibn.com/checklist.Enjoy the show? Share with your friends and subscribe to the channel for all our upcoming interviews and episodes on becoming successful, realizing your potential, and living your best live.************************************************************************GET INVOLVED, CONNECTED & EDUCATEDLEARN -- Want to learn more about personal development and living your best life? Check out our course at https://www.pursuinggreatnesspodcast.comFREEDOM -- Want to become financially free through real estate? Check out our sister podcast's eBook on growing a cash flowing rental portfolio here -- https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com/real-estate-wealth-bookWATCH -- Want to watch our YouTube channel? Click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5VdXsdmf6iuH4Q37lN_1hg?sub_confirmation=1LISTEN -- Want to listen to our Podcast? Go here: https://pursuinggreatness.buzzsprout.comGROW -- Want to learn the ins and outs of real estate investing? Check out our book at https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com/real-estate-wealth-book************************************************************************ABOUT PURSUING GREATNESS THE YOUTUBE SHOW AND PODCASTPursuing Greatness is an interview based podcast and YouTube show where professionals from all areas of life share their best advice, greatest stories, and favorite tips in the art of flourishing and living your best life. Join us as we delve into every aspect of personal development - from mastering your money, work and wealth, to perfecting your health and energy, to growing in love and relationships.If you're a self development junkie and are looking for tips, inspiration and motivation to take your life to the next level, this is the show for you.Topics you'll learn more about throughout our episodes:- How to master productivity increase your capacity to get more done- How to live in abundance and richness- The best ways to meditate and get your mind right- How to improve your relationships and fall deeper in love with yourself and others- How to master your habits and your morning routine- How to build a business and make more money- Improving your mindset- How to live in wisdom and flourishing- How to master your health and physical fitness- How to live a life of prosperity- Develop mental toughness and gritSupport the show

From the field, a maintenance tip that you need to heed, keep your bushes trimmed. Both John and I relate our stories of shrubs gone wild! This is a story of how little jobs become big jobs. Subscribe to our free newsletter, https://handymanprosradioshow.com/newsletter-signup/ Join our facebook group @handyman pros Send us an email, questions@handymanprosradioshow.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/handymanpros/message

Both John the Beloved and John the Baptist make a point to teach us that there will be many who will not be able to see Christ for who He is. Even among believers. If we are not careful and intentional about our worship we may fall into the trap of not seeing or understanding or even believing all that Christ can do for us.

Who Jesus is matters, and he goes into a few reasons to believe in this verse. For something to be verified as true, it required two witnesses. Who did Jesus have? Both John and God the Father. Believing that he was the Savior was crucial in Jesus's day and remains so today.

Grief can cause you to do some really weird shit... things that you probably never imagined yourself doing. But now, as you're doing these things, they don't feel weird at all. In this Season 3 finale episode, John and Carolyn share some of their own personal experiences, plus others from some of our grief friends. We've come to the conclusion that nothing is weird in grief, because EVERYTHING is weird. Carolyn's giveaway: For free entry into the draw to win one of TEN coaching sessions with Carolyn, simply email your details to carolyn@carolyngowercoaching.com.au prior to 6pm on Tuesday December 12th 2022 AEDT (1am CST, 12am MST, 11pm Mon 11th PT), or DM Carolyn via Facebook: Carolyn Gower Coaching or Instagram: @carolyngowercoaching. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose! Visit johnpolocoaching.com to become a My Person Died Too supporter.

Kevin and Zach are joined by an endodontist by the name of Dr. John Olmsted. John is from High Point, North Carolina and teaches at UNC Chapel Hill in the endodontics department. Both John and Kevin have been using the EndoPilot from Komet and the discussion focuses on the why and how of the EndoPilot!    "Komet is a German company. This is like driving a Mercedes Benz." -Kevin, on the Komet EndoPilot Some links from the show: EndoPilot from Komet Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023! If you want to interact with us, head over to the Very Clinical Facebook Group! Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook" or "McWethy." If you'd like to support the Very Dental Podcast Network then you should support our sponsors!  -- Our friends at CAD-Ray want you to know that there has never been a better time to get into intraoral scanning! They sell and support all kinds of digital dentistry products from scanners, to printers and even cloud based software! For instance, the Medit i600 itraoral scanner is priced at just about $13,000! And if you didn't know, CAD-Ray now distributes 3Shape scanners and the amazing Trios 4 wireless just had a $10,000 price cut! It comes in under $25,000. And all these options come with CAD-Ray's unbeatable support! Go check it out at verydentalpodcast.com/cadray! -- If there is one thing that's changed the way I look at teeth the most, it's probably the headlight I use with my loupes. Our friends at Enova make amazing loupes and distribute Zumax dental microscopes, both the best you can buy. But the amazing, weightless and cordless Qubit, Quasar or Quantum headlights (all others are just toys) are the biggest game changer. But be careful…if you try one, you're going to buy one! Why haven't you checked out Enova Illumination yet? You can get a killer deal on all things Enova by using the Very Dental link you'll find at verydentalpodcast.com/Enova! -- Have you been looking at your supply bill lately? Prices are REALLY going up on all the things you use every day in your office. Our friends at Crazy Dental understand and are here to help! Very Dental listeners can get 10% off their orders from Crazy Dental by using coupon code “VERYDENTAL10”! Go check out their amazing catalog and save yourself 10% off of their already amazing prices at verydentalpodcast.com/crazy! -- If you're looking for a one stop dental marketing solution, then look no further than the Wonderist Agency. Wonderist can help you with branding and a killer website. They'll design ad campaigns no matter how you want to get your name out there. But maybe most importantly, they'll show you how your marketing plan is working! They have industry leading analytics that help you understand what works and what doesn't in your area and they'll help you spend your marketing dollar in the wisest way possible! Go check out the Wonderist Agency at verydentalpodcast.com/Wonderist!

Grief comes with a lot of questions, and quite often you may feel like you're the only one wanting to ask these. You're not alone. As grief coaches, John and Carolyn both hear a lot of the same questions over and over again from clients. "Will I feel this sad forever?" "Am I stuck in grief?" "What if I fall in love again and they die too?" "My friends seem to be sick of me being sad, should I hide my grief from them?" In this episode we address these questions, along with some more very common things that we hear... A LOT. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose! Visit johnpolocoaching.com to become a My Person Died Too supporter.

Today, on DWB, I'm joined by John Reeves and Henry Russell, Founders of Russell Reeves Capital, a real estate investment firm that specializes in multi-family and apartment syndication, helping their investors create rapid wealth for financial freedom. Both John and Henry attended the Naval Academy together and launched their firm, to help more veterans gain access to real estate investment opportunities in the multifamily. For over a decade, John's been in the trenches of real estate, first as agent, then business owner, and now tech entrepreneur. He understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities in the space, which led him to join forces with with Henry in 2020, after a new law passed, allowing for more multi-family investment opportunities. Be sure to subscribe to the Dog Whistle Brand Newsletter on Substack here: www.dogwhistlebranding.comOrder my book, “Black Veteran Entrepreneur” here: https://amzn.to/3gme7kgFind Russell Reeves Capital at: https://www.instagram.com/russellreevescapital/ Russell Reeves Capital's Website: https://russellreeves.us/

Whether you had the opportunity to say goodbye or not, the death of a loved one is absolutely heartbreaking and horrible. There can be a price to pay either way... you may get the opportunity to say goodbye, but it's after watching them suffer with a terminal illness... or their death may be sudden and without suffering, but it's a huge shock, and there were no goodbyes. Death rarely happens like it does in a Disney movie. In this episode, we share what some of our listeners have told us they would have said to their person, if they had been given the opportunity for a proper goodbye. We also share how we both said goodbye to our spouses, after watching them suffer with cancer. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose! Visit https://johnpolocoaching.com/ to become a My Person Died Too supporter.

Grieving through the holiday season is especially hard. At a time when everyone else is having fun and enjoying the festivities with their families, it can really magnify the absence of your person from your life. In this episode, John and Carolyn share what their first holiday season was like after their spouses died, and how it has changed since then. We also offer plenty of tips and strategies to help you through this challenging time of year. Listen out for the special sound effects in the last 8-10 minutes of this episode. No, John doesn't have a squeaky chair, or a new pet... it's actually his stomach growling! Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose! Visit https://johnpolocoaching.com/ to become a My Person Died Too supporter.

Today on the podcast I'm joined by John Nichols and Matt Collins of the Collegeside Church of Christ in #Cookeville, TN. Both John and Matt grew up in middle Tennessee churches which dedicated specific times and opportunities for training young people to grow their gifts of teaching, preaching, and sharing the gospel. Earlier this year they both sensed a strong need to offer something like this at Collegeside and out of this cooperation came Proclaim #Ministry Camp. What John and Matt shared is a beautiful testimony to how God works through churches to build and grow His #church. You can find more about Collegeside Church of Christ here: https://collegeside.org

With Silksong out of the way it appears there is finally room to talk about Sports Story. John and Neal delve into this week's Indie World Showcase before moving on some games that they've actually played. Both John and Neal are genuinely surprised to find that they enjoy Sonic Frontiers, Neal has been charmed by Harvestella, and Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is fantastic. Connectivity has joined Twitter, so be sure to follow @ConnectivityNWR to be up to date on any announcements. We are wanting more listener participation, so feel free to ask questions, they may show up in the show! Please send in some hard-hitting questions for the Connectivity gang to ponder over: the address is connectivity@nintendoworldreport.com

The people we surround ourselves with on a day to day basis is so important to your self-care. Just as toxic people have the ability to bring you down and make you feel even worse, the right people have the ability to support you and lift you up when you need it. Grief changes you, therefore it makes sense that your relationships with some people will also undergo changes. In this episode, John and Carolyn discuss why people seem to disappear from your life when you're grieving, how to set boundaries and rebuild your friendship circle, why we might have friends for different reasons, and so much more. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

