Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About the Beatles

The panel discusses Paul's latest album, McCartney III. We go over how he's adapted his songs to his voice, his ambitious lyrical choices, his cool drumming, the modern heavy sound of Slidin', his impressive producing talent, that one of the tracks was recorded 15 years ago and not all of us noticed. 

Spoiler: we like it.

We also talk a bit about the new "trailer" for the Peter Jackson film/doc "Get Back."

In honor of the upcoming album "McCartney III," the panel discusses the 1980 album "McCartney II."

Just like its predecessor, 1970's "McCartney,"" McCartney II is a completely solo project -- just about everything done by only Paul.  Unlike its predecessor, and unlike anything Paul had done to that point, McCartney II features a lot of experiments with synthesized keyboard sounds, ambient noise, repeated dance beats. Disliked by idiot critics upon its release, McCartney II ended up being seen as a prescient pioneer in the direction that electronic music would soon go in.

The panel discusses all this, and also gets into: Joel saying "the Wings" and Will pronouncing "jazz" like "jaws." Katie and Brett probably say dumb stuff too, who can remember? Anyway this is a fun episode and we hope you like it!

Oh, and we'll do a new episode when "McCartney III" comes out on Katie's birthday in Decemeber 2020!

A noble attempt to recapture the fun of the previous Beatles Games episode. 

Some discussion: Which songs would you most like to have said you wrote? What would Paul say about Klaus? Which is the Beatles of social media platforms? How often can the subject of "bifurcated genitals" make its way into a Beatles discussion?

Panel:  Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

The panel plays a variety of games: F**k Marry Kill, Would You Rather, Listener Questions, Who Are the Beatles of X?, Which X is Which Beatle and perhaps regrettably: Klaustalk.

We call it "Beatles Games" in the audio of the episode, but then after we were done Joel suggested "Fab Bag" and I like it so here it is in the podcast title.

Lots of explicit language for the first five minutes, for almost no reason at all.

Panel: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

The panel takes a look at the Beatles second album "With the Beatles" (going by the British releases). It seems ot be overlooked in favor of Please Please Me and A Hard Day's Night, but we throw in the three mighty singles they also released around the same time: "From Me to You," "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" --- whew, looks a lot better now, doesn't it? And it didn't look bad before!

This is the second time we've gone over this album for this podcast, for those obsessive SIWJGTATB fans.

Okay, and NOW the podcast is finished. Wink!

Panel: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

Recorded on March 18, 2020 while the panel members were trapped in their homes because of the Corona virus! Consider this a bonus episode, or unreleased track, or a momentary change of heart -- at any rate, it's a new episode.

The panel looks at the Beatles' first album "Please Please Me." It's the second time this podcast has gone over that album. The first time was the very first episode, which was the episode that your host, Will Hines, was LEAST prepared for. Now, all these years later, he's ready to take another crack at this album.

Standard panel of: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner and Joel Spence are on hand, remotely, to tackle this first, amazing, album.

Okay, and NOW the podcast is finished.

We go over the film Let It Be, the documentary that lets us see the Beatles... be quietly annoyed with each other. But also lets us see the glorious rooftop performance!

It's also the FINAL EPISODE of this podcast! It's been mostly dormant for about a year, and I felt like it was time to officially put it to bed. It's strange how a project occupies mental space until you really say THE END (Beatles reference).

I have loved doing this podcast so much and want to thank everyone who's ever listened to any part of it! And to all the amazing panelists who have ever been on it! 

My final hot take on the Beatles is: they're great!

Your friend in Beatledom, Will Hines

Comedy writer/producer Jake Fogelnest comes on the podcast and announces his opinion of what a 12 song White Album should be. This was an unsolicited opinion that Jake brought on, and it's interesting and great. An interesting side note is that Will and Jake talked for over 2 hours and Will decided to include only this. The rest was great, but it was mostly Will bringing stuff up and Jake responding, and the White Album stuff was the stuff that Jake brought up of his own volition and passion, and so host/editor Will made the call and here we are. Hope you enjoy the ep!

The panel heads to Brett Morris' underground lair, where we all listen to the new Abbey Road 2019 remix in 5.1 sound on his superb system. We love the album, of course, and geek out on all the sonic details given new attention on this mix! We also talk about the cool extra tracks. And we give Wayland a hard time because for 10 seconds Will thought he was mocking Abbey Road (which he was not). 

Skip to the final 15 minutes or thereabouts for Will Hines' note-perfect impersonation of Giles Martin!

Thanks to Brett for recording and mixing this episode! Apparently he used something called Abbey Road plugins, which I'm sure were unnecessary but make for a great creation story of this ep!

Panel: Will Hines, Wayland McQueen, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

We return to our series where host Will Hines plays Beatles albums for his Beatles-neutral friend Eugene Cordero, to see what Eugene thinks!

