Episodes
Ep. 194 | Macca Snacks #3 / Paul McCartney’s The 7” Singles Box (2022)
This week, we gotta get back in time. Back to 2022, when a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and edible-influenced T.J. and Tony ripped through Teej’s brand new box set of the 7” Macca Singles, joined by their close (and possibly hallucinated) friends P3Z-Nutz, Mrs. Vandebilt, and Uncle Pecos.
Will they make it all the way through the bonus test (your patience) pressing of 4 random songs from Liverpool Oratorio? Pop in your earbuds and a coupla your favorite Macca Snacks, and you might just find out.
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Ep. 189 | “Daytime Revolution” Documentary (2024)
In 2003, The Redwalls, a really good band hailing from Chicago suburb Deerfield, IL kicked off their album “Universal Blues” by encouraging a “Colorful Revolution”; in a most Beatle-esque Banger fashion.
By coincidence (?), a mere 31 years earlier, there was a colorful “Daytime Revolution” as John, Yoko, and friends took over a week’s worth of “The Mike Douglas Show” - a.k.a. the guy all of us, if we’re being honest, initially confused/conflated with “The Dick Cavett Show”.
This new, soon-to-stream documentary examines these historic episodes, and had a brief in-theaters showing on what would’ve been John’s 84th birthday. Tony saw the film solo in Chicago suburb Glenview, IL, as T.J. handled the un-related, un-paid improv rehearsal many miles from his home - and even further from #GlenviewsFamousDawgPark. The result is a new-ish phase Beatles podcast, reproduced for streaming by Producer Casey. Roll up for this special UBP field trip, an aural journey (cue: “Faithfully”) of Tony documenting a documentary, as documentary commentary from T.J. documents Tony’s documentary commentary of the documentary's documentary commentary.
ALSO: The UBP’s Medved + (Helen) Roeper ask:
🔥🏡 Does a movie with too many talking heads stop making sense? Or does it get nothing but flowers? Is Wings Wild Life > Wild Wild Life? Sick Byrne, qu’est-ce que c'est?
⚾️📻 (Chicago guy - a Sox fan, but he doesn’t hate the Cubs; only Wrigleyville and their fans, and maybe he has a point): “How come the unique single mix of Steve Goodman’s “Go Cubs Go” - pressed, my friendt, on WGN Records! - ain’t been made available anywhere else since the original 45? Maybe Dean Richards will return one of my many handwritten letters and tell me what exactly woke WGN is trying to hide?
🥪 Would former American Idol Reuben Studard have been more successful if he’d been slathered in extra 1000 Island and better swiss?
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Ep. 184 | Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) Deluxe Box Set Part 2
Attention loyal podcast description reader! Mighty fine morning in your town, init? Say, are you an “Only People” fan? Ever think, “I want to be, but it’s just not long enough!” Well, have we got a John Lennon boxed set for you, featuring 11 - count ‘em, 11 - more seconds of “Only People”. It’s “Mind Games!” Still a Capitol Records Value, now available for the low price of one month’s rent/mortgage. #ImagineNoPosessions
The Grumpy Gabbers deep dish this sprawling Lennon reissue’s many gorgeous ups and frustrating (Hugh) downs: the demos, myriad remixes, hidden tracks, glow-in-the-dark RSD exclusives, and more, like:
🎸 Does WFUK-96.9 FM - APPLETON’S HOME FOR F**K ROCK - play too little Led Apron?
🍌 If “Now & Then” is, technically, a Beatles song, is “Nutopian International Anthem (Evolution Documentary) technically a Rutles song?
🪄✌️ (Angry Chicago Guy, He’s Not Sober) “How come Tony don’t get no “Wizard Of Oz” references? And how come I took mushrooms after Super Bowl XX and watched my VHS of “Wizard Of Oz” synced up to “Pipes Of Peace”, and it all made sense?”
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Ep. 183 | Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) Deluxe Box Set
In 1981, the Capitol Records green label LP, budget line re-release of "Mind Games" cost $5.99. In 2024, that same record, when heard in a cube complete with a gnome sized replica of Yoko (allegedly), can be purchased for roughly $1700. Thanks, Obama! (#Sarcasm #Satire #Satcasm)
A new precedent in solo Beatles reissues has been set with this reissue, including the more moderately priced (yet still insane) 6 disc edition. Is that a good thing? Does hearing 6 versions of "Intuition" really enhance the experience of listening to the album? And if T.J. doesn't collect it, does it even exist?