How much pain are you willing to take to live the life you want? Imagine how your business and life can turn around once you overcome your limiting beliefs. In this episode, John and Michelle talk about breaking a belief system and helping change your mindset toward success. You'll also get insights into how courage and discipline separate you from being average to what you want to achieve!     Show Notes 1:16 Michelle's background Early on in her career, it did not seem to be good for Michelle. She was laid off by her realtor and does not want to work in a cubicle or return to bartending. She has a real estate license, and she's got a college degree and at some point; she did not know what to do with these. Either way, she still showed up to her job, treating it like a real job, and fast forward 21 years later, she was able to achieve what she wanted.    4:43 The pain that you can tolerate Both John and Michelle agreed that sometimes it was not realizing what you want, but it's the tenacity to show up and tolerate what you do not want that you can figure things out. How much pain are you willing to take in order to live the life you want after all those things?   7:01 The dark side helps out too Michelle elaborated that your dark side is there to help you just as much as the light side. The dark side can be in the form of unemployment or doing what you do not want and all of these things are messages and guidance that are going to gear you toward where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to be doing.   11:58 Forming your belief system When you know you did not want to go back to a particular situation that challenges your thinking and you form a belief system around it. This drives your actions that will ultimately lead to all the results that you have in your life.   12:39 Breaking limiting beliefs The biggest thing to break those limiting beliefs is to get curious. If you're curious about other people - what are their motivations, what makes them tick - and start asking those questions, you can start to guide them down the path that's going to help them grow and succeed.   16:00 On being a coach Too many coaches push their agendas on other people, but on the contrary, it's not really about the coach. A great coach can bring the whole tools, frameworks, and principles and none of them really matters until you get clear what the individual is trying to achieve.   23:53 Challenging your mindset Challenging your mindset is one of the hardest things to do. If you don't have a coach or mentor, you need to have somebody that's going to give you hard advice that you might not want to hear because sometimes it's even hard to see it for yourself. It is hard to break the habit of being yourself.   28:39 Discipline comes from courage It takes courage to be disciplined. The most disciplined - to their thoughts, to how you show up every day, to their actions, to follow through even on the days they don't want to follow through - that's the separator from being the average to whatever level you want to achieve.   30:05 How discipline carries over to your goals Consistent action equals results. Valleys are going to come, bumps will happen along the road. It means you're being tested and the challenge is to have the discipline to continue to show up whatever happens. You need to decide and have the courage and discipline to keep going. That's when things that you wouldn't imagine will show up to help you in pursuit of that goal.   34:12 Why do people fall short of their goals People fail to achieve their goals because they don't think through the amount of time it will take and how much are they willing to invest for that outcome. Confidence is a collection of wins. John loves micro wins because if we're getting micro wins every day, that builds a bigger confidence, and that's where the momentum keeps going.   42:05 Running in the right direction Humility is the defining trait of whether a person is coachable. You have to have enough humility to know that you needed to be held accountable, and you also needed that guidance and coaching if you desire to be better. You have to build the framework of what it is that you want and you have to have the right people guiding you to make sure that you're running in the right direction. 

When someone we love dies, it can really change the way we view the world. Whereas once we may have been somewhat naive, we now know that bad stuff CAN and DOES happen... and that your entire world can change in the blink of an eye. It's therefore understandable that grief can come with a heightened sense of anxiety, a state of hypervigilance where you are always on red alert waiting for something else to happen. In this episode we discuss some of the most common causes and types of anxiety that we've come across in grief, and some things that are helpful and not so helpful in living with it. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Continuing on down the trail as we discuss points of interest from Little Slice to the staging area by lake Tahoe. Both John and Merlin share their wisdom about the history of fun features like the bridge as you head into Rubicon Springs. This is a continuation of the Part 1 episode of the first section of the trial. Did you like this episode, make sure you check out episode 220: THE RUBICON TRAIL HISTORY WE ARE GIVING AWAY A WINCH! All you have to do to enter is leave us a review on iTunes/Apple Podcasts! Once we reach 500 reviews, we will do the drawing from those 500 reviews! At 300, 350, 400, and 450 reviews, we will do giveaways for some fun swag packs as well! So get your reviews in! Congrats to PEDDY1111 for winning the 300 swag-away! And Six String Trucker for winning the 350 swag-away! And Martlovesgarlic for winning the 400th! Who's going to be 450? CALL US AND LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. Episode 344 is brought to you by all of our peeps over at patreon.com and irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Aways, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those that support us! We wouldn't be able to do it without you guys (and gals!)! As of April 1st, 2022, we will no longer support Patreon! We are moving all of the "Patreon activities" over to Irate4x4.com. Make sure to head over there, cancel your SnailTrail 4x4 Patreon subscription, and sign up on irate! We will still keep Patreon up and running in case you have to keep using it, but we will not be interacting anymore on that platform. November monthly giveaway from none other than GEARWRENCH Tools. The tool kit we are giving away might be one of the best trail kits you can have covering so many different tools. The Mechanics Tool Set in 3 Drawer Storage Box, 232 Pieces is both SAE and Metric and comes with everything from Sockets to hex head wrenches. These kits are on a crazy sale right now on Amazon and we wanted to share the love with a lucky winner. October's giveaway is with our good buddies over at MORRFlate. This month we are giving away two Xtreme 4×4 Tire Repair Kits. These kits have everything you need to make a tire repair while you are out on the trail. They come with the complete plug set from MORRFlate, Colby Valve's Permanent Replacement Valve Stemos, and GlueTread 4×4 Sidewall Repair Kit. Each kit is valued at over $120 and we are giving away one kit to two lucky winners. Make sure you are signed up over at Irate4x4.com by September 30th to be entered! Listener Discount Codes: MORRFlate - snailtrail to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ KitsIronman 4x4 - snailtrail20 to get 20% off of all Ironman 4x4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad - snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearShock Surplus - SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor - Snailtrail4x4 for 15% offEmpire Abrasives - Snailtrail4x4 for 10% off your first order

Five years ago Hope Wood woke to find her husband, Phillip missing. 18 days later his body was found. Hope shares with us the shock of finding that her husband had taken his life, and how it has affected the lives of her and their 2 children. We discuss the stigma surrounding suicide loss, and how your grief can often be minimized or dismissed. We thank Hope for her vulnerability in this very important discussion. Hope is a Therapist in South Carolina and also offers coaching globally. Follow the links below to find out more about Hope and her work: https://bio.site/hopewoodcounselcoach www.hopewoodwriter.com www.instagram.com/hopewoodcounselcoach Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

It's so important to take time out to do things that feed your soul, but even more so when you're grieving. This episode isn't particularly about self-care, even though these things will definitely benefit your self-care. It's more about encouraging you to find things that might lift your mood, bring you some calm and peace, or maybe even find your creative side. It's about finding ways to make time for you, even if you are time poor. It's about finding the things that will feed your soul. There's even a little surprise rap from Carolyn at the end! Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Guilt can be such a heavy burden to carry, especially if you're already filled to your emotional capacity with grief. When someone we love dies, we sometimes give ourselves superhuman powers... powers that we think could have enabled us to either prevent their death, or cause their death... all because of that one small thing that we did or didn't do. And we become so committed to our story, even if it isn't really logical. But what if there was a truer story?? If you're listening to this episode on Spotify, please be sure to participate in our poll. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

In this episode we dive into the topic of grief activators: what they are, what can cause them, ways to deal with them, and why we choose to no longer call them grief triggers. Carolyn shares a recent personal story that activated her grief beyond what she expected it could, five and a half years after her husband Tony died. John also shares some ways in which his grief has been activated since his wife Michelle passed. Please be aware that in this episode we discuss suicide, cancer and car accidents, if these are things that may feel activating to you. Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

GRIEF... It's one of those things that you don't really know too much about... until you do. You may have some expectations of what grief could be like... but when you experience it on a deep personal level, you will find that the reality of grief is very different to what you had expected. In this episode, we take a look at some very common societal beliefs and expectations of grief, and see how they compare to the reality that we have witnessed both personally, and with our clients. We'll also share a list we've compiled of "Things we didn't know until we were widowed". Don't forget to rate and review our podcast, and spread the word so that more people know it exists. We'd love to help as many grievers as possible through this hardest time of their lives. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. For added support in a caring community, join our FREE Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US KEEP OUR PODCAST GOING? MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Grief demands a lot from us, at a time when we often feel we have nothing left to give. Just getting out of bed each day and keeping going can take every bit of energy we can muster. So we decided it was time to acknowledge our wins, because even the seemingly small ones are really quite big. In this episode we talk about how acknowledging these wins can help us to create momentum as we rebuild. We celebrate and share not only our proudest moments, but those achieved by you, our My Person Died Too community. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Just how easy is it to get 1000hp out of an Audi 4-litre? With reflashing's capabilities growing every year, will standalone ECUs ever become obsolete? And what makes someone drop their profession as a doctor to tune cars full time?All these questions and many more are answered in this week's episode of the High Peformance Academy Tuned In podcast with John Banks and Mitch McKee, the brains behind Dyno Spectrum.Use ‘PODCAST75' for $75 off your first HPA course here: https://hpcdmy.co/hpa-tuned-inDyno Spectrum is best known for its popular DS1 package for various Audi and Lamborghini platforms. It allows for easy wireless real-time reflashing of factory ECUs and includes provisions for Flexfuel, high-speed datalogging, as well as a long list of off-the-shelf maps to work with whatever level of modification a car has. Both John and Mitch have been in the game for years and bring a wealth of knowledge to this conversation. While they first met when working for Cobb reverse engineering factory ECUs, both had quite different and interesting career paths to get where they are today — especially John who, up until a few years ago, was a practising doctor who worked with automotive electronics and tuned cars after hours for fun.The conversation jumps into factory ECUs, digging deep into how they work, and why they do the things they do that at first inspection don't make a whole lot of sense. Reflashing, as you'd expect, is also covered in fascinating detail.The big question that seems to be getting harder and harder to answer is also discussed: reflash vs standalone — when do we need to ditch the factory ECU and go MoTeC, Haltech, Link, or anything else? Do we even need to at all? Follow Dyno Spectrum here:IG: @dynospectrumFB: Dyno SpectrumWWW: dynospectrum.comWant to learn how to tune EFI? Start here instantly, and for free: https://hpcdmy.co/tuneb

