Podcast appearances and mentions of Klaus Voormann

Der Merziger Fotorealist Alfons Kiefer, der Cover-Künstler Klaus Voormann und das Cover der "ANTHOLOGY"-Doppel-Alben der Beatles - eine unglaubliche Musikgeschichte. Ein Feature von Christian Job.

Spécial Paul McCartney avec les avis des auditeurs au téléphone sur les concerts des 4-5 décembre 2024 à Paris P.McCartney-Speech + In spite of all the danger (live)-Bercy (16)P.McCartney-I lost my little girl-Unplugged: The official bootlegs (91)Beatles-I saw her standing there-Please please me (63)Beatles-Kansas city/Hey-hey-hey-hey !-For sale (64)Auditeur en ligne: Laurent

Jean-Louis Aubert, chanteur de Telephone, est annoncé au Ronquières Festival cet été, le vendredi 1er août. C'est le brouillon d'une lettre très intéressante, écrite par John Lennon le 29 septembre 1971 et adressée à son ami Eric Clapton, est mise en vente aux enchères. Limp Bizkit et son leader Fred Durst ont intenté une action en justice au mois d'octobre contre Universal Music pour 200 millions de dollars de royalties qui ont été retenues de manière abusive, mais UMG cherche à rejeter le procès. Peggy Caserta, auteure d'une biographie sur Janis Joplin parue en 1973, dans laquelle elle révélait sa relation amoureuse avec la chanteuse, est décédée de causes naturelles le 21 novembre 2025, dans l'Oregon. Tout sourit à Linkin Park en ce moment : après le nouvel album, les dates de tournée ( sold out à Rock Werchter), sa nouvelle chanteuse Emily Armstrong, un concert-film sur la réalisation de From Zero, leur album est n°1 dans les charts de dix pays. Marilyn Manson a abandonné ses poursuites en diffamation contre l'actrice Evan Rachel Wood et a accepté de payer près de 327.000 dollars de frais d'avocat. Mots-Clés : retour, PAFINI, nom , allusion, nouvelles salves, affiche, Clara Luciani, Julien Doré, The Libertines, billetterie ; ouvert, note, pages, séparation officielle, Beatles, Plastic Ono Band, 1969, période, sombre, vie, accro, héroïne, public, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, Phil Spector, refus, offre, Billboard, redevance, impayé, procès, annuler, contrat, enregistrement, restituer, droits d'auteur, dommages et intérêts, violation, des droits d'auteur, affaire, allégations, mensonge, plaignants, dissimulation, fiction, livre, Going Down With Janis, polémique, sortie, 1970, Los Angeles, overdose, relation, personne, sexe, mémoires, relations homosexuelles, monde de l'édition, place, USA, Angleterre, pole position, Allemagne, France, Italie, Hollande, Suisse, Autriche, Australie, Nouvelle-Zélande, Belgique, publiquement, agresseur, ancien fiancé, agression sexuelle, abus psychologique, coercition, violence, intimidation, Brian Warner, plainte, appel, décision, Rolling Stone, rapport, poursuites, intégralité, frais d'avocat. --- Classic 21 vous informe des dernières actualités du rock, en Belgique et partout ailleurs. Le Journal du Rock, en direct chaque jour à 7h30 et 18h30 sur votre radio rock'n'pop. Merci pour votre écoute Plus de contenus de Classic 21 sur www.rtbf.be/classic21 Ecoutez-nous en live ici: https://www.rtbf.be/radio/liveradio/classic21 ou sur l'app Radioplayer BelgiqueRetrouvez l'ensemble des contenus de la RTBF sur notre plateforme Auvio.be Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Découvrez nos autres podcasts : Le journal du Rock : https://audmns.com/VCRYfsPComic Street (BD) https://audmns.com/oIcpwibLa chronique économique : https://audmns.com/NXWNCrAHey Teacher : https://audmns.com/CIeSInQHistoires sombres du rock : https://audmns.com/ebcGgvkCollection 21 : https://audmns.com/AUdgDqHMystères et Rock'n Roll : https://audmns.com/pCrZihuLa mauvaise oreille de Freddy Tougaux : https://audmns.com/PlXQOEJRock&Sciences : https://audmns.com/lQLdKWRCook as You Are: https://audmns.com/MrmqALPNobody Knows : https://audmns.com/pnuJUlDPlein Ecran : https://audmns.com/gEmXiKzRadio Caroline : https://audmns.com/WccemSkAinsi que nos séries :Rock Icons : https://audmns.com/pcmKXZHRock'n Roll Heroes: https://audmns.com/bXtHJucFever (Erotique) : https://audmns.com/MEWEOLpEt découvrez nos animateurs dans cette série Close to You : https://audmns.com/QfFankx

Send us a textPicture this: It's the summer of 1974, and a casual bet between music legends John Lennon and Elton John ends up changing the course of music history. We promise you'll be captivated by the story of Lennon's surprise performance at Madison Square Garden, a bet fulfilled after their collaboration on "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" soared to the top of the charts. Discover the remarkable musical synergy that defined this era, with vibrant contributions from saxophonist Bobby Keys and bassist Klaus Voormann, adding dimensions that turned the track into a timeless hit. We also reflect on Lennon's musical journey, including his work with Elton on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and relive the emotional farewell of his final major concert appearance.Our episode doesn't just stop at these historic musical moments. We shift gears to celebrate enduring Thanksgiving traditions that have become as essential as the turkey on the table. Revisit the nostalgic charm of the 1934 classic "March of the Wooden Soldiers" and the quirky tradition of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" on the radio, woven into the cultural fabric of Thanksgiving. Join us as we explore these cherished customs, blending tales of music and tradition into a heartfelt tribute to the moments that have shaped our appreciation for music and family.

            In Episode 418 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo discuss “Revival '69,” the new(ish) film about the day-long Toronto Rock and Roll Revival show on September 13, 1969, at which the Plastic Ono Band (John & Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White) made a last-minute, show-saving appearance – a performance later released as the “Live Peace in Toronto” album). [[The intro and news segment runs until 19'50” followed by the discussion of the film.]]             As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any of our other shows to our email address thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our "Things We Said Today Beatles Fans" Facebook page and comment there, tweet us at @thingswesaidfab or catch us each on Facebook and give us your thoughts. And we thank you very much for listening. You can hear and download our show on Podbean, the Podbean app and iTunes and stream us through the Tune In Radio app and from our very own YouTube page.  Our shows appear every two weeks. Please be sure and write a (good, ideally!) review of our show on our iTunes page. If you subscribe to any of our program providers, you'll get the first word as soon as a new show is available. We don't want you to miss us. Our download numbers have been continually rising, as more people discover us and it's all because of you. So we thank you very much for your support!             Be sure to check out the video version of Things We Said Today on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zgHaPfL6BGmOX5NoyFE-A. The audio version can be found at Podbean: https://beatlesexaminer.podbean.com/ as well as at iHeart Radio, Apple podcasts and other distributors of fine podcasts.             MANY MANY WAYS TO CONTACT US:             Our email address: thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com             Twitter @thingswesaidfab             Facebook:  Things We Said Today video podcast      ALLAN on Facebook: Allan Kozinn or Allan Kozinn Remixed.             Allan's Twitter feed: @kozinn             The McCartney Legacy's website: https://www.mccartneylegacy.com/             The McCartney Legacy on Facebook: McCartney Legacy, and on Twitter: @McCARTNEYLEGACY             The McCartney Legacy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zaPoY45IxDZKRMf2Z6VyA             KEN's YouTube Channel, Ken Michaels Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Dkp6fkIsYwGq_vCwltyg             Ken's Website Beatles Trivia Page: https://www.kenmichaelsradio.com/beatles-trivia--games.html Ken's other podcast, Talk  More Talk: A Solo-Beatles Videocast You Tube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@talkmoretalksolobeatles             Ken's Weekly Beatles radio show "Every Little Thing" On Demand:  http://wfdu.fm/Listen/hd1%20recent%20archives/             Ken's e-mail:  everylittlething@att.net Ken's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ken.michaels.31/ DARREN's radio show can be heard 10pm to 2am Monday through Thursday and 1pm to 4pm Saturday on WFUV 90.7 FM (or 90.7 FM HD2), or at wfuv.org, or on the WFUV app.             Darren on Facebook: Darren DeVivo, and Darren DeVivo: WFUV DJ and Beatles Podcaster Darren's email: darrendevivo@wfmu.org

Avec les Beatles, Arcade Fire, Trio. En 1967, les Beatles sortent l'album bande originale de leur film "Magical Mystery Tour" avec "Blue Jay Way" de George Harrison, écrit à Los Angeles dans une rue du même nom, où "Don't Be Long" est répétée 29 fois… En 2017 sur "Everything Now", le groupe Arcade Fire publie "Chemistry" terme répété un nombre incommensurable de fois. "Da Da Da" tube du groupe allemand Trio en 1982, sonorités minimalistes comme le texte, des Da Da Da, il y en a beaucoup. Celui qui produit ce titre n'est autre qu'un grand ami des Beatles, Klaus Voormann, qui a dessiné la pochette de l'album "Revolver" et qui a joué de la basse sur les tubes de John Lennon dont "Imagine" ou encore "Jealous Guy". --- Du lundi au vendredi, Fanny Gillard et Laurent Rieppi vous dévoilent l'univers rock, au travers de thèmes comme ceux de l'éducation, des rockers en prison, les objets de la culture rock, les groupes familiaux et leurs déboires, et bien d'autres, chaque matin dans Coffee on the Rocks à 6h30 et rediffusion à 13h30 dans Lunch Around The Clock. Merci pour votre écoute Pour écouter Classic 21 à tout moment : www.rtbf.be/classic21 Retrouvez tous les contenus de la RTBF sur notre plateforme Auvio.be Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

Kursen er sat mod det nordvestlige England - nærmere betegnet Liverpool - hvor episodens gæst Henrik Enevoldsen fortæller om sit tætte forhold til Beatles-byen. Henrik har siden 2007 besøgt Liverpool utallige gange. Der har han bl.a. mødt en række af de personer der levede i Beatles-omgangskredsen. Mike McCartney, Pete Best og Klaus Voormann for at nævne nogle få. Han fortæller om alle de mange skønne mennesker der er med til at farve Liverpool med kærlighed, og sætter ord på bare at “måtte tilbage til Liverpool”.  Derudover giver han et bud på en lille “Elsker The Beatles” Liverpool-guide der kan være en fin følgesvend , hvis du også skal på rejse til byen der rummer så meget vidunderlig Beatles-historie. Henrik er også inkarneret samler, og har gennem sine 60 år som Beatles fan opbygget en imponerende kollektion, der bl.a. rummer ægte autografer fra de fire og spændende breve, billeder og videoer med og omkring The Fab Four

Klaus Voormann also drummer Johny Barbata and random relish subjects --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/perry--dedovitch/message

Hired as a tape op by EMI in February 1970, Leckie quickly found himself among rock royalty when his career began with work on Ringo's Sentimental Journey, followed quickly after with McCartney. But his major immersion with the cream of rock's musicians soon came with the All Things Must Pass project, placing him at the service of George Harrison and Phil Spector and with a team that included Ringo, Klaus Voormann, Eric Clapton, The Dominoes, Gary Brooker, Peter Frampton, Phil Collins, Gary Wright, Billy Preston and Badfinger, among others.  This conversation focuses on that landmark album. Joining as co-host is author/producer Jerry Hammack (The Beatles Recording Reference Manual series), with a cameo from Luther Russell. Jerry's latest book has just been published: Home Studio Recording - The Complete Guide.  John was a previous guest discussing the making of John and Yoko's respective Plastic Ono Band albums, as well as alongside his previous collaborators Derek Forbes (Simple Minds) and Ian McNabb (Icicle Works) for a conversation on Peter Jackson's Get Back film. His excellent recall of events he witnessed as well as insights as someone with some amazing career achievements (Roy Harper, Be Bop Deluxe, Pink Floyd, Wings, Radiohead, XTC, Stone Roses, and so on) to his credit make this conversation something special.   

Writer, editor, and manager, Tim Quinn was born in Liverpool, England. He started his career as a clown at Blackpool Tower Circus before working on BBC TV's Good Old Days music hall series where he wrote scripts for top comedians. It was a small jump from there into the world of comic books where he spent many happy years as a scriptwriter on such noted UK titles as The Beano, The Dandy, Sparky, The Topper, Buster, Whoopee!, Bunty, Jackie, Dr Who Magazine, and Whizzer & Chips before heading to the United States to work for the mighty Marvel Comics Group as both editor and Head of Special Projects. Through those years he also produced many daily newspaper comic strips and interviews with such names as Klaus Voormann, Derek Taylor, Sir Tim Rice, Jeffrey Archer, Willy Russell, Eddie Izzard, Sierra Boggess, and Chyler Leigh.Tim has worked as a writer for the Guardian newspaper, as well as editor for America's oldest publication, The Saturday Evening Post, and as producer for LWT's The South Bank Show TV documentary series – that included among others, a show on the history of Marvel Comics! For many years Tim ran a publishing company with his wife Jane and Gillian Baverstock, the elder daughter of noted children's author, Enid Blyton.Additionally, Tim and Jane ran Mighty Quinn Management, as agents and managers to many musicians while putting on huge charity shows featuring members of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. These days, Tim's the Editor-in-Chief for the Merseyside charity, Liverpool Heartbeat, creating literacy-based comic books for schools across the region. He's also produced books for New Haven Publishing, who just released The Jolly Bloodbath, a piratical novel for children written by The Brothers Quinn, Tim and his younger brother, Jason, who's a well-known comic book writer. Also, look for Tim's autobiography, Argh, also from New Haven Publishing.

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.Also in the crosshairs this week …… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote. … Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought'.… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.  … Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks' comment that sparked a three-series podcast.… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people' in a world where there's ‘no growing and no hugging'.… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder' Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole heap of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.Also in the crosshairs this week …… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote. … Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought'.… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.  … Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks' comment that sparked a three-series podcast.… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people' in a world where there's ‘no growing and no hugging'.… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder' Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole heap of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.Also in the crosshairs this week …… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote. … Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought'.… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.  … Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks' comment that sparked a three-series podcast.… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people' in a world where there's ‘no growing and no hugging'.… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder' Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole heap of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Brower (@rockandrollstories) is the subject of a brand new documentary called REVIVAL69: The Concert that Rocked the World. The film revolves around the incredible story of how, against all odds, a life-changing concert came together. This never-before documented story reveals a series of colourful characters, murky deals and broken promises. And holding it all together was a Young, renegade Toronto concert promoter who assembled an all-star lineup for the concert, including Chuck Berry, LIttle Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, Alice Cooper and The Doors. Not only that but John Lennon was booked one day before the show via a crazy set of circumstances, then he performed for the first time without the Beatles, doing an impromptu concert with the Plastic Ono Band. Which featured Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Alan White and Klaus Voormann. Then ultimately that performance became the push that Lennon needed to leave the Beatles. ✔️ Subscribe

In this podcast exclusive, movie director Ron Chapman and concert promoter John Brower sat down with hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji to talk about what Rolling Stone magazine called “the second most important event in rock & roll history”. REVIVAL69: The Concert that Rocked the World, tells the incredible behind-the-scenes, story of how, against all odds, a life-changing concert came together. A story of passion and perseverance, this never-before documented story reveals a series of colourful characters, murky deals and broken promises, culminating in John Brower, a young renegade promoter, putting his life on the line (literally) in order to achieve his goal. With dismal ticket sales, the concert was almost cancelled. But Brower took a one-in-a-million chance and invited John Lennon, who said yes, propelling the concert into a massively successful event. Included in the stellar lineup were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, The Doors, Alice Cooper, and John Lennon with the Plastic Ono Band - his first appearance without the Beatles, that included Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. Watch the official trailer forREVIVAL69: The Concert that Rocked the World Official Trailer here: https://vimeo.com/773931079/379d2f31d8

Vor etwas mehr als 56 Jahren kam "Revolver" raus. Einige Beatles Fans halten es für eines der wichtigsten Alben der Popgeschichte. Gleichzeitig soll es auch eines der besten, wenn nicht das beste Album der Beatles sein. Das "Revolver" Album der Beatles hat langsam die Zeit eingeläutet, in denen die Beatles sich von ihren Livekonzerten ab und mehr der Studioarbeit zugewandt haben. Es wurde mehr mit Aufnahmetechniken rumprobiert und die Band hat die Soundtechniker in den Abbey Road Studios dazu gedrängt, ihre Ideen irgendwie zu realisieren. Beim Song "Tomorrow Never Knows" wurden Soundelemente rückwärts abgespielt, bei "I'm Only Sleeping" wird sogar das Gitarrensolo des Songs rückwärts komponiert und eingespielt und dann auf der Aufnahme umgedreht, für einen ganz besonders einlullenden und schläfrigen Effekt. Auf die Idee, diese Technik zu nutzen, kam die Band durch den Fehler eines Studiotechnikers, der ein Tonband aus Versehen verkehrt herum einlegte und es rückwärts abspielte. Die Band war zu dem Zeitpunkt im Studio und erkannte sofort ihre Chance, genau diesen Effekt bewusste einzusetzen. Darüber hinaus hat die Band bei diesem Album auch sehr intensiv mit der sogenannten Double-Tracking-Technik herumprobiert, also einem technischen Verfahren, bei dem automatisch und leicht zeitversetzt Tonspuren aufzeichnen werden können, die den Klang einfach weiter verdichten und noch intensiver klingen lassen. Außerdem werden die Beatles auf "Revolver" auch zunehmend etwas rockiger, wie man zum Beispiel auch am Eröffnungsstück "Taxman" hört, in dem sich George Harrison über die enormen Steuern aufregt, die die Band in England zahlen musste. Auf "Revolver" werden die Beatles aber nicht nur rockiger, sondern sie sind auch unglaublich vielfältig. Neben rockigen Songs gibt es auch ganz viel psychodelische Klänge, Songs mit Streichern und mit Yellow Submarine sogar ein Kinderlied, in dem Schlagzeuger Ringo Starr die Hauptstimme übernimmt. __________ Über diese Songs vom Album “Revolver” wird im Podcast gesprochen 03:25 Mins – “Taxman” 10:44 Mins – “Eleanor Rigby” 19:38 Mins – “I'm Only Sleeping” 23:00 Mins – “Yellow Submarine” 28:22 Mins – “Good Day Sunshine” 37:31 Mins – “And Your Bird Can Sing” 40:38 Mins – “Got to Get You Into My Life” 43:24 Mins – “Tomorrow Never Knows” __________ Über diese Songs wird außerdem im Podcast gesprochen 06:19 Mins – “Taxman” (Live) von Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 42:31 Mins – “Got to Get You Into My Life” von Earth, Wind and Fire __________ Shownotes: Teaser auf die Titelgeschichte des Rolling Stone im November 2022: https://www.rollingstone.de/rolling-stone-im-november-the-beatles-inhalt-2510257/ Die komplette Graphic Novel zum Album-Cover von Klaus Voormann: https://shopping.voormann.com/product/iconic/ Trailer zur 2022er Special Edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd5WSqOJF7M Das neue von Klaus Voormann gestaltete Video zu I'm Only Sleeping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XwXliCK19Y __________ Ihr wollt mehr Podcasts wie diesen? Abonniert die SWR1 Meilensteine! Fragen, Kritik, Anregungen? Schreibt uns an: meilensteine@swr.de

If all Klaus Voormann had done was design the cover of the Beatles' Revolver, his place in rock history would be secure. The band needed artwork to match their bold musical leap forward, and he delivered striking black-and-white line drawings of his friends, with photos woven through their flowing hair. He recalls hearing the mind-blowing new music in the studio and struggling to draw one particular Beatle. Voormann also was Manfred Mann's bassist and played with all four Beatles, including on John Lennon's early solo singles and albums, All Things Must Pass and Ringo. He played bass on Harry Nilsson's “Without You,” Carly Simon's “You're So Vain” and Randy Newman's “Short People" as well. He's been here, there and everywhere and wants to tell you.

The gruesome twosome have a fun one for ya because they are joined by music producer N8-P! Jordan has some quick hits for Alex, and the boys discuss their first experiences with running into Tiki Tokers in the wild.

Sublime bassist and album designer talks about finding his own individual voice through musical journeys with John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

Ein Cover für das neue Beatles-Album entwerfen - als Klaus Voormann diesen Auftrag bekommt, ist er überwältigt. Eigentlich hatte sich der Grafiker längst selbst aufs Musikmachen verlegt. Dann greift er doch zum Stift und gewinnt für sein Design des "Revolver"-Albums den Grammy.

Fast wäre er der fünfte Mann bei den Beatles geworden: der Bassist Klaus Voormann. Immerhin hat er bei einigen frühen Auftritten mit ihnen gespielt. Und der gelernte Grafiker hat auch das berühmte Plattencover des Beatles-Albums "Revolver" gezeichnet. Zum Paul McCartney-Schwerpunkt auf Bayern 2 wiederholen wir ein Gespräch von 2009. Moderation: Achim Bogdahn

Ben and Ione discuss Ben's rainbow scarf during Pride month, the Michigan Womyn's Festival, the bisexual 90s, merch, tea towels, Klaus Voormann, Ronnie Wood's sofa and Goldie gives us an update on 6th grade. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Je dois reconnaître que Johan a le chic pour dénicher des personnages particulièrement inattendus,  mais tout à fait pertinents à figurer dans la programmation de Btr. Ainsi en va-t-il de Klaus Voorman, jeune graphiste allemand devenu un des bassistes les plus underground de l'histoire.  Il a donc droit à notre qualification très spéciale : Touche à tout, bon à tout cette semaine dans Btr   Playlist Part Time Love - B.B. King - In LondonI Ain't Superstitious - Alternate Take - Howlin' Wolf, Howlin' Wolf with Steve Winwood: Piano & Organ - The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions (Rarities Edition)I'm In Love Again - Fats Domino - The Best Of Fats DominoDrinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee - Jerry Lee Lewis - The (Complete) Session Recorded In London With Great Guest ArtistsAin't That Peculiar - Martha Reeves - Martha ReeevesDon't You Make Me High - Don't You Feel My Leg - Maria Muldaur - Maria MuldaurMy Sweet Lord - Remastered 2010 - Billy Preston - Encouraging Words (Expanded Edition / Remastered 2010)Bootleg - Bobby Keys - Bobby KeysShort People - Randy Newman - Little CriminalsPig's Boogie - Nicky Hopkins - The Tin Man Was A DreamerCold Turkey - Ultimate Mix - John Lennon - GIMME SOME TRUTH. (Deluxe)Jumping Jack Flash - Peter Frampton - Wind Of ChangeMay I Have A Talk With You - Bonus Track - B.B. King - In LondonHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Tras la salida de Paul Jones, Manfred Mann tuvo que renovarse. Ahora, el vocalista de la banda era Mike d'Abo, y su bajista, un joven Klaus Voormann que ya había trabajado con Los Beatles. En esta emisión de Planeta Nebbia, Litto recorre esta segunda etapa del grupo británico.

