Robert Rodriguez's Something About The Beatles podcast recently hosted Peter Jackson teased as "a listener from New Zealand" to discuss the sprawling 8-hour documentary he'd directed in three parts in advance of its debut. Now that fans around the world have had a chance to absorb it at least once, Rodriguez sought out the perspective of those whose careers were profoundly influenced by The Beatles: the musicians.
Drummer Dennis Diken (Smithereens), bassist Arion Salazar (ex-Third Eye Blind), multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense) and Luther Russell (currently performing as one half of the duo Those Pretty Wrongs alongside ex-Big Star Jody Stephens) form a panel with Rodriguez to discuss Get Back from a musician’s perspective.
The panel's insights as working musicians watching the most successful group in history go through dysfunction, tedium, bickering and tremendous bursts of playfulness, levity, and creativity while toiling under daunting conditions toward eventual triumph is presented in three episodes with the first making its debut this past Saturday. Each musician offered up their take on what the members of the Beatles were going through, as witnesses to experiences that every successful band endures. All were moved by what they saw (some to tears) and their takes bring to the non-musician fan some further understanding of the Beatles' collective magic, much of it coming down to their profound work ethic, as well as their off-the-charts synergy.
As for Rodriguez and SATB, he has more special guests coming to the show in the months ahead; witnesses to history who worked with them as well as analysis from Beatle academics. You will not want to miss his artful blend of entertainment and scholarship on the band who in 1964 were presciently called "the entertainment phenomenon of the century."
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About Something About The Beatles:
Award-winning author Robert Rodriguez is the creator and host of the Something About The Beatles podcast. In the nine years he has produced the show, a number of luminaries have come to talk: Beatle witnesses and family members, authors, academics, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, producers and engineers - just about any relevant role you can imagine.
Past guests on Something About The Beatles include producers Chris Thomas and John Leckie; Beatle colleagues Ken Mansfield, Chris O'Dell, Kevin Harrington (featured prominently in the Get Back film) and Alan Parsons; Beatle family members Mike McCartney (Paul's brother) and Jenny Boyd (George's sister-in-law); recording artists Randy Bachman - Heart's Ann Wilson - Billy Bragg - Marshall Crenshaw - Ramsey Lewis - members of Wilco, The Smithereens, Third Eye Blind, The Attractions, among others; and filmmakers Andrew Solt, Paul Saltzman and Dave Mirkin. There have been journalists, writers and academics beyond counting, as well as radio hosts and TV personas (The Simpsons' Jeff Martin among them).
Something About The Beatles can be heard on Apple podcasts, I Heart Radio and other podcast platforms; as SATB Raw, it can be found on Spotify and YouTube.