Eugene largely liked Sgt. Pepper! Interesting wrinkle: because of these episode, Eugene is now becoming a Beatles fan and also knows a lot about the band. He's starting to lose his unbiased view! Listen to how quickly he likes the first track! We talk about what makes Pepper great, how much Paul is on it, and of course the amazing final track. Oh, also Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas.

We discuss the 2007 film Across the Universe, a musical which used Beatles songs to tell its story. Host Will Hines joins Across the Universe superfan Alex Lewis (Lewberger) and moderate appreciator John Flynn (Two Old Queens) to watch the film and then discuss it! Bad news, skeptics: Will liked the movie. I mean, sure it's weird that it's about a guy named Jude who falls in love with a girl named Lucy (roommates: Maxwell, Sadie and Prudence). But the visuals are cool and the songs are good! Check it out!

Panel: John Flynn, Will Hines, Alex Lewis. 

Host Will Hines and panelist Joel Spence (and Brett Morris via text message) talk about their experience seeing Paul McCartney live at Dodger Stadium July 13, 2019 --- featuring an appearance by Ringo Starr!

The panel reviews the movie "Yesterday," in which a struggling singer-songwriter comes out of a coma to find he's the only person on earth who knows Beatles songs. Will loved this movie and was dismayed to realize that it may in fact be not that great!

Panel: Will Hines, Wayland McQueen, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

We go over the last John Lennon released while he was still alive: Double Fantasy, which came out November 1980. John had not released music for five years. Then he announced he and his wife Yoko were doing a co-album -- each one handling about half the tracks. It's easiest to consider them as two separate albums. As for John's half, they were a stellar set of pop songs expressing the insecurities and hopes of a rocker facing middle age. Tragically, John was murdered three weeks after it came out. 

A fascinating album! We get into it.

Panel: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

After a long-ish break, the podcast returns! We talk about plans for the future of the podcast, the upcoming Beatles-centered movie "Yesterday" and then settle in for an in-depth talk about Paul's terrific 1973 solo album "Band on the Run." Well, it's a Wings album, really, but we think of it as a Paul solo album.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

The panel discusses the 2018 remix of the beloved double album: The self-titled The Beatles, better known as the White Album. Giles Martin's remix has all of Beatledom discussing this beloved album, as well as the newly collected original demos and lots of alternate takes! 

Panelists: Will Hines,  Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward

The panel watched The Rutles: a 1978 mockumentary / parody of The Beatles done by Eric Idle (of Monty Python) and Neil Innes (of many cool art/music/comedy credits , among other things, the Magical Mystery Tour film)!

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence 

Some of us saw Ringo Starr and the All-Starr Band in Los Angeles (Sep 29, 2018 - Greek Theatre) and we talk about it!

Panelists: Will Hines, Jackie Johnson, Adam McCabe,  Katie Plattner, Heather Woodward

A mammoth look at the new Paul McCartney album (Sep 2018), "Egypt Station." The main point: WE LIKE IT.

Things we get into:

--the wide variety of songs

--Paul's use of his new, older voice

--the production

--the pretty, soft songs like "Hand in Hand"

--the epic, poppier songs like "Feh You" and "Come On To Me"

--every other song

--plus we talk about the Beatles masturbation story, and then don't stop talking about it.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

We discuss Mark Lewisohn's 1000-page (ish) bio of the Beatles, which hilariously only covers through the end of 1962 (i.e. before the group finished any albums). WE STILL LOVE THIS BOOK!

Panelists: Katie Plattner, Jennifer Wang, Will Hines

The panel discusses the incredible 1971 John Lennon solo album Imagine. Topics discussed: how great this album is, how amazing the song "Imagine" is, how amazing the song "Jealous Guy" is, how petty and mean the song "How Do You Sleep" is. We also listen to Paul McCartney's recent singles and decide that he is very good.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward.

The panel does an unsolicited and unnecessary commentary track for the Beatles second movie Help! Heather knows a ton, and the rest of us know less, but not nothing.

Panelists: Will Hines, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward.

Beatles fan and obsessive list-maker Wayland McQueen picks Beatles 5-20. 

Also, we plug the current theatrical release of Yellow Submarine!

I play Revolver for Eugene, who's never heard it. This is the fifth in a series of "playing albums for Eugene." Regular panelist Brett Morris heard I was playing Revolver, and asked to come by, so he sits in too! That makes TWO people just staring at a dude as he listens to an album for the first time! Fun! 

We go over Paul McCartney's second post-Beatles album, RAM. Criticized upon its release, it's now considered one of his best solo albums! Brett Morris in particular doesn't want to hear you people who don't appreciate this album! 

We get into the unfair expectations on Paul, his insane vocal range, the inventive orchestrations, the as-usual-perfect-melodies. We also get into what we think the other Beatles might have brought to this.

And Joel does too many puns about name Klaus, a man who was not involved at all with this album!