El arpa y su voz son acompañantes de Verónica Valerio, jarocha, mexicana que ha llevado en alto el nombre de nuestro país a diferentes latitudes, su música nos transporta a lugares emblemáticos y nos llena de orgullo en cada acorde. Su más reciente disco Only In America contó con la participación de Van Dyke Parks como cómplice sonoro, el mismo que junto a Brian Wilson ayudó a dar vida a Smile y la portada estuvo cargo de Klaus Voormann, diseñador del emblemático cover art de ¨Revolver¨ de The Beatles. Conoce más de Verónica Valerio en el Meet Up semanal de Equal Music Radio. Música en episodio 66: Pirekua Michoacana- Música tradicional purépecha Dos Gotas de Agua- Mariachi Tradicional Los Choznos La Llorona- Sones Jarocho El Mar y Yo- Verónica Valerio The Flight Of The Guacamaya- Verónica Valerio/Van Dyke Parks Nube de Agua- Verónica Valerio . Guión/Voz/Producción: Ulises Sanher (IG @usanher, Twitter @usanher) Equal Media ®2022 Síguenos en: IG: @equal.music Twitter: @equalmusic1 YouTube: Equal Music Tik Tok: Equal Music www.equalmedia.mx --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/equal-media/message

Cecilia fills us in on the difference between sarcastic and sardonic. We hear about height double standards, attempts to ban the song from radio, the world's new tallest woman, a longtime alliance between Newman and producer Lenny Waronker, ice cream sandwich phones, and Gil's infamous Reaction of the Suits. Plus: John Denver, Klaus Voormann, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Ziggy Stardust (the character and the album)—but not all at once. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/podsounds/support

Earlier this year, I got an amazing email—the estate of John Lennon said that they have a treasure trove of audio material from his life, and they were wondering if I would be interested in making an episode around the song “God,” from John Lennon's first solo album. I've never tried making a posthumous episode before, because hearing directly from the artist is at the heart of Song Exploder. But with all the interview archives that they have of him speaking, plus all the isolated tracks from the recordings, and the original demo, it actually seemed possible. So this is a very different and special episode of the show. In September 1969, John Lennon told the rest of the Beatles that he was leaving the group. Their breakup was announced publicly in April 1970, and that December, John Lennon released his first solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The Plastic Ono band was the name for a rotating group of musicians that John and his wife, the artist Yoko Ono, had put together. For the making of “God,” the band included Ringo Starr on drums, Billy Preston on piano, and Klaus Voormann on bass. I got to interview Klaus Voormann about his experiences making this track, and in this episode, you'll hear from him along with the archival interviews with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Billy Preston. You'll also hear the original demo for “God,” and outtakes from the recording sessions at Abbey Road studios. They recorded the final version of this song on October 9, 1970—John Lennon's 30th birthday. Archival audio sources: - John Lennon's audio was excerpted from an interview with Rolling Stone's Jann S. Wenner, recorded on December 8, 1970. The full interview can be found here. With grateful thanks to Jann S. Wenner for his permission and collaboration. - Arthur Janov and Billy Preston's quotes came from interviews conducted in 2005 owned by Yoko Ono Lennon. With grateful thanks to Yoko Ono Lennon for her permission and collaboration. - Ringo Starr's audio came from the 2008 Classic Albums documentary on John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, directed by Matthew Longfellow. With grateful thanks to Ringo Starr for his permission and collaboration. For more, visit sonexploder.net/john-lennon.

"Imagine" ist 1971 das zweite Soloalbum von John Lennon nach der Trennung der Beatles. Bei uns in Deutschland kam die Platte am 08. Oktober 1971, einen Tag vor John Lennons 31. Geburtstag raus. Ein Album, das die Welt verändert hat. Es schwankt zwischen Rückblick auf die Vergangenheit und einem Aufbruch zu etwas Neuem. Am bekanntesten ist vermutlich der Titelsong des Albums "Imagine". Ein Song über den Traum von einer Welt in Frieden und ohne Grenzen. Und auch 50 Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung hören wir „Imagine“ immer wieder – auf Friendensdemos, bei Olympischen Spielen, Katastrophen oder auch in Pandemiezeiten. "Imagine" ist einfach ein Sinnbild einer besseren Welt. Neben diesem ikonischen Lied bietet "Imagine" aber noch viele andere tolle Songs und Geschichten, über die wir in diesem Podcast sprechen wollen. Zum Beispiel, warum die Songs von John Lennon auch heute wieder sehr aktuell sind und wie er die Aufgaben der Künstler in der Gesellschaft genau definiert hat. __________ Über diese Songs vom Album "Imagine" wird im Podcast gesprochen: 11:20 Mins – Imagine 32:37 Mins – Crippled Inside 40:03 Mins – Jealous Guy 49:35 Mins – How Do You Sleep 53:43 Mins – How? 58:30 Mins – Gimme Some Truth __________ Weitere Songbeispiele aus dem Podcast: 45:30 Mins – "Jealous Guy" (Roxy Music Cover) 47:05 Mins – "Too Many People" von Paul McCartney 52:40 Mins – "Here Today" von Paul McCartney __________ Links zum Podcast: Das Buch von Klaus Voormann "Warum spielst du Imagine nicht auf dem weißen Klavier, John?" https://www.lovelybooks.de/autor/Klaus-Voormann/-Warum-spielst-du-Imagine-nicht-auf-dem-wei%C3%9Fen-Klavier-John-142729550-w/ "john lennon: imagine" (Dokumentation) https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/rockpalast/imagine-john-lennon/wdr-fernsehen/Y3JpZDovL3dkci5kZS9CZWl0cmFnLTg4Y2VjNzZmLWEyOTMtNGVmMy1iZmQ2LTkzYzlhYjIyZjA1NQ/ John Lennon in der Dick Cavett Show: Hat John Lennon seine eigenen Haare verkauft? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGXuqwiOxrQ John Lennon – How Do You Sleep (Take 5 & 6 – Studio Outtakes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoJQAyrUHhA John Lennon – Imagine (Ulitmate Mix, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8 __________ Ihr wollt mehr Podcasts wie diesen? Abonniert die SWR1 Meilensteine! Fragen, Kritik, Anregungen? Schreibt uns an: meilensteine@swr.de

"C'était l'heure, entre six et sept, où chaque fleur s'embrase — les roses, les œillets, les iris, les lilas ; blanche, violette, rouge, orange profond ; chaque fleur semble brûler de son propre feu, douce et pure, dans les plates-bandes embrumées." (V. Woolf) Pour la musique, c'est pareil. Voici ce que septembre vous offre : George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" / Cd All Things Must Pass (Universal réédition 2021) All Thing Must Pass est le premier album de George Harrison à être sorti après la séparation des Beatles. Longtemps frustré de ne pas pouvoir proposer plus de chansons au sein des Beatles, dominé par le tandem Lennon/McCartney, George Harrison se rattrape avec un triple album qui sort le 30 novembre 1970. Produit par Phil Spector, Harrison s'entoure de ses amis Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Billy Preston, ainsi que plusieurs des musiciens de Derek and the Dominos qui accompagnèrent Clapton sur l'album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. All Things Must Pass est aujourd'hui considéré comme le meilleur album solo de la carrière de Georges Harrison, avec des classiques comme My Sweet Lord, Wah-Wah, ou Isn't It A Pity 50 ans après, voici ce chef d'œuvre enfin réédité avec 43 demos et outtakes inédits, remixés par Paul Hicks auquel nous devons les dernières rééditions des albums de John Lennon (Imagine, Plastic Ono Band). Ces nouveaux mixes révèlent une profondeur sonore, une définition et une clarté à couper le souffle.   Marc Melià ("Les Étoiles" Feat. Flavien Berger & PiJaMa / Cd Veus (Pan European Recording 2021) Originaire de l'île de Majorque, Marc Melià est un compositeur/producteur basé à Bruxelles depuis plus de 10 ans. Repéré aux côtés de Françoiz Breut, Lonely Drifter Karen ou Borja Flames, en 2017 il sort Music For Prophet, son premier album solo  sur le label de Gaspar Claus Les Disques du Festival Permanent au sein de la sélection de Flavien Berger.  Si pour ce premier album, Marc Melià avait exploré les possibilités offertes par un synthétiseur mythique, pour Veus, et à la manière d'une mue, il applique le processus de modification du son à sa propre voix jusqu'à se faire androïde. Un androïde qui parle toutefois d'amour et de rêveries, un automate sensible qui joue avec les canons de la musique pop. Assumant l'artifice, Marc Melià recherche la poésie et la beauté dans le transgénique pour trouver un univers dans lequel on peut surfer à travers des vagues d'accords profondément émouvants, entendre des voix sans limite de registre ou danser librement comme en apesanteur. Une partie du disque a été enregistrée au cœur d'"Une ferme dans les Vosges" appartenant à Rodolphe Burger (Bio Murailles Music).   Joy Denalane "The Ride" / Cd Let Yourself Be Loved (℗ 2020 Lesedi Music / Joy Denalane) Chanteuse allemande neo-soul, Joy Denalane est héritière de Lauryn Hill et Jill Scott.   Bonbon Vodou "Fonker" Feat. Danyel Waro et Piers Faccini Cd Cimetière Créole (Heavenly Sweetness 2021) voir le clip  La promesse des délices du sucre et la crainte du piment occulte. Le contraste est prononcé, à l'image du Bonbon Vodou... Le Bonbon Vodou, c'est Oriane Lacaille et JereM, deux parfums qui se complètent pour n'en faire qu'un. Elle est issue d'une famille de musiciens Réunionnais, il est fils de… psychiatres Lacaniens. De la France au Canada, en passant par la Réunion, le duo a donné plus de 150 concerts en trois ans. Des histoires à deux voix, qui combinent, pétillent et explosent. Des poèmes, du sarcasme. Une nostalgie joyeuse et festive, à l'image du cimetière marin de la baie de Saint-Paul, île de La Réunion. Les carrés de terre couverts de fleurs multicolores y ont remplacé les stèles de pierre. Supposé sombre, le lieu fourmille de vie prête à renaître encore et toujours. Une façon de célébrer la fin comme un début, de rire dans la tristesse. Croqué jusqu'en son centre, c'est là que mène le Bonbon Vodou. Dans ce champ du repos éternel, point de départ de ce deuxième album. Sur place, c'est entouré de figures musicales de l'île que le duo s'est offert des subtilités gustatives du sega et du mayola. Les notes d'accordéon de René Lacaille, le père d'Oriane, la voix de Danyèl Waro. Mais aussi des percussions - le kayamb évidemment ! - et, dans la tradition locale, le souffle des orchestres en cuivres. Piers Faccini à la réalisation de plusieurs titres, c'est à Jean Lamoot (Noir Désir, Bashung Salif Keita…) qu'est revenu le travail décisif de l'enregistrement et du mix qui donne au Bonbon Vodou sa saveur définitive, sa douceur et son acidité. Dans ce Cimetière Créole, Bonbon Vodou invoque les divinités occultes, danse avec elles, voyage, célèbre la vie et le moment présent, gorgé du sucre qui adoucit les moments les plus amers. Car, même avec un pied dans la tombe, on peut danser de l'autre.   Emily Loizeau  "Celle qui vit vers le sud" Cd Icare (Les Éditions de la Dernière Pluie 2021) Emily Loizeau nous revient avec un disque écrit au cœur du confinement, enregistré en quarantaine en Angleterre avec le réalisateur et musicien John Parish (musicien et producteur de PJ Harvey). Emily nourrissait depuis longtemps l'envie de cette rencontre et d'un album dans son pays de moitié, jusqu'à ce que l'évidence opère. Elle est ici autrice, compositrice et interprète mais aussi productrice désormais de son travail. Obi "No One" Cd No One (2021 Horizon) voir le clip  Onipa "Play It" Ft. Wilaaya Cd Tapes of Utopia (Boomerang Rd 2021) Onipa, c'est la rencontre entre l'artiste ghanéen K.O.G. et l'Anglais Tom Excell, membre de Nubiyan Twist. "Onipa signifie “humain” en akan, l'ancienne langue du peuple Ashanti du Ghana. C'est un message de connexion à travers la collaboration : du Ghana à Londres, de nos ancêtres à nos enfants, Onipa apporte énergie, groove, électro, afro-futurisme, danse et feu !"   Anthony Joseph "The Gift" CDThe Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives (Heavenly Sweetness 2021) Wayne Snow "Figurine" Cd Figurine (Wax Music 2021)    Douaa "Haditouni" (Habibi Funk 2021). Bapi das Baul "Ki Je Jala Dile" Cd River of Happy Souls (℗ 2021 ARC) Susana Baca "La Herida Obscura" Cd Palabras Urgentes (Real World 2021)   Réalisation : Nicolas Benita.

Verónica Valerio ha llevado la música mexicana a los confines del mundo, combinando poesía y melodía nos habla de un México del que nos sentimos orgullosos. Nos recibe en Mérida para hablar de su exitosa carrera, su nuevo disco ¨Sólo en América¨ cuya portada fue diseñada por Klaus Voormann, reconocido ilustrador quien creó el célebre collage de Revolver de Beatles. www.veronicavalerio.com Equal Media 2021 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/equal-media/message

Ein Cover für das neue Beatles-Album entwerfen - als Klaus Voormann diesen Auftrag bekommt, ist er überwältigt. Eigentlich hatte sich der Grafiker längst selbst aufs Musikmachen verlegt. Dann greift er doch zum Stift und gewinnt für sein Design des "Revolver"-Albums den Grammy.

Pladen er vendt, støvet er tørret af skiven og pickuppen er renset. Vi skal på 33 1/3 omdrejninger igennem anden halvdel af Revolver. Et album der er elsket af mange, der elsker The Beatles. Vi skal høre om solskin i London, hvor irriterende det er med grineflip i pladestudier, Liam Gallaghers stemme, Instagram-beskeder til Klaus Voormann, verdens bedste b-side – og hvad er det egentlig Chief 1s hund er tæt på at spise? Episoden her er anden del af ”Elsker The Beatles” Toppermost-formatet om "Revolver. Podcasten hvor vi dykker ned i et enkelt album og lader os gribe af øjeblikket og musikken. Som bonus kigger vi også på Paperback Writer/Rain-singlen og får ”Elsker The Beatles-brugernes holdning til ”Revolver”. Chief 1 har haft en tid uden live-jobs, men til gengæld har han et helt frisk album på gaden ”Kunsten i at være ligeglad”, som er stærkt anbefalelsesværdigt – og et nyt undervejs. Chief har også fejret sit 35 års-jubilæum på en scene ved årets danske Melodi-grand prix, hvor han sammen med Thomas Buttenshøn fløj ”Højt over skyerne” til en stærk tredjeplads. Her er han dog mest af alt KÆMPE Beatles-fan. Og det er derfor det er så stor en fornøjelse at tale om legendariske ”Revolver” – hans yndlingsalbum med The Beatles- sammen med ham.   Læs mere om Chief1 her: https://chief1.dk/ https://www.facebook.com/chiefonetwo