What does it take to unlock the best version of yourself? What does it take to level up your coaching skills? Hear it from the experts of the industry and be ready to transform your business and transform your life. Join us for this week's episode of the Coach Code Podcast with Sheryl Houck as we talk about life, business, and whatever else we dive into. With over 20 years in the industry as a Realtor and Property Appraiser, Sheryl's expertise is in consulting with Investors while helping them build wealth through Real Estate. Sheryl is also in the top 1% of Growth Leaders at eXp Realty and has recently dedicated herself to Coaching other Real Estate agents in building big businesses while exceeding the Real Estate goals of their clients. She also served as iBuyer Relationship Specialist for Express Offers, eXp Realty's national marketplace of iBuyers. With a career closing volume of $95 million as a single agent, Sheryl has a gift for spotting and leveraging opportunities early on in market trends and Real Estate cycles.   Show Notes About Sheryl Houck 1:32 Sheryl shares how incredibly they have progressed in their business, especially since they started 20 years ago. Sheryl came originally from Pennsylvania, outside Hershey, where he began meager beginnings and learned the value of hard work. The Inspiration Towards a Different Life 4:19 "It's about the environment that triggers everything." John shares some insights on how your community or environment will inspire you to achieve greater heights. Sheryl also shares that after an opportunity she had, she decided to go back on track and become competitive. A Bet on Yourself 7:46 "God put something in your belly, that you just want more, you want more out of life." Sheryl shares inspiring motivation to take risks and believe in yourself. After an opportunity landed on Sheryl, she decided to commit herself to growth and self-development. Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 11:32 "And we learn, then we have a choice to take what we learn and make a change." John shares some note-taking-worthy advice to some people who have experienced or have been experiencing Imposter Syndrome. These changes will definitely lift our life if we choose to make these changes. The Applied Work to Change the Subconscious 15:40 "We have a choice to rewire some of those programmings that weren't serving us." Sheryl shares tips and life hacks to get out of the Imposter Syndrome and become better after changing the subconscious. The Biggest Constraint in Our Lives is Our Thinking 20:35 Sheryl and John tackle the science and ways to unlock the biggest constraint in our lives. Sheryl also shares some insights on clarity and emotions adjacent to the idea. Dealing with Challenging and Tough Times 26:10 Identify. Sheryl shares some insightful questions that help you identify and deal with these challenging and tough times. Questions like "Where are you solving the most problems?" can help you assess and produce more results that could be very interesting. The Reason Behind Negative Issues 32:01 Sheryl defines how conflict avoidance, no boundaries, or overwhelming codependent identity issues came from. Both John and Sheryl also share some stories that helped them become good parents to their children. Finding that Right Outdoors for You 40:01 Sheryl and John have these amazing ways to reduce stress in their lives, especially by connecting outdoors, which helps them restore their energies. 

