Category: Beatles

The Compleatles

Denro and I have various catch-phrases we like to use, and at least a couple of them are Beatles-related quotes. One of them is, “I can say no more,” from HELP! Another is “Touring became intolerable,” from an 80’s documentary, now out-of-print, called The Compleat Beatles. Here’s the complete Compleat. The quote is at 1h 12m into the video.

http://youtu.be/DrvhyL0cIm4?t=1h12m10s

It was 50 years ago today…

Denro pointed out that Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles starting work in Hamburg, Germany. On August 17, 1960, a contract was signed by their agent at the time, Allan Williams, committing the boys to play until October 16. A fire-singed fragment of the contract survives. In the picture above, John Lennon watches the Beatles’ van being loaded onto a ferry in Liverpool, bound for the Netherlands, August 16, 1960.

Recordings about Recording the Beatles

Not too long ago, I posted an item about the fascinating work in electronic music by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Bob Moog Foundation has an excellent article called MoogHistory Unveiled: Brian Kehew Explores 1965 R.A. Moog Co. Electronic Music Workshop.

Brian Kehew is the co-author with Kevin Ryan of the book RTB: Recording the Beatles. Interviews with Kehew and Ryan about the book can be heard on Musicians Radio…

[audio:http://www.musiciansradio.com/podcasts/mrshow_55.mp3 |titles=Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan on Musicians Radio]

… and seen on Electronic Musician.

[flv:http://emusician.com/videos/interviews/Rec_the_Beatles_Interview.flv http://www.dograt.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/RTBeatles.jpg 480 360]

Pet Octopus

If Robbie Leff keeps pointing out videos like this fantastic Petula-Beatles mash-up, I won’t have to think up any more ideas for blog posts!

The official Beatles mash-up is, of course, the Love CD, which has me thinking of the infamous Beachles mash-up of Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper that resulted in a cease-and-desist order for its creator from Capitol/EMI.

Bosstown radio

Over the past four years I’ve tracked some of the Boston radio scene events, including:

  • Classical music station WCRB switching frequencies
  • Steve LeVeille let go by WBZ, then brought back by listener demand
  • End of WBCN as on-air station
  • Departure of Barnes Newberry from WUMB
  • WGBH buying WCRB

Deaths:

  • WBZ talk show host Paul Sullivan
  • WBZ legend Larry Glick
  • WGBH Jazz Decades host Ray Smith

The Internet has had a huge effect on the radio industry, of course. Something I didn’t like for a long time was the Web player that the CBS network was using. I don’t know when CBS hooked up with Radio.com to update the player, but I think the results are excellent, despite a couple of pop-ups that have caused Firefox to crash.

The CBS station WODS — Oldies 103 in Boston — is still the best place to catch The Beatle Years and Beatle Brunch. You’ll find them on the WODS podcast page.