Yesterday and Today

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Episode 12 – Beatles ’67 pt2 Apr 22, 2018

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Is the world ready for the "new" Beatles?" After the successful, but comparatively disappointing commercial debut of their new sound courtesy of the Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single, the band put readied their final touches on the LP considered at the time to be their masterpiece. Well, at least Paul McCartney and producer George Martin thought so...the other three Beatles had mixed feelings themselves about the new direction. Drugs and drink gripped their talons into John Lennon (only 26 at the time) who considered Sgt. Pepper to be a solid, but workman-like exercise. George Harrison's mind was still in India and away from the guitar - the instrument that had so inspired him as a child - as he found two out of his three new keyboard-penned compositions rejected for the new album. Ringo famously learned to play chess on the record, with days, weeks and sometimes months in between overdub sessions. Regardless, the launch of "Pepper" was about to make The Beatles a whole new kind of creative force in the world of pop art, and once again guide the culture of the world into uncharted territory...

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Episode 11 – Beatles ’67 pt1 Apr 16, 2018

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It's a new year for the Beatles, and with it a new album in the works. After half a decade of nearly non-stop live performances, the band were at last able to enjoy the fruits of their fame, and the freedom to experiment in bold new directions. But the real question was, would the public follow them in those bold new directions? Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, recorded the prior December, would be the true test of the band's new direction. It's one thing to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the play-out end of an LP, but another entirely to see if this new English psychedelia "proto-prog rock" could also dominate the singles charts. The answer? Yes and no. America propelled the Beatles' new sound to #1, but in their native England the band was, for the first time since the dawn of Beatlemania, shut out of the top spot. Younger fans who adored the mop-tops now saw high brow cover art and facial hair adorning their favorite crushes. This was a message the world: whether you like it or not, The Beatles are growing up. But would growing up mean splitting apart? Was the height of their popularity behind them? Many theorized, but few could predict that once more John, Paul George and Ringo would push the boundaries of pop music into a whole new world...

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Episode 10 – Beatles ’66 pt4 Apr 09, 2018

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The Beatles may have been riding high on the critical and commercial success of Revolver, but a tour of the tumultuous United States was in full swing, and danger loomed large around every corner. Manager Brian Epstein's attempt to quell the outrage from the American public over remarks from John Lennon that the group was more popular than Jesus Christ proved futile, as Bible Belt radio stations torched albums, staged boycotts and stoked the frenzy to a fever pitch. Beatlemania, once an outlet for youthful energy and positivity, now brought a different kind of enthusiasm from the likes of the Ku Klux Klan, religious zealots and troublemakers looking for an excuse to take the fab four down a peg. When one such concert-goer hurled an explosive on stage, it was finally decided that enough was enough. On August 29th, 1966 the band would play their last concert in San Fransisco's Candlestick Park, and the trajectory of John, Paul, George and Ringo would never be the same. As 1966 drew to a close, each Beatle took time for themselves before reuniting for what would become the ultimate musical statement of the 1960's: Sgt. Pepper...

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Episode 09 – Beatles ’66 pt3 Apr 02, 2018

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Turmoil may have followed the Beatles on tour, but in the studio the band reached its zenith with their 7th and perhaps finest LP ever: Revolver. While Sgt. Pepper nearly a year later tends to be remembered as their greatest achievement, it's on Revolver where the combined efforts of John, Paul, George and Ringo shine the brightest and in the most cohesion. Psychedelia is, for the first time, used as a songwriting tool by the band who by this point had been well into dropping acid. Even Paul, the notorious LSD hold-out, had finally succumb to the pressures of his friends and of his generation the prior December of 1965, setting the stage for the kinds of schisms that would shake the group apart just 3 1/2 short years later. But for all the chemical experimentation, The Beatles' song craft had grown to towering heights on tracks from the LP such as Here There and Everywhere, Tomorrow Never Knows, Eleanor Rigby, For No One, I'm Only Sleeping, Taxman and so many more. Another shift also swept through Revolver, with George Harrison contributing a full three songs to the record and a Ringo vocal topping the singles charts! But the storms that had brewed earlier in the summer had yet to subside, and despite the smash-success of their latest masterpiece, once again the group found themselves at the center of a firestorm in the American south...

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Episode 08 – Beatles ’66 pt2 Mar 26, 2018

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It's the summer of 1966, and for four scruffs from the mean streets of one of Great Britain's most raucous port cities...it's good to be the kings. But the uninterrupted reign of the Beatles was bound to have a breaking point, and as the group kicks off their 3rd major world tour, they're about to find theirs. To kick of their tour, the band enjoyed a triumphant return to their old stomping grounds of Hamburg, Germany, where the specters of the past loomed large and served as a reminder to the boys that they had been cut from rough cloth. Then, on to Japan where protests over their appearance at the Nippon Budokan temple in Tokyo soured what was otherwise a very successful, albeit sterile, visit. Next stop, the Philippines, where a run-in with the Marcos regime nearly ends in disaster for the band who felt lucky to escape with their lives. A violent encounter at the airport and a shake-down that robbed them of any profits they would have made from the performance left the boys shaken as they travelled onward to India for a respite on their way back to Britain. All the while a storm was brewing in North America that would haunt the band's legacy to this day...and it would only get worse from here...