We start season four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs with an extra-long look at "San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie, and at the Monterey Pop Festival, and the careers of the Mamas and the Papas and P.F. Sloan. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Up, Up, and Away" by the 5th Dimension. 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/ Resources As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. Scott McKenzie's first album is available here. There are many compilations of the Mamas and the Papas' music, but sadly none that are in print in the UK have the original mono mixes. This set is about as good as you're going to find, though, for the stereo versions. Information on the Mamas and the Papas came from Go Where You Wanna Go: The Oral History of The Mamas and the Papas by Matthew Greenwald, California Dreamin': The True Story Of The Mamas and Papas by Michelle Phillips, and Papa John by John Phillips and Jim Jerome. Information on P.F. Sloan came from PF - TRAVELLING BAREFOOT ON A ROCKY ROAD by Stephen McParland and What's Exactly the Matter With Me? by P.F. Sloan and S.E. Feinberg. The film of the Monterey Pop Festival is available on this Criterion Blu-Ray set. Sadly the CD of the performances seems to be deleted. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Welcome to season four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. It's good to be back. Before we start this episode, I just want to say one thing. I get a lot of credit at times for the way I don't shy away from dealing with the more unsavoury elements of the people being covered in my podcast -- particularly the more awful men. But as I said very early on, I only cover those aspects of their life when they're relevant to the music, because this is a music podcast and not a true crime podcast. But also I worry that in some cases this might mean I'm giving a false impression of some people. In the case of this episode, one of the central figures is John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. Now, Phillips has posthumously been accused of some truly monstrous acts, the kind of thing that is truly unforgivable, and I believe those accusations. But those acts didn't take place during the time period covered by most of this episode, so I won't be covering them here -- but they're easily googlable if you want to know. I thought it best to get that out of the way at the start, so no-one's either anxiously waiting for the penny to drop or upset that I didn't acknowledge the elephant in the room. Separately, this episode will have some discussion of fatphobia and diet culture, and of a death that is at least in part attributable to those things. Those of you affected by that may want to skip this one or read the transcript. There are also some mentions of drug addiction and alcoholism. Anyway, on with the show. One of the things that causes problems with rock history is the tendency of people to have selective memories, and that's never more true than when it comes to the Summer of Love, summer of 1967. In the mythology that's built up around it, that was a golden time, the greatest time ever, a period of peace and love where everything was possible, and the world looked like it was going to just keep on getting better. But what that means, of course, is that the people remembering it that way do so because it was the best time of their lives. And what happens when the best time of your life is over in one summer? When you have one hit and never have a second, or when your band splits up after only eighteen months, and you have to cope with the reality that your best years are not only behind you, but they weren't even best years, but just best months? What stories would you tell about that time? Would you remember it as the eve of destruction, the last great moment before everything went to hell, or would you remember it as a golden summer, full of people with flowers in their hair? And would either really be true? [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco"] Other than the city in which they worked, there are a few things that seem to characterise almost all the important figures on the LA music scene in the middle part of the 1960s. They almost all seem to be incredibly ambitious, as one might imagine. There seem to be a huge number of fantasists among them -- people who will not only choose the legend over reality when it suits them, but who will choose the legend over reality even when it doesn't suit them. And they almost all seem to have a story about being turned down in a rude and arrogant manner by Lou Adler, usually more or less the same story. To give an example, I'm going to read out a bit of Ray Manzarek's autobiography here. Now, Manzarek uses a few words that I can't use on this podcast and keep a clean rating, so I'm just going to do slight pauses when I get to them, but I'll leave the words in the transcript for those who aren't offended by them: "Sometimes Jim and Dorothy and I went alone. The three of us tried Dunhill Records. Lou Adler was the head man. He was shrewd and he was hip. He had the Mamas and the Papas and a big single with Barry McGuire's 'Eve of Destruction.' He was flush. We were ushered into his office. He looked cool. He was California casually disheveled and had the look of a stoner, but his eyes were as cold as a shark's. He took the twelve-inch acetate demo from me and we all sat down. He put the disc on his turntable and played each cut…for ten seconds. Ten seconds! You can't tell jack [shit] from ten seconds. At least listen to one of the songs all the way through. I wanted to rage at him. 'How dare you! We're the Doors! This is [fucking] Jim Morrison! He's going to be a [fucking] star! Can't you see that? Can't you see how [fucking] handsome he is? Can't you hear how groovy the music is? Don't you [fucking] get it? Listen to the words, man!' My brain was a boiling, lava-filled Jell-O mold of rage. I wanted to eviscerate that shark. The songs he so casually dismissed were 'Moonlight Drive,' 'Hello, I Love You,' 'Summer's Almost Gone,' 'End of the Night,' 'I Looked at You,' 'Go Insane.' He rejected the whole demo. Ten seconds on each song—maybe twenty seconds on 'Hello, I Love You' (I took that as an omen of potential airplay)—and we were dismissed out of hand. Just like that. He took the demo off the turntable and handed it back to me with an obsequious smile and said, 'Nothing here I can use.' We were shocked. We stood up, the three of us, and Jim, with a wry and knowing smile on his lips, cuttingly and coolly shot back at him, 'That's okay, man. We don't want to be *used*, anyway.'" Now, as you may have gathered from the episode on the Doors, Ray Manzarek was one of those print-the-legend types, and that's true of everyone who tells similar stories about Lou Alder. But... there are a *lot* of people who tell similar stories about Lou Adler. One of those was Phil Sloan. You can get an idea of Sloan's attitude to storytelling from a story he always used to tell. Shortly after he and his family moved to LA from New York, he got a job selling newspapers on a street corner on Hollywood Boulevard, just across from Schwab's Drug Store. One day James Dean drove up in his Porsche and made an unusual request. He wanted to buy every copy of the newspaper that Sloan had -- around a hundred and fifty copies in total. But he only wanted one article, something in the entertainment section. Sloan didn't remember what the article was, but he did remember that one of the headlines was on the final illness of Oliver Hardy, who died shortly afterwards, and thought it might have been something to do with that. Dean was going to just clip that article from every copy he bought, and then he was going to give all the newspapers back to Sloan to sell again, so Sloan ended up making a lot of extra money that day. There is one rather big problem with that story. Oliver Hardy died in August 1957, just after the Sloan family moved to LA. But James Dean died in September 1955, two years earlier. Sloan admitted that, and said he couldn't explain it, but he was insistent. He sold a hundred and fifty newspapers to James Dean two years after Dean's death. When not selling newspapers to dead celebrities, Sloan went to Fairfax High School, and developed an interest in music which was mostly oriented around the kind of white pop vocal groups that were popular at the time, groups like the Kingston Trio, the Four Lads, and the Four Aces. But the record that made Sloan decide he wanted to make music himself was "Just Goofed" by the Teen Queens: [Excerpt: The Teen Queens, "Just Goofed"] In 1959, when he was fourteen, he saw an advert for an open audition with Aladdin Records, a label he liked because of Thurston Harris. He went along to the audition, and was successful. His first single, released as by Flip Sloan -- Flip was a nickname, a corruption of "Philip" -- was produced by Bumps Blackwell and featured several of the musicians who played with Sam Cooke, plus Larry Knechtel on piano and Mike Deasey on guitar, but Aladdin shut down shortly after releasing it, and it may not even have had a general release, just promo copies. I've not been able to find a copy online anywhere. After that, he tried Arwin Records, the label that Jan and Arnie recorded for, which was owned by Marty Melcher (Doris Day's husband and Terry Melcher's stepfather). Melcher signed him, and put out a single, "She's My Girl", on Mart Records, a subsidiary of Arwin, on which Sloan was backed by a group of session players including Sandy Nelson and Bruce Johnston: [Excerpt: Philip Sloan, "She's My Girl"] That record didn't have any success, and Sloan was soon dropped by Mart Records. He went on to sign with Blue Bird Records, which was as far as can be ascertained essentially a scam organisation that would record demos for songwriters, but tell the performers that they were making a real record, so that they would record it for the royalties they would never get, rather than for a decent fee as a professional demo singer would get. But Steve Venet -- the brother of Nik Venet, and occasional songwriting collaborator with Tommy Boyce -- happened to come to Blue Bird one day, and hear one of Sloan's original songs. He thought Sloan would make a good songwriter, and took him to see Lou Adler at Columbia-Screen Gems music publishing. This was shortly after the merger between Columbia-Screen Gems and Aldon Music, and Adler was at this point the West Coast head of operations, subservient to Don Kirshner and Al Nevins, but largely left to do what he wanted. The way Sloan always told the story, Venet tried to get Adler to sign Sloan, but Adler said his songs stunk and had no commercial potential. But Sloan persisted in trying to get a contract there, and eventually Al Nevins happened to be in the office and overruled Adler, much to Adler's disgust. Sloan was signed to Columbia-Screen Gems as a songwriter, though he wasn't put on a salary like the Brill Building songwriters, just told that he could bring in songs and they would publish them. Shortly after this, Adler suggested to Sloan that he might want to form a writing team with another songwriter, Steve Barri, who had had a similar non-career non-trajectory, but was very slightly further ahead in his career, having done some work with Carol Connors, the former lead singer of the Teddy Bears. Barri had co-written a couple of flop singles for Connors, before the two of them had formed a vocal group, the Storytellers, with Connors' sister. The Storytellers had released a single, "When Two People (Are in Love)" , which was put out on a local independent label and which Adler had licensed to be released on Dimension Records, the label associated with Aldon Music: [Excerpt: The Storytellers "When Two People (Are in Love)"] That record didn't sell, but it was enough to get Barri into the Columbia-Screen Gems circle, and Adler set him and Sloan up as a songwriting team -- although the way Sloan told it, it wasn't so much a songwriting team as Sloan writing songs while Barri was also there. Sloan would later claim "it was mostly a collaboration of spirit, and it seemed that I was writing most of the music and the lyric, but it couldn't possibly have ever happened unless both of us were present at the same time". One suspects that Barri might have a different recollection of how it went... Sloan and Barri's first collaboration was a song that Sloan had half-written before they met, called "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann", which was recorded by a West Coast Chubby Checker knockoff who went under the name Round Robin, and who had his own dance craze, the Slauson, which was much less successful than the Twist: [Excerpt: Round Robin, "Kick that Little Foot Sally Ann"] That track was produced and arranged by Jack Nitzsche, and Nitzsche asked Sloan to be one of the rhythm guitarists on the track, apparently liking Sloan's feel. Sloan would end up playing rhythm guitar or singing backing vocals on many of the records made of songs he and Barri wrote together. "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann" only made number sixty-one nationally, but it was a regional hit, and it meant that Sloan and Barri soon became what Sloan later described as "the Goffin and King of the West Coast follow-ups." According to Sloan "We'd be given a list on Monday morning by Lou Adler with thirty names on it of the groups who needed follow-ups to their hit." They'd then write the songs to order, and they started to specialise in dance craze songs. For example, when the Swim looked like it might be the next big dance, they wrote "Swim Swim Swim", "She Only Wants to Swim", "Let's Swim Baby", "Big Boss Swimmer", "Swim Party" and "My Swimmin' Girl" (the last a collaboration with Jan Berry and Roger Christian). These songs were exactly as good as they needed to be, in order to provide album filler for mid-tier artists, and while Sloan and Barri weren't writing any massive hits, they were doing very well as mid-tier writers. According to Sloan's biographer Stephen McParland, there was a three-year period in the mid-sixties where at least one song written or co-written by Sloan was on the national charts at any given time. Most of these songs weren't for Columbia-Screen Gems though. In early 1964 Lou Adler had a falling out with Don Kirshner, and decided to start up his own company, Dunhill, which was equal parts production company, music publishers, and management -- doing for West Coast pop singers what Motown was doing for Detroit soul singers, and putting everything into one basket. Dunhill's early clients included Jan and Dean and the rockabilly singer Johnny Rivers, and Dunhill also signed Sloan and Barri as songwriters. Because of this connection, Sloan and Barri soon became an important part of Jan and Dean's hit-making process. The Matadors, the vocal group that had provided most of the backing vocals on the duo's hits, had started asking for more money than Jan Berry was willing to pay, and Jan and Dean couldn't do the vocals themselves -- as Bones Howe put it "As a singer, Dean is a wonderful graphic artist" -- and so Sloan and Barri stepped in, doing session vocals without payment in the hope that Jan and Dean would record a few of their songs. For example, on the big hit "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena", Dean Torrence is not present at all on the record -- Jan Berry sings the lead vocal, with Sloan doubling him for much of it, Sloan sings "Dean"'s falsetto, with the engineer Bones Howe helping out, and the rest of the backing vocals are sung by Sloan, Barri, and Howe: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena"] For these recordings, Sloan and Barri were known as The Fantastic Baggys, a name which came from the Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Oldham and Mick Jagger, when the two were visiting California. Oldham had been commenting on baggys, the kind of shorts worn by surfers, and had asked Jagger what he thought of The Baggys as a group name. Jagger had replied "Fantastic!" and so the Fantastic Baggys had been born. As part of this, Sloan and Barri moved hard into surf and hot-rod music from the dance songs they had been writing previously. The Fantastic Baggys recorded their own album, Tell 'Em I'm Surfin', as a quickie album suggested by Adler: [Excerpt: The Fantastic Baggys, "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'"] And under the name The Rally Packs they recorded a version of Jan and Dean's "Move Out Little Mustang" which featured Berry's girlfriend Jill Gibson doing a spoken section: [Excerpt: The Rally Packs, "Move Out Little Mustang"] They also wrote several album tracks for Jan and Dean, and wrote "Summer Means Fun" for Bruce and Terry -- Bruce Johnston, later of the Beach Boys, and Terry Melcher: [Excerpt: Bruce and Terry, "Summer Means Fun"] And they wrote the very surf-flavoured "Secret Agent Man" for fellow Dunhill artist Johnny Rivers: [Excerpt: Johnny Rivers, "Secret Agent Man"] But of course, when you're chasing trends, you're chasing trends, and soon the craze for twangy guitars and falsetto harmonies had ended, replaced by a craze for jangly twelve-string guitars and closer harmonies. According to Sloan, he was in at the very beginning of the folk-rock trend -- the way he told the story, he was involved in the mastering of the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man". He later talked about Terry Melcher getting him to help out, saying "He had produced a record called 'Mr. Tambourine Man', and had sent it into the head office, and it had been rejected. He called me up and said 'I've got three more hours in the studio before I'm being kicked out of Columbia. Can you come over and help me with this new record?' I did. I went over there. It was under lock and key. There were two guards outside the door. Terry asked me something about 'Summer Means Fun'. "He said 'Do you remember the guitar that we worked on with that? How we put in that double reverb?' "And I said 'yes' "And he said 'What do you think if we did something like that with the Byrds?' "And I said 'That sounds good. Let's see what it sounds like.' So we patched into all the reverb centres in Columbia Music, and mastered the record in three hours." Whether Sloan really was there at the birth of folk rock, he and Barri jumped on the folk-rock craze just as they had the surf and hot-rod craze, and wrote a string of jangly hits including "You Baby" for the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Baby"] and "I Found a Girl" for Jan and Dean: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "I Found a Girl"] That song was later included on Jan and Dean's Folk 'n' Roll album, which also included... a song I'm not even going to name, but long-time listeners will know the one I mean. It was also notable in that "I Found a Girl" was the first song on which Sloan was credited not as Phil Sloan, but as P.F. Sloan -- he didn't have a middle name beginning with F, but rather the F stood for his nickname "Flip". Sloan would later talk of Phil Sloan and P.F. Sloan as almost being two different people, with P.F. being a far more serious, intense, songwriter. Folk 'n' Roll also contained another Sloan song, this one credited solely to Sloan. And that song is the one for which he became best known. There are two very different stories about how "Eve of Destruction" came to be written. To tell Sloan's version, I'm going to read a few paragraphs from his autobiography: "By late 1964, I had already written ‘Eve Of Destruction,' ‘The Sins Of A Family,' ‘This Mornin',' ‘Ain't No Way I'm Gonna Change My Mind,' and ‘What's Exactly The Matter With Me?' They all arrived on one cataclysmic evening, and nearly at the same time, as I worked on the lyrics almost simultaneously. ‘Eve Of Destruction' came about from hearing a voice, perhaps an angel's. The voice instructed me to place five pieces of paper and spread them out on my bed. I obeyed the voice. The voice told me that the first song would be called ‘Eve Of Destruction,' so I wrote the title at the top of the page. For the next few hours, the voice came and went as I was writing the lyric, as if this spirit—or whatever it was—stood over me like a teacher: ‘No, no … not think of all the hate there is in Red Russia … Red China!' I didn't understand. I thought the Soviet Union was the mortal threat to America, but the voice went on to reveal to me the future of the world until 2024. I was told the Soviet Union would fall, and that Red China would continue to be communist far into the future, but that communism was not going to be allowed to take over this Divine Planet—therefore, think of all the hate there is in Red China. I argued and wrestled with the voice for hours, until I was exhausted but satisfied inside with my plea to God to either take me out of the world, as I could not live in such a hypocritical society, or to show me a way to make things better. When I was writing ‘Eve,' I was on my hands and knees, pleading for an answer." Lou Adler's story is that he gave Phil Sloan a copy of Bob Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home album and told him to write a bunch of songs that sounded like that, and Sloan came back a week later as instructed with ten Dylan knock-offs. Adler said "It was a natural feel for him. He's a great mimic." As one other data point, both Steve Barri and Bones Howe, the engineer who worked on most of the sessions we're looking at today, have often talked in interviews about "Eve of Destruction" as being a Sloan/Barri collaboration, as if to them it's common knowledge that it wasn't written alone, although Sloan's is the only name on the credits. The song was given to a new signing to Dunhill Records, Barry