#149 - I'll Be Back with Kit O'Toole (Queen of Beatles Media!)

02/08/22 • 68 min

On the A Hard Day's Night album, John is absolutely on fire creatively, and at his most prolific. Tossed off on vacation, possibly as a tribute to Del Shannon's "Runaway," "I'll Be Back" is an oft-overlooked song deserving of way more attention than it usually gets. It's unique in that on a really upbeat album, it serves as a darker closer than one would expect. It features really smart 3 part harmonies that only serve to add to a real maturity found on this track. With the song's journey tracked as it moves from an electric waltz, to a straight electric pop tune, to an acoustic and nylon string driven song show the Beatles really working hard at refining what they're doing to get the best track possible. The end result is an early clue to the new direction, as you get introduced to the Beatles for Sale era right there at the end of A Hard Day's Night.

Joining us to chat this week is the wonderful Kit O'Toole, a writer, music journalist and video podcaster. She's the author or of Songs We Were Singing: Guided Tours Through the Beatles’ Lesser-Known Tracks and Michael Jackson FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the King of Pop, a writer and associate editor for Beatlefan Magazine, among other writing jobs. She also co-hosts Talk More Talk : A Solo Beatles Videocast, which is a wonderful dive in to the solo career of the Fabs. We chat about all manner of things, like never clapping on the 1 and 3, challenging the idea of a pop song, and the multitude of ways the Beatles seem to impact people. On Feb 15, through Monmouth University, Kit is co-hosting (with our pal Ken Womack) a Tuesday Night Record Club event discussing Prince's Sign O' The Times, album, its a free event, you can sign up here! Follow along for future courses and events, as well as her upcoming books and more at kitotoole.com, and check out Talk More Talk as well!

What do you think? Too high? Too low? Just right? Let us know in the comments on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rankingthebeatles, Instagram @rankingthebeatles, or Twitter @rankingbeatles! Be sure to check out RTB's official website, www.rankingthebeatles.com! Enjoying the show, and wanna show your support? Buy Us A Coffee!

Previous Episode

#150 - Dizzy Miss Lizzy with guest Sanjay Karnik

Guess who's back? It's your old pals at Ranking The Beatles! It's 2022, and we're back for Season 4, with new episodes and ready to rank more Beatles songs. We're starting this season off by looking at a track the boys recorded because Capitol Records wanted a couple of new songs to tack onto yet another cobbled together American release. So the boys reached back into their Cavern/Hamburg bag of tricks, and dusted off a few belters by (fellow New Orleanian) Larry Williams. They liked the end results of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" so much, they decided to tack it on to the end of the 5th album (and the soundtrack to their 2nd film - the color one) Help! It's a barn burner of a rocker with a Lennon vocal that's coming straight from the gut. It's a rocker for sure, but a questionable arrangement choice, and some less than inspired guitar work, keeps this song from reaching the heights it maybe should've. It still smokes though, and is a ball to listen to.

We're excited to start this season off a little differently. When we first started up this podcast, one of my oldest and dearest friends texted me that whenever it came about in the list, he wanted to talk about "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," and after 25 years of friendship, you gotta do right by your buddy. So we're happy to be joined by Sanjay Karnik, a New Orleans native, now living in Chicago, and one of the finest people we have the pleasure of knowing. We chat about a number of different things, including the Beatles influence in realtime on India (as opposed to the often discussed influence of India on the Beatles), learning western pop music in an Indian-American household, the speed of the bands trajectory, the advantage of knowing your creative partners so well, and beautiful story about his parents and "Love Me Do." If you enjoy our chat, feel free to follow him on Twitter at @SKar1789 for a slew of progressive politics, sports, music, and other assorted shenanigans.

Next Episode

#148 - Do You Want To Know A Secret? with Jim Berkendstadt

Written in Hamburg at the end of 1962, and inspired by a very early memory of his mother, "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" is a John tune given to George (or maybe a John & Paul tune written specifically for George, depending on who's telling the story) to sing on their debut album. It's genetic make up is a bit all over there place...a dash of Disney, a pinch of Spanish soap opera dramatics, a hint of a band called The Stereos, and just a kiss of the doo-wah-doos. It makes for a perfectly pleasant song, one that would released as an American single in 64 and go all the way to #2, while Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas would cover it and take to #1 in the UK. Despite that, by the summer of '63 the Beatles were well and done with the song, and maybe that's rightfully so. It doesn't seem to have any of the hallmarks of what made a great Beatles song, nor does it necessarily sound very different from any other number of pop groups of the day. But that said, it's charming and catchy and a pleasant way to spend 1:58.

Joining us this week to chat is "The Rock & Roll Detective," Jim Berkenstadt! Jim's the author of a number of books including Black Market Beatles, Classic Rock Albums: Nirvana - Nevermind, The Beatle Who Vanished, and his newest one, Mysteries In The Music: Case Closed. We discuss run-ins with rock legends, working with Apple Corps, George Harrison and his estate, the mystery and excitement of bootlegs, and so much more! Check out Jim's goings-on at rockandrolldetective.com, on Twitter @rockdetective, and on Facebook!