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence.

The panel goes over John's first post-Beatles solo album: PLASTIC ONO BAND. Not enough Beatles fans have heard this, and it's one of the best solo Beatles albums out there. The bleakness, the raw blues rock, KLAUS' BASS and RINGO'S DRUMS! 

Plus Barbara Streisand covered "Mother?" Weird.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

Continuing the series of "playing Beatles albums for Eugene" (this is the 4th installment) we do Rubber Soul! Hear Will try hard not to influence Eugene's opinion! Luckily he doesn't have to as Eugene falls in love with this album almost immediately.

In the 3rd episode of "Playing Albums for Eugene," host Will Hines plays "A Hard Day's Night." HOWEVER due to a recording error, the levels are off and so it's hard to hear us talk when the music gets loud. Sheesh. My apologies. That's why I'm releasing this as a bonus ep. Feel free to IGNORE or to PUSH THROUGH, as is your wishes.

Beatles fan Amy walks us through the evidence of John's affection for Paul. Sure, we know Lennon cared about Macca, but he sure was stubborn about showing it when journalists were around, especially in the 1970s. Amy takes us through deep cuts of interviews, testimony, and even shopping lists to which reveal what every Beatles fan knows but still loves to hear: John loves Paul.

We loved playing a Beatles album for someone who'd never heard it last week, so let's try it again. With the same person! but a different album. We play "The White Album" for Eugene Cordero and get his moment-by-moment reactions. Some highlights include: Dear Prudence, Honey Pie and Revolution 9.

Sure, the album Abbey Road is a favorite of Beatles fans -- but what does someone think of it if they're not a particular fan of the band, and have never really heard the album? We find out as Beatles-neutral actor Eugene Cordero (Kong: Skull Island, UCB) listens to this seminal album and says what he thinks! Robert Baker (Justified, Grey's Anatomy) is along for the ride too. 

Hosted as usual by Will Hines. Pardon the slight-but-yep-you-hear-it echo -- your host did not realize his hotel room had such bouncy sounds.

Here's a major one: We go over George Harrison's first solo album, the triple-album All Things Must Pass.

After having lots of his songs passed up for the later Beatles albums (except when they were so-goddamned-good-not-even-John-Lennon-could-deny-it like Something and Here Comes the Sun) --- George explodes with productivity on his debut.

We talk about the million people who worked on this album, the obvious (though still restrained) "screw you" vibe, the spirituality, the weird house George lived in, the many many great songs, and oh yeah that third disc which is just... uh.. blues jams.

Guess what: we love this album.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward. 

The second post-Beatles solo album is the you've-probably-never-heard-it Beaucoups of Blues, a country album by Ringo Starr released July of 1970. It is quite solidly okay, which is honestly better than probably a lot of people expected, since Ringo Starr is basically the Ringo of the Beatles.

Our panelists are Will Hines and Heather Woodward. Circumstances made us do this episode in a bit of a hurry, with Heather phoning in and Will playing music by holding his iPhone up to a microphone. The audio is, just like this album, still quite solidly okay!

The first true Beatles solo album: McCartney. Recorded almost entirely by himself, including many sessions done alone in his apartment -- this was a sad and lonely time for Paul. The Beatles were over, and he was trying to see what kind of record he would make without his three collaborators around. Turns out: a pretty damn good one. Just "Maybe I'm Amazed" alone makes this a must-have album. But even the smallest trifle is fascinating for what it tells us about how the very recently former Beatle is feeling.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward

We take a break from going over the solo stuff to discuss BEATLES WOMEN. An all-female panel discusses the wives and girlfriends of the fab four, with a German photographer and British journalist thrown in there too.

This is the second long episode in a row. I promise the episodes are normally gonna be an hour or less! But we had a lot to cover! The next episode will come in two more weeks since this one is basically a double.

Panelists: Jackie Johnson, Jen Krueger, Katie Plattner, Jennifer Wang, Heather Woodward

We're back for season 3! And now we're going over SOLO BEATLES. First, a massive episode that goes over all (well, most) of the solo projects they did before the breakup. And we get into the breakup, too! Allen Klein vs. Lee Eastman! Yoko Ono! Apple Corps! Eeesh. But we also dig into the music: Wonderwall! Two Virgins! Give Peace A Chance! Sentimental Journey! 

It's the Beatles! Fascinating, even as they couldn't stand each other.

This is a long episode, and so the next episode will come in TWO weeks instead of next week.

Panelists: Will Hines, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Heather Woodward

We talk about stuff - lyrics, music, licks, moods -- the Beatles stole for their songs!

Wait, are we really saying the Beatles are thieves? Well, no. Not usually. Sometimes we're just interested to see which songs influenced them.

Except for one or two in which case we're like, "Yikes!" ("If I Needed Someone" and "The Bells of Rhymney," anyone?)