McGuire. McGuire was someone who had been part of the folk scene for years, He'd been playing folk clubs in LA while also acting in a TV show from 1961. When the TV show had finished, he'd formed a duo, Barry and Barry, with Barry Kane, and they performed much the same repertoire as all the other early-sixties folkies: [Excerpt: Barry and Barry, "If I Had a Hammer"] After recording their one album, both Barrys joined the New Christy Minstrels. We've talked about the Christys before, but they were -- and are to this day -- an ultra-commercial folk group, led by Randy Sparks, with a revolving membership of usually eight or nine singers which included several other people who've come up in this podcast, like Gene Clark and Jerry Yester. McGuire became one of the principal lead singers of the Christys, singing lead on their version of the novelty cowboy song "Three Wheels on My Wagon", which was later released as a single in the UK and became a perennial children's favourite (though it has a problematic attitude towards Native Americans): [Excerpt: The New Christy Minstrels, "Three Wheels on My Wagon"] And he also sang lead on their big hit "Green Green", which he co-wrote with Randy Sparks: [Excerpt: The New Christy Minstrels, "Green Green"] But by 1965 McGuire had left the New Christy Minstrels. As he said later "I'd sung 'Green Green' a thousand times and I didn't want to sing it again. This is January of 1965. I went back to LA to meet some producers, and I was broke. Nobody had the time of day for me. I was walking down street one time to see Dr. Strangelove and I walked by the music store, and I heard "Green Green" comin' out of the store, ya know, on Hollywood Boulevard. And I heard my voice, and I thought, 'I got four dollars in my pocket!' I couldn't believe it, my voice is comin' out on Hollywood Boulevard, and I'm broke. And right at that moment, a car pulls up, and the radio is playing 'Chim Chim Cherie" also by the Minstrels. So I got my voice comin' at me in stereo, standin' on the sidewalk there, and I'm broke, and I can't get anyone to sign me!" But McGuire had a lot of friends who he'd met on the folk scene, some of whom were now in the new folk-rock scene that was just starting to spring up. One of them was Roger McGuinn, who told him that his band, the Byrds, were just about to put out a new single, "Mr. Tambourine Man", and that they were about to start a residency at Ciro's on Sunset Strip. McGuinn invited McGuire to the opening night of that residency, where a lot of other people from the scene were there to see the new group. Bob Dylan was there, as was Phil Sloan, and the actor Jack Nicholson, who was still at the time a minor bit-part player in low-budget films made by people like American International Pictures (the cinematographer on many of Nicholson's early films was Floyd Crosby, David Crosby's father, which may be why he was there). Someone else who was there was Lou Adler, who according to McGuire recognised him instantly. According to Adler, he actually asked Terry Melcher who the long-haired dancer wearing furs was, because "he looked like the leader of a movement", and Melcher told him that he was the former lead singer of the New Christy Minstrels. Either way, Adler approached McGuire and asked if he was currently signed -- Dunhill Records was just starting up, and getting someone like McGuire, who had a proven ability to sing lead on hit records, would be a good start for the label. As McGuire didn't have a contract, he was signed to Dunhill, and he was given some of Sloan's new songs to pick from, and chose "What's Exactly the Matter With Me?" as his single: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "What's Exactly the Matter With Me?"] McGuire described what happened next: "It was like, a three-hour session. We did two songs, and then the third one wasn't turning out. We only had about a half hour left in the session, so I said 'Let's do this tune', and I pulled 'Eve of Destruction' out of my pocket, and it just had Phil's words scrawled on a piece of paper, all wrinkled up. Phil worked the chords out with the musicians, who were Hal Blaine on drums and Larry Knechtel on bass." There were actually more musicians than that at the session -- apparently both Knechtel and Joe Osborn were there, so I'm not entirely sure who's playing bass -- Knechtel was a keyboard player as well as a bass player, but I don't hear any keyboards on the track. And Tommy Tedesco was playing lead guitar, and Steve Barri added percussion, along with Sloan on rhythm guitar and harmonica. The chords were apparently scribbled down for the musicians on bits of greasy paper that had been used to wrap some takeaway chicken, and they got through the track in a single take. According to McGuire "I'm reading the words off this piece of wrinkled paper, and I'm singing 'My blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'", that part that goes 'Ahhh you can't twist the truth', and the reason I'm going 'Ahhh' is because I lost my place on the page. People said 'Man, you really sounded frustrated when you were singing.' I was. I couldn't see the words!" [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction"] With a few overdubs -- the female backing singers in the chorus, and possibly the kettledrums, which I've seen differing claims about, with some saying that Hal Blaine played them during the basic track and others saying that Lou Adler suggested them as an overdub, the track was complete. McGuire wasn't happy with his vocal, and a session was scheduled for him to redo it, but then a record promoter working with Adler was DJing a birthday party for the head of programming at KFWB, the big top forty radio station in LA at the time, and he played a few acetates he'd picked up from Adler. Most went down OK with the crowd, but when he played "Eve of Destruction", the crowd went wild and insisted he play it three times in a row. The head of programming called Adler up and told him that "Eve of Destruction" was going to be put into rotation on the station from Monday, so he'd better get the record out. As McGuire was away for the weekend, Adler just released the track as it was, and what had been intended to be a B-side became Barry McGuire's first and only number one record: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction"] Sloan would later claim that that song was a major reason why the twenty-sixth amendment to the US Constitution was passed six years later, because the line "you're old enough to kill but not for votin'" shamed Congress into changing the constitution to allow eighteen-year-olds to vote. If so, that would make "Eve of Destruction" arguably the single most impactful rock record in history, though Sloan is the only person I've ever seen saying that As well as going to number one in McGuire's version, the song was also covered by the other artists who regularly performed Sloan and Barri songs, like the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "Eve of Destruction"] And Jan and Dean, whose version on Folk & Roll used the same backing track as McGuire, but had a few lyrical changes to make it fit with Jan Berry's right-wing politics, most notably changing "Selma, Alabama" to "Watts, California", thus changing a reference to peaceful civil rights protestors being brutally attacked and murdered by white supremacist state troopers to a reference to what was seen, in the popular imaginary, as Black people rioting for no reason: [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "Eve of Destruction"] According to Sloan, he worked on the Folk & Roll album as a favour to Berry, even though he thought Berry was being cynical and exploitative in making the record, but those changes caused a rift in their friendship. Sloan said in his autobiography "Where I was completely wrong was in helping him capitalize on something in which he didn't believe. Jan wanted the public to perceive him as a person who was deeply concerned and who embraced the values of the progressive politics of the day. But he wasn't that person. That's how I was being pulled. It was when he recorded my actual song ‘Eve Of Destruction' and changed a number of lines to reflect his own ideals that my principles demanded that I leave Folk City and never return." It's true that Sloan gave no more songs to Jan and Dean after that point -- but it's also true that the duo would record only one more album, the comedy concept album Jan and Dean Meet Batman, before Jan's accident. Incidentally, the reference to Selma, Alabama in the lyric might help people decide on which story about the writing of "Eve of Destruction" they think is more plausible. Remember that Lou Adler said that it was written after Adler gave Sloan a copy of Bringing it All Back Home and told him to write a bunch of knock-offs, while Sloan said it was written after a supernatural force gave him access to all the events that would happen in the world for the next sixty years. Sloan claimed the song was written in late 1964. Selma, Alabama, became national news in late February and early March 1965. Bringing it All Back Home was released in late March 1965. So either Adler was telling the truth, or Sloan really *was* given a supernatural insight into the events of the future. Now, as it turned out, while "Eve of Destruction" went to number one, that would be McGuire's only hit as a solo artist. His next couple of singles would reach the very low end of the Hot One Hundred, and that would be it -- he'd release several more albums, before appearing in the Broadway musical Hair, most famous for its nude scenes, and getting a small part in the cinematic masterpiece Werewolves on Wheels: [Excerpt: Werewolves on Wheels trailer] P.F. Sloan would later tell various stories about why McGuire never had another hit. Sometimes he would say that Dunhill Records had received death threats because of "Eve of Destruction" and so deliberately tried to bury McGuire's career, other times he would say that Lou Adler had told him that Billboard had said they were never going to put McGuire's records on the charts no matter how well they sold, because "Eve of Destruction" had just been too powerful and upset the advertisers. But of course at this time Dunhill were still trying for a follow-up to "Eve of Destruction", and they thought they might have one when Barry McGuire brought in a few friends of his to sing backing vocals on his second album. Now, we've covered some of the history of the Mamas and the Papas already, because they were intimately tied up with other groups like the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful, and with the folk scene that led to songs like "Hey Joe", so some of this will be more like a recap than a totally new story, but I'm going to recap those parts of the story anyway, so it's fresh in everyone's heads. John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Cass Elliot all grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles south of Washington DC. Elliot was a few years younger than Phillips and McKenzie, and so as is the way with young men they never really noticed her, and as McKenzie later said "She lived like a quarter of a mile from me and I never met her until New York". While they didn't know who Elliot was, though, she was aware who they were, as Phillips and McKenzie sang together in a vocal group called The Smoothies. The Smoothies were a modern jazz harmony group, influenced by groups like the Modernaires, the Hi-Los, and the Four Freshmen. John Phillips later said "We were drawn to jazz, because we were sort of beatniks, really, rather than hippies, or whatever, flower children. So we used to sing modern harmonies, like Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. Dave Lambert did a lot of our arrangements for us as a matter of fact." Now, I've not seen any evidence other than Phillips' claim that Dave Lambert ever arranged for the Smoothies, but that does tell you a lot about the kind of music that they were doing. Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross were a vocalese trio whose main star was Annie Ross, who had a career worthy of an episode in itself -- she sang with Paul Whiteman, appeared in a Little Rascals film when she was seven, had an affair with Lenny Bruce, dubbed Britt Ekland's voice in The Wicker Man, played the villain's sister in Superman III, and much more. Vocalese, you'll remember, was a style of jazz vocal where a singer would take a jazz instrumental, often an improvised one, and add lyrics which they would sing, like Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross' version of "Cloudburst": [Excerpt: Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, "Cloudburst"] Whether Dave Lambert ever really did arrange for the Smoothies or not, it's very clear that the trio had a huge influence on John Phillips' ideas about vocal arrangement, as you can hear on Mamas and Papas records like "Once Was a Time I Thought": [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Once Was a Time I Thought"] While the Smoothies thought of themselves as a jazz group, when they signed to Decca they started out making the standard teen pop of the era, with songs like "Softly": [Excerpt, The Smoothies, "Softly"] When the folk boom started, Phillips realised that this was music that he could do easily, because the level of musicianship among the pop-folk musicians was so much lower than in the jazz world. The Smoothies made some recordings in the style of the Kingston Trio, like "Ride Ride Ride": [Excerpt: The Smoothies, "Ride Ride Ride"] Then when the Smoothies split, Phillips and McKenzie formed a trio with a banjo player, Dick Weissman, who they met through Izzy Young's Folklore Centre in Greenwich Village after Phillips asked Young to name some musicians who could make a folk record with him. Weissman was often considered the best banjo player on the scene, and was a friend of Pete Seeger's, to whom Seeger sometimes turned for banjo tips. The trio, who called themselves the Journeymen, quickly established themselves on the folk scene. Weissman later said "we had this interesting balance. John had all of this charisma -- they didn't know about the writing thing yet -- John had the personality, Scott had the voice, and I could play. If you think about it, all of those bands like the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four, nobody could really *sing* and nobody could really *play*, relatively speaking." This is the take that most people seemed to have about John Phillips, in any band he was ever in. Nobody thought he was a particularly good singer or instrumentalist -- he could sing on key and play adequate rhythm guitar, but nobody would actually pay money to listen to him do those things. Mark Volman of the Turtles, for example, said of him "John wasn't the kind of guy who was going to be able to go up on stage and sing his songs as a singer-songwriter. He had to put himself in the context of a group." But he was charismatic, he had presence, and he also had a great musical mind. He would surround himself with the best players and best singers he could, and then he would organise and arrange them in ways that made the most of their talents. He would work out the arrangements, in a manner that was far more professional than the quick head arrangements that other folk groups used, and he instigated a level of professionalism in his groups that was not at all common on the scene. Phillips' friend Jim Mason talked about the first time he saw the Journeymen -- "They were warming up backstage, and John had all of them doing vocal exercises; one thing in particular that's pretty famous called 'Seiber Syllables' -- it's a series of vocal exercises where you enunciate different vowel and consonant sounds. It had the effect of clearing your head, and it's something that really good operetta singers do." The group were soon signed by Frank Werber, the manager of the Kingston Trio, who signed them as an insurance policy. Dave Guard, the Kingston Trio's banjo player, was increasingly having trouble with the other members, and Werber knew it was only a matter of time before he left the group. Werber wanted the Journeymen as a sort of farm team -- he had the idea that when Guard left, Phillips would join the Kingston Trio in his place as the third singer. Weissman would become the Trio's accompanist on banjo, and Scott McKenzie, who everyone agreed had a remarkable voice, would be spun off as a solo artist. But until that happened, they might as well make records by themselves. The Journeymen signed to MGM records, but were dropped before they recorded anything. They instead signed to Capitol, for whom they recorded their first album: [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "500 Miles"] After recording that album, the Journeymen moved out to California, with Phillips' wife and children. But soon Phillips' marriage was to collapse, as he met and fell in love with Michelle Gilliam. Gilliam was nine years younger than him -- he was twenty-six and she was seventeen -- and she had the kind of appearance which meant that in every interview with an older heterosexual man who knew her, that man will spend half the interview talking about how attractive he found her. Phillips soon left his wife and children, but before he did, the group had a turntable hit with "River Come Down", the B-side to "500 Miles": [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "River Come Down"] Around the same time, Dave Guard *did* leave the Kingston Trio, but the plan to split the Journeymen never happened. Instead Phillips' friend John Stewart replaced Guard -- and this soon became a new source of income for Phillips. Both Phillips and Stewart were aspiring songwriters, and they collaborated together on several songs for the Trio, including "Chilly Winds": [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "Chilly Winds"] Phillips became particularly good at writing songs that sounded like they could be old traditional folk songs, sometimes taking odd lines from older songs to jump-start new ones, as in "Oh Miss Mary", which he and Stewart wrote after hearing someone sing the first line of a song she couldn't remember the rest of: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "Oh Miss Mary"] Phillips and Stewart became so close that Phillips actually suggested to Stewart that he quit the Kingston Trio and replace Dick Weissman in the Journeymen. Stewart did quit the Trio -- but then the next day Phillips suggested that maybe it was a bad idea and he should stay where he was. Stewart went back to the Trio, claimed he had only pretended to quit because he wanted a pay-rise, and got his raise, so everyone ended up happy. The Journeymen moved back to New York with Michelle in place of Phillips' first wife (and Michelle's sister Russell also coming along, as she was dating Scott McKenzie) and on New Year's Eve 1962 John and Michelle married -- so from this point on I will refer to them by their first names, because they both had the surname Phillips. The group continued having success through 1963, including making appearances on "Hootenanny": [Excerpt: The Journeymen, "Stack O'Lee (live on Hootenanny)"] By the time of the Journeymen's third album, though, John and Scott McKenzie were on bad terms. Weissman said "They had been the closest of friends and now they were the worst of enemies. They talked through me like I was a medium. It got to the point where we'd be standing in the dressing room and John would say to me 'Tell Scott that his right sock doesn't match his left sock...' Things like that, when they were standing five feet away from each other." Eventually, the group split up. Weissman was always going to be able to find employment given his banjo ability, and he was about to get married and didn't need the hassle of dealing with the other two. McKenzie was planning on a solo career -- everyone was agreed that he had the vocal ability. But John was another matter. He needed to be in a group. And not only that, the Journeymen had bookings they needed to complete. He quickly pulled together a group he called the New Journeymen. The core of the lineup was himself, Michelle on vocals, and banjo player Marshall Brickman. Brickman had previously been a member of a folk group called the Tarriers, who had had a revolving lineup, and had played on most of their early-sixties recordings: [Excerpt: The Tarriers, "Quinto (My Little Pony)"] We've met the Tarriers before in the podcast -- they had been formed by Erik Darling, who later replaced Pete Seeger in the Weavers after Seeger's socialist principles wouldn't let him do advertising, and Alan Arkin, later to go on to be a film star, and had had hits with "Cindy, O Cindy", with lead vocals from Vince Martin, who would later go on to be a major performer in the Greenwich Village scene, and with "The Banana Boat Song". By the time Brickman had joined, though, Darling, Arkin, and Martin had all left the group to go on to bigger things, and while he played with them for several years, it was after their commercial peak. Brickman would, though, also go on to a surprising amount of success, but as a writer rather than a musician -- he had a successful collaboration with Woody Allen in the 1970s, co-writing four of Allen's most highly regarded films -- Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Manhattan Murder Mystery -- and with another collaborator he later co-wrote the books for the stage musicals Jersey Boys and The Addams Family. Both John and Michelle were decent singers, and both have their admirers as vocalists -- P.F. Sloan always said that Michelle was the best singer in the group they eventually formed, and that it was her voice that gave the group its sound -- but for the most part they were not considered as particularly