EP. 138 BEATLE MANIA ORIGINS: A Lifelong Fan Explains How The Beatles Became The Beatles

You can hear the moment a fan becomes a historian, and that’s exactly what happens when my longtime friend Mario Rodriguez sits down across the table with a lifetime of Beatles knowledge. Mario takes us back to 1968 when he’s three years old, his dad drops the needle on Meet The Beatles, and one song “This Boy” flips a switch that never turns off. From harmonies to groove, we dig into what made the Beatles feel different right away, and why Ringo Starr’s so-called “simple” drumming is actually elite musicianship built around serving the song.

Then we zoom out to the part of Beatles history most people only half-know: the Liverpool roots, the brutal Hamburg club schedule, and how that grind forged their repertoire, stage presence, and confidence long before the Ed Sullivan explosion. We untangle the US versus UK album confusion, the role of Capitol Records and Vee-Jay, and how American fans were often hearing a reshuffled version of the Beatles’ real catalog. If you’re a vinyl person, you’ll love the collector talk, from album jackets to pressing details to the hidden “Phil + Ronnie” clue tied to Let It Be and Phil Spector’s production.

One of the most unique pieces of this conversation is Mario’s eight-year Beatles tribute collage, built from thousands of images and designed to include the forgotten corners of the story: Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe, the parents, the influences, and the moments that shaped everything. We also get into the private Beatles meeting with Elvis Presley, why it’s still mostly a black box, and the late-era questions that always spark debate like Abbey Road versus Let It Be and what really changed when touring stopped and the studio took over.

If you love Beatles history, classic rock storytelling, vinyl collecting, or just hearing two music nerds chase the truth behind the legend, hit play, subscribe wherever you get podcasts, and share this with a friend who still argues Beatles versus Stones. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: what’s the one Beatles song you never skip?

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Oh, hey there. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here, people. You know, I got this backwards. Let me turn this back over. There we go. Now I feel better. Now I feel much better. How's everyone doing? You see, we have another guest in studio today. It's great. It's great. We're going to get into that in just a minute. If you are, if you are a fanatic of the Beatles, or even just a casual fan, and I'll admit, I'm I'm more on the casual side than the fanatical side, then stay right where you are, okay? Because we're going to get into it. We're going to have some good fun. But before we do that, I need to let you guys know and remind you that this program is available wherever you get your podcasts. Just search the Ben Maynard program. It's right there. It's also on YouTube, as you can see, right? But subscribe to it, okay? Just do me that favor, subscribe to it. Or uh you guys can follow me on my socials, on Instagram. It's simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or on the TikTok, where I'm a little more active. It's at the Ben Maynard program. So there are plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And this gentleman right over here across the table from me, this is yeah, this is somebody that we you guys aren't even going to believe this. We go all the way back to kindergarten at Longfellow Elementary. That's right. Yeah. This is Mario Rodriguez. Mario, thanks so much for coming in and doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Thank you having uh for having me here, Ben. It's a privilege and an honor.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Well, I appreciate that. Um, you know, we're gonna have some fun. Let me just say this. So let's get started right here. Mario has always been, as far back as I can remember. Well, I'll just say really where I took notice of it was once we got into high school. That's where Mario became such an enormous fan of the Beatles. And this behind us is nothing but Beatles right here. Mario became a tremendous fan. I would actually even like consider him a historian when it comes to the Beatles. And um I hope that what we're recording today comes out equal to the conversation that we were carrying on like 20 minutes ago, because that stuff is gold. So, anyway, uh so Mario, let's just um let's start right

Falling For The Beatles At Three

SPEAKER_00 2:55

here. Did I have it right when I said it was high school when the Beatles just really kind of took you over?

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Actually, that's incorrect, Ben.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

It's okay. I'm I'm not above reproach.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

It actually started when I was three years old in 1968. Wow. My father had bought the first album called Meet the Beatles. Yeah. To find out what the hoopla was about these four guys. Because my dad loved Motown and Jazz.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

And so he didn't know that his third son was gonna grab that record and be taken over by this band. Yeah. And um, but that's where it really started when I was three years old.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Three. Wow. And I go back to to saying that that uh for me it was, I mean, I always enjoyed music and and would listen to the radio in the car when the, you know, my parents were out driving or um on that big old giant all wood 250-pound stereo that took up, you know, it was a piece of furniture in your house, you know, and my parents would put on records and that kind of stuff. But um, it wasn't until I was probably seven or eight to where really just music just grabbed a hold of me and and uh and that was it. It was all over. But the shock from then on. And uh, I have something down here I'll show everybody, but I ain't gonna take uh I ain't gonna take this up. Well, I'm gonna I want to take advantage of this opportunity. Um so so it's about three years old when you start you s really start taking in listening to the Beatles and and and it's it's kind of sucking you in, right? Yeah. All in. So um was your was your uh your dad a musician? No, he was not. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

But he did want to learn to play the saxophone.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Oh, all right.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

But he never did.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Okay. Because I know you're a musician, you play the drums, and um uh so I I didn't know if that came from you know just the Beatles' influence or also your dad's influence, but uh however it comes, it comes and it's great, you know. So uh what's your first like recollection of I mean, did you grab that record and put it on the put it on the stereo yourself? And then it's like, oh now I'm just lost in this.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

My dad put it on for me. Okay, and then I got lost. All right, all right, yeah um, but I always wanted to hear the one song off that whole album called This Boy.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

This boy.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

This boy. Okay, because of their three-part harmony. There was just something about them three singing together, and I mentioned this to a disc jockey on Carrot 101 at the time they were playing Sunday uh Beatles specials. Okay, and um but that was the song that really there was just something about hearing the the the voices on that track and um that was it.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I was a fan. Tremendous harmonies. I mean, that's the that's the one thing about the Beatles that was unlike so many other bands before and even after is that not two part, not three part, four-part harmonies. You know, each of those guys were very proficient in their instruments, and they could write and they could sing. And uh just that was all that was something very, very unique back

Hamburg Gigs And Earning Their Sound

SPEAKER_00 6:21

then. Oh yeah, you know, uh, when the Beatles were breaking. And and when we talk about breaking here, we talk about breaking in America, you know, 63, 64, the Ed Sullivan show, all that kind of stuff. But the Beatles, they have a history that goes way before the Ed Sullivan show, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yep. They were not an overnight success, uh as people think.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Uh they were honing in their craft a lot uh in Liverpool, but mainly in Hamburg, Germany, where they had to play hours and hours where their fingertips were bleeding because they had to come up with a repertoire.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

You know, you had a as John Lennon would say, we had to hold them to captivate them to get them into the bars.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Because if they weren't bringing people in to spend money, then they weren't gonna have to get paid.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

And it wasn't a lot of pay either, you know. When you when you know, I don't know what currency is, the value in Germany, especially back then. Right. But they weren't making much. But what they were doing was crafting their musicianship.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

And after they were done in Hamburg, by the time they came back to Liverpool, they didn't they didn't have to play long hours, they could play 30-minute sets, which was a lot easier.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Because they knew all the music they were playing. And a lot of it at the time was still cover before they actually were playing their own. So they would kind of put an original in just to kind of feel the audience. Speak one in here and there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yeah. Yeah. Which is which is good. And you want to keep when you're playing bars and clubs and stuff, you want to keep uh I mean, it's uh the same way to this day where people want to hear certain songs, you know. You gotta, you know, unless you've got something that they've heard on the radio, you know. But so they were spending these years. Now, how many years was that before really before like Ed Sullivan, where they were honing their craft and and and and working on stage presence and stage performance and those types of things?

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Well, when Paul met John, John had this group called the Quarrymen. So that at that time they were playing what they called skiffle. And they mentioned this. It's it's kind of like uh country, okay, mixed with kind of like a rockabilly type sound. Okay. And all the bands were playing it, but they're all playing the same type of music. And then um when George came in, the dynamics were changing again. Not for the whole band, but for John and Paul. And then they would borrow drummers because they didn't have a set drummer.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Once they started breaking away from being the quarrymen, they were kind of drummerless. But when they went to Hamburg, they grabbed Pete Best.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Because they needed a drummer to perform. And if they didn't have him, they wouldn't have gone. So he kind of at the time uh got them where they needed to be. Unfortunately, it was short term. Mm-hmm. Um because they met Ringo's Star playing another band called Roy Storm and the Hurricanes. And they were the top bands.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Wait, wait, wait, what was the name of that band? Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Okay, we gotta look that one up.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

And at that time, they were the top band in Liverpool. Okay. And Ringo was he was their drummer. He was the drummer. Okay. And they would notice him. They didn't know him back in Liverpool, but when they got to Hamburg, he would watch them. When he wasn't playing, he would be watching them. He thought that those three guys in the front were pretty savvy, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Didn't say much about the guy playing the drums.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Well, no, he's playing the same thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

You know, and then uh unfortunately for the drummer they had the Beatles had, he would sit in. And when they heard him play behind them, they looked at each other and said, This is it.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

This is the guy we want. But they couldn't get him just yet because he was already committed.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

So um when you're talking about before they be got where they got, um they were in and out of different clubs, going back to Hamburg, going back to Hamburg, honing in for hours of of playing and learning, which made them who they were prior to coming to America in 64. But they were already popular in Europe already. They already had a fan base, they already had two albums prior to coming to America.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Two albums. So those two albums were they only released overseas?

Labels And The Road To Ed Sullivan

SPEAKER_00 10:51

They were not they were not released in the United States at that time?