This episode is inspired by a new project by our special guest Matt Besser (Improv4Humans, UCB founder). Besser(along with Bobby Matthews as well as Beatles podcast regular Brett Morris) has made a rock opera called "Stolen Idea" -- which we hope you check out on Stitcher Premium.

Also, we are taking a break from the podcast for a bit to recharge our Beatles engines! While we're recharging please know that we appreciate everyone who's taken time to listen! Thank you!

Panelists: Matt Besser, Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Brett Morris, Joel Spence.

On this episode we talk about two less-often-discussed Beatles movies: Nowhere Boy (2009) and Backbeat (1994). These are not Beatles movies as in the Beatles were in them, but that are Beatles movies in that they are fictionalized accounts of the Beatles real lives.

First we discuss Nowhere Boy, which shows John Lennon in high school, meeting his reckless but inspiring birth mother Julia, learning to play banjo and guitar, meeting Paul McCartney and coming to terms with his strict but reliable Aunt Mimi.

Then we get into Backbeat, which shows the life of Stu Sutcliffe, John's friend in Liverpool art college, who was the Beatles original bass player and who joins the band when they go to Hamburg.

Plus we talk about the very cool band of 1994 grungy all-stars that got assembled to make this movie's soundtrack!

Although both movies have their flaws, I think big Beatles fans would love them both and in this episode we get into why!

My panel for this episode is Brian Hines (Sea Tea theatre in Hartford, Ct and brother of the host) and Tara Ariano (previously.tv web site and podcasting network).

As I note in the introduction, the recording quality for this ep is a bit less than usual. We were all in different cities and I was using some new software. I didn't configure everything exactly right. Everyone is still easy to understand, but you can hear that we are all on phones, etc. My apologies!

For our third episode recorded in the vaunted facilities of actual Abbey Road recording studios, we perform our own cover versions of Beatles songs.

They start weird, and get weirder. We go in roughly chronological order, but because of a combination of jet lag and how last-minute we got the studio -- our song selections are truly insane. 

Thankfully Joel Spence had arrived so we have his great guitar playing. And we have my own and Connor Ratliff's and Joel's spirited singing.

I do recommended listening to the whole thing for our interpretations of When I'm 64 and You Know My Name, Look Up The Number.

Thanks to engineer Stefano Civetta for his patience and sense of humor throughout!

Back to normal next week!

Musician/subway busker Nicola Hogg (@nicolahoggmusic), with her terrific voice and great songs, saved the day in this episode!

To re-cap: podcast host Will Hines along with temporary co-host Connor Ratliff were in London for improv reasons and impulsively decided to try and rent time at famed Beatles recording studio Abbey Road. To their shock, it WORKED and they suddenly had 10 hours of studio time with almost no plan.

The day before the session, they pass Nicola Hogg playing "You Can't Hurry Love" at the Tottenham Court Road subway station, and she sounded terrific. But that's not a Beatles song, you say. Well, so what? She's a young talented musician, and didn't the Beatles foster many such talents via their Apple Records label? And weren't Connor and Will, for the day at least, owners of official Abbey Road studio recording time? 

After exchanging a few tweets ("Uh, hi, you don't know us -- want to meet us at Abbey Road and record?") the delightful Nicola Hogg becomes the one and only client of our day-long adventure in running a record label, which is called Songer Records for reasons made clear in this episode.

Nicola plays us her songs, as well as some great Beatles covers. We talk about her music story, her thoughts on the Beatles and songwriting and performing in general. She's great!

Check out Nicola's terrific music at these places:

On Spotify, she's Nicola Hogg. 

And she's @nicolahoggmusic on twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Soundcloud! 

One more Abbey Road ep next week!

HOLY CRAP THIS EPISODE RECORDED AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS.

Is this an act of hubris? Or a fulfillment of a destiny? We may never know, but the fact is: THIS EPISODE, and the two that will follow, ARE RECORDED AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS!

We explain it in full detail in the episode, but basically Connor and Joel and I were all going to be in London and so we sent an email to Abbey Road Studios to ask if we could record there... AND THEY SAID YES. I mean, for a normal fee, it wasn't like they had any idea who we were.

We recorded 3 episodes on September 22, 2017 (mark that down, Mark Lewisohn). For this episode, we talk to Abbey Road engineer Stefano Civetta.

Abbey Road Studios has a new small studio in their complex called The Gatehouse and that made is financially possible (though still impractical and foolish) for us to record there!

We saw the Beatles studio! We took our photo in the crosswalk! We ate in the Abbey Road work cafeteria! IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE DAY!

Panelists: Will Hines, Connor Ratliff, Stefano Civetta, and for one brief word Mariana Feijo.

Our panel does a live show at the UCB Theatre on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles to talk about BEATLES VOCALS.