astonishing lead vocalists. Certainly, neither had a voice that stood out the way that Scott McKenzie's had. They needed a strong lead singer, and they found one in Denny Doherty. Now, we covered Denny Doherty's early career in the episode on the Lovin' Spoonful, because he was intimately involved in the formation of that group, so I won't go into too much detail here, but I'll give a very abbreviated version of what I said there. Doherty was a Canadian performer who had been a member of the Halifax Three with Zal Yanovsky: [Excerpt: The Halifax Three, "When I First Came to This Land"] After the Halifax Three had split up, Doherty and Yanovsky had performed as a duo for a while, before joining up with Cass Elliot and her husband Jim Hendricks, who both had previously been in the Big Three with Tim Rose: [Excerpt: Cass Elliot and the Big 3, "The Banjo Song"] Elliot, Hendricks, Yanovsky, and Doherty had formed The Mugwumps, sometimes joined by John Sebastian, and had tried to go in more of a rock direction after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. They recorded one album together before splitting up: [Excerpt: The Mugwumps, "Searchin'"] Part of the reason they split up was that interpersonal relationships within the group were put under some strain -- Elliot and Hendricks split up, though they would remain friends and remain married for several years even though they were living apart, and Elliot had an unrequited crush on Doherty. But since they'd split up, and Yanovsky and Sebastian had gone off to form the Lovin' Spoonful, that meant that Doherty was free, and he was regarded as possibly the best male lead vocalist on the circuit, so the group snapped him up. The only problem was that the Journeymen still had gigs booked that needed to be played, one of them was in just three days, and Doherty didn't know the repertoire. This was a problem with an easy solution for people in their twenties though -- they took a huge amount of amphetamines, and stayed awake for three days straight rehearsing. They made the gig, and Doherty was now the lead singer of the New Journeymen: [Excerpt: The New Journeymen, "The Last Thing on My Mind"] But the New Journeymen didn't last in that form for very long, because even before joining the group, Denny Doherty had been going in a more folk-rock direction with the Mugwumps. At the time, John Phillips thought rock and roll was kids' music, and he was far more interested in folk and jazz, but he was also very interested in making money, and he soon decided it was an idea to start listening to the Beatles. There's some dispute as to who first played the Beatles for John in early 1965 -- some claim it was Doherty, others claim it was Cass Elliot, but everyone agrees it was after Denny Doherty had introduced Phillips to something else -- he brought round some LSD for John and Michelle, and Michelle's sister Rusty, to try. And then he told them he'd invited round a friend. Michelle Phillips later remembered, "I remember saying to the guys "I don't know about you guys, but this drug does nothing for me." At that point there was a knock on the door, and as I opened the door and saw Cass, the acid hit me *over the head*. I saw her standing there in a pleated skirt, a pink Angora sweater with great big eyelashes on and her hair in a flip. And all of a sudden I thought 'This is really *quite* a drug!' It was an image I will have securely fixed in my brain for the rest of my life. I said 'Hi, I'm Michelle. We just took some LSD-25, do you wanna join us?' And she said 'Sure...'" Rusty Gilliam's description matches this -- "It was mind-boggling. She had on a white pleated skirt, false eyelashes. These were the kind of eyelashes that when you put them on you were supposed to trim them to an appropriate length, which she didn't, and when she blinked she looked like a cow, or those dolls you get when you're little and the eyes open and close. And we're on acid. Oh my God! It was a sight! And everything she was wearing were things that you weren't supposed to be wearing if you were heavy -- white pleated skirt, mohair sweater. You know, until she became famous, she suffered so much, and was poked fun at." This gets to an important point about Elliot, and one which sadly affected everything about her life. Elliot was *very* fat -- I've seen her weight listed at about three hundred pounds, and she was only five foot five tall -- and she also didn't have the kind of face that gets thought of as conventionally attractive. Her appearance would be cruelly mocked by pretty much everyone for the rest of her life, in ways that it's genuinely hurtful to read about, and which I will avoid discussing in detail in order to avoid hurting fat listeners. But the two *other* things that defined Elliot in the minds of those who knew her were her voice -- every single person who knew her talks about what a wonderful singer she was -- and her personality. I've read a lot of things about Cass Elliot, and I have never read a single negative word about her as a person, but have read many people going into raptures about what a charming, loving, friendly, understanding person she was. Michelle later said of her "From the time I left Los Angeles, I hadn't had a friend, a buddy. I was married, and John and I did not hang out with women, we just hung out with men, and especially not with women my age. John was nine years older than I was. And here was a fun-loving, intelligent woman. She captivated me. I was as close to in love with Cass as I could be to any woman in my life at that point. She also represented something to me: freedom. Everything she did was because she wanted to do it. She was completely independent and I admired her and was in awe of her. And later on, Cass would be the one to tell me not to let John run my life. And John hated her for that." Either Elliot had brought round Meet The Beatles, the Beatles' first Capitol album, for everyone to listen to, or Denny Doherty already had it, but either way Elliot and Doherty were by this time already Beatles fans. Michelle, being younger than the rest and not part of the folk scene until she met John, was much more interested in rock and roll than any of them, but because she'd been married to John for a couple of years and been part of his musical world she hadn't really encountered the Beatles music, though she had a vague memory that she might have heard a track or two on the radio. John was hesitant -- he didn't want to listen to any rock and roll, but eventually he was persuaded, and the record was put on while he was on his first acid trip: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"] Within a month, John Phillips had written thirty songs that he thought of as inspired by the Beatles. The New Journeymen were going to go rock and roll. By this time Marshall Brickman was out of the band, and instead John, Michelle, and Denny recruited a new lead guitarist, Eric Hord. Denny started playing bass, with John on rhythm guitar, and a violinist friend of theirs, Peter Pilafian, knew a bit of drums and took on that role. The new lineup of the group used the Journeymen's credit card, which hadn't been stopped even though the Journeymen were no more, to go down to St. Thomas in the Caribbean, along with Michelle's sister, John's daughter Mackenzie (from whose name Scott McKenzie had taken his stage name, as he was born Philip Blondheim), a pet dog, and sundry band members' girlfriends. They stayed there for several months, living in tents on the beach, taking acid, and rehearsing. While they were there, Michelle and Denny started an affair which would have important ramifications for the group later. They got a gig playing at a club called Duffy's, whose address was on Creeque Alley, and soon after they started playing there Cass Elliot travelled down as well -- she was in love with Denny, and wanted to be around him. She wasn't in the group, but she got a job working at Duffy's as a waitress, and she would often sing harmony with the group while waiting at tables. Depending on who was telling the story, either she didn't want to be in the group because she didn't want her appearance to be compared to Michelle's, or John wouldn't *let* her be in the group because she was so fat. Later a story would be made up to cover for this, saying that she hadn't been in the group at first because she couldn't sing the highest notes that were needed, until she got hit on the head with a metal pipe and discovered that it had increased her range by three notes, but that seems to be a lie. One of the songs the New Journeymen were performing at this time was "Mr. Tambourine Man". They'd heard that their old friend Roger McGuinn had recorded it with his new band, but they hadn't yet heard his version, and they'd come up with their own arrangement: [Excerpt: The New Journeymen, "Mr. Tambourine Man"] Denny later said "We were doing three-part harmony on 'Mr Tambourine Man', but a lot slower... like a polka or something! And I tell John, 'No John, we gotta slow it down and give it a backbeat.' Finally we get the Byrds 45 down here, and we put it on and turn it up to ten, and John says 'Oh, like that?' Well, as you can tell, it had already been done. So John goes 'Oh, ah... that's it...' a light went on. So we started doing Beatles stuff. We dropped 'Mr Tambourine Man' after hearing the Byrds version, because there was no point." Eventually they had to leave the island -- they had completely run out of money, and were down to fifty dollars. The credit card had been cut up, and the governor of the island had a personal vendetta against them because they gave his son acid, and they were likely to get arrested if they didn't leave the island. Elliot and her then-partner had round-trip tickets, so they just left, but the rest of them were in trouble. By this point they were unwashed, they were homeless, and they'd spent their last money on stage costumes. They got to the airport, and John Phillips tried to write a cheque for eight air fares back to the mainland, which the person at the check-in desk just laughed at. So they took their last fifty dollars and went to a casino. There Michelle played craps, and she rolled seventeen straight passes, something which should be statistically impossible. She turned their fifty dollars into six thousand dollars, which they scooped up, took to the airport, and paid for their flights out in cash. The New Journeymen arrived back in New York, but quickly decided that they were going to try their luck in California. They rented a car, using Scott McKenzie's credit card, and drove out to LA. There they met up with Hoyt Axton, who you may remember as the son of Mae Axton, the writer of "Heartbreak Hotel", and as the performer who had inspired Michael Nesmith to go into folk music: [Excerpt: Hoyt Axton, "Greenback Dollar"] Axton knew the group, and fed them and put them up for a night, but they needed somewhere else to stay. They went to stay with one of Michelle's friends, but after one night their rented car was stolen, with all their possessions in it. They needed somewhere else to stay, so they went to ask Jim Hendricks if they could crash at his place -- and they were surprised to find that Cass Elliot was there already. Hendricks had another partner -- though he and Elliot wouldn't have their marriage annulled until 1968 and were still technically married -- but he'd happily invited her to stay with them. And now all her friends had turned up, he invited them to stay as well, taking apart the beds in his one-bedroom apartment so he could put down a load of mattresses in the space for everyone to sleep on. The next part becomes difficult, because pretty much everyone in the LA music scene of the sixties was a liar who liked to embellish their own roles in things, so it's quite difficult to unpick what actually happened. What seems to have happened though is that first this new rock-oriented version of the New Journeymen went to see Frank Werber, on the recommendation of John Stewart. Werber was the manager of the Kingston Trio, and had also managed the Journeymen. He, however, was not interested -- not because he didn't think they had talent, but because he had experience of working with John Phillips previously. When Phillips came into his office Werber picked up a tape that he'd been given of the group, and said "I have not had a chance to listen to this tape. I believe that you are a most talented individual, and that's why we took you on in the first place. But I also believe that you're also a drag to work with. A pain in the ass. So I'll tell you what, before whatever you have on here sways me, I'm gonna give it back to you and say that we're not interested." Meanwhile -- and this part of the story comes from Kim Fowley, who was never one to let the truth get in the way of him taking claim for everything, but parts of it at least are corroborated by other people -- Cass Elliot had called Fowley, and told him that her friends' new group sounded pretty good and he should sign them. Fowley was at that time working as a talent scout for a label, but according to him the label wouldn't give the group the money they wanted. So instead, Fowley got in touch with Nik Venet, who had just produced the Leaves' hit version of "Hey Joe" on Mira Records: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe"] Fowley suggested to Venet that Venet should sign the group to Mira Records, and Fowley would sign them to a publishing contract, and they could both get rich. The trio went to audition for Venet, and Elliot drove them over -- and Venet thought the group had a great look as a quartet. He wanted to sign them to a record contract, but only if Elliot was in the group as well. They agreed, he gave them a one hundred and fifty dollar advance, and told them to come back the next day to see his boss at Mira. But Barry McGuire was also hanging round with Elliot and Hendricks, and decided that he wanted to have Lou Adler hear the four of them. He thought they might be useful both as backing vocalists on his second album and as a source of new songs. He got them to go and see Lou Adler, and according to McGuire Phillips didn't want Elliot to go with them, but as Elliot was the one who was friends with McGuire, Phillips worried that they'd lose the chance with Adler if she didn't. Adler was amazed, and decided to sign the group right then and there -- both Bones Howe and P.F. Sloan claimed to have been there when the group auditioned for him and have said "if you won't sign them, I will", though exactly what Sloan would have signed them to I'm not sure. Adler paid them three thousand dollars in cash and told them not to bother with Nik Venet, so they just didn't turn up for the Mira Records audition the next day. Instead, they went into the studio with McGuire and cut backing vocals on about half of his new album: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire with the Mamas and the Papas, "Hide Your Love Away"] While the group were excellent vocalists, there were two main reasons that Adler wanted to sign them. The first was that he found Michelle Phillips extremely attractive, and the second is a song that John and Michelle had written which he thought might be very suitable for McGuire's album. Most people who knew John Phillips think of "California Dreamin'" as a solo composition, and he would later claim that he gave Michelle fifty percent just for transcribing his lyric, saying he got inspired in the middle of the night, woke her up, and got her to write the song down as he came up with it. But Michelle, who is a credited co-writer on the song, has been very insistent that she wrote the lyrics to the second verse, and that it's about her own real experiences, saying that she would often go into churches and light candles even though she was "at best an agnostic, and possibly an atheist" in her words, and this would annoy John, who had also been raised Catholic, but who had become aggressively opposed to expressions of religion, rather than still having nostalgia for the aesthetics of the church as Michelle did. They were out walking on a particularly cold winter's day in 1963, and Michelle wanted to go into St Patrick's Cathedral and John very much did not want to. A couple of nights later, John woke her up, having written the first verse of the song, starting "All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey/I went for a walk on a winter's day", and insisting she collaborate with him. She liked the song, and came up with the lines "Stopped into a church, I passed along the way/I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray/The preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm going to stay", which John would later apparently dislike, but which stayed in the song. Most sources I've seen for the recording of "California Dreamin'" say that the lineup of musicians was the standard set of players who had played on McGuire's other records, with the addition of John Phillips on twelve-string guitar -- P.F. Sloan on guitar and harmonica, Joe Osborn on bass, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, and Hal Blaine on drums, but for some reason Stephen McParland's book on Sloan has Bones Howe down as playing drums on the track while engineering -- a detail so weird, and from such a respectable researcher, that I have to wonder if it might be true. In his autobiography, Sloan claims to have rewritten the chord sequence to "California Dreamin'". He says "Barry Mann had unintentionally showed me a suspended chord back at Screen Gems. I was so impressed by this beautiful, simple chord that I called Brian Wilson and played it for him over the phone. The next thing I knew, Brian had written ‘Don't Worry Baby,' which had within it a number suspended chords. And then the chord heard 'round the world, two months later, was the opening suspended chord of ‘A Hard Day's Night.' I used these chords throughout ‘California Dreamin',' and more specifically as a bridge to get back and forth from the verse to the chorus." Now, nobody else corroborates this story, and both Brian Wilson and John Phillips had the kind of background in modern harmony that means they would have been very aware of suspended chords before either ever encountered Sloan, but I thought I should mention it. Rather more plausible is Sloan's other claim, that he came up with the intro to the song. According to Sloan, he was inspired by "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures: [Excerpt: The Ventures, "Walk Don't Run"] And you can easily see how this: [plays "Walk Don't Run"] Can lead to this: [plays "California Dreamin'"] And I'm fairly certain that if that was the inspiration, it was Sloan who was the one who thought it up. John Phillips had been paying no attention to the world of surf music when "Walk Don't Run" had been a hit -- that had been at the point when he was very firmly in the folk world, while Sloan of course had been recording "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'", and it had been his job to know surf music intimately. So Sloan's intro became the start of what was intended to be Barry McGuire's next single: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "California Dreamin'"] Sloan also provided the harmonica solo on the track: [Excerpt: Barry McGuire, "California Dreamin'"] The Mamas and the Papas -- the new name that was now given to the former New Journeymen, now they were a quartet -- were also signed to Dunhill as an act on their own, and recorded their own first single, "Go Where You Wanna Go", a song apparently written by John about Michelle, in late 1963, after she had briefly left him to have an affair with Russ Titelman, the record producer and songwriter, before coming back to him: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "Go Where You Wanna Go"] But while that was put out, they quickly decided to scrap it and go with another song. The "Go Where You Wanna Go" single was pulled after only selling a handful of copies, though its commercial potential was later proved when in 1967 a new vocal group, the 5th Dimension, released a soundalike version as their second single. The track was produced by Lou Adler's client Johnny Rivers, and used the exact same musicians as the Mamas and the Papas version, with the exception of Phillips. It became their first hit, reaching number sixteen on the charts: [Excerpt: The 5th Dimension, "Go Where You Wanna Go"] The reason the Mamas and the Papas version of "Go Where You Wanna Go" was pulled was because everyone became convinced that their first single should instead be their own version of "California Dreamin'". This is the exact same track as McGuire's track, with just two changes. The first is that McGuire's lead vocal was replaced with Denny Doherty: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] Though if you listen to the stereo mix of the song and isolate the left channel, you can hear McGuire singing the lead on the first line, and occasional leakage from him elsewhere on the backing vocal track: [Excerpt: The Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"] The other change made was to replace Sloan's harmonica solo with an alto flute solo by Bud Shank, a jazz musician who we heard about in the episode on "Light My Fire", when he collaborated with Ravi Shankar on "Improvisations on the Theme From Pather Panchali": [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Improvisation on the Theme From Pather Panchali"] Shank was working on another session in Western Studios, where they were recording the Mamas and Papas track, and Bones Howe approached him while he was packing his instrument and asked if he'd be interested in doing another session. Shank agreed, though the track caused problems for him. According to Shank "What had happened was that whe

