Something

A bit of blogging for a change!

I'm a podcast junkie. Well, in the sense that there's some of them that I like. Howard Hughes' "The Unexplained" is a favourite, as well as LBC's James O'Brien's weekly "best of" podcast. I used to be an avid listener to Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's weekly film review that the BBC put in a podcast, but the thing was, it went on for ages, and I have the attention span of an invertebrate, so depending on what mood I was in decided whether I could be bothered to listen to the whole show or not.

But for the past several months, I've been enjoying "Something About The Beatles"  -  a regular podcast hosted by a Brit (Richard Buskin) and a Yank (Robert Rodriguez).

And the link to their website and podcasts is this - http://somethingaboutthebeatles.com/

I like this. It's funny, informative and Richard and Robert as hosts just bounce off each other. They really do know their stuff - each of them have had several Beatles- related books published - and they often play rare tracks, covers, isolated Beatles multi-tracks and have interviewed key authors of Beatles books, such as Mark Lewisohn and Philip Norman.

The one gripe I have with it, regardless that they continually retract their words, is their anti-McCartney slant that casts a large shadow over everything. In Rob and Rich's world, Lennon is an out-and-out demigod, if a bit of a dickhead at times. George Harrison is portrayed as a genius upon whom the Beatles would never have gotten anywhere without his input. And Ringo is Ringo.

But Paul gets the lion share of the gripes, particularly from Richard who can't see that McCartney has done anything worthwhile as a solo artist, where I can beg to differ on many, many levels. The McCartney-sung track "Hold Me Tight" from "With The Beatles" comes in for some savage criticism over the course of the podcasts, yet the excellent Julie Traymor fantasy film "Across The Universe" which contained many reinterpretations of Beatles classics, used the song in some of the early key scenes in the movie. So who knows what????

I've been involved with the Beatles and their story for nearly forty years, and I think I know stuff, yet "Something About The Beatles" always lets me in on a new fact, or something I'd forgotten. I'd recommend it to any serious Fabs fan - as long as you're not that pushed about Paul!!!