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode one hundred, is the hundredth-episode special and is an hour and a half long. It looks at the early career of the Beatles, and at the three recordings of “Love Me Do”. 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 “Misirlou” by Dick Dale and the Deltones. 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/ —-more—- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. While there are many books on the Beatles, and I have read dozens of them, only one needs to be mentioned as a reference for this episode (others will be used for others). All These Years Vol 1: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn is simply the *only* book worth reading on the Beatles’ career up to the end of 1962. It is the most detailed, most accurate, biography imaginable, and the gold standard by which all other biographies of musicians should be measured. I only wish volumes two and three were available already so I could not expect my future episodes on the Beatles to be obsolete when they do come out. There are two versions of the book — a nine-hundred page mass-market version and a 1700-page expanded edition. I recommend the latter. The information in this podcast is almost all from Lewisohn’s book, but I must emphasise that the opinions are mine, and so are any errors — Lewisohn’s book only has one error that I’m aware of (a joke attributed to the comedian Jasper Carrott in a footnote that has since been traced to an earlier radio show). I am only mortal, and so have doubtless misunderstood or oversimplified things and introduced errors where he had none.   The single version of “Love Me Do” can be found on Past Masters, a 2-CD compilation of the Beatles’ non-album tracks that includes the majority of their singles and B-sides. The version with Andy White playing on can be found on Please Please Me. The version with Pete Best, and many of the other early tracks used here, is on Anthology 1.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Errata I pronounce the name of Lewisohn’s book as “All Those Years” instead of “All These Years”. I say ” The Jets hadn’t liked playing at Williams’ club” at one point. I meant “at Koschmider’s club”   Transcript   The Beatles came closer than most people realise to never making a record. Until the publication of Mark Lewisohn’s seminal biography All These Years vol 1: Tune In, in 2013 everyone thought they knew the true story — John met Paul at Woolton Village Fete in 1957, and Paul joined the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles. They played Hamburg and made a demo, and after the Beatles’ demo was turned down by Decca, their manager Brian Epstein shopped it around every record label without success, until finally George Martin heard the potential in it and signed them to Parlophone, a label which was otherwise known for comedy records. Martin was, luckily, the one producer in the whole of the UK who could appreciate the Beatles’ music, and he signed them up, and the rest was history. The problem is, as Lewisohn showed, that’s not what happened. Today I’m going to tell, as best I can the story of how the Beatles actually became the band that they became, and how they got signed to EMI records. I’m going to tell you the story of “Love Me Do”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Love Me Do (single version)”] As I mentioned at the beginning, this episode owes a *huge* debt to Mark Lewisohn’s book. I like to acknowledge my sources, anyway, but I’ve actually had difficulty with this episode because Lewisohn’s book is *so* detailed, *so* full, and written *so* well that much of the effort in writing this episode came from paring down the information, rather than finding more, and from reworking things so I was not just paraphrasing bits of his writing. Normally I rely on many sources, and integrate the material myself, but Lewisohn has done all that work far better than any other biographer of any other musician. Were the Beatles not such an important part of music history, I would just skip this episode because there is nothing for me to add. As it is, I *obviously* have to cover this, but I almost feel like I’m cheating in doing so. If you find this episode interesting at all, please do yourself a favour and buy that book.  This episode is going to be a long one — much longer than normal. I won’t know the precise length until after I’ve recorded and edited it, of course, but I’m guessing it’s going to be about ninety minutes. This is the hundredth episode, the end of the second year of the podcast, the end of the second book based on the podcast, and the introduction of the single most important band in the whole story, so I’m going to stretch out a bit. I should also mention that there are a couple of discussions of sudden, traumatic, deaths in this episode. With all that said, settle in, this is going to take a while. Every British act we’ve looked at so far — and many of those we’re going to look at in the next year or two — was based in London. Either they grew up there, or they moved there before their musical career really took off. The Beatles, during the time we’re covering in this episode, were based in Liverpool. While they did eventually move to London, it wasn’t until after they’d started having hits. And what listeners from outside the UK might not realise is what that means in terms of attitudes and perceptions. Liverpool is a large city — it currently has a population of around half a million, and the wider Liverpool metropolitan area is closer to two million — but like all British cities other than London, it was regarded largely as a joke in the British media, and so in return the people of Liverpool had a healthy contempt for London. To give Americans some idea of how London dominates in Britain, and thus how it’s thought of outside London, imagine that New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles were all the same city — that the financial, media, and political centres of the country were all the same place. Now further imagine that Silicon Valley and all the Ivy League universities were half an hour’s drive from that city. Now, imagine how much worse the attitudes that that city would have about so-called “flyover states” would be, and imagine in return how people in large Midwestern cities like Detroit or Chicago would think about that big city.  In this analogy, Liverpool is Detroit, and like Detroit, it was very poor and had produced a few famous musicians, most notably Billy Fury, who was from an impoverished area of Liverpool called the Dingle: [Excerpt: Billy Fury, “Halfway to Paradise”] But Fury had, of course, moved to London to have his career. That’s what you did. But in general, Liverpool, if people in London thought of it at all, was thought of as a provincial backwater full of poor people, many of them Irish, and all of them talking with a ridiculous accent. Liverpool was ignored by London, and that meant that things could develop there out of sight. The story of the Beatles starts in the 1950s, with two young men in their mid-teens. John Winston Lennon was born in 1940, and had had a rather troubled childhood. His father had been a merchant seaman who had been away in the war, and his parents’ relationship had deteriorated for that and other reasons. As a result, Lennon had barely known his father, and when his mother met another man, Lennon’s aunt, Mary Smith, who he always called Mimi, had taken him in, believing that his mother “living in sin” would be a bad influence on the young boy. The Smith family were the kind of lower middle class family that seemed extremely rich to the impoverished families in Liverpool, but were not well off by any absolute standard. Mimi, in particular, was torn between two very different urges. On one hand, she had strongly bohemian, artistic, urges — as did all of her sisters. She was a voracious reader, and a lover of art history, and encouraged these tendencies in John. But at the same time, she was of that class which has a little status, but not much security, and so she was extremely wary of the need to appear respectable. This tension between respectability and rebellion was something that would appear in many of the people who Lennon later worked with, such as Brian Epstein and George Martin, and it was something that Lennon would always respond to — those people would be the only ones who Lennon would ever view as authority figures he could respect, though he would also resent them at times. And it might be that combination of rebellion and respectability that Lennon saw in Paul McCartney. McCartney was from a family who, in the Byzantine world of the British class system of the time, were a notch or so lower than the Smith family who raised Lennon, but he was academically bright, and his family had big plans for him — they thought that it might even be possible that he might become a teacher if he worked very hard at school. McCartney was a far less openly rebellious person than Lennon was, but he was still just as caught up in the music and fashions of the mid-fifties that his father associated with street gangs and hooliganism. Lennon, like many teenagers in Britain at the time, had had his life changed when he first heard Elvis Presley, and he had soon become a rock and roll obsessive — Elvis was always his absolute favourite, but he also loved Little Richard, who he thought was almost as good, and he admired Buddy Holly, who had a special place in Lennon’s heart as Holly wore glasses on stage, something that Lennon, who was extremely short-sighted, could never bring himself to do, but which at least showed him that it was a possibility. Lennon was, by his mid-teens, recreating a relationship with his mother, and one of the things they bonded over was music — she taught him how to play the banjo, and together they worked out the chords to “That’ll Be the Day”, and Lennon later switched to the guitar, playing banjo chords on five of the six strings.  Like many, many, teenagers of the time, Lennon also formed a skiffle group, which he called the Quarrymen, after a line in his school song. The group tended to have a rotating lineup, but Lennon was the unquestioned leader. The group had a repertoire consisting of the same Lonnie Donegan songs that every other skiffle group was playing, plus any Elvis and Buddy Holly songs that could sound reasonable with a lineup of guitars, teachest bass, and washboard. The moment that changed the history of the music, though, came on July the sixth, 1957, when Ivan Vaughan, a friend of Lennon’s, invited his friend Paul McCartney to go and see the Quarry Men perform at Woolton Village Fete. That day has gone down in history as “the day John met Paul”, although Mark Lewisohn has since discovered that Lennon and McCartney had briefly met once before. It is, though, the day on which Lennon and McCartney first impressed each other musically. McCartney talks about being particularly impressed that the Quarry Men’s lead singer was changing the lyrics to the songs he was performing, making up new words when he forgot the originals — he says in particular that he remembers Lennon singing “Come Go With Me” by the Del-Vikings: [Excerpt: The Del-Vikings, “Come Go With Me”] McCartney remembers Lennon as changing the lyrics to “come go with me, right down to the penitentiary”, and thinking that was clever. Astonishingly, some audio recording actually exists of the Quarry Men’s second performance that day — they did two sets, and this second one comes just after Lennon met McCartney rather than just before. The recording only seems to exist in a very fragmentary form, which has snatches of Lennon singing “Baby Let’s Play House” and Lonnie Donegan’s hit “Puttin’ on the Style”, which was number one on the charts at the time, but that even those fragments have survived, given how historic a day this was, is almost miraculous: [Excerpt: The Quarrymen, “Puttin’ on the Style”] After the first set, Lennon met McCartney, who was nearly two years younger, but a more accomplished musician — for a start, he knew how to tune the guitar with all six strings, and to proper guitar tuning, rather than tuning five strings like a banjo. Lennon and his friends were a little nonplussed by McCartney holding his guitar upside-down at first — McCartney is left-handed — but despite having an upside-down guitar with the wrong tuning, McCartney managed to bash out a version of Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty-Flight Rock”, a song he would often perform in later decades when reminding people of this story: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “Twenty-Flight Rock”] This was impressive to Lennon for three reasons. The first was that McCartney was already a strong, confident performer — he perhaps seemed a little more confident than he really was, showing off in front of the bigger boys like this. The second was that “Twenty-Flight Rock” was a moderately obscure song — it hadn’t charted, but it *had* appeared in The Girl Can’t Help It, a film which every rock and roll lover in Britain had watched at the cinema over and over. Choosing that song rather than, say, “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, was a way of announcing a kind of group affiliation — “I am one of you, I am a real rock and roll fan, not just a casual listener to what’s in the charts”. I stress that second point because it’s something that’s very important in the history of the Beatles generally — they were *music fans*, and often fans of relatively obscure records. That’s something that bound Lennon and McCartney, and later the other members, together from the start, and something they always noted about other musicians. They weren’t the kind of systematic scholars who track down rare pressings and memorise every session musician’s name, but they were constantly drawn to find the best new music, and to seek it out wherever they could. But the most impressive thing for Lennon — and one that seems a little calculated on McCartney’s part, though he’s never said that he thought about this that I’m aware of — was that this was an extremely wordy song, and McCartney *knew all the words*. Remember that McCartney had noticed Lennon forgetting the words to a song with lyrics as simple as “come, come, come, come, come into my heart/Tell me darling we will never part”, and here’s McCartney singing this fast-paced, almost patter song, and getting the words right.  From the beginning, McCartney was showing how he could complement Lennon — if Lennon could impress McCartney by improvising new lyrics when he forgot the old ones, then McCartney could impress Lennon by remembering the lyrics that Lennon couldn’t — and by writing them down for Lennon, sharing his knowledge freely. McCartney went on to show off more, and in particular impressed Lennon by going to a piano and showing off his Little Richard imitation. Little Richard was the only serious rival to Elvis in Lennon’s affections, and McCartney could do a very decent imitation of him. This was someone special, clearly. But this put Lennon in a quandary. McCartney was clearly far, far, better than any of the Quarry Men — at least Lennon’s equal, and light years ahead of the rest of them. Lennon had a choice — invite this young freak of nature into his band, and improve the band dramatically, but no longer be the unquestioned centre of the group, or remain in absolute control but not have someone in the group who *knew the words* and *knew how to tune a guitar*, and other such magical abilities that no mere mortals had. Those who only know of Lennon from his later reputation as a massive egoist would be surprised, but he decided fairly quickly that he had to make the group better at his own expense. He invited McCartney to join the group, and McCartney said yes. Over the next few months the membership of the Quarry Men changed. They’d been formed while they were all at Quarry Bank Grammar School, but that summer Lennon moved on to art school. I’m going to have to talk about the art school system, and the British education system of the fifties and early sixties a lot over the next few months, but here’s an extremely abbreviated and inaccurate version that’s good enough for now. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, people in Britain — at least those without extremely rich parents, who had a different system — went to two kinds of school depending on the result of an exam they took aged eleven, which was based on some since-discredited eugenic research about children’s potential. If you passed the exam, you were considered academically apt, and went to a grammar school, which was designed to filter you through to university and the professions. If you failed the exam, you went to a secondary modern, which was designed to give you the skills to get a trade and make a living working with your hands. And for the most part, people followed the pipeline that was set up for them. You go to grammar school, go to university, become a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher. You go to secondary modern, leave school at fourteen, become a plumber or a builder or a factory worker. But there are always those people who don’t properly fit into the neat categories that the world tries to put them in. And for people in their late teens and early twenties, people who’d been through the school system but not been shaped properly by it, there was another option at this time. If you were bright and creative, but weren’t suited for university because you’d failed your exams, you could go to art school. The supposed purpose of the art schools was to teach people to do commercial art, and they would learn skills like lettering and basic draughtsmanship. But what the art schools really did was give creative people space to explore ideas, to find out about areas of art and culture that would otherwise have been closed to them. Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Ian Dury, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Syd Barrett, and many more people we’ll be seeing over the course of this story went to art school, and as David Bowie would put it later, the joke at the time was that you went to art school to learn to play blues guitar. With Lennon and his friends all moving on from the school that had drawn them together, the group stabilised for a time on a lineup of Lennon, McCartney, Colin Hanton, Len Garry, and Eric Griffiths. But the first time this version of the group played live, while McCartney sang well, he totally fluffed his lead guitar lines on stage. While there were three guitarists in the band at this point, they needed someone who could play lead fluently and confidently on stage. Enter George Harrison, who had suddenly become a close friend of McCartney. Harrison went to the same school as McCartney — a grammar school called the Liverpool Institute, but was in the year below McCartney, and so the two had always been a bit distant. However, at the same time as Lennon was moving on to art school after failing his exams, McCartney was being kept back a year for failing Latin — which his father always thought was deliberate, so he wouldn’t have to go to university. Now he was in the same year at school as Harrison, and they started hanging out together. The two bonded strongly over music, and would do things like take a bus journey to another part of town, where someone lived who they heard owned a copy of “Searchin'” by the Coasters: [Excerpt: The Coasters, “Searchin'”] The two knocked on this stranger’s door, asked if he’d play them this prized record, and he agreed — and then they stole it from him as they left his house. Another time they took the bus to another part of town again, because they’d heard that someone in that part of town knew how to play a B7 chord on his guitar, and sat there as he showed them. So now the Quarrymen needed a lead guitarist, McCartney volunteered his young mate. There are a couple of stories about how Harrison came to join the band — apparently he auditioned for Lennon at least twice, because Lennon was very unsure about having such a young kid in his band — but the story I like best is that Harrison took his guitar to a Quarry Men gig at Wilson Hall — he’d apparently often take his guitar to gigs and just see if he could sit in with the bands. On the bill with the Quarry Men was another group, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, who were generally regarded as the best skiffle band in Liverpool. Lennon told Harrison that he could join the band if he could play as well as Clayton, and Harrison took out his guitar and played “Raunchy”: [Excerpt: Bill Justis, “Raunchy”] I like this story rather than the other story that the members would tell later — that Harrison played “Raunchy” on a bus for Lennon — for one reason. The drummer in the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group was one Richy Starkey, and if it happened that way, the day that George joined the Quarry Men was also the day that John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all in the same place for the first time. George looked up to John and essentially idolised him, though Lennon thought of him as a little annoying at times — he’d follow John everywhere, and not take a hint when he wasn’t wanted sometimes, just eager to be with his big cool new mate. But despite this tiny bit of tension, John, Paul, and George quickly became a solid unit — helped by the fact that the school that Paul and George went to was part of the same complex of buildings as Lennon’s art college, so they’d all get the bus there and back together.  George was not only younger, he was a notch or two further down the social class ladder than John or Paul, and he spoke more slowly, which made him seem less intelligent. He came from Speke, which was a rougher area, and he would dress even more like a juvenile delinquent than the others. Meanwhile, Len Garry and Eric Griffiths left the group — Len Garry because he became ill and had to spend time in hospital, and anyway they didn’t really need a teachest bass. What they did need was an electric bass, and since they had four guitars now they tried to persuade Eric to get one, but he didn’t want to pay that much money, and he was always a little on the outside of the main three members, as he didn’t share their sense of humour. So the group got Nigel Walley, who was acting as the group’s manager, to fire him. The group was now John, Paul, and George all on guitars, and Colin Hanton on drums. Sometimes, if they played a venue that had a piano, they’d also bring along a schoolfriend of Paul’s, John “Duff” Lowe, to play piano. Meanwhile, the group were growing in other ways. Both John and Paul had started writing songs, together and apart. McCartney seems to have been the first, writing a song called “I Lost My Little Girl” which he would eventually record more than thirty years later: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “I Lost My Little Girl”] Lennon’s first song likewise sang about a little girl, this time being “Hello, Little Girl”. By the middle of 1958, this five-piece group was ready to cut their first record — at a local studio that would cut a single copy of a disc for you. They went into this studio at some time around July 1958, and recorded two songs. The first was their version of “That’ll Be the Day”: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “That’ll be the Day”] The B-side was a song that McCartney had written, with a guitar solo that George had come up with, so the label credit read “McCartney/Harrison”. “In Spite of All the Danger” seems to have been inspired by Elvis’ “Trying to Get to You”: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Trying to Get to You”] It’s a rough song, but a good attempt for a teenager who had only just started writing songs: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “In Spite of All the Danger”] Apparently Lowe and Hanton hadn’t heard the song before they started playing, but they make a decent enough fist of it in the circumstances. Lennon took the lead even though it was McCartney’s song — he said later “I was such a bully in those days I didn’t even let Paul sing his own song.” That was about the last time that this lineup of Quarry Men played together. In July, the month that seems likely for the recording, Lowe finished at the Liverpool Institute, and so he drifted away from McCartney and Harrison. Meanwhile Hanton had a huge row with the others after a show, and they fell out and never spoke again. The Quarry Men were reduced to a trio of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. But — possibly the very day after that recording if an unreliable plaque at the studio where they recorded it is to be believed — something happened which was to have far more impact on the group than the drummer leaving. John Lennon’s mother, with whom he’d slowly been repairing his relationship, had called round to visit Mimi. She left the house, and bumped into Nigel Walley, who was calling round to see John. She told him he wasn’t there, and that he could walk with her to the bus stop. They walked a little while, then went off in different directions. Walley heard a thump and turned round — Julia Lennon had been hit by a car and killed instantly. As you can imagine, John’s mother dying caused him a huge amount of distress, but it also gave him a bond with McCartney, whose own mother had died of cancer shortly before they met. Neither really spoke about it to each other, and to the extent they did it was with ultra-cynical humour — but the two now shared something deeper than just the music, even though the music itself was deep enough. Lennon became a much harder, nastier, person after this, at least for a time, his natural wit taking on a dark edge, and he would often drink too much and get aggressive. But life still went on, and John, Paul, and George kept trying to perform — though the gigs dried up, and they didn’t have a drummer any more. They’d just say “the rhythm’s in the guitars” when asked why they didn’t have one. They were also no longer the Quarry Men — they didn’t have a name. At one point late in the year, they also only had two guitars between the three of them — Lennon seems to have smashed his in a fit of fury after his mother’s death. But he stole one backstage at a talent contest, and soon they were back to having three. That talent show was one run by Carroll Levis, who we talked about before in the episode on “Shakin’ All Over”. The three boys went on Levis’ show, this time performing as Johnny & The Moondogs —  in Manchester, at the Hippodrome in Ancoats, singing Buddy Holly’s “Think it Over”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “Think it Over”] Lennon sang lead with his arms draped over the shoulders of Paul and George, who sang backing vocals and played guitar. They apparently did quite well, but had to leave before the show finished to get the last train back to Liverpool, and so never found out whether the audience would have made them the winner, with the possibility of a TV appearance. They did well enough, though, to impress a couple of other young lads on the bill, two Manchester singers named Allan Clarke and Graham Nash. But in general, the Japage Three, a portmanteau of their names that they settled on as their most usual group name at this point, played very little in 1959 — indeed, George spent much of the early part of the year moonlighting in the Les Stewart Quartet, another group, though he still thought of Lennon and McCartney as his musical soulmates; the Les Stewart Quartet were just a gig.  The three of them would spend much of their time at the Jacaranda, a coffee bar opened by a Liverpool entrepreneur, Allan Williams, in imitation of the 2is, which was owned by a friend of his. Lennon was also spending a lot of time with an older student at his art school, Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the few people in the world that Lennon himself looked up to. The Les Stewart Quartet would end up indirectly being key to the Beatles’ development, because after one of their shows at a local youth club they were approached by a woman named Mona Best. Mona’s son Pete liked to go to the youth club, but she was fairly protective of him, and also wanted him to have more friends — he was a quiet boy who didn’t make friends easily. So she’d hit upon a plan — she’d open her own club in her cellar, since the Best family were rich enough to have a big house. If there was a club *in Pete’s house* he’d definitely make lots of friends. They needed a band, and she asked the Les Stewart Quartet if they’d like to be the resident band at this new club, the Casbah, and also if they’d like to help decorate it.  They said yes, but then Paul and George went on a hitch-hiking holiday around Wales for a few days, and George didn’t get back in time to play a gig the quartet had booked. Ken Brown, the other guitarist, didn’t turn up either, and Les Stewart got into a rage and split the group. Suddenly, the Casbah had no group — George and Ken were willing to play, but neither was a lead singer — and no decorators either. So George roped in John and Paul, who helped decorate the place, and with the addition of Ken Brown, the group returned to the Quarry Men name for their regular Saturday night gig at the Casbah. The group had no bass player or drummer, and they all kept pestering everyone they knew to get a bass or a drum kit, but nobody would bite. But then Stuart Sutcliffe got half a painting in an exhibition put on by John Moores, the millionaire owner of Littlewoods, who was a big patron of the arts in Liverpool. I say he got half a painting in the exhibition, because the painting was done on two large boards — Stuart and his friends took the first half of the painting down to the gallery, went back to get the other half, and got distracted by the pub and never brought it. But Moores was impressed enough with the abstract painting that he bought it at the end of the exhibition’s run, for ninety pounds — about two thousand pounds in today’s money. And so Stuart’s friends gave him a choice — he could either buy a bass or a drum kit, either would be fine. He chose the bass. But the same week that Stuart joined, Ken Brown was out, and they lost their gig at the Casbah. John, Paul, George and Ken had turned up one Saturday, and Ken hadn’t felt well, so instead of performing he just worked on the door. At the end of the show, Mona Best insisted on giving Ken an equal share of the money, as agreed. John, Paul, and George wouldn’t stand for that, and so Ken was out of the group, and they were no longer playing for Mona Best. Stuart joining the group caused tensions — George was fine with him, thinking that a bass player who didn’t yet know how to play was better than no bass player at all, but Paul was much less keen. Partly this was because he thought the group needed to get better, which would be hard with someone who couldn’t play, but also he was getting jealous of Sutcliffe’s closeness to Lennon, especially when the two became flatmates. But John wanted him in the group, and what John wanted, he got. There are recordings of the group around this time that circulate — only one has been released officially, a McCartney instrumental called “Cayenne”, but the others are out there if you look: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “Cayenne”] The gigs had dried up again, but they did have one new advantage — they now had a name they actually liked. John and Stuart had come up with it, inspired by Buddy Holly’s Crickets. They were going to be Beatles, with an a. Shortly after the Beatles’ first appearance under that name, at the art school student union, came the Liverpool gig which was to have had Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent headlining, before Cochran died. A lot of Liverpool groups were booked to play on the bill there, but not the Beatles — though Richy Starkey was going to play the gig, with his latest group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Allan Williams, the local promoter, added extra groups to fill out the bill, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, and suddenly everyone who loved rock and roll in Liverpool realised that there were others out there like them. Overnight, a scene had been born. And where there’s a scene, there’s money to be made. Larry Parnes, who had been the national promoter of the tour, was at the show and realised that there were a lot of quite proficient musicians in Liverpool. And it so happened that he needed backing bands for three of his artists who were going on tour, separately — two minor stars, Duffy Power and Johnny Gentle, and one big star, Billy Fury. And both Gentle and Fury were from Liverpool themselves. So Parnes asked Allan Williams to set up auditions with some of the local groups. Williams invited several groups, and one he asked along was the Beatles, largely because Lennon and Sutcliffe begged him. He also found them a drummer, Tommy Moore, who was a decade older than the rest of them — though Moore didn’t turn up to the audition because he had to work, and so Johnny “Hutch” Hutchinson of Cass and the Cassanovas sat in with them, much to Hutch’s disgust — he hated the Beatles, and especially Lennon.  Cass of the Cassanovas also insisted that “the Beatles” was a stupid name, and that the group needed to be Something and the Somethings, and he suggested Long John and the Silver Beatles, and that stuck for a couple of shows before they reverted to their proper name. The Beatles weren’t chosen for any of the main tours that were being booked, but then Parnes phoned Williams up — there were some extra dates on the Johnny Gentle tour that he hadn’t yet booked a group for. Could Williams find him a band who could be in Scotland that Friday night for a nine-day tour? Williams tried Cass and the Cassanovas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, but none of them could go on tour at such short notice. They all had gigs booked, or day jobs they had to book time off with. The Beatles had no gigs booked, and only George had a day job, and he didn’t mind just quitting that. They were off to Scotland. They were so inspired by being on tour with a Larry Parnes artist that most of them took on new names just like those big stars — George became Carl Harrison, after Carl Perkins, Stuart became Stuart de Staël, after his favourite painter, and Paul became Paul Ramon, which he thought sounded mysterious and French. There’s some question about whether John took on a new name — some sources have him becoming “Long John”, while others say he was “Johnny” Lennon rather than John. Tommy Moore, meanwhile, was just Thomas Moore. It was on this tour, of course, that Lennon helped Johnny Gentle write “I’ve Just Fallen For Someone”, which we talked about last week: [Excerpt: Darren Young, “I’ve Just Fallen For Someone”] The tour was apparently fairly miserable, with horrible accommodation, poor musicianship from the group, and everyone getting on everyone’s nerves — George and Stuart got into fistfights, John bullied Stuart a bit because of his poor playing, and John particularly didn’t get on well with Moore — a man who was a decade older, didn’t share their taste in music, and worked in a factory rather than having the intellectual aspirations of the group. The two hated each other by the end of the tour. But the tour did also give the group the experience of signing autographs, and of feeling like stars in at least a minor way. When they got back to Liverpool, George moved in with John and Stuart, to get away from his mum telling him to get a proper job, and they got a few more bookings thanks to Williams, but they soon became drummerless — they turned up to a gig one time to find that Tommy Moore wasn’t there. They went round to his house, and his wife shouted from an upstairs window, “Yez can piss off, he’s had enough of yez and gone back to work at the bottle factory”. The now four-piece group carried on, however, and recordings exist of them in this period, sounding much more professional than only a few months before, including performances of some of their own songs. The most entertaining of these is probably “You’ll Be Mine”, an Ink Spots parody with some absurd wordplay from Lennon: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “You’ll Be Mine”] Soon enough the group found another drummer, Norm Chapman, and carried on as before, getting regular bookings thanks to Williams. There was soon a temporary guest at the flat John, Stuart, and George shared with several other people — Royston Ellis, the Beat poet and friend of the Shadows, had turned up in Liverpool and latched on to the group, partly because he fancied George. He performed with them a couple of times, crashed at the flat, and provided them with two formative experiences — he gave them their first national press, talking in Record and Show Mirror about how he wanted them to be his full-time group, and he gave them their first drug experience, showing them how to get amphetamines out of inhalers. While the group’s first national press was positive, there was soon some very negative press indeed associated with them. A tabloid newspaper wanted to do a smear story about the dangerous Beatnik menace. The article talked about how “they revel in filth”, and how beatniks were “a dangerous menace to our young people… a corrupting influence of drug addicts and peddlers, degenerates who specialise in obscene orgies”. And for some reason — it’s never been made clear exactly how — the beatnik “pad” they chose to photograph for this story was the one that John, Stuart, and George lived in, though they weren’t there at the time — several of their friends and associates are in the pictures though. They were all kicked out of their flat, and moved back in with their families, and around this time they lost Chapman from the group too — he was called up to do his National Service, one of the last people to be conscripted before conscription ended for good. They were back to a four-piece again, and for a while Paul was drumming. But then, as seems to have happened so often with this group, a bizarre coincidence happened. A while earlier, Allan Williams had travelled to Hamburg, with the idea of trying to get Liverpool groups booked there. He’d met up with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of a club called the Kaiserkeller. Koschmider had liked the idea, but nothing had come of it, partly because neither could speak the other’s language well. A little while later, Koschmider had remembered the idea and come over to the UK to find musicians. He didn’t remember where Williams was from, so of course he went to London, to the 2is, and there he found a group of musicians including Tony Sheridan, who we talked about back in the episode on “Brand New Cadillac”, the man who’d been Vince Taylor’s lead guitarist and had a minor solo career: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan, “Why?”] Sheridan was one of the most impressive musicians in Britain, but he also wanted to skip the country — he’d just bought a guitar on credit in someone else’s name, and he also had a wife and six-month-old baby he wanted rid of. He eagerly went off with Koschmider, and a scratch group called the Jets soon took up residence at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Derry and the Seniors were annoyed. Larry Parnes had booked them for a tour, but then he’d got annoyed at the unprofessionalism of the Liverpool bands he was booking and cancelled the booking, severing his relationship with Williams. The Seniors wanted to know what Williams was going to do about it.  There was no way to get them enough gigs in Liverpool, so Williams, being a thoroughly decent man who had a sense of obligation, offered to drive the group down to London to see if they could get work there. He took them to the 2is, and they were allowed to get up and play there, since Williams was a friend of the owner. And Bruno Koschmider was there. The Jets hadn’t liked playing at Williams’ club, and they’d scarpered to another one with better working conditions, which they helped get off the ground and renamed the Top Ten, after Vince Taylor’s club in London. So Bruno had come back to find another group, and there in the same club at the same time was the man who’d given him the idea in the first place, with a group. Koschmider immediately signed up Derry and the Seniors to play at the Kaiserkeller.  Meanwhile, the best gig the Beatles could get, also through Williams, was backing a stripper, where they played whatever instrumentals they knew, no matter how inappropriate, things like the theme from The Third Man: [Excerpt: Anton Karas, “Theme from The Third Man”] A tune guaranteed to get the audience into a sexy mood, I’m sure you’ll agree. But then Allan Williams got a call from Koschmider. Derry and the Seniors were doing great business, and he’d decided to convert another of his clubs to be a rock and roll club. Could Williams have a group for him by next Friday? Oh, and it needed to be five people. Williams tried Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They were busy. He tried Cass and the Cassanovas. They were busy. He tried Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were busy. Finally, he tried the Beatles. They weren’t busy, and said yes they could go to Hamburg that week. There were a few minor issues, like there not being five of them, none of them having passports, and them not having a drummer. The passports could be sorted quickly — there’s a passport office in Liverpool — but the lack of a fifth Beatle was more of a problem. In desperation, they turned eventually to Pete Best, Mrs. Best’s son, because they knew he had a drum kit. He agreed.  Allan Williams drove the group to Hamburg, and they started playing six-hour sets every night at the Indra, not finishing til three in the morning, at which point they’d make their way to their lodgings — the back of a filthy cinema.  By this time, the Beatles had already got good — Howie Casey, of Derry and the Seniors, who’d remembered the Beatles as being awful at the Johnny Gentle audition, came over to see them and make fun of them, but found that they were far better than they had been. But playing six hours a night got them *very* good *very* quickly — especially as they decided that they weren’t going to play the same song twice in a night, meaning they soon built up a vast repertoire. But right from the start, there was a disconnect between Pete Best and the other four — they socialised together, and he went off on his own. He was also a weak player — he was only just starting to learn — and so the rest of the group would stamp their feet to keep him in time. That, though, also gave them a bit more of a stage act than they might otherwise have had. There are lots of legendary stories about the group’s time in Hamburg, and it’s impossible to sort fact from fiction, and the bits we can sort out would get this podcast categorised as adult content, but they were teenagers, away from home for a long period for the first time, living in a squalid back room in the red light district of a city with a reputation for vice. I’m sure whatever you imagine is probably about right. After a relatively short time, they were moved from the Indra, which had to stop putting on rock and roll shows, to the Kaiserkeller, where they shared the bill with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, up to that point considered Liverpool’s best band. There’s a live recording of the Hurricanes from 1960, which shows that they were certainly powerful: [Excerpt: Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, “Brand New Cadillac”] That recording doesn’t have the Hurricanes’ normal drummer on, who was sick for that show. But compared to what the Beatles had become — a stomping powerhouse with John Lennon, whose sense of humour was both cruel and pointed, doing everything he could to get a rise out of the audience — they were left in the dust. A letter home that George Harrison wrote sums it up — “Rory Storm & the Hurricanes came out here the other week, and they are crumby. He does a bit of dancing around but it still doesn’t make up for his phoney group. The only person who is any good in the group is the drummer.” That drummer was Richy Starkey from the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, now performing as Ringo Starr. They struck up a friendship, and even performed together at least once — John, Paul, George, and Ringo acting as the backing group for Lu Walters of the Hurricanes on a demo, which is frustratingly missing and hasn’t been heard since. They were making other friends, too. There was Tony Sheridan, who they’d seen on TV, but who would now sometimes jam with them as equals. And there was a trio of arty bohemian types who had stumbled across the club, where they were very out of place — Astrid Kirscherr, Klaus Voormann, and Jurgen Vollmer. They all latched on to the Beatles, and especially to Stuart, who soon started dating Astrid, despite her speaking no English and him speaking no German. But relations between Koschmider and the Beatles had worsened, and he reported to the police that George, at only seventeen, was under-age. George got deported. The rest of the group decided to move over to the Top Ten Club, and as a parting gift, Paul and Pete nailed some condoms to their bedroom wall and set fire to them. Koschmider decided to report this to the police as attempted arson, and those two were deported as well. John followed a week later, while Stuart stayed in Hamburg for a while, to spend more time with Astrid, who he planned to marry. The other four regrouped, getting in a friend, Chas Newby, as a temporary bass player while Stuart was away. And on the twenty-seventh of December, 1960, when they played Litherland Town Hall, they changed the Liverpool music scene. They were like nothing anyone had ever seen, and the audience didn’t dance — they just rushed to the stage, to be as close to the performance as possible. The Beatles had become the best band in Liverpool. Mark Lewisohn goes further, and suggests that the three months of long nights playing different songs in Hamburg had turned them into the single most experienced rock band *in the world* — which seems vanishingly unlikely to me, but Lewisohn is not a man given to exaggeration. By this time, Mona Best had largely taken over the group’s bookings, and there were a lot of them, as well as a regular spot at the Casbah. Neil Aspinall, a friend of Pete’s, started driving them to gigs, while they also had a regular MC, Bob Wooler, who ran many local gigs, and who gave the Beatles their own theme music — he’d introduce them with the fanfare from Rossini’s William Tell Overture: [Excerpt: Rossini, “William Tell Overture”] Stuart came over from Hamburg in early January, and once again the Beatles were a five-piece — and by now, he could play quite well, well enough, at any rate, that it didn’t destroy the momentum the group had gathered. The group were getting more and more bookings, including the venue that would become synonymous with them, the Cavern, a tiny little warehouse cellar that had started as a jazz club, and that the Quarry Men had played once a couple of years earlier, but had been banned from for playing too much rock and roll. Now, the Beatles were getting bookings at the Cavern’s lunchtime sessions, and that meant more than it seemed. Most of the gigs they played otherwise were on the outskirts of the city, but the Cavern was in the city centre. And that meant that for the lunchtime sessions, commuters from outside the city were coming to see them — which meant that the group got fans from anywhere within commuting distance, fans who wanted them to play in their towns. Meanwhile, the group were branching out musically — they were particularly becoming fascinated by the new R&B, soul, and girl-group records that were coming out in the US. After already having loved “Money” by Barrett Strong, John was also obsessed with the Miracles, and would soon become a fervent fan of anything Motown, and the group were all big fans of the Shirelles. As they weren’t playing original material live, and as every group would soon learn every other group’s best songs, there was an arms race on to find the most exciting songs to cover. As well as Elvis and Buddy and Eddie, they were now covering the Shirelles and Ray Charles and Gary US Bonds. The group returned to Hamburg in April, Paul and Pete’s immigration status having been resolved and George now having turned eighteen, and started playing at the Top Ten club, where they played even longer sets, and more of them, than they had at the Kaiserkeller and the Indra. Tony Sheridan started regularly joining them on stage at this time, and Paul switched to piano while Sheridan added the third guitar. This was also when they started using Preludin, a stimulant related to amphetamines which was prescribed as a diet drug — Paul would take one pill a night, George a couple, and John would gobble them down. But Pete didn’t take them — one more way in which he was different from the others — and he started having occasional micro-sleeps in the middle of songs as the long nights got to him, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group. But despite Pete’s less than stellar playing they were good enough that Sheridan — the single most experienced musician in the British rock and roll scene — described them as the best R&B band he’d ever heard. Once they were there, they severed their relationship with Allan Williams, refusing to pay him his share of the money, and just cutting him out of their careers.  Meanwhile, Stuart was starting to get ill. He was having headaches all the time, and had to miss shows on occasion. He was also the only Beatle with a passion for anything else, and he managed to get a scholarship to study art with the famous sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who was now working in Hamburg. Paul subbed for Stuart on bass, and eventually Stuart left the group, though on good terms with everyone other than Paul. So it was John, Paul, George and Pete who ended up making the Beatles’ first records. Bert Kaempfert, the most important man in the German music industry, had been to see them all at the Top Ten and liked what he saw. Outside Germany, Kaempfert was probably best known for co-writing Elvis’ “Wooden Heart”, which the Beatles had in their sets at this time: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Wooden Heart”] Kaempfert had signed Tony Sheridan to a contract, and he wanted the Beatles to back him in the studio — and he was also interested in recording a couple of tracks with them on their own. The group eagerly agreed, and their first session started at eight in the morning on the twenty-second of June 1961, after they had finished playing all night at the club, and all of them but Pete were on Preludin for the session. Stuart came along for moral support, but didn’t play. Pete was a problem, though. He wasn’t keeping time properly, and Kaempfert eventually insisted on removing his bass drum and toms, leaving only a snare, hi-hat, and ride cymbal for Pete to play. They recorded seven songs at that session in total. Two of them were just by the Beatles. One was a version of “Ain’t She Sweet”, an old standard which Gene Vincent had recorded fairly recently, but the other was the only track ever credited to Lennon and Harrison as cowriters. On their first trip to Hamburg, they’d wanted to learn “Man of Mystery” by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Shadows, “Man of Mystery”] But there was a slight problem in that they didn’t have a copy of the record, and had never heard it — it came out in the UK while they were in Germany. So they asked Rory Storm to hum it for them. He hummed a few notes, and Lennon and Harrison wrote a parody of what Storm had sung, which they named “Beatle Bop” but by this point they’d renamed “Cry For a Shadow”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Cry For a Shadow”] The other five songs at the session were given over to Tony Sheridan, with the Beatles backing him, and the song that Kaempfert was most interested in recording was one the group had been performing on stage — a rocked-up version of the old folk song “My Bonnie”: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, “My Bonnie”] That was the record chosen as the single, but it was released not as by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, but by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers — “Beatles”, to German ears, sounded a little like “piedels”, a childish slang term for penises. The Beatles had made their first record, but it wasn’t one they thought much of. They knew they could do better. The next week, the now four-piece Beatles returned to Liverpool, with much crying at Stuart staying behind — even Paul, now Stuart was no longer a threat for John’s attention, was contrite and tried to make amends to him.  On their return to Liverpool, they picked up where they had left off, playing almost every night, and spending the days trying to find new records — often listening to the latest releases at NEMS, a department store with an extensive record selection. Brian Epstein, the shop’s manager, prided himself on being able to get any record a customer wanted, and whenever anyone requested anything he’d buy a second copy for the shelves. As a result, you could find records there that you wouldn’t get anywhere else in Liverpool, and the Beatles were soon adding more songs by the Shirelles and Gary US Bonds to their sets, as well as more songs by the Coasters and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. They were playing gigs further afield, and Neil Aspinall was now driving them everywhere. Aspinall was Pete Best’s closest friend — and was having an affair with Pete’s mother — but unlike Pete himself he also became close to the other Beatles, and would remain so for the rest of his life.  By this point, the group were so obviously the best band on the Liverpool scene that they were starting to get bored — there was no competition. And by this point it really was a proper scene — John’s old art school friend Bill Harry had started up a magazine, Mersey Beat, which may be the first magazine anywhere in the world to focus on one area’s local music scene. Brian Epstein from NEMS had a column, as did Bob Wooler, and often John’s humorous writing would appear as well. The Beatles were featured in most issues — although Paul McCartney’s name was misspelled almost every time it appeared — and not just because Lennon and Harry were friends. By this point there were the Beatles, and there were all the other groups in the area. For several months this continued — they learned new songs, they played almost every day, and they continued to be the best. They started to find it boring. The one big change that came at this point was when John and Paul went on holiday to Paris, saw Vince Taylor, bumped into their friend Jurgen from Hamburg, and got Jurgen to do their hair like his — the story we told in the episode on “Brand New Cadillac”. They now had the Beatles haircut, though they were still wearing leather. When they got back, George copied their new style straight away, but Pete decided to leave his hair in a quiff. There was nowhere else to go without a manager to look after them. They needed management — and they found it because of “My Bonnie”: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, “My Bonnie”] “My Bonnie” was far from a great record, but it was what led to everything that followed. The Beatles had mentioned from the stage at the Cavern that they had a record out, and a young man named Raymond Jones walked into NEMS and asked for a copy of it. Brian Epstein couldn’t find it in the record company catalogues, and asked Jones for more information — Jones explained that they were a Liverpool group, but the record had come out in Germany. A couple of days later, two young girls came into the shop asking for the same record, and now Epstein was properly intrigued — in his view, if *two* people asked for a record, that probably meant a lot more than just two people wanted it. He decided to check these Beatles out for himself. Epstein was instantly struck by the group, and this has led to a lot of speculation over the years, because his tastes ran more to Sibelius than to Little Richard. As Epstein was also gay, many people have assumed that the attraction was purely physical. And it might well have been, at least in part, but the suggestion that everything that followed was just because of that seems unlikely — Epstein was also someone who had a long interest in the arts, and had trained as an actor at RADA, the most prestigious actors’ college in the UK, before taking up his job at the family store. Given that the Beatles were soon to become the most popular musicians in the history of the world, and were already the most popular musicians in the Liverpool area, the most reasonable assumption must be that Epstein was impressed by the same things that impressed roughly a billion other people over the next sixty years. Epstein started going to the Cavern regularly, to watch the Beatles and to make plans — the immaculately dressed, public-school-educated, older rich man stood out among the crowd, and the Beatles already knew his face from his record shop, and so they knew something was going on. By late November, Brian had managed to obtain a box of twenty-five copies of “My Bonnie”, and they’d sold out within hours. He set up a meeting with the Beatles, and even before he got them signed to a management contract he was using his contacts with the record industry in London to push the Beatles at record companies. Those companies listened to Brian, because NEMS was one of their biggest customers. December 1961, the month they signed with Brian Epstein, was also the month that they finally started including Lennon/McCartney songs in their sets.  And within a couple of weeks of becoming their manager, even before he’d signed them to a contract, Brian had managed to persuade Mike Smith, an A&R man from Decca, to come to the Cavern to see the group in person. He was impressed, and booked them in for a studio session. December 61 was also the first time that John, Paul, George, and Ringo played together in that lineup, without any other musicians, when on the twenty-seventh of December Pete called in sick for a show, and the others got in their friend to cover for him. It wouldn’t be the last time they would play together. On New Year’s Day 1962, the Beatles made the trek down to London to record fifteen songs at the Decca studios. The session was intended for two purposes — to see if they sounded as good on tape as they did in the Cavern, and if they did to produce their first single. Those recordings included the core of their Cavern repertoire, songs like “Money”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Money (Decca version)”] They also recorded three Lennon/McCartney songs, two by Paul — “Love of the Loved” and “Like Dreamers Do”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Like Dreamers Do”] And one by Lennon — “Hello Little Girl”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Hello Little Girl”] And they were Lennon/McCartney songs, even though they were written separately — the two agreed that they were going to split the credit on anything either of them wrote. The session didn’t go well — the group’s equipment wasn’t up to standard and they had to use studio amps, and they’re all audibly nervous — but Mike Smith was still fairly confident that they’d be releasing something through Decca — he just had to work out the details with his boss, Dick Rowe. Meanwhile, the group were making other changes. Brian suggested that they could get more money if they wore suits, and so they agreed — though they didn’t want just any suits, they wanted stylish mohair suits, like the black American groups they loved so much.  The Beatles were now a proper professional group — but unfortunately, Decca turned them down. Dick Rowe, Mike Smith’s boss, didn’t think that electric guitars were going to become a big thing — he was very tuned in to the American trends, and nothing with guitars was charting at the time. Smith was considering two groups — the Beatles, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, and wanted to sign both. Rowe told him that he could sign one, but only one, of them. The Tremeloes had been better in the studio, and they lived round the corner from Smith and were friendly with him. There was no contest — much as Smith wanted to sign both groups, the Tremeloes were the better prospect. Rowe did make an offer to Epstein: if Epstein would pay a hundred pounds (a *lot* of money in those days), Tony Meehan, formerly of the Shadows, would produce the group in another session, and Decca would release that. Brian wasn’t interested — if the Beatles were going to make a record, they were going to make it with people who they weren’t having to pay for the privilege. John, Paul, and George were devastated, but for their own reasons they didn’t bother to tell Pete they’d been turned down. But they did have a tape of themselves, at least — a professional-quality recording that they could use to attract other labels. And their career was going forward in other ways. The same day Brian had his second meeting with Decca, they had an audition with the BBC in Manchester, where they were accepted to perform on Teenager’s Turn, a radio programme hosted by the Northern Dance Orchestra. A few weeks later, on the seventh of March, they went to Manchester to record four songs in front of an audience, of which three would be broadcast: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Please Mr. Postman (Teenager’s Turn)”] That recording of John singing “Please Mr. Postman” is historic for another reason, which shows just how on the cutting edge of musical taste the Beatles actually were — it was the first time ever that a Motown song was played on the BBC. Now we get to the part of the story that, before Mark Lewisohn’s work in his book a few years back, had always been shrouded in mystery. What Lewisohn shows is that George Ma