SPEAKER_02 10:55

They were not because uh Capital is part of EMI.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

So when they first heard those 14 tracks, because the Beatles always did 14 tracks, not how we would buy them. Okay. Right. They would change them around and you'd be shortchanged a little bit, right? So they didn't care too much for what was on those 14 tracks that was known as Please Please Me.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Um another record label called VJ Records sent somebody to London with someone from America who happened to be the four seasons.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

To switch. They get the four seasons, they come back with the upcoming Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Oh, so they were gonna trade players on their roster, so to speak. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So the four seasons were huge then.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So VJ Records really, I think, was promoting the Beatles stuff before Capital did.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Capital came in when they came out with I Wanna Hold A Hand prior to coming to America.

unknown 11:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Prior to Ed Solomon, who just happened to be in London hearing all these and seeing these fans, didn't know who they were seeing. He thought it was the president.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Okay. Was there.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

But he he met he met them.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Without auditioning them, he hired them for three shows.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

So this is 19, this is late 63. Yeah. Going into early 64. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

So Ed was familiar with the Beatles because he had traveled to the UK and saw them. Oh, wow. Okay. So that's what that's what uh I mean, obviously obviously that's why he brought them to uh to America. That's insane. But um, you know, you're talking about Ringo

Why Ringo’s Drumming Is Underrated

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Starr. And we were talking a little earlier um about drummers and and Ringo Starr uh, unless you're a a real musician, Ringo Starr gets kicked around a lot because he's not flashy, um nothing like that. He just stays in time. And we were talking about how he equates to like him and Charlie Watts are so similar because they're timekeepers in their band, which is absolutely of utmost importance. You know, the the the rhythm section, the drums and the bass, that's your engine room when it comes to a band. And that's really where it all starts. And and those two guys, maybe it was maybe they had seen each other, maybe they talked with each other early on. I don't know. Maybe they shared uh uh um, you know, um drum technique, whatever. But those two right there, Charlie Watts and and Ringo Star, very, very similar in their technique, in their approach to their craft and wanting to be the timekeeper, you know, taking the responsibility of being the timekeeper, not being flashy, but playing for the song, developing that pocket there and and and holding it. And that was just it's it's fabulous. And it's just like I said, it's just weird because you get two drummers from two very iconic bands from the same region that are just so incredibly similar. And unless you're a musician, neither of them actually really get a lot of uh a lot of recognition. But Ringo just, I mean, but he's he's what 84 and he's still doing it.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Well, he just turned 86.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

There it is. There it is.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

July 7th.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah, he's had another birthday. Yeah, that's right. He did. And and he's still out there doing the Ringo Ringo Star All-Star Band. And man, I mean, still killing it. And actually, he just released an album earlier this year, didn't he? Yeah. Long, long road. And I think there's a there's a track on there with with Paul, right? Yes, there is. Yeah. So and and really in the last probably like 30, 40 years, Ringo and Paul, they've really they've really gotten a lot closer.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Oh yeah. Yeah, they're they're they work with each other from time to time. You know, if Paul needs some drumming, he calls on Ringo.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

If Ringo needs a bass player and some backup vocals, he calls on Paul. You know, so you know, they they enjoy, you hear them on the interviews, they enjoy working with with each other. Yeah, and sometimes uh Paul will have Ringo come on one of his performances, which I got to see at Dodger Stadium. Oh and that was very cool because you see two of the band members who played in 1966 at Dodger Stadium. So having half of them there, the two existing survivors of the band, yeah, that's so cool for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

You know, absolutely, yeah.

Beatlemania And The Band Blueprint

SPEAKER_00 15:35

So um, so kind of going back to the early times, you know, we as music fans, um Americans, we know the breakout on Ed Sullivan, and we know that the girls in the in the crowd in the audience there at the Ed Sullivan Theater were were they were so loud that you couldn't even hear the band. Right. What was the reaction afterwards, you know, from from the press, from the music community? What was the reaction uh to all of that?

SPEAKER_02 16:17

They never seen anything like this.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

You know, I mean, you're you're talking about four musicians in this band. Now, it's not like girls haven't reacted to Elvis when Elvis broke out in the 50s. Yeah, that's true. Or Frank Sinatra.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

The same type of reaction, but you had these guys with so much energy that the girls would pick which one they like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

You know, it's so yeah, it's you man, it's so funny you mentioned that. Okay, because my audience knows, and and you know from our discussions, and I'm I'm a big KISS fan. And and and outside of that moment in 1973 when my mom is playing Let It Be on the stereo, you know, uh when I started to come into my own on music, Kiss was kind of like my gateway band. And there are so many, there are a lot of similarities between Kiss and the Beatles. And stay with me, people, you'll understand when I bring it up. Um, first off, every Tom Dick and Harry wanted to wanted to pick up a guitar and play after watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I mean, guys from I mean, Steve Lukather from Toto, who's one of my all-time favorite guitarists at all, his his favorite guitar player of all time and his biggest influence was George Harrison. Loved George Harrison. He loved and adored George Harrison. Um, but you know, primarily Paul, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were the big fans of the Beatles and saw that moment. I'm sure Ace and Peter as well. But, you know, Ace's influence came more from like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendricks, and Peter's influence came from the jazz and swing uh world. You know, he loved the uh the Gene Krupas and the Buddy Riches and that type of stuff, and that's where his influence came from. But but when Gene and Paul wanted to build this band of four guys, they wanted to model it as a hard rock version of the Beatles.

unknown 18:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Four separate guys, four separate personalities. You had like with the Beatles, okay, you have John Lennon, the smart beetle, Paul McCartney, the cute Beetle, George Harrison, the quiet beetle, and Ringo Star, the funny beetle. Okay. So all their own personalities, all really having their own fan base as well. Yes. Whether it was guys or girls, all having their own fan base. Same thing with Kiss and okay, and not only that, all four guys playing their own instruments and all four guys singing and singing incredibly well. Okay. Same thing with KISS. You've got Gene the Demon, Paul, Star Child, you've got Peter the Cat, and you've got space or Ace, the spaceman, four different personalities, four separate fan bases, four guys playing their own instruments, and four guys that could sing and sing incredibly well, you know. So they all took their own roles on lead vocals and all that kind of stuff, just so very similar to the Beatles, just more of a hard rock side of it. And um, but why is that? Because the Beatles had such an impact, you know, when people saw them in America.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Well, they set a standard. Yeah. You know, they paved the way for every inspired young person who wanted to learn to play an instrument, love music, and they were an expression they were waiting for.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

And they just went crazy. Everybody got into bands, you know, and wanted to kind of emulate them, uh, but be their own. Whatever that style was gonna be. But they what they saw on the Ed Sullivan show was somebody different, unusual, yeah, but tight and well-mannered showmanship.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

That's what they saw on the TV.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

And that was the years leading up to that that presented itself on Ed Sullivan because of all that hard work they had put in in honing their craft, in working on their stage presence and and their presentation of their music.

The Name Beatles And Cultural Shockwaves

SPEAKER_00 20:47

So incredible. And and another thing, though, is they weren't shy about um giving credit to their influences.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

They always mention them.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yeah. Always not shy at all.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

I mean name them. You have little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Hawley, Fast Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even Motown. Right. They they like they like the girl groups for Harmony. That's they were working on Harmony with the girl groups, like the Sherelles, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, all these, all these artists before them developing and inputting them into their style.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah. And they took just a little bit of everything, and that's what became the Beatles. And it's funny, you just said uh uh you said Buddy Holly, uh, and we were talking uh a little bit earlier. I don't think I knew this. I knew of the name of the Beatles, I knew why it was spelled B E A T, which is you know, beat, like a musical beat, folks. Um, but I want you to say, I want you to tell everybody how the Beatles actually got their name.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

John came up with that one because uh they all liked Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Yeah. So John took the crickets and just converted it to the Beatles with an A for beat. Not so much the bug, but the beat and the rhythm. And um people laughed at that name when they first came out with it, but who's laughing now? Yeah, exactly. Who's laughing now, right? I mean, even today, yeah, they're still talking about the Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

And it is so amazing, and we'll you know, basically you have a band that's been around almost 70 years when you think about it. If you go back to their very, very beginnings, they've been around almost 70 years, and you can say the name the Beatles, and people instantly know who you're talking about. Doesn't matter what corner of the planet you're you're on, people know who the Beatles are. They still have such uh such an enormous um impact on music. And back in the 60s, they were having a huge impact on culture.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Culture, everything.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Fashion.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

That's true, yeah. Yeah, everything. Yeah, fashion. I mean, they were when they showed up on Ed Sullivan, everyone, they're they're they're all wearing, they're all wearing dark suits with skinny ties and nice shiny shoes. And it was the uniform. It was the uniform back then. And then you started to see a lot of other, um, a lot of other acts kind of doing the same thing. Um uh some wearing a little something different, like Paul Revere and the Raiders, or um, but like uh I have it right, I think like Herman's Hermits, they were all wearing suits. The Kinks were wearing suits. Um, yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

That was the thing back then from the 50s. I mean, he before the Beatles, while the Beatles, and right by mid-60s, things the style of change was the dress was a little bit more out, yeah, more open, no more ties so much, just maybe a sport coat, some pants, some shoes.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

So the fashion was changing because the Beatles were changing. Every time the Beatles changed, it changed everything else.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Oh, it was just that influence. There, there you go. Well, what are the Beatles doing? Okay, then I guess we can do it too.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So when the Beatles finally stopped, a lot of those British bands stopped as well. Like the Dave Clark 5, right? Jerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Cray and the Dakotas. All these other bands were just they stopped because when the Beatles stopped, that was it. It's like they couldn't go any further. It's almost like Forrest Gunn. When he said he was done running, he was tired. I want to go home now. Yeah. You know, he went from from the east coast to the west coast, and then he finally said, I want to go home now.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah. You know, and so for no other reason, and then he was just done.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah, and the crowd that was following him, what do you mean you're done? I'm done. So when the Beatles said they were done, so were these other bands? It's almost like they were writing their coattails. So whatever they were into, they were gonna get into also. So when they stopped, they couldn't go anymore.

UK Versus US Albums And Vinyl Rituals

SPEAKER_00 25:29

So getting into the um the catalog a little bit, um and the recorded history of the Beatles, very, very short window. Um, when was the first American album, the first release in America? Was that in 63 or 64?

SPEAKER_02 25:49

64.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Okay. And what was that out? What was the title of that album?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Actually, there were two different albums that came out.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

I know that the especially I think maybe the first three or four Beatles releases, there's multiple titles for these albums, you know.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

So for Capitol Records in January when they released in 64, that was called Meet the Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

That was the Capitol Records version of the Beatles' first record. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

And then uh VJ Records released Introducing the Beatles, which was the Please Please Me album initially.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

So those two albums came out in January of 64.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

So, and then the singles that were coming out too, right uh through different uh smaller labels from both uh the record companies uh that took on the Beatles music. So that came just prior to the Beatles coming to America, before they would step on stage at the Ed Sullivan show. And um rumor has it, it may not be, it's not rumored, Jack Parr. Okay, aired the Beatles first on film of the Beatles in their collarless gray suits doing their two popular hits. I want to hold your hand, she loves you. So Ed Sullivan really wasn't the first, but Ed Sullivan was the first to broadcast him live.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Live, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jack Parr in the Tonight Show, right? Correct, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

So he so he kind of aired these guys to see how people would react.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

So maybe he was greasing the wheels for Ed, you know? Yeah, if you want to say that. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Okay. Um so that's okay. So Introducing the Beatles, Meet the Beatles, that's the same out. Are the track listings the same or are they a little bit different?