Panel regulars and brilliant singers Ariana Lenarsky, Jackie Johnson and Heather Woodward perform some of their favorite Beatles songs to sing! Because, Ticket to Ride, And I Love Her, Oh! Darling and MORE!

Making this episode a manageable size was tough. We pick almost ANY Beatles song and have a great example of great vocals. Melody, harmony and performance was maybe their most consistently amazing trait. But we narrowed it down by a process known as "what would be fun." 

Plus hear Brett Morris be a guitar virtuoso, Adam McCabe do very well on drums, and Joel and I banter away as the singers prepare for their next songs!

Thanks to Alex Scordelis for lending us a drum kit extremely last minute, Beth Appel and the UCB Theatre, Darius Hamilton Smith for teching and Rob Pera for recording it. 

PLUG: Live show coming up Monday Sep 4th 10:30pm at UCB Sunset in Los Angeles! Singing Beatles songs! Come out!

------------

Good idea gone terribly wrong? Brilliant art project? Or perhaps the most faithful fulfillment of the title of this podcast?

Our panel (Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Wayland McQueen) welcomes guest Arthur Meyer (writer for The Tonight Show, also a human being) as we go through EACH AND EVERY BEATLES SONG to see what our personal / emotional associations are.

I somehow did not realize this would take two and a half hours. I honestly thought "eh, hour, hour and 10 minutes." You can hear me at the 90 minute mark apologize to the group and predict we were about half an hour away from being done. Nope. Another full hour awaited us.

Did I think about chopping this episode down to a more humane length? Yes. I could have skipped all the early albums, for which we didn't have as many memories. Or cut every song for which we had zero personal memories (often true for amazing songs like Lucy in the Sky). But that seemed like a cop-out, hard, and also would still have only gotten this down to an hour and forty five minutes.

So, I'm just leaving it here.

Even if you never listen to this, I do recommend DOING this with your Beatle loving friends. We four learned about each other, and it WAS very fun to DO. You'll be surprised what memories come up. The Beatles are ubiquitous and have bled into our consciousnesses and memories throughout our lives. 

Ariana remembers hearing "Yesterday" when she was six years old!

Arthur seems to know the favorite Beatles songs of all of his friends and lovers!

Wayland was married before! News to us!

Will and his brother Brian used to wake up to a different Beatles song every day until they made the mistake of picking "Good Day Sunshine!"

Anyway. Here it is. 2 and half hours of it. "Enjoy!"

Beatles guitars! We have four guitarists on to talk about Beatles songs in terms of the guitar parts in this plus-sized episode! 

Topics include:

The ninth chords that ends a lot of the early songs;

the iconic beginnings of A Hard Day's Night / Day Tripper / I Feel Fine and more;

George solo in All My Loving;

cool chords on Michelle;

sick Paul solo on Taxman;

dual guitars on She Said She Said;

easy songs to play around a campfire;

the clawhammer picking on the White Album;

George's stellar contributions to Octopus' garden;

She's So Heavy

More!

Were we up to the technical challenge of recording four guitars in the host's living room with whatever cords people brought to the session? Not always! But the love for the music stays strong throughout!

Plus we do our own version of the Abbey Road trading guitars jam --- at the one hour and twenty minute mark! Necessary? No! Fun? Yes! And as with all our jams it has that first take authenticity! (Order of soloists: Joel, then Brett, then Mike with James playing rhythm).

Panelists: James Bachman, Mike Carlson, Will Hines, Brett Morris, Joel Spence.

There are so many great covers of Beatles songs and we talk about some of them!

Including these:

With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
Taxman - Black Oak Arkansas
Norwegian Wood - Swingle Singers
Come Together - Soundgarden
We Can Work It Out - Stevie Wonder
Across the Universe - Fiona Apple
Yesterday - Ray Charles
Blackbird - CSNY
When I Get Home - Harry Nillson
Blackbird - Bobby McFerrin
I Want to Hold Your Hand - Al Green
Eleanor Rigby - Aretha Franklin
Something - Frank Sinatra
I Am The Walrus - Jim Carrey
In My Life - Sean Connery

We will likely do another episode as there are so many interesting covers out there. But, hey, this is a pretty good start!

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Brett Morris, Katie Plattner, Joel Spence

Our silliest idea yet? We got 4 drummers, each with his own drum kit, into a recording studio to talk about Ringo Starr and his drumming. Surprise: we love him and it. 

Was it necessary to have 4 drummers at once? No, not at all. Was there some gain to be had for having more than one drummer play Ringo's licks at the same time? I mean, not that I can explain. But let me tell you this: once you get in your head that you're going get 4 drummers and 4 drum kits into a studio, all playing Ringo Starr drum parts at once -- it's a very tough idea to let go of. And we had a blast.

Our drummers / Beatlemaniacs are: Manny Hagopian, Chris Kula, Adam McCabe, Alex Scordelis

Do we do Ringo's big drum solo? Of course. Do we play and sing along to Octopus' Garden? Big yes. Is there a metal band in the adjacent studio playing speed thrash for much of the session? Yes again. 

