Episodes

#207 What Goes On & #206 A Taste of Honey w/ Brett Milano, music writer & lead content creator for The Beatles Rock Band

Under the gun for material to complete Rubber Soul, the Beatles dusted off an old Quarrymen-era tune, sprinkled a bit of Buck Owens on it, and gave Ringo his vocal turn with #207, “What Goes On.”

An earlier version was considered as a single to follow up “Please Please Me,” but it found it’s home as a nice bit of album filler in 1965. Featuring nice guitar and bass work, a solid vocal, and done in one take, it lands as not a bad song, not a great song, but good enough.

#206, “A Taste of Honey,” is the first time we get a sample of what John called Paul’s “granny music $h!t.” Everyone turns in a nice understated performance for a song that was sure to win over the parents of their target demographic, but is it too syrupy for its own good? And for a song with so many well known and unknown covers, how does it stack up? Joining us this week to discuss these songs is music writer Brett Milano (Boston Globe, OffBeat Magazine, Rhino Records), who entered the Fabs’ orbit as lead writer and content creator for The Beatles Rock Band game. We talk about learning what a band should look, feel, and act like, take a peek behind the curtain at the creation of the Beatles Rock Band, including being in the same room as a copy of of mythical, mysterious, holy grail, “Carnival of Light.” Elsewhere we touch on long lost tracks from Billie Dee Williams (the OG Lando Calrissian), finally touch on the Monkees,

Jonathan and Julia shamelessly shill for beer again, and we introduce a brand new feature….BLOOPERS! Learn more about Brett at his website brettmilano.com. Pick up one of his great books anywhere you get books…

Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting

THE SOUND OF OUR TOWN: A History of Boston Rock & Roll

300 Songs for 300 Years: Songs That Have Immortalized New Orleans

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Reviews

Judge Timbers

Ranking the songs of the Beatles? What could possibly go wrong? But somehow this podcast gets it just right thanks to the wit and charm of the co-hosts and their guests. The listener quickly discovers the rankings are used not to incite heated arguments but rather as a starting point to spark a positive deep dive into every Beatle song. Put simply, Ranking The Beatles is a welcome addition to the Beatle podcast universe.

spazaru

Required listening if you like The Beatles at all. Great guests every week and Jonathan and Julia are fun and genuinely funny (even the tired Mike Love jokes). I listen every Tuesday morning as soon as I wake up. One week around Christmas they took the week off so I just slept the whole week until there was a new episode. It was worth the wait.

finfan64

Nice to see a truly excellent new Beatles podcast. This one is hosted by a very appealing young couple, who along with their well selected guests, have a winning combination of professional musical knowledge and the enthusiasm of fans. It’s an interesting format that by definition promises to only get better as it goes along. If they can make the “Only a Northern Song” episode good then they’re unstoppable

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