Tony and T.J. begin to dive into this massive release and answer these questions, and more, like:
💷🥊💵 Was Aunt Mimi a loyal fan of BBC 4's, "Pounds or Dollars"?
🐋 Did the Mick Jagger film "Freejack" portend the Michael Jackson film song, "Freewilly"?
🍻 Angry Chicago Fella: "How come the John Lennon tribute band, Real Sanpaku, don't play at the Merrillville Star Plaza no more?"
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Ep. 175 | Paul McCartney, “One Hand Clapping (2024) Part 2
The 4th of July is a wonderful time to remember that life’s all about picking sides - and, often, hands; across the water, and across America! And today we pick sides…deep dishing sides three and four of One Hand Clapping! Plus, we dive into the incredible bonus, backyard vinyl EP that under no circumstance should be included anywhere digitally, because the millions of peons who dare to get their music from places other than the Universal Music online store don’t deserve live “Blackbird”. (Nope, not letting this one go.)
Tony and T.J. agree that the first official release of “One Hand Clapping” is a masterpiece, perhaps one of Paul’s very best albums; unless one is Rob Sheffleld, in which case this would rank just below “Gone Troppo”. But when it’s time to pick sides, perhaps they’re more Siskel & Ebert and less Medved & Lyons as they also ponder:
🎻 Are you #TeamWix or #TeamActualOrchestra
🇺🇸 Are you #TeamCanadianREM, #TeamAmericanBarenakedLadies, or #TeamAmericaWorldPolice? #Fyeah
🦅 Are you #TeamGlenFrey or #TeamRandallCunningham?
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Ep. 174 | Paul McCartney, “One Hand Clapping” (2024)
What exactly is the sound of one hand clapping? Is it similar to one man napping? Some band slapping? Dumb planned crapping? Crumb...tanned...uh, line? LINE?
No, you can't get in line at your local record shoppe for a midnight release party, because the first ever official, complete vinyl issue of "One Hand Clapping" is being sold exactly as it would've been in 1974: exclusively on Universal's website. Eat it, beloved, local record stores!
And unlike Wacco Jacko's '88 parody "Eat It", these live-in-studio Wings tracks have never sounded fresher. 50 years after they were recorded, can a case be made that this is a top-tier McCartney album, filled with definitive versions of Macca classics? We'll leave that to Rob Sheffield, who'll rank "Love My Baby" ahead of "Watching The Wheels", and instead ask:
If NBC's "Geoff Emerick And A Dog" hadn't followed "Glücklich And Froh" in the fall of '77, would it have been a bigger hit?
If you mash up Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony" with Macca's "One Hand Clapping", do you get "One Simon's Hand Pony Macca's Clapping Trick"? Or might you, more than likely, find a different combination of words?
🐦⬛ (Angry Chicago Guy): HOW COME THE CD SOUNDTRACK OF "THE IN-LAWS" 2003 REMAKE AIN'T AVAILABLE AT CROW'S NEST? (Sadly, reeking of old Old Style) AND WHEN DID THE RAP SECTION OUTNUMBER SINATRAS?
EPISODE LINKS
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Ep. 173 | Rolling Stone's 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs (A Very Special Untitled Beatles Penpals Episode)
Is any magazine as influential as Rolling Stone magazine? From the iconic Garth Brooks/Goo Goo Dolls issue (4/93) to the glibly unsuccessful attempts to help sway the outcomes of the ass-brutal 2004 and 2016 elections, hooray for Rolling Stone! (And, Caddyshack fans, hooray for the Douglasses!)
We at the Untitled Beatles Podcast don’t dare hold a Beatles-related opinion without first consulting what the culture-makers at RS want us to know. So we were thrilled - no, THRILLED - when RS (dba Rob Sheffield) released a list this spring of the 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs!