Thanks so much to the drummers for coming and doing this! I wasn't able to give us much (any) time to rehearse together, and our sound check was minimal, but they crushed it! Don't Pass This (Episode) By!*

*I just realized we do not reference that song for the entire episode.

Host: Will Hines

We talk about the Beatles longtime producer George Martin. He's one of the most common nominees for the informal title of "Fifth Beatle" for his contributions to their sound.

Whether it was through knowing when to take the role of teacher vs. letting them make the decisions, or being able to turn John Lennon's abstract wishes into concrete instrumentation, or even in the early days broadly helping to direct their songwriting -- George Martin was crucial in helping the Beatles become THE BEATLES.

Along the way we have some fun distractions including checking out isolated tracks from Sgt. Pepper and also Peter Serafinowicz' track "A Full Day In The Life." And somehow Heather keeps imitating Eddie Vedder.

Panelists: Suzi Barrett, Will Hines, Connor Ratliff, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward.

Friend of the Podcast Wayland McQueen is back with more hypothetical Beatles questions:

• What is your favorite song where Ringo sings lead?
• What is your favorite closing track on an album that doesn't have the word "Albert" in the lyrics?
• What is your favorite Beatles song that none of the Beatles wrote?
• You can switch vocals to another Beatle on any song. Which song and who do you switch it to?

Panelists: Scott Aukerman, Will Hines, Wayland McQueen, Katie Plattner, Charlie Sanders

We discuss "Dreaming the Beatles," a new collection of essays by Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield, for no other reason than podcast host Will Hines recently read the book and liked it.

BUT we quickly realize that the two men on the panel liked the book, whereas the two women very much did not. Coincidence? Or is there something in this book that annoys female Beatles fans?

We get into a topic we're all interested in: is there a difference in how male fans relate to the Beatles vs women? Isn't it annoying when you just want to say "I like the Beatles" and you're greeted with what amounts to a trivia competition? Why is it that the Beatles were launched to fame by an almost completely female fan base, yet every book about them seems to be written by a man? 

It's not ALL gender issues. We also talk about Rob's unique approach to writing about the band. Instead of doing anything like a complete history, he presents a deliberately opinionated discussion of Beatles events. Will likes how emotional this feels, and thinks it captures a feeling of loving the Beatles better than a dry history. But Jen and Katie are annoyed that the author doesn't do a better job defending his assumptions. 

A different subtitle might have gone long way. Instead of "The Love Story of One Band and The Whole World" it's more "The Love Story of One Band and This Author."

Alex loves the revelations this book has of some little talked about parts of Beatles history: George slept with Ringo's WIFE? The month before he died, John was talking about a reunion? WHAT?

And there are very interesting takes: that the Beatles were more influenced by girl groups than we have realized; that the 90s did as much for The Beatles as the 60s. 

This is an extra long episode because 1) we like it and 2) we're not releasing a new episode for two more weeks as the host temporarily has a life/vacation/travels.

Panelists: Will Hines, Jen Krueger, Katie Plattner, Alex Scordelis

This episode is possibly a bad idea: we got four bass players gathered around our recording setup, and then our panelists spent an hour raving about Paul's bass playing. Slides, counter melodies, variety, liveliness, off-tempo, playing in the pocket -- and half the time he was singing the lead vocal, too. Spoiler: We think Paul McCartney is good.

Panelists: Thomas Halloran, Will Hines, Adam McCabe, Brett Morris, Joel Spence.

And yes there is a jam of our first takes of Beatles songs -- as always in the easy-to-skip post-closing theme position! Though you risk missing Brett's pretty damn great first take of Hey Bulldog and my backwards talking on Rain. No hard feelings.

Friend, comedian and Beatlemaniac Wayland McQueen asks the panel fun "which song" questions:

• Which is your favorite side 1/track 1?
• What is your favorite that has a first name in the title?
• Which have you gone back and forth on?
• Which would you pick to see the Beatles perform live if you could only pick one?
• Which is the best one to dance to? (which erupts in controversy that somehow ends with your host criticizing the Beatles)

FUN! 

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Adam McCabe, Wayland McQueen

Part 2 of the JOHN VS PAUL discussion!

What songs are examples of true collaborations of the JOHN and PAUL sensibility? We each pick an OBVIOUS one and an NON-OBVIOUS one! Will forbids choosing A Day In The Life, but then immediately caves and just plays it anyway! Post-closing one-take jams include bits of: I've Got A Feeling and I Shoulda Known Better.

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Brett Morris, Joel Spence. 

EMERGENCY EPISODE (er, kind of): We review the new remix of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! We get deep into audiophile things, talking about where the instruments are panned in terms of "left" vs "right" and the what the previous versions of this album were like (mono vs stereo), and what the difference is between "remastered" and "remixed."

