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