SPEAKER_02 27:41

No, they're different.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

They are different. They are different. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. Uh okay, I want to show you something I got here. What you got there, Ben? Going off mic. I've been doing some record store shopping just because I want to, and my audience knows. I have no turntable. I don't have a turntable in the house. But you like records. But well, first off, Mario, when we were kids and we were taking in music, we had these 12-inch discs, and we would take that record and put it on the turntable, and then we would take the album cover, and we would sit there, like leaned up against our bed or whatever, and just look at the front cover, look at the back cover. If there was something on the inner sleeve, we'd be looking at that, reading that. I mean, there was it was almost an art form listening to music when we were, when we were kids. Yes, it was. I mean, it was just there was something so incredibly special about it that um I think that the the the generations after us, the couple of generations uh after us, have um they don't get it. They because they didn't have that. Because I look technology. Well, you technology has changed a lot, but anyway. So let me let me let me get back to this. So so I've been doing some record store shopping, and I I'll get a I'll I'll I'll I'll get a turntable. I'll buy, I'll buy a turntable, nice, decent set of speakers eventually. You know, I I promised everybody before the end of the year. So we'll see. So I picked this one up. Well, I saw this one and I was like, oh, I have to get this because Mario's coming on the podcast, and I want Mario to talk about this one. So um, yeah, so it and and for for you guys at home watching, it said it's the Beatles, and it said right there, the second album. Well, I don't know. Is it really the second album or is it not? So I want you to look at that. Why would you tell me about this one, Mario?

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Okay, Ben, like I told you that uh they already had two album releases before they came to America. Okay. And they were called Please Please Me and With the Beatles. Gotcha. So one word changed the difference between what the original British Catalog and what Capital released. Okay. So for Capitol, this is the second album. Okay. But initially, it is not the second album, according to British Catalog.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Like I said, they had Please Please Me and With the Beatles already. Then they went on to A Hard Day's Night, the movie.

unknown 30:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

So that is initially the third album. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

And a lot of these were uh put together through singles and they were mixed up. So they were created.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

So some of these, so, so some of this stuff like this, or there's just like compilations.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

I love this album. I love this album. Uh I like the pictures, I like the artwork. Yeah. And you're right, you know, for a lot of you out there who didn't grow up with parents who had albums, they they call these sleeves. Okay. So when you look at this record, you're just like, wow, look at these pictures of the Beatles. Cool. It's not just one picture, you get multiple, a collage.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Kind of like right here in the back.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Yeah, kind of like this thing right there.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

You know, and you see the soundtrack. But when you play the music, oh my gosh. It's like, wow, you know. And I enjoy this album. I enjoy the pictures because a lot of it uh has to do with the Ed Sullivan show, the concert they did in Washington, DC, uh, on a little circle stage to a massive audience, uh, where they're completely surrounded, because that's unusual that they would be completely surrounded.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Yeah, yeah, because they played in the round, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

And then you see them at Kennedy Airport, some of the pictures. A lot of it, again, is all quickly put together uh for all the photographers on their first visit. So this whole album artwork is from the first visit. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

I knew Mario could talk about it, so that's great. No, I I I love it. I did, I did. I just I saw it and I was like, okay, nope, I gotta get it. I gotta get it. And um, because I I never owned it previously, and you and I have talked about it in the past too. And I think I let my audience in on it as well. That you know, when I shortly after graduating high school, I sold all of my records back to Lovels. Still, it's still going. It's still there. It's still there. It's not the same, not the same though. It's it's not. I um yeah, they don't, they don't, I don't know. I went there, that was one of my stops when I when I had one of my couple of trips, gone record store shopping, and and uh I did pick up a couple of things, but I was like, man, I just can't find what I'm looking for, you know? And I don't even know what I'm looking for, but uh but I know when I see it. And uh, but yeah, levels is still there. So I mean I'm assuming that levels has been around at least 60 years. 65. Is it 65? Okay, see, look right there, man. See, and you guys think I know stuff, okay?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

But a fun fact about them Greenleaf was not the initial site on Philadelphia, really, right where the alley's at? Yeah. There's there's uh I uh identification mark in the in the cement.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

No, there is not.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

That tells you that they were that's where they were at.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

You gotta show me, you gotta show me. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

One day.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Well, and there's and we're getting off topic a little bit, but but we're but they're you know, the city for the last several years has been trying to figure out how they're gonna redo the uptown village. And uh whenever they do it, they have to preserve that part of the street. They have to. There's no way they can get rid of that. Right. That's like a landmark, and you gotta show it to me. You guys show it. So anyway, so um, yeah. When we were growing up, our record stores were, let's see, Lovels and Warehouse.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Music Plus.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Music Plus, that's right. Liquor's Pizza. Liquor's Pizza. Although we didn't Virgin Records, we didn't have a Liquor's Pizza in the year. Yeah, we didn't have we had Music Plus. We had the warehouse. Tower Records. Oh, well, come on, Tower Records, yeah. I mean, if you're talking about if you're talking about nationally, yeah, Tower Records has just like a huge name. But when you're talking about us Whittier rights, us us locals, Lovells is like the legendary spot. Bought so many records there. Man, oh man. But um so uh real quick, not real quick, but but you guys, you see this thing in the back here, and we're probably gonna jump around a little bit, but um I want Mario to talk about this. This is um this is like Mario's tribute to his favorite band to the Beatles. Mario did this himself, he put this collage, this poster together on his own. And I and I'll and it's hard for you guys to to see if you're watching. And I know for those of you listening, it's like, oh, thanks, Ben. I can't see at all. But um, we'll we'll try to do the best we can. But it's it I hung it up on the back wall of the studio uh for everyone to try to see a little bit. I'm gonna try to zoom in as much as I can. I don't know if actually I'm probably zoomed in all the way. Yeah, I think I am. Oh well, because there's a lot of detail on this stuff. So, but but Mario, what was what was the inspiration for wanting to

The Eight-Year Beatles Tribute Collage

SPEAKER_00 35:42

do this? Because this wasn't something that you did over a weekend, okay, uh, or over a couple of weekends on your dining room table. Um talk about the inspiration for this. And if you want to point out a few things on here that maybe have a certain significance, or you want to talk about the meaning of that, then please uh go right ahead and do that.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Okay, well, I was inspired uh in 2007.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Um at the time I was working for a well-known uh company, and um I happened to be working in Las Vegas. Thought for just a couple of weeks, turned out to be six months going into Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

So when I would come home uh when I needed a break, I just started putting something together. I put their music on to give me the ambiance and just going into like when a painter is inspired to paint something, they may catch something outside their window. The sun may be setting just right, and they just go for it.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

And so what I did was this white paper was on a quarter ply board.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

So I measured two inches on the from the edge of the ply board and put the and framed the white paper, which is the bet the canvas. Okay, first. So then I started with this picture right here. This is already 63. They're a promotional photograph.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

That was the start right there in the center.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Really?

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Yeah. Okay. And then uh the original corners, I had eight by ten or eight by eleven pictures um to have.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Yeah, you can't see you can't see them behind me, but there's a there's there's some like eight by ten or eight by eleven uh photographs of uh like John Lennon and George Harrison. And these are the later years of the Beatles as well. So yeah, just some there's there's a lot of fantastic photographs on here. Please continue, Mario.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

So once I had the foundation from the center on the four corners, I began to work and just let it flow from top to bottom, from I guess you want to north to south, east to west.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

On the poster. Okay. But there would always come a time where I had to stop. Because if I try to force anything, it wouldn't come out the way you see it now.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

So you would just kind of uh if if if uh you had it in you for an hour, if that the inspiration lasted an hour, that's how long you'd work. If it lasted for six hours, you'd work for six. But as soon as, as soon as you felt like, okay, the mood's gone, I'm stopping.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Yeah.

unknown 38:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

So this so this tribute poster took eight years. You're right. It wasn't a couple of weekends, it wasn't a few weeks, eight years. And you're probably thinking, Mario, eight years? And you just said it. You see all the the detail.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Methodically placed, it's it's all over. I mean, all the years are there, and it tells its own story.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Does it really? It tells its own story. Does now let me let me ask this do is the story told from the center out, or is the story told from like right to left, left to right? Up to how is the story told?

SPEAKER_02 38:59

From all always been.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Okay. Always all all defin all different directions. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Okay. Yeah. So um I've done something that nobody else has put out. When I had Beatle Posters, it was just the Beatles.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Okay. Nothing else, because right here you see the the tour programs. I put the two, this is 64. And then um over here was 66. Okay. Okay. Or I put Sergeant Pepper's album.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Because that initially that was my stop. I was just gonna go from 60 to 67 and just stop.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Really?

SPEAKER_02 39:34

But the initial concept was about Pete Best. For a lot of you who don't know, Pete Best was the original Beatles drummer. Yeah. And then unfortunately, he was replaced by Richard Starkey. By Richard Starkey, that's right. Ringo Starkey. Yeah. Okay. So that gentleman lost out on history, but it was made up in royalties later on. We'll get into that.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

But didn't Pete Pete Best made some photos, didn't he? Didn't he make uh uh uh uh didn't he make it he didn't make it onto one album cover, did he? Made it onto something I saw many, many years ago. And I was like, no, that's not no, he's not the drummer because I was a kid. Oh no, the drummer's ringo star. No, that's wrong.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

That's what we all thought.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

But I've had I got albums for the failed deca editions of him with the other three.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Gotcha. He's the Beatles. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

So there's there is proof of photographs.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Um, but he had to be included in the story because he's left out. They don't you don't think about Pete Best too much because nobody mentions him.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

When they were being in the interviews before performances, somebody in the reporting crowd would ask, so who's Pete Best? Where's Pete Best? And they would all like, who, what? Uh next question.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

They didn't want to talk about Pete Best. Now Ringo Star or Paul McCarrier would mention Pete Best.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Now but this captures everything from when they were children. If you could where I'm pointing at, they these guys are five years old. What what Beatle Poster shows them at five years old? I even have their parents on this collage. Oh wow. Because parents now are getting recognized for helping their student success in education. Yeah. If we didn't have John's parents, Paul's parents, George's parents, or Richard's parents, there wouldn't have been no Beatles.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

There wouldn't. We wouldn't exist if our parents didn't have us.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