We check out the extra tracks a bit, including the first take of "Lucy in the Sky."

It is nerdy and specific and fawning and fun. Stick around after the theme to hear Brett Morris noodling on his guitar and talking a bit about John's songwriting.

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Brett Morris, Joel Spence

The start of season 2 of the podcast! We discuss JOHN songs vs PAUL songs. The panel each plays examples of:

--an OBVIOUS John song

--an OBVIOUS Paul song

--a NOT OBVIOUS John song, and

--a NOT OBVIOUS Paul song.

Discussions ensue!

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Brett Morris, Joel Spence. 

Another special bonus episode in which the guest is my Aunt Sue, who saw the Beatles live on their first American tour when she was in the sixth grade. We talk about this momentous event, whether or not it was fair that she didn't bring her sister Carol, how she feels about various other events in Beatles history and how she was briefly engaged to Paul McCartney.

Bonus emergency episode! Ariana Lenarsky and Will Hines are here to alert the Beatles community about this question: which TLC song lifted from Paul McCartney?

Abbey Road. How did we ever think there was an album better than this? Our panelists enter into a state of transcendental bliss as they listen to the entirety of this, the last album the Beatles recorded. We realize that we have loved this album our whole lives. Every track we find ourselves saying "oh, no, THIS one is our favorite." It doesn't seem to get old. The Beatles (+ producer George Martin, engineer Geoff Emerick) use everything they've learned along the way -- and they've learned a lot. In just 7 years, the band has evolved from a merely brilliant blues-rock cover band into the greatest team of songwriters, performers and studio producers that has ever been known in pop music. 

"Come Together" "Something" "Here Comes the Sun" "You Never Give Me Your Money" "Oh! Darling" "Because" "Golden Slumbers" "The End" -  These songs are perfect ideas, made better by performance, better again by production and better yet again by being in proximity to each other. This is a perfect album. We will hear no dissent. 

After this, they broke up.

This is the end of Season 1 of our podcast. There will be a Season 2. Stay subscribed to hear details once we've figured that out. Thank you so much to everyone who has listened to any of these episodes!

Panelists: Curtis Gwinn, Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Joel Spence.

Our panel dissects the strange album that is Let it Be. Part live album, part throwback, part new songs, part movie soundtrack - what IS it? Something like 10 producers worked on it (2 mostly) and it didn't even come out until after the Beatles broke up. (We're covering it now because we're doing the album in the order they were recorded, not released).

We still like it a lot.

Our panel also gets into what the sexiest Beatle song is, that Paul McCartney is Jackie's real dad, that Heather has weird taste in what counts as a sexy song, and that the song Let It Be is one of the most perfect songs ever.

Panelists: Lynsey Bonell, Jackie Johnson, Jen Krueger, Katie Plattner, Heather Woodward.

We get into the half-album Yellow Submarine. Not so much the movie -- more the album that came out with the movie which had a bunch of re-releases (title track, All You Need Is Love), some fun deeper cuts (All Together Now, It's All Too Much, Only A Northern Song) and then one of the coolest songs the Beatles ever did: Hey Bulldog.

Just like the album, this episode is a bit of mish-mash since we also go back and cover a bunch of singles we skipped on previous episodes: some early B-sides as well as Long Tall Sally and Lady Madonna.

We pose and then do not answer several questions like: which Beatles songs are fun for kids? Why does George complain about money so much? Did Yoko being in the studio make John want to show off for her? 

Panelists: James Bachman, Will Hines, Jen Krueger, Joel Spence.

We continue on to the second disc of the White Album (or sides 3 and 4 to those preferring vinyl). We go over: is "Birthday" a great song (we say yes)? How great is "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey?" We also discuss the original lyrics to "Sexy Sadie," and which of the two "Revolutions" is better? Exactly how bad an idea was "Revolution 9?" Why did the mono version of "Helter Skelter" leave off Ringo's "I've got blisters on my fingers?"

And we ALSO go over the massive single "Hey Jude / Revolution" recorded during this session. I almost did a whole episode on this single. Another time.

Panelists: Will Hines, Ariana Lenarsky, Adam McCabe, Joel Spence, Heather Woodward

The Beatles double album, officially titled "The Beatles" but better known as "The White Album" because of its iconic white cover, is to many people the most special Beatles album of all. This is the one that feels personal, that you feel like only you understand and no one else. There's masterpieces, curious trifles, unfinished gems and a few damned silly tracks. Because it's a double album, we're doing two episodes to cover it. Today we go over Sides 1 and 2, which includes the jaw-droppingly great "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Blackbird," "Happiness is A Warm Gun," "Dear Prudence" and MORE AND MORE. Holy crap. Panelists: Manny Hagopian, Will Hines, Ariana Lenarksy, Adam McCabe, Joel Spence.