This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode one hundred, is the hundredth-episode special and is an hour and a half long. It looks at the early career of the Beatles, and at the three recordings of "Love Me Do". 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 "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. 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/ ----more---- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. While there are many books on the Beatles, and I have read dozens of them, only one needs to be mentioned as a reference for this episode (others will be used for others). All These Years Vol 1: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn is simply the *only* book worth reading on the Beatles' career up to the end of 1962. It is the most detailed, most accurate, biography imaginable, and the gold standard by which all other biographies of musicians should be measured. I only wish volumes two and three were available already so I could not expect my future episodes on the Beatles to be obsolete when they do come out. There are two versions of the book -- a nine-hundred page mass-market version and a 1700-page expanded edition. I recommend the latter. The information in this podcast is almost all from Lewisohn's book, but I must emphasise that the opinions are mine, and so are any errors -- Lewisohn's book only has one error that I'm aware of (a joke attributed to the comedian Jasper Carrott in a footnote that has since been traced to an earlier radio show). I am only mortal, and so have doubtless misunderstood or oversimplified things and introduced errors where he had none.   The single version of "Love Me Do" can be found on Past Masters, a 2-CD compilation of the Beatles' non-album tracks that includes the majority of their singles and B-sides. The version with Andy White playing on can be found on Please Please Me. The version with Pete Best, and many of the other early tracks used here, is on Anthology 1.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Errata I pronounce the name of Lewisohn's book as "All Those Years" instead of "All These Years". I say " The Jets hadn't liked playing at Williams' club" at one point. I meant "at Koschmider's club"   Transcript   The Beatles came closer than most people realise to never making a record. Until the publication of Mark Lewisohn's seminal biography All These Years vol 1: Tune In, in 2013 everyone thought they knew the true story -- John met Paul at Woolton Village Fete in 1957, and Paul joined the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles. They played Hamburg and made a demo, and after the Beatles' demo was turned down by Decca, their manager Brian Epstein shopped it around every record label without success, until finally George Martin heard the potential in it and signed them to Parlophone, a label which was otherwise known for comedy records. Martin was, luckily, the one producer in the whole of the UK who could appreciate the Beatles' music, and he signed them up, and the rest was history. The problem is, as Lewisohn showed, that's not what happened. Today I'm going to tell, as best I can the story of how the Beatles actually became the band that they became, and how they got signed to EMI records. I'm going to tell you the story of "Love Me Do": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love Me Do (single version)"] As I mentioned at the beginning, this episode owes a *huge* debt to Mark Lewisohn's book. I like to acknowledge my sources, anyway, but I've actually had difficulty with this episode because Lewisohn's book is *so* detailed, *so* full, and written *so* well that much of the effort in writing this episode came from paring down the information, rather than finding more, and from reworking things so I was not just paraphrasing bits of his writing. Normally I rely on many sources, and integrate the material myself, but Lewisohn has done all that work far better than any other biographer of any other musician. Were the Beatles not such an important part of music history, I would just skip this episode because there is nothing for me to add. As it is, I *obviously* have to cover this, but I almost feel like I'm cheating in doing so. If you find this episode interesting at all, please do yourself a favour and buy that book.  This episode is going to be a long one -- much longer than normal. I won't know the precise length until after I've recorded and edited it, of course, but I'm guessing it's going to be about ninety minutes. This is the hundredth episode, the end of the second year of the podcast, the end of the second book based on the podcast, and the introduction of the single most important band in the whole story, so I'm going to stretch out a bit. I should also mention that there are a couple of discussions of sudden, traumatic, deaths in this episode. With all that said, settle in, this is going to take a while. Every British act we've looked at so far -- and many of those we're going to look at in the next year or two -- was based in London. Either they grew up there, or they moved there before their musical career really took off. The Beatles, during the time we're covering in this episode, were based in Liverpool. While they did eventually move to London, it wasn't until after they'd started having hits. And what listeners from outside the UK might not realise is what that means in terms of attitudes and perceptions. Liverpool is a large city -- it currently has a population of around half a million, and the wider Liverpool metropolitan area is closer to two million -- but like all British cities other than London, it was regarded largely as a joke in the British media, and so in return the people of Liverpool had a healthy contempt for London. To give Americans some idea of how London dominates in Britain, and thus how it's thought of outside London, imagine that New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles were all the same city -- that the financial, media, and political centres of the country were all the same place. Now further imagine that Silicon Valley and all the Ivy League universities were half an hour's drive from that city. Now, imagine how much worse the attitudes that that city would have about so-called "flyover states" would be, and imagine in return how people in large Midwestern cities like Detroit or Chicago would think about that big city.  In this analogy, Liverpool is Detroit, and like Detroit, it was very poor and had produced a few famous musicians, most notably Billy Fury, who was from an impoverished area of Liverpool called the Dingle: [Excerpt: Billy Fury, "Halfway to Paradise"] But Fury had, of course, moved to London to have his career. That's what you did. But in general, Liverpool, if people in London thought of it at all, was thought of as a provincial backwater full of poor people, many of them Irish, and all of them talking with a ridiculous accent. Liverpool was ignored by London, and that meant that things could develop there out of sight. The story of the Beatles starts in the 1950s, with two young men in their mid-teens. John Winston Lennon was born in 1940, and had had a rather troubled childhood. His father had been a merchant seaman who had been away in the war, and his parents' relationship had deteriorated for that and other reasons. As a result, Lennon had barely known his father, and when his mother met another man, Lennon's aunt, Mary Smith, who he always called Mimi, had taken him in, believing that his mother "living in sin" would be a bad influence on the young boy. The Smith family were the kind of lower middle class family that seemed extremely rich to the impoverished families in Liverpool, but were not well off by any absolute standard. Mimi, in particular, was torn between two very different urges. On one hand, she had strongly bohemian, artistic, urges -- as did all of her sisters. She was a voracious reader, and a lover of art history, and encouraged these tendencies in John. But at the same time, she was of that class which has a little status, but not much security, and so she was extremely wary of the need to appear respectable. This tension between respectability and rebellion was something that would appear in many of the people who Lennon later worked with, such as Brian Epstein and George Martin, and it was something that Lennon would always respond to -- those people would be the only ones who Lennon would ever view as authority figures he could respect, though he would also resent them at times. And it might be that combination of rebellion and respectability that Lennon saw in Paul McCartney. McCartney was from a family who, in the Byzantine world of the British class system of the time, were a notch or so lower than the Smith family who raised Lennon, but he was academically bright, and his family had big plans for him -- they thought that it might even be possible that he might become a teacher if he worked very hard at school. McCartney was a far less openly rebellious person than Lennon was, but he was still just as caught up in the music and fashions of the mid-fifties that his father associated with street gangs and hooliganism. Lennon, like many teenagers in Britain at the time, had had his life changed when he first heard Elvis Presley, and he had soon become a rock and roll obsessive -- Elvis was always his absolute favourite, but he also loved Little Richard, who he thought was almost as good, and he admired Buddy Holly, who had a special place in Lennon's heart as Holly wore glasses on stage, something that Lennon, who was extremely short-sighted, could never bring himself to do, but which at least showed him that it was a possibility. Lennon was, by his mid-teens, recreating a relationship with his mother, and one of the things they bonded over was music -- she taught him how to play the banjo, and together they worked out the chords to "That'll Be the Day", and Lennon later switched to the guitar, playing banjo chords on five of the six strings.  Like many, many, teenagers of the time, Lennon also formed a skiffle group, which he called the Quarrymen, after a line in his school song. The group tended to have a rotating lineup, but Lennon was the unquestioned leader. The group had a repertoire consisting of the same Lonnie Donegan songs that every other skiffle group was playing, plus any Elvis and Buddy Holly songs that could sound reasonable with a lineup of guitars, teachest bass, and washboard. The moment that changed the history of the music, though, came on July the sixth, 1957, when Ivan Vaughan, a friend of Lennon's, invited his friend Paul McCartney to go and see the Quarry Men perform at Woolton Village Fete. That day has gone down in history as "the day John met Paul", although Mark Lewisohn has since discovered that Lennon and McCartney had briefly met once before. It is, though, the day on which Lennon and McCartney first impressed each other musically. McCartney talks about being particularly impressed that the Quarry Men's lead singer was changing the lyrics to the songs he was performing, making up new words when he forgot the originals -- he says in particular that he remembers Lennon singing "Come Go With Me" by the Del-Vikings: [Excerpt: The Del-Vikings, "Come Go With Me"] McCartney remembers Lennon as changing the lyrics to "come go with me, right down to the penitentiary", and thinking that was clever. Astonishingly, some audio recording actually exists of the Quarry Men's second performance that day -- they did two sets, and this second one comes just after Lennon met McCartney rather than just before. The recording only seems to exist in a very fragmentary form, which has snatches of Lennon singing "Baby Let's Play House" and Lonnie Donegan's hit "Puttin' on the Style", which was number one on the charts at the time, but that even those fragments have survived, given how historic a day this was, is almost miraculous: [Excerpt: The Quarrymen, "Puttin' on the Style"] After the first set, Lennon met McCartney, who was nearly two years younger, but a more accomplished musician -- for a start, he knew how to tune the guitar with all six strings, and to proper guitar tuning, rather than tuning five strings like a banjo. Lennon and his friends were a little nonplussed by McCartney holding his guitar upside-down at first -- McCartney is left-handed -- but despite having an upside-down guitar with the wrong tuning, McCartney managed to bash out a version of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty-Flight Rock", a song he would often perform in later decades when reminding people of this story: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, "Twenty-Flight Rock"] This was impressive to Lennon for three reasons. The first was that McCartney was already a strong, confident performer -- he perhaps seemed a little more confident than he really was, showing off in front of the bigger boys like this. The second was that "Twenty-Flight Rock" was a moderately obscure song -- it hadn't charted, but it *had* appeared in The Girl Can't Help It, a film which every rock and roll lover in Britain had watched at the cinema over and over. Choosing that song rather than, say, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", was a way of announcing a kind of group affiliation -- "I am one of you, I am a real rock and roll fan, not just a casual listener to what's in the charts". I stress that second point because it's something that's very important in the history of the Beatles generally -- they were *music fans*, and often fans of relatively obscure records. That's something that bound Lennon and McCartney, and later the other members, together from the start, and something they always noted about other musicians. They weren't the kind of systematic scholars who track down rare pressings and memorise every session musician's name, but they were constantly drawn to find the best new music, and to seek it out wherever they could. But the most impressive thing for Lennon -- and one that seems a little calculated on McCartney's part, though he's never said that he thought about this that I'm aware of -- was that this was an extremely wordy song, and McCartney *knew all the words*. Remember that McCartney had noticed Lennon forgetting the words to a song with lyrics as simple as "come, come, come, come, come into my heart/Tell me darling we will never part", and here's McCartney singing this fast-paced, almost patter song, and getting the words right.  From the beginning, McCartney was showing how he could complement Lennon -- if Lennon could impress McCartney by improvising new lyrics when he forgot the old ones, then McCartney could impress Lennon by remembering the lyrics that Lennon couldn't -- and by writing them down for Lennon, sharing his knowledge freely. McCartney went on to show off more, and in particular impressed Lennon by going to a piano and showing off his Little Richard imitation. Little Richard was the only serious rival to Elvis in Lennon's affections, and McCartney could do a very decent imitation of him. This was someone special, clearly. But this put Lennon in a quandary. McCartney was clearly far, far, better than any of the Quarry Men -- at least Lennon's equal, and light years ahead of the rest of them. Lennon had a choice -- invite this young freak of nature into his band, and improve the band dramatically, but no longer be the unquestioned centre of the group, or remain in absolute control but not have someone in the group who *knew the words* and *knew how to tune a guitar*, and other such magical abilities that no mere mortals had. Those who only know of Lennon from his later reputation as a massive egoist would be surprised, but he decided fairly quickly that he had to make the group better at his own expense. He invited McCartney to join the group, and McCartney said yes. Over the next few months the membership of the Quarry Men changed. They'd been formed while they were all at Quarry Bank Grammar School, but that summer Lennon moved on to art school. I'm going to have to talk about the art school system, and the British education system of the fifties and early sixties a lot over the next few months, but here's an extremely abbreviated and inaccurate version that's good enough for now. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, people in Britain -- at least those without extremely rich parents, who had a different system -- went to two kinds of school depending on the result of an exam they took aged eleven, which was based on some since-discredited eugenic research about children's potential. If you passed the exam, you were considered academically apt, and went to a grammar school, which was designed to filter you through to university and the professions. If you failed the exam, you went to a secondary modern, which was designed to give you the skills to get a trade and make a living working with your hands. And for the most part, people followed the pipeline that was set up for them. You go to grammar school, go to university, become a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher. You go to secondary modern, leave school at fourteen, become a plumber or a builder or a factory worker. But there are always those people who don't properly fit into the neat categories that the world tries to put them in. And for people in their late teens and early twenties, people who'd been through the school system but not been shaped properly by it, there was another option at this time. If you were bright and creative, but weren't suited for university because you'd failed your exams, you could go to art school. The supposed purpose of the art schools was to teach people to do commercial art, and they would learn skills like lettering and basic draughtsmanship. But what the art schools really did was give creative people space to explore ideas, to find out about areas of art and culture that would otherwise have been closed to them. Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Ian Dury, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Syd Barrett, and many more people we'll be seeing over the course of this story went to art school, and as David Bowie would put it later, the joke at the time was that you went to art school to learn to play blues guitar. With Lennon and his friends all moving on from the school that had drawn them together, the group stabilised for a time on a lineup of Lennon, McCartney, Colin Hanton, Len Garry, and Eric Griffiths. But the first time this version of the group played live, while McCartney sang well, he totally fluffed his lead guitar lines on stage. While there were three guitarists in the band at this point, they needed someone who could play lead fluently and confidently on stage. Enter George Harrison, who had suddenly become a close friend of McCartney. Harrison went to the same school as McCartney -- a grammar school called the Liverpool Institute, but was in the year below McCartney, and so the two had always been a bit distant. However, at the same time as Lennon was moving on to art school after failing his exams, McCartney was being kept back a year for failing Latin -- which his father always thought was deliberate, so he wouldn't have to go to university. Now he was in the same year at school as Harrison, and they started hanging out together. The two bonded strongly over music, and would do things like take a bus journey to another part of town, where someone lived who they heard owned a copy of "Searchin'" by the Coasters: [Excerpt: The Coasters, "Searchin'"] The two knocked on this stranger's door, asked if he'd play them this prized record, and he agreed -- and then they stole it from him as they left his house. Another time they took the bus to another part of town again, because they'd heard that someone in that part of town knew how to play a B7 chord on his guitar, and sat there as he showed them. So now the Quarrymen needed a lead guitarist, McCartney volunteered his young mate. There are a couple of stories about how Harrison came to join the band -- apparently he auditioned for Lennon at least twice, because Lennon was very unsure about having such a young kid in his band -- but the story I like best is that Harrison took his guitar to a Quarry Men gig at Wilson Hall -- he'd apparently often take his guitar to gigs and just see if he could sit in with the bands. On the bill with the Quarry Men was another group, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, who were generally regarded as the best skiffle band in Liverpool. Lennon told Harrison that he could join the band if he could play as well as Clayton, and Harrison took out his guitar and played "Raunchy": [Excerpt: Bill Justis, "Raunchy"] I like this story rather than the other story that the members would tell later -- that Harrison played "Raunchy" on a bus for Lennon -- for one reason. The drummer in the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group was one Richy Starkey, and if it happened that way, the day that George joined the Quarry Men was also the day that John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all in the same place for the first time. George looked up to John and essentially idolised him, though Lennon thought of him as a little annoying at times -- he'd follow John everywhere, and not take a hint when he wasn't wanted sometimes, just eager to be with his big cool new mate. But despite this tiny bit of tension, John, Paul, and George quickly became a solid unit -- helped by the fact that the school that Paul and George went to was part of the same complex of buildings as Lennon's art college, so they'd all get the bus there and back together.  George was not only younger, he was a notch or two further down the social class ladder than John or Paul, and he spoke more slowly, which made him seem less intelligent. He came from Speke, which was a rougher area, and he would dress even more like a juvenile delinquent than the others. Meanwhile, Len Garry and Eric Griffiths left the group -- Len Garry because he became ill and had to spend time in hospital, and anyway they didn't really need a teachest bass. What they did need was an electric bass, and since they had four guitars now they tried to persuade Eric to get one, but he didn't want to pay that much money, and he was always a little on the outside of the main three members, as he didn't share their sense of humour. So the group got Nigel Walley, who was acting as the group's manager, to fire him. The group was now John, Paul, and George all on guitars, and Colin Hanton on drums. Sometimes, if they played a venue that had a piano, they'd also bring along a schoolfriend of Paul's, John "Duff" Lowe, to play piano. Meanwhile, the group were growing in other ways. Both John and Paul had started writing songs, together and apart. McCartney seems to have been the first, writing a song called "I Lost My Little Girl" which he would eventually record more than thirty years later: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, "I Lost My Little Girl"] Lennon's first song likewise sang about a little girl, this time being "Hello, Little Girl". By the middle of 1958, this five-piece group was ready to cut their first record -- at a local studio that would cut a single copy of a disc for you. They went into this studio at some time around July 1958, and recorded two songs. The first was their version of "That'll Be the Day": [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "That'll be the Day"] The B-side was a song that McCartney had written, with a guitar solo that George had come up with, so the label credit read "McCartney/Harrison". "In Spite of All the Danger" seems to have been inspired by Elvis' "Trying to Get to You": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Trying to Get to You"] It's a rough song, but a good attempt for a teenager who had only just started writing songs: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "In Spite of All the Danger"] Apparently Lowe and Hanton hadn't heard the song before they started playing, but they make a decent enough fist of it in the circumstances. Lennon took the lead even though it was McCartney's song -- he said later "I was such a bully in those days I didn’t even let Paul sing his own song." That was about the last time that this lineup of Quarry Men played together. In July, the month that seems likely for the recording, Lowe finished at the Liverpool Institute, and so he drifted away from McCartney and Harrison. Meanwhile Hanton had a huge row with the others after a show, and they fell out and never spoke again. The Quarry Men were reduced to a trio of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. But -- possibly the very day after that recording if an unreliable plaque at the studio where they recorded it is to be believed -- something happened which was to have far more impact on the group than the drummer leaving. John Lennon's mother, with whom he'd slowly been repairing his relationship, had called round to visit Mimi. She left the house, and bumped into Nigel Walley, who was calling round to see John. She told him he wasn't there, and that he could walk with her to the bus stop. They walked a little while, then went off in different directions. Walley heard a thump and turned round -- Julia Lennon had been hit by a car and killed instantly. As you can imagine, John's mother dying caused him a huge amount of distress, but it also gave him a bond with McCartney, whose own mother had died of cancer shortly before they met. Neither really spoke about it to each other, and to the extent they did it was with ultra-cynical humour -- but the two now shared something deeper than just the music, even though the music itself was deep enough. Lennon became a much harder, nastier, person after this, at least for a time, his natural wit taking on a dark edge, and he would often drink too much and get aggressive. But life still went on, and John, Paul, and George kept trying to perform -- though the gigs dried up, and they didn't have a drummer any more. They'd just say "the rhythm's in the guitars" when asked why they didn't have one. They were also no longer the Quarry Men -- they didn't have a name. At one point late in the year, they also only had two guitars between the three of them -- Lennon seems to have smashed his in a fit of fury after his mother's death. But he stole one backstage at a talent contest, and soon they were back to having three. That talent show was one run by Carroll Levis, who we talked about before in the episode on "Shakin' All Over". The three boys went on Levis' show, this time performing as Johnny & The Moondogs --  in Manchester, at the Hippodrome in Ancoats, singing Buddy Holly's "Think it Over": [Excerpt: The Crickets, "Think it Over"] Lennon sang lead with his arms draped over the shoulders of Paul and George, who sang backing vocals and played guitar. They apparently did quite well, but had to leave before the show finished to get the last train back to Liverpool, and so never found out whether the audience would have made them the winner, with the possibility of a TV appearance. They did well enough, though, to impress a couple of other young lads on the bill, two Manchester singers named Allan Clarke and Graham Nash. But in general, the Japage Three, a portmanteau of their names that they settled on as their most usual group name at this point, played very little in 1959 -- indeed, George spent much of the early part of the year moonlighting in the Les Stewart Quartet, another group, though he still thought of Lennon and McCartney as his musical soulmates; the Les Stewart Quartet were just a gig.  The three of them would spend much of their time at the Jacaranda, a coffee bar opened by a Liverpool entrepreneur, Allan Williams, in imitation of the 2is, which was owned by a friend of his. Lennon was also spending a lot of time with an older student at his art school, Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the few people in the world that Lennon himself looked up to. The Les Stewart Quartet would end up indirectly being key to the Beatles' development, because after one of their shows at a local youth club they were approached by a woman named Mona Best. Mona's son Pete liked to go to the youth club, but she was fairly protective of him, and also wanted him to have more friends -- he was a quiet boy who didn't make friends easily. So she'd hit upon a plan -- she'd open her own club in her cellar, since the Best family were rich enough to have a big house. If there was a club *in Pete's house* he'd definitely make lots of friends. They needed a band, and she asked the Les Stewart Quartet if they'd like to be the resident band at this new club, the Casbah, and also if they'd like to help decorate it.  They said yes, but then Paul and George went on a hitch-hiking holiday around Wales for a few days, and George didn't get back in time to play a gig the quartet had booked. Ken Brown, the other guitarist, didn't turn up either, and Les Stewart got into a rage and split the group. Suddenly, the Casbah had no group -- George and Ken were willing to play, but neither was a lead singer -- and no decorators either. So George roped in John and Paul, who helped decorate the place, and with the addition of Ken Brown, the group returned to the Quarry Men name for their regular Saturday night gig at the Casbah. The group had no bass player or drummer, and they all kept pestering everyone they knew to get a bass or a drum kit, but nobody would bite. But then Stuart Sutcliffe got half a painting in an exhibition put on by John Moores, the millionaire owner of Littlewoods, who was a big patron of the arts in Liverpool. I say he got half a painting in the exhibition, because the painting was done on two large boards -- Stuart and his friends took the first half of the painting down to the gallery, went back to get the other half, and got distracted by the pub and never brought it. But Moores was impressed enough with the abstract painting that he bought it at the end of the exhibition's run, for ninety pounds -- about two thousand pounds in today's money. And so Stuart's friends gave him a choice -- he could either buy a bass or a drum kit, either would be fine. He chose the bass. But the same week that Stuart joined, Ken Brown was out, and they lost their gig at the Casbah. John, Paul, George and Ken had turned up one Saturday, and Ken hadn't felt well, so instead of performing he just worked on the door. At the end of the show, Mona Best insisted on giving Ken an equal share of the money, as agreed. John, Paul, and George wouldn't stand for that, and so Ken was out of the group, and they were no longer playing for Mona Best. Stuart joining the group caused tensions -- George was fine with him, thinking that a bass player who didn't yet know how to play was better than no bass player at all, but Paul was much less keen. Partly this was because he thought the group needed to get better, which would be hard with someone who couldn't play, but also he was getting jealous of Sutcliffe's closeness to Lennon, especially when the two became flatmates. But John wanted him in the group, and what John wanted, he got. There are recordings of the group around this time that circulate -- only one has been released officially, a McCartney instrumental called "Cayenne", but the others are out there if you look: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "Cayenne"] The gigs had dried up again, but they did have one new advantage -- they now had a name they actually liked. John and Stuart had come up with it, inspired by Buddy Holly's Crickets. They were going to be Beatles, with an a. Shortly after the Beatles' first appearance under that name, at the art school student union, came the Liverpool gig which was to have had Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent headlining, before Cochran died. A lot of Liverpool groups were booked to play on the bill there, but not the Beatles -- though Richy Starkey was going to play the gig, with his latest group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Allan Williams, the local promoter, added extra groups to fill out the bill, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, and suddenly everyone who loved rock and roll in Liverpool realised that there were others out there like them. Overnight, a scene had been born. And where there's a scene, there's money to be made. Larry Parnes, who had been the national promoter of the tour, was at the show and realised that there were a lot of quite proficient musicians in Liverpool. And it so happened that he needed backing bands for three of his artists who were going on tour, separately -- two minor stars, Duffy Power and Johnny Gentle, and one big star, Billy Fury. And both Gentle and Fury were from Liverpool themselves. So Parnes asked Allan Williams to set up auditions with some of the local groups. Williams invited several groups, and one he asked along was the Beatles, largely because Lennon and Sutcliffe begged him. He also found them a drummer, Tommy Moore, who was a decade older than the rest of them -- though Moore didn't turn up to the audition because he had to work, and so Johnny "Hutch" Hutchinson of Cass and the Cassanovas sat in with them, much to Hutch's disgust -- he hated the Beatles, and especially Lennon.  