The Bo Brothers talk with a couple of Washington County Kentucky legends about their latest adventure -- G & G Productions.  Both John and Hal are long time radio broadcasters with a lot of great stories to tell.  Let's just say that this show is one where you didn't have to worry about the guest being short for words.  The boys sampled a nice hometown blend by US Olympian Dallas Robinson and it was quite tasty!  Sit back and take a listen to some of Kentucky's finest!  #G&GProductions #AtmosphereEntertainment #HallofFamer #KentuckyBourbonFestival #MarionCountyBasketball #WashingtonCountySports #RadioLegends #NormaGoode #EastTexasKentucky #KentuckyBeautifulGirls #EastKentuckyStrong #KentuckyMusicMafia #ChrisStapleton

In this Season 2 Finale, we talk about everything to do with signs from our loved ones. We take a look at: The ways we receive signs How to know if it's a sign or a coincidence The best time to receive signs Why you may not be noticing signs If our loved ones can see everything we do We also share examples of different signs, some that our community have received, as well as plenty of our own personal experiences. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode and any signs that you'd like to share, so jump into our private facebook group and let us know (see link below). Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

SUPER CROSSTALK with TRAVIS and SLIWA - Who would Chris slap if he was here yesterday? Both John and Steve want to slap Chris with a tortilla! Austin Reeves wants a new nickname and is asking Lakers Fans for help. Should the Angels trade Shohei Othani? We take your calls about Austin Reeves nickname. Did you watch the Dodgers last night? Trayce and Mookie got it done! WHEEL OF QUESTIONS -How much money do you need to be able to live per month without the internet for a year? and we have our continuity coordinator Trish Kinsley in studio to talk about cheating! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So what's it really like to date a widowed person? In this episode, Carolyn sits down for a chat with John and his girlfriend Ali to find out what the first year of their relationship has been like. We discuss everything from: how they met their first impressions of each other what's been most challenging from both of their perspectives their annoying habits having a special teenager in their lives to consider their top tips and so much more! Plus we couldn't miss this opportunity with Ali being here, to find out a bit more about our cheeky co-host John. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Our grief can feel very different as each of the four seasons come around. Seasonal scents, traditions, memories and holidays can be a reminder of what we are missing with our person. In this episode, we discuss some of the common feelings that each season may bring. We also have a conversation about the fifth season... your personal season of grief. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