(audio re-mixed, yep yep)

MMT is one of the orphan albums -- not quite a full album, but certainly way more than an extended single. The presence of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" alone make this a must-have for any Beatles fans, but once you dig into the other tracks you find, as you almost always do with Beatles stuff, that everything is great. Except "Flying." No one really needed "Flying." Panelists: Will Hines, Jackie Johnson, Wayland McQueen, Joe Petric, Connor Ratliff.

At this point, we are just listening to these amazing albums and going "Wow." Sgt. Peppers was not just another amazing album, it was a transformative cultural milestone that officially cemented the "album" as a work unto itself beyond being just a collection of songs. The Beatles are at the height of their production capabilities, comfortably doing simply great blues-rock numbers like the title song, as well as professionally scored pieces like "She's Leaving Home," authentic Indian music with "Within You, Without You" and the mind-blowingly cool final track "A Day in the Life." Panelists: Will Hines, Curtis Gwinn, Joel Spence, Ariana Lenarsky.

After doing one of the best albums of all time with Rubber Soul, the Beatles follow with yet ANOTHER one of the best albums of all time: Revolver. The songwriting quality is just as high, and now they're pushing the boundaries of their style more than ever. Orchestral backing with "Eleanor Rigby," trippy free-flowing songs like "She Said She Said," the funky fuzz bass of George's "Taxman," the backing horns for "Got to Get You Into My Life" and of course the most experimental track they've done yet: "Tomorrow Never Knows." Panelists: Will Hines, Joel Spence, Brett Morris, Heather Woodward.

One of the greatest albums created by any band to this point, Rubber Soul is yet another peak for the Beatles. It was the first album where they set aside time in the studio to finish writing and developing the songs, and the extra attention shows. This is even though they still finished the album in, relative to modern standards, an insanely short period of time. As always, just a list of signature tracks should be enough to show how amazing this album is: "Drive My Car," "Norwegian Wood, "Nowhere Man,""Michelle,""In My Life" and there are more and more. This isn't even counting "We Can Work It Out," which was recorded with this album and released separately. Incredible! Panelists: Will Hines, Curtis Gwinn, Joel Spence and Ariana Lenarsky.

Help!, in addition to being an amazing album, is also representative of a transitional time for The Beatles: part "early" with songs like "The Night Before" and the title track, and part "middle" with mid-tempo grooves like "Ticket to Ride" and the instant-classic-for-all-generations-and-humans "Yesterday." Unsurprisingly, we love it all. Our panel of Will Hines, Adam McCabe, Joel Spence and Ariana Lenarsky get into this astoundingly great collection of songs. 

The last of the truly "early" Beatles albums. Our panel of Will Hines, Joel Spence, Adam McCabe and Brett Morris get into it: the brilliant original songs ("No Reply" "Eight Days A Week" "I'll Follow the Sun"), the underrated deep cuts ("What You're Doing"), the covers, the country influence, the obvious fatigue that is setting in after their explosive first two years (two!) of recording. 

Holy crap. Just three albums in and we are already at a masterpiece: A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Spoiler alert: We love it. This is the first "all killer, no filler" album. It's so happy! But wait, it's sad! And holy crap: they had "Can't Buy Me Love" and also "If I Fell" on this album? And the title track? AND EVERY SONG? Panelists: Will Hines, Joel Spence, Curtis Gwinn, Ariana Lenarsky.

We get into the Beatles' second studio album "With the Beatles." We talk about how this album is a sort of B-side to the entire first album, and how amazing the song "All My Loving" is, and the amazing songs that were left off the album ("From Me To You" / "She Loves You" / "I Want to Hold Your Hand"). Was the intensity of Beatlemania in America a reaction to the assassination of the president? Or was the younger generation just so happy to tell its parents that time had passed them by? We also somehow talk about 9/11. I forget how that happened. Panelists: Will Hines, Curtis Gwinn, Joel Spence, Ariana Lenarsky.

We talk about the Beatles' first album: the incredible "Please Please Me." Recorded in a stunningly short 9 hours, this is the album that announced what would quickly become the greatest band in rock history. Although the band was still taking shape (Ringo, after all, had just joined the week before they recorded this), there is still plenty of evidence on this record of how great the Beatles were. What other band was writing so many of its own songs, never mind ones as great as "Please Please Me" (the song, obvs) and "I Saw Her Standing There." Who else was cool enough to cover Ray Charles and Carole King and Motown? Who could do songs in the style of classic standards like "A Taste of Honey" but also rock harder than all of Motown when John blows open "Twist and Shout?" Oh my God, look at me, this is just the first episode and I've already lost my mind. Panelists: Will Hines, Curtis Gwinn, Ben Rodgers, Ariana Lenarsky.

Welcome to "Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles." Creator/host Will Hines, a dude from the Los Angeles improv comedy scene, introduces the podcast, which is easy because the title is very explanatory!