So they were born in for a reason. Did they know it? No. But it happened. And they made history. They did something that nobody has ever achieved.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

And and not only did they uh make history, but uh they change history. They you know it it it's it it it it is amazing, you know. I think sometimes, uh especially for cat casual music uh lovers and appreciators, that they take that for granted. The the the impact, the influence, the history making that went that that that came from these four young lads, you know, it's just it's absolutely astonishing. And and look, I'm learning from you as well. I like I I I don't think we were on camera, but like if if Mario knows this, wait, if Mario knows this much about the Beatles, I know like this much about the Beatles, okay? Which is next to nothing. So I'm learning from this as well. I I I know a little bit, I know enough to at least sound halfway intelligent. Um, but Mario, there's got to be, just trying to describe this for the people that are listening as well. There has got to be like there are thousands of pictures on here, photos on here. And I can tell that you meticulously cut and shaped each one of these to give it the right shape that it needed for this. It's absolutely amazing. I mean, literally, people, thousands. Because there are, like I said, you know, to behind me, there are some eight by ten, eight by uh eleven and a half, or eight and a half by eleven, whatever you want to call it. But as you start moving this way, you see there are some pictures that are just like a half an inch by a half an inch. So you go from big to small, all different sizes and shapes, and it's absolutely it's beautiful. It's a beautiful display of history.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Um you know, Ben, sometimes I can't even believe I did this work. When you're when you're caught up in the moment of something, yeah, and it just flows, and you and I and I look back and I'm thinking wow, I did that. Yeah, I did. But not all the time. Like we just said, sometimes I would have to stop because once the mojo kind of left for a bit, yeah, I didn't want to force something that wasn't supposed to be there. I had to make sure I didn't have doubles. Because you, you know, you get lost. And I mean, if you look at what's behind us, and you can't tell everything because you know, um I had to make sure I didn't put the same pictures in. They all are different pictures in their own. Yeah. So that was that was a thing for me was making sure I didn't have the same pictures again.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Just the meticulousness behind it. That's uh it is. You know, uh let me say this. I I I can I can say that I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of taken aback, or am I proud, I'm not sure, to say that, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm right. That for you watching, this is like the first public showing of this. Am I right, Mario? That's correct. Tell tell me how tell me how it came to be that the first public showing of this thing of beauty right here is on the Ben Maynard program.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Well, a neighbor had taken some pictures, made a um, put on a disc, and told me that this this is not just for me as a fan. I did this for a reason. I was inspired to share this with public.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

And I tried reaching out to disc jockeys to help me get this out. I was looking for QA's.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

And I don't know if anybody knows about on KaleOS Breakfast with the Beatles. If you have, you know that uh the original DJ uh passed away.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

There's the K just for those of you who are not in Southern California, KaleOS is our local rock station. They're a staple here in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

So Chris Carter, who took this program over, I went to see him live in Seal Beach at Kobe Steakhouse.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

And I took this uh with me, hoping that I can get a few minutes of his time after his broadcast. He came over to me and said, Thank you for coming to the show. I asked him if I could take a couple periods with him. He says, Yeah, no problem. I asked him for five minutes of his time after his program, and I grabbed my poster. He didn't get to see all this, but what he saw, he was impressed. He could tell the detail. I was hoping that he would want me to be on one of his live shows and do a QA, but he didn't jump on it. But he gave me a compliment and he said that this should be in the um uh the museum uh downtown LA, um the Grammy Museum.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Yeah, in the Grammy Museum, which is a big compliment. He said, if you ever I don't know, let them buy it off of you or you lent it to them, to put up in frame and have a photo of you, the artist that put this together. Anything come about that? No, no, this is the first time, as Ben has said, that I'm allowing this to be publicly shown on Ben's podcast.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Yeah, suckers.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

So uh a few months back, let's go back to April, we were having a conversation with some alumni from our high school with your high school, and we were talking about music because we were talking about music, yeah. We found out that we had the same type of love for music, yeah. And it started off with this that I have something interesting to show and talk about on his podcast. So I intrigued Ben's mind, and I sent him the story of the tribute, right here, which is right here, right there, to kind of give Ben uh the background. Yeah, he never seen it until today. This is the first time that Ben has actually viewed the poster. Yep. It's like a giant scroll. It's it's so big because I didn't know the size of his studio. He didn't know the size of my poster. Nope. So not the whole poster is being seen, just most of it, but you get the idea if you can see it.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

There's probably um, you know, on behind Mario, obviously you guys see the you know, the picture stops right there, but behind Mario, there's at least a foot and a half to two feet still rolled up that we have we have back here behind behind Mario that you guys can't see. And then of course, it's kind of curled up behind me over here, so you you can't really see it very well. So uh I mean you're getting a good chunk of it, but you're not getting all of it. And uh, for those of you who are watching anyway, you still can't see much, but just know that it is a thing of beauty. Um and it's Mario says it tells a story. And I want, you know, one of these days, uh it would probably take too long to do it on this podcast. But to what Mario was saying about about uh like a QA, that kind of thing, Mario needs to have this thing on display. And with it doesn't matter if it's one person or 100 people where he can just tell the story behind this work of art here and share with people. Um I mean, it once you see this, you can you can immediately tell. Not don't worry about the eight years it took to put together. Think about the hours it actually took to put together, not the eight years. Eight's a small number. What about those hours that it took? I mean, that's it just it's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

It took a lot of research because I had to look for websites that dealt with beetle beetle photographs. Okay, and I was very particular about what was gonna go on this poster.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

I mean, if you grew up in the 60s and you were the first uh generation Beatle fans, you grabbed all those those inexpensive magazines. Yeah, they cost now more on unfortunately for Ben and I, we gotta pay that price. You know, if you didn't have a sibling who bought Beatle magazines or their first records, you're out of luck. Records back then were like $2.99. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, now, what, $25? If you want to get it, that's what sucks.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

That's what sucks now is I go record store shopping and and I'll buy three records, it costs me 60 bucks. Where well we were growing up, 60 bucks, are you kidding me? You came home with the you know 15 records, no problem. Yeah, but uh yeah, and and when you bought them as a kid, they were brand new. Now they're used. Used records, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

I know it's amazing, and um, so you know. We were talking about uh earlier before we did the show about the famous bows. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. We were there's a picture right here of the famous bowl of show after performing one of their songs.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

That's right, because they would they would bow after every song. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

Now we know sometimes performers wait till after their their last song to give a bow to the audience and say goodnight. Thank you for coming. They were told to bow after every song.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

And that stuff, that that kind of um um I don't want to say showmanship, but but that type of uh manner, we'll put or charisma, that came from

Brian Epstein And Quitting The Road

SPEAKER_00 51:55

where?

SPEAKER_02 51:55

The manager, Brian Epstein. Okay, that's how he wanted them to be on stage because when he saw them at the cavern, uh when he heard about them, he kind of like, I don't know, I like them, but I gotta change them. If they're gonna go anywhere, and he said he would make them bigger than Albus Presley. And he did. Well, yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Yep, yep, sure did.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

So by mid-60s, he took his life because when they were tired of being those Beatles, his job was over. Because they didn't want they didn't want to go do this anymore. They were tired of it, they'd been here, done that.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

They wanted to just be in the studio making records. And when they made that choice, then they weren't liking each other. I mean, they're they're like brothers.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

And they were getting tired of seeing each other just to be called to make a record. They weren't having to be in the public's eye, they weren't having flashbulbs all over their face, blinding them with bulbs going off and on. They weren't being asking foolish questions as they would put because they were wanting intelligent questions to give intelligent answers.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

And and they their music was changing, it was getting deeper.

unknown 53:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

So they couldn't perform live. Now, yeah, but then no, because the technology wasn't there yet. And they were up against the fan base who drowned them out screaming, and they couldn't hear themselves. So they're thinking, why keep performing if nobody's gonna listen?

SPEAKER_00 53:26

There was no such thing as in-ear monitors in the 60s of you just had your wedges at the front of the stage, and you know, in order to hear yourself amongst all those screaming fans, you were really gonna have to crank those. And you might coming out of the monitor on stage might be so loud that you you still couldn't even hear yourself singing into the microphone.

SPEAKER_04 53:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

So you wouldn't even know what it was you were singing or what you were hearing or anything else. But so are you saying that? Okay, let's back up a uh a minute. All right. So Brian Epstein took his own life after the Beatles decided they wanted to change. They wanted to change their look, their sound. It was too much for him to take.

SPEAKER_02 54:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

I never even knew that. I never knew that Brian Epstein took his own life.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

He did. Um, when they were going to see the Maharishi Yoga, he was still a part of that. He was still with us at that time.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:21

But um he kind of overtook some medication that would unfortunately take his life. Because he knew once these guys decided not to do any more of the running around, um, go to show from show, his job was pretty much over.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

So they he felt that they wouldn't have a use for him, they wouldn't have a need for him, and he'd be basically out of a job.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

Oh, okay. So now you you you you started touching on it because okay, let me set it up this way. When was the besides the top of the um uh um Capitol Records building and all that, but when was the last Beatles live performance? There, you know, the last, the last concert, the last tour, so to speak?

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Tour-wise was 1966. Yeah, it ended in Candlese Park, San Francisco, California.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

And you got a you got a radio ad right here, yeah. Yeah, right there. Yeah, isn't that great? I I knew it. I knew it was there. Um okay. But actually, that is that wait, no, that's a ticket stub. That's not a radio ad. It just says the radio station welcomes the Beatles, and that's the yeah, that okay, that's the ticket stub there. Yeah, so okay, so that was their last uh live show.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Yeah. But officially was on the roof of Apple Records.

SPEAKER_00 55:35

Apple Records in 69. Exactly, yeah. But I'm not counting that because that was after the change in direction that they took. So they ended their touring and live performing because they wanted to take this change in direction. And where the technology was available to them in studio, it wasn't available for them to also perform this stuff live. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_03 56:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 56:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

I mean, because I mean, yeah, you can't take Sergeant Pepper at that time, and they can't be playing all the instruments that they were doing in the studio.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

You would need an orchestra.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Yeah, you uh you yeah, you'd have to have all types of uh uh uh m musicians behind you and that kind of thing. And you just brought it up, Sergeant Peppers. Sergeant Peppers was uh 67, right?

