When They Was Fab: Electric Arguments About the Beatles

Happy Mother's Day (US) from WTWF!     This week we consider a tough time in the lives of Paul McCartney and George Harrison.  The Beatles were disintegrating, George had to endure the passing of his mother at age 58, and Paul was looking for comfort in his memory of "Mother Mary".     Despite these troubles, each managed to turn grief into art, and we look at 6 songs that include some of the best from each that were written post-"The Beatles", and through the recording for each of their first solo albums.

In 1980, Ringo Starr accepted a role in the movie "Caveman" for United Artists.         The cast included old school comics including Avery Schreiber (best known at the time for game shows and a long running series of Doritos commercials), Jack Gilford (a veteran actor of over 40 years at the time), and relative newcomers including Shelley Long, Dennis Quaid and Oakland Raider John Matuszak.      The thin plot, and lack of dialogue (the script consists of roughly two dozen words for concepts such as fire, love, dinosaur and sexual congress).      The film might lay alongside other Ringo projects, were it not for the fact that it introduced Ringo to Barbara, and resulted in their love affair and marriage less than a year later.

This November, an upcoming seminar "Producing An Enigma for The Ages" celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release has been announced by Monmouth University.     Dean Ken Womack of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences (author of "Maximum Volume" and the forthcoming "Sound Pictures" George Martin biography) joins us to discuss the plans for the Symposium, the Tuesday Night Record club and their other projects entertaining and educating not only their students, but the community at large with the union of recent popular music and scholarly research and study.    In the remaining time, we discuss a couple of White Album topics, including mixes, George Martin and "Happiness is a Warm Gun".

Part two of our review of 1988's "Imagine: John Lennon" documentary.     This week, we cover the rest of the film including the remainder of the Ascot footage and "the Yoko Years."         Remember Al Capp's invasion at the Bed-In?     Gloria Emerson's haughty tone?    That and more, then we then give our thoughts on how the documentary played at the time, and how it holds up nearly thirty years later.     

The first of two parts covering the 1988 Imagine: John Lennon documentary.         Despite the release of the Beatles catalog the previous year, all was not well in the land of Lennon.      The Albert Goldman character assasination disguised as biography came out early in 1988, and some fans still held hard feelings over Yoko's approval of the Nike "Revolution" spot.      The best solution would be to bring John's two biggest strengths - his life, and his music to the fore.        Both would be serviced by a major motion picture including a peek into the Lennon video archives, new interviews with people close to Lennon (but NOT the other three Beatles), unheard (to that point) Lennon home demos and remixed versions of classic Lennon and Beatles tunes,     This week the first half of the film, covering most of the Beatles years and the Tittenhurst Park footage.       Continued next week!

Part two of the WTWF visit with Danny Kristensen, the new "Tribute George Harrison" in the Fab 5.     This week we get into the specifics of portraying a Beatle on stage.     It all starts with the music, but also includes the clothes, the guitars and the fans.    For those interested (particularly Texas and Louisiana), look for the Fab 5 at https://www.thefab5.net/ and learn more about Chuck, Joe, Danny, Rod and Paul Byron, voted by the Houston Press as Houston's best Tribute Band!

What is it like to become George Harrison in a Beatles tribute band?   Musician Danny Kristensen joins the show this week to tell us about everything that led to his new role: growing up up in the region, seeing the Beatles in concert, recording over three decades, playing the ukelele and his recent move to the world of "The Fab 5".         Plenty of covers, fun, excitement and even a bit of the actual Beatles and Ringo playing boogie-woogie piano.    Continues next week.

On the Night of April 16, 1973 Chevrolet and ABC presented the world premiere of an hour from Paul McCartney that promised "Yesterday", "Michelle", "Long Tall Sally", and a medley of half a dozen Beatles songs.       As we soon come upon the forty-fifth anniversary of that airing, history has not lived up to that initial anticipation.     This week, the WTWF guys along with special guest Tom Hunyady (of the "2Legs" McCartney podcast) let the YouTube warm up and spend the hour commenting and providing facts, sarcasm, humor and select audio from the special (during those times the special held our interest, or we couldn't think of anything to say!)

A second visit with fan favorite Dr. Kit O'Toole.      Following on from last week's "Concert for George" show, the WTWF guys (+ one special guest gal) consider the intertwining relationships between George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Ravi Shankar.       Ultimately, everything we know about the public and private life of "The Quiet Beatle" was influenced by one, the other or both of these two gentlemen.        We then expand the scope and play amateur psychologist, doing a compare and contrast covering George's friendships with his mentor and his "brother from another mother" to the what we know of his that with the two songwriting Beatles, and even each of his partners in marriage.

"The Concert For George" found its way back to theatres, home video, vinyl and CD to celebrate the birthday of a certain famous Pisces.     This week we do the same, with famed Beatles (and more) author Kit O'Toole (who will also be back next week).         We dig a little deeper into the show, and consider the musicians on stage that are not superstars.     Many of them worked with George in the tour of Japan, Dark Horse and NLP shows, but others are on George's records starting with "All Things Must Pass" and running through "Brainwashed".    

Part two of our look back to 1986.     Ringo was finishing up narrating the "Thomas the Tank Engine" stories, Paul recorded tracks with Billy Joel's band for the unreleased "Return to Pepperland" album, and "Press to Play" hit shops after a bit of a delay.       The Beatles had a hit record (again) as "Twist and Shout" rose the charts, and fans were treated to high-quality releases of both studio sessions (the bootleg/counterfeit of the scrapped "Sessions" album), and a near complete set of BBC recordings.

1986 was a year of transition for the former Beatles.         The Lennon estate gave the world two legitimate discs from the archive as an appetizer for years to come.       Julian released his secod disc "The Secret Value of Daydreaming", and  conined his own world tour.      George Harrison took some steps toward a return to the madness that is the music business.      Some musical work was done for the "Shanghai Surprise" film soundtrack, but for the most part, the big story was tales of fights among Madonna and Sean Penn.  

...and the band begins to play.      The visit to New Orleans was followed by some more recording ("Wings at the Speed of Sound") and the beginning of the Wings over the World tour.      The newly minted band, and their hot horn section visited the UK, Australia and France.      After a short delay, the band would reach their Zenith as they hit the United States - the set being captured in its entirety on both vinyl and film.        Unfortunately, fame did not sit well with the group, as the Fair Carol and Virgin Islands drove Jimmy and Joe away instead of bringing them closer.    Paul would not be deterred, as he now had a new son, and being reduced to a trio (again!) resulted in the biggest hit of Paul's solo career everywhere except the United States!  

This week, WTWF takes a look at the members of the Jimmy/Joe version of Wings, which lasted from the recording of Paul's brother's "McGear" album through the recording of "London Town".         Where did the individual players come from?  Did Geoff Britton's references to karate facilitate his exit from the band after only five months?       What about those guys in the horn section?     All this and more in Part One of our look at the longest-lasting iteration of Wings.     

Superbowl LII was a barn-burner, but not as much as the Beatles battles on the Billboard singles charts.      With the release of "1", we all became familiar with the songs that managed to hit the top of the charts, but what about those that ended up just short of that lofty goal?     This week WTWF (with some help from Casey and "AT40") examine the fourteen Beatles songs that ended up somewhere between numbers 2 and 10 from 1964 to 2000, and the artists and tracks that ended up ahead of those classics.