Cass of the Cassanovas also insisted that "the Beatles" was a stupid name, and that the group needed to be Something and the Somethings, and he suggested Long John and the Silver Beatles, and that stuck for a couple of shows before they reverted to their proper name. The Beatles weren't chosen for any of the main tours that were being booked, but then Parnes phoned Williams up -- there were some extra dates on the Johnny Gentle tour that he hadn't yet booked a group for. Could Williams find him a band who could be in Scotland that Friday night for a nine-day tour? Williams tried Cass and the Cassanovas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, but none of them could go on tour at such short notice. They all had gigs booked, or day jobs they had to book time off with. The Beatles had no gigs booked, and only George had a day job, and he didn't mind just quitting that. They were off to Scotland. They were so inspired by being on tour with a Larry Parnes artist that most of them took on new names just like those big stars -- George became Carl Harrison, after Carl Perkins, Stuart became Stuart de Staël, after his favourite painter, and Paul became Paul Ramon, which he thought sounded mysterious and French. There's some question about whether John took on a new name -- some sources have him becoming "Long John", while others say he was "Johnny" Lennon rather than John. Tommy Moore, meanwhile, was just Thomas Moore. It was on this tour, of course, that Lennon helped Johnny Gentle write "I've Just Fallen For Someone", which we talked about last week: [Excerpt: Darren Young, "I've Just Fallen For Someone"] The tour was apparently fairly miserable, with horrible accommodation, poor musicianship from the group, and everyone getting on everyone's nerves -- George and Stuart got into fistfights, John bullied Stuart a bit because of his poor playing, and John particularly didn't get on well with Moore -- a man who was a decade older, didn't share their taste in music, and worked in a factory rather than having the intellectual aspirations of the group. The two hated each other by the end of the tour. But the tour did also give the group the experience of signing autographs, and of feeling like stars in at least a minor way. When they got back to Liverpool, George moved in with John and Stuart, to get away from his mum telling him to get a proper job, and they got a few more bookings thanks to Williams, but they soon became drummerless -- they turned up to a gig one time to find that Tommy Moore wasn't there. They went round to his house, and his wife shouted from an upstairs window, "Yez can piss off, he's had enough of yez and gone back to work at the bottle factory". The now four-piece group carried on, however, and recordings exist of them in this period, sounding much more professional than only a few months before, including performances of some of their own songs. The most entertaining of these is probably "You'll Be Mine", an Ink Spots parody with some absurd wordplay from Lennon: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "You'll Be Mine"] Soon enough the group found another drummer, Norm Chapman, and carried on as before, getting regular bookings thanks to Williams. There was soon a temporary guest at the flat John, Stuart, and George shared with several other people -- Royston Ellis, the Beat poet and friend of the Shadows, had turned up in Liverpool and latched on to the group, partly because he fancied George. He performed with them a couple of times, crashed at the flat, and provided them with two formative experiences -- he gave them their first national press, talking in Record and Show Mirror about how he wanted them to be his full-time group, and he gave them their first drug experience, showing them how to get amphetamines out of inhalers. While the group's first national press was positive, there was soon some very negative press indeed associated with them. A tabloid newspaper wanted to do a smear story about the dangerous Beatnik menace. The article talked about how "they revel in filth", and how beatniks were "a dangerous menace to our young people… a corrupting influence of drug addicts and peddlers, degenerates who specialise in obscene orgies". And for some reason -- it's never been made clear exactly how -- the beatnik "pad" they chose to photograph for this story was the one that John, Stuart, and George lived in, though they weren't there at the time -- several of their friends and associates are in the pictures though. They were all kicked out of their flat, and moved back in with their families, and around this time they lost Chapman from the group too -- he was called up to do his National Service, one of the last people to be conscripted before conscription ended for good. They were back to a four-piece again, and for a while Paul was drumming. But then, as seems to have happened so often with this group, a bizarre coincidence happened. A while earlier, Allan Williams had travelled to Hamburg, with the idea of trying to get Liverpool groups booked there. He'd met up with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of a club called the Kaiserkeller. Koschmider had liked the idea, but nothing had come of it, partly because neither could speak the other's language well. A little while later, Koschmider had remembered the idea and come over to the UK to find musicians. He didn't remember where Williams was from, so of course he went to London, to the 2is, and there he found a group of musicians including Tony Sheridan, who we talked about back in the episode on "Brand New Cadillac", the man who'd been Vince Taylor's lead guitarist and had a minor solo career: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan, "Why?"] Sheridan was one of the most impressive musicians in Britain, but he also wanted to skip the country -- he'd just bought a guitar on credit in someone else's name, and he also had a wife and six-month-old baby he wanted rid of. He eagerly went off with Koschmider, and a scratch group called the Jets soon took up residence at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Derry and the Seniors were annoyed. Larry Parnes had booked them for a tour, but then he'd got annoyed at the unprofessionalism of the Liverpool bands he was booking and cancelled the booking, severing his relationship with Williams. The Seniors wanted to know what Williams was going to do about it.  There was no way to get them enough gigs in Liverpool, so Williams, being a thoroughly decent man who had a sense of obligation, offered to drive the group down to London to see if they could get work there. He took them to the 2is, and they were allowed to get up and play there, since Williams was a friend of the owner. And Bruno Koschmider was there. The Jets hadn't liked playing at Williams' club, and they'd scarpered to another one with better working conditions, which they helped get off the ground and renamed the Top Ten, after Vince Taylor's club in London. So Bruno had come back to find another group, and there in the same club at the same time was the man who'd given him the idea in the first place, with a group. Koschmider immediately signed up Derry and the Seniors to play at the Kaiserkeller.  Meanwhile, the best gig the Beatles could get, also through Williams, was backing a stripper, where they played whatever instrumentals they knew, no matter how inappropriate, things like the theme from The Third Man: [Excerpt: Anton Karas, "Theme from The Third Man"] A tune guaranteed to get the audience into a sexy mood, I'm sure you'll agree. But then Allan Williams got a call from Koschmider. Derry and the Seniors were doing great business, and he'd decided to convert another of his clubs to be a rock and roll club. Could Williams have a group for him by next Friday? Oh, and it needed to be five people. Williams tried Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They were busy. He tried Cass and the Cassanovas. They were busy. He tried Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were busy. Finally, he tried the Beatles. They weren't busy, and said yes they could go to Hamburg that week. There were a few minor issues, like there not being five of them, none of them having passports, and them not having a drummer. The passports could be sorted quickly -- there's a passport office in Liverpool -- but the lack of a fifth Beatle was more of a problem. In desperation, they turned eventually to Pete Best, Mrs. Best's son, because they knew he had a drum kit. He agreed.  Allan Williams drove the group to Hamburg, and they started playing six-hour sets every night at the Indra, not finishing til three in the morning, at which point they'd make their way to their lodgings -- the back of a filthy cinema.  By this time, the Beatles had already got good -- Howie Casey, of Derry and the Seniors, who'd remembered the Beatles as being awful at the Johnny Gentle audition, came over to see them and make fun of them, but found that they were far better than they had been. But playing six hours a night got them *very* good *very* quickly -- especially as they decided that they weren't going to play the same song twice in a night, meaning they soon built up a vast repertoire. But right from the start, there was a disconnect between Pete Best and the other four -- they socialised together, and he went off on his own. He was also a weak player -- he was only just starting to learn -- and so the rest of the group would stamp their feet to keep him in time. That, though, also gave them a bit more of a stage act than they might otherwise have had. There are lots of legendary stories about the group's time in Hamburg, and it's impossible to sort fact from fiction, and the bits we can sort out would get this podcast categorised as adult content, but they were teenagers, away from home for a long period for the first time, living in a squalid back room in the red light district of a city with a reputation for vice. I'm sure whatever you imagine is probably about right. After a relatively short time, they were moved from the Indra, which had to stop putting on rock and roll shows, to the Kaiserkeller, where they shared the bill with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, up to that point considered Liverpool's best band. There's a live recording of the Hurricanes from 1960, which shows that they were certainly powerful: [Excerpt: Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, "Brand New Cadillac"] That recording doesn't have the Hurricanes' normal drummer on, who was sick for that show. But compared to what the Beatles had become -- a stomping powerhouse with John Lennon, whose sense of humour was both cruel and pointed, doing everything he could to get a rise out of the audience -- they were left in the dust. A letter home that George Harrison wrote sums it up -- "Rory Storm & the Hurricanes came out here the other week, and they are crumby. He does a bit of dancing around but it still doesn’t make up for his phoney group. The only person who is any good in the group is the drummer." That drummer was Richy Starkey from the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, now performing as Ringo Starr. They struck up a friendship, and even performed together at least once -- John, Paul, George, and Ringo acting as the backing group for Lu Walters of the Hurricanes on a demo, which is frustratingly missing and hasn't been heard since. They were making other friends, too. There was Tony Sheridan, who they'd seen on TV, but who would now sometimes jam with them as equals. And there was a trio of arty bohemian types who had stumbled across the club, where they were very out of place -- Astrid Kirscherr, Klaus Voormann, and Jurgen Vollmer. They all latched on to the Beatles, and especially to Stuart, who soon started dating Astrid, despite her speaking no English and him speaking no German. But relations between Koschmider and the Beatles had worsened, and he reported to the police that George, at only seventeen, was under-age. George got deported. The rest of the group decided to move over to the Top Ten Club, and as a parting gift, Paul and Pete nailed some condoms to their bedroom wall and set fire to them. Koschmider decided to report this to the police as attempted arson, and those two were deported as well. John followed a week later, while Stuart stayed in Hamburg for a while, to spend more time with Astrid, who he planned to marry. The other four regrouped, getting in a friend, Chas Newby, as a temporary bass player while Stuart was away. And on the twenty-seventh of December, 1960, when they played Litherland Town Hall, they changed the Liverpool music scene. They were like nothing anyone had ever seen, and the audience didn't dance -- they just rushed to the stage, to be as close to the performance as possible. The Beatles had become the best band in Liverpool. Mark Lewisohn goes further, and suggests that the three months of long nights playing different songs in Hamburg had turned them into the single most experienced rock band *in the world* -- which seems vanishingly unlikely to me, but Lewisohn is not a man given to exaggeration. By this time, Mona Best had largely taken over the group's bookings, and there were a lot of them, as well as a regular spot at the Casbah. Neil Aspinall, a friend of Pete's, started driving them to gigs, while they also had a regular MC, Bob Wooler, who ran many local gigs, and who gave the Beatles their own theme music -- he'd introduce them with the fanfare from Rossini's William Tell Overture: [Excerpt: Rossini, "William Tell Overture"] Stuart came over from Hamburg in early January, and once again the Beatles were a five-piece -- and by now, he could play quite well, well enough, at any rate, that it didn't destroy the momentum the group had gathered. The group were getting more and more bookings, including the venue that would become synonymous with them, the Cavern, a tiny little warehouse cellar that had started as a jazz club, and that the Quarry Men had played once a couple of years earlier, but had been banned from for playing too much rock and roll. Now, the Beatles were getting bookings at the Cavern's lunchtime sessions, and that meant more than it seemed. Most of the gigs they played otherwise were on the outskirts of the city, but the Cavern was in the city centre. And that meant that for the lunchtime sessions, commuters from outside the city were coming to see them -- which meant that the group got fans from anywhere within commuting distance, fans who wanted them to play in their towns. Meanwhile, the group were branching out musically -- they were particularly becoming fascinated by the new R&B, soul, and girl-group records that were coming out in the US. After already having loved "Money" by Barrett Strong, John was also obsessed with the Miracles, and would soon become a fervent fan of anything Motown, and the group were all big fans of the Shirelles. As they weren't playing original material live, and as every group would soon learn every other group's best songs, there was an arms race on to find the most exciting songs to cover. As well as Elvis and Buddy and Eddie, they were now covering the Shirelles and Ray Charles and Gary US Bonds. The group returned to Hamburg in April, Paul and Pete's immigration status having been resolved and George now having turned eighteen, and started playing at the Top Ten club, where they played even longer sets, and more of them, than they had at the Kaiserkeller and the Indra. Tony Sheridan started regularly joining them on stage at this time, and Paul switched to piano while Sheridan added the third guitar. This was also when they started using Preludin, a stimulant related to amphetamines which was prescribed as a diet drug -- Paul would take one pill a night, George a couple, and John would gobble them down. But Pete didn't take them -- one more way in which he was different from the others -- and he started having occasional micro-sleeps in the middle of songs as the long nights got to him, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group. But despite Pete's less than stellar playing they were good enough that Sheridan -- the single most experienced musician in the British rock and roll scene -- described them as the best R&B band he'd ever heard. Once they were there, they severed their relationship with Allan Williams, refusing to pay him his share of the money, and just cutting him out of their careers.  Meanwhile, Stuart was starting to get ill. He was having headaches all the time, and had to miss shows on occasion. He was also the only Beatle with a passion for anything else, and he managed to get a scholarship to study art with the famous sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who was now working in Hamburg. Paul subbed for Stuart on bass, and eventually Stuart left the group, though on good terms with everyone other than Paul. So it was John, Paul, George and Pete who ended up making the Beatles' first records. Bert Kaempfert, the most important man in the German music industry, had been to see them all at the Top Ten and liked what he saw. Outside Germany, Kaempfert was probably best known for co-writing Elvis' "Wooden Heart", which the Beatles had in their sets at this time: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Wooden Heart"] Kaempfert had signed Tony Sheridan to a contract, and he wanted the Beatles to back him in the studio -- and he was also interested in recording a couple of tracks with them on their own. The group eagerly agreed, and their first session started at eight in the morning on the twenty-second of June 1961, after they had finished playing all night at the club, and all of them but Pete were on Preludin for the session. Stuart came along for moral support, but didn't play. Pete was a problem, though. He wasn't keeping time properly, and Kaempfert eventually insisted on removing his bass drum and toms, leaving only a snare, hi-hat, and ride cymbal for Pete to play. They recorded seven songs at that session in total. Two of them were just by the Beatles. One was a version of "Ain't She Sweet", an old standard which Gene Vincent had recorded fairly recently, but the other was the only track ever credited to Lennon and Harrison as cowriters. On their first trip to Hamburg, they'd wanted to learn "Man of Mystery" by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Man of Mystery"] But there was a slight problem in that they didn't have a copy of the record, and had never heard it -- it came out in the UK while they were in Germany. So they asked Rory Storm to hum it for them. He hummed a few notes, and Lennon and Harrison wrote a parody of what Storm had sung, which they named "Beatle Bop" but by this point they'd renamed "Cry For a Shadow": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Cry For a Shadow"] The other five songs at the session were given over to Tony Sheridan, with the Beatles backing him, and the song that Kaempfert was most interested in recording was one the group had been performing on stage -- a rocked-up version of the old folk song "My Bonnie": [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "My Bonnie"] That was the record chosen as the single, but it was released not as by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, but by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers -- "Beatles", to German ears, sounded a little like "piedels", a childish slang term for penises. The Beatles had made their first record, but it wasn't one they thought much of. They knew they could do better. The next week, the now four-piece Beatles returned to Liverpool, with much crying at Stuart staying behind -- even Paul, now Stuart was no longer a threat for John's attention, was contrite and tried to make amends to him.  On their return to Liverpool, they picked up where they had left off, playing almost every night, and spending the days trying to find new records -- often listening to the latest releases at NEMS, a department store with an extensive record selection. Brian Epstein, the shop's manager, prided himself on being able to get any record a customer wanted, and whenever anyone requested anything he'd buy a second copy for the shelves. As a result, you could find records there that you wouldn't get anywhere else in Liverpool, and the Beatles were soon adding more songs by the Shirelles and Gary US Bonds to their sets, as well as more songs by the Coasters and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me". They were playing gigs further afield, and Neil Aspinall was now driving them everywhere. Aspinall was Pete Best's closest friend -- and was having an affair with Pete's mother -- but unlike Pete himself he also became close to the other Beatles, and would remain so for the rest of his life.  By this point, the group were so obviously the best band on the Liverpool scene that they were starting to get bored -- there was no competition. And by this point it really was a proper scene -- John's old art school friend Bill Harry had started up a magazine, Mersey Beat, which may be the first magazine anywhere in the world to focus on one area's local music scene. Brian Epstein from NEMS had a column, as did Bob Wooler, and often John's humorous writing would appear as well. The Beatles were featured in most issues -- although Paul McCartney's name was misspelled almost every time it appeared -- and not just because Lennon and Harry were friends. By this point there were the Beatles, and there were all the other groups in the area. For several months this continued -- they learned new songs, they played almost every day, and they continued to be the best. They started to find it boring. The one big change that came at this point was when John and Paul went on holiday to Paris, saw Vince Taylor, bumped into their friend Jurgen from Hamburg, and got Jurgen to do their hair like his -- the story we told in the episode on "Brand New Cadillac". They now had the Beatles haircut, though they were still wearing leather. When they got back, George copied their new style straight away, but Pete decided to leave his hair in a quiff. There was nowhere else to go without a manager to look after them. They needed management -- and they found it because of "My Bonnie": [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "My Bonnie"] "My Bonnie" was far from a great record, but it was what led to everything that followed. The Beatles had mentioned from the stage at the Cavern that they had a record out, and a young man named Raymond Jones walked into NEMS and asked for a copy of it. Brian Epstein couldn't find it in the record company catalogues, and asked Jones for more information -- Jones explained that they were a Liverpool group, but the record had come out in Germany. A couple of days later, two young girls came into the shop asking for the same record, and now Epstein was properly intrigued -- in his view, if *two* people asked for a record, that probably meant a lot more than just two people wanted it. He decided to check these Beatles out for himself. Epstein was instantly struck by the group, and this has led to a lot of speculation over the years, because his tastes ran more to Sibelius than to Little Richard. As Epstein was also gay, many people have assumed that the attraction was purely physical. And it might well have been, at least in part, but the suggestion that everything that followed was just because of that seems unlikely -- Epstein was also someone who had a long interest in the arts, and had trained as an actor at RADA, the most prestigious actors' college in the UK, before taking up his job at the family store. Given that the Beatles were soon to become the most popular musicians in the history of the world, and were already the most popular musicians in the Liverpool area, the most reasonable assumption must be that Epstein was impressed by the same things that impressed roughly a billion other people over the next sixty years. Epstein started going to the Cavern regularly, to watch the Beatles and to make plans -- the immaculately dressed, public-school-educated, older rich man stood out among the crowd, and the Beatles already knew his face from his record shop, and so they knew something was going on. By late November, Brian had managed to obtain a box of twenty-five copies of "My Bonnie", and they'd sold out within hours. He set up a meeting with the Beatles, and even before he got them signed to a management contract he was using his contacts with the record industry in London to push the Beatles at record companies. Those companies listened to Brian, because NEMS was one of their biggest customers. December 1961, the month they signed with Brian Epstein, was also the month that they finally started including Lennon/McCartney songs in their sets.  And within a couple of weeks of becoming their manager, even before he'd signed them to a contract, Brian had managed to persuade Mike Smith, an A&R man from Decca, to come to the Cavern to see the group in person. He was impressed, and booked them in for a studio session. December 61 was also the first time that John, Paul, George, and Ringo played together in that lineup, without any other musicians, when on the twenty-seventh of December Pete called in sick for a show, and the others got in their friend to cover for him. It wouldn't be the last time they would play together. On New Year's Day 1962, the Beatles made the trek down to London to record fifteen songs at the Decca studios. The session was intended for two purposes -- to see if they sounded as good on tape as they did in the Cavern, and if they did to produce their first single. Those recordings included the core of their Cavern repertoire, songs like "Money": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Money (Decca version)"] They also recorded three Lennon/McCartney songs, two by Paul -- "Love of the Loved" and "Like Dreamers Do": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Like Dreamers Do"] And one by Lennon -- "Hello Little Girl": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Little Girl"] And they were Lennon/McCartney songs, even though they were written separately -- the two agreed that they were going to split the credit on anything either of them wrote. The session didn't go well -- the group's equipment wasn't up to standard and they had to use studio amps, and they're all audibly nervous -- but Mike Smith was still fairly confident that they'd be releasing something through Decca -- he just had to work out the details with his boss, Dick Rowe. Meanwhile, the group were making other changes. Brian suggested that they could get more money if they wore suits, and so they agreed -- though they didn't want just any suits, they wanted stylish mohair suits, like the black American groups they loved so much.  The Beatles were now a proper professional group -- but unfortunately, Decca turned them down. Dick Rowe, Mike Smith's boss, didn't think that electric guitars were going to become a big thing -- he was very tuned in to the American trends, and nothing with guitars was charting at the time. Smith was considering two groups -- the Beatles, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, and wanted to sign both. Rowe told him that he could sign one, but only one, of them. The Tremeloes had been better in the studio, and they lived round the corner from Smith and were friendly with him. There was no contest -- much as Smith wanted to sign both groups, the Tremeloes were the better prospect. Rowe did make an offer to Epstein: if Epstein would pay a hundred pounds (a *lot* of money in those days), Tony Meehan, formerly of the Shadows, would produce the group in another session, and Decca would release that. Brian wasn't interested -- if the Beatles were going to make a record, they were going to make it with people who they weren't having to pay for the privilege. John, Paul, and George were devastated, but for their own reasons they didn't bother to tell Pete they'd been turned down. But they did have a tape of themselves, at least -- a professional-quality recording that they could use to attract other labels. And their career was going forward in other ways. The same day Brian had his second meeting with Decca, they had an audition with the BBC in Manchester, where they were accepted to perform on Teenager's Turn, a radio programme hosted by the Northern Dance Orchestra. A few weeks later, on the seventh of March, they went to Manchester to record four songs in front of an audience, of which three would be broadcast: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Please Mr. Postman (Teenager's Turn)"] That recording of John singing "Please Mr. Postman" is historic for another reason, which shows just how on the cutting edge of musical taste the Beatles actually were -- it was the first time ever that a Motown song was played on the BBC. Now we get to the part of the story that, before Mark Lewisohn's work in his book a few years back, had always been shrouded in mystery. What Lewisohn shows is that George Martin was in fact forced to sign the Beatles, against his will, and that this may have been as a punishment. The Beatles had already been turned down by Parlophone once, based on "My Bonnie", when Brian Epstein walked into the HMV store on Oxford Street in London in mid-February. HMV is now mostly known as a retail chain, Britain's biggest chain of physical media stores, but at the time it was owned by EMI, and was associated with their label of the same name -- HMV stood for "His Master's Voice", and its logo was the same one as America's RCA, with whom it had a mutual distribution deal for many years. As a record retailer, Epstein naturally had a professional interest in other record shops, and he had a friend at HMV, who suggested to him that they could use a disc-cutting machine that the shop had to turn his copy of the Decca tapes into acetate discs, which would be much more convenient for taking round and playing to record labels. That disc-cutter was actually in a studio that musicians used for making records for themselves, much as the Quarry Men had years earlier -- it was in fact the studio where Cliff Richard had cut *his* first private demo, the one he'd used to get signed to EMI.  Jim Foy, the man who worked the lathe cutter, liked what he heard, and he talked with Brian about the group. Brian mentioned that some of the songs were originals, and Foy told him that EMI also owned a publishing company, Ardmore & Beechwood, and the office was upstairs -- would Brian like to meet with them to discuss publishing? Brian said he would like that. Ardmore & Beechwood wanted the original songs on the demo. They were convinced that Lennon and McCartney had potential as songwriters, and that songs like "Like Dreamers Do" could become hits in the right hands. And Brian Epstein agreed with them -- but he also knew that the Beatles had no interest in becoming professional songwriters. They wanted to make records, not write songs for other people to record.  Brian took his new discs round to George Martin at EMI -- who wasn't very impressed, and basically said "Don't call us, we'll call you". Brian went back to Liverpool, and got on with the rest of the group's career, including setting up another Hamburg residency for them, this time at a new club called the Star Club. That Star Club residency, in April, would be devastating for the group -- on Tuesday the tenth of April, the same day John, Paul, and Pete got to Hamburg (George was ill and flew over the next day), Stuart Sutcliffe, who'd been having headaches and feeling ill for months, collapsed and died, aged only twenty-one. The group found out the next day -- they got to the airport to meet George, and bumped into Klaus and Astrid, who were there to meet Stuart's mother from the same flight. They asked where Stuart was, and heard the news from Astrid.  John basically went