SPEAKER_04 56:23

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 56:24

And uh Pet Sounds came out before Sergeant Peppers. And and Pet Sounds is like the the quintessential uh Beach Boys album, so to speak. It's the it's the experimental Beach Boys album, let's put it that way. Um The Beatles were watching what the the Beach Boys were doing early on, and when Pet Sounds came out, uh Brian Wilson was on his drug-induced whatever, um that's when that's when the Beatles were like, we're gonna do that too, right?

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Well, that started changing uh at Rubber Soul, okay, then Revolver into Sgt. Peppers.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Okay. And they just became more experimental as like each record went on. Yeah. And and there was sort of for a few years, not not a lot, but for for you know a couple, three years, there was like this competition between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, right? Yeah, there was. Yeah. They were both influencing each other. Right, right. I mean, it's friendly.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

It was there was nothing uh like the stones and the beatles.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

Right, right, right. And I've always said, like bringing up the stones, I've always said that you know, I I used to do this thing, uh, this game, this or that. And I would say, okay, Beatles are stones. Neither one of them is wrong, but Beatles are stones. And people would pick one or the other, you know. And I always said, look, the Beatles were, because they're always known as the prim and proper guys, uh pre-66. And uh the stones, when they hit the scene right away, they were like dirty street punks right out of the gate, you know, which is from what we have talked about uh today already. I'm imagining that's probably what the Beatles were before Brian Epstein came into the picture and said, no, this is how we're gonna look, guys.

Pete Best And The Drummer Switch

SPEAKER_02 58:16

Before Epstein, or when Epstein seen them, they were dressed in leather.

SPEAKER_00 58:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

That came on because of Gene Vincent. B Babalula.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

Yeah, yeah. I love you.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

He was over there and they met him, and there's pictures that I have with him. Wow. And they liked him because they thought he was so cool. Get this. They did have suits when they were the quarrymen. They were dressed up.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

But they saw him like a rebel. Gotcha. Kind of like uh, you know, a rebel without a cause, right? Right, right, right. James Dean? Yeah, yeah. Funny about that, uh, James Dean. Stuart Sup clip, I have a picture of him because he's part of the Beatles history. He looked like James Dean behind Dark Shades and the Pompodor. Um cool looking guy. He was an artist. He took himself out of the band because he never wanted to be in the band in the beginning. John kind of taught him into it, yeah, because they were best friends. And he told John that you don't need me in the band. I'm holding you guys back. But he gave John ideas about he saw where they were heading. Gotcha. And so he had some kind of influence with John and how they were developing what he saw while being a friend of John's and being part of the band. But he's an artist. Unfortunately, he he passed away in Hamburg.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

Uh Bream Hermage. But um, so there's a lot of different people. There's people that the Beatles looked up to. There's Mary Wells, um uh Trudy Lopez, uh, East Los Angeles, Twitty Lopez. I had a hammer, yeah. Yeah. Um, there's there's there he is right there's Stuart's. Oh, yeah. Because I had to add the people in the story because they're part of their story. Gotcha. So when I talk about Pete Best, I also thought about the monkeys song for Pete's sake. Not that it had anything to do with him, right? They're totally different uh directions, but that was a concept, yeah, for Pete's sake, because I always felt bad for Pete. Because you know, he got he was done wrong. And when he's been interviewed time over time, he doesn't like talking about the part where he gets fired. He said if the three of them would have just told him, he probably would have handled it a little bit better. Okay. But they put Brian Epstein, who just became the manager, to do the dirty work. Because he asked, where are they at? Why aren't they here when you're telling me that my drumming career is over with the guys? Right. And they want Ringo Star. And um it really did a number on his life. He was really uh when I first met Pete Biss in Pasadena, still, even after the 60s, I've gotten very depressed. Wow. I have a book where he talks about being suicidal. That's I mean, he thought them as brothers, just like Ringo said, we were brothers. So they so both drummers felt the same way being with those three guys. Okay. So about a little over 30 years ago now, they did a project called Anthology. So the first part of the anthology, um, Pete Bess is on those tracks of the Decca tapes.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

So he got his royalty payoff. Ah. So he's not in bad shape no more.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

So he's doing a little bit, his bank accounts looking a little better these days.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

Yeah, a little more full. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

Yeah, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

And which I think was due him.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:49

He didn't get the fame as Ringo Star did. But he was part of the beginning because um I have resources of other bands who were there at the time, and they heard Pete best play. I never heard him live. I only know what Ringo Sounds live, I know what Ringo sounds like uh in studio. But they said that Pete had a big beat, a driving big beat. Now that's what George Martin wasn't looking for. He wanted a timekeeper. Gotcha. Right. So that that was another thing that changed the perspective and the dynamics of the band. Whatever Pete did, I don't know. But he was one of the more popular Beatles in the band. He had a very good big female fan base. Okay. And so there's a lot of different discrepancies of why they let him go. And is any of them right? Who knows? You'd had to be there. You'd had to be there. Um, when they brought Ringo as the drummer with the Beatles, the fans were going crazy. There was fights breaking out. You know, Pete Forever, Ringo never.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

Uh Ringo took a punch to the nose, George got a black eye. Holy crazy because it it created an eruption because they took Pete out. That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

I I never heard this. Have you heard this one before? Now, uh, you see me look off camera like that. We actually have an in-studio audience, okay? And he's yeah, he's a I won't say he's a former guest on this podcast, he's a former host of this podcast. Remember, he took it over a couple weeks back. Yeah. Raul's sitting in. He he months ago when this when when Mario and I were setting this up, and we'll get back on topic. Raul's just like sitting there with his arms all folded. But uh, Raul says, When Mario comes in, I want to be there. I have to be there. I want to hear this discussion. I want to know what's going on. I want to be the fly on the wall. So uh I called Raul this week. I said, Hey, Mario's coming Saturday. What time? 10 o'clock. I'll be there. So Raul's sitting in and he's and he's actually quiet, and I can't believe it. But uh, but he is. So uh anyway, um Beatles Records.

Favorite Records And Music As Medicine

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

Okay. Um the recording history is pretty much a 10-year period. How many not how many versions of these albums are there? How many actual recorded albums are there in that 10-year history? 13. 13. Can you imagine that though? That is that's insane production. Uh you know, especially when I think the bulk of it came from 66 on, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:46

What do you mean by the bulk of it?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:48

The the the bulk of those 13 albums came from 66 on to uh was it seven 70?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

I would pretty much say so.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

But in the early days of the recordings, um, they were doing that in between performances and finding time, making time.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:07

Because what band puts out two albums a year? I mean, it takes KISS.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:14

I mean, I tell I tell you guys, all roads lead back to Kiss. But but yeah, but that's insane though, to put out two albums a year.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

Because they were in such demand. Wow. Their fan base, I mean, Capital gave them what the fans wanted.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:31

Putting so much, I mean, sometimes you would get a poster out of there. Were they putting tchotchkis and stuff inside the inside the record sleeves? So when you brought you showed the album, yeah, the the they call it a jacket.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

I'll get it again, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:43

Um, not this particular one, but sometimes you would get a little surprise in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Say, like the white album, you got a poster. Oh, you did, really? And four eight by ten photos, headshots.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:55

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:56

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

So if you don't have that one, I would suggest you get that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

See, this has to be a reprint because it's on not a reprint, but a like a second or third pressing because this one's on the Apple label. Not Capital Records.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

Right. That's the Beatles label.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:10

Apple. So the original Capital almost had the rainbow black label. Yes. Yes. From 64 to 67, up to the magical mystery tour. Then after that, it went to their label.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:23

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I know this had to be a second. Even though it says capital on the on the on the original cover, the the record itself is on Apple Records. But um so Favorite Beatles record. You have a favorite.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:46

What kind of question is that? Man, putting me on a spot like that. You know what? I liked it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:52

I need to know. Inquiring minds want to know too.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:56

Let me say this.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

Most people may differ. I like the early years of the Beatles. Because that's when they were high energy. By the time they started doing studio records, it got more serious. So you can just listen.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Like if you were to ask me, Mario, what song on Sgt. Pepper's got you? I can't really say that.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

But when we talked about uh the early records, even prior before doing your show, I said it was this boy from Meet the Beatles. My dad had bought the first album to see what these guys were about because they were making such a fuss over them in '64 coming to America. Not that he was a fan, but he bought it to just see. Let me play this record. He didn't think that I was gonna grab and take hold of it and become a big fan because he would give me a hard time about collecting the Beatles.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:49

You know what I see in those guys. You know. I'll tell you what. When I was down and I played their music, it brought me back up.

unknown 1:07:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:01

Their music just helps me get through a lot of hard times, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:05

And that is, and we talk about it a lot on this, on this, on this program.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:10

Um I'm getting emotional, folks. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:13

No, you get as emotional as you need to get. You and I, Raul, we talked about it uh a couple weeks back. You know, that's that's what music does. That's what it it it it does. And we we the three of us we talked about it uh downstairs, and it doesn't matter what the genre is, it doesn't matter um the the pace of the song, fast, slow, somber, high energy, whatever. Worship music from church. When it's right and it's good, you feel it right there where you're supposed where you're supposed to feel it, you know, right there in your heart. And and it gets you in the chest. And and like you said, at times when you at times in your life when you were feeling down, instead of instead of you know taking taking a drug or taking a drink, you put the Beatles on. And it it changed your mood. It brought you back to where you needed to be. And I just think that's there's nothing better than that stuff, you know. Music, you know, I think muted music is is terrific medicine. I really do. And that's what um I guess that's uh what as a as a music lover and you know, old guys like we are in this in the studio here, that's what frustrates me um about music over like the last 30 years or so. Yeah. Is that early on there was always a there was always a an inspiration for wanting to be in a band. I want to be like the Beatles, I want to be like the Stones, I want to do what Elvis does. You know, I mean Robert Plant name checks Elvis in uh I believe it's a whole lot of love on, you know, the song remains the same, you know. I'm doing it one more time for Elvis, you know, and and uh speaking of Elvis, we'll get to that in a second, but um now people wanted to do that. Guys wanted to get in a band. Well, some guys wanted to get in band because they wanted to get the girls, but but but now it's yeah, well, that's true. Um but but now it seems that uh over over the last 30 years, there's a there's a lot less sincerity in it, I guess is maybe a good way of putting it uh in music. Um there's less heart, there's less soul, and it's it seems that it's more yeah, there you go. It seems that it's you know more about okay, let's do this so we can make some money on it, you know. Um, but I just think if you do things right, you do it from the heart, right? You know, whatever fame or fortune or attention that you might receive comes your way, it'll come naturally. It has to be organic. Yeah, you know, so Elvis.

