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| Abbey Road, 2022 |
We're now through five episodes of "Meet the Beatles," my Sunday morning passion project to examine the universe of the Fab Four on WGCH and Robcasting.
Through the first five, we've played a lot of music, have generally not repeated any songs, and gone through a sort of "Beatles 101" history lesson.
I completed that part this morning, with the band's breakup and a look into what the 70s were like concluding with John Lennon's death in 1980. I followed that up with George Harrison's tribute to him, "All Those Years Ago" which included Ringo, Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine.
To be honest, and I'll get there, but I couldn't bring myself to play "Here Today," Paul's gutwrenching tribute to John. Thankfully I ran out of time. "All Those Years Ago" speaks to George's personality, where he didn't mourn as much, though I find the line "I always looked up to you" to be quite poignant.
"Here Today," on the other hand, is the emotional journey of two brothers, and Paul wears his heart on his sleeve.
With "Beatles 101" completed, now begins the fun. The show will evolve and, I promise I'll get around to guests. I'll also get towards making it more interactive. To that end, I try to post on social media every week, and that can be a forum for comments. So long as I'm in the studio, the phone number will be active and it's 203-661-5051.
But, selfishly, this is my journey right now. I asked for an opinion about this the other day. The question was, to paraphrase, what do you want to hear? Should I have guests, etc?
The answer was, for now, a resounding no.
I need to keep building this. At the moment, I want the audience to just sit back and enjoy my take on this band that has been a part of my life from the day I was born, as "Hey Jude" was the number one song that day.
I've already laid out next week's show in my mind because I realized next Sunday is a Beatlesque date (check the calendar or just wait until next Sunday at 9 a.m.)
There will be other shows that might take on a particular theme and I'm up to hearing what others want to hear for sure.
I also asked my muse if the audience will be OK if some weeks you don't hear any Beatles tunes, but are things related to the lads. The answer was yes to this and I hope that's true.
This is my magical mystery tour and I'm the bus driver, I suppose.
There will be a show related to artists that were on Apple, the Beatles' label. There might be episodes dedicated to bands like that or those who were inspired by The Beatles. It's all a work in progress.
But I want to feel free right now.
Eventually, I know Dan Murphy, for instance, will join me. Dan and I have talked about a couple of Beatles-related projects as a podcast, so it's only natural that I'd want home to come on.
Maybe Sean will come in one morning since he's been hearing their music for his entire nearly 22 years.
And there are others. Many others. One of the exciting things about this is that it is a very wide world and there are so many who can talk about their impact. Their staying power remains just breathtaking. Consider there is an entire satellite radio channel dedicated to them and their width of programming is inspiring. I often wonder if I can have some of their hosts on for interviews.
Most of all, I want this to be fun. I wouldn't volunteer (yes, that's a keyword in this) to do this show otherwise. I wouldn't volunteer (there's that word again) if I thought this was going to be overwhelming.
Eventually, I can also prerecord shows in my home studio or even at the station and I suspect that could happen as soon as next month when I'll be away. Then again we could just run a repeat. That's all to be determined.
So much of what I do at WGCH is about keeping the station active, alive, and fresh. Thus, it has to be enjoyable, otherwise it's "work." When I'm cranking myself out of bed on Sunday morning to go deal with shoddy equipment it doesn't seem like much fun.
Then I get there, the coffee hits me, and the music inspires me.
Oh, and the equipment works. And it worked especially great this morning as I figured out how to have two devices available to crossfade between songs, which I'm guessing no one picked up on. I moved from "My Sweet Lord" to "Photograph" without talking between the two.
A small thing to you. A big thing to me.
The show is coming along. Hope you enjoy this ticket to ride.
Huzzah, Beatle Buddies.
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