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Episode 07 – Beatles ’66 pt1 Mar 19, 2018

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It's 1966! Join the Yesterday & Today podcast as we enter perhaps the single most transformative year in the history of The Beatles, the year that would bring us butcher covers, final live performances, tomorrows that never know and strawberry fields forever. This week we cover January through June of 1966, wherein we find the Beatles hard at work on their 7th LP release Revolver. In these first few months of the new year George Harrison marries to model and longtime girlfriend Pattie Boyd, John Lennon delivers an off-the-cuff interview to friend and journalist Maureen Cleave that will haunt the group in the coming months, Paul McCartney dabbles in experimental sound and helps launch the Indica Gallery in London and Ringo Starr delivers arguably the best drumming performance of his career on the wonderful John Lennon-penned track Rain. In North America, Capitol Records releases the Yesterday & Today LP, combining songs from the English Rubber Soul and the as-yes-to-be-released Revolver. In protest, the boys sent over their choice for the cover to this "butchered" compilation...which sparks some major controversy in the states. All this, plus discover what it sounds like to be in a car with a titanically stoned Bob Dylan and John Lennon!

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Episode 06 – Beatles ’65 pt6 Mar 12, 2018

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The year 1965 was one of the busiest, most ground-breaking and prolific years in the Beatles' career; second, perhaps only to the madness of 1964 - and it's not over yet! In the final weeks of December, the band's sixth studio album, Rubber Soul, would cement the group as more than a simple pop-rock combo, but as musicians that would continually redefine genre and transform the very concept of an album itself from a simple collection of songs, to one unified artistic statement. From the touching "In My Life" to the stinging harder edges of "Think For Yourself" and "You Won't See Me", John, Paul, George and Ringo were once again reinventing pop music. Rubber Soul also introduced the western world to the possibilities of eastern instrumentation and its application in rock and roll. The sitar used on Norwegian Wood would be the "lick that launched a thousand records". The end of '65 also saw the Beatles last tour of the UK, a new Christmas record, the surfacing of John Lennon's father Fred and a Saturday morning Beatle cartoon for American audiences. Join us in celebrating the year that was, as we venture forth into the turbulent and ever-changing waters of 1966...

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Episode 05 – Beatles ’65 pt5 Mar 05, 2018

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The Beatles had once again triumphantly returned to Britain after a whirlwind tour of North America...but the break in activity wouldn't last long. By September, EMI was quick to remind the boys that they needed a new LP for the Christmas season, so once again John, Paul, George and Ringo returned to the studio to pull a record out of thin air. But this time it was different. This time, the record itself was being thought of as a piece of art that The Beatles could craft using all they had learned up to this point. By October, they were knee deep in studio exploration when it came time to visit Buckingham Palace to at last receive the much anticipated MBE Award from Queen Elizabeth. Honored by their country, decorated by their Queen, Lennon and McCartney would next be honored by their fellow pop stars in a television special dedicated to their songwriting. All this over a two month period, for young men the oldest of which was only twenty five.

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Episode 04 – Beatles ’65 pt4 Feb 26, 2018

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It's the summer of 1965, and The Beatles are conquering North America...again! With a number one movie, a number one single and a number one album on all the charts, John, Paul, George and Ringo's popularity showed no signs of decay more than a year into their planetary super-stardom, and on their return to America in August they continued to dominate. This week we take a closer look at the biggest concert tour the group would ever embark on -- beginning with the very first arena rock concert EVER, The Beatles at SHEA STADIUM! Also in this episode, the fabs fly to California and meet their inspiration, Elvis Presley, in the flesh! It wasn't a warm and fuzzy reception between rock royalty at first, but once the ice was broken, this meeting would go down as a quintessential moment for the band. Ringo even played football with Elvis!

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Episode 03 – Beatles ’65 pt3 Feb 19, 2018

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Everyone could use a little "HELP!", and the Beatles are about the unleash it around the world! It's the release of their second feature film, the plot-laden romp that puts Beatle Ringo in a world of trouble - and the threetles set to defend their bound buddy. But that's not all the summer months of '65 had to offer, the LP release of the film's corresponding album was a major breakthrough for the band, where songwriting and melody once again took a dramatic leap forward from the mostly backward-looking "Beatles for Sale". The group also embarked on their first North American tour since conquering the continent the year prior, and what better place to make their triumphant return than to the stage that made them household names: the Ed Sullivan Show! Join us for the continuation of one of the busiest periods in Beatles history!

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