The Private Meeting With Elvis

SPEAKER_00 1:11:41

From my recollection, Elvis was not necessarily a big fan of the Beatles, but he wanted like much like your dad, he wanted to know what's going on with these guys. Why? Because Elvis goes into the army, and the only thing we hear after his days in the army was he's making movies now, he's not doing music anymore. And then you've got these four young lads from Liverpool coming to America and they stole every inch of that spotlight that used to belong to him. Correct. And like I said, he wasn't much of a fan of theirs. He may have become one, but but he wanted to see what was going on with these guys. And so they set up a meeting, you know, he had a meeting set up for the Beatles to come to his home. Was it in Bel Air? Correct. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Do you do you know? I know there's not a lot about that, but do you what is it that you know about that visit?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:44

What I've read, what I've heard, there was no audio to be recorded. Right. It was private meeting between them and him, along with the mafia. Elvis' mafia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, there were no the Memphis Mafia. The Memphis Mafia.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

There were no photographs to be taken.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:04

They didn't want to publicize for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:07

Um the way it started was Elvis got bored because these guys were just looking at him. Because they were awestruck because they admired Elvis.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:18

I mean, part the old Elvis, the wildcat Elvis. Yeah, those the hip shaking and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not the guy that was making the movies. But yeah, right. The the 56 Elvis, that kind of stuff. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:30

So this is 1965, their second time back in America.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:33

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:34

And Elvis is making a movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

And uh he's living in Bel Air. And um, so he this meeting was set up between the Colonel and Mr. Epstein. Colonel. That makes me sick. And um, so they showed up. He he didn't come down right away, they were waiting for him. And you're right, they got awestruck when he showed up because he had this aura about him. And he's watching them, they're looking at him, and he's like, you know what? I'm gonna go to bed now because if you guys are gonna talk, um this is over. So then I hear that he brought instruments out and they kind of like woke up and they started kind of jamming. Not not particularly playing any particular songs, but they're jamming. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:26

Wasn't Elvis sitting at the piano or or no?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:29

That I'm not sure. Okay. That I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

I may and I could totally have made that up. I don't know. I but I thought I heard it somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Rolls rolling his eyes.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:39

But I but I did hear what you said that that after it was like I I don't know the timeline exactly, but Elvis is like, if you guys aren't gonna say anything, I'm I'm going to bed. And that they were just completely in awe of of Elvis being there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

So they they had I don't know what was said, what they asked her, what he asked them. I don't know that part.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:00

Um what I know is that he gave them each a catalog of his albums. They each got a copy of all his albums to that.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:10

How nice, Elvis.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:13

But you know what? It's kind of like the Bible where the gospels, each one who wrote, you know, John, Matthew, Luke, and Mark have a different interpretation of their time with Jesus, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:24

They're all they're all similar, but it's in their own words. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:27

So this is so you have the Beatles individually having different accounts. Yeah. John was very disappointed. Where's that? Where's the Elvis I grew up with?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

Mmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:40

He wasn't the wildcat no more.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:42

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

The hip shaking guy. That wasn't him. The army took it out of him. Took him out of him, right? Took it out of him.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:51

And now Elvis is an actor. Yeah. Playing in uh playing in all these silly movies, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:56

But he wore the beetle boots. He did wear beetle boots. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:00

Well, and he always dressed sharp. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:03

And um, but you're right, after that meeting, he was blaming them for influencing the generation about drugs.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:13

But when you think about that statement, and when he passed away, his personal doctor had a scroll of medicine that he was taking.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:23

And so when I think of him trying to blame them, who was taking all the drugs?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:28

They may not have, they might may have been all legal, but nonetheless, stuff that will, if you abuse it, it jacks you up.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:37

And that's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:38

That's what happened to him.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:39

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:41

I mean, he even went to Nixon at the time to try to do something to them. You know?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:47

I knew he went to what do you I knew he went to go see President Nixon because he wanted to be like a part of the CIA or something. Yeah. And Nixon made an honorary agent or something, something to that effect. But so um, but that was that was like the one and only time that there was a there was a connection between the Beatles and and only Elvis. Yeah. Wow. That's yeah, that's amazing too. As much as they uh but you know, there's that saying, never meet your heroes, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:18

And they I just recently heard that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:20

And they, you know, the Beatles, I mean, he was Elvis was one of their heroes. And at least through most of that visit, it just it seems as though they were a little bit disappointed, you know. But I mean, I'm sure the the the um the jam session, whatever it was, however long it was, whatever, I'm sure that was kind of kind of cool. Yeah. But yeah. And you know, it's what's kind of kind of odd is that through all of the books that have been written about the Beatles and um autobiographies and all that, there's still not a lot of information about that one encounter with Elvis. You're right. There's very, very little.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:04

It's kind of blocked out.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:06

I mean, when they said no audio, no, no photos, they meant that.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:09

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:10

It was just for them only. Him for them. And I think both sides were disappointed. No, really. I mean, he did go on to sing some of their songs in his later career. Right. Um, but he wasn't a really big fan of theirs. Um, like you said, they invaded his territory. He had a uh a fan base following in Europe, but because of the manager, that's exactly there was something in the manager's past that he didn't want to go there. Yep. And Elvis didn't under couldn't understand why, and he never told him why. And so Elvis was stuck doing Las Vegas, other than the uh big arena performances, yeah. Always in Las Vegas up until he passed away.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:54

And he had, yeah, and he had lots of offers to go overseas. Yes, he did, but it was all because of the colonel. Yeah. Um, but uh so uh if you had one Beatles record that was like it's just no. I I no, I I would if if if it didn't say Beatles on it, I would take a big lighter and and burn it, you know. What what album is that?

The Tracks Fans Still Argue About

SPEAKER_02 1:19:25

Just putting him on the spot again.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:27

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:28

I mean, I think I mean look, well the reason why I can Ben, I'm a fan of the Beatles. Okay. I get ya. I know a lot of people don't always agree with everything they've done. Yeah. And I think a lot of it came because of George's influence of the Indian type music he was adding to their catalogs. Yeah. And I'm not crazy about it either.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:48

And there's some songs that I could say like shouldn't be there, like uh Revolution 9. Wild Honey Pie.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:56

Turn Me On Dead Man.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:57

Turn Me On Dead Man.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Off the White album. But I mean, you know, Yellow Summerine was a soundtrack album, just like A Hard Day's Night and Help. Now, I'm not crazy about the soundtracks that Capital put out because that was not the intention originally in the in the Bridge catalog. It was all music. There was no instrumentals. George Martin did the scores of the instrumental and gave them tracks for Capital to use if they so wanted to use them.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

Which they did. So, you know, you you take a Hard Day's Night. So there's seven songs without the instrumentals in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:39

I I I I don't own a Hard Days Night. I never owned a Hard Days Night. So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying there were seven actual songs, and then the rest is just instrumentals. Yeah. All put together, you said by George Martin. Correct. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

And then you got help.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:00

Which was another seven songs. And then George Martin doing background films.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:05

Filler stuff with gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:07

All right. And then you have Yellow Submarine, which was more animation. Yeah. I mean, the only time you saw the Beatles was at the tail end, and they're just kind of horsing around. And um and then you have more scores of George Martin putting the music from the film on there. So taking a match to any of those records?

unknown 1:21:30

All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

I just I just couldn't do it, Ben. I just, I just can't do it. Um I was being metaphorical. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:37

But but I I guess and the reason why I I I asked the question that way is, you know, I'm look, I'm a I've said it many times. One in one A is kiss and journey. And depending on how I'm feeling that week, you know, whatever. Flip-flop them. But and I'm a tremendous fan of each of those bands, and I know their material, like inside and out, and I know history on the band, just like you are with the Beatles. But it doesn't mean I like every single thing that they've done. Okay. And I think when you are a true fan, you have the authority to say, I love that and that over there, guys. Yeah, kind of a swing and miss. Okay. I think you have that authority to do that when you when you are a big fan and you are invested in in your band that way. So that's the reason why I ask it, because you know, I I could, you know, tell you the things that I don't like about those bands, but I could tell you all the things I love about them as well. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:51

You know what? I I just uh appreciate the musicianship and what they gave us, yeah, and what they left us. Because I can't find this in any other musical act or individual performer where the catalog goes from an infant to a senior citizen.

unknown 1:23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:12

Because all their songs fit those years.

unknown 1:23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:18

Think about that for a moment because the Beatles are getting new fans because of the parents or the grandparents. Very true.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:25

Very true.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:26

And their fan base is still growing, and the band is no longer in existence.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:31

The band hasn't been around since 1970 for crying out loud. That's what, 55 years ago. And uh that's amazing. But but you know, like we said very early on, fortunately, Ringo Star is still alive. 84 years old, still sits behind a drum kit and plays. Ben 86. Or 86, I'm sorry, yeah. And and Paul McCartney, I think he's 84. He's 84. Yeah, because he was uh last month. Yeah, but he wasn't the youngest one, though, was he? No. Oh, that's a question. Which Beetle was the youngest? Is that John? No. Oh, now we're on Price's Right or something. Who was the youngest then?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:16

George Harrison. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:17

Because uh Ringo was the oldest, right? Yeah, you got that right. Okay, then it what Ringo, John, Paul, and then George. Okay. George. And George, what an what fantastic, uh, underrated, fantastically underrated guitar player. Um, as I stated earlier, you know, just he had an influence over guys like Steve Lukather and and and many others. Um so, yes, fortunately, and I think that's why this band is attracting so many more younger people as well. And when I mean younger people, I'm talking like teenagers. Um, because the fact, well, first, their their music has lived on for so many years, even beyond their, you know, their recorded history. But because you have Ringo Star and Paul McCartney uh still out there, still playing live, um, you know, still recording and releasing music as well, um, I think that certainly has a lot to do with it. Um, especially when you have, you know, Paul McCartney at 84 years old who will still go out and play a two and a half hour show and not take a sip of water. There you go, three and three hours and not take a sip of water the whole entire show. No, he does. No, he does. Oh, does he does he drink now? Yeah. Okay, he used to not drink. But so, you know, but it it just it's the amazing stuff like that. And look, if for people our age, if anyone expects to hear a Paul McCartney or a Ringo Star singing in 2026, the way they were singing in 1986, 1976, 1966. You're kidding yourself, okay? But the one thing that you can say about these guys is that it's all live, it's all real, there's no fakery going on. And and look, no, no joke at all. They're both wealthy enough to where they could pay for whatever fakery needed to be done musically. They could they could pay for all the tracks and everything else to you know to fake their way through a show. And um, and they don't, and it's all live and it's all real.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:52