In fact, we were so thrilled, we decided to start an old-school letter writing campaign all about the rankings - to each other! Thanks to the bravery and diligence of the U.S. Postal Service - which the previous president proudly tried to sabotage, because, uh, “Own the libs” I f’ing guess? - the New Box Tops (dba Tony & T.J.) read their pointed correspondences aloud. They have some questions, including:
🍕 (Angry Chicago fella): How come Paul’s got a song about Dominoes, and not a real Chicago pizza joint like the Barnaby’s in South Bend or the Old Town Pizza Hut on North & Wells that they turned into some woke Boston Market? And how come I keep getting kicked out of Old Town Ale House at 2 in the afternoon?
❤️📦 If Kurt Cobain were Jesus, would he have returned to stop “Cut Me Some Slack” from happening?
🍗 Is it a coincidence that the UBP is sponsored by Kenny Rogers Roasters in Malaysia, and longtime Beatle roadie Mal Evans and early 80’s supergroup Asia are both essential parts of The Beatles story? #MalAsia
EPISODE LINKS
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Ep. 171 | (Not So) Fab Greed
For us UBPeedles who also dig old school rap, it's clear that the Fat Boys cover of "Baby, You're A Rich Man" absolutely betters the Beatles' far less trilly/rappy original.
And some four decades since the Disorderlies soundtrack shocked the world, the Fat Boys have never been more relevant, en vogue, or even En Vogue.
Never gonna get it, never gonna get it (this reference)? Here goes: baby, you'd better be a rich them to afford Beatles-related reissues these days! A "Mind Games" cube for $1,700? WTF?!?! Only (rich) people, indeed...
Tony and T.J. delve into the shamefully burgeoning world of Fab Greed, the debut of Lennon/McCartney 2.0, and also:
🐏 Is buying a Billy Budapest Belt Buckle beyond Beatle believability?
🍁 Can "Primrose Hill" replace "Solsbury Hill" as the go-to music used in previews for autumn-based romantic comedies? (Angry Chicago Guy: AND HOW COME WAGS IS TOO WOKE TO SERVE SALISBURY STEAK NO MORE??)
😵 Does P3Z-Nutz know a little too much about T.J.'s mom? Uh-oh! AI stalker-of-dead-parents alert! #NotAGame #Practice
EPISODE LINKS
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Ep. 170 | Ringo Starr’s “Crooked Boy” EP (2024)
If it’s Saturday, it means one thing: Ringo has another new EP! Nobody other than Ringo has released more music in such a short amount of time - LOOKING AT YOU, TAYLOR* (*Fred Taylor, longtime Jaguars running back.)
The masses want to know: is Ringo’s “Crooked Boy” the biggest musical release of 2024? As Macca might opine, Who Cares what the idiots say! Any Ringo album is a gift to us all, right? RIGHT? In this episodic journey - which also begins to touch on the recent, disturbing silver streak of greed in Beatles reissues - we discuss the newest Ringo record, arguably his finest EP since whatever the hell the last one was called, and also get into these hot button hot topics:
🍕🛖 Is the Pizza Hut in Normal Illinois best known for its personal pan pizza, or for Rich Hall’s infamous 1987 visit?
💩🏄 Is Ringo a Butthole Surfer, or merely one of the two?
📻 Is Linda Perry’s “What’s Goin’ On” way better than Marvin Gaye’s long-forgotten, critically derided, socially irrelevant version? (Angrier than usual Chicago guy:) AND HOW COME WGN AM-720 STOPPED USING BOTH OF THOSE SONGS, FEAT. DEAN RICHARDS, AS PROMO BUMPERS? AND WHY DID MILT ROSENBERG HAVE TO DIE?
EPISODE LINKS
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Ep. 167 | Macca Snacks #1 / Paul McCartney’s The 7” Singles Box (2022)
In the fall of 2022, acclaimed (fictional) documentarian and (fictional) podcast factchequer P3Z-Nutz planted a microphone in a flower pot embedded in the Shanoff residence to surreptitiously record T.J. and Tony as they unboxed and auditioned select cuts from the then-newly-released McCartney 7" Singles Box Set. (Don't worry -- our AI lawyers assure us it's totally legal.)
While we were unable to obtain Peter Jackson's proprietary AI sound-cleaning technology, we were able to get access to a turntable once used to play Pete Best's "Best of the Beatles", and frankly, the sonic results are astounding.
Please enjoy the first of what we hope will be like 80 occasionally recurring episodes—part of a complete, balanced breakfast—that we're calling MACCA SNACKS.
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