If grief is a taboo subject, then talking about the sexual needs and feelings of widowed people is probably 5000 times more taboo!! However, given how often this comes up when we're working with our widowed coaching clients, we felt that it's a conversation that needs to be had. In this episode we discuss all types of intimacy, sexual bereavement, widow's fire and a whole lot more (yes we do overshare in this one). Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

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" --

As coaches, whenever we meet a new client, they will tell us about the things that they're thinking and feeling, and often they will follow it up with the question, "Is it just me or is this normal in grief?" As we know, there is nothing normal about grief, but in this episode we talk about a bunch of things that frequently fall into this category... the things that grievers will often keep to themselves out of fear of judgement. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

When a widowed person decides to look for new love, it can be very common for them to compare a potential new person to their dead partner. In this episode we discuss how and why you might compare, and ways to stop this before sabotaging a future relationship. We also chat about the difference between comparing, and simply knowing what you want in a partner. Visit our websites: carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com to learn more about our work. Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

In this episode we discuss the Continuing Bonds Theory. As a griever, we're often told to "get over it" and "move on", as if grief has an end date. However, the Continuing Bonds Theory, along with the latest grief research finds that remaining connected to your deceased person can provide comfort and support, therefore helping the bereaved to cope with their loss. We share just some of the many ways that have helped both ourselves and our clients to maintain a loving connection with our person, because death ends a life, not a relationship. We'd also love to hear some of your favorite ways to stay connected with your person. Reference: Continuing Bonds: New Understandings Of Grief by Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman & Steven Nickman. carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com Join our Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!

Widow / Widower... what image or feelings does this word bring up for you? In this episode we take a closer look at how society defines a widowed person, compared to how those of us who are actually living it feel. You don't have to be confined by society's perceptions and conditions. You can choose to redefine widowhood however you want to. Is it a symbol of deep love for your person or the pride of being their love? Does it remind you that you are a survivor and how resilient you are? Or maybe the way you are rebuilding your life while still honoring your love for your person? That W word doesn't have to be all of the negative things we've been told. If we choose to let it empower us, we can. carolyngowercoaching.com.au & johnpolocoaching.com Join our new Facebook Group by clicking here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/696138811624151/?ref=share MONTHLY SUPPORTERS receive the following: $4.99 and Up - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support & buy a coffee for John and a green tea for Carolyn to keep us going while we're recording :) $9.99 Option - Receive our deepest gratitude for your support PLUS you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win a 60 minute "Sip & Chat" with BOTH John and Carolyn to be held on Zoom. You can bring along your drink of choice, and we are all yours for one entire hour. We spend the hour however you want. It can be a coaching session, you can ask us anything, it can be a chat, or we can all share funny or special memories about our loved ones who've passed. You get to choose!