It's all live. I've seen uh Paul four times and I've seen Ringo four times.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:55

Really? Really? And actually, Ringo, I Ringo's local isn't he gonna be at the Greek coming up? It's coming up, yeah. Yeah, I think it might be in October, maybe. I think that'd be

Seeing Paul Live And What He Gave Fans

SPEAKER_00 1:27:06

a good show to see. I've never seen the all-star band.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:08

But now I will tell you, he can pull a show off by himself without his friends. But I don't think he wants to sing as long as Paul does.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:21

Because Paul has his band and check this out. Paul's backup band has been playing with him longer than he was a Beatle or Wings. They have given up their career, their ideas, their their what they want to do as musicians, each one of them, to ride on that wave with Sir Paul McCartney.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:44

Back him up.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:45

I'm sure it pays really well, too. Um you know, as and speaking of Paul and speaking of seeing him live, I I I did an episode last night on on uh the Journey Escape album Turning 45 and Then the four inner four album Turning 45. And I was trying to find my concert program from the Escape Tour 1981. And while looking, I stumbled upon this. And I bring this out because you're here. And also because we were both at this same show. I got that. I know you do. It's it's Paul McCartney World Tour. I think it's 1989, was this show?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:24

And he uh did you go in November?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

Uh it was at the forum. I don't remember what month, but it was at the forum.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:31

And I saw him on Thanksgiving night.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:34

I know it wasn't Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:35

Oh, okay. November 23rd.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:37

But um yeah, it's uh I still have it. Still have it. I don't have the t-shirt I bought anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:44

But do you remember when you got to your seat? This was waiting for you because you paid.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:52

You know, Mario, that I don't remember, and I do remember a lot. I have that said that I have the memory of an elephant, but you know, even an elephant, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:04

This was my first time ever seeing Paul McCartney in person. I have a cousin who, God rest his soul, Solomon 76 has wings, and would see him later on after. Right, right, right. Um, I said, one day I'm gonna see Paul McCartney live. One day. Yeah. And I went November 23rd, 1989, had dinner with my family, said, I gotta go. I'm gonna see my favorite Beatle for the first time. Yeah. And um this tour program was waiting for me on my seat. Maybe it was paying to go see him. It was his giving back to his fans. Um, they were selling another one, a promotional one, which wasn't as good as this one. Okay. This was it. And he put this together and he left that for me. There you go. And anybody else who showed up.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:51

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:51

Who does that? Who does that?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:54

Normally you have to go pay almost $50 now to get a tour prong.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:58

Well, yeah, now it's incredibly expensive. I think our t-shirts are probably about $15 back then, you know, and the program was probably another $10 or $15, whatever. But yeah, now it's $50 easy for a t-shirt, you know, and and a lot of bands aren't doing programs uh much anymore, but that was always the big thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:16

When you go to concert, shirt and a program, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:19

Shirt and a program. Yeah. That's what that's what Spaz and I talked about last night was shirt and a program, you know, getting your t-shirt, and you know, and if you went to a concert on a school night, you wore the t-shirt the next day at school, you know. But um I do remember, and that's the only time that I saw Paul McCartney live. That's the only time, and that was off of the um was it Flowers in the Dirt album? And the single was My Brave Face. I love that. I love the opening line of that song. We should sing it together. That's so good. My brave, my brave, my brave face. Oh, it's so good. That is so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:00

Collaboration with Elvis Costello.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:02

Was it? Was it?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:04

And he was the reason for Paul bringing out that Hoffner bass. You don't see him playing in any photos with rings. He had his his Rickenbacker bass guitar. Okay. And whatever other guitar bass he would play, besides his uh because he played regular guitar too. Yeah. And uh he played everything, yeah. Uh incredible musician. Mm-hmm. But Albus Tolema says, you know, I like that the deep sound that Hoffner sound when your Beatle records would were playing. There's just something about the way that comes off. Yeah. You should bring that back up. And that's what he did. And he's never put it down since.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:43

Well, it's it I mean, it's iconic. Yeah. Certainly. Um I think I think my favorite Paul McCartney record, solo record, and maybe even including the Wings records is uh maybe just because it's the closest to me is McCartney 2. Really? Yeah, yeah. I love that record. I love that record. Yeah, I love that record. It's so good. And just like the uh what was it, Ram? Uh Paul played everything on that record. And uh it's it has a couple of uh odd tunes, you know, a little bit, you know. But Paul gets quirky from time to time anyway, you know. So, so it but I the the I remember buying the album, and gosh, I wish I still had that album. I have it on CD, but I don't have it on on vinyl. But I remember buying the album, and when you bought the when you bought the album, and it was a gatefold, so that was cool, but when you bought the album, it came with the 45 of the live version from Glasgow of coming up. And I'm thinking to myself, because you know, I'm 15 years old at the time, and I'm thinking to myself, how could there be a live version of this song when the studio album just came out? You know, like you know, yeah, whatever. But uh, but I remember because the live version was already out, yeah. Um, and it was already on the chart, and it was a fantastic song. And then I buy the studio record, and it's the it's the opening track, and I'm thinking I'm going, this doesn't sound anything like this live version. It took me a while to warm up to that version because it's kind of weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:35

Yeah, but uh did you ever see the video from MTV?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:39

I don't think I did. No, I don't think I did. It's cool, but but uh you know, like temporary secretary. I love that song. This is so good. Uh oh and waterfalls, don't go chasing waterfalls.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:57

I like that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:58

That's a gorgeous song. So that is so good. That is a gorgeous song. Yeah, so I don't know. Do you have a favorite McCartney solo album? You know what? I like the first one, McCartney.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:13

Yeah, because it's just after the Beatles.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:18

Paul was going through a hard time, and you know, thank God for Linda because she helped them snap out of it because Paul was really kind of going down, not being the Beatle anymore, not having his mates anymore, yeah, as a band. Still friends, brothers. They were having odds for who's gonna manage him. Uh that Alan Klein kind of wanted to take over their them, and then they they realized that Paul was right and they got rid of him because he used to manage the stones, and the stones got rid of him for

Alan Klein And The Compilation Fight

SPEAKER_02 1:34:49

money.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:49

I was gonna say a lot of managers are taking a little more than they were supposed to.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:54

The only thing that that that guy did, and the managers um there's a story about you know, before the red and and blue on, we talked about that uh months ago. There was this thing called Alpha Omega, and there's these small companies in the East Coast who are putting out in 72 a compilation of 60 Beatles songs, which included early solo stuff, and they got busted by the manager at the time, Alan Klein, Capitol Records, and EMI to stop the production because who sells 60 songs for $13.95? Yeah, vinyl, eight-track, or cassette? 60 songs for 1395, and I remember the commercial. That's how I remember the date.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:43

Because it tells you because I have these copies, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:46

Oh, you do for history. I mean, of course you have to have to write them a couple of things. Oh, you have to, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

Because there's a story with that. And they decided to put out the red album first. John was not happy with the single selection that they were putting up. He said if we could do it all over again, we'd be picking them up. And then they did the blue one.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:06

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:07

I'm not happy what they did with the new versions of adding a third record to both the red and the blue. Oh. Because of one song, which is the last Beatles song called Now and Then. Oh, yeah. Which is that's another story. We'll have to talk about another story. Yeah, we can do that another time. Because I don't know how much time we have, man. But uh, but that's the only thing that that manager did that was good. Other than that, he was ripping them off.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:37

So lawsuits suing you, suing me, suing them was going on. So that kind of put a wedge. So when you hear some early stuff of McCartney saying stuff to John through music, John did the same thing. How do you sleep?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:52

Yeah, and then and then you know, in 75, you know, uh John is saying stuff like, Oh, yeah, you know, Paul's songs are all just a bunch of silly love songs. And so Paul's response is that fantastic song, silly love songs. Love it. That was his response. Ah, and that's such a great song. It really, really is. Um, that's off of what wings at the speed of sound, right? Or wicked, yeah. Um, but uh fantastic song. But um, you know when it comes okay.

The SNL Offer And Almost Reuniting

SPEAKER_00 1:37:33

There was the whole thing in what was it, 75, 76, when um Lauren Michaels on Saturday Night Live says, uh, I'm gonna give you guys, you know, $3,000 if you make it into the studio, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I know that there was a biopic about that encounter. Now, what do you know about that? Were were were John and Paul really at one of the others' apartments in New York watching that live when it happened?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:06

Paul went to visit John.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:08

And they heard that. And they said they were almost gonna do it, and then they changed their mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:15

George Harrison went on and says, uh, can I get paid now? Can I have my part? Yeah. No, George, I wanted all of you together. Yeah. Well, I don't know if that's gonna happen, but George did show up because he thought he was gonna get his part. Yeah. But it was a group effort. And without Paul and John and Ringo in there, there would be no way. Because at that time also was rumors of them being offered to play a one-time concert performance, not a tour, one time.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:46

Just a one-off, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:48

Yeah, but you know, the only thing that that came out of that was that these guys made up with each other after all the lawsuits, they became friends again. And unfortunately, we lost John December 8th, 1980. That's exactly right. Um, Paul was so happy that he saw John before that to make amends. I don't think that George was able to do that, and I don't think that Ringo was able to do that with Paul had the opportunity. Yeah, um, they feel bad about that. You know, they lost they lost the leader who was the spearhead for the Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:23

Um once you're gone, you're gone. You're gone. That's it. And there you there is no time to make up, make amends, um uh air grievances, whatever. There it's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:36

Even when um John was sent to LA from New York in the mid-70s.

