Good old Ringo, the eldest Beatle, born three months before John, turns 70 this year. Back in ’08 Eric and I saw Ringo in Boston, and now he’s out plugging his new record — that I downloaded from Amazon last night, after seeing him on the Daily Show.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Ringo Starr – With a Little Help From My Friends | ||||
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Hey, Ringo was on “The Daily Show” tonight!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s hoping for a good 2010. There were highs and lows in 2009, with the low being my wife’s illness, and the high being contacted by Prue Bury.
Two syndicated radio shows I listen to are The Beatle Years and Beatle Brunch. Both programs are carried in Boston by WODS-FM, Oldies 103. If you click the link below you’ll find six months of shows available for streaming, and you can even download them. Elvis fans will find something there, too.
http://www.wods.com/Oldies-On-Demand-Audio/4334827
A particularly good example is the most recent Beatle Years installment that’s been posted. From November, 14 — “Works in Progress.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/BeatleYears_14Nov09.mp3]Beatle Brunch from November 8 also has excellent alternate takes of songs.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/BeatleBrunch_8Nov09.mp3]It’s safe to assume that any Beatles documentary without Beatles music is unauthorized. Some of them have an interesting clip or two. One of the worst I’ve seen is “Beatles Biggest Secrets.” Don’t bother. A BBC DVD called “Unseen Beatles” is pretty good. The use of Classical music is odd and unnecessary, but the narrative is strong, because it does a good job of explaining why the Beatles had to quit touring. I’ve spliced together a couple of minutes from “Unseen Beatles” about the aftermath in America of Lennon’s infamous Jesus quote.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/UnseenBeatles.flv 512 384]
The guy telling the story about the show in Memphis is Barry Tashian, of the legendary Boston garage band, The Remains, who were on the Beatles’ final concert tour.
Tashian recounts the summer of ’66 in his excellent book, “Ticket To Ride: The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles’ Last Tour.” I scanned Tashian’s journal entries for the Memphis show.
There’s a movie about The Remains called “America’s Lost Band” that I hope finds its way to DVD. Here is a preview with related clips.
Let’s finish with “Why Do I Cry,” by the Remains. We’ll never see another time like the mid- to late-60’s, folks!
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/WhyDoICry.mp3]
Available online until Saturday from BBC Radio 2 is The Songs The Beatles Gave Away. Of particular interest, I think, is Cilla Black and her explanation of how she came to have such a “big voice.”
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/SongsBeatlesGaveAway.mp3]Today, former Monkee Peter Tork is at the BEATexpo Beatles show in Connecticut. Last weekend, along with Mickey Dolenz, Peter was at the SuperMegafest show in Framingham, MA, west of Boston. Peter took the stage Saturday night, first solo and then backed by a local Monkees tribute band called Loose Salute, named after a Mike Nesmith album. Mickey joined Peter during the concert to do a set, and here is Mickey’s entrance…
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/NOV/MickeyPeter.flv 512 384]
Denro was quick to point out to me that Mickey was stretching the truth about hearing “Oh, Darling!” at Abbey Road studios. Mickey hung out with the Beatles at EMI in ’67, but there’s no way he was there two years later. I’d neglected to swap the nearly-full SDHC card in my camera, so I missed the rest of the song, but somebody else who was there has posted the whole thing.
Tech note: That thin column in the middle of the stage is probably a Bose L1 speaker. The Bose corporate headquarters is right behind the Sheraton hotel where the convention was held.