Kelvin shares loads of stories about playing with Little Richard, Kris Kristoffersen, Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston, Gregg Allman, and the Muscle Shoals Swampers. Living all over including Nashville, Alabama, and Turkey… great memories of Klaus Voormann and stories about Klaus & the Beatles, turbulence, onions, being human, grandma’s biscuits and gravy. Really interesting conversation with a lovely, genuine guy whose resume is filled with a who’s who list of Rock and Roll icons: Kelvin played lead guitar Little Richard for the last 20 years of his life, Pegi Young for the last 10 years and along the way, he’s played with Chuck Berry, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper, The Muscle Shoals Swampers and more icons than you can imagine Support this Show: http://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support  Subscribe https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveryoneLovesGuitar/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everyonelovesguitar/ 

Marc Ysaye évoque la carrière du bassiste allemand Klaus Voormann, proche des Beatles, surtout de John Lennon.

So I'm sitting here in my home office-slash-podcast studio, researching and writing this week's episode, and setting up the audio clips, and my dog is sitting at my feet pretty much the entire time. And as soon as I cracked the microphone open, he decided he needed to leave the room. Did he need to go outside? No. He just wanted to be in the next room. How's that for a criticism? Ah, well. At least I have you. Right? RIGHT?? John Lennon's first non-Beatles single for which he gets sole writing credit was misunderstood and probably alienated Beatles fans, but you can't deny the power of Eric Clapton's guitar riffs and the claustrophobia of the mix provided by Klaus Voormann's bass and Ringo Starr's drumming. And it should be noted that the moaning and screaming at the end actually pre-dates Arthur Janov's book The Primal Scream, so once again Lennon was a little bit ahead of his time. (Albert Goldman's book about Lennon suggests that he and Mick Jagger got advance copies of the book, and that John Lennon actually underwent primal scream therapy for awhile. However, Goldman's book appears to have only a casual relationship with the truth. It's allergy season and I'm sounding great, my friend. Have a listen. Click here for a transcript of this episode.

In this episode we examine the life and contributions of Klaus Voormann, friend to the Beatles going back to the early 1960s. We discuss his bass playing, his famous artwork on Revolver and The Beatles Anthology, and talk about some of the varied and eclectic people he worked with. Here are some links to info on Klaus, as well as a Spotify playlist of his great bass playing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Voormann   https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/klaus-voormann/   https://www.voormann.com/   https://www.guitarworld.com/gw-archive/interview-klaus-voormann-discusses-his-lifelong-musical-and-artistic-association-beatles   Klaus Voormann's Album Covers   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5dHLWX0ZPKQH8G81L9qVJK?si=A85eIPrdTWKalSuMRoiZcg   @ivegotabeatles ivegotabeatlespodcast@hotmail.com Facebook: I've Got A Beatles Podcast   Intro/Outro music: "For You Red" by David Thurmaier and Jacob Souders    

From the guitar player's many years with Dr. John, Anders Osborne, and Johnny Sansone, and his recording work with Klaus Voormann and Rickie Lee Jones, to sessions for film and TV and his own solo records, John is known as someone who goes all out for the music. He's come a long way from the prairies of Montana to the balmy environs of New Orleans. It's all seemingly led him to this moment in the Ring Room with the Troubled Men. Some things are worth working for. Topics include a new year, low beams, God's work, a hipster haircut, Spam sushi, gunfire, a Swiss army knife, a nice shirt, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Pacific Northwest bands, a Montana childhood, early influences, a first gig, a catfight, Snooks Eaglin, Jerry Jumonville, touring the world with Dr. John, Ardent Studios with David Hood, Bonnie Bramlett, Don Nix, a shoutout, an airport incident, new laws, Real ID, sitting vs. smoking, a universal sub, solo gigs, solving a puzzle, words of wisdom, and much more. Support the podcast in the links. Subscribe, review, and rate(5 Stars) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most podcast aggregators. Follow on social media, share with friends, and spread the Troubled Word. Intro music: Styler/Coman Outro music: “Go Again” by John Fohl from the album “Hands On You”

From the guitar player’s many years with Dr. John, Anders Osborne, and Johnny Sansone, and his recording work with Klaus Voormann and Rickie Lee Jones, to sessions for film and TV and his own solo records, John is known as someone who goes all out for the music. He’s come a long way from the prairies of Montana to the balmy environs of New Orleans. It’s all seemingly led him to this moment in the Ring Room with the Troubled Men. Some things are worth working for. Topics include a new year, low beams, God’s work, a hipster haircut, Spam sushi, gunfire, a Swiss army knife, a nice shirt, the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Pacific Northwest bands, a Montana childhood, early influences, a first gig, a catfight, Snooks Eaglin, Jerry Jumonville, touring the world with Dr. John, Ardent Studios with David Hood, Bonnie Bramlett, Don Nix, a shoutout, an airport incident, new laws, Real ID, sitting vs. smoking, a universal sub, solo gigs, solving a puzzle, words of wisdom, and much more. Support the podcast in the links. Subscribe, review, and rate(5 Stars) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most podcast aggregators. Follow on social media, share with friends, and spread the Troubled Word. Intro music: Styler/Coman Outro music: “Go Again” by John Fohl from the album “Hands On You”

Vormann erhielt für das von ihm gestaltete Cover des Beatle Albums "Revolver" einen Grammy. Die Musik auf dem Album war "ganz extrem in die Zukunft kuckend und das musste irgendwie im Cover auftauchen", so Voormann.