Lennon’s Lost Weekend And Final Comeback

SPEAKER_00 1:39:41

The last weekend. The last weekend. What was that? Wait, the last weekend, it wasn't it like 18 months.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:47

Yeah. And the secretary that John and Yoko had, May Pang, yeah, who's doing a lot of podcasting, interviewing about that time. Okay, and she has photographs that she took with her camera, and there was a time that her and John were kind of falling in love. Right. Until Yoko summoned John to come back. Then they have Sean.

unknown 1:40:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:13

And you were right, we're talking earlier where uh John gave up his music career sabbatical after he did the rock and roll album and devoted his time to raise his second son, which he didn't have much time for his first son, Julian. Yeah. And so um that's when he began to work on what we know as double fantasy, and then she came out with Milk and Honey later, which is the same sessions. He just not he didn't get a chance to produce them and finish them off because we lost him. Okay. But she continued it. But we got double fantasy. Yeah. And that's another story in itself, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:51

You know, it's another story, it but it, you know, if memory serves me correctly, when the album was first released, and it was right around John's 40th birthday, which is what, October 9th.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:06

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:06

Um and he had just turned 40 and so young to be uh murdered like that. But um when the album was first released, it really wasn't doing very well. It was it was it was just like a whole hum, and it took him being murdered, and then all of a sudden the album just shot up the charts, and then the three or three or four singles that were released off of it did really, really well.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:31

Had all the songs been John Lennon, yeah, he would have did very well because John's Coming Back. Okay. That was a comeback, but because Yokohono is on there, okay, the fans were not happy with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:45

So that's probably why he's his album, his comeback album didn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:49

So even just seeing her on the on the front cover of the album was a turnoff to a lot of the hardcores. Gotcha. Okay. And and look, I can understand because for the last 55 years, you know, uh Yoko gets the blame for breaking up the Beatles, you know. So uh I don't know. Do you have an opinion on that one?

Yoko’s Role And A Broken Agreement

SPEAKER_00 1:42:10

Don't get me started. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:12

But but Vinda was also blamed, but I don't see how because she was not around as much as Yoko was.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:21

She was like in the studio and everything, and she was actually throwing her opinions around as far as the direction and the all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:29

So I have some resources from the what we know as the get back project. Uh some stuff I had to stop listening to because I couldn't stand it no more. She was trying to influence herself and her avant garde type of art. Yeah, yeah. Um, which I don't care for. Yeah. So she is too much blamed. She says she didn't blame, they were already at each other, but she pulled John out of what they had agreed to, which was no girlfriends, no wives, nobody in the studios during the recording. Okay. All right. And John broke their agreement. Gotcha. Because it ostracized Paul, George, and Ringo. Right. Seeing Yoko present. The the magic that those four guys had together every time they stepped into the studio was not there because of her influence over John so much. So, you know, they um they did the best they could.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:38

I knew you were I thought that's what you said over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:43

So the dynamics of the four of them was changed.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:48

You know, and but see, John allowed that. He allowed it. He could have kept the agreement between his brothers, yeah, and told her this is the agreement I have with him. But he bent and let her in.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:06

So it so, in other words, let's put it into terms that we have all used, and especially in our younger days. John was PW'd. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I look, younger ones, you're gonna have to look that one up. Sorry. That's just the way it is, okay? The band The Generators actually has a song with that title in it, okay? Speaks exactly to that. Um there's a couple other things. What was okay. Okay, I've I've heard it both ways. I've heard that that Let It Be was the last album, but Abbey Road was the last album. Or wait, that Let It Be was a was the last album released, but Abbey Road was actually recorded after Let It Be. Is there any truth to that? Or do I have it completely wrong?

Abbey Road Recorded After Get Back

SPEAKER_02 1:44:59

Um so before Let It Be was titled Let It Be, it was called Get Back Sessions.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:07

Oh, okay. That's that's why that documentary. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:12

So they were not happy with one another going through that project. Right. And there were days where one of them wouldn't be showing up. But Paul was there because he was a businessman, he was doing work, he showed up for work. But the others were having falling out with him when they got together. Yeah. Even even though George Martin was there, he took his hands off of producing it because he was so hurt with the pain from the four of them. It even hurt him.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:57

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:58

So when they were done with that project, they put it aside.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:02

Enter Phil Specter.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:04

Enter Phil Specter. Gotcha. So Phil Spector is the one on the only Beatle album to produce, which became Let It Be. So before Let It Be came out, the Beatles went back to the studio and recorded for the last time Abbey Road. So Abbey Road is the last Beatles album, but Let It Be was the last to be released. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:28

Okay, so I I okay. I had it, I had it right. I heard it right. I either heard it right or had it right, something. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, so just to clarify. And I was wondering how Phil Spectre came into the picture, and you just laid it out. So off mic again, people.

The Red Apple Label Explained

SPEAKER_00 1:46:45

So I picked this one up because this was Hey, you got a let it be album. I do have a Let It Be album. And and and yeah, right here, people, let it be. Okay. And there were different pressings of this when it was when it was first released, it was released in a gatefold form, just like I have here, because if I'm going to buy it, I'm gonna have exactly what I had previously. So there's the gatefold, yay, and there's the album inside there. And what I wanted to make sure was that it was on the Apple label. And this one is on the Apple label.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:25

What color is it, Ben?

SPEAKER_00 1:47:27

It's uh red and not green.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:31

You know why?

SPEAKER_00 1:47:32

There were two differences. There were there were green, there were green apples and there were red apples. So tell me the difference.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:39

The red apple would signify that Phil Spectre produced this album.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:48

Because it's the only red album.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:50

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:51

And the rest are Apple. Once the Beatles got their own label, they were always. It was always a green apple.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:58

So when the anniversary reproduced album, they put it on green.

unknown 1:48:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:04

But the red is the original red apple label. And tells you there's a difference in the catalog at the very end.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:12

Well, you know, what's funny is is I'm gonna take this one out of the sleeve, is that there's actually, and for those of you who may not be aware, on on a on a record, there's you know, there's the grooves, there, there's the the empty spots in between the songs and all that, and then there's this smooth spot right here just before you get to the label. And there's usually, like you said, it's like a model number or serial number that's on there. Well, on this one, it has all that, and then it also says it's right, oh man, it's better light, but it says where is that? That's the number uh Phil plus Ronnie. Phil plus Ronnie inscribed there, which means Phil plus Ronnie Spectre. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Wow. Is that is that awesome?

SPEAKER_02 1:49:13

I've never seen that. Good eye. So it's glasses, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:49:17

Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. So I thought that was like, whoa, no way. I never knew that. No way. Oh, see, I learned something new too. Um it. Yeah, the runette, that's her. Yeah. Um, so the last thing I want to share with you, and then we'll all get out of here because for some reason the AC is not on, and it's quite warm in here.

Switched-On Beatles And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 1:49:46

But um we talked about, I was telling you that one of the Beatles records I had, which wasn't by the Beatles, it was uh uh it's a it's it's by a a group from, I'm assuming they're from the UK, they played. Beatles music all on all with uh Moog synthesizer. And I bought that I bought this record, I think, around 1976. It's called Switched on Beatles. So it it's very like psychedelic. And if you were on mushrooms or if you were on LSD, forget about it. You would trip out on this. You would lose your mind. Um, you probably would lose your mind listening to it. But it was part of my record collection that I sold. And I've after you and I talked about it, and I had remembered I had showed you a picture of it, I said, okay, I gotta go find it and buy it. So I bought it. And um I just where'd you pick that up from? I think I I got it on an eBay. eBay? Yeah, I found it on eBay. And and um, so I just wanted to kind of open this thing up. It uh I like how a lot of these people that send you records through the mail, they're Jeremy.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:57

What's that? Jeremy's on the front cover. From the Yellow Summarine.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:02

Oh, there you go. See, well, I think is that who else is that him on the back tool? Yes, yeah, there you go. So um, yeah, it's just you know, it's there's an explanation on the inside cover here on the gate fold. There's an explanation as to what it is that they do, but that's these guys all playing synthesizers and stuff, and and uh I always I have once I get a turntable, I'll put this on, and I who knows? I'll probably hate it. But but I loved it as a kid. I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:35

What was it when you heard it for the first time? Was it like for what was it like for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:40

I knew it was gonna be, I mean, I expected it to be different because it says right there, you know, uh electronic interpretation. And uh actually, what's it? It's uh New World Electronic Chamber Ensemble. That's who plays this. And I I had read the inside cover, so I knew it was all gonna be Moog synthesizer. So I got a feel for, I kind of had a feel for what the sound was gonna be like anyway. Um and I just dug it. There's no, there are no vocals, it's all instrumental. And uh I just really dug it. I liked it a lot. So we'll see what happens when I put it on 50 some odd years later, you know, and uh see how it works out, right? Yeah, you know, look, we could stay and talk even longer. Um, this has been a real treat. This has been. I I can't thank you enough for wanting to take the time to do this and you know, do all that kind of stuff. Oh, Raul's over there giving us an air clap, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:40

I'm glad that you uh took interest in my interesting uh subject there.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:46

You know, Mario, um I don't know if you uh, you know, how much you expand your musical taste, you know, if it g stretches out beyond the Beatles or not. I mean, besides the the the the Beatles and then the four members uh solo. But you are music lover, you are uh an appreciator of music, and you can appreciate the you know what it takes for an artist to um to work their art. And you love certainly the history of this band because they are your all-time favorite, and I've known that since high school, but you know, to be able to to sit down and have a music conversation with somebody, because you know, where I say all roads lead back to KISS, well, you know, if you want to stretch that out, all roads actually lead back to the Beatles. So um, you know, we could just talk music forever and ever because you're such a lover of it. And uh, so this is like nothing, this is like no work at all. This was nothing. This was great. This is absolutely fantastic. And I can't thank you enough for wanting to take the time to do. And and you know what? Mario brought something else in that we didn't point out, but we're running a little bit short. And I love it. And if he comes back, I'm gonna make sure he brings it so we can actually talk about it. Um, because it was another piece of art that was given to him actually just recently. Just recently, within like the last like couple weeks, you know. And uh it's fantastic. And the three of us, Raul, Mario, and I, we were kind of talking about it uh uh amongst ourselves. But uh anyway, Mario, uh yeah, just thank you so much. Thank you, Ben. Yeah, no, this is this is fantastic. And uh yeah, I love it. I appreciate it. And I hope everybody out there appreciates the uh the conversation and and the history lesson as well. Too. So really thank you for your knowledge. Thank you for your love of the Beatles, and thank you for your love of music.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:02

Hey, thank you. Thank you for telling me about Phil and uh Ron. Never knew that.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:06

Hey, I get to teach somebody something, at least one thing, right? All right, so we'll we'll let you guys go. Can't thank you enough for spending some time with us. Uh, as you guys know, this program is available wherever you get your podcast, uh, and it's on YouTube. So just search the Ben Maynard program uh and subscribe. Um last but not least, follow me on Instagram, uh, simply Ben Maynard program, all one word, or you can follow me where I'm a little more active on the TikTok, and that is at the Ben Maynard program. Um this guy's fantastic. This guy over here is quiet, and I can't believe it. And you guys are great for thanks, Raul. And you guys are great for hanging around. Um, we'll see you guys next time, all right? This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.