All You Need Is: Beatles…

Beatles…. and More Beatles

There are a lot of podcasts about.

Many more than I could possibly find time to listen to, in amongst getting my daily tnocs.com fix, thrice weekly Number Ones fix… keeping up to date with music, TV, books… holding down a full time job…

… and still managing to maintain a functioning relationship with my family.

In amongst the ever expanding world of podcasts, this is one of my favourites:

It’s one for the music lover, and specifically for the Beatles fan for whom there can never be enough Beatles. 

Each episode, a guest picks a different Beatles or solo Beatle album to discuss with host Chris Shaw. This means it doesn’t retread the same album multiple times, and allows space to get into the far corners of their back catalogue.

The basic premise is a track-by-track review, which allows them to drift off into thoughts, opinions, reminisces, and all manner of tangents. It’s respectful of their legacy without being reverential.

Personally I don’t consider any of my musical heroes foolproof. I can happily admit when there have been missteps along the way.

There are plenty of occasions where this is recognised and discussed. One guest, Iain Lee, even selected Paul’s Give My Regards To Broad Street on the basis that it was a shining example that even massive stars can get it wrong; a bad soundtrack to a terrible film.

Chris, the host, is knowledgeable but doesn’t show off. His starting point is as a fan with a genuine interest in the opinions of his guests, letting them lead whichever way they want to take things without getting in the way.

The guests are from varying stages of Beatles fandom, some are complete obsessives and others casual fans. He treats them all as equal, and whether they want to get serious or offer a irreverent take, he’s happy to go with them.  There are times he chips in with trivia and recording info but it serves to put things in context rather than for the sake of demonstrating his expertise.

Its been going since 2018. I discovered it early in 2020, went back to the start and caught up with everything I’d missed. There’s no regular schedule, through its run there have generally been a couple a month. There are other podcasts I’ve been a fan of that have a relentless constant release schedule but I like the irregular schedule that let’s you get on with your life and is a nice surprise when a new one pops up in my feed.

The guests are from various walks of life; there are musicians, music journalists, DJs, film directors, writers, comedians, actors, newsreaders hosts of other podcasts and plenty more besides. They are Brit-centric with the occasional American voice appearing. One of my favourite guests has been Samira Ahmed, a newsreader and journalist who has appeared several times and proved very articulate, inquisitive and entertaining.

It is also Paul-centric which is in most part due to his longevity and impact. For stats fans, there have been 33 episodes discussing Beatles albums. -The keen of eye will immediately notice this is way in excess of the number of albums they ever released but there’s been a plethora of compilations that have been selected for consideration.

There have been 21 episodes relating to post Beatles albums released by Paul in his various recording guises, 5 for John, 4 for George and Ringo unsurprisingly bringing up the rear with 2.

I wouldn’t necessarily say its redefined my relationship with the Beatles but it has deepened it.

Sometimes it offers an hours diversion but there are others that have given me a different way of looking at a song or album. While I know their work as a band inside out there were gaps in my knowledge of their solo work. Listening to these being discussed encouraged me to take the time to go through John, Paul and George’s solo careers in depth, playing every album chronologically to catch up with what I’d missed or overlooked.

The exception there being Ringo, who as much as his character and drumming was essential to their appeal, I haven’t had quite the same urge to revisit his entire back catalogue. I did listen to some Ringo playlists to see if I needed to delve deeper, but its a pass from me. Through the podcast I did however discover one Ringo track that I’d never heard before and absolutely love; I’m The Greatest which was even more of Beatles universe mindblower as John wrote it for him.

Another piece of trivia that fell into place with a ‘how did I not realise that?’ jolt was that Paul’s side project The Fireman released an album called Rushes. This I was aware of but hadn’t connected it to the lyrics of Penny Lane: “And then the fireman rushes in from the pouring rain”

As I said somewhere else, its the little things…

Talking of The Fireman, one episode was a chat with Paul’s partner in the duo, former Killing Joke bassist and producer Youth. Taking us track by track through their Electric Arguments album with an insight into their creative process.

There have been other deviations from the usual formula. Neil Innes appeared in 2019 a few months before his death to talk about The Rutles. And in one episode a guest did pick a Rutles album to talk about. Which means The Rutles are level with Ringo on episodes dedicated to them. Sorry Ringo.

There are two episodes with John’s sister, Julia Baird which offer an insight into his early life and the family machinations that wound up with him living with his Aunt Mimi rather than his mother, and would inform many of his songs later on.

In January this year the podcast offered its most in depth undertaking to match the release of the Get Back documentary.

Each day in January, Chris and guests reviewed the action offered up in Get Back from the corresponding day in January 1969.

I get that for non Beatles fans the 8 hours of Get Back in itself may have been a step too far so a podcast dissecting it at length and in detail would have them running for the hills. For me, it was fascinating to get so many different perspectives and see how others had interpreted the internal band politics, personalities and works in progress.

I’d completely understand anyone that wanted to skip those in favour of dipping in and out of the albums.

The latest four episodes were released over the weekend of Paul’s 80th birthday as a celebration of his music. It departed from the norm with contributions from listeners explaining their favourite song interspersed with a range of guests doing the same in conversation with Chris.

I didn’t include it in my Reasons To Be Cheerful list but it could easily find a place there. Something that celebrates genius and does so in a good natured, collaborative manner. Adds understanding and helps you to consider their work in a different light. What’s not to like about that?

Given the number of albums already covered.. and there is a finite number of albums… while there’s still plenty more yet to be investigated, Chris might struggle to find sufficient guests willing to go in depth on the other 18(!!!) studio albums Ringo has released. The diversions into Get Back and Paul’s 80th suggest there’s life beyond the basic track by track format.

But however long it continues and what form it takes there’s an extensive and entertaining back catalogue to get to know.

Just like the band themselves. 

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