Nos habíamos quedado la semana pasada repasando la pléyade de artistas que eclosionaron en el pequeño espacio de tiempo que va de inicios de 1972 hasta mediados del 1973, nombres importantes en la historia de la música popular que, con mayor o menor fortuna, consiguieron, al menos en una ocasión, captar la atención de los aficionados. Pasaron por el programa un buen número de ellos pero fueron muchos más. Así que, hoy, nos ocuparemos de todos, bueno, de casi todos ellos. Todavía a este lado del Atlántico, nos encontramos con un gran grupo inglés, Faces, liderado por el carismático Rod Stewart. Les hemos oído interpretando su éxito Maggie may. En ediciones anteriores ya nos ocupamos de este consagrado cantante por lo que, hoy, lo citamos solo de pasada. Con nuestro siguiente invitado nos pasa más o menos lo mismo. Ya hablamos de él en otro programa pero, merece la pena, y mucho, volver sobre su obra y su genial estilo de tocar la guitarra, esa manera descarnada y directa de ponernos el corazón en un puño. Estamos hablando de Rory Gllagher, líder del grupo Taste y guitarrista de técnica envidiable. Lo escuchamos en Cradle rock. Hablaremos ahora de un tipo especialmente controvertido. Yusuf Islam, más conocido por su nombre artístico Cat Stevens y que antes se llamó Steven Demetre, nacido en Londres, el 21 de julio de 1948, y que fue un brillante cantautor, compositor y multinstrumentista. Desde su debut en 1967 fue cosechando éxito tras éxito con, entre otros, dos álbumes triple platino. Y esto no es cualquier cosa. Concretamente, su álbum debut de 1967 ingresó en el Top 10 de éxitos en el Reino Unido, y la canción "Matthew and Son" logró colarse en la segunda posición en la lista UK Singles Chart. Le escuchamos en Morning has broken Tras alguna crisis entre existencialista y mística, Stevens se convirtió al Islam en 1978 y adoptó el nombre Yusuf Islam al año siguiente. Aunque renunció a su carrera como músico pop, fue persuadido para realizar un último recital. Apareciendo con cabello corto y una larga barba, encabezó un concierto benéfico el 22 de noviembre de 1979 en el estadio de Wembley en beneficio del Año Internacional del Niño de UNICEF. Después de esta aparición, Yusuf abandonó su carrera musical durante casi tres décadas. Desde su conversión, su actividad ha estado seguida con lupa y fue duramente criticado cuando supuestamente apoyó con sus declaraciones la fatua o pronunciamiento jurídico del ayatollah Jomeini contra el escritor anglo-indio Salman Rushdie, debido a la presunta blasfemia cometida en su novela Los versos satánicos. Más tarde aseguró que había sido tomado por sorpresa y que los medios, de una manera tendenciosa, desnaturalizaron el sentido de sus palabras. Días después hizo un comunicado donde dejaba muy claro que, aunque detestaba el contenido del libro, no estaba de acuerdo con la fatua, diciendo: "Según la ley del islam, los musulmanes deben ceñirse a las leyes de los países donde tengan residencia". Supongo que, para curarse en salud, inmediatamente después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001 en los Estados Unidos, Yusuf afirmó: Quiero expresar el horror que siento por los atentados terroristas contra personas inocentes en Estados Unidos el día de ayer. Aunque aún no hay claridad sobre los causantes de este acto, debo recordar que ningún musulmán en sus cabales podría siquiera avalar semejante acción. El Corán considera el asesinato de una sola persona igual al asesinato de toda la humanidad. Oramos por las familias de los que fallecieron en este acto de violencia y por los heridos y espero reflejar los sentimientos de todos los verdaderos musulmanes en relación a este penoso momento. A pesar de todo, Yusuf, que se encontraba en un vuelo entre Londres y Washington para asistir a una reunión con la actriz y cantante Dolly Parton, fue detenido por el Departamento de Seguridad de los Estados Unidos, se le negó el acceso al país y fue enviado de vuelta al Reino Unido. Por suerte, y después de muchas gestiones, dos años más tarde Yusuf fue admitido sin problema en los Estados Unidos para brindar algunos recitales y entrevistas como promoción de su nueva producción discográfica. Y bueno, ahí sigue. Y cambiando de registro, pero en este mismo lado del océano, nos topamos con la ELO, Electric Light Orchestra y su vibrante Rock n' Roll Is King. Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) es un grupo inglés de rock progresivo natural de Birmingham (Inglaterra) y liderado por el músico Jeff Lynne. La ELO se formó para dar cabida al deseo de Lynne y de su colega Roy Wood de crear canciones de rock modernas con tintes clásicos. A pesar del éxito de sus primeros sencillos en el Reino Unido, donde el grupo obtuvo una mayor popularidad fue en los Estados Unidos; alli se convirtieron en una de las bandas con mayores ventas de la industria. Entre 1972 y 1986, y a pesar de no obtener ningún número uno, la Electric Light Orchestra acumuló un total de quince sencillos top 10 en el Reino Unido y siete en los Estados Unidos, y mantiene el récord de éxitos en el top 40 de la historia de Billboard sin haber cosechado un número uno. Tras su separación en 1986, Lynne volvió a reformar la Electric Light Orchestra en dos ocasiones: en 2001, con la publicación de Zoom, y en 2015, bajo el nombre de Jeff Lynne's ELO, para el lanzamiento de Alone in the Universe. Como colofón, la banda entró en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll el 7 de abril de 2017. Y ahora amigos, abróchense los cinturones porque vamos a cruzar el charco. Y, allí, en mitad todo, estaba la mastodóntica Motown que, aunque en sus orígenes estaba dedicada en cuerpo y alma a la promoción de la música negra, con notable éxito por cierto, no tardó en sumarse a las nuevas tendencias, el negocio es el negocio (como día Marx, señora estos son mis principios pero si no le gustan tengo otros), y lanza su primer grupo blanco: Rare Earth. Esta banda, radicada en Detroit, se mantuvo activa entre 1967 y 1979. Aunque lo cierto es que, su mayor mérito ha sido el ya citado, ser el primer grupo blanco del famoso sello. En fin, no digo que fueran unos mantas pero dejaron poca huella de su carrera. Quienes si que la dejaron por varios motivos fueron The James Gang, un grupo de rock y hard rock estadounidense, formado en Cleveland, Ohio, en el año 1966. Y por cierto, uno de los miembros de la banda, el guitarrista y vocalista Joe Walsh, se haría mundialmente famoso al incorporarse posteriormente a la banda Eagles. Entre sus composiciones más conocidas, se encuentran «Funk #49» y «Walk Away». El grupo se separó oficialmente en 1976, no sin antes dejarnos la ya citada joya: Walk Away. Zager & Evans fueron un grupo de música rock de Lincoln, Nebraska de finales de los años 1960 y principios de los 1970. El nombre proviene de sus dos miembros, Danny Zager y Rick Evans, quienes se conocieron en la universidad de Nebraska. Zager y Evans se hicieron famosos por el tema "In the Year 2525" ("En el año 2525"), escrita por Rick Evans, que alcanzó el número 1 de las listas en julio de 1969. La canción prevenía sobre los peligros de la tecnología, dibujando un futuro en el cual la raza humana sería destruida por sus propias innovaciones tecnológicas y médicas, por los robots, así como por la ira divina. En fin, lo de la ira divina no lo sé, pero el resto… ahí está. La última estrofa de la canción insinúa un onírico ciclo continuo de nacimiento-muerte-renacimiento de la humanidad. ¡Que cosas! "In the Year 2525" estuvo durante 6 semanas como número uno en las listas de los más populares en 1969. También llegó a ser número 1 en el Reino Unido. La coincidencia hizo que fuera número 1 de las listas en los EE.UU el 20 de julio de 1969, fecha en la que los astronautas Armstrong y Aldrin pisaron la luna por primera vez Zager y Evans disolvieron el dúo, pero ambos continúan en el mundo de la música y siguen siendo amigos. Por cierto, si alguien está interesado, Danny Zager se dedica en la actualidad a construir guitarras a medida. Harry Nilsson nació el 15 de junio de 1941, Brooklyn, Nueva York fue un notable compositor y cantante que colaboró estrechamente con el famoso productor Phil Spector. En 1967 obtuvo un considerable éxito con su canción Everybody’s talkin, tema principal de la banda sonora de la película Midnight Cowboy, pero la fama no le sentó nada bien porque, desde ese momento, el hombre empezó a beber como un autentico cosaco. A finales del mes de enero del año 1971, Nilsson se encontraba en la casa de Mama Cass, en Hollywood. Unos cuantos amigos, entre ellos, Graham Nash, jugaban al póker y bebían hasta la intoxicación, con la música puesta como fondo. En el tocadiscos sonaba el nuevo álbum de los Badfingers, un grupo patrocinado por los Beatles. En un momento dado, alguien dio la vuelta al disco de vinilo y empezó a sonar la canción ‘Without you’, el primera tema de la caba B del disco. Nilsson apartó la cartas, el alcohol, y a sus amigos y empezó a prestar atención a la canción. Como vio el sello de Apple, creyó que Paul o John le habrían dado esta enorme canción a sus patrocinados, pero en el disco de vinilo ponía claramente que la canción la habían escrito Pete Ham y Tom Evans, componentes de Badfinger. El resto es historia. Nilsson grabó ‘Without you’ en los estudios Trident de Londres, donde se había grabado y mezclado la canción. Richard Perry le sugirió que hicieran una versión más sentimental que la original, más lenta y profunda, le sugirió incluso, que se atreviera con un arreglo de cuerda. Así fue: Nilsson logró un numero uno mundial. En 1974 conoció a John Lennon y coincidiendo con una separación temporal con Y?ko Ono, se hicieron amigos y compañeros de juergas. Lennon produjo y colaboró con Nilsson en un álbum llamado: Pussy Cats en la que también participó Ringo Starr. También en ese año, Harry co-protagonizó una película titulada "Son of Dracula" al lado de Ringo Starr y cuya banda sonora fue co-producida por ambos. En la edición del disco colaboraron gente tan importantes como Peter Frampton, Klaus Voormann, Ray Cooper, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Gary Wright, Jim Gordon, y otros. Harry Nilsson aparece también en el video de la canción "Only You" de Ringo Starr, en la cual colaboró también John Lennon. La verdad es que los Beatles, a veces, hacían cosas muy raritas. La salud de Nilsson se había deteriorado como consecuencia de su disoluta existencia. Este deterioro le provocó un ataque cardíaco masivo en 1993. Embarcado en un proyecto para lanzar una caja con los grandes éxitos de su carrera, había terminado de grabar las voces para el álbum y aquella misma noche del 15 de enero de 1994 falleció por una insuficiencia cardiaca. Amen. En 1959 murieron Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens y The Big Booper. Sobre este acontecimiento, que se conoció como el día que murió la música, el neoyorkino Don McLean compuso su famosa balada «American Pie» que fue número uno en todas las listas. En 1981, McLean llegó al número uno internacional con el clásico de Roy Orbison «Crying». El mismo Orbison describió, en una oportunidad, a McLean como «la voz del siglo», y una posterior regrabación del tema por Orbison incorporó elementos de la versión de McLean. Un músico que influenció en gran medida a un gran número de estrellas fue JJ Cale. Cale nació el 5 de diciembre de 1938 en Oklahoma City y se trasladó a Los Ángeles a comienzos de la década de 1960, donde comenzó a trabajar como ingeniero de sonido en diferentes estudios. Debido a su poco éxito como artista, regresó a su pueblo y consideró abandonar la industria de la música hasta que Eric Clapton hizo una nueva versión de «After Midnight» en 1970. Escuchamos una versión interpretada por ambos. Su primer álbum, Naturally, estableció su propio estilo musical, que en el periódico Los Angeles Times definia como «un híbrido único de blues, folk y jazz, marcado por surcos relajados, la guitarra fluida de Cale y una voz lacónica. Su uso temprano de cajas de ritmos y su mezcla poco convencional dio una calidad distintiva y atemporal a su trabajo.» En 2013, Neil Young comentó también que de todos los músicos que había escuchado, Cale era, junto a Jimi Hendrix, el mejor guitarrista eléctrico. Su mayor éxito en los Estados Unidos, "Crazy Mama", alcanzó el puesto 22 en la lista Billboard Hot 100 en 1972. En el documental To Tulsa and Back, Cale relató que recibió una oportunidad para aparecer en el programa American Bandstand para promocionar la canción. Cale declinó la oferta cuando supo que no podía llevar a su grupo y que tenía que cantar en playback. Cale también fue conocido por su rechazo y aversión al estrellato, a las giras largas, y a las grabaciones periódicas. Fue un artista de culto para los músicos, y relativamente desconocido para el público durante los últimos 35 años. El 26 de julio de 2013, Cale falleció en el Scripps Hospital de La Jolla, California a consecuencia de un ataque al corazón. Nos despedimos de este gran artista con otro de sus grandes éxitos, por cierto también popularizado por Eric Clapton, aunque en esta ocasión lo escucharemos en su versión original. Cocaine. Es tremendo que, después de dos programas dedicados a acercarnos al año 1973, todavía nos queden en el tintero un montón de artistas imprescindibles. No importa, daremos buena cuenta de todos ellos en el próximo programa. Gente como Isaac Hayes, Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Johnny Winter, y tantos otros buenos músicos. Por hoy nada más, el equipo de nada más que música ha disfrutado enormemente con vuestra compañía y esperamos que vosotros lo hayáis hecho con la nuestra. La amenaza de volver la próxima semana sigue vigente. Así que, hasta entonces… buenas vibraciones!!!

Nos habíamos quedado la semana pasada repasando la pléyade de artistas que eclosionaron en el pequeño espacio de tiempo que va de inicios de 1972 hasta mediados del 1973, nombres importantes en la historia de la música popular que, con mayor o menor fortuna, consiguieron, al menos en una ocasión, captar la atención de los aficionados. Pasaron por el programa un buen número de ellos pero fueron muchos más. Así que, hoy, nos ocuparemos de todos, bueno, de casi todos ellos. Todavía a este lado del Atlántico, nos encontramos con un gran grupo inglés, Faces, liderado por el carismático Rod Stewart. Les hemos oído interpretando su éxito Maggie may. En ediciones anteriores ya nos ocupamos de este consagrado cantante por lo que, hoy, lo citamos solo de pasada. Con nuestro siguiente invitado nos pasa más o menos lo mismo. Ya hablamos de él en otro programa pero, merece la pena, y mucho, volver sobre su obra y su genial estilo de tocar la guitarra, esa manera descarnada y directa de ponernos el corazón en un puño. Estamos hablando de Rory Gllagher, líder del grupo Taste y guitarrista de técnica envidiable. Lo escuchamos en Cradle rock. Hablaremos ahora de un tipo especialmente controvertido. Yusuf Islam, más conocido por su nombre artístico Cat Stevens y que antes se llamó Steven Demetre, nacido en Londres, el 21 de julio de 1948, y que fue un brillante cantautor, compositor y multinstrumentista. Desde su debut en 1967 fue cosechando éxito tras éxito con, entre otros, dos álbumes triple platino. Y esto no es cualquier cosa. Concretamente, su álbum debut de 1967 ingresó en el Top 10 de éxitos en el Reino Unido, y la canción "Matthew and Son" logró colarse en la segunda posición en la lista UK Singles Chart. Le escuchamos en Morning has broken Tras alguna crisis entre existencialista y mística, Stevens se convirtió al Islam en 1978 y adoptó el nombre Yusuf Islam al año siguiente. Aunque renunció a su carrera como músico pop, fue persuadido para realizar un último recital. Apareciendo con cabello corto y una larga barba, encabezó un concierto benéfico el 22 de noviembre de 1979 en el estadio de Wembley en beneficio del Año Internacional del Niño de UNICEF. Después de esta aparición, Yusuf abandonó su carrera musical durante casi tres décadas. Desde su conversión, su actividad ha estado seguida con lupa y fue duramente criticado cuando supuestamente apoyó con sus declaraciones la fatua o pronunciamiento jurídico del ayatollah Jomeini contra el escritor anglo-indio Salman Rushdie, debido a la presunta blasfemia cometida en su novela Los versos satánicos. Más tarde aseguró que había sido tomado por sorpresa y que los medios, de una manera tendenciosa, desnaturalizaron el sentido de sus palabras. Días después hizo un comunicado donde dejaba muy claro que, aunque detestaba el contenido del libro, no estaba de acuerdo con la fatua, diciendo: "Según la ley del islam, los musulmanes deben ceñirse a las leyes de los países donde tengan residencia". Supongo que, para curarse en salud, inmediatamente después de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001 en los Estados Unidos, Yusuf afirmó: Quiero expresar el horror que siento por los atentados terroristas contra personas inocentes en Estados Unidos el día de ayer. Aunque aún no hay claridad sobre los causantes de este acto, debo recordar que ningún musulmán en sus cabales podría siquiera avalar semejante acción. El Corán considera el asesinato de una sola persona igual al asesinato de toda la humanidad. Oramos por las familias de los que fallecieron en este acto de violencia y por los heridos y espero reflejar los sentimientos de todos los verdaderos musulmanes en relación a este penoso momento. A pesar de todo, Yusuf, que se encontraba en un vuelo entre Londres y Washington para asistir a una reunión con la actriz y cantante Dolly Parton, fue detenido por el Departamento de Seguridad de los Estados Unidos, se le negó el acceso al país y fue enviado de vuelta al Reino Unido. Por suerte, y después de muchas gestiones, dos años más tarde Yusuf fue admitido sin problema en los Estados Unidos para brindar algunos recitales y entrevistas como promoción de su nueva producción discográfica. Y bueno, ahí sigue. Y cambiando de registro, pero en este mismo lado del océano, nos topamos con la ELO, Electric Light Orchestra y su vibrante Rock n' Roll Is King. Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) es un grupo inglés de rock progresivo natural de Birmingham (Inglaterra) y liderado por el músico Jeff Lynne. La ELO se formó para dar cabida al deseo de Lynne y de su colega Roy Wood de crear canciones de rock modernas con tintes clásicos. A pesar del éxito de sus primeros sencillos en el Reino Unido, donde el grupo obtuvo una mayor popularidad fue en los Estados Unidos; alli se convirtieron en una de las bandas con mayores ventas de la industria. Entre 1972 y 1986, y a pesar de no obtener ningún número uno, la Electric Light Orchestra acumuló un total de quince sencillos top 10 en el Reino Unido y siete en los Estados Unidos, y mantiene el récord de éxitos en el top 40 de la historia de Billboard sin haber cosechado un número uno. Tras su separación en 1986, Lynne volvió a reformar la Electric Light Orchestra en dos ocasiones: en 2001, con la publicación de Zoom, y en 2015, bajo el nombre de Jeff Lynne's ELO, para el lanzamiento de Alone in the Universe. Como colofón, la banda entró en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll el 7 de abril de 2017. Y ahora amigos, abróchense los cinturones porque vamos a cruzar el charco. Y, allí, en mitad todo, estaba la mastodóntica Motown que, aunque en sus orígenes estaba dedicada en cuerpo y alma a la promoción de la música negra, con notable éxito por cierto, no tardó en sumarse a las nuevas tendencias, el negocio es el negocio (como día Marx, señora estos son mis principios pero si no le gustan tengo otros), y lanza su primer grupo blanco: Rare Earth. Esta banda, radicada en Detroit, se mantuvo activa entre 1967 y 1979. Aunque lo cierto es que, su mayor mérito ha sido el ya citado, ser el primer grupo blanco del famoso sello. En fin, no digo que fueran unos mantas pero dejaron poca huella de su carrera. Quienes si que la dejaron por varios motivos fueron The James Gang, un grupo de rock y hard rock estadounidense, formado en Cleveland, Ohio, en el año 1966. Y por cierto, uno de los miembros de la banda, el guitarrista y vocalista Joe Walsh, se haría mundialmente famoso al incorporarse posteriormente a la banda Eagles. Entre sus composiciones más conocidas, se encuentran «Funk #49» y «Walk Away». El grupo se separó oficialmente en 1976, no sin antes dejarnos la ya citada joya: Walk Away. Zager & Evans fueron un grupo de música rock de Lincoln, Nebraska de finales de los años 1960 y principios de los 1970. El nombre proviene de sus dos miembros, Danny Zager y Rick Evans, quienes se conocieron en la universidad de Nebraska. Zager y Evans se hicieron famosos por el tema "In the Year 2525" ("En el año 2525"), escrita por Rick Evans, que alcanzó el número 1 de las listas en julio de 1969. La canción prevenía sobre los peligros de la tecnología, dibujando un futuro en el cual la raza humana sería destruida por sus propias innovaciones tecnológicas y médicas, por los robots, así como por la ira divina. En fin, lo de la ira divina no lo sé, pero el resto… ahí está. La última estrofa de la canción insinúa un onírico ciclo continuo de nacimiento-muerte-renacimiento de la humanidad. ¡Que cosas! "In the Year 2525" estuvo durante 6 semanas como número uno en las listas de los más populares en 1969. También llegó a ser número 1 en el Reino Unido. La coincidencia hizo que fuera número 1 de las listas en los EE.UU el 20 de julio de 1969, fecha en la que los astronautas Armstrong y Aldrin pisaron la luna por primera vez Zager y Evans disolvieron el dúo, pero ambos continúan en el mundo de la música y siguen siendo amigos. Por cierto, si alguien está interesado, Danny Zager se dedica en la actualidad a construir guitarras a medida. Harry Nilsson nació el 15 de junio de 1941, Brooklyn, Nueva York fue un notable compositor y cantante que colaboró estrechamente con el famoso productor Phil Spector. En 1967 obtuvo un considerable éxito con su canción Everybody’s talkin, tema principal de la banda sonora de la película Midnight Cowboy, pero la fama no le sentó nada bien porque, desde ese momento, el hombre empezó a beber como un autentico cosaco. A finales del mes de enero del año 1971, Nilsson se encontraba en la casa de Mama Cass, en Hollywood. Unos cuantos amigos, entre ellos, Graham Nash, jugaban al póker y bebían hasta la intoxicación, con la música puesta como fondo. En el tocadiscos sonaba el nuevo álbum de los Badfingers, un grupo patrocinado por los Beatles. En un momento dado, alguien dio la vuelta al disco de vinilo y empezó a sonar la canción ‘Without you’, el primera tema de la caba B del disco. Nilsson apartó la cartas, el alcohol, y a sus amigos y empezó a prestar atención a la canción. Como vio el sello de Apple, creyó que Paul o John le habrían dado esta enorme canción a sus patrocinados, pero en el disco de vinilo ponía claramente que la canción la habían escrito Pete Ham y Tom Evans, componentes de Badfinger. El resto es historia. Nilsson grabó ‘Without you’ en los estudios Trident de Londres, donde se había grabado y mezclado la canción. Richard Perry le sugirió que hicieran una versión más sentimental que la original, más lenta y profunda, le sugirió incluso, que se atreviera con un arreglo de cuerda. Así fue: Nilsson logró un numero uno mundial. En 1974 conoció a John Lennon y coincidiendo con una separación temporal con Y?ko Ono, se hicieron amigos y compañeros de juergas. Lennon produjo y colaboró con Nilsson en un álbum llamado: Pussy Cats en la que también participó Ringo Starr. También en ese año, Harry co-protagonizó una película titulada "Son of Dracula" al lado de Ringo Starr y cuya banda sonora fue co-producida por ambos. En la edición del disco colaboraron gente tan importantes como Peter Frampton, Klaus Voormann, Ray Cooper, Bobby Keys, Nicky Hopkins, Gary Wright, Jim Gordon, y otros. Harry Nilsson aparece también en el video de la canción "Only You" de Ringo Starr, en la cual colaboró también John Lennon. La verdad es que los Beatles, a veces, hacían cosas muy raritas. La salud de Nilsson se había deteriorado como consecuencia de su disoluta existencia. Este deterioro le provocó un ataque cardíaco masivo en 1993. Embarcado en un proyecto para lanzar una caja con los grandes éxitos de su carrera, había terminado de grabar las voces para el álbum y aquella misma noche del 15 de enero de 1994 falleció por una insuficiencia cardiaca. Amen. En 1959 murieron Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens y The Big Booper. Sobre este acontecimiento, que se conoció como el día que murió la música, el neoyorkino Don McLean compuso su famosa balada «American Pie» que fue número uno en todas las listas. En 1981, McLean llegó al número uno internacional con el clásico de Roy Orbison «Crying». El mismo Orbison describió, en una oportunidad, a McLean como «la voz del siglo», y una posterior regrabación del tema por Orbison incorporó elementos de la versión de McLean. Un músico que influenció en gran medida a un gran número de estrellas fue JJ Cale. Cale nació el 5 de diciembre de 1938 en Oklahoma City y se trasladó a Los Ángeles a comienzos de la década de 1960, donde comenzó a trabajar como ingeniero de sonido en diferentes estudios. Debido a su poco éxito como artista, regresó a su pueblo y consideró abandonar la industria de la música hasta que Eric Clapton hizo una nueva versión de «After Midnight» en 1970. Escuchamos una versión interpretada por ambos. Su primer álbum, Naturally, estableció su propio estilo musical, que en el periódico Los Angeles Times definia como «un híbrido único de blues, folk y jazz, marcado por surcos relajados, la guitarra fluida de Cale y una voz lacónica. Su uso temprano de cajas de ritmos y su mezcla poco convencional dio una calidad distintiva y atemporal a su trabajo.» En 2013, Neil Young comentó también que de todos los músicos que había escuchado, Cale era, junto a Jimi Hendrix, el mejor guitarrista eléctrico. Su mayor éxito en los Estados Unidos, "Crazy Mama", alcanzó el puesto 22 en la lista Billboard Hot 100 en 1972. En el documental To Tulsa and Back, Cale relató que recibió una oportunidad para aparecer en el programa American Bandstand para promocionar la canción. Cale declinó la oferta cuando supo que no podía llevar a su grupo y que tenía que cantar en playback. Cale también fue conocido por su rechazo y aversión al estrellato, a las giras largas, y a las grabaciones periódicas. Fue un artista de culto para los músicos, y relativamente desconocido para el público durante los últimos 35 años. El 26 de julio de 2013, Cale falleció en el Scripps Hospital de La Jolla, California a consecuencia de un ataque al corazón. Nos despedimos de este gran artista con otro de sus grandes éxitos, por cierto también popularizado por Eric Clapton, aunque en esta ocasión lo escucharemos en su versión original. Cocaine. Es tremendo que, después de dos programas dedicados a acercarnos al año 1973, todavía nos queden en el tintero un montón de artistas imprescindibles. No importa, daremos buena cuenta de todos ellos en el próximo programa. Gente como Isaac Hayes, Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Johnny Winter, y tantos otros buenos músicos. Por hoy nada más, el equipo de nada más que música ha disfrutado enormemente con vuestra compañía y esperamos que vosotros lo hayáis hecho con la nuestra. La amenaza de volver la próxima semana sigue vigente. Así que, hasta entonces… buenas vibraciones!!!

Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot sit down with artist and musician Klaus Voormann. Klaus shares his unique vantage point to rock and roll history: he designed the cover artwork for The Beatles’ album, Revolver, lived with George and Ringo and was a session bassist on many iconic albums in the 1970s including Imagine, All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band. Also in the light of the recent R. Kelly docu-series, the hosts revisit their discussion about the artist vs. the art: whether art can be evaluated separately from the artist's ethics.

In general, you can tell how well a conversation went by how long the show runs. At just past the two hour mark, you get an idea of how well things went with Lon Van Eaton, one-time Apple recording artist and protege of George Harrison. In addition to being one half of the Van Eaton brothers, who issued an album and single in the US in 1972, he did session work for Ringo beginning with the 1973 self-titled release (and performed live with him on TV), as well as other 1970s acts produced by Richard Perry. He went on to good works with his charitable organization, Imagine A Better World, inspired by examples gleaned from The Beatles. While this may be the most spiritual discussion yet had on SATB, it is also perhaps one of the most lighthearted. One can easily see how Lon connected with George and Ringo particularly: being equal parts deep-thinker/philosopher and everyman comedian. Lon witnessed life with the ex-Beatles (and acolytes like Klaus Voormann, Pete Ham and Harry Nilsson) up close. He has the stories and the insight – you don’t want to miss this one. Lon’s new album is called Cupid. Find it at Imagineabetterworld.com The post 153: Lon Looks Back (And Forward) appeared first on Something About The Beatles.

In general, you can tell how well a conversation went by how long the show runs. At just past the two hour mark, you get an idea of how well things went with Lon Van Eaton, one-time Apple recording artist and protege of George Harrison. In addition to being one half of the Van Eaton brothers, who issued an album and single in the US in 1972, he did session work for Ringo beginning with the 1973 self-titled release (and performed live with him on TV), as well as other 1970s acts produced by Richard Perry. He went on to good works with his charitable organization, Imagine A Better World, inspired by examples gleaned from The Beatles. While this may be the most spiritual discussion yet had on SATB, it is also perhaps one of the most lighthearted. One can easily see how Lon connected with George and Ringo particularly: being equal parts deep-thinker/philosopher and everyman comedian. Lon witnessed life with the ex-Beatles (and acolytes like Klaus Voormann, Pete Ham and Harry Nilsson) up close. He has the stories and the insight – you don’t want to miss this one. Lon’s new album is called Cupid. Find it at Imagineabetterworld.com The post 153: Lon Looks Back (And Forward) appeared first on Something About The Beatles.

Klaus Voormann has lived the life of an artist, befriending the Beatles in Hamburg, creating the artwork for 'Revolver', then going on to become a collaborator on their many solo works and beyond. Enjoy a conversation full of stories, memories and insight from the epicentre of the greatest band in history during their most colourful times. If you like records, just starting a collection or are an uber-nerd with a house-full of vinyl, this is the podcast for you. Nate Goyer is The Vinyl Guide and discusses all things music and record-related. Web  |  Facebook  |  Instagram  |  YouTube

Like a supernova, the summer of ‘69 was a burst of unprecedented prolific energy from the world’s brightest band. But the end was near. Following another fruitful bed-in for peace, this time in Montreal Canada, John and Yoko record and release a new anthem for the peace movement: Give Peace A Chance. The song carried the Lennon/McCartney writing credit, a rare peace-offering from John to Paul in one of the most trying periods of their lives. As The Beatles put the final touches on their forthcoming album, known for a time as “Everest”, their commercial successes continued to mount. The #1 hit single Get Back was barely out for a few months before it was quickly followed by another #1 hit single: The Ballad of John and Yoko. Like just about everything else John Lennon did in 1969, the tune’s lyrical reference to crucifixion carried with it some controversy and some radio stations opted not to play it for that very reason. George, meanwhile, championed another Apple group called The Radha Krishna Temple, producing for them a song called Hare Krishna Mantra and fulfilling his promise to bring world music to the pop world. Paul and Linda welcomed daughter Mary to the world, traveling to Scotland where the ever-growing family would find respite from Apple’s ever-worsening business troubles. Come September, John and Yoko found themselves performing live on stage with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White as the Plastic Ono Band for a rock and roll revival concert in Toronto. Aboard the plane, and to the rest of his bandmates later on the eve of their new album’s release, John Lennon announced he would be quitting The Beatles... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Er stand am Bass bei Manfred Mann, gründete mit John Lennon die Plastic Ono Band und war der unbekannte Beatle, weil er mit denen auch spielte, aber nie ganz vorn: Klaus Voormann. . - Autor: Albert Wiedenhöfer

In something of a departure from the usual, SATB presents a conversation with Arion Salazar, original bass player with Third Eye Blind (“Semi-Charmed Life” – “Losing A Whole Year” – “How’s It Going To Be” – “Never Let You Go”) and this year on tour with XEB. As you will hear, he is an accomplished recording artist whose life path was impacted virtually from birth by The Beatles (who, as it happened, had just split up while he was in utero). Arion offers up his insights as a fan and as a student of the Beatles on the group, on Paul (certainly as a bassist) as well as on Klaus Voormann. The post 123: All About That Bassist appeared first on Something About The Beatles.

In something of a departure from the usual, SATB presents a conversation with Arion Salazar, original bass player with Third Eye Blind (“Semi-Charmed Life” – “Losing A Whole Year” – “How’s It Going To Be” – “Never Let You Go”) and this year on tour with XEB. As you will hear, he is an accomplished recording artist whose life path was impacted virtually from birth by The Beatles (who, as it happened, had just split up while he was in utero). Arion offers up his insights as a fan and as a student of the Beatles on the group, on Paul (certainly as a bassist) as well as on Klaus Voormann. The post 123: All About That Bassist appeared first on Something About The Beatles.

Chesher Cat began her creative adventures as a rock and roll photographer and journalist in Vancouver, B.C. shooting hundreds of concerts up and down the west coast, including groups such as Led Zeppelin, Elton John, the Eagles, George Harrison, and the Bee Gees, to name a few. She relocated to Los Angeles with the idea to do a book featuring art by musicians, believing that a person with one creative talent could also be equally talented in another. The result was the coffee-table book Starart, showcasing the fine art of Joni Mitchell, John Mayall, Cat Stevens, Klaus Voormann, Commander Cody, and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. Starart debuted in 1980 to rave reviews and was featured in publications across the country, including Rolling Stone, People and Playboy. Chesher produced art gallery shows of original works from Starart, with gala openings attended by the artists in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Laguna Beach. She then fulfilled her dream to work in film, freelancing as a still photographer, designer and reader before accepting a staff position at Cannon Pictures as the Creative Director in advertising and marketing. Her efforts were instrumental in garnering millions of dollars in foreign and domestic feature and video revenues. She left Cannon to start her own design company, and while retaining them as a client, she also provided creative advertising services to 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and many independent production and distribution companies. Chesher produced and starred in Final Placement at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles, raising thousands of dollars for the child abuse charity, Childhelp USA. She also produced and directed the filming of a Mick Fleetwood concert in Coachella, CA to be released worldwide on DVD. She wrote her first screenplay in 2002 and has since optioned two screenplays. In 2007, Chesher returned to her rock and roll roots with the release of her coffee table Everybody I Shot Is Dead, honoring 48 musicians she photographed who have since passed away. In 2012, Chesher made her directorial debut with a short film adapted from her feature script, End of the Innocents. She followed that with Chuck E.'s Too Big A Deal, an experimental/documentary/photo essay/music video on musician Chuck E. Weiss. Chesher spent the summer of 2016 shooting The Paris Project - resulting in a limited edition book. And in December 2016 she co-produced, shot, directed and edited Adrianna Mateo's music video Coney Island. Chesher continues with her photography exploits on a daily basis, while also working on producing her coming-of-age feature film, My First Kiss, inspired by her own experiences in the wild and wonderful world of rock and roll. Chesher's current project is Under New York City. In this episode, Chesher relays the story of her time in a Paris recording studio with the Rolling Stones back in 1979, and why she'd want a one way ticket there. Chesher also talks about her books "Starart" and "Everybody I Shot Is Dead", the world of rock & roll, and her latest project, "Under New York City". Chesher is just one of the extraordinary guests featured on The One Way Ticket Show, where Host Steven Shalowitz explores with his guests where they'd go if given a one way ticket, no coming back! Destinations may be in the past, present, future, real, imaginary or a state of mind. Steven's guests have included: Legendary Talk Show Host, Dick Cavett; Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz; Broadcast Legend, Charles Osgood; International Rescue Committee President & CEO, David Miliband; Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty; Journalist-Humorist-Actor Mo Rocca; Film Maker, Muffie Meyer; Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.; Abercrombie & Kent Founder, Geoffrey Kent; Travel Expert, Pauline Frommer, as well as leading photographers, artists, writers and more.

We Join our hosts as they change their mind, for good reason, and review number 3 on RollingStone Magazines Top 500 Albums of all time list: The Beatles “Revolver”, while they Just scratch the surface on little more Paul is Dead talk, compare the Beatles to the Rolling Stones and more! Visit www.MusicByNumber.com for social networking links, Events, Host Bios, the Smk Signals Podcast Network and more. ABOUT THE ALBUM Released: 5 August 1966 Recorded: 6 April – 21 June 1966 Studio EMI Studios, London Genre Rock pop psychedelic rock Length 34:43 Label Parlophone Capitol Producer: George Martin The cover for Revolver was created by German-born bassist and artist Klaus Voormann, one of the Beatles' oldest friends from their time in Hamburg during the early 1960s. Voormann's artwork was part line drawing and part collage, using photographs taken over 1964–65 by Robert Freeman and others by Robert Whitaker. The following track listing is for the original UK release, whereas the US edition omitted "I'm Only Sleeping", "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert", all of which had appeared on the North American release Yesterday and Today. The 1987 CD release, the 2009 remastered CD release, and all subsequent LP re-releases conformed with the full, fourteen-song order. All tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except tracks with * by George Harrison. Side one No. Title Lead vocals Length 1. "Taxman" (*) Harrison 2:39 2. "Eleanor Rigby" McCartney 2:06 3. "I'm Only Sleeping" Lennon 3:00 4. "Love You To" (*) Harrison 2:59 5. "Here, There and Everywhere" McCartney 2:25 6. "Yellow Submarine" Starr 2:41 7. "She Said She Said" Lennon 2:37 Side two No. Title Lead vocals Length 1. "Good Day Sunshine" McCartney 2:08 2. "And Your Bird Can Sing" Lennon 2:00 3. "For No One" McCartney 2:00 4. "Doctor Robert" Lennon 2:14 5. "I Want to Tell You" (*) Harrison 2:29 6. "Got to Get You into My Life" McCartney 2:29 7. "Tomorrow Never Knows" Lennon 2:57 PERSONNEL According to Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald: The Beatles John Lennon/Paul McCartney/George Harrison/Ringo Starr Additional musicians and production George Martin – producer; mixing engineer; piano on "Good Day Sunshine" and "Tomorrow Never Knows"; Hammond organ on "Got to Get You into My Life"; tape loops of the marching band on "Yellow Submarine" Anil Bhagwat, Alan Civil, Geoff Emerick, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Brian Jones, Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull, Alf Bicknell, Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, Jurgen Hess, John Underwood, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones – cellos, Eddie Thornton, Ian Hamer, Les Condon; Peter Coe, Alan Branscombe orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney) http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-revolver-20120524 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(Beatles_album) www.thebeatles.com Album, news reportage, and other audio clips utilized with regard to fair use under criticism and review for the purpose of education with no creative or monetary infringement intended. Music By # utilizes pod-safe and royalty free music courtesy of the royalty free youtube audio library for all Bumper, Ad, and Theme music: Opening Ad Music: Otis McDonald - "Scarlet Fire" MUB# Opening Theme: Dougie Wood - "Beach Disco" MUB# End Theme: Dougie Wood - "Disco Ball" If you enjoy MUB# and would like to help us out please Comment Rate and Subscribe wherever you fulfill your podcasting needs! We humbly appreciate any and all support! If you would like to DONATE to our equipment acquisitions fund We could use help getting new mixers, mics, and computers. Not to mention all the rental and purchasing fees associated with the films we watch and the running of our websites! Every little bit helps us keep the lights on and the movies playing! Find out more at www.gofundme.com/donateMBNpod

Harrison wrote "Try Some Buy Some" in early 1971, in an attempt to relaunch the singing career of former Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Spector. Ronnie was married to Phil Spector at that time, who produced the record. The track featured star performers: Harrison played guitars, Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth) keyboards, Klaus Voormann (Manfred Mann) bass, John Barham string arrangement, Jim Gordon (Derek and the Dominos) on drums, Pete Ham (Badfinger) guitar. The song would be included on a planned comeback album on the Beatles' Apple Records. Harrison wrote the song on an organ, while he used to compose on guitar. This may explain the strange harmonic structure of the song. Klaus Voormann recalls that he had to step in so that Harrison could hear the entire piece played through: "He played the song on the piano with his right hand, just with three fingers. He couldn't play with five fingers and he couldn't play the whole song with two hands on the piano. I had to play the left hand part so he could hear how the whole song sounded." Also note that the song is a waltz (3/4 rhythm), which is unusual for a pop song. It includes some rhythm patterns that are derived from Indian music. It was released as an Apple Single in 1971 (and included on the CD “Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records” in 2010). The single flopped and the critics were not forgiving for this Harrisong, or Ronnie’s singing…The whole thing turned out to be a huge disappointment, in particular for Phil Spector, who had put enormous effort in producing his trademark ‘Wall Of Sound” backing track for the song. Phil was proud of his achievement and expected that it would be hailed as a masterpiece. However, it appears that the Wall of Sound concept had outlived its days, and the song was far too ‘deep’ for Ronnie’ audience. The whole come-back album was scrapped, and Ronnie and Phil divorced…… In 1973, Harrison added his own vocal onto the 1971 instrumental track and included the result on his album Living in the Material World. Some critics find it doesn’t fit on the album, and Harrison may be singing in a key that was a bit too high for him (because he used a backing track made for Ronnie). Lennon liked the song and later said that the descending melody played by the string section was an inspiration behind his 1974 song "#9 Dream". The lyrics may also have something to do with “Buy Some Try Some”, as both songs begin with a reference to the past: "Way back in time / Someone said try some…. Compare with #9 Dream: “So long ago, was it in a dream, was it just a dream?” Earlier, Lennon already based the musical backing of his 1971 single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" on that of "Try Some Buy Some". In recent years, "Try Some Buy Some" has won more acclaim, and its unique musical structure is recognized. Paul-René Lee alerted me to Ronnie’s 1971 version, and making a duet with Harrison’s 1973 version was straightforward, since both used the same backing track. The Best of Both Worlds?

This week, Al Sussman talks about the just concluded Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans that featured appearances by Klaus Voormann and others. Allan Kozinn and Steve Marinucci preview the upcoming "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" CD, which they've heard. And the guys discuss the recent Paul McCartney interviews in Rolling Stone and the New York Times. As always, we want to hear from you. Write to us at thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our Facebook page or tweet us at @thingswesadfab or catch us each on Facebook. We want to hear from you! Thanks for listening!! (We're also heard on Fab4radio, WCPR1 and Pure Pop Radio.) (Photo courtesy MPL Communications.)

show#57701.31.15Too Short... in Many ways...Klaus Voormann and Friends - Short People (Feat Don Preston) from A Sideman's Journey 2009 (3:04)Tommy Tucker - I'm Shorty from The Chess Story 1947-1975 (1967-1968) (Disc 12) 1999 (2:47)Roy Buchanan - Short Fuse (Live) from Messiah on Guitar 1999 (2:52)Dave Hole - Short Memory from Under the Spell 1999 (3:49)T-Bone Walker - Life Is Too Short from The Talkin' Guitar,Blues Fore (2:46)John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - Long Story Short from Spinning Coin 1995 (4:18)Blazers - short fuse from Going Up The Country Mini Album 1996 (4:53)Andy T-Nick Nixon Band - Life Is Too Short from Drink Drank Drunk 2013 (4:41)Los Lobos - Short Side of Nothing from Kiko 1992 (2:58)Ian Siegal - life too short from I Shall Be Standing In The Morning 2002 (3:36)Charlie Musselwhite - Big Legged Woman (with a short short mini skirt) from Louisiana Fog 1968 (4:48)Eddie And The Starlights - To Make A Long Story Short from The Doo-Wop Box Volume III 2000 (2:24)Scott Holt - Shorty from Revelator 2005 (2:14)R.L. Burnside - Short Haired Woman from Too Bad Jim (3:43)Kid Ramos - One Bar Short from West Coast House Party 2000 (3:41)Bobby Radcliff - Dresses Too Short from Dresses Too Short 1989 (4:53)

show#47012.29.12A special end of year show!!The Mothers of Invention - America Drinks & Goes Home (Absolutely Free 1967 Ray Collins vocal)Mavis Staples - Losing You (You Are Not Alone 2010)Rick Estrin & The Nightcats - Old News (One Wrong Turn 2012)Anders Osborne - Stoned, Drunk & Naked (Ash Wednesday Blues 2001)John Hiatt - Like A Freight Train (The Open Road 2010)Jeff Beck - You Shook Me (Truth 1968)Klaus Voormann and Friends - Such A Night (Feat Dr John) (A Sideman's Journey 2009)The Beatles - Yer Blues (The White Album 1968)Carlos del Junco Band - Doodle It (Steady Movin' 2008)Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm, Gene Taylor - T-Bone Shuffle (Live In Japan 1990)Lara Price - Voodoo Woman (Everything 2010)Jimmy Page - Prison Blues (Outrider 1988)Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King - She Got Rid of Me (Close to the Bone 2012)Lawrence Lebo - Walking The Back Streets (The Best Of Don't Call Her Larry)Lucky Peterson - Lucky`s 88 (Heart Of Pain 2010)Bob Margolin - Brown Liquor (Down In The Alley 1993)Nine Below Zero - Three Times Enough (Don't Point Your Finger)Lou Ann Barton - Mean Mean Man (Read My Lips 1989)Jethro Tull - It's Breaking Me Up (This Was 1968)Fleetwood Mac - Albatross (Cue Club (Gothenburg, Sweden) 11/2/1969)Spinner's Segment From The Hague, The Netherlands:Here's what I played from Show #23 12.27.03 Spinner's 1st show (I think)Delbert McClinton: the wandererFay Lovsky & La Bande Dessinée: nobody talks to mePaladins: who's been sleepingOne more from Beardo:Jeff Beck- Rice Pudding (Beck-Ola 1969)

Written about the prison riot of September 1971 in which at least 39 people died, Attica State was included on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Some Time In New York City and released in June 1972. The song was composed on 9 October 1971, John Lennon's 31st birthday. That night a party and jam session took place at a Syracuse hotel room. Lennon and Ono were joined by Klaus Voormann, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Keltner, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and others. A series of demo takes were recorded on 12 November 1971. The first two takes broke down, but the third reveals how Lennon and Ono alternated lines during the verses and joined together for the chorus. The source of this stereo remix is a - mono - acetate of (probably) this Take 3, or (possibly) another session. The melody has some nursery rhyme like charm, chord changes are simple, and the lyrics are poor. What do you expect from a drunken Ono-Lennon composition ?

Klaus Voormann, "Warum spielst Du 'Imagine' nicht auf dem weissen Klavier, John? Erinnerungen amn die Beatles und viele andere Freunde". Mit den Beatles in Hamburg, die Grafik für "Revolver", Leben mit George Harrison, die Plastic Ono-Band.

Typeradio talks on the phone to graphic designer and musician Klaus Voormann. He tells the story how he met and hooked up with The Beatles. Voormann designed the covers for The Beatles’ Revolver and Anthology albums. Besides that he played bass guitar with members of the Beatles, Mannfred Mann’s Earth Band and many other world famous artists. But what is the favourite musician he played with? (Recorded at Typeradio’s Sweet16) Klaus Voormann :: The Beatles :: Klaus Voormann video interview :: File Download (13:03 min / 18 MB)

Why did Klaus Voormann retire from the music business? What filled the gap that music left in his life? What current bands does he like? He talks about his cooperation with Stefan Gandl, the Hamburg Days book, the Turbonegro record sleeve and finally his music production work for the German band Trio (Da Da Da). (Recorded at Typeradio’s Sweet16) Stefan Gandl :: Trio - Da Da Da video :: File Download (14:09 min / 20 MB)

From the guitar player's many years with Dr. John, Anders Osborne, and Johnny Sansone, and his recording work with Klaus Voormann and Rickie Lee Jones, to sessions for film and TV and his own solo records, John is known as someone who goes all out for the music. He's come a long way from the prairies of Montana to the balmy environs of New Orleans. It's all seemingly led him to this moment in the Ring Room with the Troubled Men. Some things are worth working for. Topics include a new year, low beams, God's work, a hipster haircut, Spam sushi, gunfire, a Swiss army knife, a nice shirt, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Pacific Northwest bands, a Montana childhood, early influences, a first gig, a catfight, Snooks Eaglin, Jerry Jumonville, touring the world with Dr. John, Ardent Studios with David Hood, Bonnie Bramlett, Don Nix, a shoutout, an airport incident, new laws, Real ID, sitting vs. smoking, a universal sub, solo gigs, solving a puzzle, words of wisdom, and much more. Support the podcast [here](https://www.paypal.me/troubledmenpodcast). Subscribe, review, and rate(5 Stars) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most podcast aggregators. Follow on social media, share with friends, and spread the Troubled Word. Intro music: Styler/Coman Outro music: “Go Again” by John Fohl from the album “Hands On You”